Artist: Janet De Boos

Janes DeBoos is a ceramicist from Australia who specializes in practical items such as cups and saucers. I attended a lecture she gave while she was visiting Boise State University this year. The theme of her lecture was collaboration and she mapped how her work moved from her personal studio which supplied local shops in Australia, to her work being featured in exhibitions, to her work with developing mass-produced dishes in China.  

DeBoos expressed how she has always preferred to make practice ceramic pieces, finding that making art for art’s sake isn’t as fulfilling. To bridge the gap between the practical/commercial and the artistic, many of her exhibitions are based around similar with variation, and balance. An example is her exhibit: Vase. In Vase, she has a large, round platter on which a collection of different vessels are positioned and displayed. DeBoos explains that it is the tray that binds the objects together, and therefore makes them a singular object. She is able to stay true to her purpose because each element is able to be sold and used individually, and is not relegated to only being used as a visual object (objectified?).

A collaborative project with a Chinese designer. They created a limited edition bone china set that signature sets now resell for 10k among collectors.

Artist: Ann Hamilton

Ann Hamilton’s art is primarily expressed through installation exhibits. Her preferred media is textiles, or things that have similar qualities to textiles, such as line and text. Her reason for this speaks directly to her purpose for her art, she identifies the threads which make up the textile as a metaphoric representation of society. Even though each thread is combined with others to make a new object, cloth, it is still recognizable as an individual thread.

 To explore her ideas of individuals connecting she has done such things as using magenta graduals falling along the surface of a wall to represent America’s bloody and secret heritage. Then the walls had highpoints made from plaster to ketch the granules as they fell. Once fully realized the two created words to a poem that related to her theme. throughout the installation, President Lincoln’s second inaugural speech played over speakers.

In another exhibit, she created to rooms an open industrial building, using large panels of shear cloth. Then images where projected on the two panels, one depicting writing, the other reading. The building was left dark, save for the projectors, and viewers were invited to walk amongst the walls and images.

For this last one she used the building of a failed textile plant near her house. I was particularly interested in this idea because of my own endeavors to find a space that I can repurpose for my art, and make available to others to do the same.

Entry Wk 16.2

What do I want my art to evolve into? We were asked that question at the beginning of the semester. At the time I said that I wanted it to evolve into being blue with warm highlights. That is to say, I have to fucking idea. I became an art minor simply to gain some basis to do whatever I was going to do. I have never considered myself an Artist and other than a few fantasies, hadn’t really thought of becoming so. It’s been a year now, this spring semester has been my fourth consecutive term at BSU and my thoughts have fluxuated, but I am still no closer to an idea than at the beginning of the semester.

The original motivation for becoming a part of the Art Department at BSU was because I wanted to take Art 331(?), Carving. That one class has lead me through all of this headache and pain-in-the-ass, and may have killed my GPA (depending on how my final portfolio and journal fair), but it has also introduced me to lots of great people that I wouldn’t have know otherwise. Since I’m still a few classes away from meeting the prerequs, time will tell if it’s been worth it.  

A year ago I thought of combining painting and carpentry, not that I knew anything about painting other than I like looking at paintings. Then I thought I could learn to illustrate my books, or create book art in some fashion. But this drawing class is kicking my ass, a week to go, four drawings each half done, and I had to restart one yesterday, so maybe that is out. I have enjoyed Art 108, creating sculptures, installations, and 3-deminrional compositions (there may not be a difference, but am covering my bases), I feel like I am actually creating something, not just conveying an idea that’s in my head. It’s difficult to explain the difference. When I write I feel as if I’m creating a new world, and when someone reads what I’ve written, they inhabit that world. When I draw, sketch, paint, I feel as if I am just showing something that is in my mind. I don’t feel as if there is anything beyond what is on the picture plane. When I create a 3-demintional object, I’m inhabiting the current world in a more profound manner than my physical being can. Maybe it’s like giving birth, the realization that one has brought a new life into the world. The realization of my sculpture is a new life.

Entry Wk 16.1

This term has been different for me from my past semesters. Taking two art labs is different than taking multiple English classes. It’s very different putting a paper off to the last minute and a drawing, let alone four drawings. I have had difficulties keeping a schedule where I can maintain a steady progress on my drawings.

            In past semesters I have had a high level of anxiety, stressing almost to the point of a meltdown over my classes and what I had to do in order to pass them. This term I didn’t have the anxiety, but I also don’t have that last minute drive to get everything done, or die trying. I don’t know which one is worse.   

            Everything is due in only a few days and HOLY SHIT I have so much to do. It feels like the act of going to class actually detracts from the efforts I need to dedicate to finishing up my classes. The irony is that everyone thinks it’s great to take liberal art classes because of the fewer tests and lack of finals. Right now I would love to have a final.

            I also am rethinking my career in the Art Department. I am in my second intro to drawing class and have come to the conclusion that I like sketching and gesture drawings, but am not a fan of lengthy, in-depth,  drawings of a bowl of fruit.

It’s hard to judge this 20 minute shit. What counts? Just the typing? What about the process of considering what to write? What if I search the interwebs for images to represent my theme?  There are times when just figuring out what I want to write about takes an hour, let alone how to write it.

Artist: Edward Gein

Edward Gein was a taxidermist and furniture designer from Wisconsin. Living on his family farm and selling his handmade furniture at local Flee Markets, Gein didn’t receive notoriety until 1951, though not as an Artist or Craftsman. It was discovered that the medium he used to create his works was human remains. His first efforts were from corpses he removed from his home town’s cemetery, much in the same way as Frankenstein, but in time he killed several women from the town. His last victim was found hanging in a room in his house. In addition to his furniture, Gein also created leather clothing. When he was arrested he was wearing a belt made of the nipples of his victims.  

He never talked about his motivations, but it has been speculated that Gein chose women as his victims because he was projecting anger with his mother onto other women who may have either reminded him of her, or that had in their own way crossed him and he was unable to suppurate the two, thereby being pushed over the edge and lead to violence toward them. This escalated to murder. It is also surmised that the reason he chose to make his creations from the remains of his victims was as a way of disposing of their bodies, or as a way of objectifying them, lessoning a possible feelings of guilt after the fact.

Many aspects of Gein’s may seem cliché, but in reality the cliché is based on his case. The resulting investigation, press releases, and trial lead to the creation of the horror/slasher  genre and directly inspired three infamous characters: Norman Bates (a taxidermist with mother issues), Leather face (a serial killer who lived on a farm who butchered and wore his victims), and Buffalo Bill (a serial killer who preyed on women and made their skin into a costume). There aren’t any pictures of Gein’s work available online, but here are two examples that are credited to being replicas of his work.

Entry Wk 15.2

Jumbo Veggie Dog, Upper Clackamas #10, a 60" x 54" painting comprised of oil and garbage on canvas by Robert Dozona in 2009, is composed of bottle caps, empty containers, shampoo bottles, candy wrappers, paint brushes, sponges, hygiene items and a Jumbo Veggie Dog wrapper and other items collected from Oregon’s rivers while Mr. Dozona was on fishing trips.  A landscape depicting a river flowing between groves of trees as the sun rises in the distance is painted over top of the discarded human refuse.  Lines are formed from the objects themselves, rhythm is achieved by repeating items such as toothpaste and tooth brushes. 

          One of the main reasons I like this piece is that is combines the use of found objects in the form of collected garbage with an Abstract composition.  While viewing the art the eye is at first overwhelmed by the goings on, but in time it focus on some piece of trash that the viewer finds appealing, such as a Hershey wrapper.  As I considered the components I started searching for how they worked together to relay the Artist’s message.  Only as I backed away from it and sat on a step as if it was a tree stump or log did I see the river scene and soon realized that I was looking at man’s pollution of nature and could imagine being Robert Dozona, sitting on a stump near this river and seeing the same thing.
  
        This painting emphasizes the wastefulness of our society as well as tells an intimate story about us as a society by displaying what we have thrown away.  Just as archeologists dig up ancient rubbish, the discarded waste of our civilization tells as much of a narrative about us, and possibly even more of one, than just studying the materialistic contributions we have made.  The fact that the artist personally collected the garbage in an effort to preserve the natural resources of the forest and river and to save the indigenous animals from the impacts of such pollution should encourage others, me, to do the same. 

          I believe Mr. Dozona is saying we are too wasteful, both in our consumerism, as well as in our lack of conservation and disregard for our environment.  His use of garbage reflects our consumer waste and pollution on an individual level and leaves me with the feeling of empowerment, that there is something I can do to fix the problem.

Artist: Goran Fazil

2 February 2012. I met up with a group of fellow Art enthusiasts at the gallery in the Student Union Building, where Goran Fazil  opened an exhibition called Propitiation of War in Contemporary World. Utilizing a variety of techniques, such as combining 2D and 3D elements to create depth and perspective (such as looking past piles of rubble to see distant buildings), and using ink and graphite drawings on maps and political documents to heighten awareness of the impact those documents have on people’s lives. I was particular interested in the drawings where the US Constitution was used as the picture plane. In these drawings, the negative space was darkened in with cross-hatching, as was values to the subjects, but the paper was left exposed to create the white spaces. These compositions represented the founding fathers debating these documents     

The last two installments were a wall sculpture of grey rectilinear objects which could be viewed through suspended, framed translucent panels, and clay statues of people in a verity of positions placed on canvas tarps on the gallery floor. Wire caricatures with pencils were drawing lines between and over the statues. The first represented aerial images of a war-stricken landscape, and the second depicted how national boarders effect the individual.

After viewing the installations, we attended a discussion with the artists. He explained that his inspiration was how society has been taught that war was a natural occurrence and to be excepting of it. He also discussed how texts and documents can become sacred which, at that point, are considered absolute by one group of people, while opposing groups have their own sacred documents. Once something becomes absolute in a person’s mind, argued Fazil there is no room for discussion and war is the only alternative to address these differences. For this reason he chose to use such documents as a his media to facilitate an open dialog. In the course of the forum, Fazil also explained how the current exhibit relates to earlier ones in subject matter and purpose, drawing attention to different aspects of war and how they influence groups of people.