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Not done yet but closer than I was last week! Using the black oil paint really made a huge difference compared to the dark blue.
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Just finished up my Q2 in class project. This particular piece was inspired by an article I saw about glaciers melting - the white of the ice and snow transforming into the blue of the ocean. I will post a real documentation soon.
In and out of art class the question of "Yes, but is this really art?" often arises. Is drinking dyed milk and then barfing it back up onto a canvas really art? How about buying a urinal and signing it R. Mutt 1917? I faced similar doubts while reading the article "HOW THE ART OF SOCIAL PRACTICE IS CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE ROW HOUSE AT A TIME," which delves into the details of social practice art, ranging from the transformation of abandoned homes into sites for seminars and workshops to drawing awareness to lead-contaminated soil by encouraging kids to decorate fake dollar bills. The scale of the work is often small and temporary, and the success depends heavily on the charisma of the artist, who walks a fine line between art and activism. Yet many of the artists in the field confirm that the “art” aspect is the true intent of these projects. Mel Chin describes his work as having an “invisible aesthetic,” a change that people can’t perceive - such as the decontamination of soil - but a change nonetheless. Rick Lowe sees his role with “Project Row Houses” as both an urbanist and a storyteller, one who can help change the narrative of a place. When he first took over shotgun houses in Houston, they represented the worst of inner-city neglect. Since then, he has transformed them into important symbols of an African American cultural revival.
In my opinion, the artistic aspect of social practice art is found in what is lacking, rather than what is created. The true beauty of social practice art is that it creates very few concrete items or objects. We have enough stuff in our current culture. Social practice art is a true celebration of personal, tangible, face-to-face human relationships. Nato Thompson, chief curator of Creative Time, agrees with me. He thinks that social practice art is a byproduct of our technology-dependent society. “I mean, doesn’t any kind of human interaction that isn’t on the Internet just feel very special?” he asks. Getting out there and working to help the poor or the planet in the name of art is what social practice art is all about - and that makes it a truly amazing form of art, and one that needs to be practiced more often. We need to create gardens in the name of art, perform random acts of kindness in the name of art, and spread love in the name of art. Art can achieve anything and everything. I am in the middle of two projects right now, yet both are not really capturing my artistic drive as much as Blue Abyss did. I need to re-evaluate my content and process in order to renew my motivation.
I am also inspired by Karin Davie's work, especially this piece Arrest, which I think would look really nice in the blue to white gradient that I am so comfortable with.
During the D.C. art field trip, I was able to spend over an hour walking through Ragnar Kjartansson's various exhibits at the Hirshhorn. One of his most impressive exhibits was titled The End - Venezia (2009). It is composed of 144 paintings, all oil on canvas, made in 144 consecutive days. They are all of the artist's friend and model Páli Haukur Björnsson. Björnsson would lounge around the fourteenth-century palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice that the two were using as a studio, posing in swimming briefs while drinking and smoking. As the performance continued day after day, beer bottles, cigarette butts, and paintings gradually accumulated to create a complete mise en scène, with these various items appearing in Kjartansson's later pieces. I enjoyed how the 144 works almost became a performance piece due to their depiction of Björnsson over a three-month period. The exhibit was also definitely impressive due to the unique style that Kjartansson utilized for each work, from realism to expressionist portraiture. No one painting is in the same style as the other.
I plan on creating a piece inspired by Victor Vasarely's Biadan, but with blues and white instead of black and white - in an attempt to channel some of my Blue Abyss techniques.
I have found a really cool new form of art. I think that I will explore it more in depth for my art trend project. It involves electric volts creating these Lichtenberg figures on either wood, glass, or acrylic. The natural patterns are beautiful and can really serve as their own piece. This is similar to the theme I go for in my art - nature is a master artist. This piece is from a series of work called 10,000 Volts by Melanie Hoff. It is 3 ft. by 4 ft. Standing Wave II is by an artist named Todd Johnson. He sends electricity through acrylic, and calls all of his work Shockfossils. This particular piece is 1 ft. by 1 ft. Johnson posted two pictures of it side by side with the recommendation to cross your eyes for a nice 3D effect.
10.10 10.22 Had to use a headlamp in order to really differentiate between layers. 10.23 10.27 10.30
As I was looking at the upcoming Hirshhorn exhibitions, I noticed that a Yayoi Kusama gallery titled Infinity Mirrors will be installed on February 23, 2017. It looks like a unique exhibition and I cannot wait to experience it. Kusama will have many different mirror rooms, including Dots Obsession—Love Transformed Into Dots (2007), Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (2013), and The Obliteration Room (2002), each containing different aspects such as polka dots, lights, and couches placed strategically throughout the room. For Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (2013), the mirrors create a crazy endless effect that I have never seen before, transforming the room into a never-ending field of stars. I discovered an artist named Michael Kagan who interested me for three reasons: his mark, color range, and subject. Kagan is able to create his own mark - choppy yet still maintaining correct form. The abstract feel of his pieces appeal to my interest in abstract art, and his prominently blue and white value range is similar to my Blue Abyss piece. Karan's focus on outer space and astronauts allows him to utilize a dark background and adds a mysterious quality to his work. I hope to imitate aspects of his mark in my own projects.
On October 15, my family and I traveled to D.C. and visited the Hirshhorn. It was there that I saw the exhibit Linn Meyers: Our View from Here. Utilizing the beautiful curved walls of the Hirshhorn, Meyers created a series of undulating ripples spanning an entire 360 degrees, more than 400 linear feet. The interaction between her fluid lines and the building’s rigorous geometries will produce stunning effects. Meyer's work reminds me of my own rippling, layer-filled pieces like Blue Abyss and Depths. The fact that it will be completely erased next spring adds an extra element to it - encouraging the viewer to enjoy it like a fading sunset, never to be recreated again. I am looking forward to viewing the exhibition again in December, and interested in what her next piece will be.
After reading the articles Art of Controversy and Art in Russia Under Attack, my biggest takeaway is that art only deserves to be censored if the artist created it with the intent of being censored. I know that sentence sounds redundant, but it made sense in my mind and when our group discussed it during the socratic seminar on Friday. What I am trying to say is that some artists create work or display art that they know is controversial and hope to be censored in some way in order to attract attention. For example, the attention "Sensation" gained from the mayor of New York attempting to cancel the show drew a huge crowd - one that it never would have originally attracted - to their new location. Erofeev and Samodurov nearly became celebreties due to their arrest. They knew that the work they were compiling for "Forbidden Art - 2006" was controversial and well, forbidden, as the name suggests. Their show comes across almost more as a cry for attention than as an actual attempt at showing thought-provoking and interesting art. However a big goal for artists is drawing a crowd and making a name for themselves, so it is hard to blame Erofeev and Samodurov and Saatchi for their controversial attempts. People like seeing and experiencing things that they are not allowed to see, like middle schoolers sneaking into an R rated movie. There is a level of excitement that comes with breaking the "rules" that a standard art show will never reach.
Davis Coffey
Depths Acrylic on wood There is nothing more artistically pure than Mother Earth herself. Nature provides endless amounts of opportunities to spark my creativity. This piece was actually inspired by a coffee table made of wood and glass, which itself was inspired by an image of an aerial view of the ocean. I am fascinated by all of the subtle variations and shades of color, primarily blue, green, and yellow. This work is an exploration of my ability to blend acrylics and create the illusion of depth, with the ocean getting deeper and shallower depending on where the viewer directs their gaze. It is to be noted that the intention of this piece was to have a slightly abstract feel, in order to accentuate the subtle changes in color. The medium of the wood helps to keep the colors at their purest quality. This has been a year of growth, progress, and maturity, with most of my development revolving around art. In December, directly after our D.C. art field trip, I got in a really bad car accident that tested my resolve and helped me grow throughout the year. In art class itself, I have discovered some of my likes (abstract expressionism, GAC, acrylics, clay) and some of my dislikes (oil painting, still lifes, portraiture), learning that I cannot find my passions without pushing through the tedious stuff. I have also learned that I am capable of achieving a lot without any previous knowledge, for my best work was Riptide, a abstract piece utilizing GAC, a medium I had never worked with before. Furthermore, my figure drawing skills have improved over the year despite the fact that we have not practiced figure drawing since November. I have probably seen the greatest growth in my observational skills: I am now better able to observe a scene and draw it, proportional and accurate. Before, I had difficulty precisely recreating what I saw in front of me, especially from life. Now I can draw people and places in 3D without using the aid of 2D pictures. However, I feel like I need to improve on my shading and value skills. My sketches could become even more life-like if I can master realistic shadows, which has always been a struggle for me. It is definitely a topic I will focus on improving next year. I am excited to incorporate everything I have learned this year and apply it next fall! I plan on using my newfound appreciation of GAC and acrylics to continue creating more pieces like RIptide, and maybe improving and utilizing my value skills to make my pieces look more realistic and like true waves. Can't wait!
I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and saw one of my friends share this link: http://www.nbc12.com/story/31820195/former-athlete-turns-to-art-after-suffering-traumatic-brain-injury. Jherad Gholson goes to my home highschool, Matoaca High. He is currently dealing with a traumatic brain injury following a devastating tackle during a football game, and has turned to art to guide him through this rough patch of his life. "No Signal" is the name of his traveling exhibit, now on display at the Petersburg Library. He got the name from taking a look at his own story, comparing it to a television that's lost its reception. "When you get the mixed signals and patterns and squiggly lines," he explains. It was a moment in life that caused him to search his soul for new purpose, art. I really really enjoy Jherad's work, for two main reasons. The first is due to the fact that he goes to my home highschool and lives close to where I grew up. Secondly, the way that he has used art to recover from his brain injury is truly inspiring. Art is so much more than just a "credit to take." It transcends every other subject with its ability to guide and improve people's lives.
A key aspect of art can be found in connection and unification. Thomas Hart Benton's mural America Today provides a careening progression through a momentous period in America's history, managing to knit together abstraction and figuration, American and European modernism, New York City and the rest of the country, and optimism and despondency all in one seamless montage of paintings. By highlighting the stark contrasts in each segment, Benton is somehow able to find the true American roots running deep within the flesh of our country via the juxtaposition between suffering and joy, sins and blessings, and the hearts and minds of men. In no other work could one find prizefighters slugging it out, a couple making out by the Coney Island roller coaster, a conductor in front of a symphony, a dark-skinned cotton picker, or the peach and lavender views of the Mississippi River all harmoniously blended together and presented as one coherent piece. Despite all of the disruption and turmoil America has faced in the past, Benton finds a way to reveal the unity within our nation and reveal how we are all just pieces in one vast puzzle that is life. This philosophy reminds me of the novel and movie Cloud Atlas, a time-shifting weave of six interlinking narratives, with diverse settings from the savagery of a Pacific Island in the 1850s to a dystopian Korea of the near future. Cloud Atlas manages to incorporate a different genre into each one of its story lines; a seemingly impossible feat for a single movie but one that it pulls of with ease. I appreciate how the novel is able to find connections within all of us and use the metaphor of a myriad of genres in one individual movie to reveal how our single nation is made up of a vast number of "genres," which is similar to what Benton was trying to produce with America Today. Furthermore, the writing of my classmate Caroline Pittard continues the search for continuation and unity within art and the world around us. Her analysis of the 1913 Armory Show and The ism that isn't provides excellent insight, exploring the connections between the art movements, or “isms,” of the past and the newest movement, “Neurotic Realism," which was unveiled by the Saatchi Gallery in 1999. Similar to Benton and Cloud Atlas, Caroline's ability to find relationships between nearly everything became obvious to me when she said, "[n]ow, I think that isms help to not categorize art, but to define the reactions of people and the political climate of the times. Therefore by looking to the isms we can interpret how the styles of art fit into the time period they were unveiled. This is crucial in understanding art as a whole across history." Caroline's perspicacious insight coincides perfectly with the messages that Benton and Cloud Atlas were trying to portray, successfully connecting and unifying art throughout the ages.
The clay didn't work so I'm ditching that idea. Now I am planning on putting the plaster body on a cross and painting the body red and sticking a lot of silver nails into it. In my head it looks really cool so I'm gonna give it a go.
Here is my first attempt at the nature-environment sculpture. I went down to the train tracks behind Pump House park and built a pile of rocks on the train tracks. It is meant to be symbolic; a solid rock barrier yet it cannot withstand the power of the train. I have other ideas that I want to try, so I will choose my favorite once I am finished.
I have an idea for my environmental sculpture project, but I am not sure if it will actually be able to work. I want to go down to the train tracks at Pump House park and build a big pile of rocks on the tracks. I'm thinking realllyyyy big, in order to be symbolic of how a train could still smash through without a problem.
After making the plaster cast, I realize that I'm going to have to change my idea away from Atlas. The body I created just won't work with a paper mache Earth on its back. My new idea is either to make Poseidon or cover it in clay... not too sure what I want to do right now.
Nasreen Mohamedi was one of the most significant artists to emerge in post-Independence India, her minimalist practice not only adding a rich layer to the history of South Asian art but also necessitating an expansion of the narratives of international modernism. Her work is very minimalist, yet still captures my attention through the detailed use of lines and shading. The way her drawing overlap is mesmerizing with a mathematical precision.
Here are pictures from plaster casting my body. It didn't go very well.. Should have done it in two pieces instead of trying to get it all done in one go.
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DAVIS COFFEY |