Images from last critiques project

Critique #2 October 10th

  I really enjoy art that I let create itself. I love taking my hand out of the process and seeing what just happens. Letting the colors work together naturally is interesting to me. 

  I still don't have a real reason why I like to do this. I know I love the process of creating art. I love watching the images/pieces, sort of, create themselves. 

  I know that I try to live my life as naturally as possible. Taking out harsh chemicals from my life, eating as well as I can, spending time with nature. I'm wondering if the way I live my life and the way I enjoy making art are connected. That would make since, wouldn't it?

  I don't believe people should be polluting the earth with all of our harsh man made chemicals, toxic products, genetically modified foods, etc. 

  I believe we should leave nature to do what nature does and not impose.

  This is how I enjoy making my art also. I don't want to use my hand, I want to let the art create itself. I want gravity to direct where the paint should go, what marks should be made.

  

 Taking pictures of frozen water droplets, water falling, paint falling, making paintings with dripping and pouring paint, making pottery on the wheel and allowing it to fly off by itself to create something beautiful and natural. These are all things I've done in the past that allow motion and natural happenings to define my work.

  I'm seeing the pattern but I don't understand why. Yet ;)

Late Blog Post

Ahh!! Sorry I'm posting this so last minute. Life got in the way this week.

   My project this week is my paper making. In my paper making and paper arts class we have just finished with the paper making portion. While making the paper I think I became a bit obsessed. We were supposed to make 30 different sheets of 3 different types of paper and I ended up making almost 30 extra. I started making them and couldn't stop!!
  The thing that I really liked about the making of the paper is how you can trap things inside of it and see them when put up to the light. In addition I love making impressions into the paper and creating designs that way.
  This is just such a new thing to me and I can see myself continuing to work with the creation of paper.

http://www.stylehive.com/shop-paper-mache-light-shade

Finals

This is how I spend my finals week.

  For the last few projects I needed to finish I've taken the pour painting to a step further.
Instead of using the objects and canvas to create nonobjective, organic shapes I've been focusing on using this method to create landscapes.
   Dripping paint down the canvas I use gravity to create hills, mountains, water and sky.
This is a perfect combination of my obsession with the pouring paint and controlling this medium. 

I've done my best to take the paintbrush out of the equation trying to control the paint with almost solely gravity. 

   This method is a mixture of gravity and gratification :)

George Ohr

George Ohr was a potter in Biloxi, Mississippi who created work from 1880–1910.

The self proclaimed "Mad Potter of Biloxi" could be consider the father of the American Abstract-Expressionism movement.

When I was showing this artist I really felt a connection with his work. This is the most similar to the work I'm experimenting with in my ceramics class that I've seen so far.

This abstract ceramic work done on the wheel is so much fun and all I want to do with my time anymore. I find myself thinking about my ceramic pieces, worrying about them, getting excited to work on them and create more.

I'm getting more excited for this style and series then anything else I'm working on.

Landscapes

Fluid painting.

Fluid painting and spin painting aren't new ideas. Mark Chadwick has an online portfolio of almost 100 fluid, spin, acid and mechanical paintings.

I've been working on a series of abstract landscape paintings and when I saw Chadwhick's work I imminently thought 'landscape'.

My approach is going to be a little different though. I'm attempting to mix the elements of the pour paintings I've been doing with this fluid painting to create various landscapes. I will also be adding in some 3D elements to break up the landscape.

Woah.

Amy Shackleton

Inspiration

These are called Cinemagraphs 

and I am in love with them. 

When I was very young and started to create art and my medium was photography. I, sort of, became obsessed with the idea of freezing moments. I remember taking as many pictures as I possibly could of a single motion. Water falling, someones movement, what ever was in front of me and I would take the camera and watch that small movement over and over again. 

However, I never did have any interest in video cameras. 

These Cinemagraphs really do something for me.

The first time I saw one I just felt an instant connection with them. 

THIS is the feeling I'm trying to portray in my photography, my painting, my ceramics. 

This is it. 

Those small moments, only there for those small seconds, then there gone. 

But not here, not with the Cinemagraphs.

They are forever frozen, yet focusing on that one special movement, on constant repeat. Perfect. 

I have no idea how to do these, I have no idea if this is my future project, I just don't know.

I only know that these really do speak to me. 

After Friday's Crit

  After the critique on Friday some good points were made about my art and where I’m taking it. What happens when the paint dries? What’s the point of the work? What am I telling the viewer, what do I want them to walk away with?

  The point of the work is to freeze a moment of time. I am obsessed with this process of pouring the paint. The way it drips down, makes stripes within the various colors, the story of the uneven floor creating various patterns… I wanted others to share this moment with me. The excitement I get from these natural, organic, shapes and design, the way the paint falls and merges into itself and the other colors are so important to me and I wanted to share that with the viewers. The question was asked, however, of why I was doing this type of art. Why wasn’t I doing some type of preforming art? This is something I’ve never put any thought to, what so ever. I’ve always just been an artist of paint, clay, pastels, etc. never of acting or performance.   I don’t know how I feel about this. As of now I feel very apprehensive. I actually hate the idea. Though, it’s interesting and intriguing to me, I like the idea of trying something new and out of my comfort zone.

  So what does that mean for where I am now? I’m going to continue the search of whatever I’m looking for with this pouring paint thing, for now. I feel like the paint and I have some unfinished business. But, I also what to explore this idea of performance art. If I could capture the moments I love so much as their happening maybe either by video or by simply photographing them maybe that would portray my meaning better. My roots are in photography so this could be a project to look into. 

Mazes

  Previously I had talked about an idea to use maze like channels to direct the paint. I’ve been keeping my eyes open to find something that would work and I found a plant water catcher thing. It has 6 ducts to move the paint.     The paper was mostly level so that I could see what the paint would do. From each duct the paint made its own path, but, in the gaps the paint began to come together. This also made paths. Over all there were 16 paths (and small, potential paths) as opposed to the usual 4 paths when using a simple box.

  This piece was interesting and like the last piece a good way to learn about this process. It’s interesting to see the process as its being done, the heavier paint vs the thinner paint, if I shake the paint the bubbles that come through, if the canvas is level or not. There are many elements that can affect this process. It’s also interesting to see how it turns out when it’s all over. The paint continues to flow for a while, pushing each stripe further out, the paint dries and elements under the paint start to surface. 

Fail.

“…success has no rules, but you can learn a great deal from failure.” -Jean Kerr.

  I don’t think this particular project was one of my strongest. I wasn’t trying to make a beautiful piece, but instead, I was trying to learn more about this process.  The canvas was placed on top of a box so that the paint would drip off; I was trying to construct a second element. The overall idea was to create a piece that would create pools of paint that could be incorporated in the final product. Unfortunately, a little ferret decided to move the papers around, destroying the work.

Thanks Zero.

  In addition to the bad ferret fail my floors aren’t level. I have a level that I usually use but I wanted to see what would happen if I didn't.

  So now I’ve got this ugly painting.

But, what have I learned?

  Well I’ve learned that what I had was a good idea gone wrong AND I should try again. 

Dry Paint

   When the paint dried it settled and left the raised designs below it. Not only did the glue cause the paint to flow in different directions it also created an altered texture on the surface. I then took it one step further and painted the remaining areas. This brought out the glue and created a new element within the piece. 

In Progress

  So I started a new project. I had some left over paint and some of these stupid miniature tin cans and decided to try out some new things. Last time I had talked about the idea of mazes to lead the paint. A few weeks ago I had made some designs out of hot glue and thought that the paint might flow through that. Turns out I was right. At first the paint ran over the tin, continued over the glue and I accepted failure. After a few more layers the paint stopped flowing where the glue had blocked it. Instead of the round shape the paint usually creates, once it falls from the pedestal, it had begun to have straight lines and different curves. This is very intriguing.

  The first few times I've done projects in this way I tried to not touch the paint, just let it do as is pleased. This time I'm trying to control it. I realized that the paint is wet.. and I have a paintbrush.. whoa, revelation. I started to play with the top of the paint and control where it went. It created some really exciting effects. 

       This has got me feelin' crafty. 

Inspiration & where it took me

  I came across this video a year ago whilst stumbling along the internet. This video is of an artist named Holton Rower. He uses multiple pillars and acrylic paint. These pieces are large and very impressive.

  I recreated this on a similar scale. A 4X4 ft. thin wooden board and a 3 ft. tall X 10 in. wide pillar. I also had a friend come to make a video of the process but I’m still waiting on said video. This process took around an hour including set up time.

The pillar was removed to make it easier to transport.

  What exactly it is about this video/the process that spoke to me last year? Everything… and it’s stuck with me. It’s something about the loss of control that keeps yelling out to me.

  All of the stripes that were created and the designs made by the paint on the pillar are so beautiful to me. Even the way that the paint cracked when it was drying is beautiful. There are just so many details I love about this piece and the process. 

More On Butterflies

  While working on the butterfly project I realized how much I enjoyed not only folding of the paper but the coloring of the paper as well. This process is so simple and so gratifying. The colors that can be created and the designs on the paper could be so beautiful. The process is as simple as taking a wide but shallow container, filling it with water, spray painting the surface of the water and dipping the paper into it. It's easy to make so many of these in such a short period of time and that’s probably why I have over 100 of these brightly colored butterflies taking over my house.  

 

  There’s just something about the colors and shapes that can be created from this process. The lines that are created, the natural forms, organic shapes, and the fact that, yes, I set up this process, I sprayed the paint, I dipped the paper, but how it turns out is really all out of my hand. The designs on the paper aren’t forced; their effortless and natural.

  To me, art has always felt like something that creates itself. Whether or not it’s something that’s meant to happen or it just happens on its own The paint doesn’t always listen, the clay might go flying off the wheel, the photo wont develop like you want it to; that’s a big part of art to me.  Those important little accidents that help you to find what you’re really doing, what you really want to be doing. 

RachaelKBishop Art Blog 2012 annnnd GO!

  For as long as I can remember I've needed art. Art has never needed me. I started when I was young. Painting, doodling, playing with polymer clay, gluing twigs to shit and whatever else I could find to glue that I wouldn't get in trouble for. I've always had this urge to create. My mom has always been a huge motivator, pushing me to have shows and generate art in whatever medium I was into that week. She also gave me my first job working with her at my parent’s photography studio. Retouching has stuck with me ever since.

  About a year ago I made the big move out of mommy and daddy's house into a lovely little rental house with my boyfriend MattPorter. I'm feeling the urge to create now more than ever. So many white walls that are calling out for that perfect piece. This is a selfish reason to create art but it’s a big step. I usually dislike looking at the pieces I've made so having them on the walls is new. OCD usually kicks in when I look at my paintings/photographs, etc... “That line could be better... more red there... if I could just fix that one spot...”

  Since moving wine has become one of my new favorite hobbies. This has led to one of my other new favorite hobbies. There are 127 paper butterflies on my ceiling. I've been inviting friends over to have a glass, or 3, shoot the shit and make this paper butterflies. The paper being used is various colors of various types of paper that I have dipped in spray paint. It's a fun technique I picked up in high school that involves a tray of water, spray paint and paper. Easy and fun. Each butterfly is different, signed by the friend that made it and stuck into my lovely drop ceiling with a pin. They are starting to take over, and I love it.