SENIOR SEMINAR

Welcome to my blog for Senior Seminar. Follow me if you want to see my journey this final year of art school.

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Gallery Report #3 (or lack thereof).

Due to the many unforeseen and rather overwhelming experiences of the past two weeks, I made the executive decision that I wasn’t going to try to go to another gallery this weekend. Instead, I was going to use that time for other finals and pursuits, including taking care of my emotional health. :’)

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How do your social identities relate to the work you make?

I’m not sure how they don’t, or how they wouldn’t exactly. The work I make stems from who I am, so my social identities will affect that work by affecting the ideas I have. As a missionary kid, the ideas I think about have been shaped by that experience; as a woman, the ideas I think about have been shaped by that experience; as a Christian…well, you get the picture. My social identities affect the work I make to the extent that they are integrated into who I truly am. A few of my roles might not be as important as others—it’s more important that I’m a theologian than a former barista, for example.

I guess, if you look at my work and study it and talk to me about it, you’ll be able to see through the peripheral identities into the ones that are truly important to me. By looking at my work, you’ll know who I am.

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Studio Update #11

I got back into the studio this past week after going to Blick to buy all the 16x20 canvases I will need in order to complete the 18 floral paintings. I gessoed five of them (I’m hoping to get six of them done by the end of the semester hahaha) and then set to work over the weekend.

I got three of them painted (this was taken before I finished the third) and now that they’re dry, I’m going to spend time outlining them in white to finish them up. I’ve found that this gesso is prone to scuff marks, so I’m going to have to stack them with something soft in between them when I run out of space. Otherwise I’ll be touching them up into infinity.

Will I be able to paint three more and do my other finals? Stay tuned.

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Miniature Paintings by Dina Brodsky on Etsy

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So I found this while roaming around on Tumblr and I got super-excited all of a sudden, so I figured I would reblog it so it doesn’t get lost in the netherworld. Could this be a format I can use?? What would that look like?? What would I paint?? How would I paint it?? Would they be takeaways?? Or something else?? IDK but I’m pretty stoked to find out. 

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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.

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Studio Update #10.

Today was my Senior Thesis Exhibition Presentation! I was so nervous and was pacing around outside the door, but it went really well, and I’m so glad that I did it early in the week so that I can launch back into making work. I didn’t end up changing too much of my presentation because I felt confident with what I had included. I just added the first sentence of my art statement to the powerpoint, and a couple questions at the end.

The gave me tons of helpful feedback which I’m looking forward to sifting through tomorrow. My next step is going to be to go to Blick (where they’re having a 70% off sale, in case you didn’t know) to buy 12 16x20 canvases, 6 of which I’m hoping to have painted by the end of the semester, but all of which will be gessoed and brought home so I can draw the flowers onto them. 

I’m pretty darn excited to get to make more of these. They’re so much fun. Looking through my scans of the watercolors I’ve made, it looks like I may already have enough to make another 12 without needing to paint new ones—which would be ideal, since spring is a ways off. But I’m stoked about them no matter what, and I won’t mind sitting outside to paint some more flowers I need to.

The real question marks are the cloudscapes, and what size to make them. The 30x40″ would obviously be more manageable, but when I saw the 36x48″ at Blick last week I got super excited and terrified in equal measure, so I’m leaning toward them (plus, at the moment I could get three of them for super cheap). Kurt recommended I find butcher paper in the size I’m thinking of making them and put them up in the gallery sometime this week so that I can get a feel for what they look like. 

I dunno man, I’m nervous and excited all at once! I want to dive right in, so I think I’ll be taking a trip to Blick early on Wednesday morning…

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Studio Update #9.

Spent a couple hours in here this afternoon/tonight, working on what used to be solely Painting III stuff, but what is now quickly becoming enmeshed in Senior Sem. We have a critique on Thursday where I’m supposed to have the third large Skyscape done.  

I had the hardest time with the frame color for this one. The other two came so easily to me, and this one was so hard to pin down for some reason. After a lot of trial and error and repainting, I finally settled on this golden tan. It activates the neutral blues in a way I find interesting, and all of the paintings together create an interesting, buzzing kind of conversation. (It’s more intense than it looks—the painting studio light is just atrocious.) 

Then I finally fixed the second Skyscape by adding definition to the clouds based off plein air studies I did last week. I still need to fix the circles of each of them so that they are perfectly round, but overall I’m feeling much better about where these are headed. 

This week’s checklist leading into practice presentation:

Write proposal.

Write presentation.

Figure out gallery floor plan.

Practice practice practice.

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Studio Update #8.

It’s presentating time. I’ve spent the past hour or so typing up my last Artist of Influence post that I’ll include in my practice presentation on Thursday. It’s been really interesting seeing the progress between my first Introduction presentation and this one. While my artists of influence for my first presentation were kind of vaguely associated with my work through color/concept, my latest ones are clearly relevant and specific to the ideas I am trying to convey in my practice. The past works that I’ve chosen to highlight this time are not what I would have thought of including before, but they are certainly much, much better. I’m feeling a bit antsy about everything. I still have to write my third art statement and proposal, and figure out a floor plan that I would enjoy. 

This semester is wrapping up fast. I’m not sure I’m quite ready, but I know that I’m getting somewhere.

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Artist of Influence: Hillary Waters Fayle.

During an introduction to a project in Painting III, we were shown work by an artist by the name of Hillary Waters Fayle. Based in Richmond, Virginia, Hillary grew up in Western New York, and earned a BFA and an MFA from Buffalo State College and Virginia Commonwealth University, respectively. In her practice, she takes found botanical objects (mostly leaves) and manipulates them in order to elevate them in the eyes of her viewer, cutting and embroidering intricate patterns into them. Her interest in flora immediately caught my eye during the presentation, and I was delighted to find that our conceptual framework is really similar to mine, too! In a video on her website that introduces her work, she says: 

“There are millions of leaves around us all the time, and it is very easy to just glaze over it [because] it’s just a wash of green, and you don’t even think about it. You don’t every think about the individual leaf on the tree. So I think to sort of heighten it, and make that leaf into something spectacular … my hope is that someone would look at that and think, ‘Wow, there are so many things around me that I never look at.’”

When she said this, I grinned from ear to ear—another kindred spirit! Her website also highlights this emphasis on discovering glory in the mundane: “It is my hope to inspire a shifted perspective on the way we view the natural world; to explore and appreciate what is so often overlooked and to realize the potential for existence in balance with nature.” It’s so wonderful to know you aren’t alone in your point of view—and lovely to finally find a woman in my corner.

When I read an article entitled “Hillary Waters Fayle: Contemporary Artist” featured on PlantPop, I realized that we had one more thing in common that I haven’t found in many other artists around me—we both felt at one time that we had to choose between art and natural science, because we thought they were mutually exclusive:

“Only a few years away from heading to college, she felt she had to choose between art and science. There seemed to be no middle-ground. ‘Art won because it was always going to win,’ she said.”

The author describes a moment she had when she was sitting under a tree, having moved back to the United States after studying embroidery in England, and was looking up at the leaves over her head when she suddenly realized that she could combine her love for art with her love for botany. Thus her work was born. 

My work and hers diverge on our emphasis on environmental awareness and sustainability. While these are also important themes to me, coming from a very environmentally conscious country, they don’t feel directly relevant in my work. Still, Hillary and I would have a lot in common should we ever get tea together one day. 

Images used:

“Hillary Waters Fayle” by PlantPop.

Hillary Waters Fayle, Flora 7 & 14, cut-out leaves. 

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Studio Update #7.

A few exciting things have been happening lately! I jumpstarted the large painting of the flowers to get a feel for it, and soon realized I couldn’t be as quick or loose with how I painted them as I was with the smaller ones. Right now it looks very sloppy, and I know I need to go back in and give it better attention and detailing. To be honest, that kind of puts me off the large-scale. I enjoy the freedom and ease of doing the small ones. But I’ll finish this one and see what I really think when it’s done. 

Meanwhile in Painting III, cloud sketches are still happening! I finally went outside and painted these two studies on Friday morning. I always forget how much I love plein air work. Maybe it’s my French childhood resurfacing all these years later. At any rate, I think that’s a significant piece of my practice—direct observation where my subjects live and move and have their being. I’m about to start the next large-scale Skyscape, and I’m looking forward to its color palette.

I’m having a hard time carrying momentum, to be honest, but I’m excited to have a couple studio visits with people this week. Hopefully it’ll jumpstart my motivation again.

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Artist of Influence: Mark Dion.

I was introduced to Mark Dion’s work a couple years ago during one of my lower-division classes, but his name vanished into the fog since then—until recently, when he resurfaced, and I had an “Oh!” moment similar to the one I had with Joseph Albers. Mark Dion is a conceptual artist originally from Massachusetts who currently lives in New York City. His work makes use of scientific methods of display common in museums to question how larger institutions shape our understanding of science, history, and other areas of knowledge. He is especially known for his “cabinets of curiosity” (based on the German Wunderkammen) that were used in the 16th and 17th centuries to display natural specimens and eccentric artifacts for people to admire and speculate about. My work does not seek to talk about these greater institutions, but Mark and I connect on being fascinated by science and how it intersects with art. Functionally, Mark’s displays give helpful insight into how I could display my own specimens more sophisticatedly in my own show. 

Yet once again, as I researched more of him, I came across this article in the New York Times, written by Hilarie Sheets, entitled “Oddities to You, Treasures to Mark Dion,” and I realized I had once again found a kindred spirit. The title connects well to my own practice already, and the article itself reveals him to be a collector, a person who sees things that other people wouldn’t think twice about and takes them home and gives them honor and prestige by placing them in his installations and cabinets. I loved the article’s brief highlight of his collection of “finials,” small, ornate forms in wood, metal, and plastics that you used to tie to the end of blinds or on top of a lamp. These aren’t objects just anyone would notice, but they caught his eye, and the way he displays them invites his audience to notice them, too. I strive for my work to draw people in to see what I see, ordinary natural objects, with wonder and curiosity. Mark Dion seems to have figured out how to do it, and I want to learn from him.

Images used.

“Mark Dion,” by Art21.

Mark Dion, Marine Invertebrates, 2013, 70 objects in glass jars, isopropyl alcohol, glass and wood cabinet.

Mark Dion, Herbarium, 2007-2011, hand painted acrylic wash, spitbite aquatint, à la poupée photogravure, with hand applied letterpress labels and stamps in 7 parts plus colophon in bleach stained folio.

Mark Dion, New England Digs, 2006, silkscreen and photo-etching in 3 parts.

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Gallery Report #2. The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Today, Kat and I decided to finally go explore the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which you can read more about on their website and in this helpful Smithsonian article. This Museum was founded in 1988 by David and Diana Wilson. Though not strictly speaking a gallery, after visiting it, it sits surprisingly comfortably within the contemporary art contexts of installation and video art (though don’t tell David Wilson I said that). I had heard a lot about this museum but knew very few specifics. I was drawn to its use of “cabinets of curiosities” (I’ve been looking at Mark Dion’s work lately), and I wondered if I might have something in common with this mysterious place. I have no more pictures to show you: they make everyone turn their phones off before going in. If you don’t want spoilers for the experience, don’t click to read more.

There was so much I loved about it. The very first cabinet we saw contained a Junebug and a small gemstone, the one pinned above the other, clearly drawing comparisons in their color and worth in a way that resonates with my own work—and so much of it felt like that. Just around the corner from there was a case with the complete skeleton of a European mole, just sitting there. As soon as I saw them, I told Kat, “This is me.”  

From what I understand, the collections they show are not valuable enough for more prestigious museums, yet they set up the entire house in such a way that every little thing is placed in a position of honor and intrigue. The darkness of the space (all the walls are black), the way they illumine (or don’t illumine) the text and cabinets, and all of the sounds you would associate with a sacred space (singing, running water, forest sounds) impress upon you a sense of importance. No one talks in the exhibits except under their breath. Yet these aren’t items or stories that would necessarily catch one’s attention outside of that context. I loved loved loved the more botanist/scientific displays with their natural specimens and notebook sketches and studies, presented with such care and reverence in this otherwordly house. 

My favorite of these by far was the microscope art. Eight or nine microscopes are placed within a glass cabinet, and you cannot tell what the specimen is until you bend down to look and realize they are microscopic flower arrangements in vibrant colors. The tiniest pieces of colored paper in blues and oranges and reds and yellows and greens have been arranged into the tiniest of arrangements of bouquets of flowers, baskets of plants and birds and fruit, all shining and intensely beautiful. But you wouldn’t know the wonder of this exhibit until you took the time to look—to squint at them. On the outside, this exhibit is sterile and purely scientific, when in reality it’s a beautiful blend of biology and art. 

This wonder of discovery is what aligns most with my own practice, this eagerness to learn more, to see the wonder in the mundane. The Museum of Jurassic Technology does that excellently. Still, it’s not for everyone, and the mysticism and new-agey-ness might put some people off, so go in with a discerning mind and an optimistic curiosity.

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Question of the Week: You work with various materials, how do you go about choosing them, what is your criteria?

I work a lot with your usual drawing & painting materials: canvases, paper, pens, markers, watercolors, brushes, oil and acrylic paints, gessoes. Much as I wish this wasn’t the primary thing I think about, my income is too small for me not to think about the price of them first. I try to find the best quality for the least amount of money, and will skimp on quality (a little) to save money. Brushes often get shortchanged because of this (and because I’m a lazy brush-cleaner and would have to replace them even if they were high quality #biolaconfessions). For my paints, though, I generally look for quality, and I look for color intensity, colors that excite and interest me, and that are useful for mixing the widest spectrum I can. Typically, though, I approach each project separately, and quality of materials will vary a lot depending on what I am trying to accomplish: sometimes the worst quality is best, like with the acrylic paint for my neon paintings, or the paper for my counterpoint project drawings in Painting III. If I want to do something loose, without being too afraid of the final product, I’ll use everyday materials. If I want to take my time and do a professional job, I’ll use better stuff. 

…at this point I feel like I’m just describing what everyone else does. I’m just a typical college student in a lot of ways.

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Studio Update #6.

After my last critique, I took the weekend, as usual, to gather my thoughts. The first thing I did was to rearrange the works in my studio so that only current ideas or important inspiration were left up on my walls. I hung the six Galaxies pieces and moved my Painting III Skyscapes over, too, so that I could see them side-by-side. My critique was very helpful for me, and I feel like I am in a good place moving forward. 

The most exciting aspect of my inverted watercolors-turned-oil paintings was when someone took their phone and used the Invert Colors feature to revert them back to normal—except now, because of the matte texture of the background gesso versus the gloss of the oil, they looked 3-dimensional. I am definitely going to explore how to incorporate that process into my next crit/presentation. I think it gives my viewers the same kind of joyful discovery that I experienced when I sat and watercolored the flowers in the first place. 

I think, though, that I am being called back to the roots of my project in this next leg, and I am going to go watercoloring on campus again this week before making any more paintings. I have been mulling over the idea of incorporating plants from outside of campus. I think I have the conceptual backing for either one; I just have to decide which I prefer.

In other news, it turns out that while the hand sanitizer works fine with insects’ exoskeletons, it does not treat kindly the organic matter of the plant specimens. That ooze has filled all of the vials. I am going to try hairspray-ing or embalming them somehow to see if that will protect them from degradation. I still believe these are important to have in order to inform my paintings.

So I guess in summary, this is my game plan moving forward:

Go out and watercolor more flowers.

Solve the oozing-specimen problem.

Explore the idea of portraits from my Six Smalls with regards to my plant subjects. 

Paint a large-scale version of my smaller oil paintings.

Make more small-scale paintings?

That’s already a lot. I’m excited? and a little terrified. This is getting real.

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Galaxies

Oil on canvas, 2017

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Planetesimals

Mixed media, 2017

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Studio Update #5 (yikes…)

It’s been a long time since I last updated, for a number of reasons. This week has been packed full of important decisions and emotional milestones and processing and to be honest, at the end of each session in my studio, the last thing I want to be doing is taking more time to update this blog—which I know is an unhelpful attitude to have. But I’m working on it, I promise: I got the Tumblr app on my phone, so hopefully that will help me stay on top of things.

It took a solid week for me to recover from the Six Smalls crit. I poured so much of my creative energy into those pieces that once the critique was over, I had to marinate in the comments and rediscover my own interests and vision. I had a studio visit with Puls, which was super helpful. Then I spent Torrey weekend taking a break from thinking about my Senior Show and all that goes with it, choosing instead to do things that rejuvenate and inspire me. 

Then I hit the ground running again. 

The first piece I had to think about and work on is for my critique on Tuesday in Painting III. For each crit, I do three studies, and choose one of them to create a larger work that, well, looks like this. My favorite part of his so far has been playing with color contrasts, and choosing a color to frame the clouds that activates and conflicts with them. Typically these frame colors are weird in-betweens that don’t have proper names, which I enjoy. Which is odd, because usually I hate ambiguity. 

Then, I finally launched back into Senior Sem. Even though I still feel a pull toward the Portraits series I did of my beloved bugs, for this crit I knew I had to explore the Galaxies project because they are, quite frankly, more fun for me to make than the collages. So that is what I did.

I spent all of Saturday in the painting room, morning to night. My goal is to have six of the small flower studies (16x20″) to hang up on the wall, and—if I can swing it and it still matters to me by the end of them—one of them done large-scale (24x30″) to see what that does and whether it’s interesting to me. I was not expecting the level of energy it would take for me to paint that many of them in one day. I had two mostly done when I arrived, so I had four more to draw, paint, and edit. It was a long day, to say the least. 

But in the end, I was so pleased with the result. All that remains now is for the oil to dry so that I can outline them all in white pen. I’m not going to lie, I’m so excited about this direction, and I already have some plans on where to move from here after my critique this Thursday. There are many directions I can go with this, and the fact that I woke up this morning (Sunday) wanting to go paint  even after spending 10 hours in the studio yesterday is a pretty solid indicator that I’m on to something. So, praise Jesus, I suppose (actually, no doubt about it: praise Jesus). 

In between working on my paintings (and updating my Instagram story…), I explored a new way of presenting my specimens. I had the brainwave early on Saturday that if I found a way of placing the vials on two nails, and then hammered a third on top, they would easily stay without distracting shelving units or brackets in the wall. So that’s what I did above with a piece of sandpaper that was lying around, which I then switched out for a simple square of watercolor paper (not pictured). Lemme tell you, even if I don’t keep this way of presenting them past the crit, that this was already a big leap in the right direction from last time. So much more engaging and unobtrusive. The hope is to have around 6 specimens to show, though not of the bugs—I don’t think. I’m going to try capturing actual flowers. 

So that’s where I am today. I feel reenergized and anxious to stay working, but it took the twelve days of silence to get there. C’est la vie.