Field Trip!

Today's class was awesome. We took a trip to local artist Franco Mondini-Ruiz's studio/home. He gave us some insightful perspective on art, life, and the business of the art world. I think as art students we at times forget about the business aspect of what we are getting into. We like to think it's as easy as doing what we love to do and people will pay us for it. In the end we are just creating a product that we wish someone to buy and so art making becomes a business no different than anything else. And what a business, Franco was very welcoming and extremely busy, but he was able to take time out of his busy schedule and show us that the best business to be in is one where you can be your own boss. And in the end it still is about doing what you love to do just working extremely hard at it, all the time.

Self Portrait

My approach to this self portrait was from the angle of the art making process itself as telling of the artist's character. Excluding Contemporary Studio all the studio courses I have this semester are based in new media so for this piece I wanted to use a medium and material that was more hands on. I really enjoy using charcoal because of it's flexibility, looseness, and painterly qualities. To me there is always a poetic element present in charcoal mark making and it is from here, the mark making, that I wanted to allow the individual to be realized.

For a self portrait I try not to think about or be influenced directly by any other artists works as I think it wouldn't be true to the essence of what a self portrait is. That said I feel that anything that affects us in anyway becomes a part of who we are and will come out in what we do indirectly.

Sketching from A-Z

First exercise for Contemporary Studio: life drawing, 26 sketches, 3x4" squares, an object for each letter of the alphabet. Finding objects within your environment to meet the criteria is not as easy as you think. Of course it's one of those things that's only hard to find when you need it most. Without a doubt an exercise like this reminds you how fundamental an art form drawing is and because so it can become one of the most neglected. Great art making is built from a solid foundation, and like any foundation once in place still requires you to come back to for maintenance.

The first few objects seemed to be the ones that got the most attention during the drawing process. As the search for more and more objects came along the sketches began to loosen up. Less time was spent with looking, thinking, analyzing and more time was just looking and drawing. Eventually some of the rust was shaken off and the creative juices started to flow reminding me of the importance to opening up to the process of making without thinking of the end product.