Mixographics

these drawings are splendid

2012-01-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

Check out these AWESOME envelope drawings of old people. They blew my mind.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/01/envelope-drawings-by-mark-powell/?src=footer

Tate Foley

2011-12-18T13:16:00.000-08:00

I think Tate Foley has a show up at Webster, this video he made is on printeresting and it is pretty awesome. Check it out.

Submit to Work in Process!!

2011-12-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

Come talk to me if you would like your work to be in the show! We are asking for artists to help put their work up on Thursday, December 8th during the day and evening.

http://samfoxschool.wustl.edu/events/student-exhibitions/6183

Printmaking Panda

2011-12-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

Just in time for final critiques. If you ever feel so stressed out that you'll quit school and move to Cambodia, don't worry. PANDAS SUCK AT PRINTMAKING TOO (click the link!)

- Joe

STL STUDIO TOURS

2011-11-21T17:43:00.001-08:00

On Monday the printmaking department went on a STL studio tour. We visited all of our professors' studios as well as the Dean of Sam Fox Carmon Colangelo's studio and three different types of print shops scattered around St. Louis. Here are just a few images from each studio.

Lisa Bulawsky

Talking at Lisa's studio

Lisa Bulawsky

Tools

Matching press/flat files !!

Carmon Colangelo

Carmon Colangelo's studio

Work in progress

Dean Colangelo showing Lauren Banka examples of process

Colangelo talking about his work

Collage bits on the floor

Tom Reed

Tom Reed talking about his book with the printmakers

Tom Reed's drawing/painting

Jessica looking at Tom's etching

Book

Pele Prints

Plates on the large press at Pele Prints

Organization at Pele

Looking at the varied projects Amanda was working on

Firecracker Press

Firecracker Press on Cherokee Street

more of the storefront at Firecracker

Firecracker

Anya and Rici looking at zines

The Gang talking about letterpress and design work

All Along Press

Everyone at All Along Press on Cherokee Street

Tools at All Along

Angela Machionno

Visiting Angela Malchionno's studio

Mia, Rici, Evan and Angela

Angela in her studio

Rici, Sophay and Anya looking at Angela's artist books

Man on the Bike

2011-11-18T08:17:00.001-08:00

Hey,I found a link to what Tom mentioned in the seminar this morning. This guy is really interesting, he makes art under the name Loren Munk and then has something called "the James Kalm report". He goes to all the major shows in NYC so you get to see them when you can't make it! Check it out RS

Pacific Standard Time

2011-11-16T09:02:00.001-08:00

Hi all,

Check out this review in the Times about the epic exhibitions happening RIGHT NOW in LA. What I thought was most interesting was this bit at the end:

“Pacific Standard Time” is a great argument for museums concentrating first and foremost on local history, for a kind of cosmopolitan regionalism, if you will. It sets an example that other curators in other cities should follow, beginning in my mind with Chicago and San Francisco. If America has more than one art capital, it probably has more than two.

Is Saint Louis next???

KickA$$ handouts for printmaking

2011-11-16T08:49:00.001-08:00

Hey y'all Today during the pronto plate demo Lisa mentioned Kevin Haas and how his website has some handouts about the different technical information in printmaking! They Look like they would be really helpful

RS

Hey!

2011-11-15T12:21:00.001-08:00

This post is a blast from the past, an article on fecalface.com from 2009! I thought this review of some ART from all over looked interesting. A little something for everyone?

Rinse Cycle Theater

2011-10-19T05:47:00.000-07:00

As a service aesthetic project for my community, I set up a movie projector outside the laundry room in the basement of a fraternity house on campus. In doing so, waiting to move your clothes from the washer to the dryer (and eventually out of the dryer) has become a much more enjoyable experience.

*Prize to anyone who can guess the movie in this photograph

- Joe

Service Aesthetic by KW

2011-10-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

On October 17th, in the Athletic Complex at Wash U, I loaded up three vending machines with dollar bills, so that the next person that wants to buy a snack will go to the vending machines and find that it's already paid for.
-Katie Walker

2011-10-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

for our service aesthetic, rici and i had a picnic with passersby at sam fox during lunchtime! we served quinoa salad

Pop Goya

2011-10-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

For myyyy service aesthetics project I drew various figures/portraits from Francisco Goya's series of prints: Los Caprichos. I then made stickers out of them and paired them with silly phrases that are commonly used in pop culture. I put them up around campus/University City in hopes that they would make people smile and/or laugh upon seeing them. At the same time, I hope they might make people more aware of Goya's work.

Here are a few of my interventions, I hope you find and can enjoy the others for yourself :-)

-sophay

Service Aesthetic

2011-10-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

For my service aesthetic I slipped post it notes into borrowed library books in the hopes that the next borrower will smile or be amused by my small notes.

-Tamar

anya's hair!

2011-10-12T06:18:00.001-07:00

I know you all have been wondering who Anya's awesome hairstylist is... Cutting Anya's hair is a service aesthetic I have to live with. Someone please persuade her to buy a razor thing, otherwise it looks all choppy in the back (see today).

Kelsey

Service Aesthetics: Martin Stylez

2011-10-12T00:51:00.000-07:00

While I was in Chicago, my brother was away from home visiting a college, so for my service aesthetics project, I organized his room so that it would be clean when he got back.

Martin Melto

Pre-Crit Massages!

2011-10-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

For my service aesthetic project, I gave back massages in the studio the night before our peer critique. It seemed like the recipients were quite pleased with my art:

Service Aesthetics

2011-10-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

For our service aesthetic project, we, Jessica and Carmi, teamed up to offer free henna tattoos to fellow students living at the Wash U Co Op. While a large group of people was sitting and watching a show together, we made our rounds creating original designs for whoever was interested. We found that many people were very excited by the prospect of receiving personalized body art, and even those who didn't want to partake at least loved watching it happen.

Service Aesthetics

2011-10-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

Service Aesthetics: At first I thought this assignment was hard to carry out-- after all, how can I, as a college student living in 2011, even attempt to mimic some of the seminal "service aesthetics" pieces of the 60's and 70's? I'm not Barbara Smith or Marina Abramovic!

Then I realized my job at the campus mail room could definitely be seen as service, or as a type of performance. Every day at work, I am the messenger, the go-between. I fetch all kinds of packages for people, from the very small (college rings) to the ginormous (couches, stereo systems) to the quirky (coconuts, packages that moo). I meet people I wouldn't normally meet, and we share a quick laugh. It's a small job, but I believe it's important, and besides, it gets me energized-- makes me feel like I'm doing something productive. Sometimes that's a nice change of pace from art school!

Our Shadows/Chicago Trip!

2011-10-02T19:13:00.001-07:00

The Chicago Adventure 9/30/11

IT BEGINS. 2/4 cars

da show

Sam Fox represents

Thanks for being there, it really meant a lot to me:)

@The Art Institute of Chicago

enjoying a beautiful day

War print series at the Art Institute included: Goya, Beckman, Otto Dix, and Callot.

THE DISASTERS OF WAR

Goya

After The Art Institute we went to several Riverside North galleries including the Ann Nathan and the Zolla Lieberman, endured critique at Ed Debevic's, and had an awesome night downtown. This was a really amazing weekend- thank you to everyone who came up!

Whammo! ZINE! due October 17th

2011-09-29T09:40:00.001-07:00

These posters were made my Lexi, Tamar, and Rachel.

If y'all want to also make some posters we can scan them and print them out!

Look for these around campus and tell all your friends!

WHAMMO! Monsters and Weenies!

2011-09-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

Daumiers Lithographs by Henry L. Seaver and William Makepeace Thackeray
The Far Gallery Booklets “on prints and printmakers”

Lithography was still a young art at the height of Daumier’s career. He used lithography as a medium because it easily recorded swift and spontaneous character of mark making. He made 3958 social satirical works. His work talked a lot about political oppression and pretenses and always ridiculed the efforts of politicians of priests that would “put out all the lights.”

Shinagawa Takumi

2011-09-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

Shinagawa Takumi was a Japanese printmaker who was also skilled in metalwork and photography. In his early prints he worked a lot with images of the human figure, and over the years his work gradually moved toward abstraction and the simplification of forms. He was especially interested in the characteristics of color as it was printed on paper, as well as obtaining new colors by mixing and layering colors to get the effects that he wanted.

I think its interesting how he positions the figures within the space, and the different angles he chooses to view the figure at.

source: Statler, Oliver. Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn.

Edvard

2011-09-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

Edvard Munch is one of those ubiquitous artists about whom I didn't actually know much. Turns out he's pretty cool and has made more work than The Scream. This print is a 1901 woodcut from 2 blocks (one is three pieces) and it's called Melancholy (Evening). Munch considered himself a Symbolist, and one can also see strong Romantic influence in his work. It's evocative, emotional and expressive. He felt that his works captured only the essential, and that's why there are often open spaces that at the time looked "unfinished." He was both a painter and a printmaker, and is known for both media. He worked back and forth between painting and printmaking, really exploring themes and motifs in imagery. However, Munch turned to the reproductive process of printmaking partway through his career because it was so hard for him to sell paintings because he was so attached to them. I'm really drawn to Edvard Munch's aesthetic and themes - his work is sad and weird and makes you feel with him. It reminds me of the same feeling I get when I look at Francis Bacon's paintings (a quick google search tells me that he also made prints. I should learn more). There's something visceral in them that connects to me emotionally.

Katie Walker

Source: Elizabeth Prelinger and Michael Parke-Taylor, The Symbolist Prints of Edvard Munch, Yale University Press, 1996

kiki smith

2011-09-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

KIKI SMITH

Kiki Smith was born in Germany but is known as an American sculptor and often printmaker. Motifs in her works involve bodies/organs and animals and narrative/religion. She's known as a "feminist artist" cos her representations of ladies are funny/quirky as opposed to erotic. Her sculptures are often life size and involve generic female bodies and exaggerated limbs. She's got a funny sculpture in the Pulitzer of a person surrounded by yellow beads called "Peeing".

Her dad was a minimalist artist. You should watch this art21 doc on her (also Kara Walker) http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/smith/. She is basically a witch.

source: Kiki Smith: Prints, Books & Things / Wendy Weitman/MOMA

Art Hansen

2011-09-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

This guy is pretty cool. His name is Art Hansen and I found him in a book of contemporary printmakers from the Northwest. He was in his 80's at the time this book was published, and had been making prints for most of his life. He lived on this isolated island and had 20 acres of woodland which was the inspiration for pretty much all of his work throughout his life. He was from the Northwest and eventually returned there, but only after traveling across the world. He spent some time in the military and lived in Europe for a while, realizing while he was abroad that the artworks that he admired most were images of nature. He occasionally did paintings and lithographs but mostly he works with an etching needle due to his love for drawing. I think what drew me (ha) to this artist was the clear love he had for his subject. I think that his dedication to the natural world, having isolated himself with his subject, really shows through into his work.

Source:
Allan, Lois. Contemporary Printmaking int he Northwest. Sydney: Craftsman House, 1997. 66-67.

Jasper Johns

2011-09-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

Jasper Johns (1930-present) is an American artist who has worked in drawing, sculpture, and printmaking. He has been a major influence in minimalism and pop art. He is most known for his images of flags, maps, and targets.

I remember seeing the print of the coat hanger a few years ago and I was immediately attracted to the line quality and the effectiveness of his figure ground composition. Johns has many prints and, in an interview, talks about how printmaking brings an experimental quality to his work. It also introduced the idea of mirror image and layering often seen in his work.

Rosenthal, Nan, and Ruth E. Fine. The Drawings of JasperJohns. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1990. Print.

LOUISE BOURGEOIS

2011-09-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

I fell in love with Louise Bourgeois at her Guggenheim exhibit in 2008, but I only ever used the sculptures that I saw in the exhibit as references. I finally picked up several of her books and now I am falling in love with her all over again. SHE MAKES PRINTS.

Perhaps her most known pieces are the large spiders that are all over the world in great cities. The spiders, though massive, look as though they are a sketch on the horizon. Her prints look as if they are sculptures.

He Disappeared into Deep Silence from 1947 is a series of texts and engravings compiled into a book. The text evokes feelings of love and rejection in a cool, almost flippant manner. The engravings are simple, but I feel that it is through their simplicity that they achieve highly developed emotions.

Steiner, Mary. Louise Bourgeois The Personages. The Saint Louis Art Museum. 1994.

Otto Dix

2011-09-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

The Suicide, 1922
Etching from the series, "Death and Resurrection"

Otto Dix (1891-1969) was a German painter and printmaker. His work often centered around the relationship between Eros and death, and he used this theme to depict the variety of human life. His overall aesthetic is one of grotesque humor, his figures comical in their distortion. Dix dealt a lot in terms of these "opposing worlds." The above print is an example of his early work, from a series "Death and Resurrection" in which he bluntly displays the fact of death, even in its violent forms. Towards the end of his career in the 60s, Dix began to prolifically create lithographs, with more depth and spontaneity than his previous work. The print below is one of many religious themed works from this time period, more specifically from a cycle based on the Gospels of St. Matthew. He mostly made prints during this time period. All of the prints were done on large stones, some as big as his paintings.

The Massacre of the Innocents, 1960
Lithograph

-Rici-

Judith Brodsky

2011-09-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

"Why Do We Sleep?" Photo etching

Source: Miller, Lynn F and Swenson, Sally S. Lives and Works: Talks with Women Artists. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Metuchen, N.J., & London. 1981. pages 17-36.

Judith Brodsky was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1933. She was in love with drawing ever since she was little, but her parents felt it was important that she got a liberal arts education as well, so she attended Radcliffe, which had no major in studio, and studied Art History. Based on this experience, Judith "encourage[s] young people, if they want to be artists, to go to colleges first rather than to art schools, and then go to art schools after that. They have to have some ideas, and it helps to learn about literature and about history and about art history, and then go on and get involved in their own work more fully" (p. 17). Judith received her M.F.A. at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Judith always thought she would be a painter but fell in love with printmaking during her time at Tyler. She also found that her prints sold much more easily than her paintings.

Judith's work often involves creating imagery etched on metal plates. She describes her method as "not spontaneous, it's additive. I start out with an idea, and I like the idea, I like to rework the idea as I go along" (p.23). In the early 1980's, she liked to do etchings rich with saturated, flat color. Her later prints involved more appropriated imagery.

I enjoy the diversity among Judith's prints and am encouraged by her opinion that a liberal arts education can really help an artist in developing their own point and creating stronger work.

David Wojnarowicz! (evan wilson)

2011-09-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Untitled, 1992. Gelatin silver print and silkscreened text, 38" x 26"

David Wojnarowicz! He was in the news ~~lately~~ because of a controversial film that had been displayed and then pulled out of the Smithsonian. The third image in this post is a still, actually the still, that had provoked opposition from the Catholic League.

Untitled, from the series Rimbaud in New York, 1977-79
Gelatin silver print.

These images are more tame than a lot of his work, but I'd say that most of it deals with identity as a gay man and as a victim of AIDS during a time in which little was known about the disease. If you look through his work you'll see his frustration with the widespread ostracization of gay men who were slowly dying from this disease.

An example of the average mindset at the time follows (possibly fodder for wojnarowicz)

"When it began turning up in children and transfusion recipients, that was a turning point in terms of public perception. Up until then it was entirely a gay epidemic, and it was easy for the average person to say 'So what?' Now everyone could relate."Harold Jaffe of the CDC for newsweek"

(This quote was taken years after the first cases were documented.)

Still from film Fire in My Belly (1987)

---

to end on a lighter note, basquiat's brown spots (portrait of andy warhol as a banana)

Edvard Munch

2011-09-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/MWEBimages/p_d07_mm/thumb/62_7.jpg

I did a bit of research on Edvard Munch's prints -- and came across "Man and Woman Kissing Each Other," a woodcut from 1905. The print is dynamic and visually engaging despite its simplicity: the line-work captures only the necessary, expressive details, which heightens its poignancy. Its emotional charge is likewise amplified by the vibrating lines that surround the two central figures.

The print was also appealing to me for its content: "Munch proposes a sense of isolation between a couple [with his use of contrasting colors and his rendering of their facial expressions]... [the viewer is presented with] conflicting messages of passion and emotional ambivalence."

Basically, I chose "Man and Woman Kissing Each Other" because it caught my eye: it's a striking image with an interesting, complex subtext.

Source:

Berman, Patricia G., and Nimmen Jane Van. Munch and Women: Image and Myth. Alexandria, VA: Art Services International, 1997. Print.

2011-09-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

My Work, 1997
etching and woodcut
22.25" x25"

Joan Snyder

Joan Snyder

2011-09-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Joan Snyder’s interest in art began when she was a junior in college and took her first introductory painting course. The experience made her realize that through art she had found a way “to talk about my feelings, a way to speak- and that was the beginning.” Snyder received her A.B. from Douglass College and her M.F.A. from Rutgers and since then has been producing work as both a painter and a printer. Her work draws from her own personal feelings, German expression, children’s artwork, and female imagery and materials. She is most known for being part of the beginning of the early feminist movement, but she considers herself both a feminist and an artist, as opposed to someone making feminist art. “Making art is, for me, practicing a religion…creates for me a heritage. It is a place to struggle freely at my altar. I want my work to be strong, available, generous. I need it to be joyous and sorrowful, complex and meditative, all at once. To be vulnerable, to have a feeling of transcendence and in this state to give meaning.”

Smith, Beryl, Joan Arbeiter, and Sally Shearer Swenson. Lives and Works: Talks with Women Artists. 2. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press Inc., 1996. 181-190. Print

Robert Motherwell by Rachel Sperry

2011-09-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

Robert Motherwell!
Source: Robert Motherwell: The Complete Prints 1940-1991
Siri Engberg/Joan Banach
NE 539 M67 A4

Printed at ULAE

Throw of the Dice #4, 1963

Lithograph in 1 color on Rives BFK

Robert Motherwell began his interest in art within the discipline of Art History. He studied at Stanford, Harvard and finally at Columbia University in New York City under Meyer Shapiro. In 1940 Shapiro introduced Motherwell to the printer Kurt Seligmann and this was his first introduction to printmaking. With Seligmann he studied engraving. In the mid 1940's Motherwell worked in a collaborative workshop founded by Stanley Hayter. Hayter who had started Atelier17 in Paris had to flee France and moved his workshop to lower Manhattan. Robert Motherwell was one of the first Americans to work in Atelier17 once it moved to Manhattan. Stanley Hayer is quoted (in an explanation of the benefits of printmaking) saying "if you know what it's going to look like, why bother making it?"(p.16) and Motherwell was attracted to that view of art making. After working at Atelier17 Motherwell went on to work at ULAE, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, and Gemini G.E.L. In the 1970's inspired by the collage that was present in his paintings, he pinned collage pieces to the wall of the Gemini workshop and the printers reproduced the collage pieces and attached them to his prints using the press. He was always inspired by what was around him and his paintings and prints began to inspire each other. Motherwell wrote in 1979, "Good images have a way of generating others ... The despair of the artist is that he can only work on one at a time." (p.33) I like the idea of good images inspiring and generating new ones and I think printmaking is a great example of a medium in which this becomes evident because of the ability to make multiples, varied editions, and ghosts prints that can then turn into future work.

Above: printed at ULAE
Tricolor (Appendix 8), 1983

Lithograph on Arches

Edition: 125

Below: printed at ULAE

Gauloises Bleues (White), 1970

Intaglio in 2 colors with aquatint and line-cut on Auvergne a la Main Richard de Bas

edition: 40

Anthropologie's "Limestone Tablet" side table

2011-09-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Anthro's Lithostone tables

Looks like they are sold out, what rare tables!

ThreeWalls gallery

2011-09-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the gallery we will be visiting on Friday, ThreeWalls. I will send a group email out with final details about our Chicago trip, but in the meantime, please check out the gallery and think about any questions you might have in relation to their programming, or, any general questions about how to get shows or how they choose artists for their gallery. Here's a map too:

View Larger Map

Openings in Chicago 9/30

2011-09-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

In addition to Kelsey's opening, there are lots of other venues in Chicago with shows opening on Friday and Saturday night. I came across these:

41st Annual Pilsen East Artists Open House, Friday 6-10pm; Sa-Su 12-7pm.
The PilsenEast Artists’ Open House is a unique opportunity to view the works of professional artists in the intimate venue of their studios and homes. Every year, during the last weekend in September, the Chicago Arts District comes alive with people walking down the streets, filling the studios and galleries, and spilling out into the courtyard. This is also a chance for artists to network, meet the art-going public and speak to them about their work, get and give input or to simply catch up with friends and colleagues. It has always maintained a very informal air and everyone is welcome.
Chicago Arts District
1945 S. Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60608
312-738-8000 Ext 108
info@chicagoartsdistrict.org

Write Now: Artists and Letterforms
September 30, 2011 – April 29, 2012
Friday, September 30, 2011, 5:30-7:30 p.m.: Opening Reception
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago Rooms

For as long as there have been alphabets artists have explored the letterform, employing the fundamental element of written communication in many ways other than the setting of text. This exhibition presents recent works using letters and text in painting, printmaking, sculpture and video. Included in this exhibition is a Fluxus project with international submissions of mail art and concrete poetry.

The exhibition features more than 40 exhibitors--predominantly, but not exclusively, Chicago-based--including Jo Hormuth, Rick Valicenti, Ken Fandell, Jason Lazarus, Mario Gonzalez, Jr., Michael Thompson, Buzz Spector, Jason Pickleman, Joel Ross, Mike Genovese and more.

If you have a favorite gallery/venue in Chicago, please share it with everyone, especially if there is something happening the weekend we will be there!

book by its cover

2011-09-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

cool website with images from the sketchbooks of different artists.

OMG POSTERS!

2011-09-21T04:41:00.000-07:00

Looking for a blog about posters, prints, toys, dragons, monster trucks and ebay? Check out http://omgposters.com/. This is a great resource for nearly every major poster artist's recent work with poster sale information and print contests. You will go to this website and actually say "OMG POSTERS!"

Artstor Y'all

2011-09-20T21:13:00.001-07:00

Hey there partners! There is this great website that is a wonderful resource for images of art! Any kinds, from any time period, from anywhere in the world! It's also free, you just need to create a log-in using your WUSTL email account. The website: www.artstor.org The website its self is not completely as cool as the selby blog that Elisabeth posted, but it has some really nice images of artists' work. They also are usually high quality so you can use them in power points and they wont be pixelated. Also check out these two print shops in Chicago: www.thelittlefriendsofprintmaking.com AND also these two printmakers (Nick and Nadine) make really unique silkscreen posters (band posters)(yay!): www.sonnenzimmer.com Love, RS

Printeresting Micro-Grant

2011-09-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Have a great idea for a project and need some money to pull it off? Check out this opportunity from Printeresting.

Lucas Johnson

2011-09-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

A quick blurb on one of my favorite artists, Lucas Johnson— a painter, draftsman, and printmaker. I came upon a book of his work by chance several years ago and it has been one of the happiest accidents that ever happened to me. Johnson does meticulous drawings of weathered faces and desert landscapes atop dreamy ink washes. He has made editions of lithographs and etchings; his highly detailed, process oriented style lends itself well to both techniques. I imagine that if Dali, de Chirico and Magritte had traveled to Texas, they would have produced something resembling Johnson's work. His pieces aren't "conceptual" in the trendy sense of the word, but there is tons of concept— and emotion— in them. When I look at his images, I travel to places that I think I've been but I know don't actually exist in the real world. Check him out!

source: Lucas Johnson and Edmund Pillsbury, The Art and Life of Lucas Johnson (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006).

Taking Imagination Seriously

2011-09-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Hello!

This is an excellent video if you are ever feeling limited by your environment and resources. It follows an artist, Janet Echelman, who followed her gut, persevered, and fulfilled her large-scale visions. It's also a great example of the importance of craft and culture in art.

The Selby

2011-09-19T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a website I spend/lust a lot of my time on. As the websites 'about' page says so eloquently, "The Selby offers an insider’s view of creative individuals in their personal spaces with an artist's eye for detail."
theselby.com
Also, sometimes there are short videos which are really enjoyable. Here's one about a sculptor they featured. Spoiler alert: there's a Darth Vader beer fridge/vodka dispenser which is pretty impressive.
http://vimeo.com/17188504

Vik Muniz Talk

2011-09-19T16:43:00.000-07:00

This is a Tedtalk by Vik Muniz who is an artist I became really interested in after I watched a documentary about him last semester called Wasteland. He creates all of his work using really creative material. What I like most are the portraits he does made of substances that are relevant to the lives of his subjects (i.e. sugar for children who grow up working on sugar plantains, and trash (not mentioned in this tedtalk but in Wasteland) for people who work picking recycling goods out of a landfill in Brazil. I also like this video because it's always really interesting to hear how very famous artists started their career.

Enjoy!

http://www.ted.com/talks/vik_muniz_makes_art_with_wire_sugar.html

Community of concept artists

2011-09-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

http://conceptart.org/

This is a cool website I found back when I wanted to do communication design. It is a community for professional and aspiring designers and illustrators, and has tons of galleries and information on how to become an artist in the entertainment industry. Though not really meant for fine art, I think it's interesting to see the kind of work that is currently or will soon be feeding directly into different areas of popular culture. The work in the galleries covers a huge range of styles, and although it is mostly illustrative, some artists find a lot of very unusual and interesting ways to construct their images. I also like how the galleries of really well known and successful artists sometimes appear right next to artists who are just beginning their careers or education.

music video for french music group louise attaque

2011-09-19T12:24:00.001-07:00

A Rad Stop Motion Video from Mia by Pes

2011-09-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM

(check out his other videos, too. always impressive, sometimes hilarious)

stephan marx

2011-09-18T20:08:00.001-07:00

I think this guy is cool.
http://www.s-marx.de/

dooooooodles.

2011-09-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Hey this is a really cool blog I really like, and it features spontaneous art, like doodles or sketches, as opposed to super finished things.. but there's a whole variety of different stuff on here
http://www.doodlersanonymous.com/
it's another waste your time on the internet more productively

the internet!

2011-09-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hey here is a gr8 street art blog if you are into that kinda thing! it has less quirky small stuff than say like streetsy and is mostly a catalogue of The Big Names but the curation is sometimes is a good thing cuz it all quality http://unurth.com/index

Also a radtimes documentary about BLU (look up his stuff on the youtube.com!) http://www.juxtapoz.com/Current/blu-qmegunicaq-documentary

Unwind with this cool string art

2011-09-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hi to everyone in printmaking!

Here's an awesome link to the Chicago art magazine's profile of artists who use string in unique ways. Good for inspiration, future references, or people to look for during the Chicago trip. Special fav: artist Lindsay Obermeyer's work at http://www.lbostudio.com/gallery/index.html

Later!

Support MITCH Collective

2011-06-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

Siena is starting an artist collective in the Ohio Valley. Support the effort to buy a printing press through kickstarter!

Printa Kucha lives on

2011-04-28T09:20:00.001-07:00

Check this out-Printeresting reposted the images and text from Michael Krueger's Printa Kucha presentation, which I am super excited about! His presentation was an entertaining and spot on discussion of crappy printing and its legacy. Check it out here.

Technical Handouts

2011-04-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

In the past, we have used Kevin Haas's awesome handouts as a resource for several different techniques-silkscreen, photolitho, pronto plates...here's a link to them all: http://www.wsu.edu/~khaas/resources/

Also, I found this handy printmaking dictionary: http://www.graphicstudiodublin.com/gsd/printing/printing_techniques.html

Here's an example:

BAT or Bon a tirer is a French term meaning 'good to pull'. When the image has been finalised through proofing, the final proof is marked BAT and signed by the artist. The BAT is then used as a reference when printing the full edition.

In case you were wondering...

Junior Show!

2011-04-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Friday night there are two shows going on-your peers at the City Museum for Printcesses, the Junior Printmaking Exhibition, and the Painting Thesis Show at the Des Lee.

These two are conveniently located near each other, two minute walk according to google::

View Larger Map

See you there, on Friday between 6-9 (Painting Opening) and 6-10 (Junior Show Opening).

XOXO
Angela

Missing

2011-04-05T10:02:00.001-07:00

Ai Weiwei (born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese artist, activist, and philosopher, who is also active in architecture, curating, photography, film, and social and cultural criticism.^[1]^[2] Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.^[3] Besides showing his art he has been investigating in the corruption and cover-ups under the power of the government. He was particularly focused at exposing an alleged corruption scandal in the construction of Sichuan schools that collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He intensively uses the internet to communicate with people all over China, especially the young generation.^[4] On 3 April 2011 Chinese police detained him at Beijing airport and his studio in the capital was sealed off in an apparent crackdown by the regime on activists and dissidents.

source=wikipedia

Inside Out

2011-04-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

TED Prize Winner JR & INSIDE OUT from TED Prize on Vimeo.

Wunderkammer: The Work of Karen Mandelbaum

2011-04-04T02:30:00.000-07:00

Rarely do we find an artist who dares to pursue their every whim, who tests the waters of every medium, who engages in random acts of play and fun on a regular basis. But today, we have found Karen Mandelbaum, a senior printmaking major whose work is a true reflection of her personality. Like the Dada and Surrealists of the early 20th century, she engages with everyday objects and subverts our expectations of what it means to be an artist, a printmaker. Karen began the semester with the aim of producing one "piece of art" per day. While she is perfectly capable of achieving this pace, she does tend to overanalyse certain aspects of her work. While self-criticism is necessary, too much of it has impeded her progress. The projects were less frequent than 'one a day'; however, she is still producing these objects of interest on a semi-regular basis (3-4 per week.)

If the idea of producing one piece per day is removed, the work has more ground to stand on, as it is inherently interesting. Still, certain questions need to be resolved - such as, "How is the work most effectively archived and displayed?" Karen's initial idea was to create a blog documenting her progress. This may still be in the works, but physical means of archival may be just as effective - like a book with photos of each piece, combining thoughts on the process and problems she faced along the way. The first few projects Karen made dealt with gender and identity issues. These works took the form of various prints. As the semester progressed, Karen became more interested in the everyday/readymade object, and began experimenting with these readymades. They still seem to connect with the idea of identity, but in a different way: this is the identity of an object.

Found Objects: Stool and Painting
These objects could be the modern-day lovechild of Roy Lichtenstein and Marcel Duchamp (Bicycle Wheel, 1951). An everyday stool is repainted white, with preexisting details outlined in black. The interior shadows of the stool are painted black as well, with hatching around the seat edge. This stark contrast gives the stool a comic-book feel; a 2-dimensional effect on a 3-D object. The painting of ships in a harbor was a thrift store find - this too was painted entirely white. The ships were filled in with black and the edges of the frame are lined with black ink, mimicking the comic-book effect of the stool. It would be interesting to see these objects en masse - a whole room interpreted this way would be very striking.

Toilet Paper Fur Roll
If Marcel Duchamp and Meret Oppenheim (Object, 1936) were involved in a romantic tryst, this next object would be their illegitimate child. Karen has taken a strip of white faux fur and created a 'roll' resembling toilet paper on a stand. I believe this, in conjunction with the aforementioned pieces, are most related to the Dadaist movement in their ready-made but slightly altered states; their ability to subvert our expectations and tempt interaction are what make them so Dada.

Felted Screenprint
In this piece, wool is felted to a star-specked, midnight-blue screenprinted square. This piece calls to mind the poem-objects of the Father of Surrealism: Andre Breton, in which unrelated elements (both ready-made and created) were brought together to spark a conversation, usually aided by short lines of verse. The viewer is left to make a connection between the unrelated parts, which becomes more abstract if text is not included. There is something quietly poetic about this piece, as the wool is just entering the printed image, like hairy plasma travelling through a constellation. To be quite honest, I still don't know what it means/is but I hardly think that matters.

Emoticon Prints
Two collograph prints are included in this body of play/work, Karen's "self portraits," in which her facial features are reduced to two dots for eyes and a curved line for a mouth - curved up for a smile, down for a frown. She has stated before that the inspiration for these pieces comes from a book about the psychology of comics, and how faces are often reduced to their most basic forms in order to easily convey an emotion and to allow for readers to place themselves within the comic. I see them as a comment on the internet usage of 'emoticons', or pairings of keyboard symbols in order to create a sideways face - such as :) or :( , for happy and sad respectively. In regards to Dadaism, I see them in light of Phillipe Soupault's Portrait d'un imbecile; a piece in which the viewer literally became the subject (and the butt of the joke.)

Drag Makeup Prints
Karen's brief foray into the exploration of gender/identity issues, and indeed her long-standing obsession with RuPaul's Drag Race led to the creation of these two prints. She applied full drag makeup, then after a performance, pressed her face to a sheet of paper to create a monoprint of the utmost untraditional. I see these pieces as the least related to the body of work; they function well on their own but seem small and out of place when in juxtaposition with the other pieces featured... Number could be an issue as well, I believe they would function better if there were more than two. However, they show a progression of ideas.

Last but not Least, Felted Objects
Karen's latest hobby is felting. This has led to the production of a life-sized set of barbells and bones out of black and white felt, respectively. These items, not pleasantly soft in real life, are transformed into lightweight and almost cuddly little crafts that spark curiosity and betray reality. As with Man Ray's readymade Gift, they subvert our ideas about what bones and barbells should look/feel like; their original purpose is destroyed.

Related Artists:
Man Ray
Marcel Duchamp
Meret Oppenheim
Ray Lichtenstein

Artists to check out:
Pierre Pinoncelli
-Artists of the Fluxus movement:
Alison Knowles
Robert Watts
Dieter Roth

Mark Jenkins
http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html

Save the Date!

2011-04-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

2011-04-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

WRIT CRIT: SIENA BALDI

“Kiss derives from the Sanskrit word cusati, which means ‘he sucks.’ It is a derivative of primitive mother-child behavior where mothers premasticated food and then “kissed” their infants to feed them.”

When you enter into the installation space, Siena’s installation seems to be about dualities: light and dark, reflection and shadow, and the synthetic versus organic. These straws do not make harsh angles, yet the installation seems mechanical. Maybe, it’s a consequence of the straws’ accordion-fold junctures. At first it seems like it’s these connections that allow for flexibility, and the installations ability to build out in any direction. However, it's these connections that allow for the flexibility of an individual straw that becomes restrictive when part of a larger group, working as a larger system.

The installation bridges together both the labyrinths of Sienna’s past drawings and her Kiss mapping project. In the Kiss project she created ways to map out the histories and relations of our own kisses. In the past, Siena has played with generational image-making, remaking, and reworking similar patterns. This installation is a powerful use of repetition, both materially and conceptually. She de-romanticizes the word and action of “kiss”, by giving us the etymoloygy of the word. Kiss, as understood through the scientific, anthropological lens.

But, what kind of line is this, and how does this mark-making tie into the etymology of kiss? The line, like I said earlier, feels mechanical. When I see people in the space, it reminds me of something else. It reminds me of the angry, scribble cloud above a cartoon character: this is Charlie Brown, frustrated

But why grey scale, and why keep the fields of white and grey separated? Why not entangled continuing the transformation? Is it supposed to be light and shadow, the image and it’s reflection, the original and its simulacrum?

In the past, Sienna has often referenced the idea of chaos and it’s definition of nothingness. She’s addressed the question, visually, of what it means to have organized chaos, organized nothingness.

The installation is created by a mass of straws. They have been painted white and grey. The original surface of the straw is no longer visible. In fact, it almost looks metallic, a transformation from plastic to metal. Also, the straw has lost its original function. It’s an impractical invention. In that way, the installation is fantastical, a super-crazy, extended straw!

It teeters between the scientific and the fantastical. It's reminiscent of the Terry Gilliam film, Brazil. Where these systems, through their exaggeration, become improbable, absurd, and nonsensical. A once rational, everyday object, has become transformed. Through repetition and alteration, it has become a system, a system that no longer can complete its original function. We can see this where the straws connects. In some places, they have dented from pressure. The installation calls attention to the idea of a human interaction, an extremely intimate one, replaced by a machine.

One of the most exciting parts of the installation is where, like with Jenn Rich’s final piece from last semester, the work seamlessly becomes part of the environment, the gallery wall. The straws leading into the wall are cut at an angle, creating the illusion that they continue on the other side. That maybe there’s an enormous, beautiful mass that exists out of sight, but only hinted at from our side of the wall.

The installation is enjoyable both from a distance and also invites intimacy. It begs us to come closer, to investigate, and see how it’s constructed. Sienna’s installation teases us. Can we decipher where it begins, and ends? Or if that even matters.

My one concern, is that since this installation draws you in, and invites curiosity, that an extreme attention to craft will be important. Does she want us to note the fallibility of its construction? Does she want to hint at the original straws colors? Is it supposed to be uniform and seamless? Although Sienna Baldi's installation is beautiful, it does leave a question of whether the separation of the white and grey creates the tension she's looking for, or if it leaves it feeling unfinished.

Artists to think about:

Art 21 : episode - Structures : Matthew Ritchie

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/ritchie/

submitted by: Becca Moore

Writ Crit; Hannah Ireland

2011-03-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Word(s):

SHAPE

partial

fragment

mysterious

memory

altered reality

sublime

subdued

cycle

binary

fantasy

deserted

past/present/future

lucid

ambiguous

teeter

Ecotone: An ecotone is a transition area between two adjacent but different patches of landscape, such as forest and grassland.[1] It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and grassland ecosystems).

Looking at Hannah’s work I find myself feeling there is something missing, not that the work is lacking something in the conceptual or visual sense or lacking in any pejorative way, but that its intention is to leave the viewer in somewhat of a limbo between reality and fantasy, between something lucid and ambiguous. It teases you by showing all but the essential elements for one to understand it; this is exciting. This binary, the work really being created in between the ‘two things’, seems to exists as a memory where it is partly made of real events and partly created in the imagination.

For this critique Hannah is presenting 6 prints, a model of a proposed project and a three dimensional hanging object. When first entering the installation space one sees the model or sketch of a proposed project, the shape of it along with the colors and layers and all listed. Under that is a sample of the technique of how the paper will be cut. Directly above there is a three dimensional object of cut paper, the shape is rounded at the top and from the side looks like the material is dripping down from the above. The shape is hollow so that when one is standing directly below the one can look up into the object to see the inner layer of the shape.

Moving to the left of the sample there is the first drawing. This drawing could be a combination of pen, pencil and water color on a large sheet of white paper. The imagery is soft and cloud like, one could see if they wanted the view of the top of a mountain through clouds, a fantastical approach creates an idea of an imagined or remembered landscape. It is almost dream like. There is minimal color (mostly shades of grey and a little blue) and all of the imagery is confined within the edges of the paper and does not attempt to explore past the boarder of the page.

The next piece, to the left, does not float within the boarders but is grounded to and touching the top of the paper. This print seems to be a photo litho or xerox transfer. The imagery is more founded in reality than the piece next to it. The image could be of the side of a mountain or cliff or an embankment. There are trees that seem to be growing off of what would seem to be the surface of the land but to the viewer they are growing upside down. Similar to the work shown to the right, this print is of a landscape, possibly at the top of a mountain or cliff, yet both of these images are not straight forward, they create a sense of confusion and fantasy.

The next print we see if a digital print with water color. This print, out of the six, is the only one that presents the viewer with a clear representation of nature or a landscape. The image of what could be grass, weeds, or moss is floating within the boarders of the white sheet of paper. Below the nature there is red that is falling, steaming, off of the object.

The next three prints seem to be a series, they all share similar shades of grey and red, they are all on an off white paper and are the same size. The two on the ends are monotypes with drawing and painting, the monotype elements create a grounding shape on each of the prints that the middle print or drawing does not have. In the print on the right, the monotype shape is floating within the edges while the print on the far left it is touching three edges of the paper and creates an even stronger sense that the image is grounded at the bottom of the page. The monotype shapes do not seem integrated quite enough with the more delicate and detailed hand drawing and painting.

The print in the middle has a sublime quality. The graphite that is pushed into the paper towards the middle of the page has become shiny and sections of that top layer of the paper in these parts have been cut and lifted from the print. These shapes are similar to the shapes of the three dimensional object that is hanging as you first enter the installation room, triangles and diamonds.

What I most like about Hannah’s work which I think the first two works accomplish, especially the print on the left, is this feeling of limbo, this in-between, the ecotone, a feeling of vertigo. The print that stands alone is almost too lucid and the ones on the third wall are in a way too ambiguous. The feeling I get from looking at the print on the first wall on the left is that I need to be standing on my head to understand it and then once I have done that to see it, I then would question why I am standing on my head. It’s a cycle of confusion that is grounded enough in reality that it makes one want to take that leap to understand it. It is balanced between ambiguity and lucidity.

There is a movement to the three dimensional object: it spins around as the air flows through the room: this appears to mimic or could hint at the movement that would need to happen to fully grasp the imagery of the prints, to understand them one would have to physically move into their space. Many of the prints here make me think of memory. How it seems it should be easy for us to remember something, we feel it there somewhere in the backs of our heads but we cannot quite reach it. We teeter on the edge of remembrance when trying to convey what’s happened in the past and although it can be unsteady, it is a balance, and that I can see in some of the prints here.

Another theme that came to mind was what I thought of as “addressing the shape.” There no doubt is a repeated motif, a shape, rounded at the top and peeling over the edge, dripping down and dissolving. The shape appears within the three dimensional object, all of the prints in somewhat varied forms except for the photo-transfer print where the shape is not directly described but the top of it could be seen within the negative (or white) space of the piece. In some of the prints I think the shape more successfully embodies a balance of reality and fantasy, such as the middle print of the series and the two prints at the beginning of the installation space.

Artists that came up during Hannah's critique were:

Jean Antoni and a piece called "touch" where she tightropes on the horizon.

Francis Alÿs and The Green Line (2007)

New York Times Article

Also Anselm Kiefer's Merkaba series

"The Merkaba and Hechaloth literature, as discussed in the Kabbalah texts, deal specifically with the ascent up to seven heavenly palaces or temples, which represent the seven attainments of divine spirituality. For Kiefer, the Merkaba, or mystical chariot used for this passage, is not the vehicle towards a single apocalyptic Judgment Day but, rather, a means to the ongoing process of working at art." Quote from Gagosian website, more images

Writ Crit: Grace Hong

2011-03-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

In her most recent installation of work, Grace has chosen a range pieces made in the last year; some of these works I have seen before, while many I have not. In this critique I will choose to address those pieces which I find more striking and compelling and those with which I feel most connected. In surveying Grace’s works, text and tactility are the most prominent elements. While I feel compelled to touch and even explore (I peeked inside the t-shirt; I needed to know what the graphic on the front (now inside out) was) many of the pieces, I found that I often didn’t feel the need to read all the text present. Much like the steady embroidery-work that dominates her current work, I found that the text came to embody a sort of intimate meditation or musing; as text, after a few lines, it almost become more important as a signifier of the time and self-meditation spent with these pieces - reflective of any time one may be alone with his or her own inner monologue.

The electric blue piece above best exemplifies what I find most compelling in Grace’s work. While most the works presented represent a muted, pastel, or even white palette, this piece is an electric blue with fragment, all-caps text in red, yellow, and blue. I notice Grace often seems to use these flashes of bright reds or blue in her work sometimes to evoke a playfulness, but also to speak to what I imagine to be a state of inner tension or anxiety. In this electric blue piece, this is how the text feels to me. I only need to read the first few lines to understand its role as intimate personal dialogue, a futile fighting perhaps, with oneself about things that had happened that can’t be changed. This automatic writing/inner monologue text embroidered in bright form makes me imagine Grace slowly embroidering it, stuck contemplating these past actions, drawing them out in her mind. Combined with the violent wrinkling of the paper, I get a very visceral vibration from this piece. It struggles to become more than just this page, this documentation of past events, perhaps traced over and over in the mind. I can also read all the time the artist spent with this piece, creating its wrinkles, slowly creating its text, endowing it with a life of its own, in which I read the potential frustration, sadness, regret, or even just the wanderings of a mind with extra time, tracing over the if’s and but’s of the week. Above all, I feel as if I interact with this piece on a very intimate level, which makes it the connection very powerful.

Grace’s HOW ARE YOU? piece I feel evokes a similar quality yet not as eloquently, humanly, intimately or as strongly as the blue piece. The embroidered rhyming text pieces seem like mental musings to me, though I am unsure of their purpose, besides their childlike, playful qualities (indicated by palette, silly rhyming, and simple drawings - although these pieces hint to very adult realities, like prescription and beer bottles). The grey t-shirt piece, I’m sure about. I’m unsure if t-shirt chosen (and its graphic) were chosen specifically for the piece. It also gives me a creepy feeling of imagining the body plucked out, violated by this cutting out of text... but I find the interior facing text idea to be very compelling (perhaps if images of the shirt worn were presented or the like).

And now, pillows. I know Grace’s intentions with her text messages pillows were conceptually of collecting these comforting things to come back to, much like a pillow you can hug or squeeze or curl into bed with. However, because of their small size and pastel text, they read as very ‘cutesy’ - I almost think of baby pillows, which weirds me out (I guess because that would mean they’re not intended for me/out of my context). I am more comfortable with the larger blue pillow, and have felt compelled to pick it up and have it on my lap in a past studio visit. At first, “Pillow Talk” seems too mature of a title for this piece (given the handwriting paper and text, the content of the questions), but I think it actually alludes to the childlike nature of true intimacy. I also imagine this pillow as a stand-in for a bedtime companion, something to hug and talk to as you fall asleep in bed alone. I don’t feel as connected to the building pillow, perhaps because it feels more decorative or stylized and I don’t know the building. I am intrigued by the proposal for what seems to be a 3-4 ft tall plush hand, but am trying to imagine it in actuality and what that hand might mean at that size... I worry it might seem god-like if it surpassed 3 or 4 ft (or King Kong?). As you embark on this project, I suggest you consider human size relationship/interaction and its possible connotations or interpretations - a hand that big also makes the hand as symbol very important.

To Check Out:

Fiona Banner

“pushing the limits of text” - potentially interesting visceral qualities also

Also suggested, the book Art and Text, as was mentioned in the critique this past Wednesday:

Danny's update on thesis work

2011-03-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

So I am coming to the point in my work where I am creating my final pieces/ideas for presentation. I thought this could be a nice way to update everyone as to where I am right now, 1st technically, then conceptually, perhaps more coherently than I could explain in person.

1. facebook /myspace photos

-I am going to draw these as trace monotype drawings, and use a simple paper japanese binding to bind these drawings together into a book form.

2. blanket

-I am re-drawing the lines in the palm of my hand (this time in a more exacting fashion) and am blowing up my palm 2,500% to 5' by 7' woodcut. I wanted to carve this woodcut by hand, but because time is ticking away I plan to use the CNC router in architecture to create this woodcut.

3. shirt woodcuts.

-I created a simple woodcut of a shirt as a way to test some ideas I had with embossment, creating physical an imprint into the paper. My drawing that was on the wood itself drawn in graphite transfered to the paper. I plan to emboss, test this graphite transfer method further, and create more woodcut prints.

4. large trace monotype

-I am working on a 4.5' 6' ish graphite transfer of an enlarged image of my hand. I plan to draw it in two gestures.

Conceptual place:

Portrait (self portraits):

LGBT studies are centered around the lives and stories of lgbt people more so than abstract theory or scientific studies. In my work I am exploring self portraiture. Essentially, the shirt woodcuts, enlarged hand drawing, and blanket piece are all varying forms of self portraiture. The blanket piece which consists of the lines of the palm of my hand, will be printed in black, in woodcut form, creating permanent lines. The shirt woodcuts will be embossed with graphite, but are more ephemeral and more specific to a very specific (almost photographic) moment in time. The large trace monotype is in some ways the most traditional self portrait, because it is a drawing of a part of my physical body (hand). The book of portraits are other people's self portraits that I have gathered, and redrawn, making myself both as an author of the work, but also drawing these portaits in a similar minimal style, drawing a connection between the similarity of this activity of self portraiture.

Rachel Sperry's Writ Crit

2011-03-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

In her work displayed for Writ Crit, Rachel S., a printmaker new to Wash U who will be a major next year, exhibits a strong use of printmaking techniques and uses them along with her humor to make a social commentary on the production of food, and call upon larger concerns of society’s excessive modification of the natural. There are three groupings/series of works present. The first is made up of life size paper masks and multiple prints of a reductive woodcut of a blue wall water at an aquarium. The second consists of a print of layered agricultural structures, a covered petri dish with an image of an industrial chicken farm, a photocopied annotated except from “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safron Foer and a book with layered translucent pages that progresses from what looks like a graph, to simplified landscapes. The final grouping is a series of seven prints of sugar lift etchings of men who look like they belong in porn magazines displaying increasingly exaggerated male anatomy made up collaged wildly colored corn images.

To begin from left to right, with the “At the Aquarium” piece, the first thing you see is the eye level masks expressing variations of awe, disgust and unhappiness. Rachel’s intention to place them at eye level forces the viewer to interact with them, rather than suggesting the viewer put them on. The choice to make the faces into masks suggests that these emotions are performed, or hiding something behind them, creating an interesting disconnect between these performed emotions and the expected emotions in the situation Rachel has put them in.Surrounded by prints of a reductive woodcut of a large aquariums and the text “AT THE AQUARIUM, 80 MILLION GALLONS entertaining intrigue.” The use of the multiple with the aquarium images conveys a sense of excess, although perhaps a bigger print, or even more prints, could also evoke a similar feeling. The faces suggest an overwhelmed reaction to this excess and reaction to a spectacle. It’s a negative reaction to something that is designed to be fun, and to be an attraction – instead in its excess overwhelms. In this same way, in the vertically hung prints the eyes (taken from the mask images) are not immediately noticeable, suggesting the viewer of the aquarium is lost and becomes only watching eyes to this overwhelming amount of water, stimulation, and information.

As we move to the center to the print of agricultural structures and the books and objects on the pedestal, Rachel introduces her concern with food production. This work exhibits an interest/ or rather concern with mass production, alteration, artificiality and ethics of how food is produced. For me, being from the cornfields of the midwest this print is a very familiar image and brings to mind harvest time when all the farmers bring in their corn and this huge machinery is running constantly with yellow rivers of corn, so much corn that it completely stops looking like it and becomes part of the machinery. This loss of the image of the natural element when it is in such great quantities relates to how in the print, you don’t actually see any land as it is hidden by the excess of printed farm buildings. To me this says the machines and processing of the corn plays a bigger role in food production than the land that grows it, which loses the root of where our food comes from. The except from “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safron Foer and Rachel’s annotations extend the interest in food production into moral and ethical concerns of food production. Though the different underlining and notations appear somewhat academic, they reveal an honest and invested interest in the subject matter. They start to form a conversation around the content between the author, Rachel and the viewer. Particular underlined passages that stood out me in the context of Rachel’s work surrounding it were “shame is a response and a responsibility” and “language is never fully trustworthy, but when it comes to eating animals, words are as often used to misdirect and camoflage as they are to communicate.” The second quotation brings up the idea of something hidden, an idea present in the translucent layers of the book, heavy layering of ink in the agriculture print, and the hole in the covering of the petri dish. Rachel gives the sense in this work that the truth is always hidden, unethical practices, the land, and information in general. This also relates back to use of the mask in the Aquarium series.

The last series on the end, however, seems to do the very opposite of hiding. Through the increase in size, color and ridiculousness of the male anatomy from left to right in the seven prints Rachel calls to mind and makes a statement about the unnatural modification of our food. It’s really funny and I read it as the food industry taking the role of the men in the prints and saying about their genetically modified agriculture and production practices, “look at this, isn’t it impressive!?” and Rachel’s commentary back is that “No, it’s ridiculous, excessive, unnatural, and you’ve gone too far.”
But beyond being amusing, these prints also bring up her concern with the unnaturalness of our food thanks to Man’s tampering, as well as issues of gender and masculinity. Although I think you can read the “man” in these prints as standing for “mankind” in the larger picture, masculinity is obviously as issue raised. These prints are taking masculine pride and making it “bigger and better!!” and bigger and bigger until its altogether too far. In the context of the other work, to the left, Rachel seems to be conflating man with machinery and as being the artificial hand in something that begins very simply with the earth. Man’s alterations are overtaking the natural. Rachel uses color to emphasize what is not quite right here.

The Aquarium piece also reveals man’s artificial hand as the ocean is contained in glass. Along these lines, Rachel also uses color strategically in all human elements and skin tones both in the corn porn and the Aquarium piece. She strips away all warm life-like colors for a cold light gray – which seems to be commenting that with all this excess somehow we are further from our humanity and unnatural.

Overall, it’s very evident that these are issues Rachel is genuinely passionate about, and there is really a lot here to look at and talk about. I see the three sections of work present here as relating to three different stages in the encounter of these issues brought up. The Aquarium represents the initial encounter with this information, and being overwhelmed and maybe a little horrified at all that is out there. The farm grouping represents the research, conversation and discovery. Finally the corn series is using humor to really tell us what she thinks about it and make a statement. The large idea I take away from Rachel’s work is in the excess of information out there the duality between what’s hidden, and what’s out in the open - what the agriculture is proud to share and what we might have to research ourselves and talk to each other to fully understand and be called to action

An artwork I thought of in relation to Rachel’s work is “Apology to Roadkill” by Shaun Gladwell.

In the writ crit conversation Lisa also mentioned “skateboarding video” also by Shaun Gladwell in relation to the repeated reductive woodcut in the Aquarium piece.

Other artists and works that were brought up during the writ crit conversation were:
“Radioactive Cats” by Sandy Skoglund and the activist work of Just Seeds Cooperative.

Lauren's Write Crit!

2011-03-11T22:32:00.000-08:00

Lauren has chosen to display her new body of work consisting of prints and drawings of portraits on the walls of the east installation room. Upon entering the room, five of the nine pieces are placed on the middle wall in a row, relatively small rectangular drawings and prints of female portraits on uniformly white paper. The uniformity in size and color can be related to the yearbook photo reference in her work. The three of the pieces are line drawings done in gauche or black water color on top a gray background, layered with text in acrylic or watercolor. The other two pieces are done from a pronto plate; white and gold acrylic paint over one of the images while the last one is just a print from a different plate. It’s significant to note that the only color, other than black, white or gray, is the gold paint used in the second portrait from the left. From right to left starting with the first portrait the texts read; “what’s your name baby girl,” “hey hot stuff,” “smile,” “hey you got a husband” and the last image is without text. On the adjacent wall are the second set of prints, four larger prints; three are of one etching and one landscape, all also layered with text. The etchings are also of a portrait, I assume it’s a self portrait. The first image is the print of the etching with the text “you seem like you would have done anal”. The landscape image is of a road and a hill with a sign that reads “you’re such a skank” done in acrylic, ink and charcoal on rice paper pasted on white paper with text that’s hard to make out but I assume it says “on my boo I can see parts of her I do not need to be seeing.” The last two pieces are both printed on rice paper which creates a translucency of the printed image when its pasted onto a more opaque surface like the last piece that’s on white paper with a sketch and the text “I see a lot of myself in you” underneath it. The second to last image has the text “a little soft” written on a card that’s pasted between the two pieces of Japanese paper. The images are on separate walls because I don’t see them as being directly related in one body of work but similar in the way that they both are biographical and dealing with identity, play between text and image, and layering.

Because I see Lauren’s work being very biographical and about trying to interpret her own identity, it’s hard for the viewer to relate their self to the work specifically. This might not be so much the case if the viewer wasn’t aware of the several self portrait pieces of Lauren. Compared to Lauren’s previous work at midterm, I feel that she’s going for a different body of work but one that’s more related to what she proposed to do last semester, dealing with identity, self, and narrative. Although her previous work on the prints of her black male friends at midterm, which dealt more with race and prejudice, still echo through her current body of work because the portraiture, orientation, and line quality are the still similar.

A lot of Lauren’s previous work also deals with pieces that are layered upon with multiple prints, drawings, or text. I see this as Lauren not only building up texture but also context. While her line drawings themselves are expressive in their own way because of her use of line but the images become more successful because she uses layer to build up an image. For example the four images on the right wall; the over wiped or ghost print of the etching on Japanese paper that’s adhered to another sheet of paper emphasizes the translucency of the print and allows the text to be seen. Specifically for the three pieces on the right, I don’t think they would have been as successful if everything would have been done on one sheet of paper. The first image on the right exemplifies that because the etching seems flat compared to the other pieces, I feel like she can go back into it and work it a little more. But in the case for the five images on the adjacent wall, Lauren uses several types of medium to create dimension and complexity within each peace although everything is contained on one piece of paper.

I think it’s important to note the words seem to be just as important to the piece as the line drawings are. Lauren specifically chooses the text to relate to the certain images, as to the drawing and text begin to form their own conversation. Although both components are vital to the piece as a whole, the text in each piece seems to be more of a response to the image rather than the image responding to that selection of text. The way Lauren draws or writes the text over the imagery seems almost graffiti like, or similar to how many of us would write over other kids’ school pictures in the year book. The text also ties the piece to a specific point in time that was possibly once important or relevant to Lauren. So the portrait just isn’t a portrait of a girl, but the text somehow emphasizes the images relevance to the artist Lauren’s choice of text for each image seem to be insulting or derogatory, like cat-calls towards women. Most of it comes off as being sexist towards women, as in the text seems to be coming from a male voice rather than a female voice and then being echoed in the portrayed figure’s head. None of them are positive, or at least the imagery reaffirms that none of them are intended to be positive. I feel like the body of work might be commenting on a negative self image or how Lauren might interpret the self image of others.

An artist that has made similar work, in the way that she combines imagery and text along with feminist themes would be Barbara Kruger. I know Lauren even mentioned her, but the connection is almost inevitable. Both works are similar in the way that the text is a response to the image and the lacking of color. Kruger’s work doesn’t seem as autobiographical but she tends to use text to comment on the image of society as Lauren uses text to comment on the images of specific girls or herself.

ERIN MITCHELL!

2011-03-11T04:24:00.001-08:00

This is Erin's writ crit...!

What consistently draws me into Erins’ work is her drawing style—and I like it best when I feel like it is personal, when I feel like the marks she has made are essential to the piece. I love that the pinkish-blue mass at the top of the “hole” piece resembles clumps of hair—maybe that’s an association I carry from her past work, but I do enjoy the ambiguity of not knowing whether the shapes are meant to be abstract or concrete. The same applies to the graphite hole under it. Though this drawing may visually resemble the other works in the room—in terms of the colors involved—, I really think it operates quite differently. It is the "unknowable" in the piece keeps me coming back in order to try and understand the significance of the presented imagery.

The other works, meanwhile, are different in that they read very much as specific portraits, and at the same time, not. They seem to be portraits in the obvious sense that they represent people's faces, but the accumulation of different faces within a single drawing makes for an unconventional style of portraiture. They all seem to be drawn in different ways, which leads me to presume that they're all meant to say slightly different things. Not to say they should all be drawn in the same style, but the ambiguity here is something I'm less comfortable with—the overall grouping of these drawings sends me mixed messages.

In order to make sense of these, then, I look at the types of faces, the colors used, and the marks present across all four drawings. All of the faces portrayed seem to be relatively young, so I wonder if this is a comment on a generation or a group of people within a certain setting (I assume I would think this without knowing where the images came from)? Is it larger than that? Is it about what we can read on these people's faces? Most of them seem pensive, reflective, and slightly anxious—inward focus is the predominant theme.

Some faces are hard to read—these are the ones in yellow, and these are the ones that bring me back to the feeling of trying to gauge an expression on a person's face. It is hard to tell what these people are thinking about in specificity, and the yellow makes us fight to be able to see their faces in addition to puzzling out their emotions. The paleness of the blue brings out the jarring, insistent qualities of the yellow even more, and the coral-pink color comes across as more of a visceral red at first glance against the lightness of the other two colors. My favorite of these portraitures is the one in which the faces are rendered with rough black charcoal lines—the grittiness of the texture makes for a nice contrast to the amorphous and washy splashes of color. In that piece, the reddish-pink seems to reveal a strong inner emotion on the part of the young man whose face it partly colors.

Other clues in these pieces include an image of a clock that recurs—on the left with the hands pointing out roughly 11:45, on the right marking 1:50. Handwritten text in the upper right corner of the piece reads, "The Rabbit Hole," and a scrawled repetition of the word "what." I see the text "The Rabbit Hole" as an invitation to an inner psychological space and the repetition of "what" as an expression of frustration. The clocks seem to indicate that time is passing in these pieces—perhaps too fast?

What is also interesting about this grouping of pieces is the arrangement of pieces of tape amongst them. Just looking at the tape pieces brings a number of things to mind—they resemble anemone, or stars, or flowers, but they don't seem to be about any of those things. What I'm struck by is the way that they seem defeated and limp. I'm reminded of an 3D-Design class assignment where we were asked to create a wooden modular sculpture piece that would resemble the motion of a person falling, and would instill a feeling of empathy in the viewer (so that the viewer would be nervous about its fall and want to help it balance). In a way, these tape pieces seem to be withdrawing inward—perhaps my read of the emotions on the people's faces are influencing the way I see the tape pieces.

With prior knowledge of how Erin usually presents her work, I assume that these are pieces of tape that have been used to hold up these pieces before and that have now been torn off and arranged into clusters. You can see slightly torn marks on the paper where the tape has been ripped off. So I also think of band-aids, and how a band-aid protects a wound but eventually has to come off, and never without pain. The work on the left (featuring Danny's face) seems to me to be in an earlier stage of completion, while the works in the middle seem a bit more resolved—does that mean the tape gets ripped off as the works mature? Or is this all speculation? The only thing that makes me wonder about the tape as a material is its presence now as a sort of sculptural/decorative object.

In terms of artists, I think of:

Darrel Morris

I’m thinking about this admittedly because he embroiders, and I’ve been researching that lately—but he often portrays a certain type of person—usually forlorn aging men. He also has a background in printmaking, which makes sense when you look at his work.

Margareth Doorduin

Her photos are strange and seem to depict psychological struggles. I really love the gestures and how they spark empathy but also seem clinical and enforce distance.

Bohyun Yoon

This may be a bit of a stretch, but this artist works a lot about control systems (government, out

side forces, etc?) and what they do to the individual body.

Bern Porter

2011-03-09T10:55:00.001-08:00

I remember the leisurely days of part time employment, bread baking, and movie watching with a fierce nostalgia. Those were also the days of many blog posts, so in the name of that nostalgia I am writing a post for the first time in forever.

About Bern Porter, who claims to have invented mail art.

Check it out.

Liz Belen's Writ Crit

2011-03-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

The work Liz Belen installed in the critique room consists of work from the past two semesters. There is photo documentation of the instillation she installed as her final last semester, three long vertically hung piece drawn on paper, as well as some of her newer work made with neon duct tape, and possible ideas for future installations.

There are three pieces that hang together as a grouping, one small, one medium, and one larger in size all made using brightly colored duct tape.

Although the pieces do feel very two dimensional there is a sense of movement created by the different shapes especially at the top of the larger piece where there are a bunch of short thin lines that seem to be falling down the page. This piece also becomes intriguing when the layering of the duct tape is visible, where you can see shapes that are slightly raised but then have been covered creating nuances in the strips that are otherwise flat. While it is clear that the material being used in these works is duct tape I am not sure that the significance of using this material is apparent. Although I know from talking to Liz that she wanted to use a traditionally household item to create pattern so that it can be seen in a different way, because the duct tape is in non-traditional colors it is hard to see it as being the traditional gray household duct tape that many people do have in their homes. However, I feel that Liz does utilize the material quality of duct tape and how it can be torn and cut easily staying in even strips, to create layers that vibrate against each other drawing the viewer in and making the pieces fun to look at.

The largest pieces Liz has hung are three vertical works which seem to have originally belonged to one larger sheet of paper but have since been cut up into three equal sections creating vertical strips.

In these pieces Liz seems to be exploring many different types of pattern that have mostly been drawn on the paper with marker, pen or pencil but some have been printed and then attached to the paper. There are all sorts of shapes and lines utilized in these three works to depict organic shapes as well as geometric forms. The varieties of texture and combination of both black and white and colorful forms creates a more three dimensional effect which sets these three pieces apart from most of Liz’s other work which is usually very two dimensional (e.g. the neon pieces). The depth created along with the fact that some patterns are present on more than one page allows the viewer’s eyes to flow from piece to piece spending time examining the highly detailed parts of the page while still having white space to rest on so it is not too overwhelming. Although it seems to be merely an investigation of pattern without any other underlying purpose, the layered space coupled with the sheer number of detailed patterns being illustrated creates a very aesthetically pleasing group of works where the viewer’s eyes are never bored.

For the installation from last semester Liz painted the walls of the East Installation space with a light and dark blue plaid pattern that wrapped around the three walls of the space and enclosed a sheet of sewn together blue relief prints (some printed on white paper others on mylar) that were cut out and sewn together with red thread. This sheet acted as a fourth wall in a way creating a semi-enclosed space between itself and the plaid wall behind it but which the viewer could also partially see through due to the parts of it that were of mylar.

There are also three sketches for what are presumably ideas for future installations.

Undoubtedly, Liz’s work investigates pattern and pairing certain patterns together that might not normally be pared to create new designs. Lately, Liz has begun to explore letting the qualities of certain materials, such as duct tape, dictate her patterns such as in the layered, extremely geometric duct tape pieces. While creating patterns in this way is intriguing, it is also important for Liz to keep in mind why she wants certain patterns to be made out of or on certain materials. I do feel that continuing to utilize the properties of new materials to dictate her pattern making could strengthen this body of work.

It is clear too from the installation Liz did last semester as well as one of her sketches that creating a space that surrounds the viewer with pattern is important to Liz. With the installation, Liz succeeded in creating a patterned space encompassed the viewer between the sheet of prints and the plaid wall. However, the mood created was very different when the viewer was standing inside this space versus on the outside looking in. When the viewer stood between the plaid and the sheet of relief prints there was an almost ethereal feel looking at the light shining through the semi transparent “wall,” yet when the viewer stood outside looking in there the transparencies in the wall of prints created intriguing layerings with the plaid behind it but no ethereal feel was generated. Since there are so many different patterns prevalent in this body of work, it is important to recognize that each pattern and color does create a different mood and thus it will be critical for Liz to keep in mind what type of feeling (if any) she wants to create in a space and produce patterns that do induce that specific mood. Furthermore, many of Liz’s works with color still feel very two dimensional even when she covers three dimensional objects or a space with them such as she did in her installation from last semester. However, in her work using just black and white and different variations of black lines, her work begins to become more three dimensional even if it is still only on paper. Thus, I think it will be important for Liz to decide if she wants the point of her work to be flattened pattern covering three dimensional objects and flattening a space or if she wants her work to have more depth. If the latter is the case then one path Liz might want to try is limiting her palette to one type of line, one pattern, and/or one color and exploring just that one type, isolating it and pushing it to its limit. Although Liz has some decisions to make regarding intentionality I think that thus far she has made some very interesting and intriguing explorations and creations of pattern.

Suggestion of artists to look at: Campbell Laird, Bridget Riley, James Siena, and Liza Lou.

Writ Crit for Sophie Lipman

2011-02-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

Sophie Lipman displayed a body of her work for critique on February second. Her pieces included four monotypes of round-cornered, simplified box-like forms referencing televisions in yellow, magenta and teal, with black outlines. She also hung her previously critiqued piece featuring her first use of the TV-shape sitting across from a meticulously rendered ballpoint-collagraph of a figure appropriated from imagery by Goya. The figure seems to be in such a state of deterioration that it pools where it sits before the faded blue TV.

In another piece, a monotype TV in neutral magenta sits on a small monotype table, the silhouette of the pair cut out along the outlines. On this piece, a barely visible silkscreen of a rat and a donut, presumably printed in transparent base, are printed to suggest that the rat and donut are coming out of the TV.

A last monotype TV printed in slightly warm, bright yellow also rests on a monotype table and is cut out. McDonald's Ms and graphically drawn, over-scale mosquitos are printed in trans base on organic, cloud-like shapes and are installed with the yellow TV and seem to be floating away from its screen. In addition to the printed and installed pieces, print-outs of bacteria are tacked to the wall as insight into Sophie's source material. Floating donuts and glowing McDonald's Ms are also displayed in print-outs, under the heading "projection ideas," and are clearly sketches for future projects.

One of the first things I notice about Sophie’s work is its consistent use of transparency. The sketchy marks that allow paper to show through on Sophie’s TV monotypes, the transparent silkscreens of the rats, the projection of light onto a physical piece, and even the layered watercolors in her sketches make use of transparency. I wonder if this urge to employ translucent layers was what compelled her to create her earliest pieces, which became a bit cluttered in certain instances. Sophie’s work since then has been far more exacting and exclusive about what to layer with what, which makes that work far more successful. She collages and layers the meanings of the content she portrays as thoroughly as she layers the forms, so careful selection of the symbolic forms she uses helps to keep Sophie’s work focused.

I remember Sophie once making a comment that people’s tendency to find humor in her work was not the reaction you were looking for. I can empathize with that sentiment, since I have gotten similar unwanted reactions in the past. However, I think ironic humor could strengthen her work. For one, I think a certain degree of humor is an inevitable response to an unexpected use of a highly familiar cultural icon, like TV or the McDonalds’ M. Some people who respond to Sophie’s appropriation with humor may not be provoked to question the symbols’ presence in their lives. But I think that for many, humor could ease the audience’s assimilation of the concept she is presenting. They might not take it seriously at first, but humorous ideas tend to be remembered, and reevaluation of them as they recur in a person’s mind could help that person spot the grains of truth.

I would suggest that she look up anti-consumerist and anti-globalization art, but unfortunately I have no specific references for her.

[many, many apologies for the lateness of this post]

Writ Crit: Becca Moore

2011-02-22T21:42:00.000-08:00

Becca’s work has a central theme of movement through time while maintaining shared space on the picture plane. The mark is a gestural outline, only giving enough information to show the

individual features of

her subject without filling in information throughout the rest of the face

and body. Each figure in her work maintains their identity as they cycle through each action, which leads me to believe that each

action is

also specific to the subject, yet the actions that the subjects is performing seem to be universal in nature. One of the subjects turns her heads in a five stage process, and anot

her, less specific, subject appears to be getting out of bed. Because these actions

are so simple, they help to support the notion of shared space. As the girl turns her head, we see how little her torso has moved compared to her face. In a way, it is a venn diagram of the action, showing similarities and differences of each step. These pieces are presented with a projection of a photo of the original pose, but when all of the information is reintroduced to the drawings, they lose the ephemeral quality that the drawings possess by themselves. With the projection the drawing become less about the quality of shared space, and more about each individual frame, essentially turning into a five frame animation. This style of illumination is more effective in the piece where less information is given (the getting out of bed outline.) In this case, the projected image doesn’t overlap the information already given to us by the detailed lines on the inside of the figure. In another version of the same series of poses the figure have shaded detail, and appear to be an overall impression of the movement. This one gesture turns into multiple people, like the Flash outrunning his ghosted images. Yet there is no speed in these multiple images, instead they sit heavy on the page, definitively together.Another piece relates back to the larger work, but seems to effectively merge both ideas. The small square etching uses different line tones to create a sense of movement and time in just one frame, without the projection. This image has a lighter touch than the ones before it. It has stillness, in the final pose with the thickest lines, which gives the figure more of a sense of place in the picture plane.

All together these works represent a study of motion, and perhaps the constant motions that every person goes through on a daily basis as they repeat the actions that have grown so familiar. Perhaps that is why Becca has picked such inconspicuous actions to depict in her pictures. This gives the repetition a life outside of the depicted action and movement through time. It implies that the movement will continue endlessly.

(apologies for the crazy photo placement)

Writ Crit of Jen O'Neill's work

2011-02-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

In the Eastern installation space, there is tent-like construction held up by fishing line. The mismatched materials (fabric, clothes, paper) of various colors are stitched together using thick white yarn, which resembles sutures. The tent-like construction is about 5 feet high and touches the floor. There are a few openings that invite the viewer to crawl inside. Once inside, sitting on the floor, the viewer's gaze travels upward. The sewing craft is very apparent since the viewer's eyes are quite close to the fabric. The holes that have been punctured in paper and the perforated holes in fabric from removed stitching stand out since light from outside shines through subtly.

This is the most recently completed piece by Jennifer O'Neill. The hodge-podge tent-like structure looks like it was put together in a quick manner. In comparison to traditional children's forts, the fishing line attachments to the wall are pretty different. There is a clear linkage between the drawing of flying fabric and the installation.

Whereas in the drawing there is no color, the splashes of color in the installation give it a more levity and playfulness. The use of handmade paper in the installation seems to be out of place since the paper doesn't physically act like fabric. The use of cut up clothing is intriguing as well as the use of the white tulle with figures drawn on it. As the figures become distorted in the fold, they resemble the gumby-like mylar stencils Jen is so adept at making.

The use of the figure is prevalent in her work. The figures seem to be female but sometimes it is unclear if they have a gender. In the print work hung in conjunction with the installation, any color is in the red family, which is associated with anxiety. Understanding a specific type of anxiety is difficult. The drawing style is relatively classical. The compositions are nicely considered. The images feel too contained on the piece of paper. Perhaps instead of drawing, some other form of visual communication would be more effective. Something more visceral and off-putting for the viewer.

The heart of the work is very personal and there are a lot of questions for Jen to answer to figure out what she wants to communicate. Explorations with three dimensional vignettes and performance could help elucidate relevant themes.

artists similar

Jean Shin - Penumbra

Candice Smith Corby - The narratives in Smith Corby's intricate paintings navigate through the muddied waters of traditional female imagery, carving-out a space for new ideas to grow.

Ghada Amer

Jason Thielke

Katy Grannan

Hi, this is actually Danny!

2011-02-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

Response to Critique:

Hi guys,

Before diving into everything I have to say I want to talk about my intensions in writing all of this. The purpose of this post is to discuss what I want my thesis work to potentially be about and what I do not want the work to be about and why. For the sake of my argument for the ideas I do and do not wish to delve into I am using my experiences and experiences parallel to my own as a source for my material in this work—“I should not talk so much about myself if there where anybody else whom I knew as well.” Thoreau, from “Economy” in Walden. The work I plan to make should both educate an audience in ideas of identity (through a lens of a gay identity) as an act of the construction of oneself, as well as emphasize the striking similarity between us all, in which we all assert our identity through daily actions—“It seemed to her such nonsense – inventing differences, when people, heaven knows, were different enough without that.” Virginia Wolfe, To the Lighthouse.

The first section focuses solely on my thoughts and concepts I plan to tackle. The Second section focuses on the formal artwork I plan to create. The third section addresses why I think it is important to put this work out into the world. The fourth section talks about the work that I am not making, and for this project do not wish to make.

1. Performativity

In elementary school I didn’t make calls and I didn’t receive calls—everything was planned out for me. But I made sure to answer the phone when it was an unknown number. Sometimes it was a telemarketer. I’d answer—“hello?” They’d say Mrs. Greenberg, could I please speak to your husband—“I’m sorry he’s not available.” My voice was high pitched. Distinctly feminine.

Judith Butler formed the concept of performativity in 1990 in regard to gender. To Butler, gender performativity is reiterated acting producing the effect of a static gender, while obscuring contradiction. Thus, it had to do with passing as one’s desired gender. Misreadings of her concept of performativity led her to publish Bodies That Matter in 1993. Here Butler spends time noting the significance of iterability, or a regularized and constrained repetition of norms, within her theory of performativity—“Performance is not a single act or event, but a ritualized production.” Thus performativity describes a process of discursive production.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “Can I ask you a personal question?” “The answer is yes. Yes, I’m gay.”

What I am interested in talking about in my work is a little bit different than performativity, but certainly related. As a gay male I’ve had to pass at times as a straight male and also as a gay male. Unlike ideas of performativity, which encapsulates an entire process and gender regime, I am interested in the specific performance—the specific instance in which a conscious decision for passing is made.

I heard the word fag, queer, and gay all of the time. For a long time I didn’t know what these words meant, other than it was the same as calling someone a girl. I certainly didn’t know that I could be a fag—I had boy parts. But there was a gay test. Ask the suspect to look at his fingernails. If he curls his hand halfway into a fist than he is not gay. If he spreads his hand out in front of him than he is gay. My instinct was to curl my fingers.

And the specific moment in which we construct ourselves.

I went to an academic summer program where I met other gay people my age for the first time. They all convinced me that the only way to be happy would be to meet other gay guys online. I created a myspace page at fifteen. There was a special feature where I could search for local guys in my age group with the same sexual orientation. They all had fantastic pictures with spiked hair, fabulous lighting, or bare-chests. The next year I enrolled in a photography class. So much time that year was devoted to taking the perfect image of myself.

II. The Work

With two primary bodies of work, the works will transition by sharing similar formal elements and will be in dialogue with one another. The implementation of descriptive text and titles will focus the content of the work. Essentially, my objective is to resolve the issues apparent in my last critique (the difficulty for the viewer to enter the content/context of the work and a problematic use of physical materials.)

A. The Test, The Self, The Smother Affect

The gay test—it was just mentioned—how do you look at your fingernals?

I plan to draw my hand in the two positions. Like the drawing of my palm print I plan to do the drawings at a larger size (tracing the naturally occurring lines in my hand), and then reduce them to life size, the actual size of my hands. Between the two images there will be text explaining the gay test. The text will be in light red. The drawings will be in black.

Alongside this work there will be two other works—another diptych and a sculpture component.

The diptych will be the woodcut of the back of a shirt printed in black and the photographic image of the front of the shirt printed out on the same paper as the woodcut and traced in red pen in the center of the image where the shirt gathers.

The sculpture component will be my palm print blown up to the size of a full sized bed sheet, and printed as a sheet. The bed sheet will be stiffened in order to have a similar bulbous quality that the photographic image of the shirt has. This component will be presented on the floor. Additionally, selective, significant lines occurring on the palm of my hand will be traced in red.

The notion is that my hand depicted in the two positions is a meditation of the childhood test of sexuality. The photographic component represents a specific individual, an ad almost, a specific presentation. It is wet, raw, and about a body. The image of the woodcut is from behind. It is nonspecific. It could be anyone. It incorporates the same line quality as the sculpture component on the floor. They both talk about identity. A shirt is something one can take on and off though. A palm is permanent fixture. There is a bulbous form both in the photographic image and the sculpture component of the palm.

B. The Construction

The section will consist of images I have gathered from myspace and facebook (of some people who I know and some who I do not) depicting images in which a gay identity is asserted and constructed. These will be engravings on flat sheets of glass with red ink wiped into the engraving. The flat side of the glass will face outward. The engravings of these images will be line drawings—perfect and simple. Ideally these images will be produced to life size and in mass quantity. These images will be paired with text about the construction of self through these pictures. The text will be in red.

These images are also self-constructed in the sense of “selling oneself.” They are like ads.

III. Context

There is an undeniable self-indulgent quality viewers will see in this work. I can’t avoid this. There is certainly a therapeutic element in creating this work as well. However, if this work is for myself and myself only than I have failed the potential of the work. I really do not enjoy talking about myself, I much prefer talking with and about others. What I do enjoy is sharing ideas. The work is about sharing my specific experiences as well as similar shared experiences in order to make the viewer understand and pontificate the notion of having to construct oneself, and that perhaps they already do so (or have done so). Here it is through a lens of gay identity, because this is what I am most knowledgeable in from personal experience.

IV. What the Work is Not About

A. I do not want the work to be about gay sex nor do I want to make work about gay sex and this is why:

People are wrong to imagine teenage boys want to shoot their loads; what they want is a union of souls, which will only incidentally result in a tangling of arms, thighs, loins. Teenagers do not fetishize big cocks, hairy chests, powerful biceps, or blond hair and thick necks; their desire is too general to respond to anything less than eternal love and their love is vague and powerful enough to ennoble any body at all.

-Merla, Patrick, Boys Like Us

There is a very silly notion that a gay identity is about sex. That gender and sex are the same thing. That when making any sort of gay art that there is some element of sex. In truth gay and straight sexuality is only different in the technicalities. What makes me different from a straight person is not my emotional and physical attraction to men. What makes me different than a straight person is that I have to claim and perform my identity in a specific way—granted some straight men feel they too have to claim and perform a socially acceptable masculine identity.

B. I do not want this work to be a historical overview of gay rights:

All history is current; all injustice continues on some level somewhere in the world.

-Walker, Alice, The World Has Changed

I put this quote here first to emphasize that history does matter (Alice Walker built her career off of this notion.) In order to understand ourselves, we must understand our past. Without our past we are nothing. This is certainly true when it comes to gay rights—not until 1973 was homosexuality removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, largely due to protests. A historical approach to sexuality and gay rights is certainly a rich territory to explore, as well as a territory surprisingly few people know about—no one in my immediate family knew what the Stonewall Riots were. However, I simply do not want to delve into this territory for this specific body of work. I want to limit my subject to issues of performativity and a construction of the self.

C. I do not want to use the language of a type:

I have to clarify a little bit here. A few times I have been given advice that I could find a visual metaphor to describe a type of gay people. Once I was given advice that I could depict anuses as miens of a metaphor for gay men. The works on glass I plan to create describe a ritual that is meant to assert a specific gay identity, but also serve as an advertisement as oneself (not a type, as in the same.) The idea of a type in such a straightforward manner would undermine what I am trying to do here. I am trying to talk about performativity and the construction of oneself. The idea of a type is pretty bogus and seems to just perpetuate the same problematic ideas we have about the differences in individuals as of now.

Writ Crit: Lyndsay Nevins

2011-02-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

Lyndsay Nevins installed a mixture of prints, photographs, sketches, and objects, all incorporating found items. These works include recent sculptural installations, new prints, a couple works from the end of last semester, and plans for future projects.

The presentation visually flows from the harsh contrast of the black-and-white print, to the grayed-out collagraphs, and then the pieces that have a range of colors. This organization reflects a conceptual evolution in the work. All the pieces aestheticize found objects to different degrees and manners.

The inked up pieces of trash form a striking aerial-like composition, hinting at another world.

There is an balance of abstraction and recognizability of the objects used. On a wider scale the smaller parts transcend into a cohesive landscape. The actual inked-up pieces also give insight into the process and serve as another form of aestheticized found objects. Compositionally, the actual objects on the floor appear to flow out of the print, connecting these two different elements.
The collographs enlarge the used objects, beautifying and transforming them through scale and the minimal rendering. The scale brings one’s attention to a typically discarded object, yet the faint graphite color reinforces the transient nature of the wrapper and can. Both objects are also visibly used with the can flattened and a corner torn on the wrapper. This element of the prints signals a human’s relationship with the object, and through the rendering and nature of object suggests one of consumption and thoughtless discard.

The Reese’s print stills transforms a found object, but in a way that differs from the others. The

colors used, composition, and dissociated elements taken from the wrapper seem like more of a study than actually hinting an outside relationship. This piece does not fit conceptually for me as much as the other works because it is not necessarily a found object. Because the print analyzes the elements of the packaging, it could be a found wrapper or simply a Reese’s from the vending machine.

On the adjacent wall, the photos show a telephone pole covered with signs and staples. Through

the cropping of these photos the telephone pole becomes striking through the grayed-out colors and rusted staples. Also, the nature of a telephone pole suggests the interaction with and collection of materials from a larger community. It serves as a public announcement space seen by anyone passing through and paying attention. Also, the disintegration, cluttering, and overlay signal the passing of time and general chaos in this type of democratic space.
On the pedestal is an organized collection of objects roughly by color. Not all the objects look like trash, such as unopened medicine and a coiled belt. Rather, as suggested by the names some of the items, they are all from one person and look used or discarded. The sketches above the pedestal are for different possible sculptures made out of collected items or installations involving trash. The color in them is appealing, especially with compared with the monotone prints and the expansion into space is engaging.

Overall, the work signals a relationship to a person or community through aestheticizing discarded, found, or generally mundane objects. In the landscape print, the direct connection to an urban environment is visible with the landscape-like compositions. The work does not seem to take a stance that littering is bad or Americans are excessive. Rather, the message is more nuanced, revealing the knowledge on can learn about an individual or community through the discarded items - at least in the most recent pieces where the items our more visible in their original form. The earlier print abstracts the pieces so that they are almost unrecognizable except by their shape. Throughout the work, the discarded object in its found form is revealed more and more, through realistic depiction, photos, and using the actual objects.
Two important aspects in the work relate the significance of the items used. One is whether the items relate to an individual or a community and the nature of that relationship - discarded items or objects that are currently in use. This work as taking on a relational aesthetic aspect because it uses the object’s social context as a starting point for insight in the work and emphasizes the relations held by these objects. Another important aspect is the degree to which the objects are aestheticized or manipulated by the artist. The organization by color is visually appealing and still allows access to the objects. Through manipulation the objects can be obscured, emphasizing their purely formal aspects, or used in their original form - allowing for relation of the object to be more readily accessed. Using objects in this way does raise the question of where does the ‘art’ come in or how are the transformed. Is it simply through taking them out of context and putting them into an art space, organizing them, or actually manipulating them? Why make them more beautiful or bring our attention to these items? With using these types of materials in an artistic setting brings up of waste - just by the fact that they are used materials. As the work grows, I think it will be important to solidify what types of objects and why they are being used. The sketches provide an interesting direction for the work to take and seeing all the work together
One artist that has some similarities to Lyndsay’s work is Chris Jordan. He uses photographs to portray in mass consumption in visual form.
Also, Peter Menzel who photographed pictures of families with all the possessions from around the world.

Writ Crit

2011-02-08T20:29:00.000-08:00

Critique of Danny Greenberg’s Work by Liz Belen. 2/8/2011

Upon entering the instillation space where Danny has chosen to display his work, the viewer is confronted with several different pieces. On the wall immediately to your right, hangs a drawing of two figures on a piece of cloth, loosely framed with nails and a piece of glass. This first piece is about 10x8.5 and appears to be a pen and ink drawing on white cloth. The two figures appear to be men and their faces are touching. However, it is possible that the image is simply a mirroring image of one male (due to the similarity in line, as well as facial features, but I am not certain.) Both sets of lips are pursed but they do not appear to be touching or kissing. On the right side of the image it states: “What am I doing lol.” This could be interpreted in many ways, however this statement evokes feelings of confusion, doubt and even happiness from the figures. The line quality of this piece is very capturing and the way in which the artist chose to frame and nail the piece to the wall appears playful and fresh.

Moving counterclockwise around the room, the next work is a white piece of paper with a small, delicately drawn image, constructed of thousands of dots butting up again one another to create an interesting form on the page. The dots are placed in extremely close proximity to one another, forming small shapes that make up the one, large, angular, free-form shape. This shape floats in space and exists alone in the middle to upper right hand side of the paper. The bright colors are a new and interesting component within Danny’s latest works. The color adds movement, complexity and overall, a different feeling (more playful, intricate and dense) to the small, meticulous and repetitive dots that make up the smaller, color-coded shapes. It is unclear whether or not this piece is finished, however I am very interested in how the lovely mark making combines with sections of color to form a very angular and expressive entity that exists on its own in a field of white.

Next, a tapestry or quilt hangs from the wall. Each square depicts the same woodcut that was printed many times in various colors. The squares have been sewn together in a random formation to create a dynamic piece with a great amount of movement.

Because each square appears to be the same image printed in a different color, there is a sense of harmony created through repetition, movement and the lines that have been carved. It is appears that the artist meticulously carved each line in his woodcut in order to create a flowing, purposeful image that is dependent on line weight and mark making as the piece flows from one square to the next.

On the left back wall of the space, two identical images printed on cloth hang side by side, one blue, one black. The images created are woodcuts (clue: large woodcuts that lean against the adjacent wall). The image clearly reads as the back of a man’s shirt, due to the folds, creases, wrinkles, and stripes that are carefully carved. The careful attention to detail, meticulousness, repetitive line quality and intentional subtleties that exists in this piece, as well as the quilt, are extremely beautiful. The top of the shirt is beautifully rendered or carved, as well as the body of the shirt that depicts every single curve, or movement that a man’s shirt would take on throughout the day. The contrast in color between the two pieces (black and blue) reveals introduces a specific conversation, or a binary, perhaps the masculine vs. the feminine. I get this feeling due to the pale, airy and light feeling the pale blue gives off in comparison to the dark, rigid structure that the black ink creates on the stark white fabric. The artist’s attention to detail and the way that he has chosen to render this shirt is very capturing. The lines force the viewer to want to keep looking, searching and following each and every line from side to side, or bottom to top, watching to see how each line relates to the next and so on.

Pinned in the corner, purposefully or not purposefully, is a very small piece of paper covered with the repetitive, static dots that were similarly shown in a previous piece. Small shapes make up a much larger shape that takes over the piece of paper and falls to the bottom. This piece is extremely detailed and grabs the viewer’s eye due to the repetitive mark but also the use of color.

Leaning against the left wall when one walks into the space, are two woodcuts. One has been printed and displays the back of a man’s shirt, and the other, the front of a man’s shirt, however, this piece has not been carved. Placed on top of this wood is a photocopy of the man’s shirt and a red pen drawing on top of that. The image has been placed on butcher paper, on top of the wood, depicting a male figure (the artist?) with a button down shirt that is pinned, revealing his body shape/structure. I am very interested in the lines and shadows that are then created. After knowing the artist and having been given a glimpse into the works, it is apparent that several political and or ethical issues are at work. Unlike the previous pieces, it was very hard to uncover a meaning or underlying concept. Within these pieces the color emphasize the masculine vs. feminine as well as the pinning of the shirt, the attention to detail and the desire to reveal ones figure while remaining clothed. Without titles it is also difficult to pin point exactly what the artist is saying or a specific subject matter. However, these works are beginning to force the viewer to question, wonder and hopefully and definitely piece together this of the self, body and gender that is present throughout all of the works.

Lastly, Vaseline is purposefully placed on an approximately 10x12 piece of fabric and hung on the left wall. This piece allows for multiple interpretations, but reinforces this idea of the self, body and gender in countless ways. This piece, disgusting yet intriguing could be explored more thoroughly and the use of the black Vaseline may reveal different emotions from viewers and create an entirely different piece.

In conclusion, all of these pieces are beginning to create great conversation with one another. Each piece has something new and distinctive to contribute, reveal or express when viewed in a group. The artist is beginning to hammer out the details and subtly, or not so subtly express feelings, emotions and truths that exist in today’s world and his world. The two woodcuts illustrating the front and the back of the shirt, are working to express a binary, a front and a back, subjectivity or objectivity, subtly. Each piece has its own meaning and its own strength. The presentation could be a little cleaner and more purposeful, but overall these works present a great amount of conversation and it is very obvious how much thought, intention and attention to detail has gone into these works!

Quilts, Comics, and Community

2011-02-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

During the first week of February (Spring Semester '11), Printmaking & Drawing majors at the Sam Fox School of Arts have been given the opportunity to work with the collaborative print shop Island Press and visiting artist Greely Myatt.

Island Press has a long history of collaborating with some of the United State's most up-and-coming or well-established printmakers; most recently Anne Hamilton, Tom Friedman, and Chris Duncan. This workshop is another element of what makes the Prinmaking major at Sam Fox so unique. Junior and Senior printmakers get the chance to work with these artists in an intimate setting, which allows for students to get real-world insight on what it is to be a practicing artist.

From working with Greely Myatt, it is easy to see that the idea of community is extremely important to him. Not just working with people, but working with the past of the people as well. His work consists of gathering found or discarded materials (wood and aluminum signage) and reforming, reshaping them to give them new life. The idea of the quilt is prevalent in his work as well. Many of his pieces bring to mind the quilts of Gee's Bend, which is not entirely ironic considering his Southern heritage.

Print projects with Mr. Myatt include large-format etchings and collographs based on his quilted collage of found signage and graphic comic strips. The importance of speech in the comic becomes subverted with the print series, "Word," "Another Word," and "The Last Word "- which originated as a collage made up of letters cut from such found signs. Majors were given the task of converting these letters into steel plate etchings, printed in colours reminiscent of the original signs. The same subversion occurs with the large-format collograph of empty speech bubbles and comic panels, where figures are removed completely and instead a textured, vivid yellow background appears. The final collaborative piece is made up of speech bubble collograph plates that fit together like a puzzle. Each major was assigned the task of designing their own bubble with a quilt pattern.

The Printmaking majors are lucky to have worked with such a humble and spirited printmaker/sculptor/multitalented artist as Greely Myatt. His warm accent and down-to-earth attitude are not likely to be forgotten. This sense of closeness and community will live on in the department as we have learned to work together to achieve a variety of goals.

Greely Myatt

2011-01-17T17:41:00.000-08:00

Greely Myatt, sculptor and professor of art at the University of Memphis, will be the visiting artist at Island Press this semester! Myatt's work focuses on the importance of objects and art created from labor and craftsmanship. In one article he simply states his approach and process of art making as "the hand, the eye, the heart and the mind, to shape my work in both the making and the viewing." One of the things that are admirable about his work is that he uses recycled materials like road signs or reclaimed wood, echo conscious art work . For example, the traditional "built" quilt patterns are made up of old aluminum street signs. By using scavenged objects, Myatt reworks old materials that come with a past history into a new context within his work which creates an important relationship between the found and the crafted.

Silver Lining, aluminum and aluminum signs

Double Dip, plaster and wood

If you'd like more information on Greely Myatt, heres a really short yet insightful video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxzyNFc7L_4

trippy

2010-12-02T07:56:00.000-08:00

Bldgblog posted this link yesterday and called it "stationary cinema". It made me smile, and it's an interesting idea. enjoy!

Kickstarter + Power and Light Press

2010-11-18T06:34:00.000-08:00

Do you guys know about Kickstarter? Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. People post their ideas for projects on the Kickstarter site and request funding from individuals.

This project is a mobile letterpress shop. Kyle Durrie, the proprietor, made a short video to explain the project - why she loves letterpress printing, what she hopes to do. She asked for $8000 and has received over $9000 with 45 days left to go!

Check it out!

i heart st louis

2010-11-02T22:41:00.000-07:00

SO, I was going to email this out to everybody, but decided not to be obnoxious and post it here instead.

Guerrilla tactics for our map installations! I know we've got a lot on our plates...but what if we printed out secret prints/or had special items of some sort and deposited them in our favorite spots in Louey? Like a treasure hunt kind of thing. Except we wouldn't tell people what they were...only that they exist elusively in the spots we would highlight on our maps. And that would hopefully generate a lot of excitement and traffic towards those places...

...Would that be mean to all the businesses/restaurants we DIDN'T promote?

Just an idea. We could even just hide little prints of hearts. Even ironically pixelated ones!!

-g

Venue Map

2010-10-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

View Local Venues for emerging artists. in a larger map

This is the beginning of an interactive map that details the various venues around town where you can have a DIY style show or show your work as an emerging artist.

ART Talks

2010-10-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a TED Talk by Marian Bantjes.

Seniors, please review this presentation. It is a great example of how you might structure your ART Talk next week.

3rd annual undergraduate exchange portfolio and exhibition.

2010-10-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Central Michigan University Print Club invites you to participate in the 3rd annual undergraduate exchange portfolio and exhibition

Theme: Temporary Existence
Eligible Artists: undergraduate students
Printmaking Media: open

for more info, go to http://mcaprint.blogspot.com/2010/10/exchange-portfolio.html

WHAMMO Fundraising Opportunity

2010-09-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings Beloved Printmakers,

I have a fundraising opportunity to propose to you all. I am working with the Kemper Museum to recycle their old vinyl banners into useful objects - totes, sketchbooks, wallets, card holders, etc.

We are recruiting any interested art students (i.e. WHAMMO) to get involved! What you make will be sold on consignment in the Kemper Museum shop, and a portion of the proceeds will go back to WHAMMO.
I also think that you all should start selling the WHAMMO zine at Kemper. Maybe even vinyl covers! The possibilities are endless, really.

Converse amongst yourselves, and then contact me - your favorite printmaking alumna downstairs! Feel free to stop by my office (next to Georgia's in Bixby) if you want to discuss ideas or have questions. If you decide to do this, we will set up a time to meet with Karen at the Kemper and get the project (and the cash money) rolling.

Faithfully yours,

Kim Wardenburg

Printmaker Cameo

2010-09-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

This is an animation that addresses the age-old question 'what is art?' in a fun and cute way. Also, watch out for some priceless special appearances by a certain printmaker . . .

I've always wanted to make. . .

2010-09-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

cut paper
9x5x5"

Project 1

2010-09-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

What started out as an idea for a room full of moths...translated into plaster and foamcore.

the gathering (2010)

paper, plaster, foamcore, acrylic, wooden spoon, late night coffee stains

Rivane Neuenschwander

2010-09-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Installation view from Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other, New Museum, New York, 2010. Foreground: Rain Rains (2002).

Perhaps some of the seniors remember this artist being mentioned during seminar last year, but she is worth a new look as her work is coming to the Kemper Museum October 8, 2010 - January 10.

Additionally, she will be giving a talk 10/9 from 11-1 (a saturday) with Richard Flood, chief curator of the New Museum. Take a moment to research this artist-her work is amazing.

Your own private wilderness

2010-09-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

While this isn't entirely print related, it is totally mind blowing. I think the opening and closing of the various windows relates to how we sometimes work in a series, and the interactive part of this explores how we own and explore urban spaces.

www.thewildernessdowntown.com

First crit: that project I've always wanted to do

2010-09-12T19:01:00.001-07:00

"Something You've Always Wanted to Do..."

2010-09-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

RESULTS:

The Big Wait, 2010

Balloon installation with glitter and stool, dimensions variable.

3 Minute Egg

2010-09-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

Kathan Brown, founder of Crown Point Press in San Francisco and author of several books including Magical Secrets: The Art of Etching and the Truth of Life, has a regular video commentary on her blog site called, 3 Minute Egg.

Her commentaries reflect her thoughts about various art, creativity, and print-related subjects. Check it out. And check out the blog, too. It's Magical Secrets - listed on the side bar to the right on this page.

2010-08-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

WELCOME BACK TO A FRESH NEW ACADEMIC YEAR!

Dance to the Printmaking anthem....

Hurrah!!

2010-04-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yay everybody for making this weekend a print extravaganza, everyone should post some photos of their from the shows!

Shows!

2010-04-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

Two shows tonight! The Sculpture BFA show at the Des Lee, "Jailbreak", and a printmaking show at Open Lot. The show at Open Lot will feature sculptural and kinetic prints and drawings-definitely worth checking out: Kristen Bartel, Fistfighting panthers and the bird who couldn't talk, Opening Reception 7-10 at 1310 South 18th Street 63104.

The shows are a mile apart. Expand your St. Louis circle, drive, walk or bike between the two!

View Larger Map

See you all there!

2010-04-04T19:00:00.000-07:00