Tuesday, April 21, 2009
2nd juried show entry
So this is going to seem a little random since I haven't posted my 1st juried show blog yet but I had been kind of worried that I wasn't going to be able to find another show to enter before the end of the semester. Luckily I verbalized that concern and was referred to http://www.artshow.com/juriedshows/. Its the first thing that shows up when you google search juried art shows and it has a list of all sorts of shows coming up and has links to whoever is hosting the show. I found one through artnetwork.com that is open to pretty much any kind of work and is asking for digital submissions. I though that the way that they had this set up was convenient of course but also very cool. They host the images of everyone's work on the website and visitors vote for the work that they like best. only after that do the jurors get to rank the works. The piece that gets the most votes gets the people's choice award and 4th prize but may also be selected by the jury for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd prize. Based on some of what I saw in the galleries at artnetwork.com, I think that I have a fair chance to get voted in but have no idea what kind of turnout they are expecting. Anyway I just wanted to post about this because I was excited about finding it. I will post any kind of confirmation I get from my submission upon receiving it.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Anderson Gallery
Today I got a chance to stop by and check out what was accepted to the Juried Student Fine Art Exhibition at the Anderson Gallery. I had planned to enter this show to fulfill the requirements of this class but as my luck goes, I somehow totally forgot about it the day they collected submissions. After seeing the works that were accepted, I am glad I didn't waste the money on the application fee. The 2-D works that were accepted were presented much better than I had. I guess that I had just overlooked this aspect because I felt as if the prints were good enough on their own that the framing would not matter much. I was wrong though, DUH! 8x10's in cheap ass frames don't look like much compared to larger matted prints in nice frames. Not that I couldn't have still used 8x10's but I really should have considered presentation more.
photocopy portraits titled "Confinements of Ourselves" were As for the content, I thought the show had a decent mix of different mediums. The majority of works seemed worthy of their inclusion. Though some bared no significance to me, I'm sure there is a market for that kind of work. Just not all my cup of tea. From the photography that was selected for the show, there were a few that I particularly enjoyed. ArlieTrowbridge'scompositionally strong. Her technique was unlike the other photography included in the show. It reminded me of the x-ray photography of Nick Veasey a bit but I liked that, unlike Veasey, she didn't make it seamless and I could tell where one scan began and ended.Miles Pennington's South Laurel Street was also a unique approach to photography. He used individual cutouts of photographs of the street setup within an accordion display. I guess I also cared about this peace because I live on that block. He presented it better than I see it most times.
Though I didn't note particulars (because there were about 8 or so), I thought that a lot of the video art was pretty impressive from what I saw. Even more impressive was the fact that all but one of the videos were done by AFO students. There was one that looked like it consisted of about a billion different illustrations of characters rapidly transitioning to different characters with similar form that smoothly transform, all in sync with the music. There was another that was just a closeup on eyes twitching and whatnot. Cliche if you ask me. Another video of people running and dancing around with white sheets at night in a Christmas tree lot was worth the minute or so. It had that feel good vibe going on that made you want to jump into the screen and join in.
Other than photography and other 2d works, there were just a few that I really like. One of my favorites was by Emily Wright, a craft/materials studies junior. Her "Germophobic Jewelry" was I guess what you could call functional and yet fashionable. The way that she displayed them sort of gave them this morbid feel. In a black box under glass, they looked like some sort of specimen. The use of both Sterling silver and latex was an unlikely combination that I wouldn't have imagined working together but it seems that Emily understands what she is working with pretty well.
Perhaps next year I will have thought out my entry a bit more and maybe even remember that I actually need to submit my work to be accepted. Either way, I always value any chance to see what my fellow artists are up to and it's nice to have seen first hand what this gallery particularly favors.
photocopy portraits titled "Confinements of Ourselves" were As for the content, I thought the show had a decent mix of different mediums. The majority of works seemed worthy of their inclusion. Though some bared no significance to me, I'm sure there is a market for that kind of work. Just not all my cup of tea. From the photography that was selected for the show, there were a few that I particularly enjoyed. ArlieTrowbridge'scompositionally strong. Her technique was unlike the other photography included in the show. It reminded me of the x-ray photography of Nick Veasey a bit but I liked that, unlike Veasey, she didn't make it seamless and I could tell where one scan began and ended.Miles Pennington's South Laurel Street was also a unique approach to photography. He used individual cutouts of photographs of the street setup within an accordion display. I guess I also cared about this peace because I live on that block. He presented it better than I see it most times.
Though I didn't note particulars (because there were about 8 or so), I thought that a lot of the video art was pretty impressive from what I saw. Even more impressive was the fact that all but one of the videos were done by AFO students. There was one that looked like it consisted of about a billion different illustrations of characters rapidly transitioning to different characters with similar form that smoothly transform, all in sync with the music. There was another that was just a closeup on eyes twitching and whatnot. Cliche if you ask me. Another video of people running and dancing around with white sheets at night in a Christmas tree lot was worth the minute or so. It had that feel good vibe going on that made you want to jump into the screen and join in.
Other than photography and other 2d works, there were just a few that I really like. One of my favorites was by Emily Wright, a craft/materials studies junior. Her "Germophobic Jewelry" was I guess what you could call functional and yet fashionable. The way that she displayed them sort of gave them this morbid feel. In a black box under glass, they looked like some sort of specimen. The use of both Sterling silver and latex was an unlikely combination that I wouldn't have imagined working together but it seems that Emily understands what she is working with pretty well.
Perhaps next year I will have thought out my entry a bit more and maybe even remember that I actually need to submit my work to be accepted. Either way, I always value any chance to see what my fellow artists are up to and it's nice to have seen first hand what this gallery particularly favors.
Commons Student Gallery
Right now the student gallery at the commons is hosting the VCU Green Unity show. I periodically check the student gallery and usually leave disappointed, as was the case with the exhibit prior to green unity. About half of the pieces in the green unity show were pieces that I cared for whereas the other half was the ever to farmiliar shotty craftsmanship and overall poor conceptualization.
There was one that particularly dropped my jaw and I don't mean that positively. This "artist" took paper coffee cups and pasted a few of them together, in no specific way, to make a larger coffee cup. They also made a cigar sized cigarette and a lighter that wasn't really scaled to be proportional to the cigarette or the coffee cup. The cigarette and lighter were made of random paper and cardboard. They were reminicent of a careless attempt at copying the works of Claus Oldenburg. I am assuming that there just must have been a lack of entries if this kind of work was included but it certainly didnt speak to me about anything that might even be remotely related to the whole VCU Green Unity thing. Even worse, this was a colaborative effort between three people.
At the other end of the spectrum, there were some rather remarkable woodworking pieces. The one that I thought was most profound was the piece titled Sacrifice by Roberto Celis made of slavaged hardwoods and a found walnut stump. Now this was a piece that spoke to me about the idea of being green. The material was as organic as it gets. The wood was unstained and there were two small plants set in soil within the sculpture at the top and bottom. I saw a cycle from the natural existance of these woods to their existance after man's imposition apon them and then from being discarded to being recreated as a new form that is somehow raw again!
There was also an untitled piece by Devin Trom that I don't believe was made of found materials but still had very high conceptual and aesthetic value. The craftsman ship was beautiful! Definately up to par with that of Roberto's Sacrifice. This work was a bed of grass within this woden cage. It functioned very effectively as it was but it also brought my mind elsewhere. I started thinking about time and things like, "what if, instead of grass, there was another type of plant in the cage that could grow in a way that it would overtake the cage and eventually the plant would posess the cage rather than the cage containing the plant, yet.. the core of the plant is still within the cage inevitably!
Thanks to these two pieces I still have some respect for the art of Green Unity. I would urge whoever is in charge of these types of things to consider more closely what they are alowing their name to be associated with. I don't think that a lot of those pieces represent what they expected them to. As an art show in general, most of the other works were far from what I would expect to see from college level art students. This gallery is seen by perspective students when they tour the campus. If this is what I saw on my tour, I may have leaned away from VCU if it had not been for these few peices.
There was one that particularly dropped my jaw and I don't mean that positively. This "artist" took paper coffee cups and pasted a few of them together, in no specific way, to make a larger coffee cup. They also made a cigar sized cigarette and a lighter that wasn't really scaled to be proportional to the cigarette or the coffee cup. The cigarette and lighter were made of random paper and cardboard. They were reminicent of a careless attempt at copying the works of Claus Oldenburg. I am assuming that there just must have been a lack of entries if this kind of work was included but it certainly didnt speak to me about anything that might even be remotely related to the whole VCU Green Unity thing. Even worse, this was a colaborative effort between three people.
At the other end of the spectrum, there were some rather remarkable woodworking pieces. The one that I thought was most profound was the piece titled Sacrifice by Roberto Celis made of slavaged hardwoods and a found walnut stump. Now this was a piece that spoke to me about the idea of being green. The material was as organic as it gets. The wood was unstained and there were two small plants set in soil within the sculpture at the top and bottom. I saw a cycle from the natural existance of these woods to their existance after man's imposition apon them and then from being discarded to being recreated as a new form that is somehow raw again!
There was also an untitled piece by Devin Trom that I don't believe was made of found materials but still had very high conceptual and aesthetic value. The craftsman ship was beautiful! Definately up to par with that of Roberto's Sacrifice. This work was a bed of grass within this woden cage. It functioned very effectively as it was but it also brought my mind elsewhere. I started thinking about time and things like, "what if, instead of grass, there was another type of plant in the cage that could grow in a way that it would overtake the cage and eventually the plant would posess the cage rather than the cage containing the plant, yet.. the core of the plant is still within the cage inevitably!
Thanks to these two pieces I still have some respect for the art of Green Unity. I would urge whoever is in charge of these types of things to consider more closely what they are alowing their name to be associated with. I don't think that a lot of those pieces represent what they expected them to. As an art show in general, most of the other works were far from what I would expect to see from college level art students. This gallery is seen by perspective students when they tour the campus. If this is what I saw on my tour, I may have leaned away from VCU if it had not been for these few peices.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Amy Stein
Amy stein's March 4th lecture was quite refreshing. Unlike some of the other artists to visit this year, Amy's work mattered to me and I related with her ideas and could really appreciate her position. The fact that she started doing photography at age 32 was reassuring because it showed me that there's a way to get yourself "in" even if it's not all that premeditated. She has an approach to photography that just seems really genuine and wholehearted. I also found comfort in her admittance that she know little to nothing about lighting and that she can operate without having to understand every intricate detail about her medium and still attain her desired results.
Her domesticated series seems to have been an amazing journey. The small town of Matamoris really opened their doors and welcomed Amy in. I think that says something, not only about the town's people, but also about Amy. I would not expect a small town to be super stranger-with-camera friendly but she connected with them and her photographs reflect her discovery of a relationship between man and animal. I really liked Predator as well as Deer and Boar because I think they portray that the best.
Her Stranded series was pretty remarkable too. The product of an 8 year long voluntary service in the self appointed position of an interstate roadside assistant, her series Stranded has more than a few gems in my opinion; all of which really capture the experience of being exactly what she called them, stranded.
This image was particularly eye catching. The wood introduces a color temperature that you don't see much throughout the rest of the series. The way the overpass dwarfs this motorist and his minivan does a good job of conveying how little one vehicle is and how insignificant it is in a sea of other vehicles.
As a whole, this series sounded like a similar experience to Domesticated as far as her relationship with these people. Amy's dedication really pays off and is admirable considering how long some of these projects have spanned; not that they are really ever finish. I loo forward to following Amy and her work. I'm sure that whatever direction she goes, I'm sure that her work will be worth the wait.
Her domesticated series seems to have been an amazing journey. The small town of Matamoris really opened their doors and welcomed Amy in. I think that says something, not only about the town's people, but also about Amy. I would not expect a small town to be super stranger-with-camera friendly but she connected with them and her photographs reflect her discovery of a relationship between man and animal. I really liked Predator as well as Deer and Boar because I think they portray that the best.
Her Stranded series was pretty remarkable too. The product of an 8 year long voluntary service in the self appointed position of an interstate roadside assistant, her series Stranded has more than a few gems in my opinion; all of which really capture the experience of being exactly what she called them, stranded.
This image was particularly eye catching. The wood introduces a color temperature that you don't see much throughout the rest of the series. The way the overpass dwarfs this motorist and his minivan does a good job of conveying how little one vehicle is and how insignificant it is in a sea of other vehicles.
As a whole, this series sounded like a similar experience to Domesticated as far as her relationship with these people. Amy's dedication really pays off and is admirable considering how long some of these projects have spanned; not that they are really ever finish. I loo forward to following Amy and her work. I'm sure that whatever direction she goes, I'm sure that her work will be worth the wait.
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