I have currently been exploring soft pastels, and the concept of visual material culture and place. This is going to be a two part piece with the juxtaposition of two city scenes. One area is where I live and the other is where I teach. Areas will be removed to exaggerate differences within the areas.

I have been currently continuing my exploration with materials. I have switched from paper, but not given up on the material altogether. I have also really been enjoying soft pastels. The ability to have very soft edges was fun to use with aggressive subject matter like my contorting hand.

I think I have come up with a direction for a theme. In Kevin’s class I have switched my topic to visual material culture and place; How the two subjects formulate identities. I think I want to work with my studio work in this direction with soft pastels and cut paper. I want to start to sketch out ideas for a bigger piece in this direction to get an idea of working with such a theme.

http://www.eric-standley.com/

Wish I could have tried this with the laser cutter over the summer! However, I still find it a bit more amazing what people can accomplish without high tech tools. I think I would be a little more in awe if Eric Standley completed his work by hand. Then there is this element of curiosity that arises for me of how he completed such a task. Knowing he completed his work with a laser cutter is a bit of a let down.

The recent art that was posted has been inspired by a menu from Flavor’s Indian restaurant in Canandaigua. I was thinking about some of the articles I read for Kevin and the idea of media culture. Media culture has been on my mind a lot recently because of a few conversations I have had with my students, and this constant question arising, “what is art?” The pleasurable thing about material culture (in my opinion and interpretation) is that it has the ability to highten all objects to a standard which can be considered art. So, I was trying to do just that; take these functional objects that have this beautiful element, and heightening that element that I personable found to be beauftiful. However, I then was questioning, why does it take the need to transform an object into a more artistic state to change the viewers mindset to see the object as art? There is an issue I am trying to portray in my work. I am not sure how. Or, if I want to conitinue down this road. However, still enjoying the cut paper.

portfolio

My current artwork is inspired by Lindsay W. I felt very sympathetic to her current situation because I am contemplating leaving my current teaching situation as well. Due to the stresses of my district, I was inspired to make art that is meditative–like Lindsay W. states. The past week, I have been doing art that achieves that state of mind for me. It has been very helpful, and I think it will be what saves me this year. Currently, I am taking an analytic approach to my own studio work and just working with very systematic, material approaches. I was researching some artist for one of my students projects, and I found the artist Maud Vantour. I fell in love with her paper sculptures, and I have been pursuing this approach to create my own forms of meditation as well as to represent meditation. I took the idea of paper sculpture, and Islamic/Mughal designs to create designs. I hope to eventually layer the papers as heavily as Maud does.