Stephanie Rabins

For the last two weeks of term two Stephanie Rabins came into my English class to help us create a documentary on WWII veterans. Stephanie Rabins is also a great documentarian and has created a video called, "We Take The Train." Here is the link to the video: 

http://stephanierabins.com/video-/view/9036

Critique Two

Today we got into groups of three and gave each other feedback about each other's work. Our group was: Sammy, Arjun, and me. The feedback that people gave me were as follows:

• Keep going in the same direction
• My organization really has made the project work

Reaction to Art & Fear, by David Bayles & Ted Orland #2

Conceptual Words:

• What is the artist trying to achieve? 
• Does he/she succeed? 
• Was it worth doing?

Ideas & Technique:

• Provocative art
• Challenges
• Emotional investment
• Direction to reach
• Harder to think of that new idea
• Creating something cool rather than something conceptual/meaningful/intellectual 

Craft:

• Copies
• Art lies embedded in the conceptual leap between places
• Craft are rules/instructions
• Perfection

New Work:

• Evolution of your progress/work
• Old work shows the important issues or the history of yourself
• Progression

Creativity:

• “Nowhere in this book does the dreaded C-word appear” Pg. 100

Habits:

• “Habits are the peripheral vision of the mind.” Pg. 100
• Get a lot of bad press because it is something that the artist is comfortable with
• Habits are imprinted are the all ours?
• Forgery
• Habits are style
• Style is not a virtue

Art & Science:

• Two separate things
• Insight
• Science is control
• Opposite of math, not one answer
• Art: Self expression for the world
• Provocation
• Driven by inspiration
• Desperation
• Relationship
• Conceptual jumps
• View point shifts in perspective
• Self-Reference

Quotations:

• “The answers you get depend on the questions you ask.” - Thomas Khun Pg. 93
• “Yes there is a difference between art and craft.” Pg. 97
• “But is the Mona Lisa really art?” Pg. 97
• “New work doesn’t make the old work false - it makes it more artificial.” Pg. 99
• “When your tool is a hammer everything looks like a nail.”
• “Your growth as the artist is a growth toward fully realizable works - works that become real in full illumination of all the you know. Including all you know about yourself.” Pg. 112

My Side Notes:

• Some artists don’t challenge themselves, they go the route that is safe and that they know well

Questions:

• Is what they are trying to say that it is easier to discover something that already exists? Confused about Pg 96
• Does it take imaginations to craft?

Exhibition Formats

Andy Goldsworthy:
       Andy Goldsworthy manipulates objects from nature to create his pieces. If his pieces were in a gallery then they would seem out of contents/place. Part of its beauty is the picture itself and definitely its setting. These pieces interest me because he didn't really manipulate the nature objects in a way that would destroy them or the setting around it. It is a peaceful way of working and could even be left there to compost and deteriorate. For some reason I really like that idea.

Shepard Fairey:
      Shepard Fairly has a lot of political influence and strong opinions. He isn't afraid to show the world his art and opinions even if it involves getting in a bit of trouble. In most of my work I try to have some sort of meaning or story behind it and to me Shepard Fairey's work is the epitome of that. His work would look good in a museum but having it be outside, susceptible to weather, people, and other wear and tear, has more meaning to it. It's putting himself out there.

Critique One

Today we got into groups of four and gave each other feedback about each other's work. Our group was: Katerin, Sammy, Arjun, and me. The feedback that people gave me were as follows:

• I am very organized and I should use that in my favor to start on my project
• It seems that I already have a specific plan about the end project and I already have done all of the experimenting with the squares
• Thinking about making objects and placing them in the picture for example and origami chair/piece of furniture
• Thinking about the that I am going to place the people in
• Thinking about context

Reaction to Art & Fear, by David Bayles & Ted Orland

Quotations:

• "We have met the enemy and he is us" (Pg. 23)
• You can be your own worst enemy sometimes. Thinking too much about things and not letting your creative mind flow without any interrupting outside thoughts.
• "When you act out of fear, your fear comes true" (Pg. 23)
• Fear gets in the way, in fencing sometimes my reaction to the other person's blade is one out of my consciousness because I am afraid that they are going to hit me and get a touch and my initial reaction is sometimes what enables them to get the touch.
• "What art making is" (Pg. 25)
• We have been talking a lot about this, to me it is all just personal preference. One shouldn't be judged on what they think art is or what it is suppose to be. There shouldn't be just one definition of one example of true art. It can come in all different forms.
• "By definition, whatever you have is exactly what you need to produce your best work. There is probably no clearer waste of psychic energy than worrying about how much talent you have." (Pg. 26)
• People have told me that I have had talent but my response is, "Is that cheating? Do I want to have talent? Or do I want my work to be mine just because I worked for it?" Talent sometimes can seem to be a way to say, "Oh, they have talent." Like it is some reason why you are good at art and the only reason on why your art is good. It's not yours, it's your talent's.
• "Artists get better by sharpening their skills or by acquiring new ones; they get better by learning to work, and by learning from their work." (Pg. 28)
• For some reason art is their mistakes and the process in which they go through to make their art becomes their art. Many times I have started off with something in mind then later end up with something totally different but better than I expected.
• "Art is human; error is human; ergo, art is error." (Pg. 29)
• I can be a perfectionist in art but lately I haven't been which has been worrying me because sometimes I feel like that perfectionism made my drawing skills better. But now I only draw the general shapes in quick strokes which was the opposite way I used to work before. But in reading part of this book I'm thinking I should worry less.
• "You have – or don't have – what other artists have, but rather that it doesn't matter." (Pg. 34)
• This is a new idea for me but I like it. If other people have this "talent" or "style" that I don't particularly have to have their style to become the artist you want to become. You have to find your style. Because if you steal someone else's then it not yours.
• "Your work tells you about your working methods, your discipline, your strengths and weaknesses, your habitual gestures, your willingness to embrace." (Pg. 36)
• That's what makes it your art! All those variables that make you make your art. It isn't that your art is you but it like another form of you, like your child (as they put it) a relation.
• "You're not like us; you're weird; you're crazy."
• Safe to say that I hear that a lot. In a good way. I think. (Pg. 39)
• "After all, artists themselves rarely serve as role models or normalcy." (Pg. 40)
• That's what makes an artist an artist. They think differently from other people, or at least that is what it seems. 
• "When your work is counted, will it be counted as art?" (Pg. 41)
• Again, I think it is personal opinion. "Another man's trash is another man's treasure." As they say. 
• "At any given moment, the world offers vastly more support to work it already understands." (Pg. 43)
• You take what you need to use and let the bad ideas go. This quotations interests me because I don't totally understand it but I want to keep in for the day that I do wrap my head around it.
• "The far greater danger is not that the artist will fail to learn anything from the past, but will fail to teach anything new for the future." (Pg. 44)
• For some reason when I read this I think of the United States constitution and if our founder fathers would realize how big our country would become and would these same "sets of rules" still apply. And shouldn't the people from the future realize what needs to be filtered and what needs to be executed? Maybe I've been listening to too much NPR.
• "When your horse dies, get off." (Pg. 45)
• I'd rather not ride a horse at all but I like this quotation.
• "The real question about acceptance is not whether your work will be viewed as art, but whether it will be viewed as your art." (Pg. 45)
• We analyzed this before with the idea of reproducing art and remixes. In my opinion if an artist thinks that they can create something new or better out of something that is already made, why not? Does it matter who the original is? Perhaps, because knowing people they want the credit.
• "Either you can play or you can't" (Pg. 47)
• This is definitely and "black and white" theory but in some ways it is true. You can't really be "kinda an artist."
• "The only pure communication is between you and your work." (Pg. 47)
• It could be a way to communicate to others, to get a point across but the conversation between you and your piece is what makes your artwork. If that makes any sense.

Families of Fear:

1. Predictability
2. Thought of not a real artist
3. Worry when work isn't going well
4. Perfection
5. Pretending
6. Fear about yourself
7. Annihilation
8. Magic
9. Expectations
10. Fears about others
11. Understanding
12. Acceptance
13. Approval

My Questions:

• What makes a "real artist?"
• Can you fake being an artist?
• What defines the perfect are piece? Why is the Mona Lisa considered to be the epitome of art or the highest standard, or example?
• Can being to attached to your work prohibit you?
• What is the difference of completing a quota and a goal?
• How do you know if you have talent or not?
• Doest art need to be painfully personal?
• Does art need to be understood?
• Is it easier now, in the year of 2014, to make art? Not with Instagram, coding, and a little more acceptance? Do we think of Instagram as art?
• Do people need to approve you art if it is yours?

Notes:

• Dynamics
• Investment in energy (lots of it)
• Trying to understand art takes energy as well
• Being the "extra-ordinary"
• Quitting all too early
• Blocks
• Self-consciousness
• Self-doubt
• Self 
• Art of working spontaneously
• Something you are used to and too comfortable with, the "safe zone" (which is not good)
• Getting feedback on your art (a fresh look)
• Talent doesn't come easily
• It is a gift
• Something you are born with
• No room for improvement
• Commitment
• Work shouldn't come too easily
• Fear of perfection
• Quality VS Quantity
• Needed to make the mistakes first to realize what the problem is to over come
• Or is the problem the solution?
• WE ARE HUMAN!
• Imperfection is a common ingredient, essential ingredient
• Clinging tightly to what you have not what you can do
• Perfection leads to quitting
• Perfection is a flawed concept
• Existing in your art
• Working out of fear?
• Completing a quota
• Art VS Magic
• It doesn't come from magic
• No need to prove anything
• Becoming paranoid
• Your own process
• Don't need someones else's magic
• Fantasies and expectations
• Work making itself
• No emotional expectations
• Staring to listen to that inner voice
• Mechanisms of academics can be too constructed no room for creativity
• Being that black sheep
• Learning lessons with vengeance
• Art being able to be understood
• Some people don't like change
• Timing
• Being able to understand ones one art
• Being dependent
• The viewer making connections the artist didn't make
• Perspectives
• Accepted as art
• Not getting recognition for making art
• Wanting to be excepted for doing your own work
• Public consciousness
• Controversial images
• The "post card image"
• Reproduction
• The audience
• The environment

Fun Stop Motion Film Website

PEZ. I keep this website book marked and although they don't have any new videos I like to re-watch the old ones. They are fun and creative and sometimes help me think of new ideas. This one is my favorite:

DeCordova

Today we went to DeCordova and walked around looking for twenty one artists and writing notes about each one. 

Recent Artists That I Have Enjoyed

Dan Grzeca:

Reconstructed Barn Owl

http://groundup.bigcartel.com

Anthony Petrie:

Damn The Torpedoes

Ghost-Town:

Poison

Bruce Myren:

The Fortieth Parallel

Lalla Essaydi:

Bullet

http://lallaessaydi.com/1.html

Video Notes #2

New York Close Up Notes

• Enterprise in solitude
• Hard to do something that is not justified in anything
• Indulgent about painting
• Unique mark making
• Inspired by the city
• Doesn't realize it
• Hiding and exposing
• She doesn't seem like that confident of an artist
• Her work space seems fairly large and full of materials and art books
• Has a view of Manhattan from her window

In this piece that she did I like the soft color tones and slow fade. The sharp angles and soft circles juxtaposed on each other also make it beautiful. Most of her work seems to be in large scale and this could be because she has a large space to work with which also makes me think that if I worked in a larger room would my work be larger? I doubt it but it's and interesting concept.

Artist Chuck Close Notes To Self

• He had a monkey!
• Don't look at parameters that don't apply
• Portraits
• Inspiration is for amateurs
• Process
• Uses is disabilities
• No one gets anywhere without help
• Everyone needs to feel special
• Can get past difficulties
• Break down a huge problem
• Someone worse off than you

In the short show we were quickly able to see a painting move from an erect position to a sideways position by a machine (that I assume was holding it from party behind). He uses these types of machines to make up for his disabilities but he also uses his disabilities for inspiration for his art work. His art space was also "his" in a way that it fit him like a mold; everything had to placed in specific places and heights, because there is only so much that he can access. 

MFA Field-Trip

Video Notes

Sports Video Notes

• Conductor and quarterback
• Pace
• Tempo
• Synchronized
• Symphony orchestra
• Not about dictating
• Also about acting
• Leaders
• Work starts before game or symphony
• Brining level of excellence
• Have to know what you are going for
• Responsibly
• Function of every rule
• Controlling the present but also be able to know whats coming next
• Symbols
• Motion
• Emotion
• Result

Parallels

• Preparing for an art project
• I can relate to the sports aspect
• Fencing is a lot like both

Notes On How To Make A Joke Video

• Wasting time to waste other peoples times
• Secret
• Think of something that you think is funny
• Like song writing
• How to start the joke, make connections, and then end it
• Inappropriate and undeserving

Parallels

• Having a system of something that works for me 
• I like humor but it needs to be a certain type of joke for me to laugh sometimes (Especially for people who write comedy)

Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit

Quotations:

• "You need a tangible idea to get you going."
• "I call it scratching...I'm digging through everything to find something."
• 'Where do you get your ideas?' "Where do you find the air you breathe?"
• "Don't scratch for big ideas."
• "That is why you scratch for little ideas. Without the little ideas, there are no big ideas."
• "Stoping my conscious mind."
• "Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, natures - all are lottery tickets for creativity."
• "Art is not about minimizing risk and delivering work that is guaranteed to please. Artists have bigger goals.
• "In creative endeavors luck is a skill."
• "Relying too much on others, even in an inevitably collaborative process, makes you lazy."
• "Another trap is the belief that everything has to be perfect before you can take the next step."
• "Time, for example, is our most limited resource, but it is not the enemy of creativity that we think it is."
• "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources."

Notes:

• Scratching: looking for ideas
• How artists scratch
• Where do ideas truly come from
• Everywhere
• Forms of ideas
• Don't think about the big picture/idea
• Taking it one little step at a time: the small stuff counts
• Improvising
• Moving
• Results
• Retain
• Breaking/finding a loop-hole around bad ideas/morals, and consciences
• Getting crazy and free
• Generare, retain, inspect, and transform
• Different ways of getting ideas
• Every day conversation
• Peoples' handiwork
• Reading
• Mentors
• Heroes
• Nature
• Culture
• Combination of ideas
• Going out of the norm
• Trying not to please but to create
• Be in shape
• Scratch in the best places
• Screwing up can be good
• Never scratch in the same place twice
• Maintain the white hot pitch
• Not thinking about the product
• Natural evolution of ideas/work
• Capturing moments and emotions
• Luck is a skill
• Taking risks
• Locking yourself into a predetermined course
• Money
• Distraction but also can be a cheep sense of creativity
• Other people
• Don't strive for perfection at the start
• Time is not the enemy of creativity
• Obligation
• Flimsy base for creativity
• Total self-reliance and exquisite planning