Artist Review: Gregory Crewsdon

Gregory Crewsdon's works were the most interesting for me to look at. His pieces contain so many deep tones, yet have very unique ways of emphasizing light. I strongly feel that his decision to leave his pieces without a title affect his work positively: too often the title of a piece can give away the scene or establish the scene prematurely, before the viewer gets a chance to imagine what the scene or situation may be. Because his pieces were not titled, I was able to view with work without any "previously set" notions. It was completely up to me to set the scene, or "title," without considering the role the title may play.

His pieces also seem to be full of "lonely stories," which make me want to explore or enter the work itself. As another student, Shannon E. stated, the "dramatic lighting to emphasize his focal point" is very effective. His use of light is very striking and gives certain works a very particular aura. While his pieces create a sense of wonder, I also feel a sense of anxiety behind each scene that Crewsdon articulates. Like Hock, his works are very "dream-like," but it a different way. I definitely enjoyed Crewsdon's work. I really admire the way he establish such ambiguous moods.

Artist Review: Teun Hocks

Besides having a sweet first name, Teun Hocks also as some sweet work. I am a huge fan of the man with the broken drum. I'm not sure what exactly is so appealing about this piece, but I feel so drawn to it. The scene is full of some sort of purple plant... which I would take as a happy or pleasant scene. However, in the midst of these pleasant purple plants, the poor drummer seems to have collapsed. I love it. It seems quite surreal and dream-like.

His piece with the man and the boxes is so pleasantly surreal. Usually surrealism is not something I particularly enjoy, as they always seem to remind me of bad dreams I've had. But his piece with the man laying in the boxes, with a matching skyline behind him, is so peacefully surreal. How is it that the man is so quietly sleeping while laying in boxes outside of a city? His pieces remind me of the surrealist Magritte, who also reminded me of bad dreams. I enjoyed his work very much. The drummer is likely my favorite piece of his.

Artist Review: Jeff Wall

The works of Jeff Wall were very appealing pieces. It seamed like he was able to master "everyday" things and twist them in very unique ways. Other than this piece, titled "Gust," his works seemed very subtle. "Milk" is a very still piece, except for the milk bursting. The movement is subtle. In his other pieces, the movement is not the focus: it seems like reaction or lack of reaction is what the viewer catches. His work seems to capture a moment rather than a scene. They stand as a small piece of a narration, rather than telling a whole story themselves. I really like his piece, "Gust." I think it's the helplessness of the people that make me draw to it. He also seems to have a boring, estranged outlook on life. I'm not sure if it was his goal to give that impression, but I certainly feel that he captures the "boring" elements of life.

Artist Review: Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman's pieces capture the essence of female beauty. Each one of her photos seems to articulate just how beautiful women are, even in strange situations. With each of her pieces being in black and white, I saw her works as more of a "collection" rather than individual pictures. It seems like she is creating a story with each "scene" being a different place and a different setting, with a different woman each time. Her work also reminded me of vintage romance films, because the women we were so delicately beautiful. Her work also seemed very vintage vogue. This piece which was also an "Untitled Film" was my favorite. I love how strange the setting is... and how through the goggles you see the perfect eyebrows and eyes that belong to a lovely woman... well, you can assume that much. She could have some nice eyebrows but still be really ugly.

Influences Art Influences Me Influences Mind

On a serious note, I am inspired by this piece, the Nike of Samothrace. Whenever I think of something that best articulates what beauty is in a material form, I think of this. I think its mostly the mystery behind it, that the artist of this masterpiece is unknown. It influences me to create something beautiful and completely captivating.

Conductors are such weirdoes. They stand swinging their arms furiously with their back facing us. On top of that, they get paid like kings for doing that. I want to be a conductor. It gives me license to be as strange a person as I want. I added this because I'd like to share with you all just how badly I wish I could get paid millions of dollars to swing my arms all around at people with giant instruments. Also, music is an inspiration to me. Classical music always runs through my head and I motion my hands as if I'm conducting some music in my head sometimes. Don't judge me!! Anyways, music is pretty much always playing while I'm making art. It keeps me focused.

This is Indigo Montoya, "prepare to die."

Naturally, Mr. Indigo Montoya is a tremendous inspiration to me: he has set the standard for all men who I may date... that they must have impressive chest hair like him, an awesome mullet which he totally rocks, and a nice scratchy mustache. I would like to thank Indigo Montoya for setting such high standards for the men I will date.

And lastly, there's Mika. He's my inspiration because he is so completly himself in his outrageousness... and everyone loves him for that. I love being a big wierdo and I love being outrageous. So Mika inspires me to keep this up because he obviously loves life and has more fun than most people, simply beacuse he is so okay with being outrageous. He inspires me to be me and not hold back any part of me. Plus, I love his giant eyes and really high voice.

I really hope starts a clothing line someday. In fact, I bought gold metallic shoes and a silver metallic shirt because of him.

I HIGHLY RECCOMEND that you watch his music video, "We Are Golden."

That music video made me realize that my tendency to walk around my house in my underwear is OKAY!

Who on earth is that?

That's what I ask when I see a blogger blogging. It's like they have something important to say and I should know who they are. Well I'm not a blogger, but I'm blogging because my college likes to make students blog. My Spanish 103 professor is even making me get a Twitter. At least we're not being forced to use Xanga or Myspace.

Well, my first blog is apparently an "About Me," which is unfortunate because I no not like to write about myself and you probably would not like to read about me. But I do whatever I'm told...

So.

I.make.art.

I'm an artist, my friends. I make things, and I talk about them. I make things that are meant to be looked at and talked about. I try to make things that are aesthetically pleasing so that you enjoy looking at them... but sometimes I like to be like Willie Cole and make things just to make you look at them and wonder, "who on earth did that?"

I make arrt. (That was a typo, but I kept it because I wish I was a pirate)

I enjoy [nearly] every moment of the process of making art. There's the Ultimate Artist who made me and made art before we knew what art was; and that's who I make art for.

I love the smell of oil paint, the texture of Color Aid paper, the weird sensation I get from saw dust, the taste of books, the fact that i'm nearly illiterate when it comes to using a my MacBook Pro, the cute squareness of my MacBook's buttons, the slight pain in my fingertips when I play the guitar,

and I love when people ask "who on earth is that?"

and answer, "Oh. She's an art major."

oh, and last thing: my computer experiences that may relate to this class:

a big fat impressive nothing... unless editing pictures counts