Art is a Process

artCNU Senior Seminar Research blog 2014-2015

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the last three!

also....

ALL OF THEM MADE IT INTO THE SHOW??? 

just sent off the prints to get made, they’ll be here in a few days and the show is in two weeks?!?! I can’t believe this is all coming together. Also I can’t believe my senior thesis was on toilets.

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senior body of work progress

these are some of the finals, i find out which ones make it for the senior show tomorrow

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diptych 1 - untitled

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messy half of a diptych im working on, other half to follow later today

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some anxiety monsters (i've been calling them peepers) for my series

also figuring some line style for the pieces, I really like what I've got going on here, gonna translate that into a bathroom piece and seeeee

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Artist 14 of 50: Danny Galiote

Danny Galiote is a painter who is inspired by American Scene painters of the 1930's and 40's, but rather than painting for pure nostalgia he paints themes of human nature. Most notably violence and revenge. 

Undisclosed Assets, Oil on Canvas, 40" x 40"

My favorites of his work are those of women who brandish weapons behind their backs. The titles often add to the story shown in the painting. 

Here's my number...asshole, oil on canvas, 19" round

His use of warm, vintage colors are call backs to his inspiration while the square cropping is decidedly modern (especially with Instagram bringing the format back into favor).

Clandestine Persuasion, Oil on Canvas, 40" x 40"

Though feminine in dress and occupation the women he paints are no wilting flowers. They seem strong and ready to beat down. 

Game on...bitch, oil on canvas, 32" x 32"

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Artist 13 of 50: Soo Sunny Park

Never has a piece of work awed me in such a way as Soo Sunny Park's Unwoven Light. It is truly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Pictures don't do it enough justice so here's a video that allows you to see it with movement. 

Soo Sunny Park: Unwoven Light from Rice Gallery on Vimeo.

Installed in the Rice Gallery during the summer of 2013, Unwoven Light is an abstract piece created from chain link fence and Plexiglas. Thirty-seven sculpted units are arranged gracefully filling the space with not just the sculptures but the light and color that is reflected off of them.

The result is a very organic looking installation, that has a different effect on each viewer depending on time of day and vantage point.

It is so gorgeous, I want to have a room like this and sit in it forever.

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Artist 12 of 50: Felix Deac

So when I made my list of artists to write about I put down this guy and then kind of forgot what he did...and its good to know that looking at his art gives me the same kind of feeling it did before. bluh

Okay so Felix Deac is an artist who creates hyper-realistic sculptures. Which is all fine and good until you see what he does with the ability to create hyper-realistic sculptures.

Eidetic 1

yeah this. He makes these creatures that just provoke a kind of grossed out feeling. They look less like any creature you've seen before and more like a blob of human flesh. 

AL 01

AL 01 (detail)

And not just any kind of human flesh. Translucent, sickly, corpse-like flesh. Which is why I think this works so well, he's clearly into abjection and he definitely knows how to illicit a response.

Dead Pillow

Dead Pillow (detail)

this series was just too icky to not to share, haha sorry guys. 

I definitely recommend checking out his website for more detail shots, as nasty as the sculptures are there is an incredible amount of work put into the details. 

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Artist 11 of 50: Charles Fréger

Charles Fréger's series, Wilder Mann, drew me in almost instantly. The way he photographs the mythical costumes from European folklore places the viewer in a mindset of the fantastical. I've always been interested in fairytales, not so much Cinderella as fairies as creatures that held the key to the mystery of the woods.

Wilder Mann 11, Wilder Mann, 2010

What Fréger has noticed is the trend of people seeking the traditional when bombarded with technology. Masquerades, druidism, revivals of nomadic and land connected belief systems. All of these things are relevant when looking at his work with Wilder Mann 

Wilder Mann 64, 2010

Using creatures and festival icons from different European countries, Fréger brings the spirits back to life and sheds light on traditions that may have been forgotten.  What I love most about this series is how well done the feeling of ritual and mythological is created. You see the pictures of these creatures and you feel that they are somehow connected to another world. 

Wilder Mann 87, 2010

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Artist 10 of 50: Catherine Rosselle

Catherine Rosselle is an embroidery artist. She caught my eye with her Insectomanie series.

Insectomanie II

Insectomanie II (detail)

She describes the series as "between dream and nightmare" by having the insects in a sort of swarming configuration. 

Insectomanie V

Beyond her creepy insect embrodery, Rosselle also creates sculpture like works that resemble paper.

Brouillons d'une amoureuse (Drafts of Love) 2009

This installation shows a version of love that is frustrated and discarded, or cut short. Its an almost cynical view of love but you can tell the artist still cares because of the amount of work she puts into it making the notes. 

Césure 2010

What I really like about her insect series is how clean they look but still convey the creepy crawly kind of feeling people often get from bugs.

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Artist 9 of 50: Sofia Coppola

I'm sure we're allowed to write about directors so here's one of my favorites. As a director, what I talk about are her films, so every movie title is a link to the trailer.

Sofia Coppola started her career in film as an actor. Her father Francis Ford Coppola, most famously known as the director of the Godfather films, had her play a few parts in the movies. 

Her feature film debut was with The Virgin Suicides (1999). 

A drama about five sisters, based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. The film shows the events of the sisters lives after the youngest makes an attempt at suicide. The parents of the upper-middle class family, force the girls to stay under close supervision. the film is mostly from the point of view of the teenage boys in the suburb who take an interest in the girls--especially after their containment. This scrutiny by their parents leads the girls to increasingly depressive and isolated behavior.

The movie has almost a dream-like quality to it and is riddled with references to teenager culture. 

Marie Antoinette (2006)

With a cult following, this movie is a comedy/drama very loosely based on the life of the titular queen. The film focuses primarily on Marie's feelings about the stifling court life she's flung into and how she deals with it--mostly by buying shoes and clothes, gambling, and surrounding herself with luxuries.

What I love about the film is that its not too concerned with historical accuracy, but instead on reminding the audience that Marie was only a teenager when her life changed dramatically like it had. It shows the frivolity and you never forget that she is a teen girl. The cinematography is rife with pink and lush costumes, and is almost similar to a teen movie. 

The Bling Ring (2013)

Based on true events, this black comedy movie is about a real group of teenagers who the media dubbed the "Bling Ring". They broke into celebrities houses and stole $3 million worth of cash and items. The movie follows the story of how the kids accomplished the burglaries in their attempts to live the luxury celeb lifestyle they envy. 

What all these movies have in common is that they focus on teenagers who live uncommon lives but their problems are all too relatable; a want for freedom, to feel accepted, or to be popular. Sofia Coppola captures these feelings perfectly in her movies. 

(I highly recommend all of them, although the first one is kinda of dark its still a great movie)

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I definitely want to make the toilet pictures more lush than the sketches look

way more plants and blankets and such

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Artist 8 of 50: Andrew Shek

Andrew Shek is a character designer who has worked for Dreamworks, Nickelodeon, Disney and several other animation studios. 

He specializes in animals and has done work for zoos as well as animators. Shek has a distinct graphic style to his designs, and is intune with the idea of straight lines that oppose curved lines.

This an example of what I mean by that, reading through his guides have helped me keep this design method in mind in some of my own work. 

He'd done work on Kung Fu Panda, and is fairly talented at mimicking the style of Nicolas Marlet who originally designed for the feature.

© Viacom International 2011

His animal designs inspire me to draw them-- since I almost never draw animals and am more interested in people. And to pay more attention to my own designs. 

also look at this lil guy, what a cutie

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another quick toilet sketch

I really like the christmas lights, might incorporate some lamps into the portraits...

gotta study some draped fabrics some more so I can draw them properly

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some really rough unfinished sketches

still trying to figure out what I want to do with this... I dont really like a bunch of what's happening here, but I do really like the lights and I think I'm gonna do more with that  

and also try a more realistic approach in terms of color and from different angles and see how that goes

also going to write about the series and figure out what i want from this thing....hmmmmm.

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Working Thesis

My initial idea for my senior project is to create a series of digital portraits of public bathrooms. Having social anxiety causes me to panic when out in public alone. Public restroom stalls have been a safe haven that allows me to calm down. I want to create a series that conveys this feeling of a comfortable oasis in restroom stalls. I’ll dress them up with comfort items, (blankets, pillows, ect.) and choose calming color schemes. 

The way that the portraits will be presented is as digital illustrations of restroom stalls. I think I want to print them life-size so that the viewer feels like they’re looking in at the stall. Or to present them in a way that makes the viewer a voyeur, and have them look through a crack at the illustration as if they’re looking into the stall.

And I'm also playing with the idea of making an actual stall that is made more comfortable that viewers can step into, with a statement on the inside of the door that explains either anxiety or how to deal with a panic attack.