Interpretation and Controversial Art 1/23/08

Liked the juxtaposition of the "modern" and "classic" at the end of the discussion. This speaks volumes about how crucial the viewer/interpreter is in art. Many times when controversy arises around an artist work it seems due to the " baggage " brought to the work by the viewers. Does an artist have any control over what viewer's are gonna see in their work? I would say no no one person can truely control another without consent to be controlled. Eric Fischl's work is intrigueing because he really seems to push some psychosexual buttons. He toys with the viewer challenging them almost to face these scenes in their own minds. One thing about some strong images once you have seen them they in your psyche and left to play.There almost seems a certain amount of trickery to art and psychology- the most sensitive parts of ourselves we keep hidden away, but these are often the parts that need attention, so artists and shrinks must figure out a way to access these parts and pull them intot he light, often a painful but eventually rewarding thing. I believe artists are very apt at drawing out the parts that we all try to keep hidden.

Guest Speaker Ms. Mary The Fiber Lady 1/23/08

"everybody loved my scribbles" artsist=genius "an artist is a hard thing to call oneself"

These phrases really stuck with me. Mary seems to see more in things to me than most people. Almost like she gets a view into the invisible world or the collective unconscious. Her work is very personal and politcal in a unique and sensitive way.This art appears to challenge societies and her own views of femine archetypes. The way this appears is not all together comfortable to the viewer perhaps this is due to Mary's "haunted childhood". I must say I can relate to this spending some time on the dark side myself but i believe most of the world finds glimpses into this world unsettling. Sounds like what art should be to me- personal- social- disturbing and aesthetic. My studies into shamanistic practices and religion make me postulate that in some way Mary is performing some sort of ritual service to the spirit world. As a "modern" society our connection to the spirit world has been drastically severed by fear, superstition , cultural taboos and serious lack of understanding. Many aboriginal peoples believe that the physical world is created from the invisble or dream world. The Dhammapada says " We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world."

Guest Speaker and The Professional World1/14/08

We had a great speaker from Graphic Design talk and answer questions about blogging. What i learned from this was that there are always many ways to accomplish something in the world og blogging. Mr Tslentis was very friendly and helpful I especially liked what he said about learning to learn. This is the whole point of education for me. Artist are curious by nature and it is necessasry for us to know how to think things through and to discover relevant questions and solutions to prblems. training the mind is key in the discovery of ourselves and our true work.
woking in the professional art work for a living instilled in me many of the topics in the discusiion of art Reality and The Professional World. The reality is tough and has it's own set of rules and challenges. i have several bodies of work I have accumulated over the years and now need a way to exhibit these to complete the cycle including an audience. until now much of my work has stayed hidden from public view perhaps due to my own timid insecurities about exposing my self in these works, no excuse I know. another great art mag is called High Fructose -mostly illustartive but very cutting edge and outside of the mainstream. Speaking of journals i've got acollection of those too. Perhaps I will scan some pages and do a seperate littelblog on journaling. hmm. One instance that really gave creditabilty to journaling was an exhibit i saw in NYC of Peter Beards phots and journals and artifacts from his years shooting fashion in Africa.
mostly my work can be descibed as photography mixed media. I also incorporate painting and use of resins to encase objects and photos. i guess audience for me is a big issue nad I really need to spend some time searching out gallery spaces and other non-traditional places that i can exhibit my work i am coming to realize that the cycle begun with the inspiration is not complete until the work is viewd by people. I do believe that this incompletion can manifest in the artist(myself) as depression and anxiety. Two things I would like to avoid.

McColl Center Trip 1/16/08

Wednesday the 16th we ventured to this exciting resource for artists. The featured show was Susan Harbage Page. She used found objects, photo, video, audio and painting on fabric. She addressed themes of womens place in society and in personal relationships. One particularly striking piece to me was a found embroidery with 4 victorian looking female profiles embroidered on a huge cloth. I'm guessing Page found this, but she had added an embroidered hand in the middle of the women clenching strings which were tied around the womens throats. The piece was called "Control".this theme was echoed in many of her other works-- some titles were-- "You Never Knew What Kind of Mood He Would Be In" " I asked Too Many Questions" and "I Hide My Successes In The Dresser Drawer". This show seemed a catharsis for Page as well as a way of reaching out and offering support and reassurance to other women who have perhaps had to hide their light or were labeled hysterical or depressed because they expressed something other than docile submission.
Another piece by a different artist was an installation using found glass desert dishes overflowing with mass produced labels reading "Misconceptions". This piece like many others forces the viewr to decode what the artist is getting at. It raisess questions and pushes the viewer to answer those on their own. Again this seems to be about the "labels" put on people by society these labels often reflect more than anything societies "misconceptions" about the true natures of humans.
I will be thinking more deeply about all the choices an artist makes when designing a work, it seems every detail is significant.

One Tough Class 1/09/08

The 9th of Jan was the first day of Concept Studio, I can tell this class is going pull- push -force and wrangle my brain into spots that may feel at times scary and cramped but will eventually lead my mind to a place of continuous freedom and expansion. I accept this with all my faculties willinging actually joyfully-like the top of the roller coaster b 4 you dive!
I believe this class is really about pushing hte envelope or even creating a new one perhaps. Brain storm thoughts from class ....smart observant people find connections everywhere between all things... would it be possible to cook a gourmet meal with found food? What inspires sometimes forces artist to create?? Why do certain things last ? What makes a pattern endure? maybe its nature of holding it's true nature while constantly changing. i am one of those people who must create or make things..if i do not my brain inside becomes tangled and dark, not a comforting place for me to dwell. It seems that the creation of "art " clears my internal clutter -basically i think we all have things ideas objects inside us as ideas and we must birth these notions into the outside world ,even if they are not the perfect child they still need to live. This forceful expulsion of self on the world reminds me of the macro micro idea, again a pattern that endures. sometimes i feel i am reflecting the world, consuming ideas sometimes i don't get to choose what i consume {gotta work on that}.

Anyone ever heard of gleaning? webster's says--1to collect ( grain left by the reapers) 2 to collect ( facts etc) gradually- gleanings. There is a great film, french documentary called The Gleaners and I. This title comes from a famous painting called The Gleaners portraying woman in the forground and figures in a field behind her. These gleaners were usually poor poor and would come to the fields after the big machines and salvage what ever potatoes or food they could, there was always something left. In the documentary the filmmaker explores this notion even further. Artists who work with only found objects" one man's trash..another man's treasure." people who eat only what they find. I like the idea that a person can convert something seen as refuse into something that sustains or inspires them.