Blog# 9 Gabriel Orozco, Justin Novak, & Brian Gillis

Hello World!

Almost every moment of everyday we are seeing everyday objects. How we interpret these objects is all dependable on each person's exposure and experience in life. Although, we do see things and have usually one instant point of view. Gabriel Orozco and Justin Novak are two artists that challenge you to see those everyday objects in a new light. Orozco uses these everyday objects "...to twist conventional notions of reality and engage the imagination of the viewer." (Biography) He sees the value of using these objects as a way to more easily connect with his audience, since the everyday objects are familiar to him and to the majority of others. "My influence is more in connection with everyday cultural objects that I am encountering and that are part of my life." (Games: Ping Pong, Billiards, and Chess interview) I really enjoy his choice of materials, because it produces an awareness to where you are, what you are surrounded by, and making a more authentic effort to acknowledge. "I concentrate on reality in terms of what is happening to me and I try to revolutionize that and try to rethink it and transform it. I try to transform reality with it's own rules, with the things I found there." (Games: Ping Pong, Billiards, and Chess interview) Justin Novak, also tends to take what has been and redirect the meaning. He takes what has been, either as an idea or of physical form and spins it. His 'Disfigurines' are a good example. "The ceramic figurine has historically embodied mainstream, bougeois ideology, and for this reason, I have employed it in the presentation of an alternative version, an ironic anti-figurine, or disfigurine... physical wounds such as bruises and lacerations serve as metaphors for psychological harm. Whereas the figurine has historically represented the dominant culture's norms and ideals, the disfigurines speak of the damage inflicted by those very same expectations." (Disfigurines) The physical appearance is usually a reflection of the state of mind one is in. To have your flesh torn or bruised could   happen out of lack of attention. Distracted by an unstable psychological place, one will easily harm the physical body. I thought Novak presented this beautifully. History is a big element in how we function presently.The pains and joys through out shape our universal and individual psyche .Orozco is aware of the powers of history and tradition in his own work as well. "A pot is a very complex instrument and we see plenty in human history... it can be related with everybody in the world because pottery is just part of history in general." (Thinking with Clay interview) The 'Confessional Sinks' ceramic project that Novak was involved in plays into history as well, but yet again puts a spin on the meaning of the object. "Confessional sinks enclosed existing Kohler sinks within latticed ceramic panels that quatrefoil pattern of a Catholic confessional screen. Sinks were thus transformed into sites of atonement, of both spiritual and physical cleansing. The effect of the work is to draw a very pointed connection between religious and secular ritual, and to reflect on societal propensities to seek redemption through consumer products." (Confessional Sinks) And yes, sadly through out history, the dominate religions and large corporations have been almost one of the same. What a better way to confess and construct your sins then being a consumer.

Brian Gillis, our guest speaker this week, gave a lecture on the subject of multiples. 'What is a multiple?" he asked, could it be "... a three-dimensional object that is intended to exist not as a unique work of art, but as an edition original." (Linda Albright) or could it be a stack of the same printed poster. Both and much more. For Marchel Duchamp, he claimed that, "...one was unique, two was a pair and tree was 'many'. To make three was to mass-produce." Duchamp brought the idea of multiples as 'Readymades', 'Assisted Readymades', and 'Rectified Readymades'. They were all multiples in the sense that by taking an object out of its original or traditional environment (kitchen, bathroom, etc.) and placing it in a gallery with a new meaning behind it, it would stand as a multiple. Also to add to
or reshape the object would be a multiple. Orozco in this sense has made multiples himself; His 'Ping Pong Table' has been taken from its original environment, changed and placed in a gallery. This would be an example of an assisted readymade. Novak's work is a good example of multiples as well. His 'Disfigurines' and '21c Bunny' series are all multiples in the case of repetitive forms, colors and designs. 

Multiples can be seen in lots of ways. Here are some images of what multiples we generally see most often or not...

Blog#8 Louise Bourgeois, Richard Serra, & Amanda Wojick

Hello World,

When we look at objects we are not necessarily thinking of about the object. We might might be thinking about how hungry we are, how we forgot to put out the garbage that morning, or what we are planning to do later day. Most likely though, whatever object we are observing, that object is an influence on what our consciousness becomes aware of. "If I'm just looking around while thinking of something else, every object that comes into focus will remind me of my life." (Just Looking p. 22) Seeing is not the only way specific memories are brought up either. "All we have to open the past are the five senses... And memory," Louise Bourgeois says (Black Hands interview) Bourgeois is a French artist who, for several decades, has based her art on her past. "Deeply symbolic, her work uses her relationship with her parents and the role sexuality played in her early family life as a vocabulary in which to understand and remake that history." (Biography) For as long as I can remember, I have always made gifts for my family as opposed to buying them. My gifts are highly symbolic, incorporating remnants of our lives together; pictures of us, ideas and jokes we've shared and objects used for many years. These gifts have always had another meaning behind the obvious, and it was up to my family to find what that was to them individually. The search for a deeper context. Bourgeois, while speaking of the Jane Adams memorial statues (Black Hands), mentions what she sees the hands really representing, "It is really our (hers and her helper's) hands, because it means how much I care about the whole thing. It shows how much emotion that is expressed is true. It's an emotion that has been lived and is real, its not something that's made up." (Black Hands video) Bourgeois wants people to look into the sculpture as if it was themselves. To feel what she's felt, to follow the rabbit hole further. "When I say, 'just looking,' I mean I am searching, I have my 'eye out' for something. Looking is hoping, desiring, never just taking in light, never merely collecting patterns and data." (Just Looking p.22) Sometimes when we look we are searching for those emotional memories to possibly learn more... about ourselves...about the human condition. Most times though, this is happening very discreetly under our own radar. "By pretending, or perhaps I should say deeply believing that vision is passive. In a word, we sometimes think that artworks provoke 'disinterested interest': we are engaged, but we don't want anything but ocular pleasure." (Just Looking p.24) This is probably because, seeing anything but something pleasurable brings up things that we might not be emotionally ready for. We, personally, have to come to our own emotional fruition to see beyond the object. "A work of art doesn't need to be explained... If you do not have any feeling about this, I cannot explain it to you. If this doesn't touch you, I have failed." (Black Hands video) Sometimes we don't see beyond the object, or reach its full meaning because the object stimulates long forgotten experiences that hold painful truths we purposely hid. "There is no such thing as an observer looking at an object, if seeing means a self looking out at a world." (Just Looking p. 19)

Richard Serra is another artist we looked at this week. However his work is reaching on polar opposites of Bourgeois. He is a sculpture who mainly works with steel and as steel is hard and cold, so is the amount of emotion that one might reflect from those pieces. This is not to say that his work is not amazing and wonderful, just not necessarily influenced by past emotional experiences, painful or joyful.   His artistic process he claims is dealt with, "a verb list: to roll, to fold, to cut to dangle, to twist..."(Charlie Brown interview) unlike Bourgeois' work that deals with personal trauma. Serra's work is massive in size and so in order to observe it, one must physically move around and with it. His work seems to want you to be shocked visually as opposed to emotionally.

Amanda Wojick, our guest speaker, gave a lecture that so happen to include Louise Bourgeois as well as many other influential women sculptures through out the century. She mentioned how she had never before knew that art could be about an idea or about feelings. She was taken by Bourgeois's work, how vulnerable and how personal it was. She had always struggled to invent the art's meaning, where as Bourgeois used what was already inside her. "What modern art means is that you have to keep finding ways to express yourself. To express the pain...art is a way of always recognizing yourself and that is why it will always be modern." (Louise Bourgeois in lecture) Wojick also mentioned Magdalena Abakanovicz, a sculpture who's art represented in a sense the decayed and rotting, the aspects of life experience we tend to not want to acknowledge. One way she accomplished this, was by filling a room with giant potato or body part-looking pillows that just sat there sadly, all piled on one another in a compost heap Just like Bourgeois, reminding us of the painful experiences, but by doing so there is a kind of freedom of the past experience as well. Its like nurturing a baby, you wouldn't just throw the baby out just because its crying, you would console it and try to understand. "Art needs somebody to listen to its message, somebody to desire it, somebody to drink it, to use it like wine-- otherwise it makes no sense." (Magdalena Abakamovicz in lecture) In other words, "The observer looks at the object in order to do something or get something." (Just Looking p. 34)

Hands are a very powerful symbol since everyone can relate to them. They can represent many, many ideas, but most of all they represent life experience. The creases, the calluses, the smoothness, the years. Bourgeois uses hands as a symbol in many of her pieces. I chose to share this image of a hands by another sculptor (unknown). It is representing, from what I can gather, hunger, desperation, sadness, and pain. Memories may be painful, but keeping them under lock and key will destroy you. 

Blog #7 James Elkins, John Feodorov & Anya Kirvarkis

Hello World,

'Seeing is believing', they say. But does everyone see the same thing? I would suspect, no. Each and every person has they're own story, providing experiences there for giving perspectives on what they see. "There is no such thing as an observer looking at an object, if seeing means a self looking at a world." (Just Looking p. 19) James Elkins has presented the idea that no one can simple 'just look'. With their look they also and always search as well. They are searching for meaning and that meaning is different for everyone.

John Feodorov, an artist who was brought up in the suburbs of Los Angeles  and on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, has his own way of seeing the world. Because of his upbringing in two contrasting arenas, "Feodorov early experienced the cultural differences between his dual heritages. He also observed the stereotypes present in American culture at large, where Native Americans were idealized as the living embodiment of spirituality by New Age consumerists." (Biography) Feodorov uses his experiences from his past to create art that seemingly has much spirituality vs. modern culture to it. One of his art works is the 'Office Deity', a series of paintings done for corporation offices. He mixed the idea of heaven and God being set in a business world. "The corporation actually being sort of the new manifestation of the tribe... I thought of maybe seeing the corporation as like heaven, you know, and you have all these different steps of deities or angels of whatever depending on what you believe or don't believe...I did this painting, with office employees as the angels and holding their offerings to the almighty CEO." (Office Deity interview) Feodorov sees, because of his story, the connection between the hierarchy in corporations and the spirit world. He sees that the employees are not just servants of the higher one or the CEO is not just the creator, but they are representations of how we make choices in our lives. Where do you want to see yourself?
"...pictures have much to tell us about the ways we see. A picture is not only a view onto the world or onto someones imagination." (Just Looking p.31) It is vital to question how we see the world and if that perspective is the one that will truly lead us in the direction that we desire most. If it be love or anxiety, it is up to us. "A picture presents itself as an unapproachable object forever detached from the nets of possessiveness and violence, and yet it urges on its viewers, impelling them to walk up to it, to move into it or run away." (Just Looking p.32) Although the art work is in a still, by seeing it, we dive into a deep pool of thoughts and desires that ultimately results in repour. "I wanted to create paintings that people could respond to on an everyday level, as far as the environment in the painting and the environment that they're working in." (Office Deity interview)

Anya Kivarkis, our guest speaker for this week, gave a lecture on reproduction. Some of the artists she presented had a similar contrasting of ideas as Feodorov,  the profound verses the kitsch or trashy. Take Wim Delvoye's  'Marble Floor', for instance; Something exquisite and usually found only in environments of money (marble flooring) had been reproduced with deli meat. A wonderful idea, if I don't say myself, and also very humorous such like Feodorov's work. Another example would be Ted Noten's gold broaches copied from sticks of gum that were manipulated by participants. Again, something trashy contrasting with something profound. Feodorov's work delightfully mixes his own version profound (spirituality) and trashy (Ken dolls, plastic animals, etc.) in a beautiful way. He claims not to be totally conscious of this doing, but the art seems to manifests itself that way.

Another artist that Kivarkis mentioned was Hella Jongerius, who used objects (vases, bowls, etc.) and redesigned by adding components (handles, etc.). I really enjoyed this idea because I like to redesign myself. I have been redesigning/ recycling clothing for about five years know. I will find an item that is too big and down size it, or maybe use just a fragment of clothe and build off of it. It's amazing what the final product becomes, I never can quite predict it fully. There is a circle of local redesign shops that I've connected with and have been selling some of my designs. These are not my designs, but they are from local designers here in Eugene, Oregon.

There is something about fashion too that can be so elite, and by using recycled material from Goodwill or a free box, creates that same contrast of profound verses trashy. I love the ironic twist to it all, Not only are you helping the environment, but you also shove the elite bullshit into perspective.

Blog #5 Kiki Smith, Roland Barthes, & Carla Bengtson

Hello World,

I was very much intrigued by Kiki Smith. I seemed to find a lot of similarities with her and myself. Beliefs and practices mostly, but other things too, such as her difficulty as a younger woman with reading. She says because of her troubles, she began to observe instead. I appreciate her flexibility and acceptance of her struggle, for  I too had a very hard time reading  for most of my life and had to find other means of learning. Kiki says because of her keen observances she became more fascinated with objects and the practice of 'making'. "The thing about making things is that you have a proof. You have some proof every day that something has been accomplished, that somethings different... It's physical proof that everything is okay for a minute." (Learning by Looking interview) I started making things when I was really little. I would spend hours in my room sewing pillows, felt pink underwear that didn't fit and many other experiments. There was never a real reason I thought back then why I did it, only that it seemed like the most natural thing to do. It was only when I was much older that I realized that by 'making', I had a sense of calmness, almost like a meditative state, where everything was at peace. Smith says that it's one of her "loose theories of Catholicism and art have gone well together because both believe in the physical manifestation of the spiritual world, that it's through the physical world that you have spiritual life..." (Learning by looking interview) Through the physical object that you are making comes spirituality, or in other words the calmness that comes with the making.

Intuition has always been a present influence in everything I do in my life. The 'makings' of my life and my art have been purely done by a little voice inside. Smith is also a practitioner of this. She trusts it with everything she does or does not do. "It's like standing in the wind and letting it pull you whatever direction it wants to go. Some stuff is rally direct. Things start telling you what you're supposed to pay attention to. I have lots of times where my work just said, 'make it like this.' And then it's like your faithful servant. I make this meditation of give myself to this work." (History of Objects interview)  She is basically a vessel where her art is thriving through. Roland Barthes writes about this same idea of loosing yourself in a sense to the art. "Writing is the destruction of every voice, of every point of origin. Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing." (The Death of the Author p.1) The artist has given themselves to the work. And by doing so, a lot of times the artist changes with the experience of the process. Change is the one thing that is absolutely constant, therefore we must be able to flow with it, just as flowing with you're intuition, otherwise the rest of the world is not parallel with you. "One's self is always shifting in relationship to beauty and you always have to be able to incorporate yourself or your new self into life. Like your skin hanging off your arm and stuff, and then you have to think, well that's rally beautiful too. It just isn't beautiful in a way that I knew was beautiful before..." (History of Objects interview) And for Barthes, he sees the change as well, "The Author, when believed in, is always conceived of as the past of his own book: book and author stand automatically on a single line divided into a before and an after. The Author is thought to nourish the book, which is to say he exists before it, thinks, suffers, lives for it, is in the dame relation of antecedence to his work as a father to his child." (Death of the Author p.3) The inevitable change that comes with experiences and time is part of what makes the art art.

Carla Bengtson is an artist who has infused her art with nature. Some of her work involved the participation of ants. This idea came to her quite unexpectedly. Every time she started to draw, an ant would start walking across her paper. Most people I believe would brush the ants away from the page, but Bengtson found that the ants' visit was an opportunity. Her sense to 'just go with it' reminded me of how Smith would of responded to that situation. Smith comments, "My father told us to trust our intuition." (History of Objects interview) And another perspective on Bengtson's behavior would coincide with Barthes' writing; "For him (Mallarme) for us too, it is language which speaks, not the author; to write is, through a prerequisite impersonality, to reach that point where only language acts, 'performs', and not 'me'." ( The Death of the Author p.2) Bengtson saw that the art had a life of its own. Watching the ants do what they will, the art was being created almost without her. Bengtson showed us many different examples of how art evolved from the representation of nature to the very abstract of nature and back to nature itself. One quote that caught my attention was that "Not everything is art, but everything is art supplies," referring to Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. I would say that Smith would agree with this, being the observer and scavenger she is. Always looking for new things to collect and incorporate in her work. At one point Bengtson mentioned Andy Goldsworthy which I am a huge fan of. If any artist was to use the 'art supplies' that nature has provided and to do so without making a huge karmic footprint, I'd say he accomplished that.

Blog #4 Laurie Anderson, David Byrne & John Park

Dear World,

Performance has always been a big part of my life. I've danced all my life, not necessarily in the traditional dance world, but a more obscure path I've created on my own. My dance performances were more than likely in the streets of the city or on dirt paths at a festival. The informality of the performance attracted and welcomed the audience to sometimes join in themselves. This sense of sharing is such a beautiful feeling and one more step towards a more peaceful world. The sharing of the 'stage' is something I saw and admire David Byrne for. The "Playing the Building" project was, in my eyes, some what of an equalizer. "'Demonstrating performance', making everyone feel they can play regardless of any musical talent is one of the main points of the installations." (The Independent) The installation, an organ that has been hooked up and plays the roundhouse building, is a brilliant idea. Anyone can share the experience of playing the building and even the most tone deaf can create an interesting ballad. "No one has an advantage; a kid of five is probably as good as I am." Byrne says. (Financial Times) The fact that the installation is in an unusual space to show art reminds me of Laurie Anderson. She too, a musician has been attracted to "the street or informal art spaces" (Biography). I'm sure you can see how I can relate to that state of mind. The more unusual the space to have art, the more likely you will inspire those who would not indulge otherwise. There for sharing the the performance again and at a much wider range of people too. Also, as Byrne has used an everyday object, such as an industrial building, as his art focus, so has Anderson with her performances. "Anderson transforms an everyday occurrence into something strange can be found with the song 'Language is a Virus.' Dedicated to the Beat writer William Burroughs who coined the phrase 'language is a virus from outer space,' Anderson's song scrutinizes everyday examples of language-use." (United States I-IV interview)

John Park, our guest speaker, has been involved in performance in a different type of way. For the last couple of years he has collaborated with a modern dance professor here at the the University of Oregon. While Park creates digital visuals and lighting, the modern dancers are intertwine with the with the technology.The digital art in Parks' collaborated performances was made to follow the dancers not the other way around.This use of multiple mediums (digital and dance) is, in a way, similar to Byrne's 'Playing the Building' (the organ is hooked up to the building digitally and the audience must play the organ). Both of them incorporating a high tech and human source. Being a person with very little skill and/ or knowledge in the technology world, I found this to be actually very inviting. Adding the human aspect, made me feel still connected to my roots and not floundering in unfamiliar territory--not that unfamiliarity is a bad thing.

Both Byrne, Anderson and Parks looked for specific environments so as to cause their audience to relate in an 'out-of-the-box', or in this case an 'out-of-the-museum' kind of way. mixing and matching mediums that haven't really been attempted yet. I appreciate this drive for new creation in technology, but I also appreciate these artists consciousness to not eliminate or dehumanize the art completely.

About five years ago, a few friends and I came up with an idea, inspired by 'happenings', we set out to bike around town in costume and with mostly digital music, stopping in random restaurants and alley ways to dance and bring in the unsuspected. It was called Bike Brigade and to this day it still survives in Eugene as well as other cities. I mention this because it relates to Byrne, Anderson and Parks having their art performances in unusual places, digital aspects, and human aspects. It is also an audience participation event, as to relate to Bryne's idea. The participants in the Bike Brigade would deck their bicycles with lights, and sound systems, again bringing this idea of humans and technology.
This video is somewhat off the same ideas; being it is in an unusual place to see a performance and that it is the audience participating, or so it does seem. I also used to love the Sound of Music and wanted to share this with you. This performance was taken place at the Central train station in Antwerp, Belgium. The musical, Sound of Music, comes alive at the most unlikely of times and places.

Blog #4 Alfredo Jaar, Photography as a Weapon, & Craig Hickman

Photographs have been used for many purposes. Where they be used truthfully or falsely, a photograph can be a powerfully charged story. Helmut Herzfeld aka Heartfield, was an artist during the World War I. He presented the idea of photo montage, inspired by the lack of truth in the news, he says, "The main thing is that I saw both what was being said and not being said with photos in newspapers... I found out how you can fool people with photos, really fool them... you can lie and tell the truth." (Photography as a Weapon pg.11) Heartfield  really saw how he could manipulate the news' lies into telling the truth just by changing the caption on a photograph. He believes that, "We should be suspicious of what we see and what we read-- of what we are told." (Photography as a Weapon pg.11)

Craig Hickman, a digital photography professor at the U of O, says that he too, through Photo Shop, also uses manipulation to tell a story that might of otherwise been untold. He presented a number of photographers, all with their own style. I was most attracted to the photographers who chose to use cheap, plastic cameras; Nancy Rexroth, Diane Arbus and Julie Mihaly. Their photos were all in black and white, giving that old timing look--almost mysterious. It made me want to know the story more, feel emotion for them. Some were disturbing, while others were endearing. I could see the ebb and flow of both extremes."We see beauty all around us, and we should never forget the beauty of life. But that doesn't mean that we should just stay with beauty. We should not be afraid sometimes to confront beauty and horror." (Alfedo Jaar, The Gramsci Trilogy interview)

These are a few examples of black and white photos taken with a cheap, plastic camera, that I was drawn to.

For Alfredo Jaar, a world renown artist, its all about a real-life event or a real-life situation. " That's the magic of art-- and I think it's extraordinary-- the power to create connections, make bridges. It fascinates me." (The Gramsci Trilogy interview) Heartfield has similar views with Jaar, "The essence of his art is an attempt to take images--usurp them and use them to tell a different story. He is asking us to think of images as images-- to think of them ironically-- and  to make connections where connections were not made before." (Photography as a Weapon pg. 12-13) The connections we make with the photographs are just as important as the photo it's self. Sometimes the image is just not enough to fully grasp the connections though. There needs to be some kind of written word that guides you in some cases. "I'm trying, always to create a balance between information and spectacle, between content and the visuals, I think that balance is very difficult to reach. But the only way for you not to dismiss this image is to understand the story." (The Rwanda Project interview)
People generally have an easier time relating to others on a deeper, more personal level, by interacting  one-to-one. This being said, Jaar tries to utilize this idea in hopes that he will hit that deeper emotional level in people with his art. While creating The Silence of Nduwayezu, he explains, "Basically, when we say one million dead it's meaningless, So the strategy was to reduce the scale to a single human being with a name, a story. That helps the audience to identify with that person. And this process of identification is fundamental to create empathy, solidarity and intellectual involvement." Its amazing to me that you can take something so massive, like the number of deaths in a war or natural disaster and squeeze it into just one idea or image.  "The Vietnam war, the war abroad and the war at home, has been reduced to a few iconic images-- the Napalm girl, the girl at Kent State... What seems to emerge from major events and eras are one or two images that effectively embody the emotion and rage, the happiness and anger. The whole thing somehow is enfolded in there." (Hany Farid, Photography as a Weapon pg.4)

All these photographers have the same thing in common, the drive for the image to tell a story. To show the connectedness between. "The relationship to the world, even if you manipulate it, it has that real-world connection." (Craig Hickman)

Blog# 3 Ann Hamilton, Cai Guo-Qiang & Sara Lebowitz

Hello World,

Fibers. It can be described in several ways such as, 'thread like material either natural or artificial to be woven with'. Or maybe 'a very small substance that when many are brought together have strength.' It can be dyed, printed onto, knotted, woven, embroidered, etc. But it is not necessarily how it's used and manipulated, but just in the making of it is what is important. The hard labor by whom you may not know and the suffering they may have gone through. The history of fiber is a long and painful one and this perspective gives the material new meaning.

"We are working in an art that's called visual art. And by definition we are visually driven. In a way, we are bound by that, limited by this very fact. So it's easy for us to depict things of this physical world, of the way we live now, but it's very difficult to depict things that are not seen but have profound effect on us." Guo-Qiang states (Spirituality, chaos & inopportune interview). What Guo-Qiang, one of our artist this week, is trying to connect here is that, the materials we use, if we're conscious or not of it, will effect the rest of this world. Ann Hamilton, another textile artist, has similar perspectives as Guo-Qiang. While trying to create a piece having to do with the truth of fibers history in the U.S., she asks, "How do you give voice to something that's not necissarily visible?" Her piece soon turned into the voice of thousands, with a giant pile of blue jeans representing the slaves working in the fiber industry.

For Guo-Qiang, he recognizes the impact of the materials he uses in his work as well. Gunpowder drawings has been one of his trademarks and although it does create a mysterious and wonderful image on paper, the massive destruction and hate that it has been used for is evident. "Maybe my work sometimes is like the poppy flower. It's very beautiful, but yet because of the circumstances it also represents a poison to society as well." (Guo-Qiang, Spirituality, Chaos & Inopportune interview) This being said, I'd like to bring in another perspective. Life and death, distruction and creation, they are all one of the same. Without the other they would sees to exist. There is a little p(art) of each other in each other that is called the balance of the universe. So, although there may have been suffering, the material itself in what ever form it might be will always be in the ebb and flow of this balance and will always have a new life journey, just as the people who suffered. The moment is in constant change and  Ann Hamilton concures, "There's a way that it (the installation) has an ongoing life as it meets the public. Every moment that it's up it's different" (Ghost: a border act interview).

Our guest speaker, Sara Lebowitz, She says that she is constantly thinking about how the art of fibers are made and what are the consequences of it. Why making is important to her is that she could not see herself without it. In a sense, 'making' is the making of oneself. She showed us several fiber artist, Ann Hamilton being one of them. One of the artists tat I was most drawn to was Magda Sayeg who, with her knitting graffitti, has made a huge spash into the art world. Taking knitting to the city streets you could say, covering anything from streetlight poles to city buses in knitting. Almost beautifying the streets. Its quite a powerful sight and knowing the labor that went into making the fiber, but also the final piece.

All of these perspectives and artists reminded me of a book I recently read called, 'Juniper' by Monica Furlong. Its about a little girl who is being trained to be a doran, which is a sorcerious. In her training she is taught to spin, dye and weave in order to make a doran cloak. "Every doran has one, and  it needs to be carefully made because one day it will be your protection against the magic of sorcerers." (Juniper, pg. 86)
This cloak was very powerful and did protect her, but yet again it was all in the 'making of it' that truely mattered. The labor she put into making each color thread and weaving the hours away were what truely made that cloak powerful. 'A very small substance that when many are brought together have strength.'

Here is cloak I found that reminded me of Juniper's.
May Fibers continue their journey and story as we all do.

Blog # 2 Chris Coleman, Micheal a. Salter, The Vocabulary of Comics

Dear World,

I have been dipping my feet into the deep waters of icons. Wow...they are everywhere! Icons are what we first see from our businesses to our entertainment. "The sorts of images we usually call symbols are one category of icon, these are the images we use to represent concepts, ideas and philosophies. Then there are the icons of language, science and communication. Icons of the practical realm. And finally, the icons we call pictures: images designed to actually resemble their subjects." (The Vocabulary of Comics pg. 27) Icons are or rather can be used as a manipulator to get into your brain. As Micheal A. Salter (our guest speaker) would put it, "Everything you look at matters and its having an effect on you." Whether we are conscious or not of it, this is true. The shoes you wear, the dish detergent you use, the food you eat, etc. were all chosen for some kind of reason, and subconsciously, icons guide you with whatever choice was made.

Micheal is mainly a digital artist that for years has been fascinated by the iconic world. He is constantly observing the images surrounding him. He questions 'what are my relationships to the stuff I look at?' Icons are designed purposely to get into your head. Some even remind us of ourselves. "We see ourselves in everything...we assign identities and emotions where none exist and  make the world over in our image." (The Vocabulary of Comics pg. 33)  Take for instance, Micheal's robots, although they are only made of recycled styrofoam, we can relate to them as though they too had feelings and thoughts. We are instantly drawn to icons that have a certain human quality to them, because its what we know and is familiar and safe. Micheal suggests that by taking 'something that everyone is familiar with and re-design it,' it will have a new life and meaning, but still have that familiarity to comfort people. Learning about icons from Micheal, I've suddenly have become far more aware of my own surroundings. Observing what a normally would skim by. What a wonderful opportunity to explore.

Micheal has done a variety of work, some of which had been collaborated with Chris Coleman. Chris, also primarily a digital artist, creates images and digital videos mostly having to do with issues of the world. In one of his videos called, Modern Times, he uses terrorism readiness pamphlets, provided by the Department of Homeland Security. In this piece he, "examines the issues we cope with regularly such as racism, surveillance, and apathy by using imagery from specific safety brochures." (Blackboard) Chris uses a very unusual style. I truly enjoyed how his videos take you on this unpredictable journey. who knew that Safety pamphlets could be that beautiful and profound. Chris has, to relate his work to Micheal's theories, taken something that is familiar to everyone (safety pamphlets) and created a new life and meaning for it. I always thought of safety brochures as being really humorious. The imagery or icons always seem to be perfectly at ease and calm in their high risk situation. When in reality, most people in those presented situations would probably flip their shit. Check this link I found on Packard Jennings' art. I think he gives a much more insightful view into safety pamphlets. This is called, Business Reply Pamphlet.

 Micheal, Chris and The Vocabulary of Comics have all used icons and shown us the different was they can be used. What do they mean? How do they effect you? How do you relate to them? What are their purpose? Its another way of looking at this bizarre home of ours and continues to teach us these bizarre lessons.

Blog #1 Magaret Kilgallen, Art Theory, Laura Vandenburgh

Dear World,

I would like to start this blog by saying how long its been since I've engaged in learning about art in an academic environment...let's just say a while. It's been a pleasure reintroducing it into my life. That said, let me share with you some of the things I've learned and was inspired by.

This week our guest speaker was Laura Vandenburgh; she draws and paints by nature, but as we've mentioned in class, it is hard to say that an artist only has one medium. Laura presented many ideas and perspectives, she claims that "everyone engages in drawing," whether it be doodling in your notebook or making a map for someone to find your house, its all drawing. I felt particularly drawn (don't mind the pun) to this statement, for I've always admired people who can draw with much convincing detail and never thought of myself as a drawer. I may give it another chance now. She also mentioned that just as each person has their own signature, they also each have their own unique style of drawing or marking. When you look at a drawing, "you feel the hand of the artist," you might even feel empathetic towards their learning process.

Laura gave us some examples of artists who primarily work with drawing. There were a huge variety of different ways to create a mark or a line without having to use the standard pencil on paper. I was ignorant that one might create a drawing by using other means, such as rope, wire, garbage, etc. What a broad world drawing turned out to be.

"Art is a form of visual curiosity, which means that it is always in some sense about how we view ourselves and others in the world" (Art Theory for Beginners p.1) I believe this to be very much correct, or at least being parallel with my momentary perspective. I see this world as a place to practice having more compassion. Compassion can be another word for 'understanding' and understanding is the primary goal of curiosity; there for, through art one might find compassion for themselves and others.

Another perspective I saw eye to eye with was the idea behind 'Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics'. Robert Smithson who was the artist that created the earthwork (or drawing, as Laura had shown us) Spiral Jetty, made in 1970 at the Great Salt Lake in Utah. "For Smithson it showed that order is unstable and easily lost. This loss of order, this instability, and openness to change was something Smithson tried to build into his artwork. His art was all about accepting that things get created and then they decay. The Spiral Jetty changes and submerges over time. It is not stable." (Art Theory for Beginners p.9) I've learned this lesson many times and in many ways; change is the only thing that is permanent. What Smithson created is a beautiful truth of all things.

Magaret Kilgallen was a seeker of truth and curiosity as well. Influenced mostly by American and Indian Folk art she was inspired by inspiring others. "...the thing that keeps me going is the fact that maybe, maybe, somebody will learn from what I'm doing... when you put your work out there and somebody comes up to you and thanks you for doing it, that is why I do work. It can inspire." (Influences and Train Marking interview) And she's right, I for one was inspired by her art. The hand-painted train yard photos reminded me of my own recent art work. Combining photographs with drawings and/ or other found objects to create a memory that may or my not have happened. Kilgallen also mentions that "on any day in the Mission, in San Fransisco you can see a hand-painted sign that is kind of funky... I think its beautiful, what they did and that they did it themselves." I just happen to be in San Fransisco a few weeks ago and I can honestly say that some of the art work I saw in the Mission was breath-taking. All I wanted to do was find random alleyways and gaze at the graffiti, which were more like master pieces of the streets. Here's a few graffiti art works I happen to see while being in San Fransisco. look up 'December 29, 2010'
San Fransisco street art



For art to be openly shared with whomever happens to pass by is a blessing that I'm grateful for.

What I am gathering from the all of this information is its common thread. "Art allows the truth to happen, it does not predetermine it or make it conform to an already existing idea, art allows the truth to arise in the creation of the artwork itself." (words influenced by Martin Heidegger; Art Theory for Beginners p.65)
Each artist, and I mean everyone, is searching for their truth. Allowing their mind to move with the ebb and flow of change, curiosity, and inspiration; arriving finally at our unique mark and our uniqueness.

Ta Da

Hello out there!

Creating this blog is a huge feat for me. That may seem silly, but I am ill equipped when it comes to computers and new technology. Hope you enjoy the perspectives I have to offer and I hope to learn yours as well. Blessings and write you soon.