I won’t even lie, I forgot about upkeep of my blog towards the end of senior. A combination of senioritis and the newfound freedom of being 21 really hampered my work output. I finished everything I needed to, but nothing beyond the required. I guess now is a good time to sit in retrospection of the semester as a whole and what I’ve taken away from my time in bachelor's.
I luv abstraction
First is the most recent from my class on abstract painting this last semester. That class opened my eyes to a world of artists that I never knew about. This entire semester, I felt like I could learn enough. The following is a list of concepts and artists that I’d like to do research into over the following year:
· Robert Hughes- Shock of the new
· The phases of arts and how they connect to real-world events
· Alternate Hanging/presentation methods for Textile arts
· https://justpaint.org/ review
· https://www.winsornewton.com/pages/resources review
· SAM GILLIAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciN6ZPDMJV4
· Kerstin Brätsch: 'What is painting? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu33N5r9O7I&t=2s
· Jack Whitten: An Artist's Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFVsd450nCU&list=PLwVSeIbsgRNNebqZk3tkd_toSdvgjWFWA&index
· Matisse
· Dona Nelson
· Stanley Whitney
· Gees Bend Freedom Quilting Bee
· Color Rendering Index
· Faith Ringgold
· Caravaggio
· Professional Art Analysis/Talking like an Artist
It must be a job
Being a professional artist is not about being the most talented in your medium or working on the largest scale. It’s about your approach to the work itself and your consistency in that approach. Anyone can make something beautiful once, but being able to consistently make beautiful work and understand/explain it is what really makes an artist. This past semester has been the first where I’m really trying to understand the work that I’ve been doing and what it can mean.
Understanding your work on a professional level
Being able to speak intelligently about the aspects of an artwork that contribute to a feeling, theme, or idea is the biggest aspect of being a professional. This is a skill that I am still working on, but knowledge is absolute power in art. There are no new ideas, only iterations, and understanding the history of the concept that you are exploring can only aid your final execution/understanding
Documentation, Documentation, Documentation
Hilma af Klint really set the bar for archiving. Even though she had been gone for years, her work has pages of explanation and just general notes and thoughts on the process of creation. While I fell a little off the wagon at the end of the semester, I’ve firsthand seen the effect of it on my own process and work. Switching from a “it feels right, so I’m gonna do it " mentality to a “why did this choice feel right” and documenting it did wonders for me. The best example was “Betsy and Bessie Pt. 1-3”. When I started, it came out of a desire to take my love for cows and depict them in a cow grazing scene. But as the semester began to pass and the scope and ideas for my exit changed, the work continued to evolve in a way that I didn’t really track in any other way than my document notes. As I finished the pieces, I was able to refer back to my written notes and see how my idea evolved from just a passion project to a body of work about the transition of change.
Cross-learning through other disciplines
This has been one of the biggest takeaways from this past semester, working in and studying disciplines outside of my own to gain a new perspective. Looking to other disciplines (film, painting, ceramics, physical media design, etc.) has given my creative process a breath of fresh air. A lot of my ideas start in isolation, and while that gives me an edge in creating work that’s unique to myself, it's limiting in bringing my ideas to life in the most ideal way. A lot of the complex compositions that were out of the realm of realistic creation became realistic when combined with tools like airbrush, dye work, drawing with microns and pencils, etc. I had a really stubborn view on wanting all the ideas that I made to strictly be stencil cut fabric and appliqué sewing, believing that is what “true” textile art is. I didn't want to step outside of this because it would “betray” the initial vision I had. But rather than trying to recreate everything in stitched lines and cut fabric edges, challenging myself to find the finishes and effects that I want in other mediums. If I don’t like them, that’s no sweat, but simply going through the process of trying allows me more options for my final work. Interdisciplinary learning made me so much more open to solutions to the problems I create for myself in my work.
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