Hannah Bonanza

At the beginning of the film I found Poppy kind of annoying, she seemed too happy.  Later in the movie I began to change my mind about her.  Her happiness reminded me of some of my friends.  When I’m around people that are always happy it makes me feel better.  I think that Poppy was trying to spread the happiness around.  The bright colors in the film really helped communicate Poppy’s attitude towards the world.  Over all I liked the movie, I thought it was funny and by the end I was really happy.

The show that I listened to mentioned three topics.  Yoko Ono’s new album, fourteen artists going to the Arctic with a group of scientists, and Melvin Hamlish were the things mentioned in the show.  Yoko’s music indirectly effects my creative process, she makes music that is very different then anything else that is out there.  When I have a creative block I listen to music that inspires me and I look at work that is conceptually ‘deep’.  Sometimes Yoko Ono makes her way into the work I look at.  The group of artists going to the Arctic was very inspirational, they are going on a boat where each will have approximately ten feet of space to work.  They are trying to create work that will teach people about global warming and the melting of the ice caps.

When I make art I often think of being a part of something bigger and the environment.  Yoko Ono’s work is similar, she makes political statements and statements about togetherness.  Marvin Hamlish spoke about his creative process in the show.  He takes the viewpoint of the main character when he is making music for a movie.  This made me want to take the viewer’s perspective more when I’m thinking about my work.  Over all I really enjoyed the show.  I thought that it was interesting to hear the creative processes of other artists and to hear about things that others are doing in the art world.

Elizabeth Gower is an artist from Australia.  She has been making art since the sixties.  Most of her work has to do with repetition or lists.  She does a lot of recording in her work.  She has been collecting magazine clippings since the early seventies, she incorporates them into her work. She makes radial images dealing with chairs, desks, pants, and so on.  Other pieces of hers also deal with repetition, she has a series of work done by cutting shapes out of paper plates.  She displays them on a wall in a grid.  My favorite pieces of hers are her list pieces.  She writes the same phrase multiple times depending on her concept.  She had one where she wrote ‘he loves me, he loves me not’.  She did this project on both a chalk board and on wax paper.  She also makes paper quilts where she will include

different colors, patterns, and items into a work on paper.  My very favorite of her projects

was the inspiration for my senior project.  She tracked herself back to 1955 and recorded everyone that she had a conversation with.  Some of her other projects include photography.  She took a picture of her feet in new places, I think that she is still completing that project.  She also has a series where she has someone take a photo of her with her work.  She has been doing this project since the seventies.  Usually for this project she would have someone around her finish off a roll of film that she had

already begun using.  One of the best parts of her work is the environment she creates with her installations. She creates peaceful and overwhelming spaces with her work.  I would really recommend that Amy look at her work.  I think it would help her with her fear of paper. It has really helped me a great deal with my fear of giant projects.

http://www.elizabethgower.com/

Houses of the Future by Wayne Curtis

page 57-67

I would make work about the new green-homes that the people of Make It Right are building in New Orleans. They took flood stricken waste land and are slowly turning it into the neighborhoods that it once was.  I think that it is important to document this because it was such a devastating event, and it brought complete strangers together to do good.  For this project I would photograph twice a day from the same spot.  I would photograph the construction and the people working on the houses.  The project would record the transformation from devastation to homes. I imagine the project in color.

The Generational: Younger than Jesus by Merrily Kerr

Page 27

This article is about a show of young artists.  The Curators were trying to show that the generations age 30 and younger are not just consumers they are also producers.  I looked at the artists mentioned in this review, some of them are worth looking into.  I thought that this was relevant for the Sourcery assignment because it is important to know what is going on in the art world right now, since we are about to be thrown in.

http://www.damelioterras.com/artist.html?id=38

Matt Keegan-  He did work about college graduates.  He took yearbook-style images of graduates to show their innocents before moving into the real world.  His installations are fascinating.

http://www.vitamincreativespace.com/en/gallery/viewArtist.do?artistId=8

Chu Yun- For the exhibition he had women sleep in a bed.  The viewers were only told the woman’s name but nothing else about her.

http://theartblog.org/2009/05/younger-than-jesus-at-the-new-museum/

Above is the link for the exhibition at the New Museum.

Page 43-44

When Attitudes become Form by Christopher Wood

The article opens with a quote from Micheal Baxandall’s book Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style.  The quote is “Money is very important in the history of art.”  Baxandall is a very important mind in the art history world.  He changed the way many people think about art history and art in general.  Until his book few people realized the dramatic difference that packaging made in the art world.  There wasn’t a standard sized barrel or sack, all amounts were unique.  In another of his books, Limwood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany (1980), He explained that German wood workers and artists had expectations of their viewers.  They expected the viewer to have previous knowledge of their craft.

This article describes a few more of his books, I thought that these two sounded interesting.  I haven’t read any of his books, but I plan to now.  Art history is really important to the way I think about my work.  I like to know what has been done and how they did it.  Baxandall’s view is very different then what I have heard before.

In April Smithsonian Magazine put out a really interesting article.  It was about an astronomer that looks at fine art and finds hints that could describe when and where the painting or photo was made.  It was a really good read.  You all should check it out.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Celestial-Sleuth.html?c=y&page=1

Here are some websites where you all can view his work if you are interested.  I could not get them to post.. I was wondering if there is a secret to the picture thing.

http://www.galeriepieceunique.com/infoframes/barone.htm

http://www.aniellobarone.com/

Aniello Barone: The Magnificent Horror (page 11-12)

In this article Giuseppe Merlin covers the work of Aniello Barone.  Barone began his work by studying the effect that immigrants were having on Naples.  He was paying particular attention to his own neighborhood.  He followed the area from a working class neighborhood to one filled with poverty.  His work evolved from data to photographs about how the natural world in and around Naples was at war with the trash brought on by the new comers.

I found his images very moving.  They are very still and simple, yet the viewer understands what he is saying.  His images showed me a brand new way of depicting war.  They have inspired me to explore new ways to portray my concepts.

I thought that Surfwise was very interesting.  There were a few parts in the movie that I found particularly interesting.  I agree that we need to take care of our bodies and stay away from foods that are unhealthy, as well as staying away from things that the government want us all to have.  The idea of a close family where the children are all friends and they spend a lot of time together was also appealing.  One thing that I did not agree with is the subject of education.  The lifestyle seems good except for the lack of schooling that the children had.  I was a little sad that after they went through so much together, they became estranged from each other.  I would think that if I went through everything that they did I would want to stay close to my family.

The visual feel of the movie was amazing.  Some of the footage was from the seventies, however, they did a good job of tying in the new footage.  The lighting in the scenes was elegant.  I thought that it was important for them to have the line drawings, painting, and text over the film.  It tied in the surf theme as well as aged the film.