studio reflection for this semester

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

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!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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art dvd>>> rolf & fondy: to care

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

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).

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crit theoryII list

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

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

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

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.