Q and A on Art

Reflection Questions to answer in Sketchbook

Please answer questions in your sketchbook due the last class, M 12/1/2014

Reflection:

1. What do you want to do in life with your art? Decompress!!  I want to take life one day at a time and try to make as much art and music as possible, and eek out a salary somewhere.

2. What have you learned in this class about being a working artist?  Peer feedback is critical to success.  Drawing, writing or somehow modeling your ideas will help to determine their viability.

3. Where will you be in 5 years? God willing, I will be recovering from a heart transplant or recently recovered.  I will (hopefully) be enjoying living.

4. Have you considered an internship during your college experience? If so, where would your ideal location be to have an internship? Can you start looking now?  I would definitely love to work as an intern, but I am not sure how that would work.  Ideally, I would like to work in a print shop.

5. What is most important to you in life? My three sons.

6. How will you balance career and family if that is what you want? Family first and everything else when there is time and opportunity.

7. When you graduate, art-making can be lonely and isolating working in the studio. How will you enter an artistic community once you leave art school?  I have a large network now in the Hickory, Lenoir areas, as well as the Charlotte area.  A very good way to connect to the art community is through musicians.  I shoot pictures at many live performances.  Photography is also a gateway to other opportunites.

8. Should art be made for an audience or for ourselves? Yes.  I make art for myself because the process is meditative and the focus helps me to exorcise my demons.  I make art for myself because I have something that I want to say.  I make art for an audience because I have something that I want them to hear (message to receive).  I make art for an audience to create a pleasurable experience for the viewer.  I make art for an audience to shock them and motivate action.

9. Can art change the way people think?  Art can give perspectives that have never been seen before.  Art can show love and uncover injustice, and show the world how it is, how it was, or how it could be.  Art can make us happy, or sad, or offend us—all of which takes thought.

10. What is your responsibility as an artist?  My responsibility as an artist is to make art whenever possible, and to be a full-time supporter of artistic endeavors.  I must be a guardian to make sure that art is plentiful when my grandchildren arrive.

SIMULATED Gallery Proposal with Research

Gallery proposal:  Gen Xsquisit

Tom Nail

Exhibited Artists:

Ellen Gallagher

Janine Antoni

Tom Nail

         Gallagher ’65, Antoni ’64, and Nail ’68 are all children of the cold war age.  Growing up with Vietnam winding down, scandal in the White House, and the great American decline of the late seventies, these artists represent different perspectives from the same generation.

         Ellen Gallagher uses many media to produce her third gen feminist views.  Sometimes subtle and other times shocking Gallagher addresses many social issues in her works.  She is most famous for her projections, of “well known” silhouettes in scenes that are new.

Figure 1:  Ellen Gallagher "Bird in the Hand" 2006

         Janine Antoni is a performance and installation artist.  Antoni’s installations consume entire galleries with giant looms, blocks of chocolate that weigh a ton, and other creations—which normally include the artist herself.  Antoni is known to include a piece of herself in all her work.  Antoni also very rarely leaves an art “product,” such as a painting which could be bought or sold.

 

Figure 2: Janine Antoni, "Slumber" 1993

         Tom Nail was born in segregated Alabama and lived through the integration of the state’s schools.  The juxtaposition of the three cultures in which he lived:  the poverty laden South; the burgeoning North Jersey coast; and Asheville, NC—the artistic capital of the South; the diverse communities all pulled at his values and beliefs.  His art is heavily influenced by his time as an Army paratrooper—including an long combat deployment to Iraq.  Other themes of his work include mental illness, violence (institutionalized), drugs, and social injustice.

Figure 3: Tom Nail, "Maggie" 2012, Dry Point Intaglio

         The plan for this exhibition is to have Antoni as the primary artist—because most of her work takes almost a whole gallery.  Once we have Antoni’s planned work, we can plan space for Gallagher, and finally Nail.

         The Exhibit will rent warehouse space from R.T. Barbee Co., in the rejuvenated First Ward Community of Uptown Charlotte.  The warehouse is large enough for an Antoni super-sized installation, plus many smaller rooms for other artists.  The project will be crowd funded using service to be decided.

Here we go again....

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/uva-suspends-fraternities-following-rolling-stone-campus-rape-investigation-20141122

Reflection PSA Poster

In looking back at my development of this work, I feel that I should have at least considered other ideas.  I was hellbent on using words to shock the viewer and draw the viewer to the poster to read it.  My work might have been better had I considered different topics--even if I did return to this topic.

Overall, I think that the message of the poster is clear--sexual assault is a problem and many people don't know what constitutes a sexual assault.  I believe that I could have developed more of an action plan for the viewer, although the addition of the QR codes for the Sexual Assault Prevention web site is a good start.

The Georgia Tech article that I posted in an earlier blog, as well as our discussion in class in which Tammy spoke about "Jamba (?) Juice" shows a culture of males preying on young naive females who are away from home for the first time.

Final Poster Display at UNCC

The Evolution of the Poster

Of course I thought when I originally came up with the concept for the poster project, that it was done--work complete!  Wrong!  The poster has gone through more releases than Microsoft Windows.  First the background color changed from a gradient to a solid.  Then the rationalization text changed from a gradient to a solid.  Then the color of the background changed, the color of the text changed, and I began to simplify the message. I have included several iterations of the poster here.  These versions were close to the final poster.  Most of the changes made to these, were font size, location, justification, color, and the final main text.

The overall message was at last truncated to two words.  These two words were the ones that provided the initial shock value, and now that the extra baggage was pruned off, the expression became a double entendre:  the alternative to sexual assault, or the description of the person committing the assault.

Finally I needed to give the viewer information on how to prevent rape or sexual assault.  That information would eventually come from the UNCC Police Department web site.  I summarized the link into a scannable QR code and placed the code at both bottom corners of the poster.

I provided the gentlemen working at Repros with some amusement for the afternoon on Monday, as the giant words "Jerk Off" rolled down the printer at 18" by 24."

UNCC Police Web Site for Sexual Assault Prevention:

http://police.uncc.edu/crime-prevention-safety/sexual-assault-prevention

Notes from class: Thursday November 13

For the class on Thursday, November 13, our Conceptual Practices class conducted another oral critique of the proposed posters in 8.5x11 format.  Most of the work has changed dramatically from the first discussions and critique.

I found that this critique did not give good feedback for my work or any of the other works.  The critique was dominated by a few outspoken students.  Many of the best artists in the room never expressed their opinion of anything because they did not want to compete with the louder people.  I greatly prefer the written critique.

When we do a written critique, I get to see feedback from all of my peers.  If a change is recommended once, I might consider it.  If a change is recommended by everyone, or a majority of the viewers, then I believe a change is in order.  Because we did not get everyone's opinion on every work during the verbal critique, it is difficult to take the good suggestions and forget the bad ones.

Notes from class: Tuesday, November 11

During this class period, each of us presented one or multiple 8.5x11 printed versions of our planned poster.  We conducted a verbal critique, as well as a written critique.  I found that the written critique was very helpful in determining how the majority of viewers interpreted my poster.

I brought 5 printouts with different options--background color, font color, text positions, visual effects--all these elements are very important to get the message across to the viewer.  I gained a better insight into my work and saw the other ideas in the class and how they worked or didn't work.  Seeing what is successful and what fails in other posters is helping me understand how to improve my poster.

Poster project: The problem!

Here Are Disturbing Examples Of A 'Pro-Rape' Attitude At A Georgia Tech Frat

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/02/rape-georgia-tech_n_6089922.html#

I voted on Tuesday

My poll was at the Granite Falls fire department on Grace Chapel Road. 

Artist response: Layla Ali

Laylah Ali:  Artist, Painter

Laylah Ali was born in 1968 and works from Williamstown, MA.  Ali’s work is primarily, meticulously planned and executed, gauche paintings on paper.  Ali uses an abstract style in her figures, characterized by oversized heads, elongated bodies, and gender neutrality.  Her longest running series of works features characters, whom she dubs “Greenheads,” which are brown-skinned, gender non-specific figures which reference American folk lore, as well as Egyptian, and comic book style influences. (Art21, 2012) 

Ali paints to express her feelings concerning socio-political issues and current events, although the narrative of her paintings is not specific to any real event.  The issues that Ali covers are international and date back to the earliest history of man. (Art21, 2012)

When researching Laylah Ali, I was drawn to several main facets of her personality and her art.  Her abstract style is very high quality, without being anatomically accurate—which is a style that I can certainly identify with my work.  She is my age, so many of her experiences , and remembrances of the changing world are similar to mine, although I am sure that race and gender influence each of our perspectives.  Her use of gauche as her primary medium particularly interests me, because all of the painters that I have studied so far, use oil as their primary medium.  I think that her use of gauche certainly proves that any medium can be manipulated to render high quality art. I identify with Ali’s statement that she “must” create to ease her soul and certain energy within herself.  I believe that my relative unhappiness throughout life was a reaction to a lack of expression—of my emotions, my beliefs, my ideas, and of many things that I cannot name, but which drive me subconsciously.  Most of all, I enjoy her work.  I find her work pleasing to observe, even though many of the scenes are violent or contain a narrative that is suppressive or betraying.

Performance Art - Fantasy

Our class performances from today are included in the embedded YouTube Playlist.  All of the video has uploaded. There are seven videos total in the playlist. 

My personal performance was not quite up to my standards.  Details below:

• Costume--I was happy with the overall concept of the costume, the implementation was what disappointed me.  With just a little more time, I believe I could have made a much more dynamic and detailed costume.  The overall concept was a version of the Tin Man character from the Wizard of Oz, but with a shortage of time and materials, the appearance was simplified.  The metaphor of the Tin Man in quest of a heart, fit me perfectly with my health situation.  Once the appearance of the costume changed, I had comments from several people that saw different characters in the costume.  My father thought I was a playing card from "Alice in Wonderland."  Several people thought I was a robot, various robots from the generic to well known models from the movies.  I decided not to name the character and let each viewer see what they wanted to see.
• Performance--I had planned for my performance to be simple, and it was simple.  Having completed the exercise, I think the performance would be better if I interacted with the group more.
• Sound--I was very happy with the sound.  The sound was created at my change bowl, by dropping handfuls of change into the bowl and recording the sound using Garage Band on my iPhone 6.  The loop playback was sent via bluetooth to the JBL Flip speaker and was instantly recognizable.  The metallic clink made a great fit for the costume and performance. 

I believe that performance art is EXTREMELY important.  I wish that our class provided enough time for each student to create a more detailed and longer performance.

Fín

Look out fashion world. The first design is done and in a shopping bag. 

Sneak Peak

Here is a hint at the costume for Conceptual Art on Thursday. 

Response to Ursula von Rydingsvard: "Ona"

The bronze sculpture "Ona" sits outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. "Ona" in Polish refers to a female. Von Rydingsvard says that she feels a female energy from the sculpture--thus the name. Von Rydingsvard uses a Patina process to fuse colors into the bronze to juxtapose the rusting metal of the huge arena. The sculpture has a subtle V shape, which is traditionally a symbol of feminism--a rough abstraction of the shape of the birth canal. Von Rydingsvard has worked in Brooklyn for more than 37 years and is very happy to have one of her sculptures on display there.

Response to Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: "Oppenheimer"

In "Oppenheimer" Manglano-Ovalle presents a figure, representing Oppenheimer, standing in a jungle setting.  The camera circles the figure, who does not move.  Manglano-Ovalle says that his intent is to show Oppenheimer living just in one moment, but by looping the film, the viewer is reliving one moment.

Response to Mark Dion, ART21 segments

Mark Dion, in his ART21 interview, discusses his interest in the "ecologies" of the places where he creates.  Dion wants to understand the relationships between people and people, people and the environment, and between different forces within the environment.

Dion describes himself as an amateur archeologist and biologist, "shadowing their methodology."

In the ART21 short "Herbarium Perrine," Dion displays a collection of marine algae that has been pressed into paper.  Dion says that he seaweed has a natural adhesiveness and once the specimen is stuck onto paper, it mimics a drawing.

Ecology sneak preview

Post by Tom Nail Photography.

Post by Tom Nail Photography.

More ecology shots