Getting Near

Today in class we basically had a critique in our individual groups as we always do each class. However, since the exhibition is getting near and with spring break starting next week this class was important not to miss. It was good to get as much feedback as possible since we have break next week. Spring break will be a great opportunity for me at least to work on my project and use some suggestions that I have gotten from my professors as well as my peers that can be helpful towards my thesis project. With my project I am still unsure as to how I would like it to be displayed in my space that I am provided in the gallery, but I guess that is something I can think about during spring break. It was was great and helpful to look at what other people were doing and see the progression within their work. Knowing that the exhibition is only a few weeks away is nerve wracking because it brings up the question as to whether or not one would be ready to show off what they have been working on. For me I'm nervous and excited about displaying my work in the gallery and getting different reaction from people when viewing my work. I know that with this exhibition that everything will go well and that everyone's art piece will be a success.

Ideas for thesis

For my thesis project I want to focus on the complexity of emotion and how different situations or objects can trigger various emotions. I am interested on how one image can evoke different emotions from different viewers. The way I plan to execute my thesis project is by combining both image and text to portray the various ways emotions interact with our lives.

One approach that I have for this project deals with creating two-dimensional wheels, one big wheel and a smaller wheel that will be placed on top of the larger one. The bigger wheel will display sixteen images of events, objects and people, as the smaller wheel will display multiple emotional words such as joy, pain, sorrow, guilt, etc. The viewer will be able to spin the smaller wheel that has the text and match it with the image from the big wheel however they like. I am not really sure about the scale of the wheel and how big it would be, but for now I am thinking it will be some where to 36 x 40inches.

My second approach deals with making a series of twenty-four cards. On the front of each card there will be an image of an event, object or a person. On the back of the card there will be one emotional word. The viewer will be encouraged to construct a scenario relating the word with the image. With both my designs I seek to encourage the viewer to interact with the art piece. I want to surprise the viewer and make them formulate their own scenarios in response to the image and text. Each card will be 5 x 5 inches.

Front: ImageBack: Text

Chelsea Gallery Visit...Ana Cristea Gallery

In the Ana Cristea gallery, the work of a young Hungarian artist who goes by the name of Zsolt Bodoni was presented in his exhibition called, The Foundries of ideology. Looking through the exhibition and the paintings done by Bodoni, I noticed that his brush strokes had this type of washed out texture in throughout his paintings almost like a dream sequence. Most of Bodoni you could say comes from his life experiences in his country and his emotions I guess to what he was feeling at the time. When I read the artist statement and his biography I learned that some of Bodni's old works were an ironic symbolism of imperialism.Bodoni portrays the notion of politics and an image of what his country was like. For example this image shown here is one of Bodni paintings and it is called, "Black Guard", (2009 oil and acrylic on canvas. 134 x 75 inches). The picture depicts a dark atmospheric and dramatic scenery that suggest that it most have been a rough or struggling time for Bondi and his people in his country Hungary.

Chelsea Gallery Visit... Andrea Mesin Gallery

In Chelsea I visited the Andrea Mesin Gallery. When I first step in the building it was like i step foot in like a twilight zone. The main entry hallway was small, there were no one to assist me and the building was hot. There were no doors around besides the exit door and the elevator door, which by the way looked like one of those old elevator doors that you would see in old horror movies or in The Haunting Mansion in Disney world. Anyway when the elevator did open there was a bellhop that guided me to the level that the gallery was on. The Andrea Merin Gallery was displaying work done by an artist named Amy Simon and the name of the Exhibition was called, "a different STATE of mind". Merin's work through the exhibition varied in sizes from 47.5 x 31.5 photographs, to 15.75 x 15.75 color pencil drawings, to a wallpaper image covering the whole front wall. Simons work seems to display some sort of narrative or a time within a certain location from the photographs taken by her. Some of the color pencil drawings and the wallpaper images are just a copy of her photographs shown in different sizes.
I like the way how the room was displayed for this exhibition. The photographs where hung on the side walls of the two aisle. In the middle of the gallery there was a giant wall that had a wallpaper drawing of one of the photographs that was done by Merins on the front, and behind of the wall was the 15.75 x 15.75 drawings, some of which were a copy of Merin photograph.

Chelsea Gallery Visits...PACE PRINTS

So I was able to go to New York and visit a couple of galleries on Chelsea. One of the galleries that I visited was the PACE PRINTS on 57st. The exhibition displayed the worked of an artist who goes by the name of Jim Dine. Jim Dine work varies from painting, sculptor, photography and printmaking. Dine is able to use different printing techniques to combine familiar images like and portray them into meaningful vibrant works of art.Walking around Jim Dine's exhibition, a lot of his work displayed was mostly on printmaking throughout the show. What I found interesting about the exhibition is how majority of Dine's works dealt with images of Pinocchio and ravens. I kind of like the way Dine portrays the different series of Pinocchio. Each series seems to display a moment in the life of Pinocchio. Dine depiction of Pinocchio is different from what Walt Disney portrays or what we are use to seeing. Here Dine portrays Pinocchio in a dark gloomy type of setting. What I also like about the series is the different emotions that Pincchio seems to have in each series.

Chapter 6...The Studio Visit

-“When it comes to sleeping, Murakami is equally indiscriminate about place. The artist has no home per se, just a bedroom only a few yards from his desk here…He works long hours seven days a week but naps two or three times a day”.

When it comes to sleeping for an artist, sleep doesn’t really exist in an artist vocabulary. As an artist, one strives on progression and creativity it is our drive, it is what keeps us up. Being an artist means that you are constantly busy whether it’s producing art or developing new ideas for the piece. Sure an artist will take a break and get some rest, but it would only be for an hour or two and then its back to work. For an artist there is no home. The studio is an artist home, there an artist lives, breathes, sleeps, and work there. Being an artist means that when everyone is sleeping in his or her nice cozy beds at home, you are still up working till god knows when. It’s a 24/7 time of deal that sometimes is frustrating and stressful because as an artist you are constantly busy, but that is part of being a successful artist.

- “I threw away out my general life, so that I can make a concentration for my job”.
- “A studio isn’t just a place where artists make art but a platform for negotiation and a stage for performance”.
- To focus on nothing besides profit is, by my values, evil. But I work by trial and error to be popular.

-“My weak point-I cannot focus on just one thing I have to set up many things. If just looking at one project, then immediately get the feeling it boring”.

For an artist one will work one art piece for a couple of days and then move on to the next one and finsh the other one later. Working on the same piece over and over for days tend to cause frustration and boredom for an artist because you want to finish the art piece but at the same time you grown tired of it just by working on it for countless days. Sometimes it’s best to put aside a art piece that you grown tired of working and work on another idea that way hopefully when you do go back to the old piece that you cast aside you might have developed new ideas that you can put in the old one.

Chapter 3... The Fair

Before reading this chapter I never knew just how serious an art fair is especially to a collector’s standpoint. I always thought of an art collector as a person who is a rich privileged person who simply buys art because they like the way it looks or it makes them feel a certain way when looking at the piece. In this chapter I find it interesting that a collector is represented as carrying the same importance as an artist. That a “Collector should be an earned category” as Mera mentioned in the chapter. It seems as though that being a collector is more than a hobby; it is a job. Being a collector is a skill that is practiced and learned like becoming a good painter. In one of the paragraphs on pg. 83, Mera mentions that, “an artist doesn’t become an artist in a day, so a collector shouldn’t become a collector in a day. It’s a lifetime process”. I don’t know if I agree with this statement. It’s true that it is a lifetime process, but it’s only a lifetime process only if one wants to perfect and become good at it. Anyone one can be an artist, however a person who has knowledge and knows various techniques to display their creativity is set a part as truly an artist rather than a person who doodles. The same goes for being a collector. Anyone can be a collector is just the amount of money you have to buy the art piece that set you apart from every body else. I don’t know that’s just my opinion.

- “I don’t want it to look like a bad group show…The trick is to find a space for everything, so each work has a chance to breath”.

I think this is a quote that is similar to what I am will be experiencing when it comes time to display my work in a group show. Being able display my work and also making sure that my work and the other artist work that I’m sharing the space with, works well in the same space and also has room to breath.

- “Art world insiders take a hard line on collecting for the ‘right’ reasons”.

Is there a right reason for collecting art? I always thought that art made you feel a certain way, which is why some people collect it. Never really thought that there was a right or wrong answer when dealing in the realm of art.

- “Artist tend to view art fairs with a mixture of horror, alienation, and amusement”

- “You have to make the new work to sell the old work”