Advanced Sculpture, 2014

Summaries of Four Art Events

I have been to 3 sessions of model drawings on Tuesday nights with Liza. I used to hate drawing people in the first semester and still do not love it all that much but this gave me an opportunity to try something new.  I am very much a visual drawler and like to use images that are directly in front of me to draw but I also use my imagination.  Initially I have to admit it is still very awkward to be drawing someone who is nude. But there comes a point when you start looking past that and just see a form and body.

I started to appreciate her wrinkles, sags and lines of her body, which created interesting details.  I started to notice how I naturally wanted to make her look more curvaceous in some of my drawings and in others they were very much mirror images of her pose. We also did warm-ups where we would have her pose for 5-minute increments then 10, 15 and so forth. This really challenged you not to get to detailed but get the gist of the pose in simple lines to show the gesture or emotion of the pose. In contrast with the longer poses I was able to add in more detail shading and really force myself to keep drawing for the full time and not to finish when I was visually satisfied. Although these drawing sessions do not connect with my recent pieces in art I do think that it is important for everyone at least once to try it. Advanced sculpture surely has presented me with a lot of artists and processes that I did not know about before

Part of me still also wonders how Liza herself feels when posing for us. Did she wonder what we were drawing? Did she feel awkward? What was it like? It is not everyday that you casually pose nude for someone to draw you, unless you’re a nude model. Since this is still a relatively new experience for me with a nude model here at SMC, and in general I was surprised how casual everyone was about the whole thing. I liked how Liza, as the model had not only the relationship with the drawings as the subject but also interacted with the artist. She asked what kind of poses we wanted and or what we were looking for during the session. This is an opportunity you do not usually get when cutting a piece of plywood or a still life.

  The All Student Art Exhibition is an annual presentation of student artworks and creations where an outside juror selects artwork for the exhibition that best represents the quality and diversity of the bodies of work. Going to the Boyden Gallery to see these works of art was fun because there was such a wide range of things. Everything from digital art works, paintings, to sculptures made by colleagues.  One of the things I enjoyed most about the show was seeing the sculptures made in the fall semester by my colleagues in Intro to Sculpture. I know how much work and effort that they put in to creating them and to see them show cased and some even with awards made me feel very proud for them. I still love Cole's sculpture which was a mechanical arm that he created from junkyard scraps. The amount of time and effort but in to it was definatly shown in the final product. Also there were alot of photography works that reminded me much of my own and made me want to showecase my work off in the future.

This year’s juror Karyn Miller, the director of exhibitions at Arlington Art Center, hand picked the artwork that was shown in the gallery from all of the submissions. This in itself is a grand honor to those artists and a great aspect to add to their resumes.  This related to my art exploration because as artist we often base our work or ideas off of other artists to create our own. Here I was able to see may different pieces across multiple mediums of art. This also inspired me to possibly enter my own work for the next show.

The Spring SMP show was my favorite art even of this year. The Boyden Gallery and the art annex showcased the senior’s final works for their college careers. I was most drawn visually to the pieces of Rachel McDonald and Kristin Seymour for their bright colors and forms. Kristin’s hanging pieces of Plexiglass made me want to touch them so bad but I feared someone noticing my fingerprints or the piece swinging back and forth. Although I was visulally drawn to Rachel’s pieces I was also unimpressed by how simple they looked. It was very pleasing to the eye but there was no true amazing craftsmanship to it for me. When moving around the Boyden Gallery you were inside the ‘white cube’ space as we discussed during our unit on place. The works of art were slightly defined by the space and were merely being framed by it.  Also being in the gallery also created the ‘no touch zone’ where you felt like everything had to be perfect and pristine. The sole purpose for the audience here was just to look and that was it.
In contrast when I went over to the Art Annex after the Art SMP Talks I felt like I was entering a new kind of space.

Paige Burger’s Meaningless Moments exhibition was about the emphasis of how certain events determines the importance of specific memories and how that construction of our identities. But when I walked in to her studio space I was transformed and almost completely forgot where I was. Walking up the bridge and looking through the binoculars gave you an entirely different experience also because you were interacting with the piece in a non-traditional way.  This also evoked my emotions as I walked down the bridge I was scared of falling and seeing the broken TV and table made me feel uneasy. What I found interesting after talking to Paige was that when most of the people entered her space they went straight rather then to the right as she expected and planned for them to. Walking up the ramp was a ‘safer’ alternative to down it, which was wobbly and unstable. This totally changed your experience as you walk across the bridge and take in all of the visual stimulation.  I like being transformed to another place and almost forgetting where you once were before.

  I attended three SMP Arts Talks that included; Rachel McDonald, Paige Burger and Stephanie Mercado. Before attending these talks I had only seen Rachel’s piece and went afterward to the annex to see Paige’s and Stephanie’s. Hearing each other artist talk about their wok was very informative to me. I had the opportunity to understand further why they did the things they did or choose the colors they choose. When looking at Rachel’s artwork in the gallery I was unimpressed and though it was just visually appealing. There was nothing that screamed art at me. But after understanding her background and he process I gained better knowledge for understanding the piece.  Like wise with Paige’s piece I never would have understood that she created the piece for you to enter and go to the right rather then going straight in. Both artist’s in-depth conversation about their works help the viewer to further understand their goals which is not always present in the artist’s statement. All the presenters used PowerPoint, which provided great visual stimulation and allowed the audience to follow along with their discussion well.
            I think that is important for anyone to go to at least one SMP talk and especially one with in your major or possible major. As a first year I will have to be doing what they did in 3 years. It is important to have a general idea how these things work. Also it provides you with a chance to learn about a topic. I think without the Art SMPs in this case I wouldn’t have understood the artist work completely. I would have probably walked through the gallery and admired. But after I had the knowledge of what the artist goals were I was able to carry those in the back of my mind and reference them when viewing the pieces. I found this to be a more successful experience then my original one.
            The Art Talks were important to me and my art making in that I know understand how important it is to be able to talk about your work. Also that it is important to be able to communicate not only through your piece but also with words to your audience.