The course is designed to introduce students to sources of artist’s writings and general research tools for the collection of ideas and images. Students will receive feedback about their Thesis writing, art making, and teaching techniques. The course is meant to help students to place themselves in a contemporary timeframe, and to remind them of their roles as participants, producers and consumers in the “Art World.”
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Post Drafts of Artist's Statements Here!
Hello All,
Please post the first drafts of your Artist Statements here.
I will add slide shows as I receive images.
Samples of student writings from last semester's Senior Class can be foundhere.
Craft as Art has long been debated throughout history when really “art strives to express; craft strives for excellence. Good art has good craft. Good craft is artistic. Within every craft there exists artists. Within every artist there is craft.” I myself am a crafter by nature who has taken her crafts to an artist level. The particular skills needed to work with glass, wood and metal are crafting skills, but my final pieces of artwork are conceptualized thought out ideas expressed through glass, wood and metal. Fused glass is the main medium I work in and the main focus of my artwork. Metal and wood are intertwined with glass to enhance the visual experience when viewing the work and to enhance the natural feeling fused glass creates. The process of breaking, reassembling, and melting the glass is what draws my artist creativity to work in glass. The simplicity of clear and black glass allows no distraction from color and allows the light to reflect off the glass creating its own appealing visual element. As for the subject matter of my artwork it is very minimalistic. I take landscapes, such as tree lines or cityscapes, and break the images down to the lines that suggest their forms. Then I build the lines suggesting a form in glass and melt the glass together. When using wood or metal with glass I again use shapes and lines to suggest form and movement. With clear glass being transparent one naturally wants to place objects behind the glass. This is where a lot of the wood and metal come in. When viewing wood and metal through fused glass the image can be fuzzy because the fused glass picks up the texture of the shelf when being fired, and this to me enhances the natural elements of metal and wood. When viewing an object through glass the object swells creating the illusion that it is magnified. I treat the lines of my glass like Piet Mondrian would paint his lines on a canvas, considering the elements and principles of art when formulating artist ideas. Form, line, shape, texture, balance, movement, rhythm… they are all present at one time or another, helping me express my concepts. All of my artwork is deprived from personal experiences. Weather it be the skyline I see every morning during my commute, or tree lines from scenes of my favorite movie, or timelines of my life, my work is about how I see the world. The forms and shapes of my life are taking in by my eye and processed in my brain. Then these forms and shapes are reconfigured into suggestive lines mainly translated through fused glass. At the end of the day I am a teacher who teaches her passion of craft and art. I learn skills that can be translated into my student’s curriculum. I practice these skills to expand my knowledge of the medium, which enables me to be a better teacher. Within my exploration I create and investigate my own concept and ideas to create artwork. “Craft is what I do all day, art is what I have at the end of it.”
Society holds expectations of us to look a certain way and I want to try to change that thought. Beauty today consists of many things, such as a skinny waist, excellent posture, pearly white teeth, etc., and I do not want to have any of this in my work. I find people with imperfections to be beautiful. There is an elegant grace about a person who is confident in their skin and is not afraid to show its flaws. I emphasize this in my work because I wanted people to understand that everyone is beautiful in their own way. The reason I chose to work on wood throughout many of my pieces is because of the fact that each ring within the grain represents a year that it was alive. The thought that it could have been alive before me is very appealing. Also working with many different varieties of wood lets me see the imperfections and beauty that it embodies through the cracks and textures that it has. This is the main reason behind why I choose to draw people with flaws. I find their imperfections to be beautiful. A person with wrinkles on their face is seen by the world as having a weakness. In this person, I see only beauty because I know that with age wisdom follows. This is why my art focuses on the “flaws” people have, rather then people who are considered "perfect."
I am often inspired by art that is hand made and process oriented. I create works of art that involve the hand making of multiples. Transitioning from piece to piece things change and the piece itself is not an exact copy of the last work. I spend time making my art I familiarize myself with every phase of my art. The process of my art is very important, the making of an image or the building of a sculpture becomes methodical and a ritual. My sculptures of koi fish are one of a kind works that are hand built. Creating multiple sculptures of the same image gives me the opportunity to invent complex arrangements for these sculptures. The scale of my art is as important my sculptures are often the size that is small enough to be held in both hands. Creating a self-portrait drawing I choose to depict the figure larger than life. I make large-scale drawings that are depictions of my self that address the viewer and display a sense of confidence. My drawings are made the same as my sculptures with a process that is slow and allows me to appreciate the finished product.
Art has become a window to my soul. It has given me the opportunity to confront past and experiences of my childhood, for the very first time. Stepping back into my past, has given me both the closure and the clarity I need as an adult. I’ve come to terms with the obliteration of my innocence. I understand and accept my failed attempts at coping with it. Today I’m revitalized because I’ve persevered and continue to persevere through it. Through my personal exploration I’ve realized that my artistic expression is the optimal outlet. I’ve rediscovered myself as an artist, and more importantly as a person. I am interested in carrying on this idea of self-discovery and apply it in a broader perspective. The true origin of who I am as a human being and female of African origin doesn’t begin with me. Just as I’ve evolved as a person, I want to gain a better understanding of how African Americans have evolved as a people. The struggles that those before me went through not only paved the way for people like myself, but also were paramount to the foundation of the country we live in. In my work I will research and investigate the history of circumstances that contributed to the development of my family, my ancestors and my culture.
Melanie Pawlowski
ReplyDeleteArtist Statement
Craft as Art has long been debated throughout history when really “art strives to express; craft strives for excellence. Good art has good craft. Good craft is artistic. Within every craft there exists artists. Within every artist there is craft.” I myself am a crafter by nature who has taken her crafts to an artist level. The particular skills needed to work with glass, wood and metal are crafting skills, but my final pieces of artwork are conceptualized thought out ideas expressed through glass, wood and metal.
Fused glass is the main medium I work in and the main focus of my artwork. Metal and wood are intertwined with glass to enhance the visual experience when viewing the work and to enhance the natural feeling fused glass creates. The process of breaking, reassembling, and melting the glass is what draws my artist creativity to work in glass. The simplicity of clear and black glass allows no distraction from color and allows the light to reflect off the glass creating its own appealing visual element.
As for the subject matter of my artwork it is very minimalistic. I take landscapes, such as tree lines or cityscapes, and break the images down to the lines that suggest their forms. Then I build the lines suggesting a form in glass and melt the glass together. When using wood or metal with glass I again use shapes and lines to suggest form and movement. With clear glass being transparent one naturally wants to place objects behind the glass. This is where a lot of the wood and metal come in. When viewing wood and metal through fused glass the image can be fuzzy because the fused glass picks up the texture of the shelf when being fired, and this to me enhances the natural elements of metal and wood. When viewing an object through glass the object swells creating the illusion that it is magnified.
I treat the lines of my glass like Piet Mondrian would paint his lines on a canvas, considering the elements and principles of art when formulating artist ideas. Form, line, shape, texture, balance, movement, rhythm… they are all present at one time or another, helping me express my concepts.
All of my artwork is deprived from personal experiences. Weather it be the skyline I see every morning during my commute, or tree lines from scenes of my favorite movie, or timelines of my life, my work is about how I see the world. The forms and shapes of my life are taking in by my eye and processed in my brain. Then these forms and shapes are reconfigured into suggestive lines mainly translated through fused glass.
At the end of the day I am a teacher who teaches her passion of craft and art. I learn skills that can be translated into my student’s curriculum. I practice these skills to expand my knowledge of the medium, which enables me to be a better teacher. Within my exploration I create and investigate my own concept and ideas to create artwork. “Craft is what I do all day, art is what I have at the end of it.”
Society holds expectations of us to look a certain way and I want to try to change that thought. Beauty today consists of many things, such as a skinny waist, excellent posture, pearly white teeth, etc., and I do not want to have any of this in my work. I find people with imperfections to be beautiful. There is an elegant grace about a person who is confident in their skin and is not afraid to show its flaws. I emphasize this in my work because I wanted people to understand that everyone is beautiful in their own way.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I chose to work on wood throughout many of my pieces is because of the fact that each ring within the grain represents a year that it was alive. The thought that it could have been alive before me is very appealing. Also working with many different varieties of wood lets me see the imperfections and beauty that it embodies through the cracks and textures that it has. This is the main reason behind why I choose to draw people with flaws. I find their imperfections to be beautiful. A person with wrinkles on their face is seen by the world as having a weakness. In this person, I see only beauty because I know that with age wisdom follows. This is why my art focuses on the “flaws” people have, rather then people who are considered "perfect."
I am often inspired by art that is hand made and process oriented. I create works of art that involve the hand making of multiples. Transitioning from piece to piece things change and the piece itself is not an exact copy of the last work. I spend time making my art I familiarize myself with every phase of my art. The process of my art is very important, the making of an image or the building of a sculpture becomes methodical and a ritual. My sculptures of koi fish are one of a kind works that are hand built. Creating multiple sculptures of the same image gives me the opportunity to invent complex arrangements for these sculptures. The scale of my art is as important my sculptures are often the size that is small enough to be held in both hands. Creating a self-portrait drawing I choose to depict the figure larger than life. I make large-scale drawings that are depictions of my self that address the viewer and display a sense of confidence. My drawings are made the same as my sculptures with a process that is slow and allows me to appreciate the finished product.
ReplyDeleteCherise Sistrunk
ReplyDeleteArt has become a window to my soul. It has given me the opportunity to confront past and experiences of my childhood, for the very first time. Stepping back into my past, has given me both the closure and the clarity I need as an adult. I’ve come to terms with the obliteration of my innocence. I understand and accept my failed attempts at coping with it. Today I’m revitalized because I’ve persevered and continue to persevere through it. Through my personal exploration I’ve realized that my artistic expression is the optimal outlet. I’ve rediscovered myself as an artist, and more importantly as a person.
I am interested in carrying on this idea of self-discovery and apply it in a broader perspective. The true origin of who I am as a human being and female of African origin doesn’t begin with me. Just as I’ve evolved as a person, I want to gain a better understanding of how African Americans have evolved as a people. The struggles that those before me went through not only paved the way for people like myself, but also were paramount to the foundation of the country we live in. In my work I will research and investigate the history of circumstances that contributed to the development of my family, my ancestors and my culture.