Journal Entry

So this is sort of preliminary post, I have no new work to post at the moment but I'll be updating with work by the end of the week. I've been thinking about my idea posted in the journal entry below and have decided it's a little too specific, considering I have been at a total loss at how to expand the aesthetic of the images and have generally felt very stagnated in my idea I've decided I need to expand a bit and refocus on a broader subject with the earlier idea still a major focus.

So due to this lack of image making (although not entirely due to creative block considering the massive amount of time I have to dedicate to the 6 classes I'm taking this semester) I've spent a lot of time simply thinking and writing about my idea. As well as going back to old work I've done and trying to find a broader topic of interest I've concluded that to strengthen the concept I want to strengthen the ties of the work to each person by making the images more universal and relatable. Some old work that I think can be related to this topic:

Untitled

This piece was originally a reaction to some work an artist brought in to the gallery I used to work at. His work is irrelevant to this conversation but I felt that he was missing the point with his own idea so I decided to take his idea and run with it. Looking back, (especially after learning about the specifics of symmetry in nature in my Social Evolution class) it relates perfectly to the body of work I'm attempting to manifest and I think was sort of a wake up call to my creative processes. I plan on expanding the content of the imagery to every aspect of culture that my earlier idea claimed to influence while still addressing the original content itself. I've also considered appropriating imagery in some way but I'm not sure how that will go, more than anything I just want to encourage myself to experiment with aesthetics and imagery to find someplace to end up at. I'm still working on titles and I find myself coming to the conclusion that I need to name things at every end of my thought processes (when related to my creative endeavors of course).

So basically I've had a bit of creative block due to my overwhelming work load from taking 6 classes coupled with the specificity I was looking for in a rather vague and broad idea so I'm expanding the scope of the idea to encourage my creative output. I'll be posting new work here as I produce it in the coming days.

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.

Interview with Will Comer

THESIS INTERVIEW

JACOB MANDEL (J)

WILL COMER (W)

W) So Iʼll start with my influences. I like Dali a lot to start off with, I used to really be into

surrealism... I still am, but I donʼt see myself doing that as much as I used to. Iʼm very

much into creating narratives, Iʼm interested in character studies, and I always make

humor in my work. Like this one here is me making fun of “guido” culture and sort of

melding animalistic qualities with humans. So two bro-y guys are toasting... So I really

like to do funny things, and Iʼm really interested in portraying society and culture.... With

people, for instance this is a painting I did, itʼs an homage to byzantine icon painting. I

purposefully wanted it to be bright and colorful... I was thinking along the lines of Jesus

if underwater creatures worshipped Jesus Christ. So if there were to be an underwater

monument to Jesus Christ, I was trying to make “Crab Jesus”... He has a crab claw and

thats coral reef in the background...

J) Thatʼs fucking awesome, what made you choose to be more abstracted? The coral

reef could of been very detailed but what made you choose to be more abstract about

it?

W) Well actually the original painting started off with the background and I painted over

that. Originally it was a couch which I painted in weird colors and thought “I kinda like

that, itʼs like an underwater painting” So I started off and added to it a lot and just liked

the way it looks.... More abstract, more vague, more for the imagination... I do like photo

realism but there is something about a mix of abstraction and realism that I get into.

This one is more of a political type thing. I was looking at Goya a lot at the time. Iʼm also

a political science major so I used to care about politics and money...

J) Used to care?

W) Yeah, Now I donʼt really think itʼs important anymore.

J) What changed your mind? If youʼre a political science major than you must still have

some involvement in it unless your dropping it...

W) Iʼm not dropping it I personally think that contemporary politics are just shit. I donʼt

really care to follow it... Itʼs very frustrating to me to read the news and everything... Iʼd

much rather learn about people and emotions and why people do certain things. Iʼm

much more interested in the philosophical aspect of humanity as opposed to pointless

politics that never seem to change and keep repeating themselves

J) Ever get into Zeitgeist?

W) Not so much but I might

J) You should check it out, theyʼre against the monetary system and things like that, itʼs

interesting...

W) Well thats what this is about, the people are supposed to be corrupted by big

business... That sort of things... Sort of selling your soul....

J) Did you make this piece before or after you decided you didnʼt like poli-sci anymore?

W) *Laughs*, before that.

J) So this is kind of a transition into moving away form that?

W) Yeah definitely moving away from that... But the problem is you canʼt really remove

politics from anything.

J) Yeah, especially money. You canʼt really remove that from anything.

W) Yeah, right, exactly. So with my new work Iʼm planning on doing an animation,

something critiquing society that involves a lot of humor.... I donʼt want to give too much

information about it because itʼs for thesis and itʼs still in the works... Iʼll just leave it at

that, that Iʼm going more in the direction of digital media.

J) Definitely check out Zeitgeist, some of their stuff is kinda of all over the place but...

W) Wait is this, an Art movement?

J) No itʼs a political movement, but they do a lot about the Federal Reserve and money.

A lot of it is sort of opinionated and one-sided but they have a lot of really interesting

views and it seems like it would be right up your alley.

W) Hmm, okay. Interesting.

J) Could you point out particular things that drew you to political science in the first

place that maybe is drawing you away now?

W) Well I was mostly interested in the theory aspect originally, and thatʼs one of the

reasons I decided to do paintings... Usually it would take me a week to decided what I

wanted to paint... You know I would actually think about a theory or an idea or

something with meaning to me, I wouldnʼt just paint something because it looked pretty.

So I wanted to actually have something important. Thatʼs one of the reasons I donʼt like

painting here, because you only have like 2 weeks to do a painting so Iʼd never finish it

on time, itʼs tough.

J) Alright, so is that all the painting stuff you have?

W) Yeah, I have some stuff on illustrator, this is kind of the look Iʼm trying for with the

animation. Kind of a sega-genesis type of background. All of these are going to be

moving in different directions... Switching and moving...

J) What influenced that shift? Not just away from painting but that aesthetic you have

going on there is drastically different than your other work.

W) I never really like doing the same thing twice I love moving forward. I had a

realization that I try to do different things all the time... Itʼs boring to be repetitive. I hate

how teachers encourage you to develop a style, Iʼm firmly against that. I think you

should develop a style and then change it, and then keep on getting new styles. I see

no reason why we should stick with the same thing... Look at Miles Davis, heʼs adapted

so much musically throughout time, same thing with Pablo Picasso, he did so many

styles of artwork.

J) How does your approach to painting differ from your approach to your digital stuff?

You said you might spend a week thinking about a concept for your painting, so what

about the digital works?

W) Right, well the digital stuff I spend the most time actually thinking about a narrative

with characters and ideas... I want my thesis to have a narrative and a message, to

have a philosophy of itʼs own. Iʼm really influenced by Monty Python and thatʼs the type

of stuff I like to do. I think it really works more with my knack for writing and I prefer that

sort of thing to painting... I think itʼs very hard to convey a message through painting.

J) Well most of your work is political satire....

W) Yeah most of it is political satire... This is more social but you cant really separate

the two.

J) Yeah, but what sort of themes are you aiming for with your animations? Aesthetically

and conceptually?

W) I just want it to be funny and to play with ideas of pop culture. Iʼm specifically being

vague because thereʼs a lot of room to change.

J) Are you still going to continue with your Illustration work?

W) Yeah Iʼm planning on doing graphic design to support myself. Itʼs fun and not too

difficult...

J) So you mentioned some influences before, what draws you to surrealism? Because a

lot of your work, even your digital stuff sounds surrealistic

W) It has a surreal aspect. I like the possibilities, theyʼre really endless. You can direct

them to things that are literal, you can direct them to things that are not literal. You can

be political or try as hard as you can to not be political. I also really like the concept of

being random, I think that can really work to your benefit as well.

J) With your paintings, do you prefer oil, or acrylic, or something else?

W) I actually only use oil, I havenʼt used acrylic since Freshman year. I really like adding

and taking away and that continual back and forth. With the background for instance,

certain parts have tons of layers, I really like the concept of painting over things. My

favorite part of this painting is this hand. It has all this interesting texture and color.

J) When youʼre choosing your color palette, what do you do to make those decisions?

W) Well I was trying to make these people look very robotic. I used some pinks and

blues and a lot of gray and then contrasted that with the central figure which is bright

and vibrant. I guess thatʼs to show attraction...

J) Yeah, to go back to that “Sea Jesus”, I thought it was interesting that you took a

painting of something as boring as a couch and you put this very highly regarded figure

on top of it.... Just that in itself is a very interesting concept to think about.

W) Oh yeah also when I paint I tend to use more line... I consider myself more of an

illustrator. If you look closely I use more lines of color. I donʼt really make blocks of color

like they teach you in Abstract Art. Mason Gross really pushes that...

J) Yeah thatʼs what weʼre known for, like capital “A” abstract.

W) Yeah I mean this is pretty abstract... Rembrandt is pretty abstract in his own way.

J) I wouldnʼt call it Abstract, Iʼd say itʼs abstracted, with a lower case “a”.

W) There you go! Thereʼs a difference between Abstract and abstracted.

J) Do you think you specifically chose to paint over that painting conceptually? Like is

there something there you can really read into or do you just like it?

W) Well originally there was a different figure here but I really didnʼt like it so I thought

“Let me just paint over this, itʼs pretty nice and central. Iʼll make it a wacky Jesus” and

then the narrative developed as I painted it.... As opposed to this one which had a

predetermined concept.

J) Thatʼs interesting that you developed this during the painting as opposed to planning

it ahead like you said earlier. Do you think that gets across better than something you

would plan out preemptively?

W) I have no idea, thatʼs a really good question. Iʼve talked to lots of people about them

and some like this one better, some like that one, I think it depends on the person.

J) Well I mean, which one do you like better?

W) Oh well it doesnʼt really matter what I think, Iʼm just the artist.

*both laugh*