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Final Index

Introduce Yourself: Final 

QCQ #1: Chapter 1. Notes on the Gallery Space

Independent Museum Visit Assignment

3 Works: Thesis Ideas

moodboard 1 link

moodboard 2 link

moodboard 3 link

QCQ #2: Chapter 2. The Eye and the Spectator

QCQ #3: Chapter 3. Context and Content

QCQ #4: Against Interpretation

Redo/Undo: Final

Independent Practice: Final

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Independent Practice - Final

"Go Fast (Savor the Moment)" 2023, graphite on engineering paper, 8 x 8.5 inches.

  “You must be the best. You must do it now. You must do it fast.”   These phrases cycle through my head as a pesky mantra to navigate through life. This illustration challenges the idea of how our quick-paced society conditions us to think fast is better, better must be faster.  When we accept this mentality, we refuse to savor the moment. All that a rush leaves behind is the absence of detail or a blurry memory of reality, two key components of living which I believe define us as a species. The ability to observe, recognize, capture. Yet, we are often left longing to transcend into the future or cling to the past because the present typically feels all too familiar.

Imagine life being treated as if it were the last candy on Earth. Would you eat it quickly, in two bites, or would you let it slowly melt in your mouth, enjoying the taste till the very last bit?  

(In case you're wondering why the piece looks different, it's because I took the class critiques into consideration and decided to develop the piece some more :) )

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Redo/Undo - Final

"Run the Numbers: Swimmer" 2023, acrylic and ink on Florida Lottery ticket, 3 x 5.5 inches

"Run the Numbers: Table Tennis Player" 2023, acrylic and ink on Florida Lottery ticket, 5.5 x 3 inches.

These are two works from an on-going series I'm working on titled "Run the Numbers". I've been interested in the idea of chance and how much the hand or mind of an individual can go into affecting aspects of luck. The lottery and sports are two things which may seem like total opposites at a glance but I have connected them together through this theme of chance. One can train each day, improve their ability as an athlete, but there is always the chance of losing depending who is on the other side of the net, court, or right beside you at the starting line. In this series, I am painting caricatures of athletes on lotto tickets to reaffirm this idea of the unknown. Lotto works similarly to sports, you can study it, play numbers consistently, and often make a couple bucks here and there. I believe it is all about mentality and putting in an effort. If one believes they have the chance to succeed, then they can.

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QCQ 4 - Against Interpretation

QUOTE: "Interpretation must itself be evaluated, within a historical view of human consciousness. In some cultural contexts, interpretation is a liberating act. It is a means of revising, of transvaluing, of escaping the dead past. In other cultural contexts, it is reactionary, impertinent, cowardly, stifling."

COMMENT: In my experience, I have seen interpretation be given / received in both ways that are mentioned above. I would say here (in the west) it is seen more as the latter, an act of cowardice, a reaction. However, it can often be seen as the former depending on how such interpretation is verbalized. I'm guilty of both. I like to believe I interpret artworks in a way which could benefit the artist while also trying to understand where they are coming from and expand my way of thinking. I often tend to feel that any negativity attached to my interpretation comes off as defensive though due to the general thought processes of other artists I speak with. I try to approach the subject in a non-biased way, to not come off as overly-praising or too negative. When interpreting, one must try to understand what it is that they are looking at through placing it in a context of who the artist is, why they create, and why they do it in their style. Another point to keep in mind when interpreting is how could the artist make this better. The final point could lead to some great advice for your own practice.

QUESTION: Should we constantly be questioning an artist's intentions (even if we enjoy their work), or should we take what they produce / say at face-value? As a student who reads about art, writes about it, writes about theory, produces artwork, do you believe your favorite artists are being honest with their intentions, or do you think there is another layer to their work which they are not sharing with the audience?

Korean artist Kim Jung Gi working on a mural. His work is extremely imaginative. I've always believed he is probably one of the most open artists to ever exist - never gatekeeping his ways of thinking, his techniques, and where he pulls inspiration from. Since his passing last year, I have revisited his erotic sketch collection, "Omphalos", almost every day. His erotic work is something he never really touched based on despite the collection containing over 400 pages of sex scenes and cartoon orgies. He was a charismatic character with a wife, kids, friends, and a successful art career which leaves me thinking: where did these intense fantasies spawn from?

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QCQ 3 - Context and Content

QUOTE: "Ultimately projects - it seems to me - are a form of historical revisionism waged from a privileged position.That position is defined by two assumptions: that projects are interesting apart from being " art" - that is, they have a somewhat vernacular existence in the world; and that they can appeal to untrained as well as trained sensibilities".

COMMENT: I found this quote relevant because I am constantly questioning my own art, how it would be displayed, how it would be received by others (viewers and artists alike) and what purpose it is serving in a contemporary art setting. I believe these questions are always floating in beginner to intermediate level artists who have not yet made a name for themselves or found their voice in the arts yet. For your art to be successful, it must resonate with you on a personal level. You must be able to look at your work pragmatically and question your techniques, your concepts, and the level of artifice at which it is being displayed. This will vary from artist to artist depending on medium, intention, and idea. Ultimately the goal is to be able to confidently answer these questions as you go along in you artistic practice, gain a deep understanding why you make the art you share with the world.

QUESTION: Given the context of this quote and comment, do you believe it is important to experiment as an artist? Do you think branching out to new mediums and ideas typically helps an artist find their voice or do you think it is better to be consistent in one's practice, building momentum?

Philip Guston, "For M", 1955.

Philip Guston, "Riding Around", 1969.

Two radically different paintings by the same artist. It's hard to answer the question I posed in this discussion due to our own biases and tastes on art. I guess my answer to the question would be that although I have a favorite out of these two, they serve different purposes. One is an exploration of material, while the other is a commentary on society in the 1960s.

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QCQ 2 - The Eye and the Spectator - 9/6/23

QUOTE: "For The Spectator and The Eye are conventions which stabilize our missing sense of ourselves. They acknowledge that our identity is itself a fiction, and they give us the illusion we are present through a double-edged self-consciousness. We objectify and consume art, then, to nourish our nonexistent selves or to maintain some esthetic starveling called 'formalist man.'"

COMMENT: This quote stood out to me because it shifts the focus from an artist's perspective to that of a viewer or rather to the relationship between the viewer and the work being presented. "they give us the illusion we are present through a double-edged self-consciousness" is precisely how I feel when having conversations about my art with peers, informally with a stranger, or during a critique. The ego wants to fight and defend it's creation, yet it knows it's better left at the door during a critique while the rest of the mind absorbs information to make the work stronger. Yet the ego can be used to shine in other contexts, it is necessary for it to exist when speaking on behalf of the work to a stranger or pitching it to an important person who might give you a good opportunity.

QUESTION: If an artist creates all day, but never shows their work, never shares enough information about their work to cause conversation, does that discredit their practice? In this context would their work be considered art or something else?

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Independent Museum Visit - 9/6/23

This week I went to the FIU Wolfsonian and saw a load of artworks throughout their 3 exhibition spaces. One piece I really enjoyed was Harry Clarke's "Geneva Window" 71 x 40 inches, stained glass, 1929. Clarke was an Irish illustrator who was commissioned by the League of Nations (precursor to United Nations) to create a stained glass window which represented the people of Ireland through themes found in well-known Irish literature. However, the window was seen as too controversial to be installed. Clarke let his imagination run wild with this piece. He shows the Irish being drunk, shows elven creatures from folklore in erotic ways, and even pokes fun at the rich who run the country. I love the illustrative style in this piece. Being on stained glass and in color just adds on to Clarke's illustrations. I also like that he did not feel the need to censor his artwork despite the work originally being made as a highly important commission. Today, the Irish government wants the work back, but The Wolfsonian is keeping hold of it... kind of like a fight for a treasure which was nationally shunned years ago.

One work I didn't really enjoy was this painting, Mann im Morgenlicht [Man in Morning Light], 30 x 40 inches, oil on canvas, 1927 by Hans Franke. Originally, the landscape in the background caught my attention but I feel as though it was ruined by the stiff, doll like figure in the foreground. The piece feels deeply religious but in a modern way as Franke wished to represent the connection between the body and the Earth / Heavens. It feels a bit cliche for my liking, I personally like art that contains a bit of a grungier energy. This piece just feels oddly sterile, despite being rendered beautifully.

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WIP Thesis II - Sometimes I Lose Some Time to Play With That Friend

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Mood board 3 - people and interests + trashed future

This series would kind of be a combination of the two previous boards. I would bounce back and fourth between graphite drawings, digital drawings, and overlay drawings (traditional line work + digital color and tone manipulation). The works would be displayed in a pretty standard way, one piece next to another, but I would like to display them by having them punched in with rusty nails, or maybe hanging from a visible piece of masking tape. Aside from having the drawings next to each other, something else I could do is print 1 work or figure from the batch I make and make it bigger by printing it on separate pieces of A3 paper. I think this is the one I'm going to go with as I can jump around my two favorite mediums and basically work all day. If I get sick of graphite I move to digital and vice versa, constantly working on a different drawing. I'd like to have at least 10 small (below A3 size) drawings for this exhibition and 1 large printed "central figure". I've seen someone do the printed figure thing online, heres an example. Same idea for mine but not as huge considering the exhibition is inside and this would be my first time doing this.

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Mood board 2 - people and interests

I was thinking of talking to random people on campus / the street / places in the city who's look I find interesting (face, hair, fashion, personality) and drawing them. The drawings would be kind of a collage / still life styled work, on the portrait or figure I draw of each person I would add more cartoony styled drawings and render them to look like stickers, "pasting" them on top of other parts of the drawing. This series would be in graphite, all on the same kind of paper. The picture of the single drawing is what I would do for this series (my original drawing) and the screenshot with tiles of works is what inspired this look (artist known as Snakebone).

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mood board 1 - trashed future big guns 15 minute city security systems

i have one idea where im thinking about creating a series of illustrations that have to do with a future "cyberutopia" i think the direction of the world is going towards. were gonna have raybans that plug into our skulls and program music into our brains in only a matter of years. in 2030 were gonna be living in trench-like hundred of miles long cities with giant walls to keep us in. no one will have a reason to leave their pods or mega-city-shopping-center-apartment-complexes. we will eat slop made of synthetic meat, animal products will be illegal, population will be at an all time low. we will die off as a race, we will cause our own extermination, minus those who will rebel.......... would be drawn a similar style to these screen shots. either pencil work with limited spot color or digital pieces. not sure which to go with.

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Here’s a drawing of a lion I made last month and presented in Thesis II. The mean meaning behind this work was to study the style of old Italian renaissance sculptures, specifically the style animals are done in. I’m interested in the blocky and less refined nature of the animal sculptures from this time period and I think this kind of style would translate nicely to drawings. I also wanted to practice mixing the type of sketchy / hatching / veiling shading styles in one work. I’m not really a deep artist, I honestly just like drawing for fun, I like to draw figures from imagination, I like to twist things I see in life / reference. My goal for Thesis II is to create as much work as possible, maybe make 9x12” drawings between the span of a day or two. I aim to show these works side by side, trying to find some connecting overlapping theme.

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8/28/23 - Notes on the Gallery Space

QUOTE: "Systems are a kind of P.R. which, among other things, push the rather odious idea of progress. Progress can be defined as what happens when you eliminate the opposition."

COMMENT:

These two sentences in the reading interested me because they seem almost contradicting at a glance. The author states "systems" (the opposition, the limitations we are confined to in a space) ignite the spark of creativity, allowing us to progress and create new ways of displaying artwork. Yet, the author also states progress is what happens when the opposition is eliminated. To me, the author is saying that innovation occurs when we try to solve a problem, in this case the problem is exhibiting art work in a way that doesn't feel claustrophobic (salon style) or one where the works shown feel out of reach from each other (modern day white cube style). This limitation forces artists to think about how they want their work to be seen by the public eye before even laying down a stroke on their canvas. The display style should also reinforce the concept through all means possible to create a sense artifice between the work shown and the space it exists in.

It's quite the mission, to make something that is technically interesting, conceptually structural, and ingeniously presented. I believe here is where the opposition aforementioned needs to be transformed into a support character. This is where artists collaborate with curators and galleries to create exhibitions that feel genuine, not just a collection of images on a wall with circular colored stickers next to each work. Perhaps a curator could even select a work or series from an artist's portfolio to focus on, designing an environment that would best communicate what the artist is trying to say. I've personally always thought about this, specifically when it comes to digital art.

3. QUESTION: As digital art seems to be a medium on the rise for both commercial (illustration, graphic design) and more artistically expressive types of works, do you think digital artists should make an effort to publicly display (excluding social media) work made with this medium? Or are they better off leaving their work to only exist in cyberspace?

Digital art gets the short end of the stick in my experience. If there isn't some sort of highly advanced, giant, system of displaying the work (think about visuals at music festivals, installations that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of electronics to produce) then the art just feels like a passing ad on a television screen. Being that digital art mostly exists online, or in printed form, this is definitely something I want to figure out because of the love I have for the medium itself. I just really don't like any examples I've seen (so far) of it being presented for the public eye (aside from social media, blogs, and websites).

Maurizio Gomez.