My Plan

I plan on putting to colorful maker drawings in the gallery.  I want to make the piece interactive, so instead of hanging the rectangles I will paint an area of the wall with magnetic paint and then put magnets on the back of each rectangles.  I will arrange the rectangles to make a larger rectangle that the viewers can rearrange.  Each rectangle is 8" by 5" so all together the piece is 24" by 15" plus the border around the rectangle.  

Week 4 and Week 5

Throughout both weeks I continued working on the marker drawings.  I now have seven different panels, and I will keep making more until the end of the term.  I also plan on making my piece in the gallery interactive.  I will arrange the rectangles in the gallery so that the viewer can move them and create their own designs out of them.  I want to paint a section of the wall with magnetic paint and then glue magnets to the back of each rectangle.  I will also take pictures of the arrangements viewers have created and put them up in the gallery.  

Preparing to Visit the Galleries

Questions for Joseph Carroll:

1. How do you choose which artists to put in your gallery? Is there an overall style they have to fit into?

After looking through the websites, the two galleries I definitely want to visit are the OH&T gallery and the Steven Zevitas gallery.  I found the artwork currently being displayed the most interesting.  I like the variety of artists in the OH&T, and I think they all bring something new to the table.  I love the symmetry of Ben Snead's work, and the organized chaos of Heidi Johnson's paintings.  The current exhibition in the Steven Zevitas gallery is by Jered Sprecher, and it is interesting to look at the pieces he has done every year and see how his style has evolved and the different color palates he has chosen.  

Boston Art Scene

Due to the recent economic crisis, art galleries in Boston have been suffering.  Art is a luxury item, therefore during hard economic times, people are not as inclined to splurge on beautiful art.  Unfortunately, this has caused many Boston art galleries to close down.  However, the economic downturn is also forcing artists to think outside the box, allowing them to experiment with different materials and find new ways to display their art.  This could broaden the overall creativity of local artists.  

I have been to many art galleries.  Whenever my family and I travel my mom and I explore the local art scene.  I love going to galleries because each one is so vastly different.  Each gallery has an individual style and it is interesting to see how the culture of each area influences this style.  

Surviving the Critique

Our class is pretty big, so I thought it was a good idea to break the class up into smaller groups, in order to critique each person's work for a sufficient amount of time. Since this class is so open-ended, it is particularly important to have critiques.  There are absolutely no guidelines for senior studio and students are allowed to experiment as much as the time will allow.  Therefore, students will not be able to look at what others are doing and see what worked for them, considering the range of projects will be so diverse.  Critiques are also important because each artist spends a considerable amount of time looking and analyzing their work, so it is helpful to have a new person who has never seen the piece look at it for a fresh opinion.  

To get the most out of a critique, I think it is important to ask specific questions to the rest of the group.  Broad questions like "do you like this?" are not as helpful as questions such as "do you think the way I used thick brush strokes is successful?".  I will also listen to people's constructive criticism and take it into account, even if I do not agree with it.  I will also focus on not being offended by criticism, because it will help my work in the end if I keep an open mind.  

In order to help my group members, I will tell the artist specifically what I like and dislike about the piece.  I think it is completely unhelpful to just say "I like it" or "I don't like it".  There are strengths and weaknesses in every artwork, and I will focus on pointing both out.  

Week 3

This week I diverged from the theme of landscape and started making a series of colorful drawing with markers.  I think I am going to continue with that idea and then see what I come up with.  The drawings look really cool together and I like how there is no focal point, so the viewer's eye is drawn around the entire page.  I am still completely unsure of what I am going to put in the gallery but I plan on working more with both concepts.  After reflecting on my artwork, and discussing it with my critique group, I realized how much my work conveys emotion.  This allowed me to ponder what emotions I want to portray in my art, as this greatly influences how it is seen.  During the critique, my group and I also discussed which materials I should use.  I definitely want to continue using markers for the colorful designs, but I am unsure about which materials I should use for the landscapes.  My group and I thought they looked best in pencil, but pencil drawings have become somewhat of a comfort zone, and I think this is a good class to experiment more.   

Alternative Exhibition Formats Response

The exhibit I found the most interesting was Cai Guo-Quiang's.  I love how he used the expansive space in the gallery to his advantage.  I think the shape he created is really beautiful.  He created something that viewers can be a part of, and can see from all angles.  Although I obviously do not plan on creating a piece as large as his, his work allowed me to think more about how I can involve the audience in my artwork. Previously, I had been concentrating with landscape and the theme transition.  However, I have recently started working with markers and have created drawings that look almost kaleidoscopic that I think I like them better.  I will most likely carry out both ideas and put them both in the gallery if all goes well.

Art & Fear

"The myth of the extraordinary provides an excuse for an artist to quit trying to make art, and the excuse for a viewer to quit trying to understand it." 

"If you think good work is somehow synonymous with perfect work, you are headed for big trouble"

"Unfortunately, expectations based on illusion lead almost always to disillusionment"

I am a perfectionist.  I set expectations for myself that I cannot achieve.  This is the main struggle I have with art, I never feel my work is good enough.  Even if my art looks good to me, I constantly worry how the viewer will see it.  It is this self-consciousness, combined with impossible expectations that limits me. When I start working on a piece, I always have an idea in my head of what it will look like, and I strive to make it look like that picture.  However, I don't think I have ever made anything that looked exactly like the picture in my head, in fact my art rarely looks even remotely similar.  Even when I draw from observation, my artwork somehow takes a form of its own. 

Week 2

This week I focused on landscape.  I drew multiple landscapes from both observation and imagination in order to get ideas for the show in the gallery.  I did not focus on the final product, but the drawing ended up flowing nicely together.  After break, I plan on concentrating more on what I am putting in the gallery.  

Scratching, by Twila Tharp

What is scratching according to Twila Tharp and how does she suggest we do it?

According to Twila Tharp, scratching is looking everywhere for inspiration.  People can get ideas from looking at almost anything.  Tharp suggests gathering ideas from a variety of different sources.  She gets a large amount of ideas by looking at other dancers.  She then experiments and makes other people's ideas her own.  

Knowing your work in the studio, what methods, techniques, or tricks can you see yourself using from Ms.Tharp's suggestions? 

I can see myself using Tharp's suggestions to make my ideas flow more freely.  Sometimes I am too focused on the final product and not the initial idea.  With Tharp's suggestions to gather ideas from my surroundings, I will spend more time digging through ideas and experimenting with different materials.  

She's talking about dance. What would scratching look like in the studio?

For visual artists, scratching can take many forms.  Scratching can be visiting another artist's studio to see how they work, or an art gallery to see the products of another artist's scratching.  Scratching is finding inspiration, and since visual art can take any form, scratching can too.  

Artists at Work: Workspaces & Processes

How do artists develop spaces and methods for developing their most authentic work as part of a daily artistic practice?

Creating a studio space that the artists is both comfortable and able to get work done in is essential to creating authentic art.  It is important for artists to create their own space according to their personalities and type of work they create.  Every studio is completely different and this is because every artist's style is different.  Often, the style of a studio is reflected in the artwork itself.  This makes it particularly necessary for an artist to put time and effort into creating his or her studio.

The Artist's Studio

What types of things do you see in more than one artist's space?

Why do you think these things appear in so many different artists' studios?

Most of the objects in artists' studios are either used for inspiration or are supplies for creating artwork.  There were CDs and stereos in many of the studios.  This is because many people do not like to work in silence, and because often music can be an inspiration for creating art.  Books were other common objects in the studios.  Artists can get inspired by both the text and the pictures in the books.  Some artists had pets or other people to keep them company while they work.  Mostly, there were random objects scattered about the studios.  These could either be used in the artwork itself or used as inspiration.  

Brainstorming Sheet