Artist Lecture (05-04-10): Ted Noten

Todays lecture was another great one by an artist from Holland, named Ted Noten. I wouldn't necessarily say that his work is only jewelry & sculptural but also a bit of performance, but I will get into that later. He called the lecture Once a bricklayer, Always a bricklayer and began by describing the town where he grew up which was a brick-making town. As a kid working in the factories, he discovered he liked to work with his hands which spawned his career. He said, "Discover what you liked as a kid - that will be the closest to happiness [you get] as an artist." His early work began with the pieces constructed out of the Mercedes-Benz cars, which in Europe he described as a symbol of hard work and accomplishment. He would remove bits of the cars and mold pieces out of them so people could "wear their car."

However, the Mercedes company did not purchase the piece so Noten went to art school where the idea of "concept" was forced and Noten willingly accepted. He said, "When you make a move with your hand, you have to explain [that move] to your teacher," a frustrating I think every art student encounters.

A couple of his pieces really struck me. First, his early work where he would fashion rings that had a purpose/function based on one's profession. I, of course, want the photographer ring which is a band and a square with a cube sized cut out in the center so the artist can walk around framing pieces. Noten said he moved on from this series because it only related to certain groups and he was interested in the many subcultures within subcultures. To make his art more interactive (and a performance) his project Chew Your Own Brooch where the art buyer would chew their gum, send it to him and he would cast it, creating one of a kind jewelry (unfortunately, I could not find any of the final pieces online). He is also known for the "gun bags" which I included below.

My favorite project he showed went back to the rings, however he created them by first crafting these magnificent sculptures. The project is called Haunted by 36 Women. He moved away from his methodology because he said "artists tend to fall into a successful formula" and he felt it was too early in his career to do that. With these pieces, he finds things (online or on the street), composes them and then does something extraordinary -- he used a 3D scanner to create the image into smaller scale replicas which is how his jewelry is sold.

The Muse

Artist Lecture: Sanford Biggers

For some reason, my entry was erased...or I never saved + posted. Regardless, I will do my best to rewrite this entry.

I hate to say this but the Sanford Biggers lecture was painful for me to get through. It may have been because I only had about five hours of sleep the night before or because the artwork just really did not speak to me at all. His success as an artist is fantastic though. He is currently teaching at Columbia after teaching at VCU for a few years.

Bigger's work is highly conceptual and focuses primarily on race relations and is mixed as far as its medium ranging between video, music, sculpture and performance. The first piece that he showed was a media montage that showed a juxtaposition of African Americans in media beside clips of Caucasians. The clips were of old Hollywood arial dance numbers v. images of the blacks in the 1970s, which is a time when their role in television/film really began to change. I believe his goal was to show the heavy contrast between the two as far as media portrayals.

Perhaps I just completely missed the mark, which is highly possible because performance work is something that I knowingly do not understand. Overall though, I thought the work was all over the place and within one piece, there were so many things going on, it was confusing for the viewer. Either that, or like in his piece were he collaborated with his female friend from Connecticut, very obvious. Overall, the pieces that I felt were the most conceptually strong and visually interesting were Lotus and Cheshire Smile. These two pieces were both haunting and memorable. Though if I saw it, I would have no idea what it was about, my favorite piece that he showed was the sculpture of the tree growing though the tree. His technical skills are dead on, perfect. I didn't see it in person but from the images he showed, the detail was flawless.

Artist Lecture (02-16-10): Hank Willis Thomas

Todays lecture was my favorite so far this year. Mr. Hank Willis Thomas was extremely well-spoken and I found that his lecture was also the most informative of not only art but of culture as well. Thomas deals primarily with racial identities in the media, which he accomplishes in a variety of methods, from sculpture, to photography. He calls himself a "visual culture archeologist." Therefore, a lot of his work stems from appropriated imagery but he turns it on its head and reveals its ulterior identity. I saw a lot of my classmates and myself in his work. For example, Jenn White and his collaboration with his mother I See Myself In You and my personal series (from freshman year) Framework which was similar to his series involving photography's framing. It appeared that in most of his work like the framing series, Thomas would take an accepted concept and reverse it. Another example being the decisive moment v. his "indecisive moment," which is what he calls the exact moment you should not be taking the picture.

At one point, Thomas said, "You should always question the meaning in photographs...there is so much chance that takes place within the moment the photograph is taken." This really caught my attention because its so true and I find myself often taking photography for granted in the sense that often times, I do not fully appreciate what goes into image making as much as I do other artforms (ie painting). But Thomas' lecture was full of "ah-ha!" or "Oh, now I get it" moments. Another was when he compared the "bling bling" culture and its irony in the sense of how his ancestors were brought over in chains. However, it was his cousins death and from there his curiosity in how much material goods play a role in our lives. He said that logo's acts as our nation's hieroglyphs and how 'we live in a brand of branded consciousness' or, how we identify ourselves based on the products we buy. How interesting of a thought! I consider myself a Nikon girl and a Mac user with such genuine pride because I use such quality materials. In high school, I needed to wear Converse to identify with the social group I was a part of - I think that we are all somewhat aware of this, its just whether or not we really care.

It would be difficult to try to chose a favorite series of his because there were so many I really loved. However I think that my favorite pieces were I Am A Man which was the timeline of black culture and how we "stop defining ourselves are other peoples perceptions of ourselves and then become excited to just be alive." Also, like I think everyone in the audience, "Along the Way" was a moving, beautiful piece.

A few additional quotes I loved from his lecture:

"What is crime in a society that is so unfair?" - Speaking of racial hatred taking place in the 1940s when racial abuse was 'thought' to really have stopped

"I guess, I'm trying to critique the system from within." - What better way to do it? To stay on the outside and be uninformed?

From his video about his cousin, collaboration with another artist "Winter in America"

I Am A Man project

The "new brown"

Artist Lecture (02-15-10): Paul Pfeiffer

Today's lecture was different than I was expecting, primarily because I got the lecture's mixed up, so I was walking into something completely different than what I was expecting. However, Paul Pfeiffer's work is something that I hadn't previously been exposed to and it was interesting to see and hear his various perspectives.

I liked when he spoke about how art-making has a central psychological message and its up to the viewers to determine that message. However, what I found confusing is, that so much of his work was based on what the viewer perceived, yet when asked if he's observed his viewers viewing, he said he hadn't (sorry about all the "views" in that sentence!). I didn't really understand why he would not try to understand that more, but then perhaps it would spoil the mission if he did. But, he did mention that people had often times spoken to him about what they thought the work meant, but he didn't seem to correct them -- just take note. I think thats something thats pretty important for all artists to understand as well. We do not necessarily have to beat our message over everyone head and insist that is all they gather from our work -- but to instead absorb.

Overall, his work seemed to vary in size and what I felt was a pretty important aspect to his work -- perspective. By perspective, I mean that in some pieces, the position in which the piece was placed played a major role in what was being portrayed. In the piece of the football (soccer to America) players, the subjects were falling to the ground. The instillation was placed on the ground. In order to interact with it, you had to crouch down or stand far back to view it. In another piece, its position was eye-level and then another projected onto a wall to be viewed from further away. This was the aspect of his work that I actually enjoyed the most. His not only manipulation of the environment but of how the audience would view it. Since most of his work is projected 4x5 inches, the audience must get close to fully understand what is happening.

My favorite piece was the twenty-minute video, The Morning after the Deluge. Yeah of course because it showed nature but also because it captured a moment (actually a rather long moment...20 minutes) that I may never experience for myself in real life. And if I were to for some reason witness the sunrise/set in Province Town, then I would never see it from his perspective. I'm honestly not sure what exactly led him to create the piece but as a viewer, I found it comforting. Another piece(s) I found interesting was, 24 Landscapes. Like he said, I would never have known that these were images of Marilyn Monroe, once removed and that it wasn't really important to know that. He said that instead these iconic images of Monroe without her in it, could perhaps become iconic in their own right, without her.

To be honest, I had a difficult time really wrapping my mind around his work. I do not think I would have come to the conclusions that he sort of led us to in his lecture. But I do like that made it a point to say that the work should speak for itself but its also fair to think that what's said about it will carry on through audiences.

I could not find any of his video pieces online, however I did find this art21 video which shows some of his work. I also provided some stills/instillation shots of his work.

Artist Lecture: Alec Soth

Photographer Alec Soth's lecture was oddly inspiring. I appreciated his raw honesty and felt I could relate to him on many levels. He began his lecture with a video of a friend and him on a road trip, having a good time exploring and being photographers. He said that to him, that was the spirit of photography. Having fun, meeting people and adventure. I feel that like most of us college photography students, he started off trying to fulfill some ideal of what art is supposed to be but it wasn't until he just began to do what he loves to do, "straight photography" that he really began to find his niche.

He showed an array of historically important photographers, including Elliot Erwitt where he demonstrated that the "mundane can be interesting." I disagree with the fact when he said that photojournalism is over-saturated. If anything, I believe it is the one aspect of producing with a camera that is not over-saturated. Photojournalism is still unique and still tells a story. However, I thought it was incredibly interesting when he discussed the fact that half the iconic photographs were taken from camera phones. So true. In today's world, the moments that are always going to be remembered are rarely going to be performed in a time where there is press. The decisive moment is now being captured by our telephones and other hand held electronics.

Oddly enough, one of the pieces in his presentation that I loved the most was his work in college with the environmental architecture. He mentioned earth artists that I, also relate too. I found it encouraging that Soth found his way to success after going down many various paths.

Visually, I was most drawn to his work "Sleeping By the Mississippi." I think that is isn't just him who feels that the ideal lifestyle of a photographer is on the road, meeting people and taking photographs of your journey. I think that would be amazing but I know that I am even less "bohemian" than he is so the idea is just in passing. However these images are my chance to view his road trip and people who are so different than myself -- who I will never meet. I like the connection you feel with them, through him. I feel that with my current project, I am taking on my own adventure but in a different way. In his photographs, you get the narrative he spoke so much about. You read into these peoples expressions, poses, settings, etc.

Three final comments I wish to make about his lecture that I appriciate are: 1) He is a book maker. He enjoys creating and having control over how his images are presented; 2) He wants and fights for the right to choose the tool he wants to work with (digital, 4x5); 3) He says the most difficult thing is creating a group of images. Its easy enough to produce one, but its getting an entire set to work together thats the difficult part.

Oh yeah and...he's a Nikon user :)

Artist Lecture: P. Kevin Morley

This was one of my favorite lectures of the semester. P. Kevin Morly is a photojournalist for the Richmond Times Dispatch. When I first became interested in being a photographer, being a photojournalist was my dream job. It still is, I am just more realistic about the chances of it actually being possible. Newspapers are dying, so are the jobs in the industry, which is unfortunate because I am personally someone who needs to know they have a steady paycheck. I think that a lot of "fine art" photographers look at photojournalism in a negative light, which by no means does it deserve. They are conceptualizing in an instant -- on a deadline. Just as Morley said in his lecture, "The art aspect doesn't get lost" in journalism. If anything, the differences are fewer than most think.

Morley got into photojournalism for many reasons, one being he enjoyed the combination of art, science and "winging it." He also spoke mainly about his job at the Times Dispatch but showed us hundreds of images of his own work, with many anecdotes associated with the photos. He spoke about how a photojournalist is expected to work on time and for it to be good. When shooting, he says "I don't care as much about the event as I do the reaction to the event."

I am sure 99% of my teachers and classmates would agree but I think a majority of people are moved more by photojournalism than they are conceptual art. Journalism reaches more people, its a story in a photograph that doesn't require a wealth of knowledge and speaks about events, trauma's that effect us all. For instance, Morley took a photograph of a child pointing to his father, a military soldier's casket. The photograph influenced a motorcyclist in another state so much he organized an benefit event.

Morely's craft is risky. In many of his images, he says he has to be sensitive to the fact that "[the people in the images] are bearing their souls" and that "a photojournalists dream is to be invisible."

I was interested in asking how he communicates with the writer, in a sense, his partner, about stories. His answer was what I sort of figured. It really depends on the story how the photographer and the writer work. Sometimes they work separately, sometimes the articles already written and then other times, they are working on the story at the same time. In my journalistic experience, I sometimes find it hard to communicate exactly what the writers want with images. But in the end, Morley says he uses his best judgement, in the end, you're the photographer!

Artist Lecture: Jeffery Allison

Jeffery Allison is the Paul Mellon Collection Educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He helps plan and coordinate events and curates shows for the museum. One show he curated Through Different Eyes: Faces of Poverty in Virginia, has traveled statewide and been published.

Allison at the age of sixteen started photographing for a local newspaper mainly focusing on music events but also on mine strikes and car wreaks. He went to VCU graduate school and after graduating when back to his undergraduate school where he began working with his former teachers to make the film Solitaire. He did not show much of his photography in the presentation, but instead mainly focused on his role at the Virginia Fine Arts Museum. From the photography of his that he did show, his black and white work spoke to me more because it was very emotional (almost romantic). His color and more recent work was very documentary and deadpan, but interesting in shape and color. His newer work (which I was unable to find online anywhere) is in a show at Mary Washington about museum workers who make art and how their job affects their art making. While he is extremely busy curating and educating, he says that on his trips he makes time to photograph because it keeps himself "sane."

He shared an interesting tid-bit about the VMFA. When it reopens it will be the 7th out of the top 10 museums in the United States. Little 'ole Richmond!

Photographs from Through Different Eyes: Faces of Poverty in Virginia

Artist Lecture: Shimon Attie

Today's lecture was Shimon Attie, an artist with an overwhelming amount of prestige for a fairly short artistic career. I only say this because I was impressed with how so soon after he graduated from art school he began his career as a paid, working artist. I found the lecture incredibly distracting and aggravating because of the equipment mishaps and the constant shuffle back and forth from digital projection to slides. Once we started moving primarily to digital and the flow of the lecture started to move, I was able to connect more to his work. The first piece he presented were his projections in East Berlin, which he attempted to show how life was "before." I enjoyed when he said "artists work in a realm of symbolic or imaginary" eluding to the fact, it does not always have to be concept, concept, concept! With the new direction my work is going, I enjoyed the word use "imaginary."

All of his work had been site specific, which is a direction I am also moving to. I appreciated his artful documentary approach to his imagery. His images were powerful and had meaning, but didn't need to be conceptual. My favorite piece of though, was "Between Dreams and History." I love when handwriting in incorporated in todays technological world. Its a soft approach that tells a lot about a person next to/or on a harsh medium. His work is also incredibly research based; researching first-then producing.

He spent a majority of the time speaking about his Aberfan project which was very moving and very surreal. It was emotional and interesting. I enjoyed what he said about "trauma freezing you," but you continue to function eventually but it never really leaves you. His subjects were emotionless faces which he said "erased sentiment [...] making them anonymous icons or icons that could be part of your village." I think it is fairly obvious that Attie was a trained photographer. His studio setup and lighting represented that well. The sound design however is very cinematic.

Artist Lecture: James Sienna

Today's lecture, by James Sienna was provided by the Painting & Printing department. I was pleasantly surprised. I feel I can always relate and understand painting more than photography, I am not sure why. I have never been a trained painter but it's something I enjoy doing. Many of the things Sienna said, I felt were directly related to how I felt about my work.

Sienna as a teenager would go hiking and take pictures (same as myself) which was his introduction into art. He said the first think he learned to draw were the shapes of the mountains. Then he said: Nature is unaware of itself - its everything and the life in within it is intricate and beautiful. Looking at his work, you wouldn't understand right away that it works closely with nature but I can see the correlation, the repeated patterns, textures, intricacy and complexity.

When he first began painting, he enjoyed creating his own materials. He created his own paint by making it out of hair, gravel, dirt and coffee grounds which he called: process art. He had a growing interest in the intricacy of decay (which my newest project is focusing on) and the impermanence (which I mentioned in my C- worthy powerpoint).

Sienna tends to work small, which he calls, reasonably sized and working with the juxtaposition of industrial materials against the handmade.

When he first started creating, he was against titles because he felt that it can point the viewer in the wrong direction but eventually didn't care and started naming his work with the feeling that: if the work is strong enough, it will speak apart from the title.

I felt that his work had a lot of movement and depth which someone else in the audience later mentioned as well. Sienna seemed confused by that, saying he hadn't heard it before. He feels that its about 2D art and enjoyed the fact that he felt his pieces could be pulled apart (when referring to "The Combs" series).

Artist Lecture: Brian Ulrich 10/14/09

Today's lecture with Brian Ulrich was incredibly entertaining (even when he dashed away at the end). From beginning to end, for some reason, I was drawn to taking notes on how his work developed. I was weary at first about his audio presentation. I lost interest pretty quickly and felt like I was at Crossroads Coffee Shop listening to Fritz, one of the regulars, rant about something or other. However, I did like it because its those people that draw me to places like that...They are incredibly interesting. He said, "These people want to tell their stories" and he's right. Everyone has something to say and sometimes, its important to just shut up and listen. I really appreciated that.

He said that his work first began as an autobiography which I think some might argue his work continues to be. Overall, what stood out the most to me was the familiarity of his work to a graduate student in our program who's work I'm familiar with. Both shoot deadpan images but these images still have some sort of strange interest and that interest is usually the lighting. Ulrich's lighting in particular is surreal. He compared the images to Dutch paintings, which I agree with (although I disagree his portraits resemble them, just his locations). I included an example below. They seem ordinary, yet there is something spectacular about them in the light.

I felt relieved in the fact about his description on how he works. He didn't necessarily jump from project to project but worked on one and when he felt it couldn't go any further, started another, which he would outwardly admit he did or didn't like.

Overall, I felt his work had a common denominator, which I hope he wouldn't find offensive. The common characteristic was of course, the humor. Ulrich has a way with words. I was completely engrossed in his lecture because he wasn't afraid to poke fun at himself and his work, which is a lovely change from normal. To be honest, looking at his work, you might not (at first) think that the author is comical. Upon closer investigation however, you begin to notice that he presents everyday, ordinary scenes but yet pokes fun at them. Not in a kitschy way, but mature and very stylized.

Painting Saint Jerome in his study

Artist Lecture: Penelope Umbrico 10/5/09

I had never seen Penelope Umbrico's work until her lecture and was very interested in the way she spoke about her work. I love and fully appreciate the archival movement in art, though it does not necessarily reflect in my own. At least that is what I thought.

She spoke about many pieces, but I was most interested in her work with the mirrors, seen below. She scanned mirrors in the home decor catalogues and blew them up to actual scale, printed on plexiglass and cut to fit shape and dimensions. I hadn't been moved by a piece in awhile quite like I was with this one. Her goal had essentially been to give the viewer a sense of anxiety when they looked into the mirror and they were not there. I've felt like this so many times before but had never thought of a way to portray it. When she projected the image of the mirror, I actually felt panic...Why was I not showing up in the mirror? Where am I? I felt that my reaction was a pretty clear example as to why that work was so successful. It was a little depressing though. I felt like I was either dead or I meant nothing to these perfect-yet fake people.

Also, last year I had created a piece where I was trying to connect with people overseas who had the same last name as myself. At the time, I had no idea why and honestly, when the end of the semester hit, I still hadn't a good idea. When she spoke about empathetic relationships yesterday, it clicked. By me sending these cameras to relatives, I was learning to deal with the loss of my grandparents on my father's side (the Italian side). I was trying to reach out to more Italian's who would provide some sort of relationship that I had just lost. In Umbrico's work, her empathetic relationships were created through observations of these fake people who supposedly placed these objects in these specific ways and we were satisfying some sort of voyeuristic need to view it. Thats precisely what happened with my project in the end. I was archiving these people's lives who had the same D'Eugenio characteristic as myself and was viewing what their lives were like.

Another comment she made during her lecture that I appreciated was her advice on creating work that had similarly been done before. Her response: Who cares! Do it if it works for your project. I often times have an idea and then come to find out someone has already done something very similar. Then I think, well I can't do it anymore because this person will think I am copying them. Copying someone's work and creating work that is similar is different, however I still am unsure how I would feel if I were on the other-side of the situation.

During the discussion section she mentioned that she had "referenced the history of art" in her earlier work and used "photoshop to make them [her work] authentic." She really helped me figure things out with that comment. I use photoshop and alternative methods to make my work look antique, as if to ask for my voice to be heard by past generations because I (maybe) have no interest in voicing it about this one.

...I couldn't find any of her work where she attempted to make it look authentic. If anyone else can, please let me know!