#seniorsem

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Small Group Feedback #4

My concrete goals for the rest of the semester are to:

Complete as many floral paintings as I can (at least 6–if I can swing it!)

Finish all of the cloudscapes for Painting III & photograph them for reference for larger versions.

For break:

Make a list of people I want to send my showcards to and start compiling addresses.

Think about what the third element of my show could be.

Rest.

[meganv2-blog]

Flow 1 (Video), Megan Van Vlear_2016_water bottles, hot glue, water pump, tubing, duct tape, glass bowl

The fountain is finally done! Here is the original piece by Michelle Lum:

Michelle Lum, Wind Chime, 11.5 x 38 in., plastic bottles, wood, acrylic paint, & fishing line, 2016

Flow 1 (Still), Megan Van Vlear_2016_water bottles, hot glue, water pump, tubing, duct tape, glass bowl

Part of me would like to remake this fountain and correct the parts of it that I would have liked to have done better on. However, this thought feels rude towards this piece. Because this work was so personal and specific, re-doing it seems disrespectful to the original piece. Instead, I will probably continue by making this a series with different, but similar materials. With each one, I will allow my emotions guide my construction of the piece as I did with Flow 1. This has been a surprisingly healing process as I have gently approached and considered this painful subject.

[meganv2-blog]

Critique Reflection 3

1. What is the purpose of a critique? Which particular critique conversation so far was most helpful, useful, or constructive for you as an artist? How did it inform or speak to what you do as an artist? Please describe.        For me, there are several central components that I look for in a critique about my work. First, I want to hear a gut reaction to my work from those viewing it. I look for how they react and interact with the pieces. This gives me a good, initial, idea of whether or not I am conveying what I want to convey. It also helps me to see potential implications of the work that I didn’t see myself. The second thing that I want in a critique is thoughtful feedback about how I could push the work farther. Hopefully, a critique will include thoughtful artists who have studied different things than I have. This provides a great collaborate conceptual arena to learn from others. Because these components are important to me, I try to give these types of feedback to others showing their work.

       The critiques that helped me the most in my Senior Seminar class were the small group studio crits. This was an extremely valuable time where I could hear my peers’ individual opinions on my work and practice. In the class critiques, I think that we are not totally confident in what we have to say about another person’s work in front of such a large group. However, in these small critiques, we have time to hear more depth about the other artists’ work and respond without fear of sounding unintelligent. Since I was not in the other small groups, I cannot say what specific elements made my group so helpful comparatively. However, my group helped me define what it was that is important to me in my work. They also honestly (without judgement or dismissing my talents all together) what wasn’t working. This was helpful for me specifically, because I knew that those in my group cared about my success. They helped me see that the “janky” parts of my practice wasn’t working and suggested social practice.

2. What critique session was most challenging for you so far? What about the conversation challenged you? Please describe.      The beginning of the 6 Small Works critique was challenging for me. I do not claim to know the minds of the people around me as no one can ever truly understand what anyone else is thinking. From the initial comments being made about my work in this critique, it seemed as though those speaking were not giving my work proper respect. The thoughts that I receive in critiques are often reflections on how I am not a worthy designer. In my opinion, there should be negative feedback on work in a critique. But this should be for the purpose of helping the artist improve. Yet I often perceive an attitude from other designers toward my work that says, “give up because you failed in these ways.” I appreciate when others tell me my weaknesses, but only when it is not out of malice. Again, I may be misinterpreting how my classmates feel about my work. Unfortunately, without my prompting them, other students have come to me and noted how “weird” the feedback is in my critiques. In this crit, a few students began by giving all of the reasons why they didn’t think my work was art. Thankfully, my professor stepped in and changed the mood of the crit. There was also a critique of another student’s that was difficult for me simply because of the subject matter. I found myself unable to even face the work because of my past experience with that topic. The work also offered me kindness and was not yelling at me, but was rather inviting me to come and consider it.

3. What is the role of the artist and the role of the viewer in the critique? How do you feel in these roles? What is the most meaningful viewing experience you’ve had so far this semester? Please describe.      I’m not sure what the artist’s role is in a critique. I think their role depends on the type of critique that is taking place. If it is the artist’s goal is to receive gut feedback from the viewer, then the artist should remain quiet at first. However, if the point of the crit is to get feedback from the full extent of concept behind the work, it might be valuable to speak first. Either way, the artist has a responsibility to listen well and be respectful to the comments of the viewer. If the artist wants to ask others to respond to their work, then they must be willing to kindly hear the viewer out.      The role of the viewer in a critique is to give the work the attention it deserves. My professor once told us to allow the work to speak to us. If we liked it, we should try to figure out why. If we did not like it, it was probably because there was something that we needed to reconsider in ourselves. It is important to be open to what the work is offering or saying. Sitting with the work before responding first, is a good habit. This way, the viewer can listen to the piece instead of trying to impose our own interpretation of it too quickly. As I mentioned earlier, one of my classmate’s work was difficult but extremely meaningful for me. I felt like I wasn’t doing my part as a responsible viewer. I was unable to come close to consider the work. Instead, I tried to hide behind my fellow students to avoid facing the work. But I also tried not to completely disrespect the work by ignoring it. Thanks to my professor’s earlier advice about viewing art, I followed the disturbance where it led. I asked myself why this piece was bothering me so much and what was specific about this work that made me feel the way it did.

4. Do you think you were generous to your classmates in the critiques so far? Why or why not? What do you think would help you to be more involved and engaged in the conversation?      On the whole, I think that I was pretty average in my generosity in critiques. I wasn’t silent or ignoring the work, but I definitely could have put more effort into responding. I found that the more I knew about the work or had conversations previously with the artist, the better I engaged in the crit. When I consider the artist’s practice on a relatively consistent basis, I find that I have more to say or consider during the critique. With 22 students in our class, I don’t consider each work with the time it deserves. I also feel in critiques like with so many people, my responsibility to respond is far less. This is one of the reasons why the small group studio visits are so helpful. I need to engage with the work because there are so few of us besides the artist. It could be helpful to have more crit groups rather than full class discussions. Instead of having a class critique, we could be a part of 3 small groups with different students in each group. This way, we would hear feedback from all of our classmates, but it would be in a more intimate environment where everyone would be forced to speak their honest opinion.

5. What does it mean to you to make art in a community? How does artwork made by other artists affect what you do as an artist? How can you take better advantage of the built in art community you have at Biola?     Making art in a community is essential to good work, in my opinion. In high school, my best friend and I took art classes together. She would lean over during class and give me feedback on my painting whenever she saw something that she wanted to comment on. At the time, I didn’t realize that this was a normal and healthy way of creating art within the art world. But it is extremely helpful to have others who create and study art, give input on my work. By making art in a community, we can make our own unique work but learn from others. Art is meant to be seen, usually by more people than the artist. For this reason, feedback from others during the art-making practice helps to make work stronger. When I see other artists’s work, it helps me to develop a better critical eye. It also informs me on what others are making and what conversations are being held in the artistic community. It is not my natural inclination to ask for help. Because of this, I have a hard time asking for feedback from other artists if they don’t offer it voluntarily first. I could take better advantage of this community at Biola by reaching out first to give and receive feedback.

[meganv2-blog]

Two Creams, Three Sugars, and a Dash of Guilt, Please

I recently visited the show, Activating Pangea: The Voyage showing Brian Duggan & Adam Gibney at MART Gallery at CB1-G in LA. The show was hosted in a relatively small rectangular room. Brian Duggan displayed eight pieces, and Adam Gibney showed three. Both artists’ work caught my attention for different reasons.

Brian Duggan’s pieces focused on industrialization with nuclear power plants as the works’ subject.

A cause for concern, but not alarm, is made up of three small marble sculptures of nuclear power plants. The three plants are Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island. These miniature outlines reminded me of cityscape tourist souvenirs. A vacationer wants to document their holiday. So they buy a cheap three-dimensional skyline of Seattle or New York or London. It stays on their desk and reminds them of their fabulous trip. Duggan’s sculptures are similar in size and form, but they are made of marble and feature the skyline of power plants. To create a souvenir immortalizing a place of mass tragedy and destruction is an absurd concept. It would be hard to find a person who is proud of either of these three locations and the disasters that occurred there. I can take Duggan’s work in two directions. First, I could see it as a memorial or tribute to the people and environment affected by the events. However, creating miniature skylines of the destructive force seems like a rather trivial and irreverent way to pay respects. Second, the piece could be a condemnation of humanity for their destructive inventions and actions. These sculptures are of horrific events that may not have been taken seriously enough. The title can lead to this conclusion as the artist may be condemning the lack of alarm around these events. This interpretation is more likely although the first may be a part of it as well.

We are focusing significant regulatory attention on retrieval of legacy material_Brian Duggan_Signed Wallpaper (#1/6 +2AP)_2016

for an unknown reasons the fuel pumps stopped working_Brian Duggan,_marble and red quartz_2016

Adam Gibney’s work has conceptual ties to technology. The pieces had only three colors: gray, black, and white. The materials in his work were mostly neon lights and metal.

Cross-Section 10: Wait There, consists of metal, neon, and paint. Gibney painted the gray two-dimensional form directly onto the floor. The neon light looks as if it has smoothed over the rough and spotted ground.

Not-So-Common-Notion 6: It comes in waves, is a metal table with a glass table top. Under the glass, a grid made of neon tube lights is clearly visible.  On the table is a ceramic fusion of six coffee mugs. Formally, the intertwining circles of the mugs are juxtaposed with the crossing lights below. These different kinds of weaving clearly point towards this theme conceptually. Modernly, a coffee shop (or even a coffee table in a home) is a common meeting place for individuals. Over a cup coffee, politics and personal issues are discussed, business deals are made, and solutions to problems are proposed. The intertwining coffee mugs point toward the convergence of individuals and ideas. However, this new formed mug is not functional as it is. The mug is not bigger and better and more highly functioning. Instead, this attempt to find a better solution together has only resulted in a dysfunctional, mutated version of the original.

Stay tuned for my post solely featuring Adam Gibney.

[meganv2-blog]

Words words Words

I wrote a lot of papers this past week. I learned new things which was fun but didn’t have much time to work in my studio. This also left very little room for thinking about and developing my new senior thesis exhibition idea. I have the bare bones of the show, but there’s still quite bit that needs to be worked out. The idea centers around a social practice within the gallery space. This is much closer to what I am hoping to accomplish with my show than my previous idea. More to come later!

My fountain now works although its a bit leaky (see post: Studio Update: A Bloody Fountain and Smelly Balloons). I also visited several galleries with other artists. But more to come regarding all of those things later. For now, here’s my meager studio update.

[meganv2-blog]

A Bloody Fountain and Smelly Balloons

These two in-progress projects are dealing with a subject that is extremely personal to me. I've never been the type of artist who has been able to use art to help sort through my feelings. A few weeks ago, a fellow student presented a work that drove me to tears. My peer had been able to create a piece that evoked painful, strong, and necessary emotions in me. These feelings are imbedded in a specific situation that I encountered. Since then, I have had difficultly processing the emotions that came from this experience. But through this person's work, these emotions finally came to the surface. I followed my gut and began making work that addressed these issues. For the first time, I didn't think and plan before I started creating. Instead, I just began making. It sounds cheesy, but at each step of the work, I did what felt right. If an addition or alteration didn't seem honest to what I was trying to convey, I wouldn't add it.

Bloody Fountain

The first part of this series is what I have been casually referring to as my Bloody Fountain. This name came from a lovely somewhat anonymous note that was left in my studio. 

This fountain is part of the alternation assignment that we were given in Senior Seminar. Per the pulling of names out of a hat and God's divine assignment, everyone in our class switched projects with another artist peer. From our Six Works projects, we were to take our least strong work and give it to our partner. I received Michelle Lum's Wind Chime: 

The top of this mobile is beautiful and I dearly want to use it. But so far for the fountain, the empty water bottles have been the only necessary material from the original price. The piece is almost complete apart from the water pump and the tank. The water pump I originally purchased was intended for a different project. Because of this, the pump did not have enough strength to push the water up the long tube of the fountain. I have a new, more powerful pump in my studio waiting to be used. I also need to find a more appropriate, and intentional, container for the water. 

Smelly Balloons

The balloon project started as I covered one balloon with a layer of elementary school glue, let it dry, covered it again. I then repeated the process many times which created quite the pungent smell. The balloon is the size of a large orange. The balloon hardened, like I hoped it would, and now has a pretty solid exterior. My goal with this balloon is to puncture it without it popping. I also want the balloon to be able to last for longer than a few days and the glue seems to be doing the trick so far.

I was unsure if the first balloon would be preserved in the way I wanted, so I created several backups. Unlike the first balloon, I didn't cover the backups quickly enough and wonderful things happened:

“Happy Accidents and ‘The Feels’” would have also been an appropriate title for this post. Hm...maybe next time. 

[meganv2-blog]

Keeping Track of My Head

With a plethora of images and projects, its vitally important for artists to be organized with how we document our work. Bellow is the method that I find clearest to inventory my work.

I have a folder of my completed work. In which are separate folders of the final images and information regarding that specific piece. 

IV_Final_Work  -  A_Seperate_Projects

IV_Final_Work  -  A_Seperate_Projects  -  _CabinTypeface

IV_Final_Work  -  A_Seperate_Projects  -  _CabinTypeface  -  01_CabinTypeface_Information_01

IV_Final_Work  -  A_Seperate_Projects  -  _CabinTypeface  -  02_Cabin_Alphabet_01.jpg

IV_Final_Work  -  B_CategoriesProjects

IV_Final_Work  -  B_CategoriesProjects  -  3_Digital

IV_Final_Work  -  B_CategoriesProjects  -  3_Digital  -  b_Typography

IV_Final_Work  -  B_CategoriesProjects  -  3_Digital  -  b_Typography  -  _<Cabin>_Typeface

[meganv2-blog]

Experimentation in Product Design

Below are the six pieces that I submitted for my senior seminar class for our Six Works project. Each project is an experiment in product design. Making these six works was the first time I had followed product design through past a graphic model. For this series of work, I focused on two main areas. First, I explored the process of creating a product. Unfortunately, I was not able to spend as much time as I would have liked on the research portion of this project. I did find, however, that in order to truly understand what I was trying to create, I needed to make a physical model. Second, I concentrated on how a product design piece might fit in a critical fine art gallery. One of the more successful ways that I faced this was by presenting the work as a kind of sculpture. Ideally, I would like to have all of the information that is required to have a functioning product. This information will not be exhibited in a gallery. Instead, I will present the “sculpture” to the art world for contemplation on the idea behind the work.

In the class critique on these pieces, several helpful tips were given. (09.22.16)

One of the ideas, was to make the works moving or functional in the space they are presented. For example, for You’re Invited!, I could cover an umbrella with the proper ink. In the gallery, there would be a water release system that would drip water onto the umbrella. This way, the viewer could see the product in action. This eliminates the need for a diagram or written explanation of how the product works. This leaves space for greater contemplation and a more significant impact of what the work is saying.

I explored how product design might fit in a gallery through the use of diagrams. While not superbly designed, I was interested to see how the class reacted to the information given them. The result was a general consensus that less is more. Through the title, I could give enough information to the viewer. This title would give a helpful indicator as to the piece’s mood or intended purpose. The piece would then consist of the title and the product itself (hopefully functional and active).

Several people mentioned the silliness or “absurdity” of 372,000. It was helpful to hear this response since it was the opposite of the reaction I was hoping for. The title of this piece indicates the number of deaths by drowning annually world-wide. This fact was apparently dwarfed, however, by the “absurdity” of balloons on a shoe.

It was encouraging to hear from my professor regarding the presentation of my work. She noted that the way I had presented some of my pieces was indicative of some work seen in LA galleries. This confirmation of the validity of the work I was trying to make was encouraging. It was also helpful to know that my method of those presentations are on the right track.

(For those of you not in my class, I apologize for this post’s academic tone. But in all fairness, this is for an academic course :)