Janet Echelman

Janet is definitely someone you want to look to as an aspiring young artist. Her story makes it feel like as long as you keep trying you can get anywhere in life. Of course I am a cynic and don't believe that that is true. I think she was very lucky, that and she has talent. Unfortunately, I did not get much out of the talk. As much as I like to hear about artists lives, I can go on the internet and look it up. I know she's a big artists and her success story is wonderful to hear but I wish she didn't just talk about her projects.

Dede Young

The thing that I enjoyed most about Dede's talk was that she didn't look down on art students, instead she talked to us like the adults we are. Dede has an interesting view on artists, one that honestly, I haven't heard before. She believe artists are at the top in the art world hierarchy. The feeling that I get form most people is that they feel that artists are at the lower end of the food chain. But with Dede, she believes artists should know how to promote themselves, document, store, and sell their work. This way, we have more control over our work and do not have to rely on others to succeed.

Dominique Nahas

I went to the talk Dominique gave last week and I have to say, I really enjoyed listening to him. He seemed very down-to-earth and talked to us like we were people on his level. He talked about states of the mind that artists and people in general should have. The idea that I was most attracted to was self-monitoring and how you inspire yourself instead of having to wait for inspiration to hit from an outside source. His talk about 'letting the work and ideas flow out of you and not being afraid to admit that you don't know everything' made me realize that there are times when my fear of failing holds me back. I really want to fix this by letting go of some restraint and continuing to self-monitor to gain self-awareness and self-actualization.

Response Group 4

I think my favorite reading was Goode’s article Ignorance is Bliss. It may be because I felt like I was a part of the group she was talking about that belittled themselves. It seems like if you are an artist you either overestimate or underestimate your abilities. Most of the people I know whose art is liked or popular, they seem more unassuming than others. Although fame seems to boost anyone’s ego and once an artist is famous it seems like they lose any sort of modesty that they’ve ever had.

The second reading that I really enjoyed was Roberta Smith’s Who Needs A White Cube These Days? I was never very fond of a solid white square room with a few piece of art here and there. it seemed too cold to me and whenever I looked at art I felt that art should be something that touches a person’s soul as well as their mind. However, that is not to say that sometimes a white room is needed for a piece and may even enhance it sometimes. But I believe that where a piece of art is placed has a big affect on how people see it. As for me, I would want my work to be placed in an area that has a very welcoming feeling, almost homey.

Response Group 3

I read these over the summer and I have to say that I did not enjoy reading/scanning over them again. I found them to be excessively long and it was hard for me to retain much of anything. Challenging the Literal was interesting in the way that it broke down all these ways that we speak and put into light what we usually look over. It also occurred to me that is in language can also be in art, considering that art is just a type of language/communication.

In the Bishop writing, Gillick talks about how the audience is needed to make his art, art. This is an interesting idea and I wonder if all art needs the viewer for it to be complete. Is it still art if the viewer is not there or if the viewer is there but not looking at or interacting with it? For my art and what I want it to do, the viewer has to be there looking at it.

I completely agree with what Hirschhorn says about his work “I do not want to do an interactive work. I want to do an active work. To me, the most important activity that an art work can provoke is the activity of thinking.”

I see my work as being the same. What I want from the viewer is for them to think about the work. I put a part of myself into my work hoping that it will be provoking to the viewer, even if its just for a few minutes.

Studio Visit 2

On Friday I had a photo major come and talk with me about my work that I am doing right now. He pointed out that the folded flowers could be taken as some sort of statement on Japan or the Asian culture in general because of their origins in origami. This could be a problem but I wanted to keep the orderly aspect of paper folding as a contradiction to the chaos the storms cause. In the end I decided to mix making paper flowers by cut outs and folded flowers. He and I felt that some of the image should be recognizable and was needed if I wanted people to get the connection between the storm and the organized flower.

Studio Visit

Friday was my studio visit and I have to say that it was very helpful. I am currently focusing on monotypes related to home (Kansas). I told my group about how I wanted to create these destructive images and then make them into some type of sculptural object like flowers. It is a representation on the cycle of nature- destruction turning into life.

I received suggestions such as: the movement of storms and how it relates to me, digging deeper into the storms and destruction itself, perhaps making it more violent, using film as a medium, and making the prints into something other than the flowers.

I did like all of these suggestions but I am not sure if I will go with any of them yet. I want to keep the idea of making them into flowers because the flowers are a symbol for me of how life returns after the destruction. I prefer to make soft sculptures though I probably could not tell you why at this time. I need to do a bit more digging on why I make all of the decisions I make so I can give people a better idea of where I am coming from and where I want to go with this.