8th Artist Review

11/30/09 Art Lecture with Felicity Hogan

Felicity Hogan is a curator in New York and in 2006 was a guest Curator at Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival. In the lecture, Hogan described a "curator" as an artist who has ideas for a show. Their role is to look at the space and think how the audience will respond to it. They are communicators of how one should react to the dynamics/context of space.

Hogan says she felt the "galleries grew because I have been well trained/educated, and I'm very playful when it comes to projects." Everything she does is very diverse and she also runs studio programs.

Hogan is recently working on 4 pieces. She paints abstractly first, and in addition takes photos and incorporates them into her paintings.

One student asked her "how she went from an artist to a curator," and she responded that she made suggestions on which artists looked good in shows, and slowly the curator role developed from there. Also Hogan said she is attracted to artists who do work, that maybe she wanted to do, but didn't have the skills or talent to do so.

Overall, Felicity Hogan seems to enjoy her career as a curator-"I get the same high as a curator, as I would when I finished a really good painting."

7th Artist Review

USF CAM

Artist: Diana Al-Hadid

I REALLY like Al-Hadid work because it reminded me of architecture. What first came to mind was "Is she related to the famous female architect, Zaha Hadid?" But I looked it up and she's not. Anyways, my favorite structure she did was the Forever (Blank) Matter, 2009. It is constructed from steel, polystyrene, plaster, wood, resin, and wax. Her inspiration for this piece came from Breughel's The Tower of Babel, and the labyrinth on the floor of the Chartes Cathedral. I have no idea how she even put this piece together, but I absolutely love it! I admire her exploration if various kinds of materials, and I will probably do more research on her work in the future, to help me with my models.

In addition, CAM now has this cool phone system, where next to the piece of art you're looking at, there is an index card with a phone number on it. If you want to know more about the piece, you call that number, and a recorded message of the artist explaining their work plays right on your cell phone! It felt like Al-Hadid was standing next to me the whole time. I thought this was a pretty neat feature.

6th Artist Review

USF CAM

Artist: Robyn O'Neil

I remembered Caitlyn talking about O'Neil's work in class, and I thought it was very interesting that she only used mechanical pencils in most of her drawings. When I went to checkout her work in CAM, I was shocked at how big her drawings were! I thought they'd be on 8 x 11 1/2 paper! Instead, most of them were on 60in x 60in paper.

The drawings that stood out to me the most were Come All That Is Quiet, Something Vanished Over, and The Minds of Others.

O'Neil has won many grants and awards, including the Hunting Prize in 2009, and the Joan Mitchell Grant in 2008. I really enjoyed her art work because it stood out from other forms of art that I am use to seeing, like painting, and sculpting.

5th Artist Review

USF Centregallery

A Semblance
Works by Kaileen Schleith

Digital Topography
sketchbook,charcoal, glue, ink
2008
I like how she used a regular black sketchbook to make the laptop, and then she printed a map off of Google to place it as the screen. Very Creative.

Immokalee, FL
dollar bills, paint, glue, cardboard
2008
Here she cut out a geographical shape of the world in cardboard, and overlayed it in dollar bills. Then she painted a scene of migrant workers laboring in the fields. To me I felt the work was trying to get across that these people do not get paid enough for what they do.

Made In...
clothing, tags, metal, blood
2007
The piece looks like an american flag with blue shirt tags as the square in the top left hand corner of the flag, and then white tags dipped in blood for the srtipes. Very patriotic, but at first I was a little freaked out that she used maybe her own blood, but I asked the receptionist and she said she was pretty sure it was blood from a butcher shop...that's cool then.

Model for Exponential Growth in a Finite World
wood paper, phone books, mesh, paint
2009
I really liked how she painted a scene of the phone books on a kanvas, and then brought them out to life by laying out actual phone books in front of the painting.

Methods of Mass Production
cardboard, paint, metal, plastic, glue
2009
The analyis process of various types of manufactued products was well thought out. The work included cereal boxes, beer cases, McDonald cups and bags, cigarette boxes, food wrapers and bottle tops.

Soft Sculpture/ Music Project

The song that I choose to do this project on is Broken by Lifehouse. How the title is appropriate to its meaning and content is it is about a "broken clock stealing all his time". It is subtle, so you have to listen specifically to the lyrics. The mood of the music is a gloomy/hopeful mood. The mood is created by the lyrics and the "slow moving" music notes.
The song was the last song to make it to their new record album. It then was used in the soundtrack of The Time Traveler's Wife. I think it has definitely gained value over time through it's exposure. The meaning is personal but it has various interpretations. But I don't think what I hear would be the same of what some others would hear, because people can interpret it in different ways.
Jason, who is the main singer of the band, came up with the song. He went to visit his friend in Nashville who needed a kidney transplant and he spoke some words that affected Jason deeply. These are now the words that are used in the chorus of the song.
What the song means to me is there are a lot of tough times we human beings go through in life. And that's just how life is. But it is always comforting to know that I can leave all me worries to God to take care of, and He will heal my pain.

4th Artist Review

The Draft-Sheridan/Sheridan-Draft Collective Exhibition (USF Centre Gallery)

The art that stood out to me the most were:

Thumb
Artist: Jeff Sheridan
Graphite & Ink 2009

The picture is of a fingerprint which looks like the patterns of oak trees, when they are cut through the middle. The thumb stands alone, and blends in with the surrounding trees.

Monolith #2
Artist: Jeff Sheridan
Graphite & Ink 2009

I thought this piece was very interesting. The poles that hold the power lines together, look like trees coming up from the ground, and they form a cross. I also liked how the frame of the picture was made of wood, with nails sticking in it. I thought this gave the work a more sacred touch.

Untitled Collage #1
Artist: Scott Draft with contribution by Chelsea Gorslone
Mixed Media 2009

I felt this piece brought a new meaning to the word "collage." It starts off with a photo in a frame. Some parts of the photo are covered with white poster board, which is then colored on with colorful markers and ink. Then the glass cover of the frame is put over the work, and the artist outlines the picture with a black marker on the glass. This gave it a layering-effect.

3rd Artist Review

USF Polytechnic Campus Design Presentation: with Architect Santiago Calatrava

USF is constructing a new Polytechnic campus in Lakeland. They have hired architect Santiago Calatrava to design this project. Calatrava is known for many famous buildings like the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Light Bridge in Jerusalem, Israel. Calatrava presented various models and drew some images that expressed his concepts behind the polytechnic campus. He said that it was an honor to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Florida Southern University, and that is where he gained his inspiration for this project. At the end, Calatrava showed a video on the 3D model of his design, and it just brought everything to life. His work is truly a master piece, and his presentation really inspired me. This 45 million dollar project will open in Summer 2012.

2nd Artist Review

Art Lecture with Shawn McCarthy

Shawn McCarthy is an artist who graduated from Yale University. What he considered art and an inspiration to him, were comic strips and cartoons. In his lecture, McCarthy talked about some works of art that he really enjoyed. For example: Forever Free by Michael Ray Charles, and the Houndini Album cover by Frank Kozik. He was also influenced by Henriette Valliem who did French comics.
McCarthy hated Philip Gustons work but later on during his career, he began taking some of his ideas and formed them into his sketches and eventually got into etching. Most of his sketches have a story/narrative behind them. He mentioned that he listens to music when he draws, and listens to Podcasts while using ink. Also he sometimes uses sculpting to make 3D sketches.
Overall I thought his presentation was informative and somewhat personal, but I felt that his reasons behind some of his paintings were more perverse and immature. He also seemed very nervous, and that didn’t help him out either.

Minor Project #2

For our Minor Project #2 I choose to revolve my presentation around The Center for Land Use and Interpretation. Here I saw an exhibit in LA that expresses the liminal and static space of a car. Most cars are parked for more than 90% of their time, and parking is something all drivers want to have, but want to think about as little as possible. So my presentation involved that class breaking of into groups and driving around the Fine Arts parking lot to find the “ideal parking space.” What I would have changed about my presentation would be the abstract map that I drew of where the parking space was. I think I could have put a little more into the drawing to make it seem more of a map.

The project I felt was the most successful was Chelsea Huchro’s project. I thought it was a great idea to have the class try on different glasses with different prescriptions, to get the “abstract view” of her artist’s work across.

10/28/09 Class Blog for Project 3

The song that I choose in class was Broken by Lifehouse. Here are the lyrics:
The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight
Maybe it can stop tomorrow from stealing all my time
I am here still waiting though i still have my doubts
I am damaged at best, like you've already figured out
I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holdin' on to you
The broken locks were a warning you got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded, I'm an open book instead
I still see your reflection inside of my eyes
That are looking for a purpose, they're still looking for life
I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
with a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holdin' on to you
I'm hangin' on another day
Just to see what you will throw my way
And I'm hanging on to the words you say
You said that I will be ok
The broken lights on the freeway left me here alone
I may have lost my way now, haven't forgotten my way home

The 3 artists that I thought related to this song were:
1. Salvador Dali- “Melting Clocks”
In this painting I felt that the melting locks related to the song when they say "The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight.”

2. Rigos Rivas- “Familia”
This painting represents a moment frozen in time which I think relates to the theme of the song.
3. Hildegard A. Weiler-“Tom - I Am Light, I Am Love, I Am Strong” Weiler works on “healing paintings” that I thought went with these lyrics: “I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing with a broken heart that's still beating, in the pain there is healing, in your name I find meaning”

CH 1: The Art Of Making A World

In Chapter One of The Accidental Masterpiece by Michael Kimmelman, the reader gets an inside view of the life of Artist Pierre Bonnard. The narrator starts us off with some comments of what Picasso thought of his work: “Don’t talk to me about Bonnard… He is not really a modern painter.” Kimmelman then goes on to say that Bonnard was thought to be too soft. His paintings are tender and require patience.
Deeper into the chapter the reader gets a better understanding of Bonnard’s work. We find out that he had two lovers but the one woman he could not leave was his wife Marthe. Bonnard actually painted Marthe nearly 400 times! His ex-lover Renee later commits suicide and his wife insists that he throw away all the paintings he did of Renee. We learn that Marthe became more paranoid throughout their relationship and she did not want Bonnard socializing with other people too much. Even though Bonnard didn’t seem to mind, there is one piece of evidence that shows his annoyance with her at one point of their relationship. He wrote in a letter to one of his friends that Marthe wasn’t letting him do much outside their home. Really the only time he ever got to be alone, was when he would take his walk in the morning and think about what he wanted to paint next. One of Bonnard’s most recognized paintings is Nude in the Tub. This scene includes Marthe getting ready to take a bath. One can tell that her face is a little blurred. Actually in most of Bonnard’s paintings of his wife, he blurs out her face. One critic described Bonnard’s repetitive use of Marthe in his work as: “the promise and the memory of the delights of handling her flesh, or bringing his body into contact with her body. He conveys that it is too precious, too fragile for him to dare to take hold of it: he holds back, leaving the flesh to be caressed by the light that plays over it, invades it, infuses and floods the surrounding space.”
In addition, Bonnard’s work was compared the work of Joan Mitchell. Kimmelman described them as “being in their own little world, where they were both inspired by ecstatic flights.” In one of Mitchell’s paintings, After April, Bernie, Kimmelman comments that they are abstract Bonnards. Both of their pictures provide a silence and warmth to them.
The question that is still yet to be answered is: Was Bonnard suffocated by marriage? There is one self portrait of Bonnard that could possibly express how he felt during his marriage with Marthe. It shows him as a skinny shadowboxer, fighting off demons. Besides this self portrait, Bonnard also put himself in some of his paintings. For example in one that he painted of Marthe looking at a tea cup in the kitchen, you also see Bonnard behind her. He his watching the viewer, who is watching Marthe, who is watching the cup. Or in other works, he will put an image of his thumb or finger to show his presence in the room. Overall, Bonnard explored his world everyday, and as he did so, it became more and more fantastical.

Project #2: The Range Project Proposal

My approach to this project is to revolve the theme around a building. I would like to use this art work in my Architecture Portfolio, so relating it to a significant piece of architecture seems like a good idea. I am really interested in the stained-glass at the Norte Dame Cathedral in Chartes, France. I like the geometry of the shapes and the colors used. For the project, I would like to draw four images of the stained-glass. The first in graphite, the second in charcoal, the third in pastel, and the fourth in water colors. My intention is for the viewer to focus more on the shapes and the colors used on this stained-glass, rather than the intricate details that are within the outlines.

Various Modern Artists who make stained-glass: Joseph Dwight, Scotty Griffin, and Andrea Kelter. (http://www.aisg.on.ca/index.shtml)

Notes on The Accidental Masterpiece

Chapter 1 The Art of Making A World

• Picasso wasn’t a big fan of Bonnards work, “He is not really a modern Painter.”
• Bonnard was thought to be too soft. His paintings are tender and require patience.
• His paintings made most of a relationship that to outsiders seemed tragic.
• Painted wife, Maria Bourism (Marthe) nearly 400 times.
• Compared Mitchell and Bonnards work as similar.
• Bonnard explored his world everyday, and as he did so, it became more and more fantastical.
• Painted big bowls of fruit sitting on a table with a window open.

Other Artists Mentioned in Reading:

• Paul Gauguin- was a leading Post-Impressionist Painter. He was also an influential exponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms
• Joan Mitchell-was a ‘Second Generation’ Abstract Expressionist Painter. She was one of her era's few female painters to gain critical and public acclaim.

Under The Sea Class Project

I thought our class project came together nicely in the end. At first I was very confused as to what we were supposed to be doing, but once the whole class started putting their input, in how we should put our materials together, it became more clear what our objective was.

The material that I was given were coffee filters. My first intention was to make clams out of them, and put rubber-band balls inside, to act as their pearls. But the more I played around with the filters, I got the idea to make barnacles out of them. In our final set-up, I randomly spread them apart underneath the stairs, and then put some barnacles ascending from the middle pole.

1st Art Review

Location: CAM Building

Teresita Fernandez-Blind Landscape



Vertigo 2007
Polished precision-cut aluminum

When I first saw Vertigo, it reminded me of the famous cherry blossom trees in Japan. It is delicate and gentle looking, with so many little details. I walked under it and looked up to see my reflection. It felt like a tree was progressively growing over my head. The sight is very placid and peaceful.

Drawn Waters 2009
Natural and machined graphite on steel a armature

My first impression of Drawn Waters was that it looked like the back end of a Norwegian viking ship. When I got closer, I felt like it was more of a water fall, descending from a cliff. At the end of the water fall was a river of many pebbles and stones. It was interesting to see how the structure was stable enough to support itself.

Interview With Relative

For my relative interview, I chose to survey my mom. Since my family heirloom revolves around family dinners, I asked her what came to her mind when she thought of our family dinners. This is what she said:

Well the first thing that comes to mind are our Christmas dinners. We have foods like yellow rice and beans, pork, pastelles, and for desserts, we have flan, rice pudding, templecque and Spanish Eggnog. The texture of the flan and Spanish Eggnog is very thick and different from the other desserts. Then for music, we are always playing happy-lively, Spanish songs, that bring back memories of when I was growing up with my some of my relatives, which have now pasted away. For example, memories of my grandmother, and the traditional meals she made during our family reunions. The colors that come to mind during this time are green, red, and gold.

Another family dinner that comes to mind, is our huge Thanksgiving feast. We have Turkey, rice and beans, gravy, cornbread, and so on. Thanksgiving dinners are more "religious" in the way we go around the table and ask everyone what they are thankful for, or have been blessed with that year. The colors that come to mind are brown, yellow, and orange. Also we always use the same table cloth, and the cloth napkins for dinner.

Then I asked my mom, if she were to do this project, what would she choose to do? She said:

I would make a collage of pictures of when I was growing up as a kid, with some of my childhood memories. For example, I still remember, clearly, the day I got my first Barbie House. It's like I can even tell you what the new toy smelled like today! I felt like I one the lottery or something! I would also show the simplicity of life back then, because nowadays your generation can't live without computers or Ipods. Everything back then just seemed so much easier.

Now what I remember from family dinners:

Kids are running around all through the house. There's laughter and so much talking going on! Its really loud. everyone is starving, because we wanted to save up as much room as we could for dinner. When its finally time to eat, we all come together (no one is left out) and stand around the table, hold hands, and pray. And this is the only serious, and silent moment out of the whole night. Then its chaos. "Can you pass the rice," or "Hey I want more on my plate!" Then the kids eat with the kids, and the adults, with the adults. After we're stuff, we wait a bit and then eat dessert! Family dinners are truly something that I will always have memories of, and I hope to carry the tradition on to my kids.

Readings 1

Bourgeois Reading

1. In reference to Louise Bourgeois’ creative approach, the benefits of confrontation are: 1. You are letting the person that affected you greatly, know how you feel. 2. When you use art as a form of confrontation, it can bring peace or healing, as you try to overcome the situation.

2. Three justifications Allan Schwartzman gives in reference to Bourgeois’s abilities are: 1. She gave a different view to the meaning of art. For example, the critic says she “shifted from art that is simply about art itself, to art that has content beyond itself. 2. Bourgeois’s art contributed to feminism. Her work played a major “role in transforming the male-dominated Modernist canon.” 3. Schwartzman justifies that her art “makes a shift in focus from form to content.” Basically as the critic, we get a detailed insight of this artist’s life.

3. What I think of art that has such an intensity of emotion is it helps us to understand where the artist is coming from better. A contemporary art work that I feel elaborates on its value is Temperance, by Christopher Nolasco. Here a “woman is pouring wine from a wine jug into a water jug, to water down one’s wine” The artist explains that; “eating and drinking in moderation is a virtue that I sometimes struggle with.”

4. The risks Bourgeois takes for the sake of her art, I think, can be seen as intense. She is forcing herself to bring back memories that she has never chosen to forgive. This can bring even more pain, and drive her to insanity, when she constantly replays that emotional memory in her mind. In addition it is almost like she is reliving it when she brings life to those memories through her artwork. I do not think it is worth it to take this risk, but if that is the point that she wants to get across through her work, then it seems worth wild to her. As an artist, I do not think going that emotionally in depth would be a risk I am capable of taking.

Leris Reading

1. What Leiris means, in regards to the secrecy of the meetings marked by the sacred, and is that Leiris and his brothers would share secrets and myths that were forbidden to speak of in front of their parents. For example Leiris says they were always “seeking answers to the various riddles that obsessed them.”

2. The ill-defined spaces that Leiris and his family would walk by were in the Bois de Boulogne or the public gardens adjoining the Paris greenhouse. Leiris and his siblings were told that if they stop to play, strangers could grab them and take them off to the bushes. A similar landmark from my childhood would be an abandoned house in my neighborhood. We were told that a crazy old man lived there, and to never walk by the house. Now the home has a nice looking family and it doesn’t look as creepy from the outside. Also we can finally stop by the house for candy on Halloween.

3. One of Leiris’s term, is the name Rebecca. He learned it from a story in the Bible. Leiris comments that when he hears that name Rebecca, it brings an image of a bronze-colored woman, wearing a tunic, and a long veil on her head. In this case, Rebecca also reminded him of something “sweet and spicy.” But when he thought of the “R” and the “cca”, it came forth as something more “hard.”

4. I believe that Leiris and Bourgeois would agree that self-reflection and confrontation are worth it, because they both express their memories with the greatest honesty. To me I do not think it is worth it because I think the end result would be a great deal of anger or sadness.

Assignment CP

Saxton Freymann
I like how Freymann uses food as a form of art. His "sculptures" can be enjoyed from children and even adults. He brings a whole new different life to these foods. I also like how he carved a foot and shoe from the bread :)

Giotto Di Bondone

Since my object deals with some Christian symbolism, it helped to look at Giotto's paintings. His art gave me some ideas for the colors I would like to use in my family heirloom, like gold or bronze.

Da Vinci

Looking at Da Vinci's Last Supper reminds me of the painting my grandma has in her dinning room. The painting is of an old man praying at the dinner table, with bread and wine on the table. The Last Supper also shows the importance of eating bread when coming together, because everyone at the table has their own piece of bread.

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