Artist lecture 11/18: Francis Cape

http://www.franciscape.com/

WATERLINE, 2006
Although Cape is an artist who's work basis in carpentry, I found his series Waterline, from 2006 most prolific. His used of images from New Orleans in the space in which he transformed to enact much more as a recreation to the waterline itself makes the viewer feel as thought they are there. In questioning the white cube format of the gallery, he allows the viewer to become involved. It isn't about the voyeurism, or the act of looking any more.

In this work he is dealing with the world outside of his studio, yet his background in woodworking still plays a prominent roll in his perception of it. He finds a bridge in this work between the peoples lives and the exhibition space. He talked about how the new media changed his experience of the place itself he wanted to create a breakdown of the distance between veiwer and the event by domestication the gallery space. It then becomes the experience of the viewer that completes the work and not the artist himself.

11/17 Artist lecture: Maria Scurlock

I suppose I am partly to blame for having little to no knowledge about Paige Bond Gallery on Main St. so I did not know what I was getting myself into when I went to see Maria Scurlock reveal of her new series, and artist lecture. I was excited to go to a lecture outside VCU.

But my excitement was short lived. It started out promising, Scurlock gave a speech of hardship and how she over came severe hip/leg pain and surgery. Her very quiet peaceful work, all from a vertical angle suggest a longing for something. Maybe it is a release from the pain so it could connect the story to her work.

But question after question from the audience to make sense of the work or to give meaning to the choice of material, color, subject. Scurlocks lack of response to anything made her work weak and uninteresting. She had no intention, concept or even intelligent things to say about her work. It would have been a complete waist if it did not make me appreciate the lectures and artists at VCU.

11/17 Artist Lecture:Diego Sanchez

http://www.pagebondgallery.com/




Diego Sanchez was the second artist speaking at the Paige Bond gallery. His work was much more purposeful. He talked about his interest in the architecture of the Colosseum. This struck me as very interesting because he said he had been painting them for over ten years, and he has never been to Rome.
Sanchez talked about using both representational and non representational elements in his work, and how he used them as a way to slow down the viewer. I think this point is important. As an artist it becomes essential to find a way to catch the eye of the viewer and keep it there. By that slowing down, they can become involved with your work.Something that I also enjoyed about his work was that he encouraged everyone to touch his work. That was one more thing to keep the viewer interest. Sanchez talked about having all the senses involved in his work to truly appreciate it.
As an artist he talked about using all your resources to influence your work. Having people visit your studio he said, is vital to your work. He stressed how important feedback is.

11/16 Artist: Jared Lindsey Clark

http://www.jaredlindsayclark.com


http://www.adagallery.com/jared_clark.html



Clark is an artist who's work I have had the pleasure of experiencing thought my internship at ADA gallery. He is an artist who works with ceramic trinkets to create art that is both religious and contemporary. His work is almost unbelievable when you get close to it. It transforms the pieces from house hold items you would find at any thrift shop, or local grandmothers house into unreal sculptures.

11/12 Idea: Composite

To be honest, Im not so sure what i think about this image. it is a composite of about 7 images. Each of the moment of he murder, or of the finding of the body. The composition is not doing much for me. It does not make me think of death nor does it have a particularly strong distinct feeling. To me it come a bit across like a jumbled mess.
Maybe that says something. Maybe this is the kink in my hypothesis. The answer to the question.
--------Are these moments so contrived and manipulated that they all look the same--------
If the answer where in this image it would be no. besides being dark, it does not have an overarching color pallet. So where does this leave me.

lost.... Well kind of. This is just more incentive for me to shoot more. and more. playing with both the blur and the image.

Artist Lecture: Shimon Attie 11/11

http://www.artnet.com/artist/1730/shimon-attie.html

http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/attie_shimon.php

I found Attie's work to be different from the other artists that have lectured. I'm not really sure if i would classify his work as political as I would say culturally aware. To be honest I am not even sure that that is the right description. Attie's work to me deals with people and personal experiences. The work above shows projects old east Germany before the war, onto the post- Berlin Wall east Germany. This body of work touches on the idea of collective memories. The images deal with place and time/the new and the old. The lives and history suggested in the projects provides for me an emotional contrast to the seemingly dead and abandoned structures of the present.


Attie's series The Attraction Of Onlookers, was the most profound in my opinion.It is a depiction of the welsh community that lost almost all of its children in a man made avalanche. It isn't a real sentimental view on the town that was so devastated, but a view truly for the people that want to know or travel there. It is a comment on those that feel the need to visit and know the people in the town. I think this piece works much better than his piece with Nascar. It seems more sincere, not so forced.

Artist 11/9:Robert Irwin

http://www.pacewildenstein.com/Artists/ViewArtist.aspx?artist=RobertIrwin&type=Artist&guid=f924c6fa-a6c4-486e-979d-b3bdd1bbdae6





Robert Irwin is an that basis his work on the basis of the ability to interpret information and surroundings from light and space. He is one of the pioneers in the minimulist movements in the 1970's. I think his work is eloquent and subtle. He has an ability to manipulate light and the perception of that light in such a way that is almost shockingly beautiful.

His work comes across so simple visually, yet that i think is what makes him brilliant. In reading his book Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, seeing his work takes on a whole new perception. Because his work is so subtle, it for me has become a way of understanding and experiencing his work.

11/5 Idea: Decisive Moment

the murder

Henri Cartier-Bresson is considered the father of modern photojournalism and a master of candid photography. In 1952 he published a book, The Decisive Moment. In it he stated "There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment". In 1957 he was quoted in the Washington post saying "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

Right now in my work, This moment is key. In reality I am shooting moment that will happen again and again, replayed and edited for repeated views. But there is something about these moments that are internally ingrained within each other, new episode or not, the same moments happend again and again. varied only slightly.

11/2 Artist: William Eggleston

http://www.egglestontrust.com/

Troubled Waters

Troubled Waters, 1980

Troubled Waters

Eggleston’s work often dwells on the qualities of light, reflection, and color on different surface textures. Although most of his work has a very distinct fascination with color for some reason I find myself very interested in his series titled "Wedgwood Blue" They are simply shots of the sky. Its this series where you can see not only his interest in the ordinary, but his extraordinary fascination and sense of the mundane. After reading the introduction to his work I grew more intrigued. I've never been one to like imagery like this before, but like everything it is the idea, the thought behind the work that makes it so appealing. I'm sure if you went on flicker right now you could search sky/clouds and a million of these would come up. Maybe that is why I like them so much.
"He was excited by the touches of blue between the clouds abd by the intensity of light. His attitude was one of exploration. He applied methodical discipline to the quality of blue."Mark Holborn, August 1991, London, out of the book Ancient and Modern by William Eggleston.

Wedgwood Blue, 1979

Idea 10/29: Choices

As I move along with my work after mid-critique I have a lot to think about. Not only do I have a billion ideas running through my head at one time but i have a billion options. This work has so many places to go. At this point in the game I feel like my options for works are limitless. There is so much to mess up and at the same time so much to choose from. Working out ideas is like gridding out the NYC subway, one line after another.

One thing that really hit a chord though was the idea of the decisive moment within all these genres. There is a point that all of these shows have in common. example:

Crime Scene- CSI ( miami,nyc), Bones, Law and Order (all spin offs)

-the murder: the body, the crime that propels the show into being. this is the moment that these shows depend on. This is what they need to have a show.

By using and collecting these "moments in time" I do not need to depend on my camera to blur the image for a color pallet, instead I can use it for its pure purpose. By compiling the images onto each other hopefully i can come up with a single mood, a distinct moment in time.

It was also suggesting that I look at the Nealson Ratings. Looking at what is viewed when/what is viewed the most. Mapping out all this information is quickly becoming a task all its own.

Artist 10/26: Uta Barth

Uta Barth’s work questions traditional functions of photography, by using the blur she channels Julia Margret Cameron whom used the blur to focus on the spiritual elements. Barth changes our perception of what we are looking at. The imagery is so generic and commonplace, scenes of living room walls and street corners fields and trees, they could be anywhere, taken by anyone. Yet it is the way she photographs them that sets them apart. Her work is visually almost empty. She focuses on the unoccupied foreground space to emphasize the photographs as containers for light and color.
I find this work so inspiring as I move deeper into my own conceptual work. Her colors are muted yet so rich at the same time. The purity that encompasses her work has a distinct calming effect. In my work i hope to accomplish quite the opposite, I hope to use her as a platform to create works that make the viewer uneasy and question something that they see probably everyday on the television.


http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artist.php?art_name=Uta%20Barth

10/22 Idea blog: Taking Notes.

I have come to the conclusion that I have been shooting the wrong thing. Spencer Finch had the right idea.By turning the monitors around he was about to use the white wall as a canvas for the colors of his sunset. I am not going to get the colors I want by shooting directly at the screen. I should be taking the blurred footage and directing it at a wall to try and get the colors I want. Shooting the wall.

But here are the questions I need to ask.
1. Do I need to show the TV to let people understand the work better?
2. Does this need to be video in order to allow the pacing and color interact?
3. If question two is a yes, is also question 1 a yes or can the dancing of the colors, the flashing, can they speak for themselves.
4. Can this work function as stills?

I'm starting to this that I am beginning to answer these questions on my own. If my ultimate goal is to somehow illustrate the idea or transmission and its effects, I do not think this work is able to function without movement, or light. I'm starting to get the feeling like this work is going to work as projections in order to manipulate emotions.

10/19 Artist blog: Yves Klein

Using the monochrome colors, particularly the blue in which he created specifically for his work, and what he viewed as the “empty field”. His visual analogue was seen as the void itself. He through himself into the creation of a "monotone-silence symphony". He was on a quest for perfection and the absolute, the monotone and the monochrome. He refused to conform his monochrome paintings to havng at least one more color, this he quoted "I refuse to compare and bring together one element that is strong and other weaker ones in order to highlight them.... As soon as there are two colors involved, a battle is given; from permanent spectacle produced by the battle of the two colors in the psychological and emotional domain" 76, Long Live the Immaterial, Yves Klein.
Yves work is sensible, formless and in that way limitless.


http://www.yveskleinarchives.org/

Idea Blog: 10/14- COLOR

sitcom:comedy

mystery

crime scene

late night:talk

romance

These are images that I have been working on. I took away the focus to bring out the overall color hue. Shooting the screen is hard because if you shoot too long the color is taken away and all you get is white, shoot to short and even if your lens is blurred, your shot is in perfect focus. Right now its about the balance. I need to find a way to shoot so that the colors blend into one color.

I have been talking and thinking a lot about color and its involvement in my work, and well not doing a very good job at working it all out. This is the point where I continue to talk about the work that I'm trying to make. But that's just it. The word. Trying. Making and trying to make are two different things and to tell the the truth, I'm tired.
The number one thing on my mind has been artificial light and color and how through transmission meaning can be interpreted. I feel that the pacing and color within TV sets to the tones feel and ultimately manipulate your mood.

Artist blog:10/12 Spencer Finch

Spencer Finch:
West (Sunset in My Motel Room, Monument Valley, January 26, 2007, 5:36-6:06 PM) 2007

Uses the light from stills from John Ford's 1956 Western The Searchers on nine video monitors. The gallery bathed in this reflected light is transformed from day to night exactly mimicking the color and intensity of the sunset.

...more to come when i get the book.

Rethinking blog.10/12

Paul told me to reorganize my blog. So this is me, restarting.

Artist Review: Ea Vasko 10/7

Ea Vasko.
City / Disorder VII, 2008

City / Order IV, 2007

City / Disorder VI, 2007

City / Disorder VIII, 2008

An artists that uses abstraction as one of her main criterias for making imagery, Ea Vasko considers the viewing process an act of sorts. In one of her statements she says "... a picture taken in a clear light is like a fact. It does not leave any room for imagination. When the object is clearly recognizable, it is also easily ignorable.".In her series Defining Darkness, Vasko's use of abstraction in light and color to change the perception o the images makes the viewer really look and think about what the photograph is.

Coming from working with darkness, and artificial light myself I interpret this work in many different ways. I think this work does a beautiful job of displaying chaos. Just the act of trying to pinpoint something tageble from this work is so task oriented it makes you tired. The city, especially when night falls, becomes erupted with artificial light. The process that a person must go through to acclimate to such things is hard and at least for me a bit overwhelming.

Vasko's imagery also makes me uneasy. It makes me think she herself is unsure. It's just oriented in such a way that you can almost make the colors or spacing out, yet you never come to a full/definite conclusion as to what is producing this light. And in that way, the obscurity is the can frustrate you, as well as be the only thing that keeps you looking.

I think her work is smart, and simply beautiful. It is not only the abstracted qualities of this work that keeps my interest but the quality of her photographs. They are beautiful, and colorful. Her composition of each one is perfect. Vasko has a keen eye for shape and form.

http://www.eavasko.com/#reflections