I am behind.

You've probably noticed but I have not posted the last few lectures. Now I am going to catch myself up.

A few weeks ago Brett Cook came to talk about his projects. He started out by having us define Community on one side of the projection and Soul on the other. He then was able to compare his projects and what he was doing with our definition of Community and Soul. That aspect of the presentation was exactly what my world cultures teacher used to do so it was a bit of a throwback for me.

Anyway..

He creates community gatherings where he would engage everyone in his art. They would create what the community wants to see because the whole point was

for the art to be accessible to everyone.

Next is Melinda Steffy. She mostly spoke about her experiences selling on a site called Etsy. Melinda confessed it was not a place to advertise conceptual art but a place to sell fun things and jewelry. She had a lot of fun creating charts for us to see the difference between selling in person vs selling online. Melinda also stressed the importance of taking good pictures of your products before posting them on Etsy.

Melinda's links:

Fabrik

Julre

Double update!

I've been sick for about two weeks now and I'm still recovering. I have been able to go to the lecture series since it only involves sitting and listening. Here's the two artists I haven't spoken about yet.

Eileen Neff is a woman who works with the theme of "inside/outside". She uses photography, blows it up to a large size and paints over it combining the outside with inside elements. These elements can be made up with a chair and some treetops or furnishings of a bedroom with Mt. St Victoire inside the bed frame. The piece above is made up of multiple photographs of textures in water. They are all stood up to create a layered feeling.

Doug Bucci was the speaker the next week. He works with metals and primarily focuses on jewelry. He has made belt buckles for Viva La Bam and talked about how one shoots for working with the kind of people they want. Doug also created the jewelry rabbit with Jeff Koons and Stella McCartney. Eventually he was inspired by his diabetes and his body. I forget the exact logistics but he has a monitor connected to his body that checks his blood sugar. With this machine and a 3d printer he creates things relative to his health that day. The healthier he is the more aesthetically pleasing the piece of work. I thought it was really interesting how he connected his health with his art. This really demonstrates how technology can be used in art today.

Until next time

Jess

Sharon Louden

It's almost been a full week since Sharon spoke with us but I still remember what her art was all about and that's what counts right? Sharon is an artist. Not a painter, not a sculptor, not an animator, but an artist. She doesn't limit herself to one medium and tends to push herself. I really enjoyed listening to her talk about what she does. My favorite pieces by her tend to be the ones including glow in the dark materials. Below is an animation still from her piece 'Footprints'

Until next time

Jess

So last weeks lecture was a chaotic one. All foundation students were to get their schedules and relearn how to register. I am a worry wart so I was already stressed when the alarm started going off! Everyone tried to evacuate like it was telling us but Gerard eventually told us to come back in. The lecture went on with the highly annoying alarm system repeating itself and may have left some information to be desired.

If that wasn't enough I was one of the few who did not receive a blocked in schedule. My account, for various reasons, was put on hold. What a ridiculous hour! Ridiculous day! Horribly Ridiculous week.

Jess

Kate Cuffari

I was surprisingly interested in this weeks lecture. Kate was a very bubbly presenter and caught my attention immediately. When she described the process of getting in contact with artists about whether to preserve a piece or not and trying to restore art pieces even when it seems ridiculous, like smelling out rotten potatoes I was intrigued. I want a job like that. Maybe I will have some direction in my life.

But the purpose of the lecture, or what I picked up, was the importance of picking your materials. It was stressed a few times what can happen when a cheap and/or new material is used. New technology doesn't necessarily mean good technology.

Until next time

Jess

I have been asking around for hours what this guys name is and realized last minute I could probably find it on Blackboard. Alas I did not find his name, nor did I figure out where his awesome accent was from. I seem to have failed at collecting important information. Good thing I'm not trying to be a spy.

Anyway, what he was talking about is the important thing. He discussed at length how art and technology fit together in the mass of media, which was very informative for me since I am not taking Art heritage at the moment. Although, I have no clue where in art history the classes may be, and they might have not reached any point with bigger influences of technology.

What I do find funny is that every lecture we've had so far stresses the use of Twitter or Facebook. Everyone is so available now days it seems it may be even harder to be found as an artist with so many phonies out there. I guess it could be argued either way. The majority is looking toward the internet. I don't blame them. It's a strangely lovely place.

This week at the 2D lecture Scott Rigby, the founder of Basekamp, came to talk to us. Honestly he sounded really nervous and unprepared. No that he didn't know about the organization well enough just that he seemed to be uncomfortable speaking in front of a ton of freshmen. Even so Basekamp as an organization sounded really cool. I thought it was great that they use skype as a communication tool every Tuesday from 6 to 8 pm. Of course you can go in person as well, although they suggest you bring food or a six pack. Gerard had a good laugh about that seeing as we are mostly all younger than 21. After this lecture I'm interested to see what projects Basekamp has gong on and whether or not I could eventually become a regular at their tuesday gatherings. Who knows.

until next time

~Jess

Arts and the Internet

The internet has taken over. This has been clear for at the very least a few years now. I just never expected it to take on a huge roll in Art. It makes a lot of sense, marketing yourself to make money, and the social and business aspect of the internet these days can make it easy.

Peter Hanley provided our first presentation of the semester for the 2D lecture. Peter started with what appeared to be a shade of nervousness but soon caught all our attention with his humorous personality leaping off to personal stories or possibly art world gossip relevant to his slides. The basic gist was how to get your work as an artist out there and reachable, but he touched on the process of using the internet and networking to create art as well.

Social networking seemed to jump out at me more than anything else. It makes a lot of sense being able to reach out to scores of people with Facebook, blogging and things of the like. Peter also stressed the importance of finding support in a online gallery, especially one with a large online presence. Of course if that doesn't work out at first it is a good idea to send a sample of your work out to artistic blogs and things of the like. Things like that could help get your name out there in the first place, be talked about, and maybe give some incentive for galleries, online or not, to receive you in a better manner.

Then there is the whole issue of actually making money. There are some solutions found in cyberspace and it all seems easy enough to figure out. Cafe Press is a more well known one. If affiliated with an online gallery they may sell online that way.

There were many helpful hints within the presentation although I have been slightly aware of what is out there. Here are a few links to what I know pretty well;

Etsy

cafepress

deviantart

I want to make it clear that I do not have an account on any of these websites, however I have used them to buy works or simply see what the artists are up to.

Until next time,

~Jess

Walking First Friday

I guess I should start off saying this is an assignment for my computer foundations class at Tyler and that I'm really excited to delve into this whole art school thing. As I was supposed to explore the city I figured I'd do First Friday which was the coming weekend after my first week of classes. Let me tell you, it truly was an experience.

First of all I've never taken the subway or the train alone before so that was an adventure in itself. The plan was to meet my friend Sinead , yes like Sinead O'connor, and some people she met from her classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). It was, after all, First Friday and what better to do than wander the galleries with a couple of art students you've never met before?

I arrived at city hall expecting Sinead and company to help me find my way around center city. It turns out there was no previous discussion of where exactly we were headed which lead to us taking the longest possible route to old city. Eventually we made it and the First Friday experience began.

I will say that there were a few galleries that just didn't or couldn't hold my interest. In fact I don't even remember what the first few were all about for they were overshadowed by a fantastic artist on the street, I feel horrible because I didn't catch his name, and a table handing out information for Health reform.

There were a few that really caught my attention though. The gallery didn't exclusively show pieces by her but Hadieh Shafie had an impressive display of designs of rolled up paper. Each one popped out of the wall about three inches and the color paired with the pattern was mesmerizing. Another opening was for David Febland an amazing oil painter who concentrated on the theme of "Heat Seekers". Like the title of his series says.

The streets were lined with musicians and artists setting up shop for some extra cash. While we rested at an abandoned stoop I worried we would become, if not be mistaken for, another side attraction with our bags and odds and ends scattered everywhere.

As all things do the night was coming to an end and I had to get my butt over to the closest/safest train station so I could spend the weekend home in New Jersey. By then I was completely tired out and panicked about whether or not I had enough pictures because I never kept count. Turns out I was fine and my adventure in the city was a good one.

until next time

~Jess