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?

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Scenes Remembered

Multiple people all look at the same thing and see something a little different, sometimes a lot different. When trying to piece together what they saw, they may re-arrange the pieces, flip them around, or put them out of order. When all of the witnesses attempt to combine their memories, the result often only vaguely resembles what the truth is, if there even is such a thing as truth.
90" x 30" constructed image. Cyanotype and gum bichromate on BFK Rives.