stash 6 pack: 5: discs 6 & 5

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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"???

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.
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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

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)

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.

---

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+++

------

"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
---
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

--------

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.