Journal Entry

I think for the first time I have a solid, possible idea for my thesis. It's not even sort of complete but its someplace to start at. In my Social Evolution class we've gone into the detailed intricacies of the Theory of Evolution and the effect that it's had on social constructs among a population, and visa versa. I've been specifically interested in Reproductive Success, Sperm Competition, and Sexual Dimorphism and how the very specific attributes of each of these things have evolved to best serve the social constructs of a population of animals. Also, on the selection for things that are particularly symmetrical due to the fact that symmetry is a sign of good genes, so it would be selected for.

Untitled

I'm not sure where I'm going to go with this idea exactly, and after our midterm on Thursday we're getting into the very specifics about how these things effect Human society in particular. As well as an entire lecture on symmetry. I think this is a good idea for thesis because besides being open enough that the idea can manifest itself in a lot of different ways, this is a topic that is relatable to literally everyone because, after all, it's effected our lives in a lot of powerful and specific ways.

Untitled

Although neither of these images are what I'm specifically planning my thesis to look like, it's just sort of a start as to what I'm thinking about and where my thoughts are taking me. I want to do a lot more research on the topic before I decide anything on aesthetics.

to do list...

1. Talk to Professor Jacobson (my social evo teacher) about further readings on the topic and possibly students/staff I could talk to and possibly work with.

2. Work on titling my work. 

This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately and have been getting very frustrated with. I think I need to just bite the bullet and decide on titles for once in my life. (I think I mentioned this in my last journal entry but have been too busy to really focus on this issue)

3. Redo website

This is sort of off topic but I've been meaning to remake my website now that I have a decent understanding of HTML and CSS, my current portfolio site isn't cutting it anymore. Especially after Thursday, when I won't be as swamped with studying for mid-terms, I'll have time to get this done.

Journal Entry

So I've been thinking a lot about something Catherine Murphy said the other day in class. She said that her favorite thing about painting is that it puts her in conversation with every other painter. It wasn't exactly that but it was along those lines. Although this was not the first time I've heard that phrase it got me thinking, specifically about my own work and some reoccurring themes in my head. Basically this is just a transcribing of my train of thought.

When looking at her work, you can really hear that conversation. I like to say it has volume. She's been one of my favorite painters since John yau showed us her work in Seminar in Contemporary Art for, among many reasons, that you can really feel and hear the time she put into that painting. That effort to capture the perfect light at just the right time really does speak to the painters before her.

Catherine Murphy Comforter

Her voice comes out in that conversation at the price of her painstaking work, although not all loud voices in the Fine Arts rely on such precise dedication. It varies from artist to artist as anything would. But what exactly is she saying? Did she mean to say it? And what exactly have artists said before her? Now, when I think of artists that have this type of "volume" I can't help but think of Manet. We all know the story of his paintings causing riots at the salon and what not but  what's important to think about in that story is the volume his work had. How absolutely loud and clear his message was, that YOU the viewer sent those flowers, and you knew exactly what he meant by it.

Manet Olympia

Now, as far as if he meant to say that or not, it seems a little too close to home to be an accident... And of course on one side you have an extreme like Manet but on the other hand, Catherine Murphy's work, although equally as loud is sometimes unclear and left more to the imagination of the viewer to interpret. How clear her message is, and what it is exactly is up to the viewer to decide for the most part. Her work talks to the history of painting but this is where I drifted off a bit.

Catherine Murphy View From the Backyard; Lexington

What I turned to at this point in my train of thought is how this conversation happens in Photography. Does photography have the same ability? Does the ease of capturing and reproducing an image in this technological age dampen that voice if it's there at all? Ultimately these questions answered themselves in that the impact of the work is based entirely on the creator's intent, and the context of the work.... So then I thought, where does that leave my work? Which leads me to my list of things to work on in the studio,

1. Work on that voice, i.e. how to make my work louder.
(although I've been printing smaller, I want to experiment with large color darkroom prints)
2. I've been wanting to start doing Illustrations, haven't done a serious drawing in a long time and I miss it. This one is sort of off topic, I've just been itching to draw.
3. I'm keeping the list short this week because part 1 will be hard enough. so this part is dedicated to revisiting part 1 until I get someplace with it.

I think ultimately, as I touched on in my previous journal entry, that voice is there in my work.. I think it's that weird obscure thing that during my crit everyone was saying connected my series. But after seeing Catherine Murphy's work and hearing her speak about it, I have a driving desire to get really fuckin' loud.
As far as work I've produced this past week while focusing on some ideas touched on in my previous journal post.....

Untitled (triplet)

Sarah

Journal Entry

So, today I had a crit in photo and it sort of put these past few weeks of school in perspective. Over the summer I spent the majority of my creative energy on music, putting photography (and  any other visual art form) slightly to the side. This made coming back to school and making art a process of getting the wheels moving smoothly again and I think I’m starting to groove. Annie keeps pushing our “experimentation” with the medium and the images I showed, I think, exemplified that rather well. I’ve explored other photographic process outside simply photographing (photograms, photomanipulations, inverted lens photos, etc etc) and I think what it’s allowed me to do is get directly to what is in my head. I’m looking for rhythm, something that I tried to closely examine and explore with music this summer....

The images have time (one is a long exposure) and repetition of form and whatever else you might want to take from them. But what I find important about them is that these are vague hints at what is going on in my head and how I’ve presented that to the viewer. In other words, during the crit everyone was saying how there is this very muted tie between the images that they can’t place a finger on and when it gets down to it I think that tie, outside of simply being physical, is me. Yeah I TOOK the photo’s but the overall idea behind the photos are thoughts and themes that I regularly think about and find myself returning to unconsciously, and I’ve tried to present that unfiltered.

Moving on, (although Annie hasn't gone into great detail on the specifics) our project is to expand upon this work and the experimentation involved. Themes I worked with before will be revisited and ideas addressed in my class Social Evolution will be explored. Addressed in class and in the course book, Evolution and Human Behavior by John Cartwright, natural selection and more specifically, reproductive success, and their extremely powerful impact on everything we know and do is something I've been giving a lot of thought to and will attempt to address as my work progresses.

Moving on I want to:

1. Explore the themes that continue to interest me in a similar way to what I've been doing with the work above.

2. Find new process of image creating (color photograms, darkroom manipulation, who knows what else)

(I have drawing in my sketch book of possible ideas)

3. Read more into the topics addressed in my social evolution class that interest me and inspire my work.

Work thats been inspiring me lately is from all over the place....

http://salavon.com/work/

This guys work is AMAZING, really bending what you expect out of a photograph. I'd post pictures here but I can't seem to grab them from his site so a link will have to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNIlQSSOv0Q

This is a song by one of my favorite bands. They really inspire the way I think about music and making art in general. They're not afraid to bend and break the rules

"Contact" by Michael Flomen

Michael Flomen does amazing work with photograms, really changes what you might think about the ability of the medium.