Prompt/Goal Statement: fall 2014

What is or are your goals this semester? What would make you feel happy or proud at the end of the semester? What would make you say it was a great semester? And what ideas do you have as a starting point for your independent body of work?

It will be easier to answer these in a block, so I shall.

Three semesters ago, I was flung into the ability to make the work I wanted to make, and was totally floundering in the process. Two semesters ago, a professor told me to start bringing the wildness out of my sketchbook and onto my canvases. One semester ago, I started hitting a rhythm of working that I think may be sustainable, started bringing out my narratives into my work, started linking some of the work that I do in my hobbies and in art history into my studio practice, and started working with materials I really enjoy. this semester, I would like to continue that development.

Realistically, I can only make large works when I am at school, and so the sustainable rhythm i found was to work on big-works a few days a week, and work on smaller, more portable watercolors that I call "shorts" outside of school. If possible, I would like to add a digital aspect to this practice, which I can accomplish at home, and balance some serious art-making with the demanding research requirements of my Art History classes. I would be proud to finish two or three larger-scale works of quality enough that I would feel comfortable adding them to my portfolio, as well as a handful of smaller watercolors which can also go in that portfolio.

 I would like to continue exploring new media (which does not often yield positive results), in an effort to find processes which make for good work, but are also ergonomic and more preservable than past results have been. Last semester, I developed a fondness for watercolor on wood with absorbant ground, and also on found cloth stretched over wood. This method is extremely heavy, however, and watercolor tends to flake off of the watercolor ground (possibly this is an issue of brand; more information forthcoming.) Also the wood needs to be more sturdily supported. This semester, I shall experiment with scrollforms similar to those of Casey Shannahan, though that may present some problems as well (posisbly can only use heavy cloth, may only be appropriate for oil (if the absorbant ground is brittle, or the watercolors are brittle, the scroll cannot roll, I have inks but they may also be brittle)). I will continue making works on paper, and may mount some cloth to paper instead of wood. May explore Paul Jean's suggestion of making some works on drywall, or figuring out some other thin-plaster method of working-- may also leave that as an idea for later. 

I would be proud to finish portfolio pieces, but ultimately what would make this a great semester would be to answer some of these materials questions and find ways of working that are effective for the media I like using, but and also transportable. 

I have some loose narratives I would like to translate into the larger works I mentioned; the smaller works also have narrative, but I call them "shorts" for a reason, and their narratives are not as intensive.

Prompt: Artists who are important to me.

I should start by listing the art MOVEMENTS that inspire me; I'm also an art history major for a reason, and I draw a lot of content and iconography directly from my studies. So: most periods of ancient art, but especially Greco-roman and Egyptian; Medieval artwork, Northern and Italian Renaissance, Dadaism, Impressionism, Surrealism, a little bit of the Baroque, and recently dynastic Chinese wall and scroll paintings (I have only recently begun an extremely informal study of these, and thus cannot break them down into more concise groups than that.) 

From those movements, I draw methods of narrative storytelling, codifying iconographies, visual shorthands of the past, a certain irreverence for the way Things Are Done (thank you, dadaism), and ways of visualizing space (both conventional perspective and Very Much Not.)

Ai Weiwei, mostly because I admire the courage and spirit that it takes, to call for governmental transparency. I also admire the sentiment behind breaking ancient pottery from china-- though this may be more my response than anything he intended-- that our histories do not have to dictate the course of our futures, and that we can use old materials or objects or ideas to make statements relevant to our lives now.

Van Gogh, because he achieves a unity of color and line that I strive for, for pursuing art even when it made him no money, for translating the world as he saw it and not as it was, and for a series of quotes from letters he sent that inspire me.

Basquiat, for color, fearlessness, horror vacui, and inserting words into his compositions. He also painted on doors or whatever else he could find, when he couldn't afford canvases, and I admire that.

Trenton Doyle Hancock, for color, horror vacui, playing with text and words in meaningful ways, and (most importantly) narrative. In interviews he mentions his complicated narrative, which he has been developing for years. My work is about narrative and my characters have iconographies, as his do, so I can learn from that as a means to convey visual narrative from a more modern source. 

Wangetchi Mutu, for her fearless challenges to problematic aspects of our society (the sorts of exploitations that come from a global culture, beauty ideals, perception of women, postimperialism), and for her huge collages, which use found imagery and textures she's painted herself. 

Jan Van Eyck, prominent northern renaissance artist, for heavy detail, iconography so thick it literally occupies the entire careers of professional art historians, the selective use of linear perspective. Also this image of Gabriel is my favorite image of the angel Gabriel in the art of this period; I just love his colorful wings. 

Lious Wain, for being well ahead of his time in the creation of these psychedelic cats, and for being what is likely an example of an artist misunderstood by history (he is thought to have produced the colorful cats as his schizophrenia worsened with age, but the colorful cats appeared throughout his career, and thus it is unlikely to have been tied to mental illness. I haven't done enough research to make more than a preliminary argument, though.) Regardless, creating form through pattern is relevant to my work.

Ralph steadman, for harnessing frenetic energy and linework and using it as a means of making a point and telling clear narratives, and for not shying away from thick bold marks and ugly representations, but rather jumping into them and reveling in it.