Questions to Consider

What do I love about art and making art?
What do I love about about the city?
How do these things inform each other? Work together? Become a source of inspiration in my work?

working it out...

Much of what I've done since starting grad school has been a series of experiments. This past semester was particularly focused on printmaking processes. But when it came to thinking about my thesis topic, I began to freak out and struggle with finding a subject matter. It's not that I didn't have any ideas, but that I had too many and couldn't decide where to focus. But then it came to me that the reason I make art is not about the subject matter, but about the process. The hands on, the tactility. The experience of experimenting and discovering new ways to create an image. The mistakes and happy accidents.
For me, art doesn't start from a theoretical idea or problem. It's not contingent upon obscure concepts. The concept is that there is no real intended concept. It's an intuitive response to what I see and feel.
I discovered this summer that there is a cathartic element to creating. I want to explore that more. I think I also need to pay attention to what I'm feeling as I'm working and try to put words to those feelings. Responses to the process being used and why I'm choosing to use that process.

thoughts about my work...

My mentor asked me to write something about whats going on in my studio, how I'm working, etc. This is what I sent her. I think I might be able to use some of this for an artist statement.

I'm focusing on process, the hands on methods of image making. Particularly printmaking processes, even more specifically, transfers. Photography, photocopy, monoprint, hand drawn, collage, paint are also methods i'm using. The physical processes are important to me for having a tactile connection to art making as opposed to on the computer which is where i found the design work i was doing lacking. I like getting a little dirty while i work.

The imagery i'm using comes from my personal experience with the world around me which includes mostly urban environments and elements. The things i'm most often drawn to in the city show a passage of time; accumulation, deterioration, decay, rust, lost, broken, layers, etc. At the moment i'm not trying to make any particular judgements but leave interpretation up to the viewer. However i do find a sad poetry in these types of elements. The use of text, whether print or handwriting, is also of interest to me. The print is a connection to my design background, the handwriting is a very personal form of expression. When using my own handwriting, I often use cursive because it take more time and consideration in forming each letter.

in my studio i have files of found images and materials, including notes that people have written to someone. I'd like to incorporate these in my work somehow. Again, a reflection of the world around me, but more focused on people and small glimpses into their lives. These plus photos I take while walking through the city serve as inspiration as well as source imagery.

an artist that is similarly inspired by urban environments and the poetry of its history is Catherine Mackey http://catherinemackey.com/statement.html She clearly is influenced my a couple of my favorites, Rauschenberg and Johns. But i have to be able to appreciate her work while still finding my own ways of expressing similar ideas. I also am looking more directly at johns and rauschenberg and trying to delvelop my own dada meets pop way of observing the world.

Art & Fear

As I was going through some old paper work from undergrad, I came across a response paper I wrote for my senior seminar class based on a book we had to read, Art & Fear. I apparently didn't like the book very much nor did i care for the assignment as is pretty evident by my tone and lack of proofreading. I decided to post it not only because it's kinda funny but also because it still is relevant to the way I work.