October 13th- Joe Fyfe and Allison Hall
What I found most interesting about today was that we got a peek into the lives of two very different artists. We started off the day at Joe Fyfe’s studio, which was also his apartment. From the moment I entered the space, I just felt a little bit more depressed. The door to the building had a structure that looked strangely like a jail cell and made me feel like I was entering a prison. Joe Fyfe himself I also found a bit depressing, not because of his work, which I found interesting actually. It had more to do with that he lived in the same small space where he worked and that he lived alone without a family or a partner. To me, a person who wants to have a family and likes having people around me, the possibility of that being my future was rather bleak, and that affected my judgement of him and his work. Joe Fyfe travels a lot, but it just didn’t seem like he was happy in his home and in general. That made me feel like his work was the only important thing in his life and only passion. I feel like although a person’s art should be an important element of their life, it should not be the only passion in their life. People should be multifaceted and have many different interests, ways of communicating with people, and hobbies. I felt that the lack of other interests made his work less interesting to me as I wound it difficult to form a human connection with either the artist or the work. I found the difference between Joe Fyfe and Allison Hall very extreme. Allison Hall’s studio was absolutely gorgeous, and also not isolating, since there were people both in the library and that you could see through the large windows on the street. I could see myself working in this space the most, however it is a very rare space that many people do not have the opportunity to work in. I believe that the most important element of all of the spaces that I could see myself working in have the common element of having large windows and great natural lighting. I really enjoyed the process that Allison had around her work. She had a very meticulous process, but also embraced ideas that popped into her head and wrote them on the wall in little lists and notes that I really enjoyed reading alongside looking at her work. I also became interested in the inspiration behind her work, which was something not really explained clearly in the articles I read about her work. In general, I feel that it is more interesting and valuable to hear the inspiration and processes from the artist themselves than from a piece of paper, which is why I find film interviews with artists much more interesting and informative than text interviews and articles. I also became intrigued with the idea of an elegy piece to memorialize a loved one or several loved ones who have passed. As the semester continued, I lost important people in my life, so I wanted to add this piece to this blog post because I simply really feel like I need to address my inspiration for an elegy piece that I would like to create next semester.