[Artist Statement]

Content

Starting from the actual and observed and adding non-existent fantastical elements: I combine them creating a non-archival experience with documented evidence. I like to break down my observations and put them in an order that makes since to me. I am looking to discover the responses of others when I show them a playful spectacle of events and the artifacts and documentation of those events.

Throughout working to create a piece many problems arise because of the grand ambitious nature of my overall goal. I have to then make adjustments and consider the conceptual ramifications of those adjustments. I started with wanting my work to be indefinable by medium but have begun to realize that I really just want to combine many traditional mediums into one piece; exploring my concepts in a variety of sensory experiences.

Approach

The way in which I approach my work often comes from humor and play with the tangible. Content is clarified by, and is a result of, collecting information and experimentation with material. Currently I am working to create two specific events that attempt to push the boundaries of possibility and observe the reactions to those pieces. I am very aware of the viewer and curious as to how they respond to what I give them to observe.

Another area I am concentrating on currently is the idea of landscape versus figure. I am used to seeing other artists painting landscapes outdoors but always bring those to an interior space. In reverse, I am painting a large painting of a figure on canvas that is meant to stay out doors. Over all, I am making a game that you can't win, showing the viewer the possibility of entertainment without access to the entertainment and playing with the appreciation of the vulnerable structure of the human body.

Anne Stahl's Artist statement

http://www.annestahl.com/about/statement.shtml

After reading the material given on how to write our artist statements, I found that there were not really any one of those methods that I was attracted to. But, when I found Anne's artist statement, I really liked how she gave an over view of her work and then applied it in a different section to the work she is specifically doing now, so that is how I decided to handle my own statement.

>>>>>Anne Stahl>>>>>>>>>>

Mark Bradford

http://www.pinocchioisonfire.org

Why, I do this...

The Big View:

Art and creating art is the one thing that is continuously changing. The variables are constantly changing because you and the world around you are consistently changing. I used to work in marketing and promotions at Six Flags in Kentucky; although that was exciting as far as jobs are concerned, you eventually figure it out. Things become routine and that variable of change becomes less and less prominent. But in art, there are endless possibilities and with each directions comes a new challenge. I need to be challenged to be a happy and productive member of society.

Another thing that led me to art is that my dad is an artist and took art classes when finishing his degree when I was a kid. He is a general contractor who builds custom homes and was always working in his woodshop. I think a lot of my curiosity and need to make things came from spending time with him in his shop. There was always something that I really enjoyed about going through my dad’s old portfolio and even his building plans. He creates theses custom homes that are not only functional but very beautiful, even the design of the building plan is poetic to me.

At one point while I was in Antwerp and had been there for about three months there were a few things I was missing about home. Whiles walking down a side street I walked past a small paper mill and smelled the sawdust in the air. I just stood there taking in the smell; it immediately felt like home. It is hard to understand, even for myself, but I feel most comfortable and completely unsure when I am working and creating my work. I crave that feeling.

I think that I am a senior because success and education mean a lot to me. And its in Fine Arts at an art school because that is the most challenging. It is the one thing that I can do and not get bored with; you can never completely figure it all out. To me that is why artists don’t ever really retire.

The Immediate View:

I think that the direction that I have gone in my work really started with me finding areas of interest in my process. The point where you really figure out what interests you is the point where you stop making just a bunch of stuff and have a direction.

I began to figure out what interests me when I did a “series” of work my sophomore year and I studied four port cities in America and really researched and broke down the cities. Then I created my own cites from elements that I was drawn to. This is the first that I really recognized in my process where I started from observation and then added an element of unreal or something not actual to what I observed.

Going to a new country and being emerged into a different culture I was really able to figure out my area of interests in regards to my work. I was also able to really break down my process and understand that I like to break down my observations and put them in an order that makes since.

Chaos, Territory, Art

Chaos, Territory, Art Response:

“Art and nothing but art! It is a great means of making life possible, the great seduction of life, the great stimulant to life. Art is the only superior counterpart to a will to denial of life” -Nietzsche

This article talks of art as an evolutionary organism, an abstract idea. But for myself, personally I cannot view art this way. It is more about what I am doing, how I see things, and what others are doing, how they see things. It is a more practical idea, something attainable and discoverable.

“ There is art and there is non-art; they are two universes (in the algebraic sense) which are exclusive…It seems to me that to call an achieved work ‘good art’ and an unachieved work ‘bad art’, is like calling one color ‘good red’ and another ‘bad red’ when the second one is green.”

-Muriel Rukeyser

[Art is the submission of its materials; paint, canvas, concrete, steel, marble, words, sounds, bodily movements, indeed any materials—to those constraints and forms through which they impact on living bodies, organs, nervous systems.]

I agree with this, it is talking about the sensual response, and it goes on to talk about the philosophy is how you understand, but the true experiences comes from the physical response to what is in front of you.

Synesthesia: the stimulation of one sense involuntarily elicits an experience in another sense [I think that the most successful art does this]

Similar mental process and goals are implemented to create structure between art and architecture.

Art= the excess of nature, talking the functional and making it not so.

Challenging the Literal

Challenging the Literal Response:

First off, I would like to say that it is easier and more pleasant for me to talk through ideas rather than writing them.

In regards to sarcastic weather:

“Love, well love is the weather being good everyday because rain and wind are just another kind of good weather”

Literal- the difference between Illustration and Fine Art.

Ironic: the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.

Vs.

Sarcastic: expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds

The writer implies that ironic and sarcastic mean the same, but they are not universally exclusive.

Lie: meant to amuse?? , to mislead, this idea comes up in 1^st person writing, how much can we really trust the narrator for the truth or a non-biased opinion, reaction, view of any given situation. Does our trust in them reflect more of ourselves than of them?

Semester Plan: Thesis Fall 2010

My hypothesis broke down: In order to make the incompatible [two separate mediums that do not work together] compatible [two or more mediums that work together, either visually or emotionally] (referring to material) you must pair the impossible [not actual] with the possible [actual or observed] (referring to content and subject matter).

In regards to specific subject matter, I want to start with observations and push the humorous and playful non-realities that I feel should be present in the every day observed. I plan to have sculpture based paintings and installations.

I have two goals in regards to my work; I want to remove the restraints we have places on our own personal realities and for my work to be un-definable by medium. I guess the best way to say that I am doing this because I would like to put visually the way that I see and would like to see the world in which I exist.

Because my work starts from the observed, the best research I can do is to just try and overload my senses as much as I can on a daily basis and keep a book of what I am seeing, reading, eating, listening to, touching, and feeling, along with my thoughts, reactions, likes/dislikes, emotional and physical responses and ideas about all that I am seeing.

I would like to have around ten large-scale pieces done by my thesis show on 29 October.

7 Sept. – 27 Sept.: Research and sketches/drawings for painting sculptures and ideas for installations.

23 Sept.: Individual critique with Nathan and Kim

30 Sept.: Group Critique [3 pieces near completion]

5 Oct.: Individual critique with Nathan and Kim

14 Oct.: Group critique [6 pieces near completion]

21 Oct.: Individual critique with Nathan and Kim [8 pieces near completion]

28 Oct.: [10 pieces completed]

17 Nov.: Individual critique with Nathan and Kim

7 Dec.: [12-14 pieces completed]