Thursday, May 13, 2010

Recipe Card New

The definition of tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. The presence of tradition in families is beautiful when noticed and in my family that is through cooking. Looking at the types of recipe cards that were in style at that time and how handwriting changes over generations. I am representing this through my Grandmother and Mother’s recipe cards along with my own blank card. Though the Nugget recipe stays intact changes do occur overtime and with each person. The blank card is symbolizing my lack of tradition when it comes to cooking and that I haven’t perfected my own way of making the Nuggets at this point in my life.


The class enjoyed this idea and that I was pursuing the idea of tradition and change within the recipe cards. A suggestion for the gallery was to set the recipe cards on a pedestal or have a recipe card holder hold of the recipes up on the pedestal.

Cookbook tradition

Continuing the idea of tradition I brought in 4 cookbooks. All included a Bow Tie salad that is served at all of our family potlucks. This is one recipe that remains the same in all of the cookbooks. I have a books from the 30's, 50's, 80's, and 00's and the recipe is exactly the same in all of the books which I found very interesting. Tradition finds a way into my work in almost every class even when its not my first idea to work with.

The class also enjoy this idea when we critiqued it this week. They said that I could display the books on a self in the gallery along with the recipe cards.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Emulation Project


ARTIST STATEMENT

Copyright 2007 by Rebecca Crowell
http://www.rebeccacrowell.com


The sources of my ideas are varied and interwoven, with the colors and textures of nature playing a large role. Memories, impressions and personal symbols all figure in as well, as do elements of pure abstraction. There is interplay in my work between appreciation of the natural world and the desire to organize and manipulate the environment.

I use a variety of techniques for making marks and laying down areas of color, including some I learned many years ago in printmaking. I build up many layers of paint, and also scrape, gouge, and dissolve parts of the layers so that underlying
bits emerge. The result is a surface that is complex in texture and nuances of color. Thus there is a correlation between the organic look and feel of my work with the process of making it.

Each painting is an open-ended exploration, undertaken with a blend of spontaneity and careful analysis. It is my hope that in the end, my work has a certain clarity and integrity that invotes contemplation.

For my emulation project I chose Rebecca Crowell and her Column series. Above is her artist statement so the class can understand more of her concepts behind the work she creates. I wanted to continue the idea of landscape and the layers of the earth. I wanted to use her complex textures in the piece and work with layering as she does. Her work influences my layering process with my drawings and my paintings. I enjoy the way she simplifies the shapes and focuses more on the texture and layers of the piece.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Influence Paper

Presence is the overall theme of my work. I do not believe you need to show the figure to represent the idea of presence. I focus on the small moments people tend to look over that could take place in a single second, which can be quite beautiful when noticed in fabric and still life’s. I enjoy not looking over the small moments but taking the time to see and appreciate them while capturing them on my panels for my senior show. The realistic panels are represented in a black and white color scheme to freeze the moment in time such as photographs do. Next to those captured moments, I place another panel abstracting from the realistic panel which includes capturing the texture and color. The abstracted panel incorporates local color and texture. Using panel helps me manipulate the surface into the texture I desire for the specific moment. I enjoy simplifying those moments into their simplest form. I have three major artists that influence my work and they are Jos Van Riswick, Arleta Pech, and Rebecca Crowell.

Jos Van Riswick has a style that I wish I had at this moment, but I need more practice to come close to his photorealistic style. I want to include the artist statements of the three artists that are influencing my series at the moment.

“In my free work I predominantly paint still life paintings. For a still life painting I use objects that appeal to me because of their form, color, and surfaces structure.

I prefer to paint objects at their real size or somewhat bigger than their real size. Elements that fascinate me in a painting are rhythm, color, the light and structure of the paint-skin.

The compositions of my still lives usually arise as I’m arranging objects on a table, but often an image will come to me in advance. Usually it is not my intention to use objects in a symbolic way, but symbolic references sometimes do arise unintentionally.” (Riswick 1) http://www.josvanriswick.com/schaaltjemeteieren.jpg_still_life-nav.html

After reading his artist statement multiple times I find myself finding many similarities between his work and myself. I also chose objects that I enjoy their form, color, and texture. Also Riswick does not intentionally use objects that are symbolic, I chose my objects carefully so if they do have a symbolic meaning I am aware of it and prepare myself to defend my choices. My objects tend to be painted to their actual size. Another still life artist that influences me is Arleta Pech.

Arleta Pech’s artist statement. “My goal is to engage the viewer on three levels: artistically, emotionally, and intellectually. These collections, specifically, ask that the viewer “suspend reality”. For example, the depiction of a single drop of water as it falls through space awakens the imagination and asks a question. How was this moment in time captured?

I am aware that falling water pushes at the verbal construct of the term “still life”. Yet, I hope to capture one moment of magic, painted with an eye toward imparting a sense of wonder.

Technically, it seems as if the subject were lit from behind the canvas. This is a demonstration of a technique borrowed from the Old Masters… the use of many thin dilutions of oil paint to create a “lit from within” quality. It matters not whether the subject is light or dark; these layers create their own prism, gently breaking light breams into rainbows of color.” (Pech 1)

http://www.arletapech.com/Counterweight.htm

I look at Pech’s work more for the realistic flowers than the actual still life set up. In her artist statement she mentions time being captured and that it what my theme incorporates along with showing presence in the still life and abstraction. I enjoy how she explains her techniques and the backlighting she creates. The lighting in her work reminds me of Rebecca Crowell’s work, another influence of mine.

Rebecca Crowell’s artist statement. “ The sources of my ideas are varied and interwoven, with the colors and textures of nature playing a large role. Memories, impressions, and personal symbols all figure in as well, as do elements of pure abstraction. There is interplay in my work between appreciation of the natural world and the desire to organize and manipulate the environment.

I use a variety of techniques for making marks and laying down areas of color, including some I learned many years ago in printmaking. I build up many layers of paint, and also scrape, gouge, and dissolve parts of the layers so that underlying bits emerge. The result is a surface that is complex in texture and nuances of color. Thus there is a correlation between the organic look and feel of my work with the process of making it.

Each painting is an open-ended exploration, undertaken with a blend of spontaneity and carful analysis. It is my hope that in the end, my work has a certain clarity and integrity that invokes contemplation.” (Crowell 1)

http://www.rebeccacrowell.com/multipleslatecliffzoom.jpg

Crowell is someone I look towards when working with layering and color combinations. Her work can be separated and rearranged depending on the nature area she is trying to create. The way she simplifies all the colors of nature into layers is something I try and achieve in my abstracted paintings. Crowell’s work with nature moves into another influence of mine, which is flowers and nature.

I find myself looking outside for inspiration, mostly at flowers. Though my work does not always deal with nature I find that the presence in nature relates to my still lives and how I recreate the moments of presence. Walking through the woods and hearing the sounds of nature and seeing the birds and animals literally shows the presence that I am recreating in my still life’s. When I go out in nature I do not directly look for animals and birds but the little moments where a rock has been kicked and the ground is scuffed up and the way branches are snapped but still hanging from the limbs. Another example would be the flowers that get smashed when someone runs though.

I have incorporated flowers into my paper paintings this semester. Flowers have always intrigued me for their beautiful texture and the colors you can find within each petal. I portray the smoothness and softness of the petals in my paintings along with the simple and drastic color changes that can happen in the petals. Instead of completely abstracting the flowers or portraying them very realistically I am experimenting with the organic shapes of the petals overlapping and how the relationship with one another can be subtle and sharp at the same time.

As I said earlier still lives are something I look closely at. In drawing one and two, still lives are a large part of the class and were my favorite especially when fabric was incorporated. The way the fabric created waves and ripples show the human touch within it and caught my attention. Going into painting two, I began looking at Dutch still lives and still found myself finding that human touch within them even if the still life was perfectly set up. I enjoy how Riswick puts his own spin on the Dutch still lives that he is inspired by. After that I began setting up my own still lives and creating more of a presence. This led me to part of my senior show theme.

Presence has also entered my work in different ways from still life’s to portraiture. In my portraits, I enjoy bringing the personality of the figure out for the audience to see. In my fabric, I enjoy showing the human touch of moving the fabric creating the wrinkles. In my still life’s, I show the figure with the placements of the objects and the interaction between them. Finding presence in a glimpse of a moment is one of the things I find myself doing everyday and enjoying. I noticed that my family home has the most experiences of presence that I notice quicker than at other places.

Family has influenced my work since I was young and making drawings of my family in front of our house. My portraiture directly influences my family and their characteristics. I have a series of my mom, dad, and brother and painted them in the colors that portrayed their personalities the most accurately. Then I switched to painting my sister and my flaws. After that I switched to a more abstracted theme still dealing with color representation and specific family characteristics. My family has gone through some tough situations in the past seven years, but it has made us stronger and realizes that we will always need each other and that we can depend on one another no matter what. My mom is the only other one in my family that expresses her artistic side like myself and encourages me to travel and view many types of artwork.

Travel was never one of the things I wanted to do until I experienced three trips to help victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita down in Mississippi and Texas. While I was down helping, I would notice the different artwork in the family’s homes and see what that family was interested in. In a separate trip to Hungary, I was privileged to attend a museum that was featuring a Van Gogh and Rembrandt exhibit. Even though my work does not directly portray his style I enjoyed seeing the work face to face instead of online and in a book. Seeing his use of brushstrokes did incorporate into my abstracted family series. His bouquets really attracted me and connected to my love of flowers.

An inside force that influences my work is my future occupation. After graduation in the spring I plan on finding employment in the florist industry and using my knowledge of color harmonies to contribute to peoples special occasions. My current flower paintings are on paper and let me create the soft petals and represent the local color found within the petals and center. While I paint, I find myself daydreaming about my future and what I want to accomplish in my life. I want to work under someone for a few years to understand the basics and techniques, then slowly move up in the company and eventually buy into the company or start my own shop and create my own designs.

Works Cited

"Jos Van Riswick." Jos Van Riswick. Web. 20 Mar. 2010. .

Pech, Arleta. "Arleta Pech." Arleta Pech. 1998. Web. 20 Mar. 2010. .

"Rebecca Crowell." Rebecca Crowell. Web. 20 Mar. 2010. .

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

ESFJ- yep that's me


ESFJ- "The Caregiver"

Characteristics that are right on are: they want to like people, and have a special skill at bringing out the best in others, strong desire to be liked and for everything to be pleasant makes them highly supportive of others, hurt by indifference and don't understand unkindness, often change their own manner to be more pleasing to whoever they're with at the moment, and not likely to enjoy having to do things which involve abstract, theoretical concepts, or impersonal analysis.

My strengths influence my drawings and paintings when it comes to pleasing others. I don't go into areas of sexuality in my work or other controversial topics. My work has an idea of tradition behind it and that also connects into my personality type being seen as the caregiver and in my opinion the "mom" of the family. A weakness for my personality type is that I'm hesitant on exploring controversial topics and putting them into my work.

In a group setting, I do find myself allowing others to speak before me and hear what they have to say and then add to it, but that has its downfall by having others say what you were thinking. I do see myself as being extroverted, but in critiques I can see myself being introverted. Small groups critiques I find that everyone can speak comfortably even if they are introverted.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Recipe Card


Domestic/Text/Gouache

Those were my words for this assignment. My mind immediately went towards cooking and domestic chores around the house. This lead to my mom and grandma's household duties such as cooking. Tradition is a huge part of my family, but not when it comes to the kitchen. Even though my grandma and mom are related their cooking is not. Each has their own spin on the recipe and gives pointers to me. My cooking hasn't reached a level where I can put my own twist on the dish. I created my recipe card for this assignment. At this point it is blank, because of my lack of cooking skill. If I decided to push this assignment farther for the gallery showing at the end of the semester, I would display a used recipe card from my grandma and mom and then myself. Leaving mine blank.

The critique was quiet at first, but then a few students began commenting. They were intrigued by the tradition aspect of the piece and would like to see it pushed farther. The idea of the same fruit on each recipe card and as the card changes to the next generation the fruit becomes riper. Not having fruit on the recipe card would also function for the piece and they would enjoy it more if it was real recipe cards and not on paper.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Ordinary.Extraordinary





For my ordinary drawing I chose fabric from my living room and dining room. I also chose objects that are in each room and reversed which picture they should be in. I started off abstracting then my true self came through and I started creating a very realistic drawing. I wanted to copy the textures of the chair and the curtains into my drawing. The curtains were more exact than the chair material. I included christmas lights and a diffuser into the drawings. Fabric has also interested me with its ability to show movement and keep the eye moving even when its static in a picture or in real life.

The class could recognize the objects which I wanted, but they also could find different objects inside of the chair piece. One student found a landscape with a moon and they did not like the white corner in the curtain picture. Another student brought up a point about using different fabrics in different rooms. He also suggested bed sheets on a daily bases and definitely seeing the presence in them. My pieces tend to come back to my senior show painting them of presence in pictures without actually seeing the figure. Being able to see the beauty in small glimpses of time and being able to capture them with a picture or another medium is very comforting to myself.