Class 27: Final Presentations

Yesterday, we gave our final presentations, including our maquette, poster, programs, works, and descriptions. I will not lie. This presentation caused me a lot of anxiety, and I am not usually one who gets nervous giving presentations. All semester I have really struggled with what to do or say in this class, especially on my blogs. I am not sure what is too much to say or to little, and I felt a similar scare in my presentation. In the end, I think my presentation went fairly well. I felt confident in the final works that I chose and how they connected with one another. I ended up doing a virtual installation, which I thought was appropriate for my  exhibition. I used a program called Art Steps.

http://gstarling.artsteps.com/pages/exhibitions.aspx

Some of the comments that I received:

Nell Ruby

• Point of view in space and in works
• Work with space and length, form of waiting
• Interacting with space

Katherine Smith

• Push space
• develop and enhance
• great works
• pairs of figures/singular figure
• suggestion: make sure giving context for artists, speak to audience who doesn’t know, more about the artist

Donna Sadler

• Motion-doveting, deliverance
• Manet we become perspective client
• Make us the receiving end
• Road in Sherman, invited to follow road
• Degas-contrasts interesting in waiting
• Sentence with period at the end.

Class 25&26: Work Days

I worked intensely on my exhibition, specifically the virtual maquette that I was creating. I tried to organize my thoughts and gather what I wanted to say for the presentation. Today was a bit anxiety ridden as I still feel like I am unclear about what exactly I should say. I believe Donna said to me, “You are in control of this project.” It was like I had been awaken from the dead. This year I have felt out of control of everything. EVERYTHING. And that includes school work. I haven’t found the balance or happiness that I usually have in school, and it has affected my grades and my state of mind. I have needed a bit more encouragement from teachers instead of criticism, and I felt that I was seriously falling off the deep end with this project. Thank you to Donna for those encouraging words that allowed me to take control of my exhibition again.

Class 24: Print-Making

So funny story. The day before class I had to have a minor emergency surgery on my finger. It was all wrapped up, and I couldn’t write or type. Then I remembered, “Oh yeah! I am supposed to print making today.” I went to class, and Anne was very kind and understanding as always. I listened, watched, and was just completely fascinated at how the entire process worked. I was really bummed I wouldn’t get to participate. Then I decided, “why don’t I just try it?” So I did. I painted with two fingers and had someone turn the printing press for me and VOILA. However, I used rice paper and my design bled through onto the newsprint. I let both dry and realized that I really liked my bleed through much more than the rice paper one. Donna concurred. So my poster was created with a messed up fingers and kind classmates.

  

Class 23

Today, Anne gave her methods presentation. She worked with images as a research technician in a lab. Her boss commented that he loved artists because they see things scientists miss. When Anne graduated from university, there were only 20 jobs offered for printmakers. This was absolutely shocking to me. I can’t even imagine not having an absolute anxiety attack about that.

(http://annebeidler.com)

Obesessing Project

Anne spoke about her creative experience in relation to her daughters. She said that she was interested in this idea of “lose child & lost mother” and “lost souls and unknown historical.” I was very drawn to Anne’s work that repeats “she looks. finds no source within herself”

Class 22

Today, we first had a check-in, during which I expressed some frustration with my project. Nell helped me work through the frustration and continue with my original idea opposed to flip-flopping in the middle of the semester, which is much appreciated. Everyone seemed to be a bit frustrated with how the projects were going and slightly unsure what was expected of us at this point. After we got everything out in the open, we took a break and met on the third floor to learn about making maquettes.

Class 21

Today was Nell’s process presentation. We first explored her career at Agnes Scott College through three main sections: scholarship, teaching, and service. She shared her super secret webpage that she says she will take down soon, so look while you can! (http://nellruby.com)

First of all, I am so inspired by Nell and her creative process. I like lists so I have decided to start including lists of things I hear in class on my blog.

List 1:

• “A real work of art destroys”
• “Rebel against straight lines – that’s someone else’s line”
• A free drawn line is a line out of hands

Class 20

Today, Donna gave her methods presentation and discussion. For class, we read:

• Paul Crowther, “Merleau-Ponty:  Perception into Art,” The British Journal of Aesthetics 22/2 (1982): 138-149. [JStor]

 Donna read a beautifully crafted excerpt from her book about the entombments in France. I tried to keep up but I am going to list some of the phrases that caught my attention that I jotted down.

Notes/Phrases that struck me:

• Engendered visual rhetoric of remembrance
• Scale and presence
• Language of immediacy
• Function in the middle of late medieval piety.
• Monumental entombments of Christ – 150 years popularity
• Site of entombment – highly charged site, wonder, awe, and triumph
  • *When I asked Donna what she meant about a highly charged site, she responded “Event never occurred, tomb becomes active and highly symbolic of something that is powerful, relic itself of passion of Christ”

One of the most striking things that Donna said during class was about “what one experiences in pain and what one remembers.”

Class 19

Class today was Donna’s professional practice presentation. We read:

• John T. Paoletti, “Wooden Sculpture in Italy as Sacral Presence,” Artibus et Historiae 13/26 (1992): 85-100. [JStor]
• Alison Griffiths, “The Revered Gaze: The Medieval Imaginary of Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of Christ’,” Cinema Journal 46/2 (2007): 3-39. [JStor]

Donna spoke about art as agents of the sacral. We talked about how the drama of the passion translates into a static work and how does the viewer become an agent of the sacral.

We discussed Paoletti’s article and his explanation of wood as a medium that transcend time and space. I was bit confused on why wood would be the only medium to achieve this goal. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one. Donna mentioned her opinions about how stone can just as easily achieve this goal if the overall sculpture is effective.

Class 15: October 21

Katherine gave her presentation, “Claes Oldenburg and Cossje van Bruggen’s Sculptural Process and Architectural Practice,” from 2010 at the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center. Katherine mentioned in response to one of my questions that she writes to discover her thesis. Part of her process, that she described, is writing and editing continuously. Katherine mentioned that she doesn’t choose her thesis strategically; she writes and discovers it.

Class 18: October 30

Today, we gave our process presentations for our final project. I felt like I received some really good feedback on what I can improve upon. I am considering using three works from Impressionism and three works from the first wave Feminist movement. In class, Katherine and Donna suggested I look beyond my six works I have chosen. Donna asked if I was planning on looking further into the past. We also discussed specifying my discussion of Hopper’s Nighthawks to mainly encompass the space within the work of art.

I enjoyed Hannah’s presentation a lot. I found her discussion of “time and instant” and “ascent and aspiration” fascinating and a good way to tie her exhibition together. Hannah very carefully picked her works and had a very cohesive exhibition theme.

After class, I began looking at other works that include gendered waiting. I found this work by Roy Lichenstein.

Roy Lichtenstein, Blonde Waiting, 1964

Here is a list of works and sources:

Preliminary works:
Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, Oil on canvas.
Edouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1881-82. Oil on canvas, 37-3/4 x 51-1/4 in.
Edgar Degas, Waiting, 1880–82, Pastel on paper, 48.2 cm x 61 cm.
Edwards Hooper, Nighthawks, 1942, Oil on canvas, 84.1 x 152.4 cm (33 1/8 x 60 in.)
Faith Wilding, Waiting, Performed in Womanhouse, 1972.
Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #48, 1977, Photograph.

Preliminary bibliography:
Flam, Jack. “Looking into the Abyss: The Poetics of Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.” In 12 Views of Manet’s Bar, edited by Bradford R. Collins, 164-188. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996.
Gerhard, Jane. “Judy Chicago and the Practice of 1970s Feminism.” Feminist Studies 37, no. 3 (Fall 2011): 591–618.
Lipiński, Filip. “The Virtual Hopper: Painting Between Dissemination and Desire.” Oxford Art Journal 37, no. 2 (June 2014): 157–71.

Ricciardi, Alessia. “Becoming Woman: From Antonioni to Anne Carson and Cindy Sherman.” Yearbook of Comparative Literature, no. 56 (May 2010): 6–23.

Shalson, Lara. “Waiting.” Contemporary Theatre Review 23, no. 1 (February 2013): 80–82. doi:10.1080/10486801.2013.765128.
“STAYING UP MUCH TOO LATE: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and the Dark Side of the American Psyche.” Kirkus Reviews 74, no. 10 (May 15, 2006): 512–512.