more art research type stuff

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

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

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

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
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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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

& 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)

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)

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

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emily carr

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

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.

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quotes from my readings

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)
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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)

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related quote from poem:

"the landscape imagines me"

spanish poet jorge guillén

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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.


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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...


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