Inner Space 2011

Auras

Well thesis is finally coming to an end! I believe my thesis project went off without any major problems besides after install there was a mark on one of my photos but I quickly took care of that and the problem was resolved and my artwork looked amazing! From the beginning of this class my idea has evolved from just studies of lights to studies of peoples auras and emotions. There was a lot going into this project and as I was shooting it really just made more sense to me and meant more to me to do my project on my friends’ auras instead of just playing around with lights. I had a different title to the series at first as well that would really describe what I was doing and what my artwork was all about but I decided to just title it Auras and let the viewers really read into what they could be or how the people in them were presenting themselves. During the show, I think everyone’s art really stood out on its own. I really loved that mine and Shub’s work were in the same room and were able to play off of each other with the colors we both had used. I thought it was pretty amazing since neither of us had tried to have the same colors and both pieces were very strong.
Installing my artwork was another new experience that thesis really helped me out with. I had a very decent sized wall that fit all of my pictures perfectly. But without the help of my fellow thesis classmates I think I would have lost it during install! I had a tough time with hanging but my friends helped me and got me on the right track to the measurements and giving me a fresh pair of eyes every once in a while to make sure I had hung my images straight on the wall.
The critiques we had in class were so helpful during this process and really helped me zone in on my project and make it perfect. The feedback I got from my classmates and faculty members was more than just encouraging but constructive and informative. I was given many new artists to look at and even a few takers to be subjects in my images!
After the show we were given the opportunity to have a guest critique with a visiting artist. I really thought that I would be getting better feedback than I had gotten. I really felt that the artist really did not like me or my artwork and didn’t really give me the feedback I had really expected. I guess we just had very different styles of photography and very different tastes. She did however give me a few artists to look at which I thought was pretty cool considering I had never seen their work before.
As for now, after graduation, I am going to be helping my aunt out at her frame shop and getting some studio time with the photographer that is based out of the shop. I hope to someday start my own business and make a name for myself in the photography world. I have already sold a few pieces and I really hope that those people will get my name out there and I will get some more photography jobs. This is what I love to do and I really hope I will be able to continue to take pictures for my living!

Critique 2/18/11

I brought in a new installment of my thesis project for crit today. I'm not sure I got the feedback I was expecting as last time. I felt this time didn't help as much and I needed I guess? From last time I tried doing separate colors in each image instead of all together and I thought it was pretty successful but still missing something. I added two colors into one and still felt a little unsure about it. I definitely want to reshoot and try again. I was told that I should try to create a Pollock out of the colors and see if that does anything for me. What I am doing is definitely documenting gestures but is that what I am going for? I hope maybe when I get them printed the way I want it will then start falling all into place for me. Lets hope it works!

Critique 1/28/11

Today I showed my thesis group some photos that I plan to use for my thesis project. They are still in the beginning stages of becoming what I want it to become. I am still shooting lights in the cover of darkness and shot these (the 3rd attempt) the same as the few before with a bunch of different lights. I think for my final attempt, I will try to have each dancer in a different color all to themselves. my fellow thesis classmates gave me some great ideas and artists to look at that might help me a little more in my process for my project. I was told to look at artists such as Robert Flomen who uses nature to make his images instead of a camera. His work is really amazing and has given me a few great ideas for my own work. I had asked if I should keep the "energies" contained withing the frame or not and got some mix feelings about it. Some thought that keeping it contained would draw the eye in more and some thought it was restricting to the energies. And others thought that I could let the lights move out of frame but not too much because it would start to look too much like abstract painting. I could see that happening. Another matter discussed was the size of my images. I knew I wanted to make them big but the question was, how big? The most common suggestion was to make them about life-sized. I really like that idea a lot. I love that they will be on a more realistic scale to really engage with the viewer. I want them to be life-like, just as if the energies were forming right in front of you. Other suggestions I received were to do all one color then introduce just a little of another color just to break up the continuity. I am really excited to shoot the new images but I am a little skeptical of the snow. It may cause me some problems so I am going to have to work on that.

MFA 1 Show

Upon walking into the MFA 1 Show, the first thing anyone will notice is the giant boar head spewing fake blood into a huge barrel by Max Cemeno called go ugly early. Needless to say, this mixed media piece was greatly disturbing but in a way slightly cool. Granted I knew it was fake blood (well I really hope it is!) it still has a gross factor. The boars head was mounted on a small wall in the middle of the floor right in your viewing range. Before walking up to it for further inspection, I was wondering how the barrel didn’t already fill itself up! But there is a hose running from the barrel to the bottom of the structure, through the back and back up to the head so it can continue to spew it out. After looking at this piece and walking around it, I was drawn to the installation piece of Erika Hickle called really-nice-sunsets_Large. I love the way these were presented in the show! These tempera on paper with a vinyl background took up the whole side wall. It looks to be the night sky behind the three right after the sunsets. It’s like the process of which the sunset takes place at night. I love that they all look like desert type sunsets like they were taken somewhere in Arizona or somewhere near there. It is not like the normal straight forward painting of a sunset with everything perfectly aligned or looking exactly like a real-life scene. I really like how it looks like the cacti are melting along with all of the other colors present in these pieces. I love how it looks slightly dark and eerie even when it is supposed to be a beautiful sunset. Very ironic yet beautiful at the same time.

In the distance I could hear this weird thumping noise coming from the back room. So I went to check it out only to find as very interesting movie playing. Derek Franklin had a video called complicated relation playing next to two large canvases that looks to have been beat to hell. As the movie played on I could hear a woman’s voice and see her in a dominatrix outfit beating the canvas with a whip and talking “dirty” to it. I was taken aback by this at first because I wasn’t exactly sure what I was even viewing and witnessing. But as I continued to view this video, I noticed that the canvases hanging on the wall next to the tv were the ones she was hitting entitled Reinhardt #7 and Reinhardt #1. These pieces intrigued me quite a bit because without the video, I would have just thought it was paint and holes that were put into the canvas with a knife or something. The video definitely tied everything together for me and really made me enjoy the piece that much more. It made it impossible to ignore with the loud sounds of the video in the room.
I walked across the gallery into the next room all the way into the back where I was confronted with another video that looked like robbers stuck in a chimney. This mixed media installment was by Stefanos Milkidis entitled Entrapment. It was very interesting next to the large installation of what looked like a chimney. I found myself trying to be able to peer into the structure (a failed attempt of course haha) to see if the people were actually still in there! But of course, it must have been pre-recorded, maybe it was an earlier performance piece of the day the show opened. Regardless I did not want to leave the room at first in hopes of maybe seeing the three people all dressed in black like robbers be able to climb out of the hole they are in.


Another artist that really caught my eye was Jim Brittingham with his two mixed media pieces both entitled Untitled. These two had so much color that they pretty much just jumped off the wall at me. It was such an excitement for me to see such beautiful colors that I had to stop and stare for a while. There was a lot of the use of spray paint it seems and a lot of things pieced together to create the whole of the piece. It was very intriguing to look at and wonder what the artist’s intent and thought process was while creating these fantastic and interesting pieces.
I left that room and went back into the main gallery room to exit the gallery. One thing I will admit is that as I was leaving, I again stopped to look at Erika’s work on the wall. It really kept with me all throughout the show. There was one thing however that bugged me about the show as a whole. There were no labels on the wall accompanying any of the pieces in the show and it made it a little hard to know whose work I was looking at. The diagram that was presented at the entrance of the gallery was not very helpful either. Everything was numbered in a very weird way and it was hard to get my bearings of which piece I was looking at in the given moment. I guess you could say it was a diagram leading you through the gallery but to me it was very confusing. Other than that, I did enjoy the show and wish I could meet some of the artist themselves to talk to them more about their work personally.

Studio Journal 8

I tried a new way of shooting the lights the other day. But does this look too much like ghostly figures moving through the pictures? I am not sure if this one will fit into my project of dancing figures. But maybe I am wrong. I do really like this image though. Now....thoughts on sizes...do I make them really big poster sized images that could be like a my-size mirror-like image? Or do I keep them to a normal like 11 x 14 or 20 x 20 piece. I am leaning towards life-size photos! And maybe this does fit into my project. I do want people to take away from it what they will.

Studio Journal 7

(As taken from my journal on NOV. 13, 2010)

I couldn't copy images from this site but it gave me a little more inspiration toward my own project and really intrigued me. I really love this artists work. The Cosmo series is just like mine but with a totally different meaning. At first look I didn't read the artists statement about the series I just looked at the pictures. Upon further investigation I had found out that it was couples making love with glow lights on them to make the amazing forms. That is EXACTLY what I want people to get from my own project! Except, my lights are not from people making love haha.
http://atsukomorita.com/index2.html

Studio Journal 6

(As taken from my journal on NOV. 5, 2010)

Today was a crit day in Thesis. My fellow classmates had great feedback and suggestions towards my lights project. Some even guessed right about what I was trying to achieve. I finally got over my mental block. But I still have a ways to go before it is complete. I have some new directions I want to try before the year is up.

Here are a few examples: