Saturday, February 21, 2015

Madonna and Child Redux

22" x 30" Cyanotype and Gum Bichromate Print on Cotton Fiber Paper.
Circles cut out, re-oriented, and re-secured.

Thought

How are "dreams", "memories", and "reality" connected?

Saturday, February 14, 2015

True Stuff

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” - Susan Sontag

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Working the Colors


Snowstorm Reading


Every Day I'm Shuffling



Role Reversal


Starting to Work Again


Group 2 Residency Summary

Group 2 Residency Summary

·         I entered my second residency with a body of work that was widely varied in technique and medium.
·         As I sat there speaking with my fellow residents, I started to think more about what I was doing, and what I was saying. Not that I hadn’t already done this, but that they were asking questions that prompted additional thought.
·         I don’t understand anyone else’s experience, only my own. Therefore, is it possible to speak for others? Can I only speak for myself? Is my experience that unique?
·         What is my sense of self? What is my legacy? Do I fear my own demise? I belong to no “group”. I’m white, male, middle aged, not ethnic, not religious….I am…..vanilla. Really?
·         Group Critiques with non-advising faculty; B.Wurtz, Ben Sloat (although he was my advisor), and Cesare Pietroiusti
o   Recommendations
§  Paul Schimmel – Destroying the Picture, Painting the Void
§  Sterling Ruby
§  Lucio Fontana
§  Yves Klein
§  Huma Baba
§  Doris Salcado
§  Eva Hesse
§  Alina Tugend - Better by Mistake
·         Critical Theory II with Ben Sloat: The Archive
o   Very interesting lectures
§  Trevor Paglen
§  Charles Ray
§  Robert Smithson
§  Do Ho Sult
§  Cai Guo Qiang
§  Hans Haacke
§  Mark Dion
·         Art is the critical foil to dominant culture.
·         Not interested in objects, interested in ideas about object
·         Camille Henrot
o   “Grosse fatigue”
·         Joan Fontcuberta
·         Plato
·         Last meeting with last semesters advisor (Ben Sloat)
o   Recommended artists
§  Lee Bontacue
§  Lucien Fontaine
§  Sam Taylor Wood
§  Shimamoto
§  Shomay Tomatsu
§  Liz Deschennes
§  Brian Graft
§  Alberto Giacometti
o   Talked about not completing the photo, leaving it “unfinished”
o   Impose restraints on self
o   Tolerating the disarray
o   Don’t use visual mechanisms to direct viewer
o   Avoid the “Orgy of evidence”
·         Content of personal memories
·         Digging into my own story
·         Explore leftovers
·         Storage and creation of memory
·         False memories
·         “The most powerful thing you can do is to relinquish power.”
·         “Loss and Possibility” elective seminar with Cesare Pietroiusti
o   Creation of symbols is an activity that we subjectively do to elaborate and interpret reality
o   When we lose something, we create a symbol to compensate for this loss
o   Artist needs to be both active and receptive
o   Introjection vs. Projection
o   Learn to synthesize contradictions
o   Good Breast vs. Bad Breast
·         First Meeting with New Advisor Deb Todd Wheeler
o   Space between intention and interpretation
o   “Maximilism” – the edge of too much
o   David Emit Adams
o   Martha Rossler
o   Art object as a catalyst for memory
o   Accumulated fragments attempting to make a whole
·         Artist Talks
o   B. Wurtz
o   Nancy Shaver
o   Oliver Wasow
o   Thierry DeDuve
·         Graduating Student Critiques
o   Richard Strong
o   Brian Wilson
o   Miah Johnson
·         Non Advisor Critiques
o   Judith Barry
§  Memorial Culture
·         Mya Lin
·         Mark Bradford
§  Constructionist Photography
·         Douglas hubler
·         Jan Grover
·         Robert Heineken
§  Judith Williamson – Decoding Advertisemnts
§  “Beauty is the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure.” – Rainer Maria Wilke
o   Tony Apesos
§  “Make sure that the work is you, and that you don’t become the work.”
§  “There is nothing wrong with romanticism.”
·         Reading List
o   Liz Wells – Photographic Reader
o   Charlotte Cotton – The Photograph as Contemporary Art
o   Geoffrey Batchen – Each Wild Idea
o   Geoffrey Batchen – Burning with Desire
o   Daniel Resberg – The Science of Perception and Memory
o   David McRaney – Why Your Memory is Mostly Fiction
o   Joseph Cornell – Master of Dreams

o   Judith Williamson – Decoding Advertisements

Mentor Hooked

Matthew Gamber

The Wise Man

"Make sure the work is you, and that you don't become the work." Tony Apesos to me during a non-advisor critique.

Sketchy


Still Thinking

Don't mock my stick figure.


I'm Thinking


Ponderings


  • ·         I entered my second residency with a body of work that was widely varied in technique and medium.
  • ·         As I sat there speaking with my fellow residents, I started to think more about what I was doing, and what I was saying. Not that I hadn’t already done this, but that they were asking questions that prompted additional thought.
  • ·         I don’t understand anyone else’s experience, only my own. Therefore, is it possible to speak for others? Can I only speak for myself? Is my experience that unique?
  • ·         What is my sense of self? What is my legacy? Do I fear my own demise? I belong to no “group”. I’m white, male, middle aged, not ethnic, not religious….I am…..vanilla. Really?