Blog #27...FULL artist statement

I figured that since I have to hand this in to my Senior Seminar class...I may as well share my full artist statement with you too!

Living in a culture where technology has become a staple in many aspects of life, it is no surprise that the art of photography has driven away from film and is steering toward digital imaging. It is a wonder the things we can do with the resources offered to us today. Being an artist influenced by all aspects of photography, I believe it is important to not only respect and practice the art of film, but to also appreciate the advances of our times by testing the waters in the digital world.

Through the art of photography, I enjoy creating images that deal with my own personal style of abstraction, thinking of art as being the projection of the thoughts in my mind. I find the process within the creation of an image to be the most important characteristic of the outcome of the work. That being said, I find my art to be most successful when I begin with an idea, start shooting, and then follow my instincts in order to determine where to go next.

This particular process adheres to my most current work, where the importance of the art lies in finding order within a seemingly disordered image. By using one single photograph, four images can be created through ordered orientations, resulting in a redefinition of the subject matter. From this, intricate patterns arise and aesthetic symmetry is accomplished due to the arrangement of the image. The purpose of this process is to convey two ideas: the first being that the subject can translate into different behaviors while still maintaining its original qualities; the second being that there are different aspects to every one thing. Upon experiencing these images, I hope for the viewer to embrace the idea that from one object can come differently redefined objects, full of excitement and exploration for the eye’s mind.

Blog #24...finally

Ann Marie Martens
Ann Marie Martens is a Ceramics MFA candidate at MSU. Recently, she had an installation exhibited in the Kresge MFA show. Her installation consisted of a countless number of wires (ethernet cords) draped over from the ceiling to the floor. Inside these cords were amorphous forms made from Earthenware clay that were suspended on the wall. There was just enough room in between the ceramic pieces and the wires to be able to walk into the installation. While walking in there, the viewer is asked to wear a set of headphones that broadcasts a white noise sound. This is part of the experience of the installation.
My first reaction of this installation was that I didn't understand it at all. I felt that there was supposed to be some sort of disconnection for the viewer, but I just quite didn't get it. I then spoke with Ann Marie about her work. She explained to me that her art deals with the ever-growing disconnection of the human with the natural world. With the ever-increasing demand for cell phones, computers, etc., we are becoming more and more disconnecting with the people around us and we are becoming more addicted to technology. In order to speak to our families (hers lives in South Dakota), we must communicate on cell phones, meaning that our true communication with these people is intangible and isn't really as real as it could be if say, for instance, we were physically around them and communicating with them. We rely so much on technology today that it has built a wall around us. For example, people who text message others for hours on end may seem inapproachable to the other people that are physically around them. I can relate to this...I have sat at dinner tables with friends who text throughout the entire meal, and it makes me feel as though I cannot speak to them at that moment because they are distracted with an intangible conversation. This is incredibly rude and annoying, however our increasing demand for technology has made it almost impossible to escape this situation. We have become addicted to technology because of the times, and this isn't something that is going to slow down.
I am glad that I got to sit down with Ann Marie and talk with her about her installation. It sends out a very important message to us...especially to me. I know I can get caught up with my computer or my cell phone at times. It makes life easier sometimes, because it lets me speak with the people that I don't get to see every day. But isn't that the purpose of moving away and experiencing new things...so that you don't talk to those people every day? That's something to think about...

Blog #27, Artist Statement

Redefinition
Recently, I have been interested in creating intricately patterned images from one single image. In order to do this, I have been redefining the subject matter of the image by reflecting it over itself in four ways. The result of these images shows that the subject can translate into different behaviors while still maintaining its original qualities. This process conveys the idea that there are different aspects to every one thing.

Fun Fun Fun!

Karen Heald

http://www.karenheald.co.uk/

An artist / filmmaker who is interested in the aspect of time and sleep from a woman's perspective.

She received her PhD from Leeds Metropolitan University.

Her installations deal with emotional responses to her environment.

Where to go next...

Or...

Or...

While I was uploading these images...an idea occurred to me. Well, before I say that, let me say that I have decided to go with the suggestion that I received from multiple people: to do a color spectrum (roygbv), so that there is a series of images for each color. This would really help tie the images together and make it appear more as a series.

My idea is this: I just put up two different image series of the same subject (two of the orange and two of the leaf)...MAYBE to further my project, I could show different images of the same subject, as in have four images to work with for each subject so that I have a total of 16 images for each subject. I know a few people suggested that I try to have more than four images...and this could be how I do it! In showing 16 (estimate) images, rather, four variations, the viewer would be able to explore the similarities between the different images...In finding similarities, maybe the viewer would see more that there are like qualities within different images, and there would be more to look at...this could further show that the image maintains its original quality throughout multiple images, rather than just four from one...it would be sixteen from four...hmmmmmmmmmmm. ideas.....thoughts.......!

Paul Sietsema

Born in LA in 1968

Currently lives in LA

Received his BA from UC Berkeley, MFA from UCLA

Photographer who also works with collage, installation, graphite, ink, watercolor, ...you get the idea.

I think some of his works are fun and interesting, and some are rather boring. I really like his mixed media piece Taxi Drawing obviously for the colors and composition! Some of his film photographs are cool, such as Figure 3 (Film Still)...others are boring. His style is very very mixed and varied...sometimes this works, other times it doesn't. In his case, I'm not sure how well it works...

http://www.regenprojects.com/artists/paul-sietsema/

Blog #25, 26

Challenge: Think of a location that your thesis project could be displayed, exhibited, disseminated, installed, shop-dropped (http://shopdropping.net/), placed, hidden, mounted, projected, inserted, etc. that is outside the traditional gallery setting.
I think it would be interesting for my thesis project to be displayed either in a venue at a concert, or at a music festival just somewhere randomly on a path. It would be appealing to the right crowd and it would be cool to watch peoples' reactions as they walk by. I think in this scene, it would be more likely that people would actually stop to look at the detail in the images. in the venue, it would be nice because there would be walls and there would be more of a way to secure them and make sure nobody disturbed them. The same could happen in a music festival setting, but I feel that I would need to be more creative in how I would secure them and display them...maybe bring a standing wall and display them on it. This could actually be a possibility...as I will be going to a few festivals this summer. It would be really cool to display 10-15 of them all in one straight line on a wall randomly somewhere on the path to a stage or something!


Many artists and photographers hope that their work engages with a larger audience outside of the museum/gallery/art&design school system. Describe how your project relates to a discipline or realm outside of art. For example, does it relate to the ideas learned through the study of human behavior/psychology or perception, preservation of wildlife, technological advancements in engineering, the anthropological study of humans and their relationship with the idea of time, outsider art, visitors to natural history museums, popular media audiences, etc? How might your work engage with this type of viewer if you presented it outside of the gallery context? How might your project engage with this type of viewer within the gallery context?
Whoa, this is quite a question! My thesis relates to self-similarity, and the idea of differences within one thing. I am trying to this what this relates to on a larger scale, outside of the art world...hmmm.
Well, with my thesis, I am trying to show that there is more than one way to look at something...so maybe it could translate into the realm of poetry, in the sense that one single poem can be translated into different meanings...we can get multiple messages from one passage, just as I get multiple images from one image. I think if I presented these works to a poet, he/she may see it as a series of stories or messages...
I believe that this particular viewer would get the same general idea from it both inside and outside the gallery setting. Though if it were outside the gallery setting (in my setting that I so desired above) I believe it would be viewed more as an aesthetic than a meaning...
This may be far fetched, but I tried! This is a really good question..I wish I had a better answer...

Redefinition

I am redefining the subject by reflecting it over itself in four different ways. By doing this I aspire to show that the subject can translate into different behaviors while still maintaining its same original quality. In this, I am showing that there are different aspects to every one thing.

Photo Presentation #6

Robert Flick
Born in 1939 in Amersfoot, The Netherlands. Flick is a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow. He lives in LA, where he developed one of the most interesting photography series of all time (in my opinion), Sequential Views. Here, he uses a video camera to capture stills, tons of them. He set up his camera on his car window and took a large series of stills at different times while he was driving through LA. He then takes all of the images and creates an ordered grid, showing all the images together as one long story. This is a really cool idea---I have always wanted to set my camera up in my car and take long exposures of the highway at night time...this is a little different than what he does, but somewhat similar subject matter. This idea is really cool and very well executed!!!!

Near Live Oak

Along Speedway

Long Beach Harbor

...This one is in Illinois

Jerry Uelsmann
One of my FAVORITE photographers of all time.
Born in Detroit in 1934 and received his BFA at the Rochester Institute of Technology and his MFA at Indiana University in 1960. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Nat'l Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He works mainly with film, and is known for his amazing layering work in the darkroom. He is an incredibly well-known photographer, and has the most awesome style of any photographer that I have ever come across.
The best attribute of his photography takes place in the darkroom; he is incredibly good at taking different objects and morphing them into one another and making them all connect to one another. He is good at making everything "one". I have always wanted to do a project relative to what he does...I still need to do this!!

Photo Presentation #5

Guy Bourdin
Actually named Guy Louis Banares, he was born in Paris in 1928 and died in Paris as well in 1991. He was a fashion photographer with a very pecuilar style. He got his start in photography while he aws a cadet in the French Air Force. The first fashion photographs he ever took were published in french Vogue in 1955, a magazine at which he worked until 1987.
Some of his photographs (on his website) are very different from anything I have ever seen. For example, the image of the nude woman in the studio where her figure is distorted is insane! I really want to know how he does this. It seems like either some sort of strange and bizzare glass figure in between the camera and the subject, but I cannot figure it out! His other photograph that is interesting to me, the image under Beauty of the girl looking through the goldfish bowl looks somewhat like a Surrealist, Dali-like painting, where the image of one thing, an eye, plays into and takes form with the glass.
His stuff is really different, and I really enjoy his perspective of photography.


Duane Michals
Born February 18, 1932, he is a photographer who is mainly self-taught. Michals received his BA from the University of Denver in 1953. He worked mainly with commercial photography for a long time. He tended to take photographs of people in their enviromments, mainly because he didn't have a studio. 
His sequenced photographs are his most interesting. One of my favorite things about his sequences is the stories within them. Some are more obvious than others, and some are more related to feeling than others. For example, the Chanced Meeting is interesting because it shows that moment that you tend to see in movies, where two people say goodbye and walk away, one looks back then the other does, both at different times, and neither knows. What is different about this one is that the two are strangers and both share a moment in which they connect, though they are not aware that the other has felt the same moment. His way of telling a story through multiple photograhs is what I like about him most.