Why

Why do I make art? What do I want to accomplish out of Senior Seminar? What do I want to accomplish as an artist?

When I was three years old my parents came to pick me up from preschool when my teacher came up to them and showed them something I’d drawn that day. She compared my drawing to other children’s and explained that I was drawing in enormous detail for a three-year-old; I drew with perspective and included fingers (apparently fingers are a huge deal). My teacher told my parents that I was going to be artist and so for the rest of my life I identified myself as an artist. In late elementary school and all throughout middle school I skipped recess to sit in the art room or just the classroom to draw and draw. I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember because I’m good at it, and it makes me feel good to see something come together and put my thoughts on paper. My friends never hesitated to express how lucky I was to be able to take something out of my head and make a picture out of it instead of having to use words. Although I loved writing as well, I learned quickly that a picture really is worth a thousand words, and I found myself constantly volunteering my artwork for school projects both in the classroom and out. In fact, St. Timothy’s still has a mural I painted in 8^th grade. I’m the only student to ever have painted something on a wall at that school, almost ten years later. Studying art in college was a no-brainer for me, especially since science and math are literally my worst subjects, and no other subject really appealed to me. In retrospect I’ve grown as an artist at CNU because I have become not only an artist, but an art historian, and I find that art history inspires me to create, and creating inspires me to study. I don’t willingly draw or paint like I used to, it’s become more methodical for me, but I hope to change that in Senior Seminar. Unfortunately, as I’ve gone through college I’ve felt a stronger connection to art history than studio art, and my strongest focus for my senior year is in my Art History Senior Seminar and in applying to grad school to study art history. Studio Art Senior Seminar will be the close to my education in the studio, which is sad, but a little relieving at the same time. I don’t feel heavy pressure anymore because it’s the last requirement I need and I feel a load coming off my shoulders more and more as I plan my project. I feel like I am fine tuning myself as an artist while also really separating myself as an artist and myself as an art historian. And while I leave one field of study behind, I intend to use Senior Seminar as source of closure. The artist inside will not die, but through Senior Seminar I want to make studio art fun again so that should grad school overwhelm me, I can fall back on something comfortable and familiar to me. And I hope to ultimately use my education as an artist to support my opinion as an art historian and fortify me as a scholar.

The feather that started it all....

Without further adieu, the feather that I discovered in Costa Rica from a street artist named Guillermo - my original inspiration. So simple, but so cool as an idea. This is going up in my kitchen as soon as I move back to NPN tomorrow! Just thought I'd post it for the whole wide world to see!

Polly Apfelbaum

Polly Apfelbaum’s work is proof that no matter how strange or uncommon or unconventional one’s inspiration for concept may be, the artwork speaks for itself. The translation of concept and theory into a solid piece of artwork is everything to an artist for the piece to be successful, and everything for the viewer to have the ability to make any sort of sense of the painting. While Apfelbaum’s inspiration may be obvious to him in terms of translation into her artwork, the viewer would have no idea what he or she was actually looking at without reading the artist statement. Her inspiration comes from the old Cartoon Network TV Show, the Powderpuff Girls. One would never realize this just by looking at her artwork, which is mandala-like installations, one of which is housed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, titled Blossom.

Deep. The pink one is Blossom.

Blossom is named after one of the three Powderpuff girls, the red-headed leader who is constantly wearing pink and is the “sugar” out of “sugar, spice and everything nice.” Like Apfelbaum’s other pieces, it resembles a mandala and is displayed on the floor. The piece is colorful and elaborate, comprised of hundreds of pieces of hand-dyed velvet that start out in a color-coded pattern and begin to randomize as the rings grow. The strategy of color keeps the viewer’s eye moving around the piece, constantly observing how the color placement affects the hues, tints and tones of each color from one to the next. Blossom is part of Apfelbaum’s “fallen pieces” series, which reflects superheroes and their personas, the name coming from the nature of the pieces in relation to the ground.

Blossom (the art piece. big difference!)

Apfelbaum draws me in as an artist for two strong reasons. First, the fact that her piece is comprised of color, and is completely dependent on color both visually and conceptually. Every group of three pieces of velvet provides a different combination of color and a different effect on the eye. Second, that she draws inspiration from something so bizarre, but commits to it as an artist and sells the concept through her artwork. Although she draws ideas from something that is literally childish and commercial, he translates it into something deeper and more moving, and she uses color to execute it.

Polly Apfelbaum. The Museum of Modern Art. 2010. Web. 16 August 2011. <http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A5%7CG%3AHI%3AE%3A1&page_number=41&template_id=1&sort_order=2>. 

Color in the Sky

Color, color, color, color, COLOR! This piece is quick, it's spontaneous, and it's not something you'd actually see in the sky. But it's not senseless. And the color in the sky and in the terrain in the foreground sort of halos the mountains in the background, making them the focus of the painting, despite the monotone blue and stylistic differences. It's like two different paintings put into one. It's almost heavenly. 

I love the clever framing that the artist experimented with in this painting. He/she essentially framed a painting within a painting.

Symbolism

I appreciate artwork with a little bit of symbolism. Especially in still life. Everything the artist selects to include is meticulous and carefully chosen - from the flowers, to musical instruments, to birds. Not to mention color. And while too much symbolism and iconography can lead to an allegory painting that absolutely no one understands, like, say, Boticelli's Primavera, or Allegory of Love.

what????

Yes that's a a green guy coming out of a tree and grabbing a terrified looking chick. It's supposed to be wind raping a nymph. Even with the explanation, it still doesn't make sense. Allegorical paintings are like symbolism on steroids. And they're so jacked up they only make sense to the people they're painted for. That's right, sometimes even the painters had no idea what they were painting.

So, clearly, even great artists can over symbolize their point. And suddenly they have something ridiculous. It's gotta be minimal, and effective. And most importantly, the viewer has to have some kind of idea of what is going on, and at least what is symbolically significant, if not aware of what the symbology represents. 

much better!

Simple, but effective. I was originally drawn to this piece because of its COLOR and TEXTURE. Two things that are really important not to mention striking to me as an artist and scholar of art (what up double major!) and then I started looking around at what's in the painting. You've got a clarinet, a stork, and a hippy woman. Could she be pregnant? Or is it a coincidence in the style of her dress? Well then we have the fact that her gaze is looking downward toward her stomach. Of course, I stumbled on the image alone, no artist name, no title, no nothing. So I can't really research what the significance of the clarinet is. But, hey, it's pretty tropical in setting and in color, and the symbology is successful in leading the viewer's eyes throughout the painting.

Silvia Pelissaro

I'm such a fan of Watercolour. It is, in my opinion, one of the most unique mediums. And it truly shows an artist's ability in how it's handled. I admire watercolourists, especially those who know what they're doing and know how to manipulate the paint.

Silvia Pelissaro is a pretty talented watercolourist. And forgive me for being short, brcause I am now blogging on my iPhone while I'm on my break at work... But her use of color is bright and bold and shows careful placement, as not to create ugly washes where contrasting hues blend.

Her pieces are smoothly blended, washy, and color blocked cleverly. Her brushstrokes are quick but meaningful, and she includes a lot of detail in specific parts of the painting, like the lips and in the pupils.

Charles L. Peterson

I HAD to blog about this. Literally could not help myself. Charles L. Peterson is a [talented] watercolour artist whose concept is pretty familiar to me... probably because it's my original concept that I was going to go with for my Senior Sem. WOAH what a coincidence right?!!?! That's what I thought. He paints scenes that discreetly have ghosts of memories sort of hidden in them. And once you see them you can't unsee them. IT'S THE EXACT SAME IDEA I HAD BACK IN APRIL! Talk about small world. Looking through his work is really cool for me because in an essence it allows me to see what my work would have looked similar to outside of my head.

...his images are copyrighted pretty tight.

But I can ramble! So blah blah blah, I had this idea sort of pop into my head in Computer Art with Sir Skees and I really enjoyed working on it and developing my concept. Not to mention the idea got me looking at Tom Chambers, and he's only one of my all time favorite artists ever ever ever. I decided... at the time... that I would base my Senior Sem off of a similar concept, and I was mainly inspired by how thoroughly creepy the Ferguson Center's abandoned shell of a high school STILL stands at CNU and how when I was studying for Northern Renaissance art with my study group in the Painting Studio we started to discuss the likelihood of the Ferg being haunted... and what can I say, I'm drawn to the creepy, no matter how happy and perky I try my very best to come off as. Seeing Peterson's work sort of makes me realize I really am still drawn to this idea/concept. And it's actually the idea I had started working on sketches and paintings for at the beginning of the summer BEFORE I traveled to the Caribbean on a Carnival Cruise and my life changed forever (I don't think that's even possible to find yourself on a Carnival Cruise Line but whatever, I did and I find it hilarious). I want to incorporate this in with my project. Someway SOMEHOW. And time is running out. So needless to say, I still may be pretty scattered when we come back to school. And my art could most likely use some fine tuning. And I'm a hot mess ALL THE TIME. But I feel like the ghosts of my past are ultimately playing a pivotal role in my artwork/concept and they deserve to peek-a-boo in my art. If I end up being really creepy, my apologies in advance.

BUT HEY, you can click on Peterson's name and take a look on how he gets his creep on. Great minds think alike my man.

Luis Hernandez Cruz

Luis Hernandez Cruz is a Puerto Rican graphic artist, painter, and sculptor. His work has an extremely wide range, not only in medium, but in subject matter as well. His graphic pieces appear very digital with a pixilated effect. They vary in color patterns, giving some the illusion of a distorted checkerboard covering an image in the background. His paintings contrast between resembling graphic art designs in texture, and showing his painterly strokes in minimalist pieces. His sculptures are reminiscent of primitive art in terms of the materials and medium with a contemporary touch in purpose. Unlike primitive Caribbean art, Cruz’s sculptures are not meant for actual use either ritualistic or for everyday use. His painterly styled paintings and 3D pieces are the most reminiscent of his Puerto Rican heritage, while his graphic design reflects American or European training. However, as a whole portfolio his work is reflective of a modern Caribbean artist with outside influences, specifically American. In fact, Cruz studied art at both the University of Puerto Rico and the American University in Washington, DC, making him a bit of a medley artist in both his training and his inspiration. No matter where he goes with his art, he stays true to color. He consistently uses a mixture of saturated hues in his pieces. If anything, he avoids tints, shades, and neutral tones, an aspect that is very common in Caribbean art.

Cruz was a pioneer in the 1960s of bringing abstract art to the Caribbean, specifically in implicating it as a legitimate form of art in Puerto Rico. He was so successful in this that he helped found and became the president of the Congress of Abstract Art in Puerto Rico.

I am inspired by Cruz’s passion to bring what he learned in America and believed in as art to Puerto Rico. His passion to change art in Puerto Rico shows passion for his country and for his heritage, an aspect that is admired among all Latin people. No matter where we go in life, we have our roots, and while some people choose to escape their roots and travel as far as possible to do so, others have their loyalties to where they come from no matter where they go in life. Luis Hernandez Cruz is not only an example of cultural pride, but a man who helped bring his culture to date in contemporary art, and who combined his beliefs and concepts as an artist with his heritage. Cruz’s work is inspiring for what it stands for to me. His portfolio is an example of the meshing of culture and applying it wherever he went.

Cruz, Luis Hernandez. Luis Hernandez Cruz: Painter, Printmaker, Sculptor. CCG. 2009. Web. 12 August 2011. <http://www.luishernandezcruz.com/>.

Francoise Nielly

Knife-painting. Forget a brush, who needs it?! Francoise Nielly doesn't, and her portraits are impulsive, emotional, and expressive because of it. She's a great example of the process truly creating the emphasis behind the final result, and her work is outstanding in the simplicity of quick strokes of broken color coming together to make some exquisite details. Her use of color is daring to say the least. It's really hard to paint a pink and green person without it looking like a cartoon. Her pieces are striking and eye-catching, not only for the color, but for the distinction that they are not created by any "normal" means. 

Unfortunately, her photos are copy-righted tight and I can't load an image on here. But click on her name or here and check out some of her work!

Brigitte Delthony

I found an artist, Brigitte Delthony, who is creating ancient/primitive pottery in today's art world. As a whole, I extremely appreciate her stand of being purely inspired by the old. My initial spark in Caribbean art and in defining myself as an artist came from primitive art in the Caribbean.

Although there's nothing modern or contemporary about essentially recreating primitive art with primitive themes, I find it refreshing to see artists revisiting the cultures where art began. And it's reassuring to know that I'm far from the only artist drawing inspiration from the roots of art.

Matthew Cusick

Talk about seriously blowing my mind. This guy does stuff in his art I didn't think was really possible. And I'm jealous I didn't think of it! Look long and hard at Matthew Cusick's piece:

See a map? See a wave? I'm sure you see both. BECAUSE IT IS. It's map art! He cuts up maps and strategically arranges pieces to create a piece of artwork. I think it's effing brilliant. I don't think I could rant and rave anymore. The texture, the color, it's hard to believe what it comes from, but so easy at the same time. And it looks strategic and difficult. The piece above is titled Kara's Wave, and it's my favorite of his many many map pieces. But I mean check this one out:

Three Horses

triple sick.

I'm baffled by how he has the patience to do this! I want to stare at it forever and ever and zoom in and see what parts of the world make all this up. And it's not just ocean pieces of waves. He'll turn a map into anything he wants. The ocean ones are just the most natural, given the color scheme an untouched map allows.

Sniper 1

Note the title. This is actually a portrait of one of the snipers that terrorized the DC metropolitan area in 2004. And yes, the maps that make him up are of the DC metropolitan area, including the specific locations of his victims. Intense enough? Shyeah. Awesome and outspoken? Hell yeah.

To say the least, Cusick is talented. He literally just shot up to my top 10 of coolest and most clever artists I've ever had the pleasure of looking at. I think to be truly creative today you have to be really original and a little witty and I think his work really says that about him.

Tadashi Ikai

Birds and color, oh my GOSH. Birds have fascinated humans for centuries now. Besides their ability to, you know, fly, they're gorgeous. And it all comes down to the feather. It doesn't really take Isaac Newton to figure out that everything that all birds have feathers. And without the feathers, they struggle to fly. Now see, Europeans weren't the only ones who were brainiacs: ancient cultures in both Asia and the Caribbean have been accreditted with being masters of the skies, and therefor, observations. They picked up on the birds pretty quick. And on top of having flight going for them, birds have the tendency of being colorful and whatnot. Birds are inspiring. They do things we can't, and they're given attributes by nature that most humans would kill for (we all kinda want to fly). So, if you can't get your hands on some real life feathers, paint them!

This is Tadashi Ikai's piece titled Blue Ocean is pretty straight up: it's a hummingbird flying over water. Ikai chose to be dramatic and representational of his take on water, making it ultimately obvious through his choice of color. The hummingbird is done in impeccable detail, with every feather visible. His choice of color really grabs me though, I'm a sucker for turquoise and teals. 

Takashi Hirata

FEATHERS! Gotta love art that involves the feather. And, cool thing, Native Americans and Caribbean people aren't the only folks who love feathers in art. So does African and Asian art. I've touched on Africans and feathers a little bit through carnival - in African culture the parading of cultural costume was big. But this isn't about feathers in African art, it's about feathers in Asian art. Like this piece by Takashi Hirata. Feather VII. 

This feather piece is less about where it came from and more about what it can do. Quills are big with Asian art, being that they are the indisputable masters of ink. Hirata's lithograph successfully translates the simple but distinct texture of the feather. His scratches and blots show the differences in what it can do.

Wayne Crothers

I found an exhibition in the Library of Congress (who knew it wasn't just books?!) on Contemporary Japanese Prints from the 50th College Women's Association of Japan Print Show. Japanese art isn't exactly my thing, but I found a lot of the prints sort of intoxicating, and decided to look through the entire online exhibition. A few select pieces not only caught my eye, but blew me away. Now I'm sly, so I'm giving each piece their own post. Because, volume is important. This post is all about Wayne Crothers and his piece Show Me the Way. 

COLOR COLOR COLOR COLOR COLOR!!!!!!! I cannot express how much I love Crothers' use of color and the way he layers it. Not to mention the subject matter of the working man along with the patterned background, mainly the sky. Is it a fence? Is that a wheel? Whatever it is, it flows.

Michael Shapcott

This guy, Michael Shapcott, does some interesting portraits. He focuses on women, and he works in the combination of ink, colored pencil, and paint (my guess is either acrylic or opaque watercolour). His pieces are interesting because of what he adds to the portrait: symbols, spontaneous streaks of paint, and his creative but minimal use of color. In one piece especially (the title is unknown), I think his use of line to create the illusion of scarification is unique. I also admire the organic shapes. God knows why they're there. But it works. It's well thought out but impulsive at the same time.

Video

I think I'm going a little art bat-shit, and I'm getting to the point where I'm like OH I LIKE THIS! OH THAT'S AWESOME! DUDE THAT'S SICK! But, for real, I've basically been working at my computer every spare minute I have. And I don't have a lot of spare time because I work 70 hours a week. All I have time for is sleeping and the occasional meal... so in retrospect I have turned into the starving insomniac artist. Because something has to give right? And I can sleep when I'm dead!

I think I may write StumbleUpon a giant thank you letter. Because this would be impossible without them. And I cannot figure out Pinterest to save my damn soul. So shout out to StumbleUpon, ya'll rock.

Check out these badasses.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2hZ7Ho/vimeo.com/15076572

Reasons I think what they do rocks.

1. I don't know what their concept is, I'm assuming it's some kind of marriage-esque union thing going on. But I dig looking at it even though I don't get it. And I really appreciate the time and detail that went into it.
2. THE DETAIL! Oh my gosh, it's like pattern like I've never seen. You could stare at that thing for about 4 hours and keep seeing new stuff.
3. The color. The saturation. The mixed media of acrylic and watercolour and how they're applied. 
4. The symbology that I don't get at all. It's not just people. It's like composite figures. 

Julio Rosado del Valle

Julio Rosado del Valle's artwork is extremely reflective of Wifredo Lam, as I previously blogged, one of the Caribbean's most influential artists of all time. Like Lam, he uses strong strokes and focuses on similar subject matter. It's not uncommon for Santeria and voudoon to come up in Caribbean art due to the wide practice of the combination of ancient beliefs (both Caribbean and African) with Christianity influenced by the conquistadors and conquering cultures. The hybrid result is the Santeria and voudoo symbology and icons that we see in Caribbean art - they are essentially the locals' way of hiding their own sacred motifs and camouflaging them as otherwise. Julio Rosado del Valle's work is extremely reflective of these motifs, very much like Wifredo Lam.

But, Wifredo Lam got a full lengthy response from me, and Valle doesn't, purely because I don't think he developed his work as much as he could have. He does, however, show consistency as a Caribbean artist, and I respect his work.

Bernadette Persaud

Bernadette Persaud is a Guyanese painter who studied art at both the University of Guyana and the Burrows School of Art in Georgetown. Her work is reflective of political unease, with her most famous work coming out of her series Gentlemen in the Gardens which depicts camouflaged soldiers hiding in jungle-like scenes. 

Her paintings convey the beauty and color of the Caribbean while also exposing the dangers of the jungle - and its not spotted beasts or snakes, but men with guns. The Caribbean is full of hostile people, both in terms of government and mercenaries, and it taints the beauty of the land and the climate. This unfortunate combination makes many Caribbean artists from restless countries, such as Persaud, proud of their heritage but intent on alerting people of the unexpected and seemingly unlikely dangers in the jungle.

Raul Martinez

Talk about political art in the Caribbean. Raul Martinez's art is bright and colorful (which, naturally is what attracted me to him) but also serves a political purpose. In essence, a lot of his pieces look like bright, Cuban campaign posters.

Camilo Cienfueges

Martinez is a pop-art artist, sort of like a Cuban Andy Warhol.  His pieces revolve around the Cuban Revolution and have earned him a name among great Caribbean artists. His graphic designs and paintings have been featured in both Cuba and the US. 

I'm drawn to Martinez's bold use of color. I love pop-art, always have. When I was 13 I had an Andy Warhol poster in my room while everyone else had Eminem. Rough times. Pop-art is simple and ultimately helped unleash Cuban artists like Martinez. Do art. And do a lot of it.

Rene' Portocarrero

Rene Portocarrero was a 20^th century Cuban artist who began his training at the young age of 14 and quickly became a bull in the industry of art, rebelling against the academies that educated him and going rogue as an artist. After becoming a professor in art himself, he began his travels to Haiti, Europe, and the US, and ultimately landed in New York where he defined himself as a ceramics and mural artist. His work is simple, colorful and strong in line and concept. Portocarrero’s work paid off in landing him several exhibits throughout the Western Hemisphere, including the Museums of Modern Arts of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and San Francisco and the National Museum in Havana. He is arguably one of the most famous artists to come out the Caribbean, let alone Cuba.

Portocarrero’s work became well known because of his style: mentally develop the painting as the brush hits the canvas. His spontaneously style of painting created a very hybrid form of art – brushy, stylized art that captures the natural handling of the paint, with modern subject matter. He is a perfect example of Caribbean Modern Art.

Portocarrero’s color palette is especially inspiring. His work varies from using muddy tones with pops of saturation, to pure saturated color on a neutral canvas with strong use of line. Cerro, Interior, is an example of one of his muddier and brushier pieces. His heavy use of paint is evident in providing a blurry sense of atmosphere from fat brushstrokes. The details of the painting are vague and difficult to make out outside large organic shapes. His thick brushstrokes allows for thick strokes of broken color that make up the woman’s skin tone and dress. Her arms especially pop, with some unexpected color combinations.

Portocarrero’s portfolio is all over the place between geometric and organic shapes, saturated and dull color, hard lines and soft brushstrokes. I admire his array of talent, however, in terms of inspiration, I choose to focus on the pieces that include brushy techniques and saturated color. His pieces with a more simple use of line and strong color strike me in how effective they are in reflecting Caribbean motifs. They also, for the most part, include feather-like headdresses on profiles of women, which is intriguing to say the least to a student of Caribbean art. His work as a whole impresses me, especially in terms of his range, and his choice of Caribbean women as his subject matter.

Rene' Portocarrero. Cernuda Arte. 2002-2011. Web. 11 August 2011. <http://www.cernudaarte.com/cgi-local/artists.cgi?aid=44>.