hello!

"Untitled (I'm turning into a spectator before your very eyes and I'm going to haunt you)", By Glenn Ligon. He is showing his interest in how cultrure and language shape identity.

I'm really interested in this because I feel like I have been thinking about doing similar things. He took this quote, "I'm turning into a spectator before your very eyes and I'm going to haunt you," from a French play called "The Blacks" (Les Negres). I'm all about finding something (a song, movie, play, book) and finding a key line or verse that really just hits me. I want to keep exploring this idea...

I found "I'm turning into a spectator..." at the PMA. Its a very large painting, easily over 8 feet tall. Its in the modern art section..you should go check it out!

This is another by him, but not as legible. He used Coal dust, printing ink, oil stick, glue, acrylic painting and gesso on canvas. The words say "The rage of the disesteemed." They come from an essay by James Baldwin called "Stranger in a Village."

"Untitled (Rage) #2"

hmm..REevaluation

hmm..I'm not sure how to REevaluate this semester...but I will say I want to push further. I was not completely satisfied with my first project. I have been thinking a lot about doing something that I am really interested in. So...I have this obsession with vampires. It's not like a creepy and weird obsession, I just think idea is very fascination. They're these strong, beautiful, seemingly indestructable yet horrifying creatures. We're afraid of them, yet the idea of them is that they are strangly irresistable. But what I think I find most interesting about vampires, despite all that, is that they are stuck in what could be called an eternal hell. Never growing older, never dying, and if you're religious, no promise of heaven if they do die. This eternal hell, this never ending cycle that they cannot escape. It is seemingly opposite the way we look at life. We waste it, yet it is limited. What would it look like if we had forever?

I would like to incorporate this idea somehow into my work. I am trying to do a large sculpture right now and bring that concept into it. A never ending life and the sense of no escaping it.

A Contemporary Ceramic Artist

I enjoy the ceramic work of Dean Schwarz. I especially enjoyed researching the stories and inspiration behind his pieces. This helps to create a connection with the work. Many of his works have ties to the history and traditions of Indian tribes and African art. In addition, his work includes Greek Myths, Peruvian legends. Iowan traditions, Korean dances, and Bauhaus principles. I found it interesting that Schwarz says,” Nearly all pots represent my love and respect for the artworks of ancient peoples.” Additionally, he states, “I copy no pots directly but try to honor the spirit and quality the Old Ones were so good at.” This shows that Schwarz is honoring tradition in his work while making it his own. At the same time much of Schwarz’s work is functional. I like this because I tend to appreciate functional pieces. Schwarz’s work can be found in over thirty museums, six countries, and countless collections, including the White House. I was fascinated by the fact that while Dean Schwarz is in his seventies, he is still creating pottery, though he is restricted to the wheel due to a back injury. I find this extremely impressive.

really really cool ceramics work that I found on deviantart.com, the guys page is http://petertwang.deviantart.com/ and this particular piece can be found here

I plan on doing something somewhat similar for my third project ^_^

~Jen

second project crit

second project crits... I think it went a little better this time around with the critique. There wasn't quite as much looking into what was being represented when representation wasn't the goal of a piece. While its fun to look at work and try to figure out what you can see in it, its not always the best thing to focus on in crits. I have to say I was a little distracted during critique because I was afraid that I would go upstairs and find another hole in my pattern. If it weren't for that I probably wouldn't have felt so fidgity. So I think it went well, just my personal set up/installation didn't.

Amanda's second critique... so we saw the squirrels again and this time finished. I wouldn't say that the glazes changed very much of how I saw them since the first critique. They turned out very well, but it was what I was expecting to see (this is not a bad thing, it just means that I probably already said my thoughts during the first crit and don't remember them now). I would like to see them taken further. Right now its a cute little cartoony set up, but if put into a different context or in combination with other objects it could come to have more meaning to it. I'm curious as to what the purpose for those little squirrels could end up being.

~Jen

Peeta

3-d Graffiti at 

http://www.peeta.net/

I thinking moving on to different forms/shapes is a great next step from your first project.  Thanks for sharing this site with us.  

Brandon's Blog

As far as the second critique goes I think it was a much more productive and beneficial critique for the whole of the class, but as usual the critique was still too quite and almost too long and drawn out. The most effective critique method that I have ever seen/used was in my silk screening class, our teacher tried a method she knew from her undergrad courses, and it was a silent critique. Basically there are pieces of paper and pencils near each work of art and everyone goes around silently writing comments, suggestions, feedback etc for each piece, then at the end everyone reads the pages of comments and then verbally the works are briefly talked about. The critique was short but extremely effective, and from my experience of this technique I did take more from it than I have from any other.
As far as Phil’s work, I was very surprised to see someone bring in another object or material into ceramics. I think the antique Mac was a surprising object to see by everyone. I liked the ceramic and classic looking binary numbers used in place of the screen because essentially when we are staring at any computer screen that’s what we are looking at, I think this idea played in very well with the objective of the assignment. My only gripe about the piece, and seemingly common one discussed in the critique was about having some sort of lighting or SOMETHING to make the numbers stand out, as would an illuminated CRT monitor. Overall, this piece to me was exciting to look at but small additions could have made this piece even more exciting.
As for the third project, I really don’t know exactly what I want to do; I was brainstorming the idea of using clay slabs this time and letting them dry in desired positions and having them layered and hanging on the wall, I guess more like a sculptural painting, the Idea of 3D graffiti writers such as the famous Peeta from Italy, http://www.peeta.net/ has been thought about but down to exact specifics of the project I’m not sure exactly what it is I want to do, this was just one idea.

Liz's Bubbles of Happiness

I really enjoyed Liz's piece. In addition, her technique on the wheel was quite different from anyone one else. These spheres are quite difficult to make, but she was able to push them out without issue. For the final install, I like the hanging approach. I also agree that they all should be hanging to continue the tension.

The glaze used really brought across the idea of fun, happiness, or a feeling for joy. I especially enjoyed the "Clown" one, it looked almost edible. I also liked the smiley face, it added a bit of reality to the piece.

The only change I would consider is the use of the heavy wire for suspension. I would employ a high weight fishing line in the future, it would add to the whole idea of this objects freely floating in the space.

-Chuck

Addie's Blog

Where I liked the informal nature of the first crit, I liked the semi-professionalism of this one. For me, I enjoyed this critique, especially where it concerned my second project. I had an idea, late in the process, about working with the slip and oil pastels, and I felt like it didn’t really work, but I liked having the input from the others in the class that saw the same awkwardness. Most of the stuff we talked about in my critique I had already considered while creating my piece, things I didn’t realize until too late, like the varying thickness of the tiles I was using, because up until I placed them on, I was planning on grouting them so it looked more like a floor then an art object placed on the floor.
In relation to my first project – I would have loved to have been able to create a little enclosed space outside to truly make my idea work – and that hadn’t even occurred to be beforehand – I was dead set on having my light bulbs in a window.
I think that our first crit was more successful in that it was very informal, a relaxed atmosphere of the studio as opposed to the very museum-like area of the crit space, but there’s not much that can fix that, mainly because it’s nice to see all the pieces on official display.
Now onto Sarah’s pieces. I personally loved her Snapple bottles, especially the blue ones, and I know casting can be dull, but I wished she had made a couple more and actually conceived something out of them rather then basically saying, this is what I did.
With her second project, I liked it a lot while she was making itespecially the scale of it and the fact that it’s a teapot with a top that was in the shape of a tiny tea cup. The color, I know was accidental, but was still interesting, as it made it seem very tough (not quite sure what that means, but that’s what it made me feel). I only wish she had either done something else other then cut it in half, or like we said in crit, displayed it in a different way. 

As for part two – there are two ideas I’m thinking of. The first is something I’ve kinda wanted to do since the Beginning Ceramics, but I’m not quite sure how I would be able to do it successfully with out being cheesey – and that’s something inspired by Alice in Wonderland , …can you think of any greater type of escape then the one conceived by Lewis Carrol?
Another idea I was thinking of was playing around more with slip. This past week , I fan-folded some slip, and I really liked the effect that it created, and since in my last project I wanted to create something durable you could walk on, this time I think I might want to go in the opposite direction, something that the viewer converses with by avoiding it, as if getting too near might break it.
~ Addie Willuweit

More images

I found some other interesting images that made me think of the "scape" project here http://www.craftact.org.au/portfolios/Ceramics

Addie,
Since you were experimenting with slip and making work that the viewer could walk on, I thought this work might inspire you.  

Amanda,
Thinking about outdoor installations with your second project, I thought this work could open up possibilities for the last project.

Scott- I thought you should take a look at this work that uses body parts. 

http://www.pietstockmans.be/art_collection.php?group=art⊂=collection&id=openair&pos=8

Scott's Post

I thought the crit was helpful in many ways. I learned alot about the concepts behind the work of others in the class, of which many i wasn't sure about. I enjoyed the feedback i got on my piece and the direction i was heading with my second and third project.
As far as looking specifically At Addi's work.... I thought the basic concepts where there and the execution of the idea was very good. The only thing i had to add about her work was the display. I thought the size of the actual piece was not proportional to the display uni, Perhaps a little more thought could have eliminated this problem for me. But as a whole it was successful in my eyes.

Sarah's Blog

I liked several aspects of Lisa’s work. The glaze was probably my top favorite. The raku was beautiful. It was the perfect combination of intentional and unintentional. Obviously the color combination was one thing that could not be controlled, but the way the glaze fell on the piece also seemed unintentional. Despite all of the surprises that came from the kiln, it still looked coherent and deliberate. The other think that I liked about Lisa’s work was its versatility. Since the pieces we unattached, every assemblage is unique and can respond to the artist’s feelings that day. The work was also a beautiful combination linear and fluid pieces that came together very nicely.
The flowers that Lisa made were also pretty. The glaze colors that she chose worked together nicely and the uniformity was eye-catching. The presentation, on the other hand, did not work so well. The presentation on the floor was boring and did not do the work justice. It might work better if they were hung on the wall if possible.

Lisa's Critique

The second critique was definitely better than the first one but I think there is still a lot of room for improvement. I feel like there was a lot of dead silence and people didn't really know what to say. A way to improve on this is maybe to have a list of basic questions that we can respond to about the works that would prompt more of a discussion. I thought the critique was useful overall but I am still unsure how I could better display my second project and would have liked more opinions on that.

Brendan's installation was very successful, as we all pretty much concluded during the critique. As a multimedia piece, I thought that the metal and ceramic went well together. The craftsmanship in the welding was good and I really liked the ring details at the ends of the wires. I would have liked to see more variation in the glaze, either tonal variations or maybe multiple hues. The shadows the piece made on the wall added another dimension and I think it would have been interesting to see what difference other lighting options could have made on the cast shadows.

I am still unsure where I want to go with my third project but I have been looking into some sort of combination of a landscape and moonscape maybe. Something that looks kind of familiar but also a little extraterrestrial.

Lisa's Blog

When Harmony Hammond first started talking I thought the lecture was going to be a lot more focused on Feminism and lesbianism but these issues weren't overwhelming throughout the lecture. I liked that she explained her thought process behind her art as well as the actual process of making each work. I found it especially interesting where she got her materials from and how she used mostly discarded material. As she was trained as a painter, I enjoyed her viewpoint that all art objects can be approached in a painterly way, such as her description of tied rags as three dimensional brush strokes. The pieces I like the most are her "presences" that hang from the ceiling (not the bag ones on the wall) and the mixed media installation paintings with the tin roofing (farm ghosts?). While this lecture was on the long side, I think the artist did a good job of keeping the audience interested. Having never heard of the Harmony Hammond before, I found it a very informative lecture with !
!
a good mix of background information on the artist, materials she used, her processes and techniques, as well as her thoughts behind her work.

Critique

I thought this critique was must better than the last one. I think everyone participated more and I got a lot out of what people said about my project.
I thought Scott's project idea was very interesting. I think the idea he had could make an interesting project, but I would have liked to see more than what he had. I think for me if the hand was larger, and there were more wires the connection of the real and unreal would have been brought together much better. I think because of the size of the hand and the small window showing us the wires, the idea wasn't as clear as it could have been. I did see Scott working on the foot that he is doing for the next project, and that has much more detail which I really like.

My next project I am going to make a HUGE sphere, about 2 feet high, and cover it with what is going to look like garlic scape. I did not know what that was until I looked it up on google, but when certain kinds of garlic grow they intertwine around each other and have beautiful curls and stems. I want to cover the sphere with that kind of design. I think I am going to hang my smaller spheres up again, and hopefully kind of combine all there projects into one. They all seem to run on each other but fit the criteria and I am actually really happy about that.

Critique

I found the class critique beneficial though my second piece was not ready for display and my first had been critiqued previously. I found it interesting to see the how the response to my piece changed after in was glazed. Additionally, I got useful feedback about bringing out textures in my work. I also found the idea of possibly tying my first piece into my second, for display, interesting. To improve the class critique I would try to have people install their pieces earlier. This way more thought could go into the installation process. It appeared that some people ran out of time and were not able to install their work in the manner that they had originally intended.

I found Chuck’s pieces very interesting. I think they will turn out nicely if he is able to get the glaze to change. I liked the fact that the pieces were all unique. However, I think it would be great if he tried to make some even larger and possibly smaller pieces to incorporate with the others. This would help stress the pieces individuality. Yet, if he wants to keep the same general size it might be nice to add in extra details or textures. The work left me wondering if there was a reason for the order in which the pieces were displayed. It might also be nice if he plays with some different glazes for the pieces to make them seem even more individual from each other.

I have several ideas which I am considering for the third project. However, I think I would like to investigate the idea of a landscape. I plan to create various shapes and forms out of paper or other material then cover them in slip. After this I would like to use a couple of different firing methods on the resulting objects.

Critique

So, I am supposed to comment on work that stood out to me. Jen- I was thoroughly impressed with the presentation you put forward for the third project. I knew you worked hard on the project and I am happy to say it paid off in the end. I enjoyed the fact that it was a wall piece, i didn't know how you were going to display them, but as far as I am concerned, you made a superb choice. Brandon- Your expert craftsmanship was shown through the welding that you used to make the piece. Very well done. I do not think the piece needed ceramics on the other side, but if you are unhappy with the finished product, make it work and change it to how you thought of it in your head. Liz- hanging your project was the highlight of your piece, for me. I am excited to see the final product with everything put together. Maybe you can incorporate different textures next time.

Third Project: Scape

I was thinking of using moonscape for my inspiration. I am planning on making bowls, of varying shapes and sizes, and mounting them on the wall. They are supposed to represent craters. I haven't yet figured out how i am going to get them on the wall, and I might change my idea, but this is the path I am currently taking.

Phillip Craig-Critique thoughts

Our critique for our first and second projects was pretty beneficial for me. Like most critiques, it lets me know what I can do to improve my work. Even if we don’t have a chance to work on the particular project that was being critiqued, the advice can still be helpful in future projects. It also lets me know how other people see the work so I can view my work outside of my own preconceptions. For the computer piece, for example, I would never have thought of using an office desk set up unless someone had brought it up. Personally, I liked having our critique on the first project before it was due, as it let us make improvements while we still had the chance to work on it.
Okay, critique time. Sean sculptures, the nude and skeletal bust, were quite interesting. The paint job is well done, and the craftsmanship is ridiculously good. Since most of the work in the critique was abstract, it was nice seeing some work that was representational. My only qualm was already brought up in the critique, when it was said that the nude is a familiar image and the bust was reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean. I would be nice to see more work with this level of craftsmanship, but with completely original images and/or themes for the next project.
I haven’t quite figured out what to do with our next project. I noticed in the syllabus that it mentioned “escape” as an example of scape. I would like to make something around this theme. I’m still not very good at thinking metaphorically, so whatever I make will probably be more literal.

Samantha Grandy's Blog Abbys Class

Im really struggling with this second project!!! I'm so confused on what I want to do. I think i just might do a project on my frustrations which i think would make great art. Im just thinking about it too much. So I guess ill just see what i come up with. I might want to make alot of broken pieces and put it together to make a heart. Representing hard frustration this semester that im going through. Make it a busy piece. I don't know!!! Just putting ideas out there.

For the mini golf course I think I just want to make a very confused weird course. Maybe have a very twisty course with tunnels, hills and ramps. Just chaos at it best. maybe around the course have happy things like clowns and rainbows and just have happy colors. Then have dark things, like the devil and evil things with dark colors. Its a crazy idea but pretty awesome I think!!!

Samantha Grandy's Blog 3

Jens piece was very interesting!!! when i first saw it when it was not glazed it looked like coral. The reason it looks like coral is because of the different rounded shapes she used and how she clustered them all together. Its like a little town in the sea. But then when she painted it, it looked really dark are spooky looking!!! like there was no life. she glazed it brown black and blue which made it so dark. Also after she painted her project it just seemed like her piece just shrunk in size. I still think she should have made made it bigger or made more clusters of them. Just felt unfinished to me. The bigger the better. But i do love the colors she put on it. Loved how it was not a typical coral color that was pinkish orange color. Still wondering why she did not paint the bottom of the piece!!! maybe you can explain that. Overall it was a good piece.

Samantha Grandy's Blog

Sarah

Sarah

Sarah

Samantha

Samantha Grandy's Blog

Jen

Jen

Sean

Scott

Samantha Grandy's Blog

Brandon

Lisa

Chuck

Phil

Phil

Samantha Grandy Blog Liz Vogel's piece!!!

Some Work from Crit

Sam

Lisa

Phil

Some Work from Crit

Liz

Brandon

Sean

Scott

The presentations were great!

I enjoyed watching the presentations today. The salt glazing caught my eye. Frechen bottles had an interesting wood-like appearance. I think the Westerwald tankard with the cobalt decoration was also visually stunning. Isn't it funny how the Staffordshire piece looked as delicate as a doily? I would have loved to pick it up and feel how light it is.

The Raku firing presentation was very cool as well. I had no idea that Raku was such an exclusive family tradition. I can't imagine 15 generations of pottery, not that that's a bad thing! It amazes me how the style evolves with each generation. I loved how the form of the latest pieces were so simple, but with such complex glazing pattern. As complex as they were, they still retained an air of simplicity as well.

I was really surprised at how glossy the face was at the end of the Terra Siglata presentation. The glossy brown color was gorgeous.

Experimentation with sagger firing is a must after seeing the pictures of the results.

Sweet video Phil!

Samantha Grandy Blog Abbys Class

My power point presentations is about what inspires me to do the art work that I do!!! The one thing that I have noticed about my art work is that I love to make food!!! Last semester I made cakes. I like to work with food because I could work with different textures and put a lot of detail into it. Also Color, color always catches my eye. Corny as this might sound, Food makes me happy and brings people together. Its a good feeling all around. Other things that inspire me, is Fashion. Fashion is pretty much my life. Fashion deals with a lot of different material, which means that your working with a lot of different textures. One thing I love to do is travel, so i get most of my ideas from different countries. It just opens your eyes to things that you weren't exposed to on a day to day bases. Finally for my last project I still want to work with food, but not make anymore cakes but make a big plate with food on it!!! maybe mash potatoes, spaghetti, with green beans or something and then make a really big fork, knife, and spoon. its going to awesome!!! watch out!!!

Harmony Hammond Lecture

I found the lecture by Harmony Hammond very fascinating. I enjoyed seeing the variety of methods and forms which she uses in her abstract artwork. I liked the fact that she used such a wide variety of materials, many of which were things she had found that others had thrown away considering them to be trash. In her case, it is certainly true that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” or canvas. I was particularly attracted to the braided rugs. I found her description of them, as flat fabric floor paintings and sculptors, to be very intriguing. Additionally, I thought they were very beautiful and enjoyed their differing patterns.
-Amanda Koch

Harmony Hammond

better late than never... although I've been thinking quite a bit about what I saw I didn't think to write it down. The work and the explanations behind it were extremely fascinating in Hammond's lecture. I found the idea of working with 3D brush strokes in the form of rags really interesting and relevant to one of my friend's work. The way that being surrounded by the fashion district influenced her work struck me as well. Being a student I have loan money and such to cover my expenses, but with graduation fast approaching this was a nice reminder that there will always be a way to work even if there is no way to pay for canvas. Resourcefulness was something that stuck out in her work for me, especially how thoughtful it was. The materials inherently had a meaning to them, and the way that they were arranged was meaningful as well. Although the meaning wasn't always readily accessible or obvious it was still very much there which kind of drew me in. I wish I could actually get to be in the same space as one of those looming presences of recycled fabric dipped in paint. Her work had a thought pattern in it that made sense to me, especially in how it changed when her surroundings changed. In comparison to the last lecture, it definitely was more cohesive in my mind. Although it was a long talk due to a large body of work, it was very enjoyable and useful.

~Jen Hintz

The speaker on Tuesday was very interesting. although it was hard for me to relate to some of her reasons and passion, I think it is awesome how she used found objects to make such interesting projects. I was particularly struck by the braided rugs she made out of old clothes. I am a fan of useful, interesting objects, especially ones you can use around your house, so I really liked the idea of taking things that seemed useless (old clothes) and turning them into a very interesting looking rug that could be used in anyones house. As silly as it sounds, I would love to have one for my room.

Samantha Grandy Blog 2

 This lecture was very interesting and long just because she was really into what she was talking about and had passion for her art as well. The presentation was by a speaker namer Harmony Hammond, where at this lecture she talked about the feminist movement and gay rights. The first art piece that she showed us was not a painting but rags of cloth hung to a cloth grid, which i thought was a little funny because she is talking about the feminist movement and having her work with different kinds of fabric was just ironic to me. A lot of her piece were made out of the trash, things that she found that she did not have to pay for. The found materials brings meaning to her art work because of where it comes from. Hammond also does a lot of paintings. She loves building on layers to her pieces. She thinks it is really boring if there is only one layer. Hammond loves creating different types of textures to her art. She described the painting as lumpy and bumpy like our body's. How everybody's body is different just like her paintings. She also thought is more interesting to have a painting sit on the floor then the wall. One of paintings is controversial, having an inappropriate phrase in the painting that you do not really notice right off the bat. She also make flat sculpture on the floor which was made out of rags found from the dumpster, also describing them as floor paintings. The different patterns in the piece came from the different patterns in the rags. She said the pieces were 5 1/2 in diameter. The floor paintings were made in a circle, having no ends points/hard to break. Also it could be a meditation circle, all depends on how you look at it. Another piece that she made was a very big canvas were she hung buckets on. The buckets were found from the trash somewhere, like usual with holes in them, just worn out buckets that she hung. and then throw red paint on the back of the canvas so it could bleed through the front. She even had a painting where there was a bullet through a horse skull that she put onto a painting. It was very violent which is a social state that we are in. There were so many art pieces that she should us and could talk about. Overall she was a great speaker and it was interesting to see how she interpreted life in general. 

Harmony Hammond Lecture

Hammond was an excellent speaker and knew exactly how to get her thoughts and ideas across to the audience. I was especially interested in her work that contributed to the feminist movement and her work on gay rights. The burden of representation, that Hammond described was something that spoke volumes. Her involvement in trying to express women's views and the oppression of women through her art was extremely moving and apparent in her work. To me, this was shown most specificall in the artwork using fabric and textile materials. Being that fabric and the textile industry have been steriotypically a woman's field of work only added to the inrony of her work. In dealing with gay rights, there was a particluar thing she mentioned that was astondingly accurate: she inserted the queer conciousness where it was unwanted (the piece responding to the hate crime). This is something that struck me. Being gay is just that- a sort of forcing, if you will, of this unwanted identity and culture on the unwanting majority. Unfotunately women are still at a disadvantage in mainstream society and gays are even more so. I couldn't have agreed with her more on her ideas and representation of women and gays (more specifically lesbains). {since I can probably go on forever talking about oppression and unequal rights I will stop here :) } Excelent lecture.

Blog 2 Phillip Craig

The presentation by Harmony Hammond went on a little longer than I would have liked, but her work and her views on feminine and gay rights was quite interesting. The pieces that caught my attention the most were the garments made of torn clothes dipped in paint. There’s sort of an irony when sewing clothes together, often seen as a woman’s job in a sexist way, is used to represent the feminist movement. I also liked the paintings using the Dorlands wax medium. Making a painted surface look as if it were woven can’t be an easy task, and makes for an attention-grabbing look and texture.

BLOG 2 SCOTT WARE

During this next lecture we attended, i was able to hear from a female artist primarily concentrating on feminist subjects. She told us that one of her main goals was to make "meaning" to something (perhaps to the world) through the use of everyday, often found materials. Coming from a harsh background and fitting into the starving artist crowd very well, she would find much of her mediums in the trash or things that people just weren't using, anything such as scrap fabrics from clothing boutiques. Her later works were woven rubs with an emphasis of circular motion, her thoughts on this circular pattern was that there was no edges, no broken seems to end the cycle. This representation of circular motion referenced life in many ways and helped aid her in meditation and her martial arts studies. It was interesting to see how personable and how much meaning goes into each of her artworks. Also to see the evolution of her work...going to traditional oil on sketched canvas's hung on the wall to be displayed to her more recent layered flattened sculptures as she called it or simply rugs, displayed on the floor to be looked at, and not necessarily stepped on. The evolution of ones owe personal style is perhaps one of the greatest achievement's an artist can get, this notion is perhaps the one thing i left the lecture thinking about. ----Scott Ware

BLOG 1 SCOTT Ware

Attending this first lecture and listening and looking at the slides we were show, my first thoughts were that this art did NOT employ the traditional way of creating and presenting art. Today many artist try and break through this barrier or convention for the processes of creating art, which in my opinion is a great thing to do. Art is constantly changing and Krutz's artwork is a great example of this movement forward. Perhaps many will follow his style, perhaps many will not. The main thing i got out of attending this lecture was to try new things and don't let preconceive notions inhibit your talents and abstract thoughts. Overall, it was very insightful and well put together. Good Show!. ---Scott Ware

Blog2 swoody

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the lecture by Harmony Hammond in person. After researching her and viewing her art online, however, I am truly disappointed that I could not hear her speak. Although her paintings, sculptures, and other works were not particularly appealing to me, the stories behind them are fascinating.
One particular article I read about some of her sculptures talked about their connections with Greek mythology and fairy tales. It also mentioned her use of human hair in several creations. Some of them seemed slightly creepy (a bag made of hair?), but the sculptures that I was able to view online were interesting (in a good way).
The paintings that I saw online seemed a bit boring to me. I personally prefer to look at representational art, but I can appreciate the work that went into layering the paint in a specific way. I'm sure that I would feel differently about the paintings if I were able to see them in person and experience the myriad textures.
I also read about her past experiences with the feminist movement and living as a homosexual. I'm sure that these experiences have greatly influenced her art. I would have liked to hear her speak about any specific instances in her life that she found particularly influential.

The artist's lecture was a little out there but interesting nonetheless. Some of her pieces, such as the projections, were positively creepy and I found them somewhat uncomfortable to watch. I feel that she was more into her own work than anyone else present, which is nice to see. However, Kratz's explanations of her work seemed scatterbrained and more for her own benefit than ours.  

I found two of Kratz's pieces, the Touch of Gray Remix and the Korean Poster Campaign, pretty interesting. The way she made the connection between a song and the fans that were actually there listening decades ago was awesome. Also I can just picture this woman running around the streets of Seoul posting her art work with the help of some underground art movement. Hilarious  

Blog 1 Samantha Grandy!!!

This was a very interesting lecture about art. It was not really your typical art you would see at a museum. It was not paintings or photographs, which you would consider to be art. It was videos, poetry, and music, which was different for me to see. I guess anything can be art now of day. There was a video that was called "Cat fight" where two girls were fighting and in the same video was these clackers that kept jumping around and hitting each other. There was another video called "Elist Lake" where there was a wheelchair going down a road and by the end of the video the wheelchair collapses. Krutz's was talking about the radio active waste from mining going down to a retirement home where there was nobody there to watch the elderly.

there was a song that Krutz's made called "Sad but True". She said she downloaded 368 songs from the internet in a two week period about sadness. All the songs that she downloaded had Sad in the title. She took these songs and layered them on  top of each other to make a shole different kind of song/sound. It was very funny to listen to. For me it sounded horrible, scary and depressing. I would have never thought of making a song like that. She said it was bout 15 minutes long. There was a really unique slide show of pictures that Krutz's was showing us. Each slide had four different pictures that were cut up and it was telling 3 different story lines. There was also animation , a re-authoring of Run Lola Run. She said she took about 9600 pictures during a 6 week period. She described it as a n emotion rollercoaster, it was calm and then loud. Also which was interesting is when she made us listen to "Hippie Shit" it was people singing a Greatfull Dead song, Acappella from the year 1972. She also showed us poems but it was in a different layout. The words did not just go from left to right but in a spiral formation. She likes to experiment with different types of fonts and words she said. Krutz's also showed us these video of a neon light that was on the wall horizontally. She recorded the sound of that it was making. Very weird. I really did not understand it. This art was very different and unusual as I said early to want I usually to what I consider to be art. This made me think outside the box and push limits for me when i go to do my projects in the future.

Feb 19, 2008

Today’s presentation by Kartz Ucci was very unique. Her style of art is very interesting, and I was intrigued by the ideas that she centered her work around. Pieces that I particularly enjoyed were the colored panels on which she translated poems into what they would literally mean in English with the use of a computer program. The colors were pretty and the poetry was full of imagery. The idea of centering some of her work on sadness was a unique idea. It is not a theme that one may immediately think of in terms of art, but she used it well.

Although there were parts of her presentation that I enjoyed, there were some parts of her presentation that were a bit too abstract for my liking. Many of the videos were a little strange, and I’m not sure that any audience would be able to easily understand her meaning without an explanation. Other pieces were humorous, but difficult to understand in an art sense. Overall, I was not a fan of the work of Kartz Ucci

I wish I was a Lighthouse Something?

Concerning the artists past work, sampling songs and playing them at the same time is an interesting idea, but most radio stations use this method to run contests (guess 5 songs played over top of each other and win tickets...). As far as the translation idea, you can find that in Kung Fu movies and cheesy Anime subtitles for decades. In addition, it is more entertaining to view the "close captioned" text stream, there are far more subtle and thought provoking errors.

The neon pieces however are more interesting. I am not quite sure what I feel about the presentation (exposed cords), but I do like the message with the sentence tube. To me is as if this neon light was wishing to be something more than it is, something bigger and brighter (a lighthouse). This is something we all strive for. There was also a certain feeling of danger with the work. Having learned that there were several pieces damaged in shipping I was wondering if the fragility could lead to popping of the tube, if someone was looking at it at that time, ohno...but that is just my head thinking too much.

Kartz's lecture - Jen's Response

As usual, it took me a bit to get into the conceptual nature of Kartz's work. That type of thinking and working isn't really all that familiar to me, and I kind of have to be drawn in by something in order to give it the time of day. Honestly if I had only seen one of these installments and not heard the explanation behind it, I probably wouldn't have stopped to look. What did draw me in was her emotional appeal and the themes that she didn't necessarily address. The idea of re purposing art and altering it until it could not be recognized was interesting, especially the compilation of song titles until they became a visual pattern of text. It bothered me that when talking about the piece with the sharpening knife that she didn't address the idea of having a weapon and a child playing in the same piece. It was incredibly disturbing to me to flip between hopscotch and sharp objects, and she just ignored it like it wasn't an issue in that piece. At the end of the night, the most notable thing in my mind was that at the reception very few people bothered to go into the gallery space.

-Jen Hintz

Blog 1 assignment by Phillip Craig

I wouldn’t say the artist lecture on the 19th was the most interesting talk in the world, but most usually aren’t. What matters is if the artwork shown is interesting, and it was. Kartz’s ideas on emotion, especially on sadness, and the way she represents these emotions in her work are appealing, my favorite being the 368 songs made 1 piece. Using songs (with the word “sad” in the title) to represents different individual’s sadness is a good idea, as the kind of songs people listen to are often affected by there current emotion. Also, putting them all into one and somewhat disturbing song shows what collective sad emotions “sound like.”

Possibilities

Throwing Exercise: The only requirement here is that you make a piece 15" or higher that is thrown on the wheel or from thrown parts. You can throw multiple small forms and attach, you can throw and attach coils for a continuous form, you can make piles, you can throw and cut and assemble, throw and alter and assemble, stack etc. Be imaginative.














Check out Sandy Brown's work below at this link. . .

http://www.ceramicart.com.au/articles/CAP66.htm