Critique #3 with Liz Thach

On Saturday I met with my mentor, Liz, for our (gulp) second-to-last meeting. She said I've been developing clearer pictures, that I'm starting to build a visual hierarchy. I'm still not sure what these pictures are trying to convey, but she saw in them a "quiet alienation", "quirkiness", and "sentimentality", which I've got to come to grips with. It's okay to be sentimental, but I've got to realize it and be purposeful. She advised me to look at Bill Viola, John Curran, and Lisa Yuskavage for works that play with kitch and self-loathing.

These are some of the paintings I've been working on. Or are they drawings? Most are still in progress.

I'm wondering, though, where to go next. How many more drawings can I make of slightly strange goings-on in my house? What's the point of them? are they personal narratives? What am I adding to them with the scribbling and words and cartoons? Why do I feel the need to ruin everything at least a little?

Toy Stories by photographer Gabriele Galimberti

 http://www.boredpanda.org/children-toy-stories-gabriele-galimberti/

Home sick with a stomach bug,  I came across this article on boredpanda.com: Toy Stories, by photographer Gabriele Galimberti. Please look at all the pictures on the original site-- they are really striking!

Galimberti spent 18 months traveling around the world, photographing children and their toys. He often played with them first and learned revealing things about their values and their parents' values (wealthier children were often more possessive, for example, and didn't want him to share their stuff). Some kids ascribed supernatural powers to their toys. A plastic dinosaur from Texas and from a plastic dinosaur from Africa were both said to protect their owners at night.

Isn't this what I'm doing? Painting myself together with my toys? Possessiveness and ownership and how the privilege of my childhood has colored my adult life is something I want to think about.

Theme 3: Matisse-inspired paintings, continued

Update:

Working hard. Realized that the 'prettiness' of the images I've been making is bothering me, so I've been roughing them up a little. Not sure if scribbling on top of the paintings is a crutch or an interesting stylistic choice... I guess it depends whether they turn out well or not, huh?

This one I'm leaving as is. I think I've got my first finished painting! 

in progress:

 

another in-progress

Theme #3: Inspired by Matisse's interiors

Long way to go here, but I think the sketch looks like me, and is properly
angst-ridden.Is the laptop too small? I think it is.

Diptychs: 

Groups of two: Inspiration, variation.

One painting is by Henri Matisse and the other painting (in progress!) is mine.

Size is 22(or 24)x30.

I bought ten sheets of good watercolor paper and they're hanging out on the floor of my living room. Working on about six at the moment.

Going to keep adding and taking away until they feel right. Been working for about a week, almost every night. I feel pretty good about their progress! 

I want to be bolder, though, about color -- and I want to develop a narrative inside each piece. 

The first one I did. I like parts of it... but what is it about?

Living room. 

This one will be taking place in my art room at school.

Kind of goofy-- this one changed the most from its original composition. Naked lady's head has turned into the penguin humidifier. The plant has transformed into Kitty!

"How I Became 100 Artists"- TED talk by Shea Hembrey

This post is officially devotes to Shea Hembrey's TED talk: "how I became 100 artists."

http://www.ted.com/talks/shea_hembrey_how_i_became_100_artists.html

This is a guy who is funny, prolific, but doesn't just stop at an idea-- he ACTS! He curated his own biennial by dreaming up back stories for 100 artists and actually making their work-- and each 'artist' is more clever and surprising than the last.

Instead of deciding which is 'best' or 'right', I want to doubt my work less and make everything! Eke out one idea at a time. Be patient! Be strong! Say goodbye to all remaining crumbs of a social life!

So awesome.

Theme #2B: Paintings of Sculptures

Recent drawings and paintings of the play-doh characters:

Trying lots of different media and sizes.

11"x14"

11x14"

5x7"

18"x24"

18"x 24"

5"x7"

big and ugly: 18"x22". Grey structure is made of business-related mail.

Theme #2 redux: Characters 3D

I was stuck. My mentor, Liz Thach, gave me this terrific assignment:

Sculpt at least 6 characters from my bestiary, using household materials, and then create at least 6 paintings of the figurines on paper.

Making these little guys with play-doh was one of the most positive creative experiences I've had in a long time. Wrestling with the material managed to get me out of my own head. (And the entire house smelled like cookies).

I'm looking forward to setting these up with dramatic lighting and getting started on paintings.

Doughy characters-- a little bit burnt. I like the way they swelled up in the oven and look a little bit chunky.

Characters assembled! Including: Red Chair, Bunny Guy, Robot, Sea Monster Thing, Kitty, Penguin Humidifier, Apple, Sharpie, Two Mugs, Scissors, my boyfriend Jon (he is doing his nightly floor exercises), and me, with a backpack and determined expression. The rest of the sculptures were less successful.

Theme #2: Bestiary/Catalogue

After thinking a lot about archives, anthologies, and jumbles of stuff, I've spent some time working on pages for a giant book of imagery.

Temp name:  
the 
Book of Things. 

Here are some early sketches...
I don't know, though...

 

 ------------------------------------------------

From Kalman's The Principles of Uncertainty, a book
 (journal? collection? archive?) chronicling a year in her life
through thoughts, observations, and photographs.

I'm not happy with what I've been making, though. While sort of promising, these drawings feel uninspiring... I'm going to leave them posted here, though, along with the ideas I was thinking about. Am I just being impatient? Do I want a three-hundred page volume but lack the discipline to actually go through with it? I try making one page at a time, but then I think of the 800 unmade pages and the ceiling caves in. Sigh. Get stronger, Steph!

------original post--------
I'm aspiring towards a combination of Maira Kalman's The Principles of Uncertainty and a Medieval bestiary. I like Kalman's contemporary themes and her journal-type mixture of thoughts and beautiful (guache?) paintings. I've been obsessed with mythical beasts since childhood and have resolved to learn more about the artists who paint them, and some of the psychology behind these creatures. I've also been struggling with wanting to create something 'big', with quantity, with dissatisfaction, with questioning the worth of my constant need to document (and validate) my existence. I thought a bestiary might be a good way of mushing it all together, of finding a common way to express an experience.

My favorite thing about medieval bestiaries (besides the endlessly imaginative details) is the lack of differentiation between 'real' animals and 'fantastical' ones. The author of the manuscript had never seen a manticore or a hydra, but then again he had never seen a rhinoceros or whale before, either. These creatures exist on the pages right next to each other. I think my brain functions in a similar way-- there's some kind of filter or hierarchy missing, so it's all a jumble at the same level-- hipster cartoon characters are right there next to NStar and Comcast bills and merge with school obligations and guilt about my cat's weight and freestyle rapping and tea.

There's a lot going on there...  it's probably too much to chew. I'm getting overwhelmed just thinking about it... So I started from the safety of my bed, cataloguing favorite objects in my room and other things I can see. Eventually I want to include feelings, imaginary creatures, specters and ghosts, and include them indiscriminately amongst the more tangible objects.





Inspirations:

• Mythologies by Roland Barthes-- it comments on the mythical qualities of everyday things, like wresting matches and detergent.
• The Principals of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman
• Here Be Dragons: a Fantastic Bestiary by Ariane and Cristian Delacampagne
• Hieronymus Bosch, biography