i'm taking a pseudo break from sewing. i still do it, but i feel lost and just confused. sometimes things are clear, clear direction. sometimes the forest closes all around me and i can't see any path to take.
so i started drawing/painting
and soon i'll be printing again.
and i started a new project, but it is a secret. we'll see if it ever comes to light.
25 September 2008
31 August 2008
annette messager and music videos
reading about messager. seemed pretty cool. her concepts... the main thing though was seeing that image, of the gloves with faces and coming out of the fingers was colored pencils. like a little nudge. need to read more.
15 April 2008
mike kelley
what's funny is i remember, i looked this guy up one time, in connection with some research i was doing on a gallery.
but i had completely forgotten about him til lydia brought him up to me.
cause he does stuff with stuffed animals. which is sort of where i'm at right now...
i was in this place, making stuffed animals. i dont know if it is worth pursuing. i mean, i really enjoy them. i like their sadness, their impotence. the one bird can barely hold it's head up, the monkey with useless arms splayed, the cuddly bird's feathers keep falling out (on purpose, i swear), the snake that can't curl, the fish is the closest to actually working out, since it is made of swimsuit- so potentially it could swim. except that ultimately it can't swim... and the first bird i made, the one i crocheted. that is really sad. it doesnt even look like a bird.
but i had completely forgotten about him til lydia brought him up to me.
cause he does stuff with stuffed animals. which is sort of where i'm at right now...
i was in this place, making stuffed animals. i dont know if it is worth pursuing. i mean, i really enjoy them. i like their sadness, their impotence. the one bird can barely hold it's head up, the monkey with useless arms splayed, the cuddly bird's feathers keep falling out (on purpose, i swear), the snake that can't curl, the fish is the closest to actually working out, since it is made of swimsuit- so potentially it could swim. except that ultimately it can't swim... and the first bird i made, the one i crocheted. that is really sad. it doesnt even look like a bird.
12 April 2008
18 March 2008
MCA
Went to the Museum of Contemporary Art!
Gordon Matta Clark is interesting.
He was giving away prints! Posthumously! I want to do that...
And he shot those windows out. that is funny. and he was concerned with garbage, and using garbage. and old abandoned homes. and walls.
there was an exhibit of photos there too. i didnt like them. i forget whose they were. they were gross. like, one of a man's chest with all that hair on it. and he looked gross. and the blood supposedly coming out of that guy's nose. that looked gross, and fake. maybe it was the fakeness of things, they didnt seem real. except the girl jumping with like, mickey and minnie mouse on her t-shirt. that one looked real.
then on the train i sat down next to this woman, she asked me what i was studying. i guess i looked like a student. i told her i was an art student. and i showed her my sketchbook, and she was like, "all that studying and that is all you have to show for it? Who is your teacher?!"
but it is a new sketchbook. i havent been working in it much. they are very light drawings. you can barely see them.
Gordon Matta Clark is interesting.
He was giving away prints! Posthumously! I want to do that...
And he shot those windows out. that is funny. and he was concerned with garbage, and using garbage. and old abandoned homes. and walls.
there was an exhibit of photos there too. i didnt like them. i forget whose they were. they were gross. like, one of a man's chest with all that hair on it. and he looked gross. and the blood supposedly coming out of that guy's nose. that looked gross, and fake. maybe it was the fakeness of things, they didnt seem real. except the girl jumping with like, mickey and minnie mouse on her t-shirt. that one looked real.
then on the train i sat down next to this woman, she asked me what i was studying. i guess i looked like a student. i told her i was an art student. and i showed her my sketchbook, and she was like, "all that studying and that is all you have to show for it? Who is your teacher?!"
but it is a new sketchbook. i havent been working in it much. they are very light drawings. you can barely see them.
09 March 2008
Movable Space project
Hermes is the name i ended up choosing for the animal. I wanted to find a name that encompassed the idea of movement, of traveling, while simultaneously being a bit fanciful and familiar.
I am trusting that Hermes will make his way through Grinnell with little molestation. However, I look forward to watching his progress and seeing what happens.
I am full of questions: Will people understand the directions? Will people be willing to play along? Will there be any buzz surrounding this animal? If there is, will it be negative or positive? Have I explained enough? Is it even that interesting?...Did I include the right insides?
There are many misgivings, since I've never done anything like this before.
Except that one time when Anna and I made posters trying to get Jeff and Alex dates...and they didnt know about it til later...
I made posters for Hermes too. Two color screen-prints.
I want people to interact with art, to allow themselves to be a part of it. I have a need to interact with others, and i would like to put that in the art work now. At the same time, sometimes, in my drawings, i think i struggle with trying to express merely my aesthetic sensibility. Which is a very different thing altogether. I am conflicted over whether the art should be separate from the world, though clearly that can not happen, and the idea that people should be allowed into that world of art. The common person allowed into art. It conflicts with my aesthetic sensibility though, when other people are allowed in. i have a snooty streak, i guess. i want to be in control. but at the same time, i dont agree with being in control. so there are always conflicts.
I am trusting that Hermes will make his way through Grinnell with little molestation. However, I look forward to watching his progress and seeing what happens.
I am full of questions: Will people understand the directions? Will people be willing to play along? Will there be any buzz surrounding this animal? If there is, will it be negative or positive? Have I explained enough? Is it even that interesting?...Did I include the right insides?
There are many misgivings, since I've never done anything like this before.
Except that one time when Anna and I made posters trying to get Jeff and Alex dates...and they didnt know about it til later...
I made posters for Hermes too. Two color screen-prints.
I want people to interact with art, to allow themselves to be a part of it. I have a need to interact with others, and i would like to put that in the art work now. At the same time, sometimes, in my drawings, i think i struggle with trying to express merely my aesthetic sensibility. Which is a very different thing altogether. I am conflicted over whether the art should be separate from the world, though clearly that can not happen, and the idea that people should be allowed into that world of art. The common person allowed into art. It conflicts with my aesthetic sensibility though, when other people are allowed in. i have a snooty streak, i guess. i want to be in control. but at the same time, i dont agree with being in control. so there are always conflicts.
15 February 2008
Jose Carlos de Teixeira
Went to see him speak. I think we were supposed to meet in the morning, but I never saw him- which is good, since I had a doctor's appointment around the same time.
However, I watched a bit of his video. I had seen it when it was all being installed and things, had noticed his camera work which i was envious of: because he was accepted. He was in a gallery. I have made movies that enjoy those angles of humans too, but I haven't got any critical acclaim for it...which is fine. It makes me feel like there are people who I can be friends with though, to see his films.
Because thematically, these are things I think about. I don't make art about them as much, I haven't quite been able to get to that point where I could make something that talked about the nearness of things like homelessness to my heart... And that clothesline piece too, really great stuff. And the "It's Okay United" video.
He said we have a responsibility as artists to bring these subjects up.
While not being political.
hmm...
overall though, i was struck dumb. for a while afterwards i just sat and stared, and then went to help make dinner, but sat and stared some more.
However, I watched a bit of his video. I had seen it when it was all being installed and things, had noticed his camera work which i was envious of: because he was accepted. He was in a gallery. I have made movies that enjoy those angles of humans too, but I haven't got any critical acclaim for it...which is fine. It makes me feel like there are people who I can be friends with though, to see his films.
Because thematically, these are things I think about. I don't make art about them as much, I haven't quite been able to get to that point where I could make something that talked about the nearness of things like homelessness to my heart... And that clothesline piece too, really great stuff. And the "It's Okay United" video.
He said we have a responsibility as artists to bring these subjects up.
While not being political.
hmm...
overall though, i was struck dumb. for a while afterwards i just sat and stared, and then went to help make dinner, but sat and stared some more.
06 February 2008
Nuno Pedrosa Talk
I went to his talk, in the afternoon, after i finished shooting the screens and washing them out, they look so great, i cant wait to print them.
It was not well attended, maybe 15 or 20 people, many chairs were empty- but i dont think he cared. I'm not sure he noticed...and it probably wasnt unexpected.
That seems to be the thing with him, he is very humble, as is the woman with him- is it his wife? girlfriend? lover of some sort at least.
She works in a library. She told Veronica and I that usually when she tells people that they go, "oh..." with a look on their face, like it is really too bad, eh?
I had asked her if she was an artist also- she was very beautiful, because she looks solid, she isn't real thin like imagined beauty. She is a great age i think, maybe in her thirties or forties, but like she has had a happy life. Veronica likes libraries!
The talk itself:
Pedrosa described his work for a while, with a slide show going behind him that helped to explain further what he does. A professor wanted to know what he considered the art part to be. Was it the camera and balloon spread on the ground? Was it the video created by the cameras? Was it the action of filming others? Was it all of the above?
He created a camera backpack in the past, you wear it on your back, and it films you and whatever you are looking at. i really liked that. i liked the images he was showing us from that as well. it reminded me of going to parties full of interesting people. apparently he does filming at art show openings.
"Private interchanges in public spaces" is what the backpack is for. and, "I want to be included" he says, when asked if with the backpack he tries to be a "Fly on the wall"
He declared that artists are too entrenched in the symbolism of our work, there is too much context for our work. It should be about the sensory effect, the aesthetic, should ask the question: how do you feel? (when you look at the work. which reminded me that for papermaking's final critique, i wore the dress i made, and the only question i had to ask the class was "How does it make you feel?", and no one responded: there was complete silence).
"From the beginning of my being I have chosen sculpture"-Pedrosa
He makes his work out of old police cameras and military balloons. Emna asked about the aspect of big-brother-ness in his pieces, in filming others without their awareness. i thought that maybe he was more like a little brother than a big brother. he responded by a story about how disturbing he found the customs to be, when he had to give his fingerprint, and they took his photo: "a foreign government" he said it was illegal to do this. he said there is something very wrong in the world.
i think he has a good point...
he says artists are philosophers too.
He said that artists should try to escape the traditional framework for showing/displaying work. he said we dont step outside of the institution. except sometimes artists make it- i didnt catch the name, but he mentioned a performance artist in san francisco who has managed to take art out of the institution. he said that
the art is dependent upon the backbone of the artist.
he said if you want to survive in the art world, you cant be slow at producing work. because art is a commodity.
"Artists, writers and generally men or women whose genius forced them to keep the world at a certain distance and whose significance lies chiefly in their works, the artifacts they added to the world not in the role they played in it." - Hannah Arendt
He took issue with this statement: he questions the solitary significance of artists being their work, the artifacts they add to the world. He thinks that they should also play a role in the world.
This disturbs me in some respects. But also validates some feelings i have. I read a book by Auguste Rodin. I really agreed with much of what he had to say. But at the same time, he said that there was either an artist or something else, you couldnt be both an artist and a politician or whatever. Which is true in some ways: but maybe in the postmodern world one can (and cant help but) play many roles depending on the context. After all, in my artwork i am not often an older sister, or even a woman. i mean, i bring those things to my work, but those are not the issues i highlight...the parts of myself i express.
that was something else from when i talked to pedrosa one on one, he said that there was an expressive quality to my work, and that very often art is merely a form of self-expression, when maybe there could be more behind it.
but it requires so much thought. sometimes i think there is not enough time. and then in the end he told me not to think too much, just to do stuff. ha. another of his contradictions.
It was not well attended, maybe 15 or 20 people, many chairs were empty- but i dont think he cared. I'm not sure he noticed...and it probably wasnt unexpected.
That seems to be the thing with him, he is very humble, as is the woman with him- is it his wife? girlfriend? lover of some sort at least.
She works in a library. She told Veronica and I that usually when she tells people that they go, "oh..." with a look on their face, like it is really too bad, eh?
I had asked her if she was an artist also- she was very beautiful, because she looks solid, she isn't real thin like imagined beauty. She is a great age i think, maybe in her thirties or forties, but like she has had a happy life. Veronica likes libraries!
The talk itself:
Pedrosa described his work for a while, with a slide show going behind him that helped to explain further what he does. A professor wanted to know what he considered the art part to be. Was it the camera and balloon spread on the ground? Was it the video created by the cameras? Was it the action of filming others? Was it all of the above?
He created a camera backpack in the past, you wear it on your back, and it films you and whatever you are looking at. i really liked that. i liked the images he was showing us from that as well. it reminded me of going to parties full of interesting people. apparently he does filming at art show openings.
"Private interchanges in public spaces" is what the backpack is for. and, "I want to be included" he says, when asked if with the backpack he tries to be a "Fly on the wall"
He declared that artists are too entrenched in the symbolism of our work, there is too much context for our work. It should be about the sensory effect, the aesthetic, should ask the question: how do you feel? (when you look at the work. which reminded me that for papermaking's final critique, i wore the dress i made, and the only question i had to ask the class was "How does it make you feel?", and no one responded: there was complete silence).
"From the beginning of my being I have chosen sculpture"-Pedrosa
He makes his work out of old police cameras and military balloons. Emna asked about the aspect of big-brother-ness in his pieces, in filming others without their awareness. i thought that maybe he was more like a little brother than a big brother. he responded by a story about how disturbing he found the customs to be, when he had to give his fingerprint, and they took his photo: "a foreign government" he said it was illegal to do this. he said there is something very wrong in the world.
i think he has a good point...
he says artists are philosophers too.
He said that artists should try to escape the traditional framework for showing/displaying work. he said we dont step outside of the institution. except sometimes artists make it- i didnt catch the name, but he mentioned a performance artist in san francisco who has managed to take art out of the institution. he said that
the art is dependent upon the backbone of the artist.
he said if you want to survive in the art world, you cant be slow at producing work. because art is a commodity.
"Artists, writers and generally men or women whose genius forced them to keep the world at a certain distance and whose significance lies chiefly in their works, the artifacts they added to the world not in the role they played in it." - Hannah Arendt
He took issue with this statement: he questions the solitary significance of artists being their work, the artifacts they add to the world. He thinks that they should also play a role in the world.
This disturbs me in some respects. But also validates some feelings i have. I read a book by Auguste Rodin. I really agreed with much of what he had to say. But at the same time, he said that there was either an artist or something else, you couldnt be both an artist and a politician or whatever. Which is true in some ways: but maybe in the postmodern world one can (and cant help but) play many roles depending on the context. After all, in my artwork i am not often an older sister, or even a woman. i mean, i bring those things to my work, but those are not the issues i highlight...the parts of myself i express.
that was something else from when i talked to pedrosa one on one, he said that there was an expressive quality to my work, and that very often art is merely a form of self-expression, when maybe there could be more behind it.
but it requires so much thought. sometimes i think there is not enough time. and then in the end he told me not to think too much, just to do stuff. ha. another of his contradictions.
04 February 2008
Nuno Pedrosa Critique
He was smoking a cigarette out in the yard, and looked apologetic when i approached. I didnt have anything prepared to say exactly, but i had some work set out to look at.
His general demeanor was very polite, he held the door for me, and kept apologizing sort of when he would say something. Or rather, he would correct himself, or say conditional statements, or would say he had just contradicted himself.
However, he made some concrete suggestions. Such as, making a bit of an effort to focus my work a little. He suggested that it would lend strength to what I did, and would possibly help me to survive in the art world. He was pretty down on the art world in general, he said it was full of storms. He said that the most important thing was to have self-confidence. That if you can stand and say something to people, maybe with a smile...
He also mentioned that possibly i would like to be a clever artist, one who plays with others' expectations.
He liked my drawings- particularly the one on made paper that was more decorative than anything- as in, flat surfaces covered in imagery... But he also said the yarn one was good, and he liked the four color prints- though he mentioned it had been done before (which he said while smiling and looking again a bit bashful)- so that maybe i would not want to do it.
he mentioned doing new things, or of staying within a tradition. he said maybe they were the same.
he said i had the skills, it was just a matter of deciding now what i wanted to do. he suggested i might want to go to grad school. he said to do more drawings like the two he really liked.
he gave me a name of an artist to look at: Benjamin Degen. he thinks i might like looking at him.
His general demeanor was very polite, he held the door for me, and kept apologizing sort of when he would say something. Or rather, he would correct himself, or say conditional statements, or would say he had just contradicted himself.
However, he made some concrete suggestions. Such as, making a bit of an effort to focus my work a little. He suggested that it would lend strength to what I did, and would possibly help me to survive in the art world. He was pretty down on the art world in general, he said it was full of storms. He said that the most important thing was to have self-confidence. That if you can stand and say something to people, maybe with a smile...
He also mentioned that possibly i would like to be a clever artist, one who plays with others' expectations.
He liked my drawings- particularly the one on made paper that was more decorative than anything- as in, flat surfaces covered in imagery... But he also said the yarn one was good, and he liked the four color prints- though he mentioned it had been done before (which he said while smiling and looking again a bit bashful)- so that maybe i would not want to do it.
he mentioned doing new things, or of staying within a tradition. he said maybe they were the same.
he said i had the skills, it was just a matter of deciding now what i wanted to do. he suggested i might want to go to grad school. he said to do more drawings like the two he really liked.
he gave me a name of an artist to look at: Benjamin Degen. he thinks i might like looking at him.
24 January 2008
22 January 2008
Jeans/Sze/McGee
my first thought was of the many pairs of jeans that i took from tim+martha when we were packing their house. i also began thinking about the dead bird that has been sitting in my window. and the rocks under my bed, and the old newspapers, and the magazines.
i have a plethora of objects...but i want more. cause i want to find some colorful objects. i really liked Sarah Sze's stuff that we looked at in class. she had many bright colors talking in her pieces. it was great.
i also really liked Barry McGee's work- the pieces of metal he painted on, his color scheme. I liked the paper napkins- it reminded me of what i do when i get bored during dinner. that could be a sweet concept- every day during dinner, draw a picture on a napkin about what is happening-whether in actuality or in my mind.
i also want to do some screen printing in this project, i missed not doing it over the break. i like the motion of pulling the ink across, i like the feeling of neatness it gives me.
i have a plethora of objects...but i want more. cause i want to find some colorful objects. i really liked Sarah Sze's stuff that we looked at in class. she had many bright colors talking in her pieces. it was great.
i also really liked Barry McGee's work- the pieces of metal he painted on, his color scheme. I liked the paper napkins- it reminded me of what i do when i get bored during dinner. that could be a sweet concept- every day during dinner, draw a picture on a napkin about what is happening-whether in actuality or in my mind.
i also want to do some screen printing in this project, i missed not doing it over the break. i like the motion of pulling the ink across, i like the feeling of neatness it gives me.
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