Ugh,!

My Critique was pushed forward from Mid March to Feb 17th, so im really craming to finish a suite of etchings! i look forward to posting them! toodles

Good News

My Winter Etchings are going well, mostly finished and ill be able to hit the studio with about 15 plates to etch when i get back. Ill be back in studio on the 17th and Danielle got a job at Mercy so we are driving back. Ill have pics to post as soon as i start printing!

hooray!

How i try to understand this.

2 Primary Underground movements in art, the 1^st has Aesthetics in mind during creation, the 2^nd has Theory in mind during creation.  Now for me to properly reinforce this theory I have to first say that this goes under all other theory, being it race, gender, community, self that is irrelevant to my idea these 2 forms of art are obvious, and easily recognizable this brief little essay is therefore some what redundant but I don’t think that this is common knowledge because they are in essence 2 different types of art, while the are organized inside the same category of “art” and yes, some artists will fall in-between the 2 which is to be expected.

1. Aesthetically Motivated  (Beauty Motivated)– Aesthetically motivated art is art with Beauty in mind during creation, and beauty is broadly defined as everything aesthetically pleasing both grotesque and gorgeous.  This form of art primarily takes root in painting, drawing, and all forms of 2 dimensional work.  This work would include from Polke to Picasso, to Pollock the work is absolutely loaded with theory and ideas but it allows the viewer to enter those ideas though the window of beauty, the viewer is seduced by the color, graphics shapes anything really and then begins to engage the theory after seduction.

2. Theory Motivated (or Conceptually Motivated) – This form of Art is primarily motivated through Theory and concept, and has an aesthetic and visual language all its own contrary to Beauty motivated art the primary objective of this art is to engage the viewers mind and focus the viewer on a specific concept that the artist is dealing with, through theory it creates a dialog between the viewer and the art.  This makes me think of Dan Graham, or Donald Judd, Stella some one like that there is beauty in the objects (if there are any) but it is often only accessible through the theory with out the selected readings or education, the objects can often seem stupid or dull to a typical museum goer.

My problem with Critical Theory

Example

From the Introduction to Imagined Communities by “some guy whatever”

on  Nationalism

“Renan referred to this imagining in his suavely back-handed way when he wrote that ‘Or l’essence d’une nation est que tous les individus aient beaucoup de choses en commun, et aussi que tous aient oublie bien des choses.’ (10) With a certain ferocity Gellner makes a compa….

so i check out the 10 in the subnotes

10. Ernest Renan, bla bla bla it just repetes the quote precedied by the origonal question ‘qu’ est-ce qu’une nation?’

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My problem is, if i cant read french i dont understand his point, therefor i throw the paper in the trash bin because im not going to waste my time on people who think its hip or really intelligent to quote french (or whatever) in an primary English essay and offer no translation or explanation.  Maybe i over react but seriously if you are writing an essay in English, to an English audience, you should not make important points in french.

graham

More stuffs

 

Dont rember if i got these 2 last time, working on some interesting stuff, gunna do some bigger prints, prolly about 4-5 feet by 2.5 and im actualy planing them out! WHAT

 

and planing the colors!

WHAT!

i know

man

i know

graham

I apologize for not posting 1 a day, i realized quite quickly that its actually more work to do more posts instead of less? anywhoo ill try to be better

here is an Artist Statement for some work

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We cannot experience anything without the knowledge of what we have experienced before, a series of events stacked on top of each other.   We can filter through past experiences, but we may never experience them again as we did originally, as filtering back through our thoughts creates new feelings and a new perspective.

My work is focused on the human figure in conflict with itself.  Castrated and stupefied, my bodies display physical representations of emotional struggle induced by a society that has robbed us of our personal authority.

I have also removed my work from the wall and created a more intimate and personal way of experiencing it.  As a result of this change I would ask each of you to come in early and interact with the work individually, as experiencing the work during the critique would be a very different experience.

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Also, if your wondering what im up to i just finished an run of 125 monoprints mostly portrait works which is whats in my current critique.  Also im working on a series of smaller woodblocks and counter balancing them with a series of large ones, the ideas i have up in the air are B/W woodblocks with layered thing glazes wrather then Bold blacks, aswell as reworking and digging back into the prints.

New woodblocks

New arts

Im so bad

Too Recent Woodblocks, Enjoy

Posts

1st critique is over, and went well. but now i have all these digital images of the work that i find very hard to lump all into one post, so i think starting tonight, ill post 1 image a day onto the blog for people to check out.

Also – if your wondering what im up to

The current projects on my table are as follows

- Learning how to use a Vandercook.

- Making an Edition of books (this weekend)

- Making 300 Mono Prints (next weekend)

Artist Statement

Rough Draft -

My work is about the unspoken reality of the average; it’s a narrative-
portrait of American life through the lens of my personal
experiences.  The work Focuses on layering episodes of time to create
images that encapsulate each individual narrative into a single cell.
The American dream and the reality of American life are primary in my
works subject, specifically remedial labor and the mundane.  I speak
to our overinflated expectations of what we deserve and the torture
that ensues when we fail, and eventually give up.

Just Figured i would post a Rough Draft maybe get an opinion. my 1st critique is on the 14th, ill have pictures posted soon