ah, the end of another semester...

I'm so glad its coming to a close, and I'm pleased with everything I've done this semester. I feel like I've accomplished so much in the three different mediums I've invested myself in: photography, drawing, and digital media. For me, they all influence each other, benefitting my creative endeavors, and I'll certainly continue to practice all three together. I've always taken photos to make drawings from, but I've learned how to arrange still lives and create a single image with the ability to stand on its own. In making a video, however, I feel as if I'm making a moving drawing.

For this last digital critique, I showed my in-progress video, for which the critique was extremely helpful. It's been shortened and has become more focused. Although it doesn't have the 'dreamy' quality I was hoping for, I love the repetitious movements and the subtle (?) juxtapositions between the split screen. With elements like eggshells, keys, knives, water, my hands, and my mouth, the video sits on the verge of poetry and randomness. It's been especially fun learning Final Cut, as there are way more editing possibilities than iMovie. And now that I've gotten my feet wet, I'll definitely be acquiring the program and making more videos with it. Also, I want to focus more on some sound pieces. For me, sounds alone can evoke thoughts and feelings, and I think I can draw on that. (Haha, pun intented ;)

In Connie's class we had to set up a 'virtual exhibition,' such as the one we did for Leslie's class last semester. There was an option on how we could present it, by either a slideshow, website, or to actually build a small-scale model of a gallery. I, of course, chose to make another weebly site. Weebly is such an awesome, free, and simple online venue for these curatorial experiments. Please take a look!

virtual exhibitions ---> spring 10: the cathARTic fall 10: wet dreams

Next semester will be a serious change of pace, not nearly as intense, which will allow for more experiments and time for research. I'll be a teacher's assistant for drawing 1, I'll be taking the AHC Topics: Representation and Embodiment, and the Graduate Studio Seminar: Berlin.

I'm absolutely thrilled to be going back to Berlin!! Its been five years!! And its been two semesters already that I haven't taken an art history course, so I'm also excited about that (plus its Scott's class and he's an amazing professor!) I had been pretty indecisive about teaching or not, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm in Grad school right now, and I'd better not close any doors on myself. I should take advantage of all the opportunities I can get!

So now its time to relax for the holidays, but still try to make some money, finish reading some books, and work through some more ideas.

Thank you to Connie, Leslie, and Libby for an amazing semester!! I've enjoyed the inspiration and the push to make (for me) VERY exciting work!

presentations

I think it is such a fun learning experience whenever we do tech demos and teach each other something we have learned on our own. From Jennings I learned how to mask out a window(s) in Photoshop through which one or multiple videos can play after editing them in Final Cut. Ivan showed us how to apply the effect in Final Cut of desaturating everything in a video except for one or two specific colors, and Sasha introduced us to the Soundbooth program from the Adobe CS5 suite. I presented all that I had been learning about downloading bit torrents, and Ivan even suggested another site for me to look into. The main sites from my tech demo were The Pirate Bay, Utorrent, and (suggested by Ivan) Vuze.

My other presentation was about a theme in digital art not presented in chapter three of the book Digital Art by Christiane Paul. I discovered cyberformance, which is a kind of net art where a group of people gather at an online forum at a specific time to 'act out' a sort of theater script together. Different programs are employed, such as some with avatars and text-to-speech capabilities. An older example from the 90's was the Hamnet Players, started by Stuart Harris, where they used Internet Relay Chat to act out Shakespeare's play Hamlet, followed later by other plays. Other more recent and current cyberformance sites include Avatar Body Collision, Parkbench, and Upstage, which I encourage everyone to check out. I plan on participating myself, so I'll definitely post how it goes!

In other news, I was so happy to discover Maya Deren: Experimental Films is on Netflix! I've been watching it short film at a time and getting super inspired. I love that they're in black and white and how she's the main character in the surreal environments and situations she creates. I've got so much work to do over this weekend, so... I better get back to downloading torrents and getting my new video done!! And I still need to work out the sound too... I'll be using the sound editing freeware Audacity that I will be downloading right now!!

yellow!

No, not really. It's all black. I have gallery E for this week, and I somehow got it all put together successfully. My lovely helpful mother assisted me in covering the walls with black photo backdrop paper (painting the walls and then returning them to white would've been WAY too time consuming), then i built and screwed into the walls black shelves for each of the 4'x4' black on black drawings, painted the gray floor black, and DREW the fifth and sixth drawings for the instal. WHEW!! I had to spend two nights at school, during which I realized from my studio window is the BEST sunrise view ever!!

I coincidentally had my drawing critique scheduled for the Thursday I would be in the gallery, so I took full advantage of the opportunity and scheduled my advancement for the same day. It was all a very nerve wracking experience! Somehow, though, I made it through and after a GREAT critique by Scott (Professor of Art History), Connie (Professor of Painting and Drawing), and Dennis (Professor of Drawing and Printmaking,) I passed my advancement!

The room is an experience to enter. Everything is black, and I've had so many amazing different reactions to it. Someone said it felt like they just had the air sucked out of them (although that might be simply be because the small room consistently smells like fresh paint.) Someone else said it felt very theatrical, but overall, the reactions are very positive. The problem of lighting still needs to be solved... The overhead fluorescent lights are cold and sterile, although they give the indirect light that I prefer. The clamp lights with the flood and spot bulbs are nice and warm, but pointed directly at the drawings, they create bad hot spots. So my solution was to point four of them on the floor in between the six drawings, but that created the problem of people having to look through these overhead bright lights and needing a visor. What I really need to do is get not-so-strong lighting-- more ambient-- so I can point them more toward the drawings, but not be overpowering. That takes money and experimentation. Connie suggested I find a lighting professional for advice.

So, to sum up the rest of the semester (now that the hardest part is over,) I'm excited about working on more photos and my new video, and I need to prepare for a tech demo, a presentation, and a virtual exhibition. I also need to rework some of those drawings!

The worst part though, is that I'm out of money again, so I have to go work for Thanksgiving. :( Hopefully I won't need to too long after that... Most likely I will, though, so I can make it through Christmas Break. Boo to that! But this weekend I'll definitely have some fun shooting more video!!

flectures

The past three lectures I've been to have been really diverse and exhilerating. I love visiting artists!! I saw Mark Hosler talk about Negativland's projects, which is inspiring in terms of taking whats already there and mix/mashing it up and spitting it out with new meaning. But I've always felt that thats inherent with all media being forced down the American throat. It's so easy to see their underlying messages, their 'ulterior motives.'

The next was Michael Brohman who's currently showing in the UTSA Satellite Space. I absolutely enjoyed his lecture because he explained the backgrounds of each piece he showed us. And I love his work because it is extremely personal to him and he uses specifically non-traditional media, including cast iron (as opposed to bronze,) feces, roadkill, and human bones to create his sculptures. His concept is always involving a struggle between two forces (one is himself,) and using the tension it creates, he makes work that evokes your own personal struggles, (to which I can definitely relate.)

The next lecture was brought to me by Leslie, my digital tools professor, when she had the class go down to the University of the Incarnate Word to see Brandon Wiley. Super cool. He was lecturing about the internet. Aspects of the internet I didn't even know existed. His goal is to fix the internet I didn't even know was broken! Apparently, there's two versions, different web languages, AND too many retarded filtering, blocking, scanning, and blacklisting entities. His explanation of what's really going on online was eye opening for sure. My favorite part about the presentation was the fact that he's got all this wild and crazy information on what's happening all the time, but he didn't need flashy images or videos to explain it. He used a regular old bulleted outline from a regular old word processing application: text only. His personality, humor, and passion about the pertinent subject commanded everyone's full attention. I learned a lot and have an interest to learn even more about the internet, its flaws, muzzles, and potential.

swapneshwari

So I'm working on all kinds of things at the same time right now. More photographs, for both drawings and prints, shooting video, looking at lots of other artists, reading books about contemporary art, dreams, and memory, and getting ready for my first gallery E adventure.

I need to grow more arms... but a tripod and a boyfriend/assistant come in handy :)

For my next video idea, I'm grabbing all kinds of footage, from me painting objects black, to outside environments, to strange actions. I'm planning on using Final Cut to make the video as surreal as (if not more than) my current drawings. I want to implement a split screen, so it works like a diptych, with the figures and objects sometimes interacting with each other. Playing with different scales of the environment versus the figure/objects is important. I'm having so much fun with all three classes, because they each spark different ideas and ways of handling all the imagery I'm collecting. Of course in video, I have the choice of working with moving images as well as still ones. In drawing, I have the freedom to manipulate all kinds of images together, and in photography, I'm setting up specific shots that are intended to carry their own weight. Sometimes, though, the lines between all the mediums get blurry and images cross over. I'm not thinking thats a bad thing at all... more like I'm building up my language and experimenting with which are the best sentence structures for it.

I get into Tracey Emin's art a great deal, and I even sometimes compare my work to hers in that its very personal, but way more subtle by contrast. My photo teacher, Libby told me that my work is eons away from Emin's, but then I showed my videos from last semester's digital tools class to her in the company of my photography class. They were blown away from the intensity of the videos. They were actually pretty intense to me too, as one of them is very confessional and I hadn't seen them in so long... Libby was saying that my work now could be pushed that far, although I've been embracing a subtlety. So I feel like I want to push the subtlety as far as I can. Through the surreal quality, and intermingling of particular objects, of course. In my photo critique, I put forth lots of images; even the ones I intended to just be for drawing references. I was extremely relieved that the class thinks I'm going in the right direction with the photos, and that they agreed that my photography skills hold up on their own. :)

Now onto LOTS TO DO!! Gotta get way more video footage, start a drawing, finish two, revamp my artist statement, build shelves for my drawings, and put together my advancement 'show.' (YIPE!!)

running and running....

I feel like I'm constantly running to catch up in all my classes, going from one to the other reprioritizing deadlines. In the midst of all that, of course, is life, (and a week long application for a scholarship for the Berlin class.) In terms of my under-construction website, I am concerned about its navigability, simplicity, and professional appeal. I will continue working on it throughout the semester and see if I can get more opinions on it as well. I was thinking I wanted to make a pricelist page for selling potential, but I haven't quite decided yet. Also I intend to add my bio, links to my favorite artists websites, and an updated cv/resume. As for the rest of digital class, I hope to put together a new video, maybe to be projected onto a drawing of mine. Its also a goal of mine to try using Final Cut this time, instead of imovie.

The rest of the semester is about to get crazier as a whole, however, because I reserved (for the first time) Gallery E for myself in mid November. I'll have my drawing critique in there, and I'm scheduling my advancement for that time as well. Maybe my other two classes can come critique it too. I have some ideas for what I'm going to do (hopefully that video idea will come together by then,) but a LOT of things I still need to work out.

In photo class, Libby had wanted me to learn to take better photos to refer to for my drawings, but I have definitely divided all my photos into two groups: for drawings, and specifically for photo. The ones I'm drawing from I leave objects in their original state, and the ones for photo, I'm painting the objects black before shooting them in a dark environment. A MAJOR issue I was having is now over, thanks to my mom. She's staying in town and graciously let me confiscate her canon digital camera for the rest of the semester! I was having to borrow one from school, and the rotation of the reservations for them is so inconsistent. Whew! Enough of that!! Now I can just shoot away!

My drawings have gotten stranger still in imagery, but my problems to solve are without a doubt lighting, how to display them, and surface quality. Not to mention the fact that they need finishing as well. The ones of late are all 4' by 4' but I attempted a smaller one, an 8.5" by 8.5" to see if the smaller scale could make them more intimate. It may work, but there has to be more than one to be able to compete with the larger ones.

For having three studio classes, I've been overwhelmed with how much writing I've had to keep up with. Proposals for each class's work, the blogs, the comments, emails, artist statements, an article about inspiration (which has been tough for me, being that I'm working so intuitively,) and a virtual exhibition with a curatorial statement. Oh yeah, plus the scholarship application short answers and essay. Its been amazing. I love writing, so I'm not upset about it all, just slightly surprised, and like I said, a bit overwhelmed!

Well, I better get back to running to keep on keeping on! I really do appreciate everyone's patience with me, I know I'm not the only one of us thats busy... I look forward to seeing everyone in class on Wednesday!!

p.s. sometime in the near future, I'm going to set up a questionnaire on the class blog for everyone, I hope you'll participate!!

for ivan

Myra, Marcus Harvey, 1995
Acrylic on canvas, 156"x126"

Basically, its a HUGE portrait of Myra Hindley (more specifically her arrest photo), who is famous for assisting Ian Brady in a series of child molestation/murders. Her image is composed of tiny black, white, and grey handprints (Harvey took a mould of a 4 year old's hand, and used the plaster prosthetic though,) which enraged plenty of people, before, after, and when it showed at Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1997.