Seeing is Believing

I would like to begin looking at my fellow artists by starting on one of the most engaging, Susana. With the structure built here: http://cortez419.blogspot.com/2010/10/set-me-free-continues.html, Susana created her own environment and captured our attention during critique. Her performance made me want to help her out of the cage even though I was the one who filmed her in it for her video and took pics for her documentation purposes. To convince someone who was there all along is strong enough for me to want to see more performances in many more places!

To the artist that has the most potential is Alex. Her pawn piece really makes me think in so many directions and I want to see more (even if it isn't quantity, it could be how everything is set up or situated). You can see it here: http://aphil11.blogspot.com/2010/11/attack.html, when Andrew suggested a racial divide on the pieces I instantly announced to the class that the scene reminded me of an episode of Oprah. This narrative and many more are at Alex's fingertips so if she pushes everything just a bit more she can show all of us many wondrous worlds, especially her knitting work which is my favorite of hers.

The artist that I have the most knowledge of their process is Kyle. His studies on light and concept are incredible: http://kyleatseniorstudio.blogspot.com/2010/09/art-work-update.html, and it keeps going from there. His portraits blow my mind, but sometimes my favorite moments are his experiments in drawing. Kyle is someone who gets what it means to explore art; his drawing of the man in the ornate frame gave me such distinct feelings that I knew he thought about every aspect of the piece.

One artist I've discovered is Yuko Ishii who uses Mixed Media to the nth degree. Using photography and physical implements she expresses spiritual awareness through her pieces. http://www.yukoishii.com/

Another artist who I knew about only in photography apparently paints as well and he does a series of "Nurse Paintings" which hit home to my not only because they are figural, but my parents are both nurses. Richard Prince explores different ways to combine text and the figure to give a narrative that we may not have seen before. This article on a nursing site is interesting in juxtaposing the nursing world and his world: http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/media/va/nurse_paintings.html

My next project has to do with the secular vs. the religious, the liberal vs. the conservative, and conflicted identity vs. solid identity. My biggest issue is how to combine everything in a simple way. I have already figured out a way to deal with Neil Diamond and David Paskin, but I dunno if it is the direction I want to take. What would be the best way to explore these ideas? How could I combine them without losing any of the magic of the original images? And now...back to work on painting.