Contemporary photo based art

straight: the oldest of old school. Straight photography is what it sounds like just plain photo shots of objects and people. Sounds simple. Its not. When you take away all the toys and trick, you remove all the cliches satire and you are left with composition, light, darkness, movement, line, form and beauty. This in my opinion is where photography truly becomes art or, more often then not, trash. With the right camera at the right place with the right eye and artist can take an image that will become synonymous with that place or time etc. but, if even one of those elements is not perfect and you are left with mundane rubbish.

Steeling: something that has been at the core of photography since its inception. Even at the beginning photographers stole ideas and inspiration from the paintings of grate masters this may very well be to blame for the hesitance of traditional artists to except photography as an art. In later years photographers now look to steel ideas, images, personalities and icons in an attempt to create new worlds or simply make a name for themselves out of shocking the art word.

constrictive world: when thinking bout this idea with a modern knowledge of art and the tools available ones mind instantly goes to photoshop and the infinite possibilities it offers. However, this is just as old as any concept in photography, artist have been arranging models in elaborate sets for well over a hundred years in order to create and recreate works of art like those of the old masters.

stranger than fiction: sometimes the world is enough. We have all seen things that we didn't think possible, things that could not and can not be explained. I'm sure its not a stretch to say that we have all seen things which people have created that seem impossible, a shark forever entombed in a museum, or people walking from building to building on wires no bigger than your finger. These things seem fictional and if captured by any medium other than photography they would lose all creditability whatsoever. However, despite the illusions we can create through the use of photoshop and other tools people still tend to believe a photo long before they would a painting or other work. Making it the perfect medium to capture such images.

personal narrative: the truth that photography can offer though the use of straight photography make it ideal for personal narratives. If you were to take a camera with you everywhere you go for one year and take a photo of those places you see the people you meet and yourself doing the things you do everyday, anyone could have a wonderful clear idea or who you are as a person. Assuming you were honest with what you took pictures of. For this purpose the photo is better than almost all and at least par with videography .   

Mark making Mini poster crit

I am afraid I have misplaced or deleted the images that go along with mini poster crit but I still have the notes so here's what I have (not direct quotes). Bad news first, as always

Bad (regarding an overview of all the mini posters): There seems to be a narrow range in type of mark, mainly seeming to do with drips or splatters etc. The words in some of the works seem “Bla” and don't become marks themselves.

Bad (regarding the final poster): {I don't know if this is a bad thing} this piece is much better turned to portrait rather than landscape like you had it.

Good (regarding an overview of all mini posters): The marks hold a lot of emotion, they are strong and masculine, closure is very strong ie it is easy to imagine these as violent or scary especially with the phrase. The words have good spacing, the meaning is clear and makes the marks look like monsters or blood.

Good (regarding the final poster): the words in the final work are easy to read and the one sideways word captures interest, the mark seems like blood and the phrase helps that.

My crit.

Bad: Some of the works seemed like cartoon villeins even though they were ink blots so maybe that's just me. I had a hard time not getting the feeling that the pieces seemed cliche.

Good: The final piece needed the most interpretation and I believe that help to make is less cliches. The placement of the words were similar to that of Da-Da art something I always like. Da-Da also worked in nonsense and chaos much like the way the marks were made in the first place so I felt this fitting.  


I found the pictures:

bugs

motion

balance

rhythm/relation

space

texture

color

shape

line

whole object

abstraction

scale

positive space

negative space

closure

light/dark

MFAH Museum questions

1. What was the most enjoyable thing you saw?

• I really enjoyed the Spanish Contemporary exhibit, this was the first time I had seen it.

2. What was the most disturbing thing you saw?

• I don't think I would classify anything there as Disturbing.

3. What piece in the museum is most like something you would make yourself?

• I don't know an exact piece but if I had the abilities I would sculpt marble in the Greek classical style. However, as I stand with my abilities now I would and do similar work as those found in the Spanish Contemporary works.

4. What made you curious, what did you want to know more about?

• Once again it would have to be the contemporary exhibit simply because I am well acquainted with this museum and its permanent collection.

Self portrait crit

So got a big reaction I'm always for that. People seemed to like the piece and touching it proved to be to much of a temptation for many people but that was fine me for this work and nothing got out so no harm done. Ok, the crit.

Good: The bees; they brought movement, color and tension to the piece. The bowl: was clean lined and simplistic. The Bible: brought a whole other element to the piece and let if up to interpretation, using a large old Bible made it more affective as a statement.

Bad: um... they seemed to like it

Interpretation: 1. The Bible was protecting everyone from the danger. 2. The Bible was an ideal that no one reach. 3. The Bible was killing us, thus we were the bees. 4. The Bible was heaven the bees were hell.

self crit

I wish I could have had more bees but I was happy the piece worked at all so I’m not complaining.

The first interpretation was right, and proved that my meaning came through however I felt the viewers were led away from my meaning in an attempt to vary the interpretations.   

Thanks to Mark and Juston for helping me catch the bees and Tam for the pics and the rest of T5 yall always rock and you know who you are 

Thats pretty good, for a girl: lecture of feminism, fem-nazis and being cunt-positive

Thats pretty good, for a girl: lecture of feminism, fem-nazis and being cunt-positive

Feminism is often thought of as a product of the 60s but this is by no means true. However, in the art world this is when things really took to flight. Before the 60s and the out and out woman’s lib movement the art world was highly resistant and restrictive towards the fairer sex. For centuries women were limited to “woman's work” visa vie tapestries, ceramics and so forth. Mediums such as painting, drawing, photography and sculpture were mostly restricted to men, at least in schools and art guilds. During the late 50s and 60s feminist artists had taken a notable place in all the fields of art world though this was seldom recognized. However, women artist still had and have a tendency to restrict themselves in their choice of mediums. To this day women tend to favor interactive arts such as performance art or interactive installation pieces. Psychologists would say that this is due to woman's natural ability and desire to express and share emotions. This is by no means a hindrance; more it is simply a different point of view giving an insight to women which is often out of the reach of the average male artist. People segregate and restrict one another this is a unpleasant reality of the world we live in but the average person, artist, student etc would be hard pressed to distinguish male from female art without a knowledge of the artist in question. Basically you girls are just as good as us boy yall are just different. The end

notes from the board

1 essentials: the persona, body, sexuality, vaginal icon, affirmative attributes

2 materials/techniques unique to women 

3. distinguish art of men and women

Pretty good for a girl

I chose to work with metaphoric representations of the human form similar to O’Keefe but in a style more like that of Weston. The images were shot using straight photography in direct sunlight and were not touched up, or altered. The meaning behind the use of candy and the positioning of the candy were thought out and can be explained if asked for, but until then I will leave it up for interpretation.