My Artist Statement

Relating to my pieces from my slide presentation, my artist statement is as follows:

As an artist, it is my goal to represent the world as I see it, so others may see it that way too. My hope is that my perspective is interesting enough to hold the attention of my viewers. Furthermore, I wish to get people thinking. I want those who are rigid minded to open up and imagine different possibilities, I want those who are without humor to find laughter, and I want those who have limited themselves to understand that the limitations that they endure are put in place only by themselves, and almost always can be overcome.

My work displays my struggle between realism and illustrative design. Realism being the exact replication of an object viewed from life, and design being a representation of a thing that does not exist. My desire is to connect the two, rather than battle with both of them. The day that I juxtapose those two ways of creating, will be the day that I have achieved the success I am looking for.

Final Projects For The Semester

My final studio projects for the semester are as follows:

Oils: An 18x24 inch still life containing various cooking supplies, a coat hanger, and a pregnancy test. What am I trying to say with this piece? Your guess is as good as mine. It was rather humorous calling my mother and telling her I was buying a pregnancy test though. :D

Watercolor: A children's book about one of my cats and his daily mischief. My girlfriend knows how to make home-made books, so she helped me put one together. I used red mat-board for the front and back covers and the binding, and held those pieces together with black duct-tape. Then I got off-white sheets of paper to string together for the pages, and I am adhering watercolor paper with my illustrations and narrations to those pages.

Drawing: After working on a jumbo comic book page for three weeks, I decided I hated it and started over. My new and improved idea is a series of self-portraits done in a graphical and illustrative manner, surrounded by an academic traditional still life. I hope Ben likes it. Who knows.

Tim Burton Art Show at the MOMA

I went to see Tim Burton's Art show in New York at the Museum of Modern Art. My girlfriend and I had some trouble getting there... We ended up in the wrong lane of a toll booth and couldn't pay it properly (my solution was to throw quarters out of the window) and upon finally getting to the museum it took us 40 minutes to find parking, after frantically calling Julee and asking for assistance. We literally RAN to the museum, and finally got into the show.

The show itself was really awesome. It included many sketches and drawings that he had done, some of which were really rough ideas that eventually became other projects like his movies. Some were done in his spare time while he was working for Disney. There were letters hung up that he had written to publishers, asking for his comics to get published, and welcoming any suggestions or criticisms they might have had regarding the work. They were all really interesting. There were tv's set up with animations he had done, and an entire room dedicated to costumes and models from his movies. The costume from Edward Scissor-Hands was there, along with helmets from Planet of the Apes. There were also manikins from his animated films, like Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Corpse Bride. The show was absolutely fantastic.

Sherlock Holmes Dance Performance

The dance performance we attended in the Johnson Theater was partially based on Sherlock Holmes. There was a beginning section that seemed unrelated, though Julee and I both assumed there was some hidden narrative we were supposed to be seeing. The other parts, after a brief intermission, were much more entertaining.

My favorite part was the lady that was acting as if she were a body on stage, only to pop up later with a flask, revealing that she had simply been passed out drunk. Another part of the performance I enjoyed was the climbing sections. Several dancers scaled these giant red ribbons that were strung from the rafters of the stage. I found it very impressive, it must have taken a lot of body strength and practice to accomplish. Hats of to all of them for a good performance.

But Is It Art - Chapter 3

This chapter discusses art and the meaning of art within different cultures. I particularly like John Dewey's idea that art is a universal language within which anyone, regardless of native language or geographical location could connect. I really like Asian art, for instance, even though I don't always know what its underlying meaning is. Because of modern technology I am able to loosely translate text in languages that are foreign to me, which helps to close the gap of misunderstanding.

This chapter also discusses certain art influencing other art in different countries. It also talks about how art can travel in a similar way to people because they take it with them. (not really physically take it with them, they bring with them their culture and native art ideas)

PS - I want a bonsai tree SO BAD. :D

In Class Blog Questions - Bloody & Beauty 2

1. What did Horace Walpole list as the "Three Sisters of Graces"?

Gardening, poetry, and painting.

2. What did Kant mean when he said, "Purposiveness without a purpose"?

Kant was referring to objects within art, or more generally, art itself, as not having a specific functional purpose, but being purposeful in the way that they are beautiful and elicit a pleasant reaction in viewers.

3. In Danto's opinion, what was baptized as a piece of "art"?

Warhol's "Brillo Boxes" piece. He classifies art as anything that is accepted by a gallery or museum and would be purchased by art collectors.

But Is It Art - Chapters 1 and 2

The first chapter of this book covers a lot of art with a particular shock value to it. Pieces, for instance, that contain bodily fluid, excrement, or other generally disgusting "medium. Serrano's "Piss Christ", for example, supposedly contains urine. Hirst's shark piece uses formaldehyde to preserve the body of a dead shark in a tank. Ofili used elephant dung in creating a piece called "Virgin Mary". I can only imagine the reactions that these works generated, and must still generate, given their content and expression.

There is also discussion about what classifies as artwork, and how that distinction is made. Warhol's "Brillo Boxes", for example. somebody thinks it's art...I'd have to say though...I don't really understand what deep thoughts he's trying to convey with that one.