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studio reflection for this semester

2007-12-19T22:57:00.000-08:00

Studio Component Summary & Reflection

Agenda proclaimed at June 07 Residency:

Goal: To integrate my digital work with my paintings

Concept: create a range of studies that combine:

· Loose drawings (from life or memory as they relate to my project)

· Digital with paint

· Paint into digital

· Possibly repeat process

· Composite studies

· Pending the results of these studies, a series of larger works will be created and presented.

Quantity: Final series will most likely be an odd number with quantity determined by size. At this moment I am anticipating 5 or 7 images in this series.

Size: Final artwork will utilize the 12-15ft exhibition space offered at AIB during the January 08 residency. Pending preliminary studies and mentor feedback, I intend to use a square format to reference the digital element in this exploration. Therefore, sizes could be somewhere between 2x2’ and 4x4’

Materials:

Acrylic or acrylic mix media
Studies will most likely be on paper, canvas or hardboard
Final series will be determined by results and mentor input.
Since this is an exploration, paper, canvas, hardboard, plastic or metal are to be considered as possible solutions. Although unlikely, projections or 3D are feasible results.

Final product: The exhibition of a paint/computer hybrid image series (alongside preliminary studies).

Results

Paint into digital:

What I did:

scanned paintings to manipulate digitally
Create digital images to print and then paint (in lieu of photographs)

What I learned:

Manipulating/montage of paintings in Photoshop was not unlike what I have done in the past > no major breakthroughs
Images created digitally with the intent to paint translate better for me if they are rough or unfinished. For me the paint must contribute to the image & there I found that ‘trashing” images through deconstruction, addition of pattern, and conversion to grayscale created “under-paintings” to print and paint upon.
My photographic prints of manipulated paint-digitals lend themselves to re-digitizing.

Digital into paint:

What I did:

Printed paint-digital “under-paintings” on large BW printers/cheap bond paper at Kinko’s
Coated paper with layers of acrylic gel medium prior to painting.
Some had the bond paper removed after to create transparent images.
Painted on color photographic prints of paint-digital images
Controlled mindset/mood through active choice of music or audio-books while painting.

What I learned:

That painting on printed images (even ones I created solely) was a taboo for me. I found that clung to creating digital images in an effort to skirt the painting part of my agenda.
A lot more about creating images for this type of printing/paper and for transparency, as well as painting with acrylic on bond paper.
That painting big feels natural for me and is more rewarding to work on since larger scale images can envelope me during process as an environmental experience.

Project in Retrospect:

What I learned:

Conceptually: I learned via John Berger that the environments of our childhood dictate the palette and influences of images created in adulthood. For me, I reflect on the La Brea Tar Pits, Museums, and rides like Disneyland’s submarine, Catalina’s glass bottom boat, and Pacific Ocean parks leaky diving bell. These experiences evoked fear and pleasure for me. Additionally, I see the seaweed images as having embryonic or Darwinian images while referencing my past themes of veiling and the content of space. My readings on landscape painting helped me to identify my historical influences, penchants, and future endeavors that I may actively choose these aspects in the future.

In process: I worked with familiar mediums in a new way, with new images and palette. This forced me out of my comfort zone which enhanced skills while fueling ideas for future projects.

Visually: The digital-paint processes heavily influenced my results. I would not have created the resulting images in the mindset and knowledge I possessed prior to these endeavors. Working with variations of the same prints multiple times with paint was new and rewarding for me.

What I would do differently:

Unless creating transparent images, I would opt to print on canvas rather than paper in the future. It would be better to spend the money (now that I know what I am doing) rather that the excessive time needed to prep and work with the prints. However, printed canvas could present a range of new issues requiring adaptation.

Tangents & future possibilities:

At the moment I am weary of seaweed, yet find the imagery visually seductive >so, I will most likely return to it in the future.
The processes I explored will most likely resurface since “the message dictates the medium” and therefore I see these cross-process hybrids as suitable and viable choices of expression in my future.
The acrylic gel transparency process inspired the concept of capturing images of pressed tattoos against glass (copier or digital camera) with the intent of creating “skins” that become portraits of their owners. I believe the tattoo images created or selected in my area will depict the unique local color while documenting the issues of marginalization socially and in the workplace of this cultural subgroup. While I grew through my isolation in the studio, I missed interpersonal exchange inherent of working artistically in the community.
Plan to test the gel transfer process to see what materials it will work with, such as watercolor, pastel, graphite, and various printed materials.
Plan to experiment with layering/collage of multiple thin gel layers as well as embedding stuff.
May take paintings back into the computer as a departure for new digital images.
May use paintings on paper for a collage/paint project

december update

2007-12-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

crazy days!!!

studio:

finished. had crit with mentor at sfai nov 28 & then came back to present to one of his painting classes the following wednesday (dec 5th). it was to fun to see what they were doing (nice work) + food & dif perspectives.

now i am trying to fig out my shipping & how to hang. since 1/2 is digital i will use a digital frame (keep it digital ) & roll up and ship, take on plane, or carry on with the rest.

have not posted images in a while. work has changed & have done a lot since last ones were posted.

have not posted more art dvd & book either.

Academic:

finished & submitted:

artist statement
reading/museum/galleries/dvd list
semester studio reflection/summary (process/learning outcome)

will tweak the statement a bit & then print & maybe mount to blk foamcore? same for reading list so that they are compatible with the art. can remove>reuse mounting a few times - i think.

november 29th!!!!

2007-11-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

have not been here for some time...

the update:

studio: lots of computer images, prints, paint

aib academic adviser: finished & submitted 2 papers (research/reflections) & spoke on the phone with deborah davidson. all is well :)

aib studio mentor: met with glenn hirsch at sfai. he was happy with my efforts & offered insight/ideas for this last leg + replication & presentation possibilities for these images.

what i learned:
print outputs > that i needed to change my images even more for print & transparency use. spent days manipulating the images i had been using to translate to transparency. did this by clarifing the darks/midtones that would go black/high contrast when printed. added film grain/noise to allow light to pass. killed black & anything close as i can add that if needed. added a grid pattern that inverts for dark/light. took so long cuz of the filesize. to get all 3 images alike it made more sense to work with them on the same layer. so it was 9ft wide at 300 rez. even as a grayscale my laptop choked often>>> had to clear 1/3 of my hard drive & use the purge all option between each filter. could have setup/recorded actions, yet would have wasted more time trying to remember how to do it + having to tweak individual images after.

paint>
to have a huge stash of materials prior to starting a project. had a 1/2 gal of gel medium when i started & am now at the bottom of my 3rd gal. had to buy from texas as the stuff was backordered bigtime in northern calif. art stores now days only special order this size.

did learn a lot through using the same images over & over. have never done that in paint. taking each round in a new direction/scale/process got me to new places > which has fuel yet more directions/ideas to explore. forcing myself to work with a palette i tend to skirt was good for me as well. think it was jasper johns that talked about forcing himself to do this & the payoffs he got from it.

research> will write a blog for this as there is way too much to mention.
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next:
do more printouts. mentor glenn wants me to bring the stuff i presented as is to present to his class. so in the meantime i plan to do some more & take them further. + have new project idea i want to gather images for & experiment on before i forget it/loose my groove.

meet for final with mentor next week. will bring the same art + new + brief artist statement (1/2pg) + food (potluck!)

write artist statement & reading list > due dec 14th

figure out shipping of artwork

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every is going great. exhausted at the moment from the whirlwind tempo for the past 3 weeks. the past 5 days have been intense on the studio work as i presented them yesterday.
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none aib stuff:

my poster & buttons come out for first night monterey this week. there was a local feature on it i missed a few days ago (tv died & was painting)

tomorrow: opening/reception for a groupshow i am in at the monterey museum of art

maria motherwell book: finally going to print!!! trying to get a release to use one of his paintings of her for the cover.

really need to deep my clean house :( life get in the way of art (& apparently vise versa) need to catch up on all the other fronts.

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painting

2007-11-05T11:49:00.000-08:00

still prepping printouts :(

did around 3 coats on the backside of prints/fabric. last coat sunday morn.

today: glossy medium/varnish as a sealer to the front/image of each. did white areas first & fairly heavy to seal + prevent the black from smearing. once this was dry i did a heavy coat of gloss gel with a 5 inch wide putty knife. had a few wrinkles that were blended as well as creating interesting texture.

is taking forever to dry. think i will hold off until tomorrow to touch.

next:
another coat of gloss medium/varnish to seal/knock down texture & then a brush application of glossy gel. may do a 2nd putty knife coat to modify texture. i did all with the knife with vertical strokes> so i do have ridges (which may be desireable). may do a 2nd coat horizontal to create a grid effect that would reference the sq format as well as the digital/pixel element to this work/process.

buy another gallon of glossy gel :(

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did a gel/putty knife coat to the 30x30 blue glazed/clear gesso image i deem as a failure from the first paint round. my intention is to remove the paper once it is really dry. i saw an example & think it may be interesting. thought it wise to try on something that i don't care about before messing with something i create with this process in mind.

think it will need to dry/cure at least a week before messing with it. hope i have time to do this + create intended in time to dry, remove paper & have ready to present by nov 14 :(

once stuff looks dry/clear i could set up a box fan to circulate air & speed up curing time?
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sf open studio 11.04.07

2007-11-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

overview:

glad i went.

as always i am visually overwhelmed after going through building 101 & have little desire to visit the 5 other buildings.

some of my favorite stuff was what i saw when i first walked in. not sure if some of this is because i was fresh or because the better artists make more money & can afford the prime studios or have those studios because they have been at it longer & are still kicking because they are good.

jan, an aib student also, met me there. it was fun looking at presentation ideas there in terms of what we will do in jan 08. there were a few imaginative displays/ideas, yet most were what you would expect for a studio space suddenly converted to gallery mode.

got free guide & collected tons of post/business cards to ck out later. this is useful for graphic design ideas/layouts/solutions as well. some stuff looks great in print & are no big deal in person.

saw lame work that was well presented & sold itself well

& saw great work that was poorly displayed.

in general, most put way too much stuff up. think painting the walls to organize or visually break up space/group could have helped this. renting or building partitions to freestand away from or off of the walls could have improved the environment while increasing surface area.

it was interesting to see artist's work that i have followed for years. some went off in directions i did not foresee. most>more of the same.

what was dif from 3 yrs ago:

more encaustic
more big bright murals with a street art/grafitti vibe
less figurative
less photography
more digital that went beyond chessey photoshop filters
less sculpture
less assemblage type sculpture
more organic themes
more square formats (rather than rectangle/traditional golden mean ratios)
more political/anti war
fewer overt gay/lesbian stuff
less functional art
more airbrush
more asian art/zen influences
less graphic type of paintings (large areas/shapes of single colors)
more dripping/runny paint, more glazing
less fiber/fabric arts/soft sculpture

how this relates to me:

saw stuff in the realm of what i have been doing.

does this mean i am "of my time" or just hooked into a trend?

is this good, bad, inevitable?

what should i do about it?

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golden acrylic demo

2007-11-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

attended a 2 hr demo by a bay area artist demo of golden products. did learn a few things, get some questions answered that artstore people (who were there) could not give me in the past. man this is a small town. did not know everyone, yet have seen all at various art functions about town.

liked/learned from the comparative examples of the various mediums/glazes

got a new idea:
i may use for 3 of my prints> after coating the bw kinko print with soft gel a bunch one can remove the paper & the pigment will remain. the example there was of a bw of one of her paintings & had not been painted on>>>sort of a xray quality to it. i like the transparency of it, yet would want to add transparent color i think. if nothing else one would be able to get rid of the crappy bond paper & gesso the back or adhere it to canvas, wc paper, or ? if the transparency remained one could backlight it, hang it, layer it. would need to buy their soft gel to do this.

not big on the texture gel stuff as i have messed a lot with creating my own in the past & can not see spending $$ for something i would not use often.

did like the crackle stuff, yet would prefer it was clear > more diverse application & conducive to mixmedia.

all the sparkly/metalic/irridecent/inference stuff is pretty, yet i shy away from it as an option in art>>>seems to have a fad/trendy stigma attached to it's use. great if i was painting rainbows & unicorns. may work as an underpainting, have tried some & kinda like the bronze, yet fought with it a bit. think i would rather paint on a sheet of metal or leaf if i were to go that route.

guess i just like dirt too much. have added burnt bone, ash, clays to gel medium years ago to use as paint when experimenting with organic type stuff. had a idea of being able to take a few things backpacking & then use whatever was around to create with.

years ago in a class i had an assignment to create something that:

super cheap that could be constructed with assessable materials
that was easy to make & fulfilled a need
targeted a specific, marginalized group (3rd world)
honored their culture somehow

what i did was to create a solar oven with a cardboard box & foil. polished metal works better than foil, yet cardboard/foil would enable more ovens to be made & thereby serve more people. i chose madagascar as my location/people. i studied & spoke with a girl that had lived there for a year in the peace core. i used the acrylic gel with ash, dirt & the like to paint patterns derived from historical fabrics of that area. i was able to create black, white, beige, raw sienna-ish, burnt sienna-ish & burnt umber-ish paint that was like the fabrics and probably attainable there. my limiting the need to only buy gel the cost was kept down. using the gel also strengthened/waterproofed the cardboard & repelled dirt/food. to some extent using the clay in the paint would retain heat a little. the downside to using the organic in the gel is controlling the grit size. a mortar & pestle would have been smart. i might use this assignment teaching one day. some of the students went solar or wind & had interesting results.

studio update>>>11.01.07

2007-11-02T09:06:00.001-07:00

yesterday:

finished creating files in the morn & went to kinkos to printout in the eve. the 36x36 came out a little streaky in the black areas. not sure this will matter. got 2 sets of the 3 to take in 2 dif directions. one will mimic the first version as a departure point while i plan to experiment more & possibly screw up the 2nd>>>no pain no gain, yet for school one needs to have something in hand.

got prices for color printing my preliminary work as 1 f t x 8 or 10ft banners>blk background & uniform images in sequence> same ones on blog image link. reason being: to show where this stuff is coming from & to get better feedback. thinking of maybe folding/creasing the banners so that there is an accordion effect. if i have three i can alternate to give it a 3d/installation vibe. using bond paper which is kinda lame would cost around $300. on the bright side i can cut them after into pages for documentation. the downside to digital stuff is in the sharing. i could get one or more of those digital picture frames? yet the banner idea would echo the totem painting collage i am working on & may exhibit (tall vertical format). need to know fast so i can tell louise my needs!!!

today: mount some of the prints to fabric. not sure if i want to cut first or after. they are big & the space to work isn't. if i do not cut it would be easier to keep the excess intact to use to back the totem stuff? cutting anything has always been an weakness > so i am a bit anxious on this.

+ i am not sure if i should apply stuff to the fabric & then the print to it or vice versa.

& if i should do small sections at a time & weight it or all at once> use a rolling pin & weight it all with books/bricks?

should i pushpin (fabric out) to the wall & put clips at the bottom for weight or lay flat with books? may not need it, yet am concerned that it doesn't stick to anything. may use books at first & then remove, followed by moving them now & then a tad to make sure they are not binding to anything. new territory for me.

aib academic adviser meeting for october

2007-11-02T08:47:00.001-07:00

deborah davidson phoned wed eve to discuss my last paper,this blog, & offered names of artist to look at.

writing:
this was really helpful to me as i have been a little confused on writing styles/agendas & whither or not i was "on the same page." i feel more comfortable with it now & less stress on the paper due in 2 weeks.

blog: has been a great tool for my academic agenda. it forces me to write/document what i am seeing/learning/doing which gives me clarity. it also gives my adviser & mentor insight into my mindset, agenda, imagery that they are more able to give productive feedback. for example, after reading my last paper & upon seeing some of my digital tree stuff posted on the image link deborah was able to give me names of a few artists to research (early modrian landscapes/trees & corot >use of light/surface quality).

dvd: the collector:allen stone's life in art

2007-11-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

netflix blurb:
Filmmaker Olympia Stone presents a cinematic portrait of her father, famed New York City gallery owner and art collector Allan Stone, in this fascinating documentary tracing his rise in the international art world from the 1950s to 2006. Regarded as a pioneering collector, Allan Stone was considered an expert on the work of Abstract Expressionists, particularly Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Barnett Newman and Franz Kline.

liked it. this guy was a major packrat. his huge house looks as cluttered/packed full as my garage or storage. his tastes are all over the place. not a bare spot on the wall as they were hung solid with art>>> even the doors! his collected art as well as cultural artifacts. he had mummified heads of a missionary & a tribal kings daughter displayed (open air) on a table.

the documentary focused on how he first encountered art as a ny lawyer & became a gallery owner. he shares stories of well know artists he has exhibited over the years.

what i like about this movie is that it is personal rather than academic speculation. his daughter (youngest of 6 girls) did a good job of sharing her unique point of view of this man, her unconventional childhood/home life, and got to the core of this man's passion/obsession with art.

how it relates to my stuff:

doesn't, yet found i was attracted to the personal sharing of this story. the interviews were revealing, heartfelt, and genuine>>>all very natural as if you were sitting in the room with friends. hard to do/pull off even for a daughter. it is this personal sharing/communicating with the viewer that i seek through image. there are works that succeed in this, yet distilling the iconic/visual techniques for communicating this quality is a challenge.

watching this dvd did give some insight into art from a gallery owners perspective. think he should have taken the leap & picked up a brush. i would be curious if he encouraged any of his daughter to pursue art. his youngest is in film, yet it seems offspring in general tend to skirt a parent's realm to stake out their own identity/independence in other fields.
6 daughters>>>there's a story.

10.31.07 update

2007-10-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

last week/10 days:
was formulating/gathering/writing/editing my paper.
with the mla/double space it works out to about a max of 2pgs or less. header/id info,title,etc eats up 1/5-1/4th pg, then to factor in structure requirements> footnotes/intro& conclusion paragraphs (3-5 sentences in general), leaves about 3 paragraphs for content. this means i have to be less wholistic & write about fewer aspects to a subject. this is ok as my next paper will cover the rest.
what is confusing is the examples give from aib.
for example:

"looking at trees"

works out to 8-10 pgs in mla. not a fair example as it was highly personal narrative/journal-ish & less academic/distilled.
no thesis statement is presented in the opening/intro paragraph & not really the 2nd either. never really clearly stated anywhere or proved.
contains paragraphs that are basically book reading summaries rather than focus on what she got out of it & how it applied to her work.
paragraphs are agenda based & are expected to validate/tie into thesis somehow. she didn't do this, she told a story>had a conversation.
this was an enjoyable, personal journal/sharing type paper. yet does not seem to fit what is asked of me.
think the mla structure just kicks me into formal essay structure & the whole "every essay is an argument" mode that forces the writer to take a position. i fought with this in critical theory/writing classes when it came to political/social issues where it was not black or white. i did well, yet felt like i was betraying my ethics in doing so.
think this blog stuff: documents/fulfills the journal/research/mindset needs of this program & will just continue my papers as distilled/applied research & worry about it less.

this week:

photographed 4 paintings for collage/totem & have numerous digital experiments of cutting/combining them together. think a totem needs to be a vertical composition. like the square visually, yet they do not transition from digital/geometric to paint/organic as well. think i am going with a sequential abstraction idea>used a system/formula to cut, rotate & reposition/integrate pieces to create a visual narrative & unitiy/logic. the version i am thinking of going with ends up being 4 vertical columns. i have created a low contrast bw gradient image from their source material that goes from light to dark & perspective(light top). this print will back the totem. plan to paint on/tint & fabric back. will be sort of a 90>120inch x30-36inch banner. it will be easy to ship. if the background does not fly i can cut it up or paint/take it elsewhere & then cut up/or not. plan to post the various totem digital scenarios soon. want feedback from glen/mentor first. he might have a better idea

have been putting in long hours 15++ per day)on the computer. with the large file sizes the going is slow. i have been creating/editing paint/digital hybrid to print out.

bought some sort of synthetic,rigid, 50% gray,45inch wide fabric at walmart for $1 a yd. the idea is to mount the next bw printout with mod podge(is acrylic/non yellowing/stable use for crafts/decoupage & works like, yet better than any of acrylic paint products. wish i could have got it in white. $ is an issue as all my numerous experiments are good size & getting costly(it is worth it>am learning a lot). may paint the backside of the fabric with white gesso after it is bound to the print & has had time to cure. weave in open(organza like) and without fuzzies. will test first as the gesso may tighten & pucker the stuff . think the white might shift the color on the grey. if the grey is even a problem.

go to kinko print stuff today

need to have all the new studio work done by nov 14!!! it is a huge amount of work> 10 new paintings (all over 36 inches) & is due 2 days before my next paper :( would have liked more than 2 weeks between these 2 papers.

tonight is halloween & my aib adviser call. had i realized this i would have asked for another day as 6:30 in calif is prime time for taking my son around. my school stuff has been hard on him. wish i had family nearby for him to enjoy/experience/pick up the slack. single parenthood...

art showdown dvd

2007-10-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

this was a new release dvd from netfliks. i had no idea what this was about prior to viewing. basically it is a low budget gameshow that revolves around art.

competitive catagories are:

auction price is right >contestants from the audience guess real auction prices of famous works
winner goes to spin the surreal wheel.

surreal wheel:
famous forgery> shown images & have to guess the authentic
schmooze and booze>contestants try to shmooze real life museum curators while gobbling cheese & drink (think it is something unpleasant). points for the amount of food/drink consumed as well as points given for smoozing by guest curator. for example the curator of the mit gallery
dead guys tell no lies> 3 true or false stories of how famous artists died .guess which one is true.
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final 2 contestants:

art show down> two final contestants have to use 3ft+ stick with pencil to draw whatever image is drawn in one min. for example: nude descending a staircase.

shooting gallery> paintguns/10 shots at rotating carnival type targets of artists/people. points off for hitting rich republican patrons of the arts. points for all else.

brush with danger> house paintbushattached to helmet to be used to get paint on other contestant> winner is one wearing least amount of paint

theme of this show is cheesy western> thought it was texas based, it seems to be from boston. who'd a thought...?

was dumb -was meant to be.

winner won red sox tickets
runner up won harvard artshow tickets

did like guessing/knowing the art history, forge, auction $ questions

could have been a boston student/college produced show?

i pretty much rent any new dvd with the word "art" in it.
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the other dvd i have to watch is called paradise found (not new) & is a speculative fiction/non-documentary movie about gaugain. started to watch & had to stop (family stuff). did not know that pizzaro went to figi & that they did not know/hear of each other beforehand.keifer sutherland play gaugain.
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e-topia

2007-10-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

skimmed through the wiliam j. mitchell i got from the library to see if it offered any i could use. did not know what i was looking for, yet thought something might jump out at me. part of this effort is to be current, "of my time" as an artist. for me it makes sense to look at our "now" from the eyes/perspective of many. this book seemed to be an educated speculation of what's ahead & maybe offer some sort of tibit that could translate to image. i feel that even when i do not find anything that my efforts toward active awareness will manifest somehow. as for the art i am doing now i do not think anything is manifesting, yet may in the future. think it is the kind of a process of gathering and simmering for a time & at some point in the future it will hit. tends to happen this way for me with problem solving in general.

some of the forecasts:

reduction of major cities & de-isolation of rural areas due to technology
"wear ware" clothing/like or "body nets" that monitors health & personal data/id/remote communication
buildings with "nervous systems"
smart appiliances & sim stuff one would expect
to me it reflected sci-fi forcasts>>> the whole "big brother" homgenized/beehive vision

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wonder what the repercussions will be. the biological & social changes have been evident for a while, yet animals that we are we can only adapt at a reasonable rate. brain changes that show up in scans during watching tv, computer usage, electronic games have change the neurological connections/mapping/usage of our brains. this effects information process & lft/rt hemisphere dominance which affects skills, perception, communication and reduces some of the gender differences that had formed via functions. an example of this is typing. the physical process of doing so modifies the brain to balance hemisphere dominance to some extent through the mechanical process of using both hands (as does piano & such), typing was for secretaries, a woman's job, yet the computer has changed this as the male population now use keyboards often. not only do these changes show up in scan, but in brain autopsies as well. it is evolution.
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10-26-07

2007-10-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

busy art stuff day:

finished & emailed aib paper
delivered 2 paintings to a juried show
picked up 2 painting from a juried show that ended
went to 5 openings, including one of a group show that i had work in
almost finished big painting i have been working on
finished big frame i have been re-finishing
put together 2 custom oak frames i bartered website work > one was too short!!!

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Next:

go to university (csumb) & print out new crit theory stuff & pick up copies of illustrations/graphic design stuff to use for my portfolio
get prices from kinkos to see if my exhibit idea for jan 08 residency is affordable
respond to louise' s email for space requests.
get files together to go to kinkos for printing big bw
shop around for cheap fabric to back paintings/bw printouts with>>>walmart?

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finish paint experiments with images from last mentor meeting in the next 3 days. need to do prior to going to kinkos in case i chose to edit files for some new direction.
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post images if time permits!!!! too busy reading new crit theory + the last of my reading list, writing, painting.
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next weekend: open studio sf/hunters point

wed 14th: next painting crit with mentor at sfai

update: 10-21-07

2007-10-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

art:

finished & submitted work for 2 shows & delivered this week.

one was a digital abstract collage that will be in a show that opens at the monterey museum of art in about 2 weeks. it is a spin off my landscape 5c (i titled it landscape 5d). think has a asian sensibility to it.

the other is a paint >to digital > to print (color gloss photo) > to paint that went to the pacific grove art center for their patron show. means this was a donation & will go to someone who pay $50 for a ticket. i like this place> am not a member, yet have attended many openings there & drank their wine/ate their food. think they do a huge service to the community & the arts. the title of my painting is "study for triad" as i am doing a larger one of this also & may go even bigger.

pick up stuff coming off a show & deliver more this friday. had one that is un finished i had planned to enter, yet not sure if there is time.

work this week for artist norman foster. need the $$, enjoy the work, his company, his dog, his awesome studio, ,nice music, & learning/improving art related skills. timing not the best for my paper & painting, yet life & bills have always found a way to get in the way of school/art.

school stuff:

working hard on the paper due friday. at the moment i am gathering/typing notes, quotes & creating my mla resource/citing pg. i do better when i organize it all up front>>> more logical & less editing later.

ordered books on list for jan08 crit theoryII (used) at amazon.com & should get next week. realistically do not think i will be touching them until after my semester stuff is finished (mid december). papers, exhibition plans, final tweaking, packing & shipping to be there by jan, takes time. not to mention xmas with offspring, parents et all.

--

art dvd>>> rolf & fondy: to care

2007-10-21T17:49:00.000-07:00

1hr, 2006, got from netflix

netflix blurb:

Video artist Scott Pagano and electronic musicians Mirco Uguccioni and Maurizio Ottavi (aka Rolf & Fonky) joined forces to create this collection of abstract, moving artwork that blends 3D and algorithmic elements with a complex musical soundtrack. Numbering eight in all, the individual art films explore the concepts of form, color, light and density while pushing the boundaries of what one would consider "art."

i would describe this to a buddy as a photoshop montage in motion to techno/rave type music. could see this (minus music) on a big screen in a slick, lowlight big city club/bar. engaging, yet one would not get distracted by bar conversation (& miss a storyline,plot,key dialog)= good background/atmosphere that beats the hell out of a tv show or music video. would be cool on numerous screens around a place out of sequence to other music.

each is sort of a motion painting>>> like seeing an image series of one subject/composition & all the variations/tangents in sequence. no real beginning or end & almost every frame would look great as a still image.

have thought of doing this stuff yet stressed out over long render times & lack of $$$ to buy the right equipment to pursue this vision. maybe cheap/affordable now? need a new lifetime to mess with motion.

like:
that there is no narrative per se & that their theme is constant. basically a beautiful girl that has been filmed & then this film is cut up, layer over itself out of sequence + the heavy use of overlays of color pattern, adjustment layers. the music works, yet gets tedious/annoying in a hurry.

half of the compositions are without the chick, & almost all seem to be completely virtual in construction, abstract, yet have a architectural quality/referencing i like. if you are familiar at all with random art that last sentence probably makes more sense (go to: random-art.org).

not like:
the tempo is constant>>> while i get why, over time for me, it gets too "strobe-ish"(might trigger an epileptic seizure in somebody).

would like to see this idea done with a slow/sensual motion/tempo>>>more like watching a fishtank & easier to get lost in.

how it relates to me:

keeping current, awareness of our "now" so that somehow what i create will be "truly of my time." + will know what someone is talking about should this genre come up in a school discussion.

studio stuff

2007-10-16T09:36:00.001-07:00

thoughts on "totem" piece:

mentioned earlier (in post about mentor crit), i had push-pinned 7 of the paintings (over digital on paper) to the wall with the intent of creating a collage.

after 6 days of viewing them i have found that i liked some more than before. on 2 i feel they would be awesome on a large scale. the rest are good, yet do not represent anywhere i want to go in the future>i learned/explore & that was enough.

now:

i want to take 4 of the images to use for the totem. rather than jump in & cut/collage, i am scanning them in to brainstorm digitally. i have an idea that involves horz strips systematically mixed in a vertical composition. all paintings are the same size. thinking having them like flaps & may paint the backsides in a manner that adds dimension to the work. think i may want the flaps not to lay flat to expose the backside/underbelly.

the other 3 paintings are dif size, yet relate to each other. may collage or use them as underpaintings to build up with a lot of transparent glazes. the hope being that the underpainting will be apparent upon close examination>>>part of the "payoffs at various viewing distances" i favor in art.

other:

cking out the cost of printing out multiple color kinko banners to mount to fabric & paint on. they would all be horz & form a single work. reason for this: sound interesting, is reletivly economical & would be easier to ship. i had soooo much damage last time that i want to stay away from anything rigid this session. + this is all new to me & i get to expand my material experience on this. they would form a single mural or scroll of sorts?

reading:

shalain's sex, time & power: How women's sexuality shape human evolution:

extremely interesting >>> as is all his books. so far, it has me focused on how we perceive/filter info & the diversity in the results based on biological factors.

wjt mitchell's picture theory:

this book has me thinking of art as an iconic language, which i did before, yet mitchell is bringing more to it than i have encountered before.

how will i use this? more awareness=more able to actively choose my message through image (or at least prevent miscommunication or convolute more effectively).

-----------------------

crit theoryII list

2007-10-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Imprint/Index/Trace/Mark/Photograph

AIB Critical Theory II Seminar January 2008

Michael Newman

Course Description

The use of techniques of imprinting and casting from the body and from objects has been pervasive in modern art. Introducing ways of engendering objects independently of controlling intention and open to chance effects, such techniques lend to the thing a traumatic immediacy and raise questions of the relation between life and death, presence and absence, mourning and the uncanny. The imprint has also been used as the basis for an alternative to an art history based on representation and idea. The index, a sign physically related to its referent, has been proposed as the basis to link sculptural practice of the 1970s to a model based on photography. The class will follow four threads: First, a consideration and critique of the idea of origin, and its relation to the mark and the trace; second, a consideration of the relations between mark, sign and trace; third, the implications of the trace and imprint to life and death, with a particular focus on casting and the photograph; and fourth, the trace considered as trace of the other and of the feminine.

Requirements

A. The texts are required reading for the class. You will be expected to participate actively in a discussion of these texts.

B. A short illustrated presentation in class related to one of the readings

+++ = available as download

Three books need to be purchased.

Session 1: The Trace in the Origin of Drawing

Reading:

***Pliny, Natural History: Books XXXIII-XXXV, ed. G. P. Goold, trans. H. Rackham, 1995 ed., X vols., vol. IX, The Loeb Classical Library (London: Harvard University Press, 1952), Book XXXV, 151-152 according to the paragraph numbers to the left of the Latin text); also available in Pliny the Elder, Natural History: A Selection, trans. John F. Healy (London: Penguin, 1991), p.336, §151. A complete translation of Pliny's Natural History is available online at [Note: their server is currently down]

+++Michael Newman, "The Traces and Marks of Drawing" in The Stage of Drawing: Gesture and Act, Selected from the Tate Collection, edited by Catherine de Zegher, London: Tate Publishing and New York: The Drawing Center, 2003, pp. 93-108.

Session 2: The Index, Stain, and Sign

Reading:

+++Rosalind Krauss, "Notes on the Index" in The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths (Cambridge, Mass. and London, England: MIT, 1985), pp.196-219.

+++Georges Didi-Huberman, "The Index of the Absent Wound (Monograph on a Stain)," October, Summer 1984 1984

+++James Elkins, On Pictures and the Words That Fail Them (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998), Chapter 1: "Marks, Traces, Traits, Contours, Orli, and Splendores", pp. 3-46.

Session 3: The Relic, Life Cast, Death Mask and Photograph

Reading:

+++Sigmund Freud, "Mourning and Melancholia," Standard Edition, Vol. 14, pp.243-258.

+++André Bazin, "The Ontology of the Photographic Image", in What is Cinema? (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp.9-16

BUY: Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida : Reflections on Photography (New York: Hill and Wang, 1981).

Session 4: The Trace of the Other and of the Feminine

Reading:

+++Emmanuel Levinas, "The Trace of the Other," in Deconstruction in Context, ed. Mark Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986)

+++Edward Casey, "Levinas on Memory and the Trace", in J.C.Sallis, G. Moneta and J. Taminiaux eds., The Collegium Phaenomenologicum (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1988), pp.240-255.

BUY: Jacques Derrida, Memoirs of the Blind: The Self-Portrait and Other Ruins, trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993)

Buy: Julia Kristeva, and Toril Moi, The Kristeva Reader (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), read section I, "Linguistics, Semiotics, Textuality" esp. pp.62-136.

+++Michael Newman, "Imprint and Rhizome in the Work of Cristina Iglesias," in Iwona Blazwick ed., Cristina Iglesias (Museu Serralves, Barcelona, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2002-03), pp. 121-164 [availabie as author's MS]

aib agenda update

2007-10-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

jan08 residency:

arrangements are in place to travel & share room with group buddy from this area!

readings for next residency:

got email with new reading list for critical theory II.
instructor this time will be:
michael newman (ex-brit,chicago art institute instructor/historian/writer of books)

need to buy 3 books on the list (rest is published & mailed out by aib)

opening

2007-10-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

went to the opening of the juried art show i had 2 images in last night. nothing new under the sun... did feel i lucked out on the placement/lighting of my 2 paintings. the food was less than hoped for given the amount of fee charged.

sfi mentor meeting

2007-10-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

met with my aib mentor glenn hirch on wednesday at the sf art istitute where he teaches.
he was awesome>>> gave a lot of insight, posed questions & directions for this next leg of images to create.

took in 26 paintings & 2 printout of digital images.

i feel i did a good job fleshing out the options on my assigned agenda & have a good feel of where to take it next.

some of this will involve trashing/reprocessing a good chunk of the work i just completed. although they are done, i want to take them somewhere else. this means i will document what i have done up to this point so that if my future efforts end in total destruction 9which is perfect ok) i will have my ass covered & not show up empty handed in jan 08.

one of these trashing will be to reprocess a blue-y-g dig-paint triptych (each 2'x2) with clear gesso texture & my infamous tobacco/nicotine tint glaze. having been working with blue glazes (which i could never embrace) i am looking forward to getting down & dirty on these.

there are maybe 7 painting to use for a collage or sorts. i have them all on the wall & move them about throughout the day. next i will create a digital file to composite/montage them. think i will go for a semi-sequencial verticl scroll that goes from digital (top) to organic. think that i will cut off the black edges & then the blue/green images in to strips. doing it in photoshop will save me trouble/time on the troubleshooting upfrount before making any cuts. after that i may go over all with texture/paint glaze?

will print out & do more of the 30x30 or 36x36 dig stuff to paint on.

will experiment with the same stuff/processes on photo. am liking the new stuff a lot.

learned more about myself/style i am in at this time during the past few weeks & want to nail it for jan08.

all this stuff is tying into the scroll/narrative stuff i have done/mentioned in the past

as to how to write this stuff into my papers...

need to rest up after such an intense push the past 4 weeks. i had sore back,neck, swollen fingers/wrists, 7 new callouses from this spell. this is a good thing>>>means i am alive & have been busy!

will be creating new digital for output/paint. am thinking about murals/big scrolls now. installation objects as well.

have some great idea for presenting/exhibiting in 08 as well>>>need to look into costs :(

next deadline is a paper

next studio/mentor deadline: nov 14 at sfi.

stash 6 pack: 5: discs 6 & 5

2007-10-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

this stash series is becoming an addiction for me & i am glad of it!

wish i afford to buy subscribe to this monthly dvd magazine

i like that i am often laughing, or in awe by skill, imagery or concepts presented in this dvd magazine.

i like that most are non-verbal and often come from non us/western mindsets . due to technology so much art/tv seems to be homogenated visually these days.

upon reflection, the psudo-underwater animation in disc 5 was one that actually sorta-kinda relates to what i do.

painting experiments

2007-10-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

the more i look at my "clear gesso" is not gel medium mishap, the more i am like'n them.

for one, they have that veiled/obscured quality i rarely escape
&
the other is the potential lump wet sand nature/texture i see.

downside is consequence> no undo if i put it on one of my "nearly dones"
&
what i have there ties into each other really well.

could select the weakest link i guess?

yet i like the absence of color in the 2 images with the gesso on. may use these to test further. would be fun to see what a selectively applied gloss medium or gel would do to the image? or if the image had a gloss coat first to contrast the gesso? with color i think i would switch to a organic/dirt palette to reference origins/qualilities. i still have burnt bone,clay,ash,dirt in jars mixed with acrylic medium of some sort. i remember that the diversity in grit was a pain & now could be a blessing?that or environmental references. could through this stuff over ocean/beach image/prints. like a pic of just waves/ocean on an overcast grey day & no sky/shore in the image/ that with this wet sand stuff sounds cool. may work with stream/creek images too. think photographing water from above makes sound ideal. may go to a bridge & shoot down with a wide angle? know of a few...

online research

2007-10-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

spent 4hrs seeking art online. mainly just looking to be surprised & to look for "the new." best deal for me was hooking into a saatchi gallery website that had an extensive global art gallery link. so, i visited gallery sites in many countries & found there was not really any geographical identity>>>in a new sense. homogenization due to technology has set in so soon? that is not to say one would not find cultural referencing, there was, yet not what i had hoped for. for one thing, most of the artists in the "less" mainstream countries were trained elsewhere. if in europe, they trained in uk & if asian they often trained in japan & oz or u.s. as for abstract paintings, same stuff/style that was going on in the 1920-40s. did find a few treats in berlin, zurich, & seol. thought i would find some in the scandinavian countries, yet not. the stuff i did like used new materials, or at least incorporated stuff that has been around a while in a new way. for example the use of plastics.

of course, as soon as i mention "new materials" the sol le witt's statement in paragraphs on contemporary art about confusing new materials for new ideas pops up & usually ruins the moment. yet, new materials are markers/identifiers for our "now">>>sort of time capsules. i look at some of the household refuse i used in mixmedia images in the past that do not exist in mercantile today>> like teabags tags, plastic binder on soda sixpacks, jetdry baskets.

anyhoo, a few of the ones i liked:

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/

http://www.haeusler-contemporary.com/index.php

http://www.annedevillepoix.com/main.html

http://www.galleryihn.com/eng/mainframe.html

http://www.art-center-berlin.de/deutsch/ausstellungen/frame.html

---

after viewing, one thing i would like to try is working with metal, patinas/chem reactions & surface manipulations as paintings. having grown up in an investment casting foundry& machine shop i have the background for it>>> just not the tools/resources anymore. cutting into, welding, grinding to create surface relief/patterns/texture & then playing with toxic stuff /chemicals to color the surface has appeal. the stuff i have seen of this genre hardly touches the possibilities readily available.

translucent plasitic overlays or fiberglass cloth sewn to encase a painted object & then lighted/presented properly engaged me/looked like fun too. for me it would be play.

new books from the library

2007-10-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

picture theory
by: william j.t. mitchell

mitchell is a u of chicago hotshot theorist on visual representation/ iconology/images & art as a visual language.

why i ckd it out:

is not on my list, yet felt i needed to know about this stuff. may not read cover to cover.

e-topia
by:william j. mitchell

guess how i found this book...

this guy is a hotshot from mit & this book appears to be about the impact of technology on culture & where it is going.

why i ckd it out:

part of being current/of my time. even if i do not use it directly, any new knowledge will translate somehow to my work & writing.

art shows

2007-10-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

have 2 paintings in a local juried show. the opening is this friday
+
have been accepted into a group show at the monterey museum of art in a few months.
+
there is another juried show next month i plan to enter

----

went to an opening last week & was underwhelmed. too tired to comment.

need to buy new music to listen to while painting + get more audiobooks from the library as i have exhausted what i have.

thought paper & studio update

2007-10-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

crit theory I paper:

glad i reread deborah email/agenda/dates on papers as i had been prepping for a thought paper based on my current readings. at least i have a jump on the next one.

submitted crit theoryI thought paper on due date . wish i had done it right after residency when it was fresh. however, do'n the review thing was interesting in that i am in a different place now due to the new readings/dvd, museum/gallery viewings, my studio work>>> sorta spun the info & my notes a little differently/gained more.

studio:

have been busy working on the digital paint stuff from the other direction. having explored numerous possibilities on taking painting into digital & creating digital for print & paint i am now outputting some of the paint/digital stuff to print.

did 2 36x36 color ($$$) for 2 images for midterm
&
have 14-18 bw prints (24x24>30x30) to use as underpaintings for acrylic.
have tried to take pics at dif stages for ref & trouble shooting/feedback? will post soon

did not mount paper to anything as a wanted to have the option of cutting/collaging or??? in the future.

all are sq & of the same palette.

only 2-4 were decided upon for the midterm, yet for me, i need to have more going so that i can chase tangents as they arise. think that is why i fell into photoshop so easily (layers& undo). i have a few going of the same image to explore sequencing in painting/glazing. so far i am not sure what i think.

may push some a bit further. struggle a little bit on what to keep or loose as i do not want to be just coloring in one of my digital images, yet if i loose the image>>>then what was the point? do i want to retain the identities of both mediums or is it just an internal process.

had two that i use transparent gesso on instead of glossy gel medium. liquitex clear gesso is not clear. well maybe if applied very thin. to me it looks/behaves like matt medium with fine silica/sand thrown in place of pumice or marble dust. the results are that 2 of my 36x36 bw prints had their images highly obscured.

transparency output:
still hunting around/researching options on the frame/electrical aspect to the backlit image idea. not sure if i even like the thought anymore. now the idea brings to mind those illuminated beer signs with that bear paddling a canoe down some mountain stream. my idea would work if it was really big. $$$ & not sure if this is the direction i want to go.

screen saver:
creating a screen saver was suggested by my mentor & is something i am looking into. i have never used them on my cpu >> so i need to get up to speed on this realm before i do more. i do have a fishtank screensaver on one of my desktops which i love. it came with it & has a fry's logo in in that has imprinted the monitor. the reason one has a screensave is to prevent this from happening). monitor calibration issues could be scary to deal with.

next:

now that the groundwork for this semester is done, the creation of exhibition stuff for aib is next.

will bring some of this stuff as required+ prints of what does not come (would be way too much & too big). glenn hirsch's perspective on this is that i should only show the final product & not the "practices. " makes sense & so i may have images,papers & blog book bound & display to show process/documentation of this semester.

dvd>>>stash 31 & what is "the new"???

2007-09-21T11:13:00.001-07:00

liked this as much as #33 & would watch it again/recommend to others

relates to me in the same way the rest of this series has.
-------

yesterday, while rereading some of my notes from my crit theory class at aib, i came across the statement instructor stuart steck made:

"that it was important for an artist to be of his/her time"

i think this is true & part of my pursuit to keep abreast of "the new" (and the reason for watching dvds like stash).

yet, i am unsure how to define myself & "my time."

a whole lot has happened in my lifetime up to now & i do not define myself by any one group. meaning:
i am tail end 60's (too young,yet witnessed)
sorta gen x
yet in/aware of/enjoy >>>but not "of " the up & coming "gameboy generation."

each generation has a distinct identity & merge or transition, yet don't.

the "new" that i see is steeped in technology > cable tv/dvd, cell phones, chatrooms, myspace, podcast, 3d software/games, star wars, ren & stempy, tv sitcoms,even more fast food/microwave,pop culture, & the all mighty internet. their penchant for images/output references this. the wwII, post wwII, 60's, & gen x created these things, yet are not "of" them in the same way.

how does this multimedia/instant access perspective translate to an image created on paper or canvas (with no electronics attached)?

looking at this from the art standpoint is hard, yet thinking of the political, historical, scientific, cultural markers for these dif generations makes it harder to distill into generations & self identity. what is my time other than now?
what is the "now" school/ideology of art at this moment?
seems to be many + the old ones & pseudo-old ones are still kicking around.
muddy waters indeed ...

in painting, there is nothing new i can bring to it, in the sense that paint is paint & behaves in a certain matter dictated by the laws of physics, same for the brush. all that is new is in what we know & in things that did not exist before. science & our perception of reality, technology, new materials, global events of consequence, social changes that are unique in history (is this possible? % of educated populous perhaps?). how does one bring this to canvas?

in the past, art movements did parallel & reflect the new ideas of the day. cubism reflected einstein's time continuum/nonlinear time/simultaneous existence in space ideas. the impressionist's use of blue reflected the science discoveries/theories about light. so how would one set out to do this representation consciously? for example, how would you translate the string theory to paint? or the existence of more that 20-something dimensions (lost count>they keep adding more)? or the new perspectives on gravity? not to express using the image/technique repertoire we have at this moment, but to formulate a new one > for paint. this is hard for me to wrap my brain around, yet wish i could. have studied some of this science stuff thinking it would relate to art somehow, yet do not see it--yet. it seems that most of the art that reflected new knowledge did so inadvertently & on an unconscious level. so maybe it is happening now & will reveal itself in hindsight?

sol lewitt said in paragraphs on conceptual art

"new materials are one of the great afflictions of contemporary art. some artists confuse new materials with new ideas. there is nothing worse than seeing art that wallows in gaudy baubles. by & large most artists who are attracted to theses materials are the ones that lack the stringency of mind that would enable them to use the materials well. it takes a good artist to use new materials and make them into a work of art. the danger is, i think, in making the physicality of the materials so important that it becomes the idea of the work (another kind of expressionism)." ***

good thing i do not embrace ideology of conceptual art >>> i would fall short on many fronts. yet, this paragraph does introduces some new questions to consider when creating art with new stuff. for me it is less about the material & more about getting to a fresh look (to be surprised/enchanted during the process of creation).

so i guess i am back to the idea of painting with/on new materials & trusting in the fact that whatever of the "new" that i have ingested will manifest whither i like it or not.

this is not "it", yet will have to suffice until i get cleverer or someone who is>>> does.

*** fyi: can not do the proper indentation of the more than 3 sentence quote on a blog>so i went with marks rather since italics were too subtle.

tips from 1st residency aib buddy

2007-09-19T16:59:00.002-07:00

below is the awesome email response i got today from my assigned "aib buddy" (adv. student big brother's newbee in program). she was a blessing to me at residency. i am not citing her name here since i do not know if i trust the privacy of blogs.

this is a cut & paste of her response on my"thought papers." she is an awesome painter & is now in the process of writing her thesis during her last semester at aib.
-------------------------------------

These are a few suggestions, off the top of my head:

Carry a notebook with you at all times. I would often get ideas in the car and ask my daughter to jot down thoughts while I was driving. Carry a camera with you, too! Take photos, gather images, sketch, jot down ideas...lots of gathering.

Always connect readings as closely as you can to your own art practice. Pick out the parts that relate to your own work. Try to be proactive in finding books/essays/artists for yourself that are relevant, because no advisor knows your work better than you yourself.

Take notes while reading. I found that underlining works best for me, then I can see the context when I look them over later. In the case of a library book, I would write notes on the computer, including page numbers and bibliographical info.

Use the Internet! A lot...check amazon.com and other sources for book reviews before you invest time and money on a particular text. Look up terms, authors, philosophers, etc. Try the online dictionary of etymology (look up the origins of important terms for great insights). Use the google image search. Make a lot of bookmarks for yourself. If you are reading a difficult text, look up the author and see if you can find essays that help provide some context, understanding, and approaches to the author's work. That helped me a lot.

Track down references to other thinkers/writers/philosophers who interest you and seem relevant. After you settle into a area of interest, they all start referencing each other in an amusing way.

Don't be afraid to give an honest and insightful negative critique of a book, author, artist, etc.

A truly diverse postmodernist condition allows almost any approach to art to thrive, and gives you plenty of ammo to defend almost any position. So go for it.

Interlibrary loan is your best friend. My local library had nothing I needed, but could get particular books if I requested them (eventually).

Get started using MLA citations right away: lots of my thought papers are ending up in my thesis and it sure saves time having the author/page number/bibliographic info already entered into the text. Write complete bibliographies so you can reference them later.

My only regret is that I didn't research more contemporary artists...I was late in locating myself in the contemporary art world, as I tend to research historically. Locating yourself in contemporary art discourse is extremely important in this program. Actually, I do have another regret: getting so involved in the reading and writing that I didn't paint as much as I could have. It's a balancing act.

In past semesters, I did not ever write a reflective piece that focused on crit theory, lectures, issues that came up during the residency, or anything like that, though a few references to crit theory came out here and there in my papers. I just read books and wrote about them, though I did hear that other people were assigned papers to reflect on the residency. Other people wrote papers on specific artists, which I've never done.

The readings can become a labyrinth. Don't get lost! Try to test everything by relevance and your own excitement of discovery...don't read something just because someone told you to. If it sucks, don't waste time. Set it aside and find something that makes you feel inspired. The connections between your work, your life, your history, other artists, and your readings should become stronger and more fascinating as you continue through the program.

In thinking about connecting your readings to your work, you can study
1) the tradition of your activity (such as mixed-media, installation, painting, performance, whatever)

2) the material of your work: your medium

3) artists who have some connection to your work

4) philosophers or theorists who write about your issues

5) do a little cross-training and look into other disciplines, such as science or music. This all really depends on what you have done and want to do. What came up during the crits and from your adviser should give you some great ideas to get going.

But...you always have to test these ideas against your own deeply held values and obsessions.

dvd: stash 33 (2007)

2007-09-17T15:20:00.001-07:00

stash is a video magasine & presents new animation, film/animation hybrids, 3d & 2d, and product or station comercials that are artsy. stuff is global.

netflix blurb:
"Silliness at its most sublime is the order of the day in this issue of the popular video magazine, which features Make's flammable chipmunks, Han Huggebrooge's off-kilter vignettes for Dutch TV, Nexus's pirate/bovine/bicyclist stop-motion animation for Cravendale and more. Also included are a slew of music downloads from Baltimore's Monitor Records and two shorts from the "Roger Dans L'espace" series about aliens who land on a farm."

i really liked it>>>could even watch it again, maybe twice. i do not say that often. i have the rest of the series queued up to enjoy. lots of visual treats & surprises. i laughed many times.

how it applies to me:

will be a better peer for those at aib that do this kinda stuff (as i am acquiring an awareness of the new stuff out there).

although i took classes in old school animation as well as 3d & 2d cpu programs, i stay away from this stuff. i like it too much & it would be a major investment ($$,time,learning) & deviation for me. the few times i played with a mini dvd camera i was sucked in & had zillions of ideas to explore. once i fleshed out & followed through on all that i have started with still imagery or sculpture then maybe i will take the plunge. just know myself well enough to run away. do really love to watch this stuff>>>very innovative/imaginative & funny stuff.

liked the animation of the guy in the red fez a lot.

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more art research type stuff

2007-09-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

while doing research for my paper at academic site i found this fascinating book offered online. think it is only available for a week.

site: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59403252#

title:

Origins of Art: A Psychological & Sociological Inquiry

Book by Yrjö J. Hirn; Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1900. 331 pgs.

i found a large number of concepts & quotes that offer promise in writing about art.

the one i will mention here deals with art & pain. reason being: that is how i found it in the search engine & because of a comment my mentor made about some of my work being melancholy. he stated it with the perspective of melancholy = beauty + sadness. for me the seaweed image reminded me of a dirty fish tank in which the algae had won, obscuring our view. algae is not a neg for me. i see it as a reclamation by nature/life >>> like a weed emerging from a crack in the sidewalk. man's efforts of conquest over nature are always short lived. this new view paints a bittersweet interpretation that peaked my curiosity.

little researcher that i am i had to flesh this out a bit to see what turned up & came up with lots of links to sites that focus on art in relation to psychology, sociology, philosophy, & aesthetics. those aesthetics guys love danto. there was even some conference coming up in which all the papers to be submitted were to be spinoffs. apparently the man's a god. reading the posts (at sites like: http://artmind.typepad.com/artphil/calls_for_papers/index.html) curled my brain. did find the highly intellectual and articulate exchange interesting. turns out most of them are hot shot teachers on such subjects & apparently go here to spar or hone their "stuff" before publishing papers or public speaking. seemed like they did a lot of speculating (about what artists think or do), do academic research & little real world sampling/interviewing to answer questions (as is done in psychology & medicine).

art & pain:

this a huge area i have not given focus to before. physical pain in art like scarification, tattoos, elongated necks, ear or lip plug/plates are the first thing that comes to mind. the whole idea that to be beautiful requires pain/sacrifice is of common knowledge (although not unnecessarily embraced). even mass produced art like the 1960's kitsch art of kids or baby animals with big weepy eyes & tater clothes or harsh environments reflect our penchant for images that evoke a wince,empathy, connection with/from the viewer. yet, according to this book, this desired quality in art has always been there>>> starting wayback with the paleo stuff ( not gonna go into it here...).

citing greek art & mythology was of interest to me. drawing attention to how their sculptures were often a coupling of beautiful forms/face/drapery & an facial expression that often suggested some sort of experiential gravity being contemplated. i started thinking about this & there is a huge amount of work that falls into this realm. notable for me is church art. damn near any crucifix with a body on it & saints with oozing wounds come to mind. yet not all of those (for me) hit the mark as beautiful (visually). yet in thinking of a work like the pieta, with beautiful face, seductive drapery, and a graceful corpse in her lap this perspective of pain both physical & emotional rings true. today, in viewing a pollack, geiger, or mtv video, one finds these references. i could go on...

think in many ways it is easier to manipulate an emotional connection from a viewer by going with the neg ones. i contemplate happy ones & they seem to miss that "edge." thomas kincade is pretty damn happy. i am hard pressed to think of any purely "happy" images from art history studies that come to mind. i do not consider sexuality as happy in the same sense & thus ruled out a whole bunch. still lifes & portraits are more about status, egos & possessions. landscapes are usually contemplative, suggest reverence/spirituality of sort, or documentation thus evoking a potential range of emotions. infusing images with a neg backstory creates depth that holds the viewer's attention longer? the artist is also the viewer & actively seeks content than challenges and engages him in viewing & construction.

anyhoo, the book address aspects like:

the art impulse
feeling/tone of sensation
enjoyment of pain
social expression
art the reliever
the work of art
objections & answers
concrete origins of art
art & information
historic art/animal display/art & sexual selection
origins of self decoration
erotic art/art depicting work/art & war/art & magic
++++ more

all comes from a psychological perspective>>> which means this stuff is a speculative reconstruction on some level. it is safe to assume there is little documentation on the psychological workings in previous generations. language alone does not stand still, so even if something was shared & written down in english way-wayback when does not mean it holds the same content today. many of our words have change in meaning or context/connotation, or intensity. if this is the case in written communication, then it is a consideration to taken with visual communications as well. i do hold to the thought that we are pretty much still the same animal as our forefathers & therefore the same genetics, reptilian brain, and chemistry that dictates behavior then stands now. in light of this, i think these guys are "on the right page."

how this relates to my work:

thats it!!!

no more 'sharing," i'm a switch'n to rainbows & unicorns & peeps.

actually, this book did address how the artist skirts revealing too much of one's underbelly in an image. that there is this conscious editing between hooking the viewer, aesthetic elements, emotional content, and narrative. think the whole "veil" thing i inadvertently pursue ties in to much of this, or--i am way off base & the obscured vision of my images just reflect my lack of clarity? :)

my paper:

think there is stuff here i will get more than a few miles out of. some of the references cited looked promising as well. may be useful in upcoming critical theory classes.

stuff/quotes from the book:

may use some of the stuff dealing with views of hegel, goethe, taine, vischer, spencer, hemsterhuis+++

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"the art-impulse in its broadest sense must be taken as an outcome of the natural tendency of every feeling state to manifest itself externally, the effect of such a manifestation being to heighten the pleasure and to relieve the pain. We found in this fact the primary source of art as an individual impulse. But art is essentially social; and this also we explained on psychological grounds. The secondary effect of the exteriorisation of a feeling-state is to awaken similar feelings in other human beings who perceive the manifestation; and their sympathetic feeling acts upon the author of the original manifestation, heightening in him the feeling - state which gave rise to it." (p302)

"Art production would never have reached so high a develop ment if it had served only as a sedative for human feelings. But neither does art, any more than the direct activities of expression, involve mere excitement; it too fulfils, and with even greater efficacy, a relieving and cathartic mission." (p71)

"Thus the artistic imitation of nature will necessarily be connected with a search for a predominant quality, and an endeavour to represent this quality as a "faculté mère." The things and events which are selected for the embodiment of a given emotional state become displayed in such a way that their whole being appears to be derived from the one quality which is most suited to represent this emotional state." (p124)

"every artist who has a true and keen eye for nature and life will necessarily light, upon qualities which, while affording the most appropriate centre of gravity for his representation, are, also in the intellectualistic sense, explanatory of the subjects represented. By making every feature of his model converge towards this selected quality, he may thus produce an imitation which, even if it deviates from the visible reality, may appear truer than this reality itself."

"The intellectualistic illusion that every artistic representation has something to teach us about the essential nature of the things represented, can only arise on condition of there being a certain agreement between the world-view of the artist and that of his public."(p128)

"It no longer lays the chief stress on the intellectualistic requirement that artistic representation should be true to nature. It demands before all that the work of art should give a faithful rendering of the feelings with which the represented fragment of nature has been comprehended by the artist. Sincerity, as involving poetical truthfulness, thus becomes the chief claim which is set up for a work of modern art." (p129)

"When it has been proved that the rules governing the artistic adjustment of reality, which have been stated and vindicated on the basis of intellectualistic theories, may be equally well deduced from an emotionalistic interpretation, the argument can easily be extended so as to cover the principles governing the selection of subjects and motives for artistic representation."

am i right?

old silvery-tongued Yrjö sure knows how to spew this stuff. his distillation of historical thoughts on this subject & discipline should prove handy in future papers or class discussions.

dvd: the world of gilbert & george

2007-09-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

a brit performance art-ish dvd i got from netfix.

do not think it applied to what i am doing now.

qualities of note (for me) was the:

use of sound & juxtaposition of image and dialog was clever & key to this work & effectively used.

lots of things intrigued me>>> camera angle, editing, content, emotion. since this was an abstract work dealing with tangible/everyday/common man stuff, i find it difficult to define here. think it came from & targeted the male 20-something age group. i looked to netfliks to see what they wrote up about it & see they faced the same dilemma :) some of the sections recited poetry coupled with images that offered a non-mainstream or twisted view to portray the poem's content. there is a humor/mockery that runs through much of this collection. some if it sticks with you later to mull over & increase one's appreciation of the work.

how i will use this: awareness of art being created now in faraway places that will make me more useful during critique or during art discussions/presentations that dwel l in this genre.

underpainting

2007-09-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

last night/today i spent a long time manipulating one of the digital images files (composite of acrylic painting images) that i messed with in photoshop. for the most part i channel mixed in grayscale. In doing so i trashed the image with the thought that i would print out (or crop & print), adhere to something & then paint. the image results are now more of a organic texture that could be interesting when obscured in a encaustic like acrylic painting.

the resulting images are in phase 2 images that can be viewed from the link to image experiments.

today also redid my image link pages. it was getting cluttered & still is!!!!

when i have more time i can rebuild it.

i did add a link at the top right to phase 2 in which i will add this next group of images.

---

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studio mentor feedback

2007-09-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

yapped with glen hirsch for an hour this eve about the images i have posted & which direction to take for the next few weeks. as always i learn more about what i have created from the feedback of others. they see things i don't & flush out the blindspots for me. think it is partially because i have looked at them so much during creation that i can not be that objective about them >yet.

like writing, i do well to sit stuff aside for abit & come back to it after a time. then the errors & strengths pop (if i am lucky) or >>>> to the garbage or break out the gesso.

professor hirsch was very helpful through his observations/insights as well as the questions posed. i gained clarity in my direction for the next few weeks!!!

he had me make a column for paint/analog & digital. then brought up different aspects to art to apply to each. this exercise did give me clarity & ideas where the two can work. the reason for all this is that i struggle with digital & paint>>> sort of a "worlds colliding" issue for me. while i feel i need to pull it into one thing, it feels like oil & water during the process. not so much paint into digital>>> but very much so with digital into paint.

as professor hirsch stated, combining paint with digital is basically the same long standing issues/dialog that came about with photography. why am i going there? for now>>>because that is the semester proposal i wrote. later? who knows. i have used digital work as departure ideas for paintings & will continue this practice. the question to ask is: will i continue to pursue this direction in future semesters?

one reason for this is that i take my digital to to point of completion so that paint has nothing to contribute. in contemplating this i think one solution maybe to take images i have done & then trash them a bit>>> for example, channel mixing in photoshop (possibly in grayscale mode) to eliminate information/simplify to open it up to new interpretation with paint. that alone could create a series as underpaintings.

what i'm a gonna do:

for the upcoming weeks i will work with the 2 seaweed digital images (post on the links pg) & take them in dif directions.

known directions to start with:
1) print output >play with scale (reasonable or really big/giant)

2)print output > paint on (maybe an psudo-encaustic effect/vibe with acrylic?)

3)look into print on transparency or backlight material to display on some sort of light fixture (wall mount & square). size/cost/shipping could be an issue

4) stay digital >>> screen saver
or
projection for installation ($$$)

5) don't know >>> something cool might come up while doing one of the above
---
after: have even more profound clarity to create more of "it" so that i have a well fleshed out series to present in boston in jan08

professor hirsch suggested that:

1) rather than the 5-7 2x2ft images that i go for more.
2) stay with the uniform square & maybe go bigger
3) try the directions above to see where it goes & then commit to one. then, start making more.

at this moment i feel that i have a sound grip on the work i will be doing for the rest of the semester.

paper update:

have started to pull info together that i plan to use & have sort of a lattice/structure for clarity & to make sure i do not veer from my thesis. if i do start with a plan/formula for the paper i usually have to edit more & cull out writing that i am attached to. defining each paragraph up front & locating my quotes/references for each helps me.

talked with aib group comrade tonight & she said that she had already finished her first reflective & was working on her second. she said she used very little of her reading in it since it did not apply to her thesis. her paper was more of a narrative that explored the ideas/feelings with her work. her academic adviser liked her paper. so, am i making a bigger deal out of this than need be? do need to re-read the student handbook as my buddy said she thought this paper was cr/no cr & not a letter grade. does not really matter>>> just a bit surprised.

fun paint idea

2007-09-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

during the open studio tour, one artist, barry marshall, shared images from a workshop he attended in which everyone was blindfolded while painting & listening to meditative music. the images i saw were cropped & mounted from larger sheets of watercolor paper. looked like ink wash & maybe red ink was used. had a lyrical quality & the progression of the results became more asian in style.

how this relates to me:

think it is just a great way to get out of ones comfort zone & give fresh results that could evolve into some interesting trends. sometimes you do not know what your gonna get>>> just jump in & play/paint for the joy of the process (& the trashcan).

might give it a shot with acrylic or digitally. may get more miles out of the digital files.

the ink paper thing reminds me of watching this japanese artist/master that demonstrated brushstrokes that were part of a structured movement >>>like judo,qui gong or even fencing. made sense & looked like it would be fun to study. he used big arm movements & his whole body when painting. the brushstrokes reflected the control & fluidity, while presenting that fresh/instantaneousness of the medium.

monterey open studio tour

2007-09-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

opening:
friday night i attended the tour opening at the pg art center. each artist had one work exhibited.

last year there were troubles with this tour& the artist equity that puts it together >>>so there was not one. so this year i would guess there was half the number of artists participating than in previous years. they moved the date up too by 2 weeks which may have tweaked peoples timelines.
art: more of the same. was fun to see people & what they are doing, yet it felt like a rut. i wanted to be surprised & wasn't.

Sunday: went to a few studios. mostly to pay respects to people i know (give moral support). had some nice visits with artists that were new to me. only saw 11 studios this year.

how this relates to me/what i am doing:

have done open studio (2yrs ago) so i paid more attention to presentation, salesmanship, promotion tools this time. in the past i tend to focus on equipment, studio space & setup (lusting after or getting ideas for updating what i have). i always pick brains of the artists to see if i can find patterns in what was sold. sales are never great, yet the networking aspect is.

Christel Dillbohner at the La Mirada Art Museum

2007-09-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

loved it.
attended her artist talk to the museum docents & learned a lot about her processes.

i had assumed it was an encausic process>>> it is not. just because wax & oil pigment is used does not make it encaustic. i did not know this. one of the processes she does is to distress wood, then underpainting prior to of the wax stuff. she rubs out between layer & carves into as well. there was a pond of painted & wax coated paint strainer suspended on fishing line from the 2 story ceiling. the overall had a zen/japanese sensibility to it. the filaments caught light and referenced rain while her paintings felt like quiet landscapes.

how this relates to what i am doing:
think it ties into my idea of printing out my digital art & painting over with acrylic. since i do a lot of transparent glazing i could get the depth & complexity of the wax mediums >>> at least some of what i am working on right now seems to be going that way.

may reference her on the paper i am formulating >>>> due sept 28th!

Aspect: The Chronicle of New Media Art: Vol. 9

2007-09-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Aspect: The Chronicle of New Media Art: Vol. 9

Like this new one a lot more than past seasons. the focus was on performance art/film. really liked marisa olsen's "black & white." nina yuen & tanja ostojic brought a down to earth tangible freshness to this genre as well. there was also the type of stuff i associate with performance art >>>like the chick laying askew on concrete wrapped in seaweed & changing from time to time as an installation piece.

how it relates to me:

my intent: for the most part, it made me more aware of current work being down. i found it interesting that there seems to be a shift back toward the personal narrative>>>at least this dvd from netflix gave me that impression.

how it relates to the stuff i am doing now:
the seaweed stuff had the veiled quality that i find myself returning to. think this may be inherent to digital montage. olsen's facial distortions may have attracted me since that can be one of the fun "happy accidents" when doing motion captures on a flatbed scanner. so i guess it relates more to my roots than where i am going. then again, on the narrative aspect to this dvd, if not intentional, i always find a revealing narrative in a painting at some point. i just gessoed over a large newly finished landscape that i felt was too negative & not something i wanted pursue or share. after all the landscape stuff i have been reading i may be getting either more symbolic or more aware of self referencing in my work.

studio update

2007-08-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

digital art:

finished creating webpages for the various digital experiments i have been making & have them linked here (see "links").

paintings:

still plugging away & when i get my digital camera back will capture & post as well. have been painting landscapes & trying on other people's styles. not sure how they will figure into the big picture yet.

may start using my yosemite photos as my painting subjects >>> have thousands to choose from. most are not of the landmarks one thinks of.

so far i am leaning toward going with some of the digital stuff mixed in with digital pics of my paintings. yet still want to try some more new combinations out first

while i have fulfilled this residency's goal of merging my paintings with my digital work, i am not content. at the same time to paint on a digital printout which is my next step seems pretty lame. in my mind i think of those thomas kincaid minions that add little highlights or details to his prints.

think i would have to do more than accent a digital image with paint & think i need to define in myself what the paint means conceptually when added to a digital image. sort of feels like a reclamation of sorts???

still have not given up on the lenticular.
may not do the transparency with backlight thingy mentioned before, but may do one that uses my tree images & then paint one to add to the mix. will start painting that same tree anyway so that i have the option should things work out.

readings: berger's seker ahmet and the forest

2007-08-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

ideas that engaged me: from reading berger’s book about looking
(republished article from new society)

seker ahmet and the forest, (pgs 86-93)

concept of a forest as:

“a thing taking place in itself”
“a being”
“a symbol for reality”
(a forest) lichtung/clearing “is the open for everything that is present and absent.”

heidegger’s “sense of thought as the coming-into-the-nearness of distance” as a reciprocal movement… the present, the now, i not a measurable unit of time, but the result of presence, of the existent actively presenting itself.”

“perceptibility is a kind of attentiveness”

how i can use this:

berger’s ideas tie into my other readings that perceive the “landscape as self.”
use in writing? i seem to be going that way...
apply to painting? think we all do anyway>>>is inevitable that our "filters" manifest in our work. filters = self

other:

this reading has a zen or eckhart tolle vibe to the being present/now concepts. not sure how conscious painters were back then of this ideology/mindset. although ahmet was from turkey and came to paris to learn painting does not mean his perceptions were asian>>>coulda been muslim or orthodox catholic. as i understand it there are no known writing from ahmet. not disagreeing with berger>>>just contemplating some of the numerous possible realities. like berger said "it is impossible for us to perceive a work in the context in which it was created." **our perceptions are colored by our "now."

** from berger's ways of seeing

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spencer tunick: moca, clevland (dvd)

2007-08-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

watched it.

like:
bodies as landscape, ocean or giant petri dish. reminded me of watching some of the suzy lacy documentation of instigating events & human exchange as an art form - the experience being the art. in viewing as a landscape, my thoughts went to a scene in the hal ashby film "harold & maude" in which they are in a garden/arboritum with daisies by the thousands. harold commented on how they were all the same & maude saw each as unique. the images of thousands of bodies in the tunick works played off this duality >>>> seeing the forest & the trees.

dislike or personal reservations:

came across as more of a fun thing to do rather that art >>> which is ok, just would have like to hear the thoughts, intent, perspective, thesis of tunick. just sorta disappointed/short changed from this rejected or evaded aspect to public or event based art.

seems that participant interviews prior to the event would have been enrichening >>> sharing anticipated expectations as a comparison against the real experience. also interviewing staff & the hardships. you can not have that many people & not have issues. planning, bathrooms, food, misconduct, how participants were solicited, liability/legal issue, permits>>>>> which would all could be a documentary in it's own right. could have easily secured some social science researchers to have made full use of this event. i feel a sense of loss that an opportunity to glean info was lost. maybe it wasn't & if so the dvd should have referenced additional documentation/resources associated with this work.

it would have been an opportunity to create a network of participants for future works as well. seems that for the public/community artist one must always be setting up future events & networking while in the throws of a current work. even permanent public works demand this for success. i struggle with this as it is hard to be a single parent/good mom, try to maintain a household, pay bills, earn money, go to school, & find time & discipline to create art & go out & hustle new project. what i have learned is if the works are not out there >>>>> then find a need & create one.

what did i learn or can use:

not sure. just finished watching & find i need to reflect for a while. off hand, the concept of the body as a landscape >>> have brought this up a few times in here. may be of use for referencing in a paper. him addressing it would have been nice. have followed his stuff in art publications, yet do not recall his words>>> just the controversy surrounding the public nudity issues.

liked looking at the bodies.think that is part of the attraction since it is/was a social taboo. for me it is also the artist when figure drawing mindset >> one "shifts" into mode when considering light, structure,ratios,relationships >>> it was a cornucopia! although it is safe to assume this project attracted a personality and maybe a body type (& therefore biased) the sheer numbers gave me a sense of what the average person's body looks like>>> the average (white) joe or jane. just wonder why it was sooooo "white." was it intentional or a cultural filter that attracted more caucasians & less of other races. they were there, yet did not reflect the demographics/%%% of the population. interviews concerning this would have been interesting.

art opening: yamamoto masao

2007-08-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

friday eve i attended an opening for artist yamamoto masao at the center for photographic art in carmel.

this center is not a commercial gallery, but rather a nonprofit .org that preserves the local photographic heritages of this area. weston(s), adams, lange, cunningham & others were all active here (some lived here full time). their exhibits are always high end, internationally know photographers (i saw a ulsmann show there).

masao: was not familiar with his work before. had seen his bw image of ocean/horizon/sky taken when overcast that was low contrast, flat sky, & details of repetitious waves that was appealing. sort had a meditative zen or rothko thing going.

the show:
was more of an installation than what one thinks of a typical photo exhibition. each exhibition wall was an environment. images were small. some smaller than postage stamps that were arranged asymmetrically and sparsely to give a sense of randomness. one ten foot wall had a single image the size of my thumb of a belly button. my companion was challenged by masao's sensibilities while i enjoyed them. there were two cases in which one contained a scroll of sorts>>> looked to be similarly arranged bw or tinted tiny images printed on a roll>>> destop in banner printing mode??? the other was printed the same way & style of images yet was folded accordion style. both honored the wholistic quality/ideology prevalent in asian scrolls. the floating photos reminded me of figures or trees floating in space on paper without the constructs of perspective common in western art. in asian art the space is not perceived as empty. all his images are random and include images like leaves/nature, household objects, figure. no portraits & all cropped tight to increase abstraction and fragmentation of the relationship between the images. his statement said not to find meaning that they were intended as an experience.

liked it. i am drawn to creating environments which is why i have worked large >>>> easier to get lost in. like the fragmented quality, had that "red wheelbarrow" (poem) trailing thought sensibility.

i perceived his installations as landscapes & as landscapes they relate to my other readings this semester.

reading update: more annual editions

2007-08-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

think i have finished with them :)

what i may use:

from the 02 social psych annual:

the nature of self, brown

updated spin off the william james empirical self. this explains ones concept of self through objects, locations...landscape.

isn't she lovely, lemley

deals with social attractiveness & the research presented deemed that beauty/handsomeness is being average. by compositing images of women (or men) they found that the more images composited >>> the more beautiful the image was >>> from poll results. this was tested in numerous countries/ethnicity/economic/education.

what i will do with it??? may use images for project i mention in a earlier blog entry. the 1/2 woman & man mosaic-ish over numerous massonite boards with each board having a landscape that departs from -but does not obsure the facial feature.

the other annuals had great info, just nothing i can use here.

studio update >>> paint into digital expeiments

2007-08-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

things i have been trying:

keep in mind that one of the goals for this semester's body of work is to find a way to merge my digital stuff with my traditional art.

the experiment:

i created a huge file in photoshop

dropped in some of the digital pics of my paintings of weeds & non organic abstract as individual layers

added 2 timeface* scan images & one composite off of those captures. although on individual layers i arrange them in a manner that would allow me to view paintings in adjustment layer modes at the same time (to save time & maintain consistency).

placed paintings in a range of modes over images & since often they worked well on different images i would copy the layer & place where desired for each image. i would turn off the eyeball (visibility of layer as i worked my way from the bottom layers up).

upon completion of this "first round" i have a monster file with about 18 image layers. this will be my raw data/root file for this experiment where i plan to create a handful of images. think the file size is around 200mb & will likely get in the 1.5 gig range as i get down the road further.

next step: pick one of the combos i like, work it, flatten & save out under a new file name. do this as many times as i find there is something of interest. will post to the links in the right column as i have for other stuff related to this.

* timescans = face captured on standard desktop scanner while in motion (varied) & at varied distances from scanner surface.
the results is a series of instantaneous portraits >>>>without brain filtration of info (more of a true reality). have tons of these from 8++yrs ago. do not suggest as it probably causes eye damage . i had convert to bw because they are grotesque in color & related better to need, yet may dig out the raw captures to see how they work for this project.

i chose to use these capture because they felt more "digital" than something taken with a camera. digital cameras mimic traditional cameras that mimic the human eye. this motion scan thing of mine was an effort to use the conceptual uniqueness of a computer & it's scanning input device.

more art viewing

2007-08-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

& watched more art dvds. i did not get to netfliks in time to modify queue & consequently i have watched lots of art dvds. most dealt with current art & less about history

modern masters: in the studio with george perez:

comics illustrator (justice league, wonder woman, witchblade++++++).

he is a living god of this genre.

what i learned: liked watching him draw (& erase a lot). very insightful into the daily life/issues of this profession. he takes time to explain his mindset & forethought/troubleshooting. great nuts & bolts.

loved the fact that the under-drawings/roughs are done with blue pencil (does not show in print), >>>give the rest of us more hope. from there it is pencil & then ink. talked about issues with dif artists 9example inkers who do not know how to interpret your thinking “with a pencil.” the inker ‘clarifies” the picture.

what i learned: have always had a huge respect for artists/illustrators of this genre. miyazaki &frazetta are gods to me. this dvd made them more tangible/real world.

as it relates to my project: maybe cut myself some slack & know that groundwork, preliminary studies pay off. that it is in the experiments that ideas are honed. other than that>>> nothing literal. i am attracted to close cropped dynamic compositions & perhaps my penchant comes from this genre???

matthew barney: no restraint:

“exploration of artist/filmmaker & his creative process”

interesting, yet not inspiring for me. i have followed his work for some time & am always curious about what he will do next. this was an opportunity to see more of his stuff.

the run up (2 disc):

“26 of today’s hot/current/important street, photo, paint artists”

so far this has been the best representative of new art. the stuff you will not see in art forum or art news or in any museum. well, you might/should. a lot of it is street art & non-mainstream stuff. some relates to specific ethic or economic/education groups. some of the artists i was familiar with others were new & welcome.

as this relates to me? a greater awareness of what is out there >>> what people are doing. give me something to think about (where do i fit in?), the new knowledge will give me reference on the work of others as it appears (future students, aib peers). i recommended this dvd to my aib group message board site.

certain doubts of william kentridge:

“a south african/brazilian multimedia artist”

i do not know where to begin…

he and his work are sooooo appealing on so many levels that it seems pointless to try & comment here. he is deeply personal & global in word & image. free from pretension & a rare ability to communicate huge thoughts & feelings effectively without getting preachy.

he said sooooo many things worth citing >>> there is no point. i was deeply touched by his work, so enough said.

he did made one comment about selecting a landscape location:

in order to be fresh & abandon the traditional mode of selection >>> pick the perfect spot & then turn 30 or 90 degrees to pick your spot. the lighting & subject will be very ordinary & more true to the place.

his def of traditional landscape selection:

interesting foreground, great trees with access to distant mountains & great clouds & uncluttered (5 object rule???)

pulp fiction art:

“a guilty pleasure of the 20^th century”

this dvd was basically an overview history of the genre. had some interviews with artists from the early days (depression era/between ww 1&2). i was more familiar with the sci fi/fantasy artists before. some good stories ,reflections.

i did not realize so much original work/paintings had been trashed by the publishers. the estimate is that “ 10% of 1% of all work created. not sure why it was stated that way… lots of interesting work & painterly skills. many of the illustrators ended up in the pinup genre because it brought fame & $$. saw some of the scratchboard stuff was awesome.

robert anderson is one current artist that references this genre. an example painting depicted during his interview was a large painting the was a montage of characters from numerous covers from the 1930-50’s. he stated that they were fun to do & fun for the viewer. that the viewer recognizes the reference & embraces the exploration & homage of this genre.

as this relates to me: think the compositions of this genre influenced everyone of my generation >>> tis inevitable. think they influence commercial photography, photojournalism, & graphic design as well. the dynamic movement ,simplicity, and use of space that evolved from the need to compete on the shelf for the consumer’s dollar in hard times was based on trial & error. the formula still works.

this project: not sure if it relates other than being conscious of artistic influences. a good thing when it comes to yapping about it later.

reading update: social psych (annual additons)

2007-08-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

found stuff of interest >>> but not project related in the 5-7 topics in the 7th edition/2007 i read.

social psych 5th edition/02:
will use the re-visitation/new research on the empirical self theory( william james) since it explains how people, objects & locations are part of ones identity. can spin that in with the landscape stuff i have been reading. (nature of the self, brown, pg 9-16)

3d software landscape generator (bryce 5.5)

2007-08-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

have been re-acquainting myself with the bryce software. it is rendering a lot quicker since bryce 3 & 4. took only 8 hrs to do what use to take 3 days.
in a 3d landscape generator one can play god =
create worlds, skies, atmospheres, clouds,
moons, water, plants et al...

i'm am looking to create one to composite with other digital images.

theme i have been playing with:

figure & landscape >>>work'n it both ways.

generating landscapes use bw alpha channels created in photoshop & imported into bryce = they become part of the underlying structure (like rolling hills or mountains). visualize a blanket over a figure on their side - that is what my last render gave the feeling of.

the other thing i will try next is to project landscape on a body in 3d or as an adj layer in photoshop.

also working on/sketching out an idea of a face (straight on view) composite that is 1/2 man & woman with each gender section an alternation between age & ethnicity(sort as verticle stripes). at the moment i am working with 4x4 (16) hardboard panels. this digital face is to be underlying as each panel will also be a gestural landscape that retains the feature identities (for the most part)

will post the renderings in the next few days

----

emily carr

2007-08-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

got 2 books on her art from the library (friends of the library sales rack) for a $1 each. it was divine providence!!! i had been looking for loose & energetic inspiration. in reading them it said she felt nature, paint/art & religion were one. stuff i liked by her was done 1932-35. been wanting to get back to vancouver/victoria as well >>>has been too many years. now i want to even more so.

her work (to me) references edvard munch (sun/beach mural at the university of oslo) as well as some of o'keeffe's stuff. date wise she was around the same time as o'keeffe. her trees preceeded o'keeffe by 15-20 yrs. carr's totems late in life remind me of some of o'keefe's still lifes (alligator pears,cabbage, etc)

actually got some good ideas on how to tackle a few things i have been working on :)

lenticular update

2007-08-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

not getting much response so far.
have sent a few more emails out to new locations.

may research using some sort of light fixtures & transparencies as a plan b or c.

----------

quotes from my readings

2007-08-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

o'keeffe:

"i used to think that somebody could teach me to paint a landscape. i hunted and hunted for that person and finally found that i had to do it myself"

(found in georgia o'keeffe museum collections book)
-----

inness:

"the greatness in art is not in the display of knowledge, or in material accuracy, but in the distinctness with which it conveys the impressions of a personal vital force, that acts spontaneously, without fear or hesitation"

"...no man's motive can be absolutely pure and simple. his environment affects him.
the true artistic impulse is divine. the reality of every artistic vision lies in the thought animating the artists mind. this is something which comes home to him as a satisfaction-fails to make a representation corresponding in the satisfaction felt in his first perception."

(found in book a sense of place: the artist and the american landscape)

-----

related quote from poem:

"the landscape imagines me"

spanish poet jorge guillén

-----

it is in vain to dream of a wildness
distance from ourselves. there is none such.
it is the bog in our brains and bowels,the
primitive vigor of nature in us, that inspires
that dream. i shall never find in the wilds of
labrador any greater wildness than in some recess
of concord,i.e. than i import into it.

thoreau

this poem is cited in landscape and memory (simon schama). schama cites it prior to his introduction and represents it as his closing text. this book is prety much a personal journey/reflection that is systematically identified to specific landscape paintings. in relation to "my thing" with landscape/art, this book contributes little. i had hoped for more of conceptual/theoretical perspective toward landscape painting >>> sorta psychoanalysis of landscape painters in relation to the period in which they painted. what past influences & changes had taken place & how was this manifested in the work. was the dif in brushstrokes a reaction or rejection to something/someone or embracing a new truth? barbzon & swedenborgian had a huge impact on landscape painting over the past 150 years, yet seemed neglected here. it is more about the author& history/details & less about the genre & it's mindset. which is perfectly ok, just not what i was looking for. will continue to search & hope i find books that goes beyond western european art to include a more global & multicultural perspective. + the evolution of, relationship to, & identification with the landscape.

guess there is some new simon schama art dvd it is called: simon schama's power of art
guess he is the ken burn's of british history & art??? i must say that i get edgy when one's name is part of the title. when it is picked up by netfliks i will rent it.

--------

my take on this stuff:

all of this reflects the great zen-ish quote from a cheesy sci fi movie :

"wherever you go, there you are."

buckaroo banzai

meaning:

we are the sum total of our life experience. this is what we bring to the table in the here & now, yet, what ever is past > is past, you are not there anymore >>>so leave it & be present.

i'm not zen or whatever, yet this seems simple/wise

how we perceive an event is a combo of physical state as well interpretive choice. we filter everything >> conscious or un (in a symbolic interactionism fashion). knowing that we filter allows us to reassess and actively choose the results.

so according to the above quotes: the landscape/wildness portrayal is us/me /you.

no problems there...

----

no more dvds!!!!!!!!!

2007-08-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

after reflecting on a comment by aib peer last night i decided to ck out peer blogs. what i learned:
1) i am wordy (i process on paper & have always enjoyed writing)
2) that my wordiness/blog activity does not mean i am accomplishing more >>> just documenting my thoughts on program related activities. maybe helpful to me down the road, yet not an obvious gain on the current project. time will tell.
3) others have some pretty cool ideas going & some have only posted a few times. no surprises there...
4) that i need to write less & post images more. keep it simple
5) that there are a lot of photographers in this group.
-----

i watched "the great artists - disc 1 (of 5)

it was on giotto & davinci.

new to me: stated that leonardo barley competed 20 works of art in his lifetime. so i am guessing the rest were drawings/studies? i find that hard to believe. they did not qualify it with def or criteria.

decided to NOT ck out anymore dvds from netfliks/blockbuster UNLESS it is an unknow artist (to me). so far it has been review >>> which oporates under the assumption that it had been years since i have had any exposure to academically studying art history. this is far from the case >>>> so i will put my energies where they are needed most for the remainder of the semester. may watch one IF it pertains specifically to my work or my writings.

do not mind/dislike watching, just aint new to me.

borders:

went to the bookstore to llok at books & art magasines. had seen all the art ones before. tried to find books recommended by aib group peer to no avail (vitamin d, p).

shifting: think i will stop looking at the past >>> i'm good, & will focus on pop culture, current art, the "now" & fig where i fit into it >>> or where it dates me.

something like that?

sick of paint & digital at the moment. think i will spend a few hours playing with clay or wax to clear my head & have some fun. that or some cheesy/humorous cartoons/illustrations. need to laugh & it is amazing how play at this stuff is theraputic. newest has been using kincade images as my starting point. they are only seen by offspring or art collaborative buddies & are never sold >>> no legal issues >>> just good clean (abiet aggressive/disrespectful fun)

cheaper than therapy :)

got audio book from the library to listen to while creating art:

"the sweet potato queen's 1st big-ass novel" - jill conner browne. know nothing about it or the author, yet the heart-warming title was too good to pass up. i am weary from reading/watching/hearing/& trying to think great/cleaver/pointed thoughts. this week is lighten up & just "flow." i can jump back into academia grindstone later in the week.

met with aib comrade

2007-08-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

fellow aib group one classmate, jan, came down to stay 2 days & attend an encaustic workshop nearby. we did dinner & went to numerous local galleries. it was helpful to share reflection on the first residency, talk about our current projects, readings & agendas for janunary residency. first residency was a whirlwind experience & taking time now with someone else that was in the same boat to discuss it was enlightening. while some of the discussion dealt with the social dynamics/events/exchanges, sharing critique feedback,learning/insights/epiphanies & comparing assessments on personal experiences with instructors helped us both.

in talking with her i get the feeling that i have bitten off far more than is tangible for one semester > i am trying to reinvent the wheel when i should just be focusing on recreating a spoke (break it down into smaller steps & digging deeper).

art dvds>>> ron english & henri cartier bresson

2007-08-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

watched:

POPaganda: The Art & Crimes of Ron English

have seen before & still love it.
he makes me laugh & causes me to think.
will most likely watch again in the future.

as it applies to me & this program???

>>>>insight into what makes me tick/tickles my brain :)

---

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye

have seen this before as well. i found i paid more attention to his drawings this time. think his mastery of drawing & art exposure was a huge influence on his photos.
like his view of photography as a means of taking in life. that the photographer has nothing to do in the creation & is a fortunate observer. i have always felt this when taking pictures >>> lucky to be there in that moment. taking the picture (regardless of success) takes me back to the moment. i am storing my "happy thoughts." sometimes i am just documenting light,shadow, color or shape relationships (reference material)for paintings or digital manipulation later. i do more of this when i have a set project/agenda.

relationship to me/this program???
not sure.
what if i were to limit this series to b&w??? try to retain the aesthetics of b&w photography in a digital-paint-photo composition(s)??? things to ponder while experimenting in the studio & during related reading.

what historical reference would carry over to my image using b&w & is this something i would actively choose?

art dvds:the rembrandt collection

2007-08-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

2 disc & 4 episodes. one> overeview of him/his work, two>restoration of night watch, three>his brushwork/painting, four> culture/history at the time.

series focused more on technology & processes used to uncover info. archeology of site & testing painting for authenticity.

what was new to me:

some of the tech stuff
reconstruct/repair paintings
test/determine authenticity of work

what i like most & may relate to my work:

how he made his paint > better yet, modified as he went according to need
how he would vary the ground on his pigments according to how he was going to use it. some factors were:
foreground/background
texture of object or skin
relationship to focus/subject hierarchy

it was not so straight forward as one envisions. when they tried to recreate what was done they were hard pressed to succeed. what recipes are from the day fall short & rembrandt was unusually experimental in trying to create new effects in painting with modified materials. i did not know this. most of his painting that i have seen were not that textural. yet what i saw on this documentary showed a huge amount of range. additionally he worked with how the light of the room worked with the textures & pushed the effect to enhance specific qualities in the image. for example the lace on a cuff, or the brim of a hat. up close some of it was real buttery, some transparent glazes & some course/sand like. they said a recent chemical test showed that he added stuff like egg & gum which was not a practice of oil painting at that time.

how will i use this?

more art ed/history than studio. however, it did get me thinking about texture & getting back into mixing stuff into the acrylic. just sorta burned out on it many years back. how can it be fresh to me? what can i do differently to engage me & add to my project?

readings >>> berger, about looking book & turner

2007-08-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

sort of interesting speculation in the berger/about looking book:

turner:
in the chapter (pg 149) on turner it stated that his father was a barber & that it is speculated that his innovative painting techniques with the palette knife & brush work may have stemmed from his experience with straightedge razor & shaving brush/soap foam. made sense to me. i have one of those brushes around somewhere that i picked up years ago to experiment with & never got to.

reading related more to art history knowledge than to my work. however, as a result of this reading i think the question to contemplate is:
what from my past/life experience (mechanically) have i incorporated into my work?
&
if not, is there any skill that could be use?

rauchenberg: men at work (dvd)

2007-08-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

had seen this before, yet got more out of it this time.
wish i could have seen his retrospective exhibit at the gugginheim. to see his "1/4 mile " mix media work in person seems essential since 3d stuff never translates on tv.

now that i have been doing graphic design & digital stuff with photos for robert motherwell's first wife maria (at 91, she is writing a book about her memories of the ny school 1949-50's), it was fun to see the photo of the abstract expressionists. they only named dekooning & pollock, yet the picture of 10-12 people included many of those in the images i have been working with & recognized.

as for gleaning anything to apply to this mfa project? rauchenberg is incredibly intimidating & the thought of trying to find territory untouched by him is daunting. he is brilliant and prolific on so many levels i would not know where to start. could spin off of his, yet think i have different questions to ask/answer.

as for process, i did find his solution to improving his ability to use color interesting: he would pick the color he struggled with the most & start with it/make it central to the work. & after numerous works (when he felt mastery of it) he would move to the next color on the list. i have always done that with subject or medium, or process > yet never thought to do it with color. i feel fairly sound on all colors, yet maybe i should put this to the test????

need to digest this more. for the moment >>> open a beer, turn on tube & hope i will feel less disheartened tomorrow.

lenticular research

2007-08-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

researched the lenticular stuff >$$$$$ big bucks to do.
$$ for image & $$$ for plastic sheets.
have emailed a few mfg's with questions.:
like: can image be printed on transparency or reflective/foil stock?
more questions than answers at the moment. think i will try to visit one or two. there is a place in the sf bay area & one in lake elsinore (san bernardino or escondito??)

did see one done with glass block that worked well. do not know if they still make the blocks/bricks & do not think it a good choice for shipping to boston. i suffered severe damage to work coming back from last residency. the weight of shipping glass block could be cost prohibitive as well. the work i saw was 3ft high x 5ft wide (ish), which translated to approximately 15 glass blocks/bricks???

this stuff won't fit in my suitcase & would not be conducive to paint application on the bricks. paint may work on the image.

think i will focus on image creation & take the lenticular stuff in stride.

danto

2007-08-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

my used danto books came!!!

the hardback unnatural wonders (2005) looks brand new :)
have talked about this book in past postings >so i will spare all of us now.

the abuse of beauty (2003) is a small paperback (a novel quality amongst this genre>very wordy). it has some underlining in it-which is ok since it catches my attention.

like danto's transfiguration of the commonplace, this book seems to be addressing issues of the definition of art, conceptual content, & beauty as an option in art. we shall see...

sand city open studio tour

2007-08-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

have gone for the past 4 years. there were a few more studios. nothing took my breath away. there were 20 studios & a bunch of bootleggers in some of the commercial buildings or with tents in the street. some nice studio layouts/spaces $$$. every time i go to one of these things i want to stop painting. see all the work makes it pointless on some level.

going to the san fransciso open studio thingy in october is always somber & sobering. i go about every 3 yrs now. on hunter's point weekend i go & see 300++studios > most at one location. it is an overload & gives one a sense of fruitlessness. you know only 5-6 of all of them are making a living solely by their art. most teach or have other profession & are duel income households (+ maybe a few silver spoon sorts). after attending each time i have this feeling that this is not "the way." not that i wouldn't love a tenured job, just that if one was truly out to get famous they would need to go about some other way. for me creation/process is its own reward <> to no avail.
to find something fresh & new (either in process or imagery).
so far, the only "fresh" surprise was a sound installation on spectacle island in boston.

may have to look to alt processes/mediums to get my fix.

did not get any contributory ideas for my mfa stuff. maybe it will come later. maybe this is part of that "asking the right questions" >>>having a set of questions to filter images through may shift the experience. i tend to look at aesthetics, skill, concept, originality, & presentation. i usually ponder options to resolve the unresolved. maybe i should be asking different questions. maybe looking at all the studios as a whole & find a unifying element/pattern . more of a social rather than artist statement. what is the here/now element + what are elements drug up from a past (style/ideology/social reaction) that was never experienced/developed first hand in reaction to something or environment at that time? how has this all changed over the last four open studios? <<< danto readings are manifesting...

maybe next year i will create a question sheet to interview or hand out to the artist participating. should do that for the sf studio tour too. let them define it rather than lean on my projections.

art book from library: l'autre

2007-08-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

l'autre
luc delahaye (magnum photos)
jean baudrillard (text)
phaidon press

"stolen" images/portraits taken on the metro in '95 & '97. stolen because they were taken without permission/artist release/subject unaware(??? some look posed).

liked it.
all bw (print size 8-ish x 6.75-ish)
all are "heads/necks" & most shot on the 3/4 (in either directions) & no smiles.
thing about shooting on the metro is consistent lighting/space + diverse cross section of populous.

book would be a source reference for diversity in facial structure. such a huge range of eyes/noses/mouths/wrinkles/sag/ethnicity to choose from. would be a good construction exercise for students to mix & match features on a composition or two > get them thinking/seeing features/relationships of objects & meanings more analytically.

hey!!! i could steal his stolen images to manipulate in the same manner that i did my shard & veil images in (mixed with patterns & digital paintings/adj layers). the eyeballs at the top is a section of shard (pic of my son). given the premise of this book/images i would not even have to ask for permission to use his pics. given the level of manipulation at my end it would most likely exceed the % change requirement to be legally "new/royalty & liability free."

more art dvds: basquiat & keep adding

2007-08-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

watched:

wrekage

chronicles 5yrs of installation work by new mexico artist collective keep adding. the theme for the installation was damage & devastation through art. they used adobe structures, spray paint murals, light boxes & richard devine music.

there was one mural where a layer process with masking tape was used. i did a lot of this in the late '80s > early '90s. saw the technique again a few days ago at a open studio tour. natural cycles i guess. kinda like women's shoes & handbags.

brought to mind one of my mfa project ideas. these guys are spin offs of the original school of this genre. not an insult > just historical reference. like most schools they spin off & then break into some new hybrid.

no new ideas/inspirations for my project through view this

downtown 81

about the new york downtown art/music scene in 1980-81. sort of a punk/graffiti thing with kid creole, blondie & basquiat

it was lame. i would not recommend it or watch it again. it tried to avantgarde & failed. did not show much of his work or him working & offered no enlightenment on his art. wonder if this was"profound" at the time it was made/released. said the music was punk > but it was more latent new wave (post new wave???). punk was pretty much over by '78.

i got nutt'n from this.

pseudo marxist mysticism

2007-08-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

finally spent time trying to looking this term up in relation to art > with little/no success.

term was in danto book i read last month.

most of the results were either related to poetry or did not have it as a single term (pseudo marxist & mysticism). from what i did find it seems pseudo marxists are marxists that have modified ideology to embrace christianity. how this applies to art is a mystery.

try visualizing what art from this perspective would look like!!!

attempt to answer question posed at aib critiques

2007-08-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

critique question #01 from aib june 07 residency

what kind of painter to you want to be?

not sure i am defined as one > just one of the things i like to do

paint skills i admire/aspire to:

not be a "one trick pony"

want to be the “real mcCoy:” have total control/mastery so that i can do with 3 brushstrokes that would once take 10 brushstrokes

painters with brush skills i admire:

living painters:

my current fav is jerome witkin. he has a really diverse brushstroke repertoire that contributes to his dynamic paintings.he manages to keep styles distinct on the canvas > almost as each style was it's own object in a mix media assemblage. he combines the whole history of brushwork on one canvas. i like alan magee & lipking's brushwork too. lipking has an elegant barbison quality to his brushwork while magee's is breath-takenly tight.

dead guys:

depends on aspect of painting/brushstrokes we are talking about. picasso, inness, turner, rembrandt, cezanne, odilon redon, & alma-tadema, franz kline, sam harris (to name a few) were all miraculous/strategic/efficient/dynamic with a brush.

conceptual:

do not want to be a gallery hack > someone that paints replications of same image again & again with little variation > just cuz it pays. makes me think of that bill murray movie “groundhog’s day” not wanting to get locked into creating a pretty picture for the average home.

like edgy > yet not as marketable for home use. yet, one must pay the bills. glad i do not have to consider this in regard to this residency.

do like big/site specific stuff. plan to continue, yet need to do small stuff as well to demonstrate skills for potential gigs & be better teacher - able to meet students needs/skills. i have taken too many classes from too many "one trick ponies" that could not answer questions or teach desired skills. some tend to lock into one aspect or style & are incompetent at all the others. while i may never master all > i hope to be able to bring enough skills/knowledge to the table to be of service when i go back to the classroom.

critique question #02 from aib june 07 residency

(from) where do my interests emerge?

from process > the "what if..."

i will work on intuitive play & research driven images at the same time. think having both going at once keeps things fresh. i am curious & have interests all over the place. i have been told that i bring this to my work & that this adds a welcome complexity.

will come back to this question > not content with my response

critique question #03 from aib june 07 residency

what ultimately is your medium?

my brain???

the message dictates medium/scale.

some things are best said with photo & likewise a large abstract might be better suited for less tangible/internal/emotional expressions.sometimes poetry/words, sound, motion, scents (combination of) are the best vehicles to define/share/express "it."

choosing a medium references it’s historic legacy. i choose actively

if art is a visual/iconic language then one needs to consider ambiguities as well as audience literacy >>>> to a point & if the artist actually wants to connect with viewers. i do.

some believe art is to be a pure expression of ego & therefore should disregard the viewer. think it is in my nature/work to do a bit of both. from a social psychology view it is impossible for me/anyone to create something & not be in the mix. since bias is inevitable one does not need to worry about adding/honing it.

guess that makes me a mix media artist > still. have identified myself in the past as such for lack of a better label. it is hard for me to define art by medium since it all takes place in one's mind. it seem archaic that we have not evolved past this need for little boxes. just because monet & a few chums deemed the public too stupid & therefore deducing that artists must create an artistic identity (like a corporate/product identity) we are damned by what did not exist prior to this banker's appropriation of thought from the industrial revolution & the birth of product advertising/print marketing in their day.monet was the first to restrict an exhibit to a single series of 15 images(poplars) & inspired thematic series painting (flowers,water, paths, atmosphere) as metaphors of life. these are not bad ideas - think they were a great contribution, yet do not think it should be written in stone as the only way to work. hope we have evolved past such limitations. i wonder what great works never came into being because of this imposed mindset. what exploration or innovative offerings/tangents were not acted upon or shared? a price has been paid for this & i feel sadden for our loss.

critique question #04 from aib june 07 residency

do i have a core set of issues?

why is this soooo hard to answer?

do not know how to consider this question in reference to my art.

the only time i have seen this question in the past is in regard to therapy text. what, so now i need therapy to figure out what my art means or why i have always done it?

hmmmmm maybe i should look into recreational hypnosis > find my dark truth or least a few past lives so i can create a series based on the results. it maybe fiction - but it's MY fiction :) this actually sounds fun & fruitful. a self indulgent fantasy vacation without leaving home.

do not know how to go about finding the answer to this question > so i work on the others first & hope for an epiphany down the road.

critique question #05 from aib june 07 residency

what is my question?

not sure how to take this.

do i have to have one?

off the cuff i would say i am process driven & therefore my question would be “what if i took __ + __ + __ and tried to apply/portray/process it in _______ fashion?”

if this is a conceptual/interpretation question > do not know. have had different focus/themes/issues to work out/express over the last 40+ years of studio work & think i am done with most of key ones people think of (feminist,identity,reflective,ethnicity,religion ,sexuality, politics, wanna be/have/create x). the last 10 years have been more public/community/us driven > me as a cog among many.

one aib instructor critique observation stated that my public installation work has brought a "generosity" to my personal work that is inclusive and appealing. i like that. think that is incredibly awesome & maybe the highest complement i have ever received. so, if i lock on to this then what would "my question" be & how can i take this quality further?

maybe my question should be "how can i better seduce & manipulate the viewer?"

>>>what attributes of my work achieves this & how can i distill this to heighten this seduction?

"abstract thoughts for abstract paintings (i mean mix-media)"

list of my artistic parameters

2007-08-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

list of current rules/artistic parameters

i am looking to explore breaking 2 of them as suggested exercise during june 07 aib residency critique

color

think i am open to all/not locked into a set palette

(other than having a strong grasp of color theory & using it)

brushstroke

not sure i have any rules here.

i use both oil & watercolor techniques in acrylic

when working in acrylic i do tend to avoid heavy paint application as it hamper editing/reworking later. working thin/glazing allows for more control. studies for larger painting would be the exception. in general i do not do studies for large paintings. painting heavily in acrylic would be breaking one of my “rules.” think if i were going to go this route i would just switch to oil

rarely use palette knife. forcing myself back into this practice would breach a current parameter

almost exclusively work in acrylic, so i could go back to transparent watercolor, ink, or oil.

in the past i have explored mixing acrylic medium with organic stuff> dirt, clay, sand burnt bone, ash,& the like. i have explored painting on metal with a range of patinas/stains (grew up in a foundry), & have explored photo paints & bleaching /repainting photos with developers , blue,sepia, selenium & other darkroom /traditional photography chemicals/enhancers. in more a mix media genre i have combined organic & artificial objects on board with wax, tar,oil paint + a propane torch for fun.

could use extenders with acrylic.

could learn/play with “other” paints like:

encaustic
opaque watercolor
egg tempera
take a japanese/chinese bush painting class (had training many years ago)

in all honesty i do not think more playing with new mediums would serve me now. in writing "this" it would appear that i have a reasonable range of experience with numerous mediums/processes. maybe it is time to bite the bullet & stick to tight parameters in mediums as well as in other artistic constructs?

size

no rules. i paint miniatures as well as murals.

however, if given a choice i would paint somewhere above 2ft & below 6ft for any dimension. that size is big enough to get lost in & small enough to live with while working/tripping over. not that bad for storage after either (if not on stretched canvas).

think image/statement made dictates the size of a painting.

surface

i am constantly exploring this one. have learned a lot doing this since a textured surface brings a “look” to a painting. texture is a blessing & a curse as too much of a good thing can get tedious.

upside to texture:

great way to break up/add detail to a large surface (glazing makes texture pop). uniform texture automatically creates consistency in image.

downside: can get tedious in a hurry & take tons of paint to eliminate in strategic areas.

materials i have painted on:

3d objects
glass
plexiglass
mirror
metals (reflective, rusty)
range of papers
canvas,linen
silk
monk cloth
other fabrics
masonite/hardboard (sanded & gessoed)
pre-primed door blanks
organic (leaves,grass) stuff adhered to masonite (sometimes sanded after)
wood
stucco
concrete
brick
stone
skin
rocks
photos

??? think covers most

have not done: painting on velvet. although i have vague recollections of a oil paint by numbers on velvet as a kid. think it was flocked cardboard.

composition

i do have a tight parameters here.

common qualities in my work:

· tend to crop very tight,

· stuff goes off page

· fond of diagonals (upper left > lower rt) & “s” visual movement

· well defined light source

· like to push perspective when possible

· well defined fore/middle/background

· well defined values (except in tonalist work (genre's penchant is for low contrast in addition to limited palette)

· when patterns are used > are always broken/modified (hate stuff that does not deviate/is monotonous)

· do not center or float objects/subject

to break my rules:

not sure i can. need to ponder more…

could: try for non dynamic composition (horizon line in center, object centered, less contrast, less movement. (sounds painful)

however, one of my unfinished paintings is an experiment in painting as meditation. it is a 5ft wide x 1.5 ft high gessoed masonite board that is a landscape/composite of multiple locations/experiences of mine. i am trying to recreate the experience of sitting next to a river for hours. lived on one & did this a lot. this means there is not one subject, but rather numerous “jewels” to ponder/dwell upon. it is an effort to suggest wholeness as in the mindset of a japanese scroll. a little guy/tree/rock floating in space is only a western perspective as space is never empty. do not want to use this theme for my aib residency as the meditative quality of this painting style/experience is in direct opposition to an academic venue. do not want to share this now> just for me at this moment.

subjects

have done in recent history:

patterns (objective & none objective)
plants/trees
landscape
portrait
figure
nonobjective abstract
narrative/illustrative

for fun/non-serious art>>> i do cheesy/humorous/creepy stuff for email to friends/family (like the happy face cookie) other images in this realm tend to involve peeps, aliens, puppets & animals. can be comic strips, illustrations, or really bad photoshop montages using internet appropriated images. i have developed a penchant for poorly constructed digital/internet photo/image montages. themes tend to follow news/current personal events or artistic discoveries

not done recent:

oldschool:

· animals

· still life

· architecture

· self portraits

· traditional fig/portrait

· narrative/storytelling

by old school i mean the traditional stuff you would see in a student exibition, art league, or community venue. this is not a criticism.

process

work mainly in:

acrylic applied:

· airbrush

· underpaint

· direct paint

· glaze

· using resist/masking

· mix media

· removed (water,alcohol, scotchbright,sanding, scumble, scratching/scraping

digitally:

· with or without digital photo as departure

· scanned object as departure

· compositing/adjustment layers

· not fond of filters

· do not use tools that seek to copy traditional materials (oil paint, pastels, etc)

· tend to favor complexity > not obvious how i did what i did. use a huge number of processes delicately. when using photos/captured images i find i need to deconstruct & reconstruct them. this requires numerous layers to isolate/preserve qualities to rebuild with later. takes a while > yet do not know how to get there otherwise. it is all intuitive play as i never have a plan when i start > just jump in & start tweaking.

· all photos/captures are mine/i took. same goes for textures/adj layers >make/scan my own

to break rules:

need to ponder more as well. off hand would be to use tools without modification > point & click.

2 rules to break???

thinking at this point it would be to:

play in oil or ink/brush painting

and

go back to subjects not done in years > like still life or conventional figurative, portrait, animal

how would digital factor in here?

go back to:

3d software

animation

motion scans/captures?

thesis & process musings for aib jan 08 mfa residency

2007-08-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

list of topics/ideas for this semester’s thesis: my current thoughts

take paintings to digital, change & print or vice versa.
why:
to unify my work. at aib 6/07 residency i had a range of stuff. i have an extremely broad range/toolbox & for this program need to commit to one or to a combination – mix media thing. sort of a “tossed salad vs little boxes with lids” issue.
downside:
i am really struggling with integrating my work & not sure why it is soooooo hard for me to breach this. guess i do not really understand why i have needed them to be separate.

may not work. maybe it shouldn’t work. maybe my aversion/struggle is deeply felt intuition/good judgement???
new plan/amendment:
think now this needs more steps/processes to not be contrived/boring/static. needs to get muddier
2)

digital graffiti (buy/use fonts+++) elements as abstraction tool (manipulation/adj layers) in disjointed non graffiti fashion <>
why:
way to make idea #1 muddier & appropriate artistic elements from “our times/now-ish”. like stylized elements/shapes. weaving/entwining concept reminds me of viking/celtic stuff a little.
downside:
i am a white, educated middle aged single mom. graffiti is (to me) a chicano thing. although i am poor & grew up in numerous schools (12+) in the los angeles area/minority environments & have a mixed heritage, i think i would be branded as a soccer mom. picasso is held in contempt for stealing african art elements & van gogh for directly coping japanese prints. no matter what i truly “am” i will be seen as a white, blue eyed, blonde, western european & nothing more.
plan:
jump in & find out. think it would depend on how far i am able to take ‘it.”

since departure points/concepts rarely end at the obvious i feel this could work/be fruitful.

reflective + transparent digital lenticular type print + lenticular lenses sheet + paint???
why:
sounds like fun. my envisioned outcome is very cool > IF it can be pulled off. if it makes me happy > others can possibly derive pleasure from it as well (extra bonus). after all "to be deeply personal is to be truly global." this is the kinda of project that i do "for me" with no other agenda for justification. this is one reason not to do this now. not sure what the logical step after would be/where it would take me next (& if i want to go there).

good & muddy :) taking all to a new place. sounds like a fun (& expensive) ride. do not think i will get what i envision > yet think i will learn + have hit virgin terrain in process concepts ( one of the main reasons i do art – to explore the “what if…”).
downside:
lenticular can be cheesey. been around a long time & may come with social/artistic stigmas (like velvet painting).

big downside is cost of plastic lenticular sheets ($$$).

creating the alternating image is conceptually straight forward, yet i know from past projects that there is no such thing as “straight forward” in the digital realm.

transparency & printing inks could be an issue. not sure if this will matter as the clear element of the image will represent the background/highlights/white of the paper in printing. if the mirror/reflective background does not increase light the whole image could be dark/flat. a solution would be distance between the reflective layer & the digital transparency & if need be a light source?

time & $!!! lots of unknowns. do not know where to get the transparency printed. may have to make image a dot matrix/newsprint moray so that light can pass/preserve transparency.

structure might have to have a lightbox structure of sorts. internal back/side light or use transparent material (clear acrylic) with grooves/slots to control position/behavior of layered elements. can of worms??? can i do 5-7 of these? would like them big-ish ($$$) <>

---------------------------

list of stuff done in more recent past that i am reassessing for current project. is there something underlying all of this that i have been trying to get to/express/explore???

icons/identity

collective/us

landscape (state of mind/spirit, place i’d like to be, meditation)

yosemite

trees

faces

self (isn’t it all…)

political/social

before/after

‘through” something or other (veiled, witheld, cloaked, hidden)

macabre/dark visual aspect to some images

humor (albeit odd)
-----
new or unanswered questions:

what else could i combine with the digital/paint composites?

(in regards to my struggle with concept/idea #1)

1) adhere objects (not appealing at the moment)

2) adhere dig/paint to objects (print & paste or encase in object)

????????????

need answers/ideas

hope that playing/experimenting will present some

vermeer

2007-08-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

the dutch masters: vermeer

watched this rental dvd (netfliks)

learned:

work was influenced by italian paintings >like his father he was a art dealer that specialized in italian paintings - yet had never been there.

he was born shortly after the netherlands got their freedom from spain
(my dutch history sucks < did not know spain ever occupied holland)

it was 200 years after his death before his work was recognized
(credit pretty much goes to one guy who started to passionately collect, research, & write about vermeer)

there are only about 2 doz of his works acknowledged ( yet said elsewhere in dvd that there are 30 in existence < does mean some are undocumented/verified???)

bouriaud > relational aesthetics

2007-08-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

relational aesthetics - nicolas bouriaud

this book came in the mail today (amazon).

i read the forward & think/hope this book will help me grasp/write about current views in art today (as they apply to me).

new library books:

the madonna of the future - danto

plan to pick out a few essays to read. too much other (required) reading to manage!!!

red grooms - red grooms & others

ck'd it out as part of my effort toward art academia enlightenment

books

2007-08-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

got tired of borrowing the danto books from the library > so i found them used on amazon & ordered. i found danto's unnatural wonders: essays from the gap between art and life hardcover for $2.65!!! + shipping of course. just had a feeling i would need to reference it off & on during the next 2 yrs of this mfa program. the book cost less than my library fines :)

watched art documentaries on dvd

2007-08-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

from netfliks:

the great artists: the dutch masters: bosch (as in hieronymus)

new stuff learned through viewing:
1) that he is considered the first of the dutch masters
2) he took his name from his city (not his birth/christian name)
3) the "stone of folly" removal practice (trepanning & digging around in people's skulls)
4) symbol meanings> owl=heresy (religious) & vase=female promiscuity (think bosch had more than a few "issues"<> they know very little about the guy

still intrigued by his work & still creeped out. think he had scary secrets (if only in his mind) that were feed through the creation of his dark images. as much as i delve in macabre imagery (is equaled by upbeat stuff), the thought of dwelling on his compositions in the medium & process is tedius & unhealthy .too much creepiness for too long. one can not go there for that length of time & not be harmed. which is why i think he had an unhealthy titillation/penchant to it. in photoshop one can explore & create sinister images in hours > for him months--if not longer > can not be healthy.

then again, had he been born in a dif era could have been a stephen king, h r giger, or kubrick???

think referencing what was going on historically/politically/economical/culturally would give one a better perspective

ernst ludwig kirchner

was fun to watch this german production.
was familiar with him > but not as a focus - always peripheral/through his association with other artists. have a book on him > this had a lot more of his images.

not sure how either of these dvds relate to what i am doing in this program > just more art history info (good for teaching)

phone+ book + art stuff

2007-08-02T08:30:00.001-07:00

phone:
spoke with academic advisor (deborah davidson) & all is well > i am on task

next:
she will make phone contact with my mentor (glenn hirsch)

he will receive a contract to sign/return to aib

set up to meet with mentor or phone prior to review of new work

next paper due end of sept07 . need to pick topic to apply research toward (as relates to my work)
---------
books:
unnatural wonders - danto:
read his "after the end of art" & need time to digest as i am not sure where i fit within this mindset.
georgia o'keeffe museum collections:
got this book from library
have never been a fan of o'keeffe, yet have not seen that much of her work in person . so the judgment is still out. on artists that are held in high regard (like monet) i try not to dislike until i see at least in the ballpark of a 100 paintings in person before passing judgment. as for o'keeffe, the first in person viewing of one of her paintings was of a red flower at the moma in sf > it sucked. the brush strokes were overworked/tedious like she didn't know what to do & what she had done was not working >bad student work. did see her stuff at the norton simon & it looked like it was painted by a dif person (than whomever painted the red flower). anyhoo, much of her compositions that brought her fame always seemed to have spun off those of the photographers her hubby represented (like imogen cunningham's erotic flowers) and this bothered me a bit as accolades should have gone to the originator rather than the appropriation. as for the book > did like some of her cottonwood images < new 2 me.
-----
my art stuff:
hung my solo show in pebble beach yesterday (aug 1st) need to tweek it & the documentation a bit today.
new art:
finishing up large landscape painting (& modifying frame) to be installed at the new library(opens 9/07)
mfa art:
art is to be paint/cpu hybrid so now i am playing with manipulating images of my paintings. not sure how to make the hybrid thing fly yet. at this moment think the digial can at best take my paint stuff somewhere new. it is sort of an oil & water association between dig & paint at the moment. think i need to add more elements/complexity < maybe lenticular?

ways of seeing

2007-07-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

finished the berger ways of seeing book this morning. in reflection, i see it as a good introduction for someone who has had limited exposure to art or the social sciences/history.

what i did get out of it:

1) a few potential art ventures that popped into my head as my mind wandered. actually it was more of a word read that triggered a tangent image. i sketched them out + notes since i have learned that i will be clueless to my scarce chicken scratches a few weeks from now.

2) the exploration as oil painting as it's own genre & that what painters like rembrandt were reacting to is lost on us/painters that reference him. so that those who follow paint this way because of it's appeal/marketability/esteem & may not really the mindset behind it-sorta like copying words of a foreign language yet not knowing the language. i think it is true to some degree, however i also feel that our rt brain/visual knowledge picks up on this kind of stuff > if only on a subconscious level.

3)i liked the landscape as non object observation since that references my work/choices as i do a lot of abstract & landscape + backpack a whole lot (in place without evidence of man).

next: read the other berger book & put them behind me. will read danto as well. danto is not on my reading list - yet think i need to know his work/thoughts. his writing is not for the weak and would be taxing to pursue in the same manner as other books. for me i will read one chapter a week. i need incubation time with his books.

prep++

2007-07-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

dvd:

watch documentary on florida's "highwayman" outsider art. was not what i think of as outsider art, yet at the time they started (1950's) it may have been. their key influence was a local guy that trained in the hudson river school at parsons... (got from blockbuster online)

readings:

spent time in "the spiritual in art..." i have been heavily influenced for many years by the stuff in this book (the book is new to me), and i am trying to determine if i buy into the premise of this book > if the thesis is true for me or just a construction of the author. what is said in it is true, yet may not be for me/my work. can i be doing one thing & think i am another? it could be a subjective view that is embraced by few. i hope it has written documentation/validation by the artists of the images referenced since it is pretty easy to spin anything to fit one's agenda - humans do it nonstop in all interactions or to self all the time (almost anyway).

paintings:

work ideas for digital qualities -experimented in photoshop. not sure what i am doing < which is good, that way i hopefully end up somewhere new (to me & others).

thoughts:

1)rather than paint on digital, create image in 3d software as subject to paint?

2)pending cost, play with lensticular over suitable digital image composites printed on clear with mirror/chrome-ish/reflective/lightweight back. then maybe paint some on plastic surface to enhance digital image & enhance visual depth. mirror/reflective is for illumination/add depth+ maybe make lenticular behave differently

school/aib:

reviewed aib stuff to make sure i was on board & on schedule. + look for questions to ask academic adviser (deborah davidson) when she calls monday night.

books: one more left to buy; relational aesthetics/bourriaud

tried to renew the danto books (unnatural wonders & after the end of art) to no avail. will have to go in, ck in & ck out again.

studio:

paint surface:
sanded & gessoed hardboard for unique arched frame (w48xh(48straight+5 inches at center/arc)

frame:
was a frame built for a mirror & very deep at the sides & 8 inches wide. pine with a slight blonde/white washed finish. frame looks like a show piece for a large home or hotel. shape reflects the calif/spanish architecture of this area. if all goes well i will have it done in time for my solo show i hang next week in pebble beach.

repaired frame:
glue/screws/gussets/clamps/straps to stabilize
+
reviewed my sketches for this project. started sketching about 6 weeks ago. still like them, had narrowed it down to 2 solution, yet now have decided to do a weed painting on it & if it does not sell during this show will go back to the previous plan. the reason for the change that i have decided to hang my "weed" stuff rather than abstract/expressionistic landscapes due to family stuff that hindered everything getting framed (none were of ready-made ratios).

studio work

2007-07-27T16:15:00.001-07:00

studio work;

to date i have 8 paintings/studies done.

what they are:

an attempt to develop a more expressionistic brush stroke technique

how have i achieved this?

by getting 20 pints of pre-colored house paint (free or cheap) to paint with. the logic being that i can financially afford to take risks - squander materials to get to a different place artistically. in general i can be very tight/controlled - almost rendering in nature. working in acrylic is one reason for this as the quick dry can be unforgivable if heavily applied + the cost of good paint/materials. "almost free" removes that barrier to enable me to find the "next one."

results: i have fun anytime i am painting. what is new to me in this is the parameters of the pre-tinted paint & it's consistency & opacity. it instantly has it's "own look" which is different that what i normally do. i could develop a whole style using this technique. think i will need to paint under numerous names to indulge in the range of styles/mediums i like to work in :) "it much like pizza - i LOVE it - yet would be pained to eat it EVERY night."

netfliks a while back. they presented this japanese artist of fame who is know for his traditional ink paintings. during the interview he demonstrated his process which is very much like the movements in martial arts. the brush strokes were likened to sword movements. made a lot of sense to me. work the way i am on this is allowing me to loosen up a bit.

not sure how i will combine this new knowledge with my digital stuff yet.

mentor update

2007-07-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

mentor stuff

mentor info has been 2nd day posted last monday to aib & an email conformation was received back from aib yesterday.
+
today i got an email from my soon to be mentor (glenn hirsch) that he had mailed off a form yesterday as well.
now:
all that is needed to complete the required arrangement is the mailing/signing of the contract!!!!

next stop:

talk to academic adviser (deborah davidson) next monday eve

schedule meeting with mentor

breakdown semester agenda into mini steps\\create a potential schedule for mentor to view my artwork

figure out what i am going to write about for the next paper

fine tune my "working artist statement"

digitally capture studies to email to whomever (mentor/adviser) & maybe post "here"

new berger book

2007-07-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

the sense of sight by berger arrived today. it is a collection of essays that appears to focus on specific artist's motivation to paint/create. i hope it will help me to define my own patterns in this

new book + miro + yosemite

2007-07-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

got rained out at yos/glen aulin on the backpack trip. rain hit while swimming below the cascades while young trout darted curious around our legs. it was a bit surreal being out in a pool with the sound of rain hitting the water intermittent with lightening and thunder. fear of strikes on the water caused us to move under a cluster of trees to dry off enough to put on shoes/socks while waiting for the storm to lighten.

watched a joan miro dvd & did learn new stuff about him. saw work of his i had not found in books. love his studio set up (is still intact/a museum). see his influence in my work (more so in years past).

book arrived:

the spiritual in art abstract painting: 1890-1985 < loved it!!! it was the first book that arrived that i felt an affinity toward. i rarely ooooh & ahhhh page after page when there are numerous artists. think this will help me to define what i have been doing & actively choose where i will go...

reading update

2007-07-23T04:47:00.000-07:00

way of seeing - berger:

still "ok" - meaning that there is a nice tidbit here & there, yet not enough new info to captivate me. on the other hand it is nice to shift to after reading danto!!!

need to look up "psuedo-marxist mysticism" < style="font-weight: bold;">unatural wonders: essays from the gap between art & life - danto:

spent a good while on his intro - 16pgs "criticism after the end of art"

very dense, very well written < which is why i needed to linger over it. it has answered questions i've harbored, fleshed out some details & created new questions. i also snagged a few quotes in my notes that could be of use in a future paper.

museums

2007-07-23T03:56:00.000-07:00

galleries & museum visits

june 07
-----------
california

monterey museum of art - monterey
carmel art association - members annual group show - carmel
pacific grove art center - pg
lisa cocino gallery - pg
robert lewis gallery - pg
outer edge - monterey

boston

harvard art museums
gardner museum
mfa - boston
young contemporaries (bu gallery on commonwealth)
various galleries on newbury (too many to mention)
all of the "freedom trail" in which some venues display early american or european art
aib andover field trip - wegman exhibit & permanant collection.

july 07
---------------

california

oakland museum
hearst gallery at st mary's college - moraga

life is messy

2007-07-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

backpack trip to yos postponed due to:

elderly parent stuff:

hate moving > me or anyone else!!! hell hath broke loose. i went to see the assisted & elderly living apartment they had selected (god's waiting room). it was kinda nice & kinda creepy. it was 10 min away from any town & surrounded by walnut orchards & processing plants. they have swimming pools, theatre (with popcorn machine), dining, game room, fitness rooms, restaurants, hair salons, shopping ++++ there was something disturbing in it all. like moving to a mall or old person's amusement park - generic & absent of history, family,life. if "life imitates art" then what would this be/look like? what can i do with it? it = place, their situation, my reaction...

horse injury:

a farrier came out to trim horse feet & in a pissy mood freaked them out ( easy to do on young ones in a herd environment), anyhoo the results were a 2yr old with her legs tangled in a metal feeder that torn skin & tendon sheath. the sutures started at the hock & ended at the fetlock. after numerous vet call it looks like there is a chance that she will not be completely crippled. she may have hip/back/tendon troubles in the future. this mare's family lives & functions well into their mid/late 20's > but not like this?). finger are crossed that it gets better.

reading:
underwhelmed by the berger "ways of seeing" book. so far it is a quick & dirty application of social psychology & ethics in technology applied to how art is viewed/processed. while this was recommended to me by many i would not "share the love" since it makes no sense to use a blurb from a middle man when i can go to the source > research it myself. guess there is a dvd ( may rent as well). Upside: on a mental tangent i came up with an idea for a perception themed series. i wrote it down while waiting to donate blood at a delta blood bank. some of my notes i wrote while "pumping away." in hindsight, that all seems odd - yet i have learned the hard way that if i do not write it down then/now & thoroughly with notes/drawings that it will be gone forever.

more books:

landscape & memory - simon schama
seems to be a series of speculations/reflections on depicting nature in art. think i will like it.

art on the edge and over - weintraub
"searching for art's meaning in contemporary society 1970's-1990's. think this could be a good resource for "getting" the mindset of sorta current 'provocative artists. i need all the help i can get.

the archive: documents of contemporary art - merewether
looks to be essays by hoity-toity people/artist in art = more stuff to learn & spew. wish i liked this stuff. am try'n hard to develop a passion for it, yet am hard pressed at the moment. so far i have encountered anything new in this realm. having been passionate for years about art & on acting on that passion devoured libraries for decades - i had put it all behind me. my choice had been total submersion in history/theory/mediums & then try to forget it. the reason in this is that one can not forget since one perception has been altered by learning/exposure it can not be unlearned. give this view, it made sense to trust that i have what i need & mindlessly jump in & create to see what i can do with it. that by being spontaneous i would get past the conscious/contrived to the real me & the real synthesis of what i did get out of years of study/life experience/my unique view. feel like getting sent back a few grades for doing badly in school. just thought that was behind me...

art now - taschen resource/reference art guide-ish

styles, schools and movents - dempsey. "the essential encyclopaedic guide to Modern Art" < style="font-weight: bold;">art in the modern era: a guide to styles, schools & movements - also by dempsey (see above). sound like the same damn book i bought above!!!!!! hope it is A LOT different. so far, the other has more/dif pictures...

Art videos to watch (from netfliks):

the highwaymen: florida's outsider artists - like outsider stuff. familiar in ca/nv/or, yet know nothing of fl outsider art. given the nature of technology, this art form maybe short-lived (& precious) since "cultural homogenization" is probable.

joan miro - constellations: the color of poetry - think i rented/watched this a few years back...so much for memory :( contex has changed - so perhaps my gleaning will differ as well?

studio related stuff:

working on my "current working statement" for this upcoming body of images.

bought 9 - 11x 14 gessoed hardboard panels & 10 - 16x 20 to use for quick studies each morning. i want to do quick gestural paintings to explore expressionistic/painterly brush strokes. since paint is so friggin expensive i got qts of rejected colored house paints FREE!!! i have about 20 colors now & will transfer to sm yogurt containers so that i can try plein aire as well. there is a paint -by - number vibe to all of this for me. by this i mean that the last time i have painted with pre-mixed paint was on paint by numbers as a child. they were oil, images were of puppie/kitties & i was 7 & loved it. anyhoo, there is a sense of cheating by not mixing my colors. then again, have not painted with them yet. the logic is that cost may be hampering my growth in painting. i am excited to do this. even if i do not apply any gained knowledge from this on the final project this semester > it will payoff on some level somewhere down the road - always does...

backpack trip: will leave this tues & return fri. looks like i will be taking my 13 yr boy & my 21 yr daughter. building good memories for all...

off to take pictures & gather topic ideas

2007-07-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

i plan to leave today to backpack out of yosemite!!! i try to do this as much as possible this time of year. the high sierra trails open july 1st & can shut down as early as sept 15 < not much of a time span.i hope to pack into glen aulin & maybe a side trip to may lake (again). it is a nice way to get away alone & think/plan. need to confirm fires & weather first (snow/hail can get sudden & nasty). fingers are crossed... i am taking one of the berger books on my proposal list :)

yesterday's mail > more books...

2007-07-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

used books that arrived yesterday from amazon & assoc:

alan magee: paintings, sculpture, graphics < love it. his work is very tight & some of it is macabre which i can appreciate. i am intrigued by his output to tapestry & wonder if that is something that is relatively economical in asia - like julia scher's mfg stone scuptures of dogs or hats?
-----------------------
social psychology 2007-2008 (annual editions) < often used as text in college psych/soc courses (how i encounter it). it contains a mix of professional journals, academic research, or periodical article reprints.
chapter headers:
research issues
the self
social cognition and social perception
attitudes
social influence
social relationships
social biases
violence and aggression
altruism, helping and cooperation
group processes
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machine in the studio: constructing the postwar american artist (carolina jones) < don't know much yet...
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about looking (john berger) < art theory...
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house of leaves (mark danielewski) < a novel recommended to me by numerous aib students. not sure what to expect
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art videos/dvds/shows i watched this week

2007-07-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

art:21 seasons one & two ( have seen a few times before - just though my perspective toward it may have change in light of residency & my upcoming work)

aspect: the chronicles of new media art, vol 8 2007 (have seen before > just on a roll...)

jasper johns: ideas in paint (saw this last year & wanted to watch it again)

watched on tv/pbs: david (fell asleep in the middle of it due to a full belly & comfy couch)

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last 2 week i watch artist documentaries on netfliks dvds of:

rebrandt, reynolds, gainsbourogh, constable, van dyck, brugel

books from library

2007-07-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

theory:

arthur c. danto's: after the end of art; contemporary art and the pale of history
& unnatural wonders: essays from the gap betwen art & life

(think i may need to own the dantos down the road)

new art city:manhatten at mid century (jed perl)

the contigent object of contemporary art (martha buskirk)

sometimes you just need to look at nice picture books (since theory/criticisms do not fall under the "fun" catagory)
so:
contemporary women artists (wendy beckett 1988)
thinking of you (barbara kruger)
local color: the di rosa collection of contemporary california art
art:21 art in the twenty-first century
basquiat (brooklyn museum)

used books that came via amazon

2007-07-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

theory in contemporary art since 1985 (edited by kocur & leung)

theories of modern art: a source book by artists & critics (herschel b. chipp)

after modern art 1945-2000 (david hopkins)

art: a matter of contex; writings 1975-2003 (bernar venet)

ways of seeing (john berger) < this one is listed on my academic proposal

art after conceptual art (editors:alberro & buchman)

design and art: documents of contemporary art (edited by alex coles)

hal foster: the return of the real
prosthetic gods

still waiting for more to come. most will be reference for studies (& future teaching) while a few may be cited on proposals in future semesters.

things to ponder from potential mentor's email

2007-07-17T06:16:00.000-07:00

ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY PAINTING

Abstraction

Improvisation or mathematical procedure … blends of “real” and “abstract?”

Materials

As subject matter (texture, found objects, assemblage, or digital)

Art History (Europe)

Art which refers to European art history in theme and composition

Art History (Not Europe)

Global culture, “Third World,” folk art, “outsider” art, children

The Body

Allegory (figure) or Individual Identity (in portraits)

Psychology

Dream, Myth, Archetype, Shamanistic traditions...

Landscape

Fact, Fantasy, Utopia. Abstraction; Nature Untamed, or Nature Destroyed

Politics - society

Sociology, history, war and peace

Politics - identity

Gender and race

Politics – technology

Science as subject or as procedure

Pop Art

Low Culture and High Culture

Public Spaces

Institutional art, installation, time-based, community collaboration

LIGHT

• dramatic light (brilliant with hard cast shadows)

• dreamy light (foggy with soft cast shadows)

• mystical light (glowing from within)

• spiritual light (streaming down from heaven)

blog one:

2007-07-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Art Institute of Boston

Limited Residency MFA Program

First Residency Reflections

Group One orientation:

It was nice to arrive a day early (Thursday), meet my peers and the AIB administration. Judith Berry and Louise Goldberg were extremely effective in their efforts to make us feel at ease and informed on the activities to come. The opportunity to take a break, eat and interact with classmates was a thoughtful and effective gesture.

Critical theory:

Stewart did a good job of covering the readings, while weaving the evening’s artist talks into the discussion. I felt confident in my knowledge when the art history he presented was no more than review for me. It is an affirmation that my previous studies and personal research efforts have prepared me for the program at AIB. Naturally the time restraints limited the depth of some discussions. On the other hand, this fueled Group One discussions after hours at Cornwall’s. Stewart was an informative and engaging instructor: an ideal combination for learning.

Portfolio presentation:

This presentation was the only negative experience for me. It was inconceivable to me that an institution would not have Adobe acrobat installed. While the professional version is commonplace on systems that install the Adobe Suites, the adobe PDF reader is a free download. Due to production efficiency, file size, and alterability (pirating) power point has fallen into disuse at many institutions. Consequently I put together a quick “plan b” (from JPEGs on my laptop) and abandon my notes. I feel it was my fault making the assumption that acrobat reader would be readily available. Reflecting on my anxiousness while presenting, I am considering taking up a class or workshop to hone my public speaking skills. Attending the evening artist talks brought home the importance of presenting oneself in an actively chosen light.

Faculty panel:

Loved it

Love the issues addressed

I have been a huge fan of Purcell and really enjoyed learning more

I feel it was an opportunity to learn more about the presenter/faculty’s nature

The exchanges that took place between the panel and audience gave me much to think about in my present and future work.

Artist talks:

Enjoyed Most: Dike Blair (due to imagery and delivery)

Enjoyed Least: Michael Newman (due to imagery and delivery)

While the Maureen Gallace talk was by far the worst, I was engaged by the audience’s reaction to her inability to talk about her work. It brought home the importance of the need to be articulate, expressive, and engaging as a speaker and artist. Ms. Gallace’s talk fueled dynamic discussions at Cornwall’s, as well as in the next Critical theory class. I likened the experience to a required text I purchased for a web class many years ago, “Web Pages that Suck: Learning Good Design Through Examining Bad.”

Graduate student presentations:

I felt privileged to attend these presentations. Not only did they give insight into AIB outcomes, they gave me cause to define my personal goals within this program. Later during critiques with Graduating students I felt more informed about their work and therefore more able to glean from their insight and recommendations.

Critiques:

Observations/responses to my work:

Digital Images

Would love to see them printed big
This gray scale image would make an interesting painting
I do not see “you” in these images as I do in your paintings

“Weeds” (3 acrylic paintings on masonite or canvas)

They have ethereal quality also found in your mural “3 Graces.”
There is a sense of veiling in these images
It feels like it is about an experience rather than just studies.

“Venus Transparent” (acrylic on masonite door)

My throat felt tight when I first considered her
At first I thought “not another Venus painting,” yet her transparency and surrounding sucked me in – challenged me to take her seriously
She does challenge or confront the viewer
I am repulsed and attracted to her simultaneously
Artistic Influences cited (in “Venus”) by peers:
Botticelli
Braque
Klimt
Geiger

Questions that came up in critiques:

(Stated as questions to ask self to determine direction and assess results)

Where do your interests emerge?
What kind of painter do you want to be?
What ultimately is your medium?
Do I have any core set of issues?
Is digital montage the direction to go in?
What is (will be) your “question” (theme of exploration in body of work)?

Suggestions given:

For six weeks: Create list/word doc. And collect topic/ideas for my subject/thesis (ex: nature, corners, toilet…)

Create a list of what I hate (artists, styles, subjects, colors) you can learn as much about yourself from what you don’t like as what you do--then challenge these assessments.

Do something I would never do – make a list of my current rules/parameters and break 2 on a new project.

Try self portrait every day for at least a month (repetition, consistency, systems)

Paint portraits of my children as objects and try to capture their personality

Create imagined space (like my public murals) in a virtual 3d environment (3dMax/Sketchup software), possibly a fly through or animation (time base) so that one can experience art within the space. Think about creating site specific works this way. Could use with past murals or for new projects.

Identify your “question” – create 4-5 questions to address when viewing art and analyzing/developing mine.

Cautions:

If I choose to go the digital time base route I must consider time learning new software (extremely time consuming). Cost of software and equipment needed for display is also a consideration.

Combining paint with digital art is extremely difficult to do well and hard to maintain the unique identities of each medium. It may help to set application and parameters for use of each medium to determine the best route for this kind of exploration. Final output will be a key factor in your decisions.

Keep shipping (costs/difficulties), display space here (AIB), and future exhibition opportunities in mind when formulating your new project. Keep in mind the downside to working large. Un-stretching canvas after completion is one solution.

Artist to look at:

David Bradshaw

Julia Hoffman

Alon Langotsky

Berry Lopez

Steve Lake

Tony Qursyiz

Steve Stone

Samantha Thoran

Steve Tobin

Sarah Walker

Darren Waterson

Jerome Witkin

Meals:

Whole foods was awesome. I hope they will be engaged next January.

Having all meals attended to was a blessing. I would have skipped meals and squander time in the pursuit of nourishment. Such activities would have taken its toll over the ten days.

Conclusion:

I feel a personal transformation took place over the ten days of residency. I gleaned clarity in my work (and proposed project), as well as collecting innovative suggestions that I am anxious to try. Encountering a cornucopia of creative minds and unique perspectives was a new, welcome, and challenging experience for me: I am richer for this experience, thank you.