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time is up my dear students.....

shelby s.

Mike Bell is the artist I chose. I chose him mostly because he uses real items rather than just making an image and his artwork is very pretty with the scenery.

His work is mostly inspired by where he lived in England which was the coast of Northumberland. The images he creates use a wide variety of materials, sand soil, coaldust, often embedded in paint surface.

He likes to paint naturally and keep it that way. He rarly uses a brush but finger, knife, trowel, sand, plaster, spray paints plus lots of builders materials to create impasto paint surfaces.

http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/m/mikebell/

The artist I chose was Maria Arango. Her work consists of woodcut and wood engraving techniques. I chose this artist because she wants to show the process of printmaking through her work and how it fascinates her and how hard and laboring it can be.

She says figurative work interests her as much as the desert and all its fruitful offerings. She also explains how she is interested in exploring the importance of wood in human existence, especially important to the woodcut printmaking artist working on paper. She imagines the work in her head and she simply prints the ones that stick.

http://www.1000woodcuts.com/

The first episode I picked from Art: 21 was time. The artist Martin Puryear is a woodworker. His first piece that is shown is a curvy ladder made out of wood that looks like it is preceding into space faster than it actually does and is ongoing. Then some work are shown in a gallery and talks about how the work doesn’t have to be good or ugly for someone to talk about it or make a point. Then Martin and Mr. Oliver went to the Oliver ranch and looked at all the stonework and walls that are up around. He talks about his interest in nature and how cultural forms evolve.

Paul Pfeiffer is the next artist. He talks about his interest for horror scenes, and recreates his favorite from a movie. He builds a staircase and projects it as well. So you are looking down the staircase from the projection screen and then look through a hole looking up the stairs. He talks about how he likes images, and who really makes the images. He talks about how repetition is compelling. Reverse and fast forwarding time and repeating what you see.

Another artist is Vija Celmins. Her first piece that she shows is a work that she is repainting the stars in the sky from a photograph. And she talks about how she likes nature but its usually doesn’t like to make a piece straight from nature.

The next video I watch from the art:21 series is Play. Jessica Stockholder is the first artist. She goes to a papermaking studio and shows how its made and explains what its about. Her artwork is shown as furniture and plastics and not paintings.

The next artist name is Ellen Gallagher. She made some artwork out of penmanship paper and build from that. She collects old magazines and does her designs over the original images.

Another artist is Arturo Herrera. He begins cutting out pieces of paper and putting them together to make a design. It becomes a shape of color. He takes pieces from images that are clear and whole, and puts them together with others to make a different one.

Art | 21: Systems curtis.gessner

The second video I watched was the systems video. This video was interesting to me because it dealt with technological advancement and systems. The first thing that the first artist said was that it related to mapping. I found this to be incredibly amusing.

The first artist interviewed was Julie Mehretu. She worked mostly in painting, making huge murals in Germany, and working with a variety of other artists. The first couple of pieces are actually kind of similar to the latest exhibition at the Haas center, she used watercolors. She basically commissions other artists to complete her pieces, making all of her works completely collective. Almost all of them are complex, and have excellent stories behind them.

The next artist in the video is John Baldessari. He uses extreme contrast in his pieces, and some of them are what he calls ‘absurd’. The first example shown is a black and grey photo with a very bright orange outline of a human on top of the picture. He’s an interesting looking man with longer white hair and a white beard. In his pieces he will remove pieces of information and replace them with a single color. 

The next artist was Kimsooja. She is called ‘a needle woman’. Kimsooja also works with reflection a little bit. She is quite diverse and combines several different styles and several different expressions in all of her pieces. Most of her work is enormous pieces of glass done through windows, representing organic forms. 

Allan McCollum is the next artist in the series. He definite had an interesting introduction. His explicit intent is to be able to create something similar to the ‘color by numbers’ pieces that were popular. He does not want to create anything that is not easily reproducible. He uses premade shapes in his paintings, and makes massive quantities of similar things using these shapes. For example, the color by numbers pieces he does are only black, organic shapes, and the exhibition of these was an entire wall of these facings. It was more than 1000 of these creations mounted on a wall. In a word, it was breathtaking and enormous and overwhelming.

The art exhibited in these videos is more interesting than the videos themselves in my opinion. Some of the connections are hard to make, but all in all they are very enriching.

And despite the less than one hour between these posts, the entire video was viewed. Albeit on seperate occasions, on which I took notes.

Art 21 | Memory curtis.gessner

The first art21 video that I viewed was entitled memory. I searched for a video that other people haven’t already written about, and the fact that this particular video was relevant to something that we did in class made me want to write about it. This section was just over 50 minutes long. 

Susan Rothenburg was the first artist interviewed. She goes over her introduction to life in the Midwest and how it differs and offers a completely different viewpoint on your life when compared to a more urban area such as New York. She mentioned a few of her memories, her roots in the 70s, her college and high school careers, similarly to the art exhibitions, I feel like the artist raises more questions than she answers. She doesn’t really talk too much about memory, but does go through her daily routine and what goes through her head a little bit when she is painting. Her style is very dark, she uses old brushes that are generally unclean, and puts some surrealistic elements into her works.

The next artist in the video was Mike Kelley. He was a much odder artist in my opinion; he said “all of our motivation is the result of some oppressed trauma”. I thought that this was a very interesting statement, and the various pieces he goes through confirm my suspicions. All of his works are very colorful, and the first piece he talks about is a series of videos that he records for a year, for 365 videos. He doesn’t take everything very seriously, and mixes styles. Mike also utilizes animals in almost all of his pieces. Watching the video makes me imagine that he could have been an excellent director, as it seems as though he’s constantly animated, and obviously enjoys his work. 

The next artist was a Japanese man named Hiroshi Sugimoto. He lives in New York and works mostly with light and shading. He actually uses an archaic contraption to take pictures which become his art. He combines photography with sculpture to some extent. This artist certainly takes advantage of memory more than the above two do; his works have a very historic feel to them. The photography he does is exclusively black and grey photography. Most of his work is very interesting and has a link to the past.

The last artist was the most interesting in my opinion. He worked in glass, and his name was Josiah McElheny. The first thing he mentions is his earliest experiences working with glass. He studied in Europe, and did not intend on becoming a glass artist. He makes a point of mentioning that during the creation of the piece you absolutely cannot touch it, due to the temperatures associated with glass work. His work is also very historical and linked to more scientific theories than have been mentioned before.

Similarly to other artists, this video did not answer any questions for me. As a matter of fact, I did not feel like it was particularly relevant to memory. However, I would watch the movie at length again.

New York City Trip : Rachael Graham

To start, I actually had the opportunity to visit NYC a second time after the bus trip, which also involved art!

During the bust trip to NYC, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was excited at the start of the trip, due to the fact I have been to NYC many times, without once visiting any of the many art museums! Therefore, I had to visit the Met! First of all, it was neat to even walk into the building and look at the people surrounding me - I have never been among such a diverse crowd at an art museum! I was amazed at the variety of people from all over the world and hearing the many different languages throughout the museum - after all, it is NYC. Also, I usually prefer physically making art rather than viewing it - I love to make my own and put work into art rather than viewing it - I still am able to appreciate the vast amount of artists out there!

When touring the Met, I could not believe its own diverse collection, or range of art and its size. A few different sections instantly appealed to me while strolling through: The antique furniture collection and the Egyptian art. At the beginning of the museum exploration, we came upon the Egyptian art - In discussion with friends, we could not believe we were so close to pieces which have been touched and crafted by a people who lived in an incredibly distant past. Looking at the many models of the lifestyle, the carvings, the jewelry, the tools, etc., I was especially blown away by the amount of detail. My brain was just boggled at the fact that such ornate detail, so smooth and neat, was achieved so long ago and with the changes the world has experienced. I was amazed with what I was standing within a foot of. For example, the Egyptian jewelry had extremely intricate detailing on a very tiny scale - if you were to look up close, you would be blown away. I did know that that kind of detailing on a minute level was possible in that era or the technology in order to do that was even available! I felt that I could actually completely appreciate the Ancient Egyptian art due to the fact that I am a perfectionist and detail oriented - the jewelry, with its outrageous detail on such a small scale, made by an ancient people was amazing.

Overall, the rest of the art which I viewed at the Met was among the most diverse I have ever seen, which is so interesting due to the diversity which is present in the city of NYC!!!

Rachel Knight Blog 3; Art21 Protest 4

This program deals with art as a protest, making a point and letting out the artists message to the world, following four artists, showing exactly what they do and why they do it. Nancy Spero began by focusing her art on the atrocities that occurred during the Vietnam War. Through news clippings that she viewed, she was inspired to create artwork involving politics. Focusing on various projects and interesting pieces, Spero takes an idea and runs with them completely, making sure every piece of art is different. Next An- My Le was featured. Studying war and focusing on specific issues, she photographs military practices. Photographing war reenactors, Spero really attempts to capture the feeling of war. By spending time with war reenactors, Spero got to capture photographs with a sense of uncertainty for her project. Since Spero is unable to photograph the current wars going on in the world, she relies on this, showing what she sees through photography.
Next the program shifts to Alfredo Jaar who opens up with his strong beliefs in a single idea. Approaching art with a background in architecture, Alfredo studies the space of art, whether it exists within the artwork or around what he wants to create and moves on from there. Alfredo uses the case of the genocide in Rwanda for a project, taking six years to complete, including 21 pieces. He wanted the audience to identify with every single person who had lost their lives in this genocide. He did this through creating an extraordinary exhibit using elements like wind and water. The exhibit appears to be overwhelming, but in a good way, making a point of the atrocities that occur in this world. It is something that I would definitely make a point to see if I had a chance. Lastly, the program features Jenny Holzer and her work, which contains a lot of electronic words.
Holzer’s work is unlike anything I have ever seen before. She expands her mind and makes the content of the writing the focus and the importance of the works. She realizes the importance of short phrases, rather than sentences in certain settings, like busy city streets. She uses the text of others that has been released to create her art. She also engages in politics, war and inequalities through the words she uses. I most certainly enjoy her art, finding the use of words something different and intriguing. These four artists definitely used art as a protest, expressing their feelings and beliefs on issues in the world, creating a lasting effect on viewers.

Rachel Knight- Blog 3; Art21 Compassion, 3

To my surprise, this program was rather interesting, drawing me in and opening my mind. Opening with a woman singing opera into a cell phone for the sound effect, I sat back and nodded in amazement. Then it goes on to show William Kentridge who is working with animated films inspired by charcoal drawings, making me dwindle on how unique our technological world can be for the arts. By taking creativity and an artistic license of sorts, impressive pieces have come about, not only amazing viewers but seemingly the artists themselves. Combining different processes and machines, the film shows how an artist can make a film from drawing, showing that we are always learning in order to advance. Incorporating a historical story, the techniques used to do this are very interesting and unlike anything I have ever seen, further intriguing me as I watched this program.
Exposing a lack of tolerance and injustice through art of many sorts, these artists unplanningly have a motive with their work, letting it flow out of them naturally. Moving on to photography with artist Carrie Mae Weems, the next focus of the program emphasizes the history in the pieces also. The photographs and the richness of their history and present day influence really remind us how far our society has come in good and bad ways. The past and present is bridged together through the photography’s in particular. Without the civil rights movement, Barack Obama would never have a chance to be where he is today and we can be reminded of this through photo’s from the movement. Next the program flows into art with furniture by Doris Salcedo.
Basing her work on experiences, specifically not her own, but someone else’s, Salcedo made the process of building pieces of furniture and other objects quite the experience. It makes me feel as though she was burying a feeling, a story, a problem into an object. Spending great amount of time on pieces and constructing them in the most impractical way, Salcedo and the large group who works with her found the rationality of what they do, through violence and events that they have witnessed, through someone else’s experience and torture. Embracing detail and matters of time, the pieces these groups create are phenomenal and heart wrenching. Symbolizing experiences of racism, discrimination, ignorance, and many other injustices, these pieces give an overwhelming feeling, leaving me grateful for the equality in my life. Compassion was the theme of this program. Compassion did not need to be said or defined, but just as Salcedo’s work does, it was hidden between the lines, leaving you with an emotion rather than an answer to what compassion truly is. These three artists all took on very different styles of art, but still created something similar and so precious.

Rachel Knight- Blog 3, artist #2

Through more searching I came upon Colin Moore, an artist with a wide range of medias. From a small town in Scotland, he currently lives in London England, working primarily with painting and printmaking. Moore’s prints are unlike any I have ever seen and I do not find them very traditional. Due to this I became interested in his collection, viewing many different prints. Appearing almost cartoon like, Moore uses color extraordinarily. The color helps the prints flow and makes me take in the print entirely. The two prints I choose to analyze are quite similar, but interesting in their own ways.

The first print, Suffolk 1, is an edition of 100 linocut print. Looking somewhat cartoon like and unrealistic with the shapes of the flowers and clouds, this print is unlike any I have ever seen. With the different lines and colors the piece flows very well. I also believe the placement of the church is well done, suiting the piece compositionally. The eerie feeling I get from this light hearted piece makes me focus on it and wonder what it is trying to convey. The second piece I am analyzing is Brighton Pier which is a 5 color linocut with an edition of 75.

Far from eerie, I find this piece to be very fun. The colors are bright and the placement of them along with various lines and shapes, help the piece flow extremely well. It also sparks up vacation memories for me, which would make me linger around this piece for some time. With similar looks, Moore’s prints would work cohesively in an exhibit, making me very interested in viewing them in real life.
Moore’s work is very interesting and done carefully, resulting in amazing prints. The edge of cartoonist in the prints draws me in. Also, Moore is an older gentleman but his work still appears very modern and young. His work is something I would keep my eye on and follow out of interest! http://www.colinmoore.uk.com/

Rachel Knight- Blog #3, artist #1

The printmaking artist Mark Brabant seems to be up and coming in the world of art. I stumbled upon him after a lot of googling and searching for artists websites. Brabant’s website is very simple and clean, resembling his artwork. Selling prints and selling out quickly, many have definitely latched onto him. Modern, clean, and extremely appealing, his prints could fit into almost any setting from houses of all sorts to business offices. After looking through a group of prints, Brabant’s stuck out to me the most due to the detail they contain, while remaining clear and easy to look at. They stand strong compositionally attracting me.

The first print, Tuned In is a 5 color screen print and is an edition of 200. The blues gray and black go together well, making it appealing to the eye. Compositionally it flows well with everything from the line of various houses to the shooting star. The fact that it is a screen print also impresses me. It looks like it’s completely computer generated to me. This reminds me that even hands on older processes can render just as modern fresh art. The second print, Overnighter looks completely different, which attracted me also. This print is an edition of 200 and is a 4 color screen print. The loneliness of the piece pulls me in and after analyzing it, I realize there is a frog in the doorway of the shack! That made me laugh a bit and made me search the rest of the piece for other oddities. Lacking bright colors, Brabant gave the piece a specific type of feeling. Flowing well, with great detail, this piece is definitely something I would consider purchasing.

Brabant work is unlike any other printmaking work I have seen. By taking simple scenes he pulls the viewer in with fantastic prints full of color and detail. With clear compositions full of interesting simplistic scenes, the pieces can spark many emotions, almost depending on your current mood. I really enjoy these prints and they inspire me to become a bit more brave with my own printmaking work! http://hoveringobject.com/

Joey Nebiker ------Blog 3 - #3 Fantasy

Jeff Koons was the first artist on the Fantasy video. He makes very few paintings every year because it takes a long time to make each one. He feels a sense of community in his studio, and relies on a lot of other people to help him create his art. He wants a certain sense of communication and interaction in his art. Everything in his art is done through maps, Jeff makes maps and the artists that work for him use the maps to recreate his computer art through paintings.

Three people work on a painting at one time and it takes generally six to eight months for each painting. Jeff works on the computer most of the time, but he also comes in daily to organize the work for the group.

He works with a lot of different materials from inflatables, to wood and metal. In his video they show his exhibition at Versailles. He got to put his sculptures and art inside and outside the space. His pieces ranged from paintings, to flower arrangements and sculptures made out of various materials.

Mary Heilmann was next on the video. She started off by saying she always wanted a lot of attention from the time she was a little kid. She was very good at pottery in her early art career at Berkley. She talks about how she realized that art was about communicating through her artwork. She wanted to be original and go against the grain. She eventually switched over to become a painter. Her paintings are objects first and then after she paints on these objects, they become something else.

She began writing about her artwork and she noticed that when people read about her art they were more interested in her work. So now the writing and giving titles to her art is a part of the process. She explains that the titles have become three word poems for her work in a way.

Florian Maier- Aichen was featured next on the video. He takes images that he finds images and recreated them or finds ways to work his way up from them. He talks about postcards and how they represent an ideology more than an actual image. He likes to work with that type of idea.

He uses photography to document an idea and then he works with the image from there. He likes to take things that he’s inspired by and then make them into something else. Maybe not something else better but he changes the images into something new or something he wishes it looked like. He’s creating fantasy from reality through his work. The video shows him as he goes through this process of inspiration and creation. He becomes inspires, takes pictures, and creates something new and different from these pictures. He likes to work with the photos by creating a feeling of abstraction.

He takes these images and recreates them digitally on the computer. There he can really experiment with the abstraction he strives for in his images.

Cao Fei was the final artist to be featured on the Fantasy video. She fell in love with hip hop music through street culture and likes to approach the world with a sense of humor.

She uses music as a major part of her artwork. She felt like she could critique reality through her artwork in her early work. In her later works she changed and showed society in a different light. Her later work was more realistic. Most of her work is video accompanied by music. She likes to expose reality through her work, in an artistic way. In her one video she has people dancing inside of a factory. The video is supposed to show that these people are living out their fantasy’s inside of a factory and it’s contradictory to the way the corporate world works.

She made a documentary in a program called “second life”. It was very interesting to see this online world and the artistic approach she took in order to create her documentary. She created an entire city in the second life world. Her city was based on the idea of fantasy with staples taken from reality. The video shows that in her online world, she’s free to create whatever fantasy she chooses. Cao Fei uses the internet as an outlet for her artistic expression.