Simon Birch: Cubism Revisited // Posted on June 27, 2010
I’ve been on a kick lately finding new artists that inspire me. Simon Birch is a great example.
I enjoy his work because I, like a many illustrators, have the difficulty of finding the patience to create works similar to Birch’s in a digital format. What I mean, more specifically, is the creation of vector artwork with translucent layers, similar to what Birch has done.
What’s more beautiful is the traditional oil medium. The motion is still there, typical of the cubist movements, but there is intense motion and stillness at the same time. I recognize the moving figure, but I see it also as one body, beautiful and complex in color and form.
His work is really beautiful. Check him out.
Design Thinking // Posted on June 22, 2010
The past month has been a time of reflection for me as I look back at my education and rationalize with my choices. It’s a coming to peace journey. One of my biggest regrets coming out of my undergraduate is that I didn’t do more (and a result as I review my student loans!). I still have a little bit of fight left in me. I wanted to walk across the stage at graduation completely exhausted and burnt out from the constant pursuit of perfection, or as close as I could come to “it.” I know now that I was completely misguided in my original assessment.
The regret is only temporary, down to the milliseconds. What I have gained is something far more important than my body of work: thinking like a designer, which I believe manifests itself in both my portfolio and my process to solving communication problems. I didn’t learn this skill in college directly, but through a series of decisions and exposures past what was required of me. During my sophomore year I branched out and began trying to find client work. I utterly failed at branding myself and it wasn’t until a year later that I began to have a constant flow of work. As my portfolio grew and I became happier and happier with my solutions, I still felt incomplete as if there was a potential in me that wasn’t being realized. I have always had a difficult time roping in graphic design and traditional arts, comparing and contrasting the two to oblivion. I wanted so bad to be an artist, but felt conflicted thinking I could call myself that as a graphic designer. The two seemed like different worlds. Its a normal trend for designers to feel like tools of a commercial world. In fact, many of my classmates have felt this way one time or another, or they will begin to feel it as they step out into the industry.
Reading, writing, and thinking about design were scarishly not present in my education. I’m curious if this is the norm in design schools as educators battle to educate the next generation of creative thinkers, especially of the visual kind. I began reading the works of Ellen Lupton and William Drenttel, curious to examine graphic design as a contemporary and autonomous form of academic discourse. What I came to find is a library of documents that trace the evolution of society in respects to design trends, similar to how art informs a present audience to the life and challenges of contemporaneous peoples as seen through the study of art in art history. I stepped back and began to look at a bigger picture. Its not what we create, what fonts we choose, or the palette. Its about the communication and how we as visual thinkers respond to the visual needs of the audience. What do our methods say about our audience? Can we predict their response? Is it our job to progress societal communication norms? Isn’t that commercial suicide?
Design thinking in my own terms and experiences is nothing more than a constant critical engagement with the world around me, as it pertains to the visual arts. It’s a competitive world out there. I’ve seen that in my job search. But one thing that nobody can copy of yours is your thoughts, opinions, and your courage to participate in the next wave of creatives who progress the visual literacy of the world. I’m not angry that this wasn’t explicitly taught to me, because the independent journey has lead me to a place where I am satisfied with my endeavors. Designers cannot brand their work, nor can they solely rely on their portfolio. But their thinking is what sets them apart.
Moral of the story: Thinking makes an artist. Tools, method, intent and content are only sub-particles that set out to define and separate the two. We need money to survive. An artist wants to sell their work. So what’s the big difference? Prestige, which gets you nowhere.
What set me on this journey? This article.
Performance Art // Posted on June 20, 2010
It was a cool summer night filled with good music and good wine. The topic of conversation: performance art. A good friend had shared her distaste for this peculiar art form, which is relatively new. It was difficult to not agree with her as this method of exploring the world through encounter rarely rises above the status of “publicity stunt” (i.e. see abortion hoax).
Without a doubt my lack of exposure to this type of art is a direct result of growing in rural areas, too close to the cows and away from the art culture centers of the nation. I have grown up a bit, the Internet has become wildly popular, and I am much more educated and sensitive to the art world. So what am I waiting for? A conversation with another artist.
A new colleague shared with me a link to a NYTimes article.
At 5 p.m. Monday one of the longest pieces of performance art on record, and certainly the one with the largest audience, comes to an end. Since her retrospective opened at the Museum of Modern Art on March 14, the artist Marina Abramovic has been sitting, six days a week, seven hours a day in a plain chair, under bright klieg lights, inMoMA’s towering atrium. When she leaves that chair Monday for the last time, she will have clocked 700 hours of sitting.
…
Visitors to the museum were invited, first come first served, to sit in a chair facing her and silently return her gaze. The chair has rarely, if ever, been empty. Close to 1,400 people have occupied it, some for only a minute or two, a few for an entire day.
Consider performance art as a new viable art form? Check.
Sam Jinks // Posted on June 16, 2010
I have immense respect for sculptors, due in part to a few bad experiences I have had in sculpture class. Sam Jinks is one of those sculptors. For a final paper in a sculpture class I critiqued the works of Sam Jinks, a macabre photorealist sculptor that focuses on the human form. Drawing from his experience as a prop creator, he creates works of art both fresh and old, revisiting classic works such as Michelangelo’s Pieta.
Jinks’ work is fascinating in his utilization of emaciated figures as a means of provocation. Still Life (Pieta) [below] is a reinterpretation of Michelangelo’s Pieta. Mary embraces the dying body of Jesus, stoically mourning the passing of the son of Christ. In Jinks’ rendition, he provides a curious replacement of Mary, a contemporary man in modern dress holding the old, withered and saggy body of an anonymous man. It may or may not be Jesus as it lacks the typical visual clues. Moreover it is a juxtaposition of old and young, clothed and naked, alive and dead. Though all of Jinks’ sculptures are lacking life as it seems, part emaciation part solitude.
His photorealism works paired with the lifelessness of individuals who appear to exist is a beautiful harmony. Definitely a favorite sculptor of mine.
Flickr 9000 // Posted on June 15, 2010
I find it hard to imagine a world where the Internet is not in existence. Every now and again I find creatives on the web that are using the medium of the Internet as a platform for their design, particuarly curious non-mainstream design.
I somehow had neglected revisiting Flickr 9000′s photostream, even after bookmarking it years ago. This anonymous person’s work is ripe with satire, dark comedy, and a twang of social commentary. The works are refreshing with many pieces revisiting a mid-century vintage style.
Check them out. You won’t regret it.