--------- Finishing up with my first year at DAAP, I have expanded my artistic skills greatly. As the professor of the three large lecture classes I was required to take, you may not know me well at all. You may know me as just one of the many students that turns in papers when she is told to, goes to class when she is told to and speaks when she is told to give her opinion. I am not always the first one to join into discussions, but I have a lot to say. Originally, I thought these classes were going to explore the options available for emerging artists. I was surprised, and not negatively so, to discover that this class was about becoming an artist and showing my work in galleries. However, as the year progressed I realized how important these classes would be for me.
When I realized that this class was mostly concerned with encouraging me to become a famous artist I wanted to know what else I could do in the art world. For example, being an illustrator, advertiser, or a photographer are very important goals in my life. Even though, this class didn’t talk about what I expected, I still got a lot out of the experience. It only took me till the final quarter to realize it. What was interesting about the classes were that they were showing us famous artists and telling us how to be one, I understood the meaning behind all of it. Or at least what I took out of it. After reviewing the past three quarters, I began to understand that they were showing us all these artists to find what we are interested in. As a learning artist, I know that I can’t just find a concept and randomly pick any medium and call it art. Maybe once I become a famous artist, I can do whatever I wanted but for now, I need to learn the foundations. Each and every class taught me a specific thing about becoming an artist.
In the beginning, I had a hard time getting used to fine arts, but taking Intro to Contemporary arts made me feel more comfortable. Seeing all the artists that were introduced to us was also overwhelming. It was like we were being showed who exactly we will be like in the art world. Then I realized who not to be. For instance, I hope I don’t end up like Jeff Koons; who has other people make his artwork. I want to make my own art. There is more of a meaning to it when you can see the artist’s hand. An artist that I grew to be interested in was Maurizio Cattelan. Cattelan drew my attention because of his use of satire. The irony in his art draws the attention to the crowd. That is something that I want to make my goal. I want to catch the audience’s attention by having them notice the irony in my art. The article, “A Fine Italian Hand” by Alexi Worth, explains Cattelan’s way of exceeding the boundaries of art. He exceeds these boundaries by being the “art world’s most famous prankster” (Worth 1). As humorous and risk taking that his works are, they are the most influential to me. Now that I have found artists that show a view of art that I am interested in, I feel that I can now start paving my way to getting to the point that they are at.
Visual Cultures was actually a class I was looking forward to taking. I have always been interested in the media. The one class that I took the most out of was the class on music videos. For weeks after that class, I would go around and show everyone I knew the slideshow from the class. Analyzing those music videos in class was different from watching them with my friends and family. There was a different understanding that I realized when I watched the videos in class. I knew exactly why they showed them to get an idea across. The media has a big portrayal on which we are supposed to be. The most creative idea will have the biggest impact on society. People will look at certain things differently after seeing something through the media. As an artist, I know that I need to keep paying attention to the media that surrounds me. The media will help me realize my perception on things and what my inspiration will be as an artist. Inspiration leads to the final class we had to attend as freshman at DAAP.
Current Arts Forum was the final class we had to take. This class put all the knowledge and skills we learned over the course of this year to work. Finding my inspiration, audience, and mission is one of the most important things for me as an artist. This course helped me realize what all those answers might be or will end up being. Reading about other artist’s inspiration was very helpful. Every artist started with an inspiration to create a series of astonishing work. The artist I became interested in was Scott Grieger. Grieger discovered an artistically satisfying way to compose his inspiration. Grieger says “his artwork cleanses minds that have been indoctrinated by the unrelenting assault of political and corporate propaganda” (Weintraub, 151). To display his inspiration to the audiences, he manipulates them, usurps their authority, and reverses their flow of influence (Weintraub, 152). Once an inspiration is found, an audience is created based off that inspiration.
An artist’s inspiration is the main thing that attracts the certain audiences. An artist that has a branded audience is Thomas Kinkade. Kinkade makes art for the majority of the population, rather than working in isolation for specific audiences. This is why Kinkade’s style is differentiated so much from that of other artists. Being named “Painter of Light,” Kinkade’s mission is to capture those special moments in life adorned with beauty and light.
Once the inspiration and audience is found, the next thing an artist needs to discover is its mission. The mission is what the artist wants to show to his or her audience a long process that will have a big impact on people’s ideals. Alix Lambert portrays her mission very well. Through her investigation Lambert identifies fictional situations that were missing in her life, involves her self in that real life action, gathers data, and then documents it through photography, film, or video. Lambert has become a boxer, a divorcee, a bride, a rock star, tattoo artist, and a basketball coach (Weintraub, 342). Lambert has overcome many of her fears by involving herself in certain situations. After researching what these artists have done, I now know what the procedure is to become a successful artist.
The questions you ask now like: “what I got out of this year?” “what did I not like?”, “where do I see myself?”, and “where and who will I be?” don’t really matter. I am a freshman at DAAP. I wasn’t expecting to cultivate my interests in becoming a fine artist as a freshman but that is what these classes prepared me for. This isn’t high school, where we are just given projects that will look good hanging in our bedrooms. I am here to create masterworks of art. These classes, without the teaching of our drawing or painting skills, taught me how to become a better artist. At the beginning of the year I thought I would be just an ordinary art teacher, but now I am more interested in creating art for the people that know me. I want them to get to know more about me through my drawings. Where do I see myself in the future? I see my self sitting in my studio working on some illustrations for the job I have, but on the side, when I have time on my own, I will be working on individual works that show my inspiration/mission to my audience. Thanks to these three lecture classes, I now know how to get my artwork out into the world. There are no boundaries in what I can do. I just want to succeed. My succeeding will be when I have people looking at my artwork all over the world finding their interpretation of it. Isn’t that what art is meant to be?
Bibliography
Weintraub, Linda. "Scoping an Audience." In the Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Art. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art, 2003. 19-23. Print.
Worth, Alexi. "A Fine Italian Hand: The Work of Maurizio Cattelan - NYTimes.com." Fashion and Design - T Magazine Blog - NYTimes.com. 11 Oct. 2010. Web. 03 Nov. 2010.
SORRY FOR THE LONG POST RECENTLY. I JUST WANT YOU GUYS TO UNDERSTAND.
So yea this post was just going to be about the last drawing assignment but this last one helped me understand what I have been doing this whole year.
Next was my friend Kelly.. She began to work in the faces where I left blank. I was a little hesitant but....
Now this is the final piece. However, I did switch with one other girl. She began to fill in between the V shapes with black pastel. I knew someone was going to at some point. But once it got back to me, after starring at it for a while. I knew what I wanted to do. Well this is what I did.
Looking back at this piece. It is weird thinking about what people do in reaction to seeing something. Kinda like how my first year of college went...........
BELOW: This is a group of stills. I followed my brother-in-law and his daughter down to our creek. My brother-in-law is a huge outdoors man and loves taking his daughter down to the creek to skip stones. She gets so excited whenever the stone bounces along the water.
BELOW: Based off the Prompt Army of Me. I took picture of my Mom working in her flower garden. Taking pictures of her moving back and forth down the line of the house to arrange the flowers. I thought it was funny, because every year my Mom plants the same flowers, saying that they will last through the next year but every year she is out there again planting the same flowers. Every year for mothers day, my Mom asks us to help but, this year I just watched her. So by taking pictures I created an army of her to work in the garden.
BELOW: I kinda made up my own prompt for this picture. It could, however, be based off of poetics of space. The area in which I live. I live in a dormitory and my bed is low to the ground. I always have stuff being piled up underneath there. So i chose to take a picture of me searching for what I needed underneath my bed.
Sooooooo.... Along with working on my projects in class, I have been obsessed with drawing in my sketchbook. What do I draw? Well, I draw what I would write in my journal if I had one. I draw things that happened during my day, or how I felt about that day. 
Check out these sights:
http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html
Here are the posters I chose to remake!
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5 Final
After doing this project, I learned to make layers, and windows to see back through the layers. I was told to not fall in love with anything while I was working. Sooner or later it will be covered up!
Above: Throw Up Love
Above: Shutup, I Wanna Talk
Above: Good Things Happen
Above: Don't Go to Bed
Above: Big Storm
If you want to see it; it is in the glass case on the sixth floor of D.A.A.P.
I painted it a shade of green that wouldn't be too bright. I wanted it to blend in outside.
This is it hung outside on campus after our critique.
During the critique, the lady from FUTURE Blooms said that it would be perfect to hang at their sanctuary. However, I told her that I wanted to keep it so I could keep an eye on it and see how it does with the birds. I was also thinking of putting some kind of vine plant in the bottom of the bird house to attract humming birds. I will post more pictures as spring moves on to see what happens with this bird house.
On the left is the drawing he drew of my niece. On the right was my attempt of drawing on the spot the next day. This drawing is of my sister and her husband relaxing at the pool.
Then I tried drawing my baby nephew who kept on moving! After drawing observationally, I started drawing whatever was on my mind. Below is a drawing of a girl lying on the beach not noticing the sand made hand reaching out to her
(left)When I didn't have anything on my mind to draw, I looked up at the clouds and drew what I saw in the clouds. On the right are more drawings from my imagination.
This project had a big impact in my right brain because it made me want to start doodling again. I shouldn’t be afraid or embarrassed about what I draw. People can either hate it or love it. I just hope people look at this apartment building covered in my drawings and understand how much fun I had with this project.
I chose to use the fine brush for the barn, fence and dying sunflower. I used the medium sized brush for the long grass. Then I used the large brush for the trees above the barn. This was done with acrylic on illustration board.
