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.