Janet Echelman

Janet Echelman's talk last Thursday was incredibly insightful and inspiring. First off, her work if phenomenal. Part of what makes her work so interesting (aside form the visual aspects themselves) is the journey she took to get her work to where it is today. Hearing about the places she traveled, the people she met and got to work with, the things she has seen, all seemed to major influential elements to what shaped her work. She got her idea to work with net like structures when she was living in India and began to make sculptures because she had no paint. From there, her work took off to these giant forms that reshaped the sky, creating forms that seem to nestle almost perfectly in the space they were created for.

I had the honor of sitting next to her husband, who had a few opportunities to talk about his wife's work. Every time he spoke he always so pumped about the things his wife was doing and that he was a part of it.  Echelman created a strong collaborative relationship with engineers and architects to create the things she imagined. She talked a lot about the process of how her sculptures came to be. There was way more planning and experimenting and making mock-ups than I thought there would have to be.

Overall, I was very impressed with her lecture and he work. I find myself inspired to push myself harder to become a successful artist after I leave the Ringling community.

Dede Young

Dede Young is an extremely accomplished business women in the art world. I unfortunately missed her talk but have ready some very interesting about her. Currently in the Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea, Young has had numerous experiences of curating, consulting, and educating. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fl, which is where my brother also graduated from and where my interest in art exploded. I would visit the Harn museum on the weekends and be inspired, much like Young, to throw myself into the art community. I see Young as a major influence of my career path to become a part of museum and gallery environments. Working in the Crossley now I feel that I would flourish being in either environment on a business and creative stand point.

Dominique Nahas

Dominique Nahas seems to be a firm believer and encourager for commitment to constantly making work. I completely agree that ideas for art should come as the work continues to grow and be made, that a person should not wait to think of it. Holding the many jobs of curator, critic, professor, and more, Mr. Nahas has the gift of talking about art intellectually and emotionally. He is able to describe work vividly and references past artists and eras that relate to his topics.  I found his articles and reviews to be extremely vibrant with the description of the work. I enjoyed his writing style, it made reading about the artists very interesting. I was able to picture what kind of work he was talking about before I knew what some of the worked looked like.

I wish I had the time to talk with Mr. Nahas, I feel that I could get affirmation that I was working toward something that I want and am continuously figuring out how to get there. I know for a fact that I am not going to stop painting even after I reach my intent and see where I end up.

Orals Statement

            My paintings depict layers of time, digest my memories, and fuse together elements of text and pattern, to create a vibrant visual experience. I reduce the narrative of the text to a form, described with paint, intermixing the different patterns and layers. The patterns and colors are my reactions to the memories or ideas I am thinking about. Manipulating the paint confronts my responses to things that cannot be controlled. 

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I'd say it's an addiction

Reading response 4

Roberta Smith’s article “Who Needs a White Cube,” begins with a statement I found very interesting. “…Reassert the process and mind set of art rather than the product.” I consistently thought of art in a gallery or museum as a finished product of the artist. With out this product there would be no use for galleries or museums. The art fills the white space, giving it life. Working in a gallery now, I am accustom to the repetitive process of finding artists to show, getting them installed, having an opening, and then uninstalling, week after week. Luckily, I’m constantly introduced to different art so the redundancy of the market it less daunting.  Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love it. But I am recognizing the pattern that is taking place in the system. Lately, it has been refreshing to see that artists are finding alternative ways to show their work without being confined to a white cube. Gallery owners are straying away from traditional, static, white walls, allowing artists to take control of the space or let the space speak of what it is or use to be.

In the article “Among the inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance is Bliss,” Erica Goode talks about the ego with in people and what it allows us to see and makes us blind to. I found it extremely interesting that highly conceited people do not realize that they are, causing lower egos to label them ignorant. I can think of many people like that. They are so confidant that they do not realize their own pitfalls. I find it tricky to be a cocky, ignorant artist. Sometimes I wish I were though. It is one thing to be confident in your work and be able to carry the message of it through to the viewers. It is another thing to think that you have the best work of all mankind and all your viewers find it to be complete bullshit. Granted, I know there will always be a combination of these people; maybe being overly ignorant saves from hurtfulness.  It has already been discussed that sometimes in the art world, we have to think we are the best artists out there so other people will believe we are.

The exclusive KUNSTMARKT 67 introduced in Christine Mehring’s “Emerging Market,” spawned an innovative way of seeing, buying and selling art. KUNSTMARKT 67 allowed the “who’s who” of artists and dealers to attend. This art fair created smaller fairs that coincided with it and spread like chicken pox. I can relate Miami Basel to this easily. Seeing that much art, from so many different places, by so many different artists, was mind blowing. Without fairs and festivals like this some people may not have the luxury to see what gets shown. 

Reading Response 3

         The definition of a metaphor is, “a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest resemblance; an emblem.” Daniel Chandler’s article, Semiotics: The Basis: Challenging the Literal, talks about the relationship between metaphors and our physical reality. Metaphors apply to the language we speak, and the language we see in art. I believe that each individual has their own individual reality, giving each their own individual interpretation on some metaphors. In art, if a viewer is looking at a piece where the content is deliberately non-literal, what ever the interpretation, the viewer will have different connotations of the metaphor. Culture, family, races, immediate environment always come into play with interpretation of any language. It’s the “baggage” of the viewer.

            In the article “Transaesthetics”, by Margot Lovejoy, the issue of technology becoming the new medium in art arises. Lovejoy talks about the two sides of technology that people, not always in the art world, gravitate towards. There is the side that sees technology as Satan. And the side that sees it as God. The Satan side is filled with skepticism and resistance while the God side embraces technology and engages in a positive interaction with it. Technology as a medium in art brings a question of the artist hand in the work. How much is the artist actually creating and how much is the artist allowing technology to create the work, or simply be the work. For example, I am a painter, so my hand in my work is extremely important to the creation process and the finished product.  When I use imagery in my painting, which is rare lately, I do use the technology of the computer to reference images. I also use it as far as documentation and publication of my work, research of other artists or historical references, or communication. As far as creating my work though, technology is not Satan, but it is far from God. For me, technology is a tool, not a medium. I think that technology is viable as a medium to anyone that can utilize it in a way to create successful work, whether that be video installations, manipulated two-dimensional imagery, or machine made sculpture. “Definitions of art alter with historical and technological change.”  

            Claire Bishop’s article “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics,” talks about Bourriaud’s writings of “relational art work seeking to establish intersubjective encounters rather that private individual consumption of the art.” Relational art can be designated to performance, installation, and interactive art. It utilizes the space and the audience. The artist creates a different reality or community, a synopsis of the concept for the viewer to experience first hand.