Laura's Review

"The Stolen Artwork Museum"

Laura's body of work has grown so much over this semester. She has taken her previous idea of art theft and pushed it to a whole new level. Her thread work is absolutely stunning and delicate. John and Adriana both appreciated the tedious detailed work. The only one they didn't like was The Boy In The Red Vest. They felt that the red was too bright and stood out too much. I think a more subtle red maybe something darker would have blended in with the rest of the painting better. I like her idea of cutting out the pieces and filling them with thread. The cut outs represent the fact that it is missing and was stolen. For me, the thread provides hope that these pieces are still out there, intact, and are just waiting to be found again. It's like part of it is still there connecting it to the museum, even though it is missing. 

It is such a shame that her piece was stolen from the All School Show. It also makes me upset that John and Adriana did not know about it and they are teachers in our department. Since it was an Art Ed and Art History all school show, every person in the department should have been notified about it. I also think the Arnhiem should have more security. It is left wide open all the time and a person could walk in and take something if they really wanted it. The Baklar and Paine gallery right next door has security and gallery attendants. Why should the Arnheim be any different? I can really relate to LAura because I had work stolen from me my senior year of high school. I know how frustrated she feels not to know what happened and to have little to no help from everyone. It is beyond frustrating. The fact that this happened makes me not want to submit work to shows at MassArt if we can't assure that they are going to be safe. I commend Laura for how she has handled the situation and how she presented the piece during the review. I am also really excited to see this idea develop even more in the future. 

Liz's Review

 

I'm so glad I got to see Liz's collection of work. Her love and care for tape is so awesome and intriguing. It leaves me wondering why she used tape in the first place. At her review, she turned the entire into an art piece. While somethings were displayed as full pieces, others were just documentation of her performance pieces from this semester. She was careful with how the documentation pictures looked to make sure it was just as presentable as the physical pieces. I love the way Liz's mind works. She uses this tape to create a whole new form of beauty. I'll never forget that one time in class she said that "tape is forgiving". Like what?! Who says that about masking tape? Pure genius if I do say so myself. 

I wish Liz had pushed the space of the room a little more. Both John and Adriana were talking about that. I would have loved to have seen giant tape forms or more tape protruding from the walls, or maybe just more tape on the walls or floor. It would have been interesting to see and entire section of the floor covered in tape. Adriana said that she would have liked to have seen the words she uses to describe tape (image above) actually shown to us instead of written. Maybe next time, Liz could play with those ideas and fill the space a little more. I can't wait to see where Liz's work with tape takes her next. 

Grace Black's Review

It was really exciting seeing Grace's installation finally put together in a space. She has worked really hard this semester, pushing herself and this childhood memory. The piece is about her experience remembering this memory and turning it into something physical.  When Grace was little, she slipped in the bathtub and hit her two front teeth on the porcelain tub. Her two front teeth were pushed into her gums and had to be removed.

Her suspended orbs represent memories and throughts floating around in her brain. Her color choices are muted tones that she associates with the memory. They work so well for me because all of the tones are sort of fleshy and remind me of the human body. Four of the orbs are clear- one empty, two with her actually front teeth, and one with a baby photo from after her teeth were removed. I love that you have to look through all the colored orbs to find the clear ones. The small teeth really make you look harder and spend time with the piece. A lot of people didn't like the idea of the photo, but I think it benefits the piece. The photo reminded me of my own childhood photos and make me think of some of my own memories. I think it helped make the installation even more personal for the viewer, but at the same time it makes you contemplate her memory and what is going on in the space around you. I agree with the fact that the space wasn't 100% perfect, but Grace didn't even like it herself. I'd like to see the piece in a smaller space, like maybe the one Kayla used! That way we could walk through the orbs and really have a physical experience with it. I know how hard Grace worked all semester and I think it definitely payed off.

**On a side note, I wish we had more information prior to review day as to what time specific peoples's reviews were and where they were. I had no idea that the times would be posted on the doors. I would have gone to look, but I feel like everyone in the department just assumed that we would know where to go.

Review Day!

Here is what my wall looked like for my final review! I'm really happy with how it went. I wish I wasn't so rushed/stressed with set up because I had so many pieces to set up and it took a while to get them to hang correctly. The order that we had planned on that morning of who was supposed to go didn't go as planned. I had to set up during Kayla and Darien's reviews. I wanted to be there to see their work and support both of them. I wanted to hear what John had to say about their work, especially Darien's because I had helped her set up the night before.

I am really happy with the feedback I got though. I got some great ideas and a good critique from John, Lyssa, and my classmates. I'm glad everything went well because I put a lot of time and effort into this work throughout the entire semester.

Final Phase

Wow I have not been on here in a while! Too busy working on my final phase!
I decided to do a series of three wood burnings on tree stumps. The series consists of a female, a male and two birds. The faces of the people are slowly being turned into skulls, showing that it is there but not fully prominent yet. The birds I have decided to use are the crow and the yellow bird. The crow is a symbol of life, death, and rebirth. It represents the circle of life connecting to the skeleton I have chosen to show on the faces. The faces are living with a hint of death thrown in, making you aware that it is always there. The yellow bird is there to represent the relationships that we have with the people around us. It connects the male and the female and makes you think about their relationship. It also makes you think about their relationship with life and death. It further makes you think about our own relationship with life and death.
I am really happy with these pieces! Here are some process photos along with the finished pieces.

March 19th- MFA Visit

At the MFA, I found a piece that was very similar to my work, surprisingly. I thought it would be really difficult to find a piece that connected to mine. The piece I found was titled Folding Screen by Wharton Esherick, from 1927. It is a wooden folding screen made from walnut and ebony. The screen is covered in carvings of patterns. There are also carvings of bare tree limbs and flying blackbirds. I thought this was so cool because it was a work on wood with carvings and carvings of birds! It relates to my work because my work is all done on wood. I incorporate carvings and digging into the wood into my pieces as well. The blackbirds relate to my work as well because I have been focusing on this idea of the mythical bird, connecting my pieces with this idea.

I also found a piece that was different than my work, but still incorporated some of the similar conceptual ideas. This is Freeform (Dinnerware decorated with the primitive pattern) by Viktor Schreckengost from 1955. They are ceramic pieces that include a tea pot, plate, tea cup and saucer, salt & pepper shaker, and a milk/cream holder.

 These ceramic pieces are all connected by the narrative painted on them. This consists of deer and people. It almost has a tribal feel to it. This is different than my work because it is ceramic and really 3D, while my work is on wood and mostly 2D. It does connect to my work in the sense that the narrative or decorations of the dinnerware allow the pieces to connect and flow together. My work has a sense of a narrative having to do with birds that is incorporated in each piece, connecting them together.

Artist Visit #3

I visited a gallery showing “Forms in Flux” at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. This particular show is a collaboration between the SMFA and Aichi Univiversity, located in Nagoya, Japan. The whole idea behind the show was to provide a meeting place for something new to be created from two geographically very distant locations. Working on opposite sides of the world, in different media and in different cultural contexts, these artists address issues of transformation, change and fluidity of perception. The artwork was all very different, but somehow managed to flow all together. The pieces didn’t seem out of place or random even though they weren’t the same media.

When I first walked in the gallery, I was greeted by Nobuyuki Osaki’s  video installation piece titled “Portraits of Mirrors“. I found this piece so interesting because not only were they projected onto the wall, they were projected onto hand mirrors which then projected the image onto the wall. This idea completely serves the concept of transformation because the mirrors warped the images, and the images changed themselves over time.

Moving further into the gallery, there was an interactive piece by Michelle Samour called “Windows“. This piece consisted of a table with several clear tiles containing pigmented abaca designs on them. As long as we were wearing gloves, we were allowed to move them around, stack them, and ultimately transform this piece. It was interesting to layer multiple tiles together and to see what other people had done to the piece before hand. The fact that it was also an interactive piece really made it memorable. Its not too often that you come across art that is meant to be touched and/or moved around. There is something really intriguing about being able to transform a piece of art.  I really enjoyed looking and interacting with these pieces.