An Artist's Statement and Some Old Work of My Own

Here are some images from the series I did back in 2006-07.  Understand that this was a time when Myspace was still a big deal and Facebook was only just beginning to grow in popularity.  I'm posting this so that you can see an artist's statement as related to the work it accompanies.

First, here is the artist's statement that accompanied the series:

Erased Avatars

I am interested in how we, as human beings in the digital age, present ourselves to the world through self-portraiture.  Particularly fascinating to me is the phenomenon of Internet socialites using, as a stand-in for their "selves", digital photographs taken of either by pointing the camera or phone at a mirror or by holding it at arm's length and pointing it back toward themselves.  When examining these photographs, I often find myself learning much more about the person from the surrounding environment in the image than I learn from the particular way in which he or she has chosen to "present" his/herself.

This series of images explores this fascination of mine.  It consists of digital self-portraits mined from Myspace.com that have been re-appropriated. Each image originally existed as the online representation of a cyberspace socialite. As such, the image acts as the Internet “body” of the self-symbol; or "avatar-self". In these manipulated images, the supposed subject of the photograph, the human figure, is erased; it’s only evidence a rather ambiguous silhouette. Thereby, everything patently human in the image is removed, leaving only the objects, camera, and implied mirror that surround, inform, and signify the blank space of the figure, the perceived locus of the elusive “self”.

Some Thoughts On Artist's Statments

Let me start with some arguments AGAINST artist's statements:

Click HERE for a blog post by photographer Paul Butzi, who, in the very first line of the post, writes, "I hate artist's statements." He proceeds to make a humorous argument against the concept of an artist's statement. He makes good arguments. And, although I could make some arguments about why artist's statements are helpful tools, I can't say that his argument is wrong, per se, or even flawed in any way. You may sympathize when you read what he has to say.

Below is a video in which painter Lucio Pozzi talks about an exhibit of what he calls "Mini Paintings". When you consider that most of his work is large enough to take up an entire gallery wall, calling these paintings "mini" seems like an extreme understatement. These paintings are a side-project he has done for decades that is a huge contrast from the rest of his work. Most of the video doesn't speak to any of your concerns about artist's statements, but eventually he begins to talk about how, when he works with these mini paintings, they act as a way for him to relax a bit, and that he insists on "not knowing what I'm doing" while he works on them. He has rules that remain consistent for all of these works, but after that he just goes for it, doing whatever feels natural without planning. He ends the video with a statement along the lines of, "It is a good feeling to spend some time working on these rather than getting up in the morning and saying, 'Ok, now I have to make another Lucio Pozzi.'" 

I think, perhaps, he may be speaking to similar frustrations to those I've heard from some of you about confusion over artist's statement and why you can't just do the work without worrying with writing. 

To rephrase his words, what I think Pozzi is saying here is, "The work that I am known for is an exploration of concepts that I have to think about, question, and plan for. That is rewarding, but exhausting. It is nice to occassionally break away from that and work on something that is just as rewarding in the end, but requires far less planning and thinking." This is a decades-long established, successful, and historically important artist saying the same things that you, as students, are saying.

And now we have April Gornik. She is a world famous painter. But, listen to her trying to put into words the things she thought about while making the work in the particular exhibition that she was displaying. She uses some flowery language, and it is easy sometimes to get lost in everything she is trying to communicate. I have shown this video to Art Appreciation classes, of which about 2/3 of the students have no art background at all. Often, the comments that I get afterward are along the lines of "Why did she talk so much about those paintings? I was enjoying just looking at the work. Then she started talking too much. The work didn't need all that explanation. It's all right there anyway. She made it all too technical. etc." See what you think...

To contrast these arguments, take a look at this link http://artistemerging.blogspot.com/2006/08/writing-artists-statement.html which will take you to a blog post by Deana (not sure what her last name is). Her opinions about artist's statements in VERY different.  In fact, at one point she writes, "Once you have a good artist’s statement, it will come in so handy in so many different ways..."  She even gives what I think is some very sound tips for writing an artist's statement.

Here's my point. The concerns and reluctance you guys have in class when it comes to artist's statements are not new. They are as old as the establishment of "fine art" itself. The age-old question is: "Why can't it just be enough that the work is done?" I get it. These are valid concerns. So valid, that, as you can see above, well-established artists struggle to address them as well. However, I present two considerations:

1. Thinking about what you want to say and planning exactly how you are going to say it BEFORE actually attempting to do the work gives you direction and puts you better in touch with yourself, your interests, and what it is that you want to tell the world. Let's put it in terms of professions other than art: Do you want the mechanic working on your car's engine to just dive in and start experimenting with everything without first spending a little time thinking about what the problem might possibly be and developing a plan? If a scientist wants to conduct an experiment, he has to first decide what question he wants to answer (how does gravity work? what is the atomic weight of hydrogen? is nicotine addictive? etc.). Then he has to develop a plan for an experiment that will get him results that will answer his specific question. We often like to place art on a pedestal separated from other professions because it is so uniquely (and humanly) expressive and has no right or wrong answers. But, art is not so unique of an endeavor that it shouldn't require at least a little early planning and legwork to be GOOD art.

2. The profession of art requires proposals and artist's statements, often times LONG before the work is finished. Even in fashion photography, graphic design, or advertising, you will be asked by your client to give a full description of what you plan to do, how you plan to do it, and what you want the audience to experience when looking at your images. It is difficult to do that without having practiced. So, perhaps in whatever professional capacity you plan to use art, your client may not expect you proceed with your work in exactly the same manner in which I am asking you to proceed. BUT, my hope is that by getting some practice in defining, refining, and perfecting your conceptual approach NOW you will be all the more ready when your professional situation demands it.

WHEW! Ok, so, I hope this helps put some of your concerns to rest. Other than this, I can only say that this is how we're going to do things in this class. If you have disagreements with the process, then make your own decisions on how you will work when you leave this class. My job here and now is to get all three of you to think HARD about why you do what you do and to facilitate your discovery of methods of communicating your particular "why" to your audience.

Make sense?

For Kayla: Grid Ideas

THE GRID

Click HERE for a brief lesson on how to transfer images from a gridded photograph onto a gridded canvas/paper.  You, yourself, may make more inventive choices when transferring the information than the way it's done in this demo, but it will give you a very simple method.  However, by this point, you've been working with the grid in Design, so you're not new to it.

The Grid System is a website were people get REALLY crazy in-depth about ways of using the grid in art and math.

Click HERE for a gallery of images by an artist I know named Lance Turner.  He works VERY extensively with the grid.  His website is a little buggy, but if you're patient with it, you'll be able to check out quite a few of his grid-based paintings.

For Hannah: Wangechi Mutu and Hayley Tompkins

Wangechi Mutu

Check out the work of Wangechi Mutu.  She makes multimedia images using paint, collage from magazines, grass, flowers, ink, and much more.  The resulting images aren't necessarily related to the concepts that you want to put into your work, but she may give you some more ideas of possible nontraditional materials to use in your own work.

Here's a video about Wangechi Mutu I found online:

Hayley Tompkins

Hayley Tompkins will paint on anything--and I mean ANYTHING!  Look at the paintings below.  For the most part she's using traditional acrylic paint and ink, but look at what she's using for her surfaces!  A spoon, a knife, a hammer, junk fished out of a dumpster, and even CELL PHONES!  Check her out and see what ideas you might glean from her approach.

For Kara: Barbara Kruger and Fernando Bryce

 Barbara Kruger

After thinking for a good while about the ideas you outlined for your next assignment, I thought of the work of Barbara Kruger.  You should check her out.  She generally doesn't paint; working with collage and prints instead.  However, I think you might like her sensibility and the way she uses the combination of appropriated imagery and text to make a statement about moral, philosophical, and gender-based injustices that she sees in the world.  Additionally, look at the final image below.  This is how she chose to display one of her series, by hanging them from the ceiling in a long row in a department store.  (How she got permission to do this, I have no idea.)

Fernando Bryce

Fernando Bryce is the artist I mentioned to you in class on Friday.  He does these small-scale ink drawings on paper in which he complete re-creates (BY HAND!) newspaper articles, advertisements, pamphlets, etc. from the past that infuriate him to look at now.  Because of his repetition of scale and visual language, he usually displays the work as you see in the bottom two images: in big groups arranged on the walls in grid-like patters.  Check him out.  You may dig what he's all about.

A Short Artist's Statement Of My Own

Below is a short artist's statement for a series of paintings I did back in 2009. Here you'll see an example of a statement that is talking purely about the concept--the ideas I wanted to express with the work--rather than the specifics of the work itself:

You can click HERE for a gallery of images of the paintings.  Also, the library asked me to loan them some work to put on display and I just happened to have a few of these lying around.  So you can see the series in the library, as well.

BRANDED

For many years I refused to own a print T-shirt. This was during college, and I had an “anti-cool” thing going at the time; expending entirely too much effort trying to ensure that nothing on or around me made it appear as though I was following some new trend of the masses. It was my futile attempt not to associate myself with anything but “me.” Some time between that point and this one, things changed—I changed—and an overwhelming percentage of the shirts in my closet now have some sort of screen-printed logo on them. What is it about these images—logos produced by some corporate machine outside of myself—that draws me toward them so much that I am willing to “brand” myself, to don these images and project them back onto the world as a reflection of who and what I believe myself to be? My series of acrylic paintings, Branded, explores this fascination.

Examples Of Artist's Statements

Below is a collection of good artist statements I have come across. Notice how some are very general statements that deal with concept alone (what the artist is interested in and what he/she wants to communicate) and others are about specific bodies of work. In most of the statements that deal with a particular body of work, you'll notice that there is still a discussion of concept first, followed by a discussion of how the work communicates that concept.  In the coming weeks we'll be talking about artist's statements, their significance, and methods for writing them.  Take a look at these and see what you can glean:

Jennifer Barnett-Hensel

My work explores issues of memory, time, and the effects of both on one’s Being through the guise of painting, drawing, and installation. With these media, I channel my life experiences as well as the experiences of others to create works of art. My drawn lines and abstracted forms become my visual representations of conversations and feelings. My artwork re-presents the unseen presence that feelings pose onto actual place. By capturing these emotions in works of art they become infused in time and space; not to become stagnant, but instead, to act as a reminder of what has happened in the past. These moments become pathways for understanding the connections we share as humans with each other and with the natural world that surrounds us.

Dwayne Butcher

Butcher_Dwayne_It's_Got_a_Hemi_5:00_digital_video from Dwayne Butcher on Vimeo.

I am Dwayne Butcher, Memphis' Own, an artist living and working in Memphis, TN. I work on a variety of media: paintings, sculptures, installation, time-based digital paintings, digital videos and spoken word performances.

My work offers a glimpse into the routine of an overweight, heavily accented, beer drinking redneck with a chicken wing and knee-high sock fetish. I have high art aspirations, but do not really know what that means. So, I find myself trying to dress like a hipster, when generally I only wear snapped shirt western wear and cowboy boots, unless, of course, I am having lunch at the Country Club. In which case, I have two nice jackets to choose from. I am a jack-of-all-trades, mover of all things too heavy for normal people, and thinking about getting my first tattoo.

Michael Aldana

The Erosion Series

Recently my art works have been attempts to grapple with the issue of coastal erosion in South Louisiana. Louisiana is losing land at a rate of a football field every 35 minutes. This is primarily due to the erosion happening along the coast as oil and gas companies have dug canals in their exploration of this oil rich region. The salt water moves in the manmade canals and destroys the wetlands further inland, causing vegetation to die, and in turn, causing the land to erode. Before Katrina, I hadn’t thought much about the prospects of losing the land and the culture with which I grew up. After being a part of Katrina and her aftermath, I see just how serious the issue is, and my work since has been aimed at bringing Louisiana’s plight to light.

My art is a way for me to express what is happening as the erosion process threatens Louisiana. I look back, in my art, at a past that has vanished or is currently in the process of vanishing. I reference landmarks or landscapes mixed with personal experiences of my youth as reminders of what was, juxtaposed with landscapes of wetlands or canals that are the current cause of the problem. In the works, I layer in images, sand them away, layer new images and often create a space that confounds normal scale and perspective as an attempt to relay the chaos that is facing this region and as an attempt to search for some personal sense out of it all. In the process of making these pieces I contort the composition and reorganize reality with a conglomeration of images. I see these as a reorganization and reclamation of space. It is an effort, at least in art form, to take back the lands, industries, lexicons and places I used to know that are disappearing, and reclaiming them as new spaces. It is a personal way to look at what is being lost due to the problem of erosion and reinventing a space where the past comes back to life and affronts the land loss. There are other portions of this series where I focus on one place, person or thing that is vanishing, leaving or no longer exists, as a meditational homage. Painting a crawfish hole or a bridge becomes more than painting a crawfish hole or a bridge, it becomes a deeper thought process into family, loss, and an uncertain future. The work becomes a reconnection to the past and a way to deal with the immense issues facing Louisiana, and in particular, New Orleans.

Elisa Paloschi

Faces and Places

I use photography as a means of self-expression – I make pictures for myself, to identify with hidden qualities of my character, to better understand my reality, and to express my interpretation of the world around me. A clearer understanding of myself and of my world allow me to explore fragments of life as an abstract form, and also to interact with people I would otherwise not be able to engage with. My goal is to use my camera like Alice’s rabbit hole, to open an unexplored world, a place of curious self-expression, but also a world of new relationships, new chances new beginnings and most importantly new stories.

My choice of subject comes from a place of intuition and is fuelled by an impetuous desire to partake in the stories that unfold around me. I seek the unknown and I look for the light within the shadows, the stories that are not at first obvious and the uncommon in the common. I photograph people in their environments because I am curious of what lays behind their eyes, where they have been and where they hope to go. My photography evokes the passage of time. I use slow shutter speeds and double exposures to explore the nuances of movement and the modulation of time as it passes from past to present to future. Recently I have begun to work with landscapes, attempting to illustrate abstract, evocative scenery as a motif to epitomize the idea of imagined space, a reminder that what I create through the viewfinder is only real to me.

I am inspired to compose by the contrast of light and dark, while I use the changing light of day to arouse the mood of my dreams. Strangely, colour has appeared in my work, slowly and without intention, concealing the black and white imagery of my past. This colour conjures images of my favourite foods – mangoes, chocolate and spicy masala chai, and surprises me. Gone with the black and white is my concerned with documenting a story, rather I find myself interested in the results of immersing myself in the story and recording my own reactions and actions to my world. The photographs of Faces and Places come from that immersion.

Jerry Takigawa

We live in an information-rich yet time-poor culture. I see a society that is becoming more and more disconnected from nature, disconnected from natural rhythms, cycles, and seasons. Often, this is manifested by being disconnected from our own selves.

Fascinated with the concept of time, I have been seeking to understand the feeling that time is “speeding up.” Theories abound to address the issue. This exploration led me to revisit the concept of no time—it means no mind. Eastern philosophies profess that the present moment is the only “reality” and that past and future are an illusion. Being in the present becomes an antidote to the sensation of “accelerating” time.

To create these photographs, I gather objects of personal meaning and work in the moment, responding to what feels right. These images rely on an emotional response in order to be understood. That involves the non-thinking process of presence. Presence is what is needed to become aware of beauty and sacredness in nature. This is an intuitive response. To understand presence is simply to be present. Photography is one way that I am able to experience the moment, suspend time and re-connect with being. With this work, it’s my hope to create an intimate conversation that takes the viewer to a place of quiet contemplation.