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.
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