class projectOnce again, I feel like I got nothing done this week. It doesn't really look any different, since the only thing I ended up keeping were a few hearts I added. I think over half of my studio time was spent adding details, then deciding I hated them and seamripping them out, so most of what I did is no longer there. I think next week I can finally start making real progress though, and I did like lumping all of my studio time for the week together, so I'll probably keep doing that. independent projectI tried doing all my studio time for the week at once on Sunday, and I think it actually worked out really well. I was less hurried, since it was the weekend, and I was on a roll so I ended up just working for about 2 hours straight. I think working all at once really helped, since I didn't have to spend a lot of time setting up or cleaning up or remembering what I'd done the last time. I finally had my finished pattern, so the first thing I did was cut out my pieces. I knew how tricky silky fabrics can be, since they're so slippery, so I spent like an hour in the morning just researching the best way to cut my pieces. I decided to go with the tissue paper method, where you sandwich your fabric between two layers of tissue paper, then put the pattern over it and cut it. I got an allergy attack crawling around in the attic looking for tissue paper in the Christmas boxes, but I guess you have to suffer for your art? I finally found some, then put one layer on top of my cutting mat, then folded my fabric on the bias (diagonally, instead of just lining up the edges horizontally or vertically, so that it'll drape right and the shine will be even) and put another piece of tissue paper on top. As you can see in the picture, I don't have pattern weights so I just improvised with my wallet, calculator, and tape. (It worked pretty well actually). It was kind of difficult to line up the pattern with the fold, since I couldn't see through the tissue paper, but I think it worked okay. I was a little worried about my rotary cutter, since it's pretty old and dull, but it cut fine. I have both of my pieces cut out now, but I still need to mark the darts so I know where to sew them. I realized that I forgot to include doing a stitch test in my process checklist, but I needed to do that before I could sew the darts, so I'll do the darts next week. I used a fabric scrap and the poly thread I'd bought to do a quick stitch test, which was definitely helpful. Usually when I sew, I don't buy fabric, I just seam rip clothes I don't wear anymore and use them to make something else, so I don't have much extra fabric for a stitch test. I knew it would be important this time though, since I'd never sewn anything silky before, My first test turned out horribly - the fabric was all wrinkly. I realized I'd forgotten to follow what I'd learned in my research: hold the fabric tight as you feed it through the machine, and use a short stitch. I changed the stitch length from the standard 2.5 to 1.8 mm, and kept tension as I sewed, and my next line turned out almost perfect. I did a few more practices, to get used to sewing like that, and I think it really helped. I also practiced doing a few French seams (a seam method that encases the raw edges to prevent fraying) since I'd never done them before, but they turned out to be really easy and I'll probably use them for other projects in the future (instead of my usual unfinished seams...). I don't have a picture of the stitch test, since I forgot to take a photo before I threw it away, but I doubt it would've shown up well anyway, since the thread color matches so well.
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class projectI feel like I didn't get that much done this week. I just spent time embroidering some of the hearts during my studio time this week, which is kind of slow going. Whenever I'm embroidering, I think it takes me a while to get into the swing of it, but after that I can work a lot faster, so maybe next week I'll try lumping all of my studio time for the week together on Friday or something, so I can just keep working for a longer time. I'll miss class on Tuesday anyway, so I think next week will be a good week to try that. independent project I also feel like I didn't get that much done on my home project this week, but I know that's not actually true. I decided that I wanted to redraft the pattern I'd done last week. On that one, I'd made the front and back bodice slopers first, then made the skirt block separately, but when I was looking at them I realized the edges for the diamond darts didn't line up on the bodice and skirt, so I figured it would be easier to just redo the whole thing in one pattern (for front and back). I used the exact same tutorial, but added the skirt to the bottom, then drew in my seam allowance and cut the front and back out. So basically, I'm exactly where I was last week, but this pattern is a lot better, since I've had more practice, and it'll be easier to work with. I'd been hoping to get my fabric cut this week, but redrafting the pattern already took over an hour, so I'll just do that next week. I might need to get some tailor's chalk anyways, since everything I read said not to use water-soluble markers on this type of fabric. I guess my goal for next week is to get my fabric cut and hopefully to sew all the darts.
class project
To be honest, this week has almost entirely been planning and preparation. This weekend, I got all my materials from Joann's, and gathered all the things I thought I might need from home. During our studio time on Tuesday, I just did more preparation - I cut off the fabric I planned to use, decided on the image I wanted, and figured out (after a lot of trial and error, because I'm horrible with technology and our printer hates me) how to print the image on my transfer paper. I was going to iron it on then, but the instructions said to wait half an hour after printing, so I just ironed it on on Thursday. I started embroidering, but only a tiny little bit - I'll really start that next week.
independent project
I mostly planned and prepared for this project too, but I'm really excited to start sewing next week! I had to modify my plan, because after making a rough pattern, I realized that to make the ski jacket into a dress, it would have to either look like a patchwork quilt or be scandalously revealing, so I decided to make a pair of garments instead. I'd been really excited to sew the dress, so I decided to still do that, just using poly satin instead of weird nylon, which will work better anyway, and I'll alter the jacket to make it more cropped and fitted at the bottom. I'll still paint on both of them the same, so that even though they're really different styles, they'll still work together. I decided to sew the dress first, since it's by far more complicated, and if for some reason I have to start over or scrap it, I'd much rather that happened at the beginning than a week before it's due. I've kind of made patterns before, but to be honest they're usually really simple and I just alter it after I've tried it on, but with this I wanted to make a really good pattern. I watched a TON of YouTube videos and did a lot of research, and decided that for the bodice (which is more important to fit well), I'd use this video (both part 1 and 2), which ended up working really really well - if for some reason you ever need to draft a woman's bodice sloper, definitely use this! It was kind of complicated and had a lot of steps, but he explained everything really well. I finished drafting the front and back bodice slopers, so on Thursday I drafted a skirt sloper, then spent like an hour erasing and redrawing some of the lines and trying to decide the best way to put everything together, then just watched some YouTube videos on diamond darts, which I've never done before. The pattern is basically finished - I just need to connect the bodice and skirt and add seam allowance.
Generally, an art curator works in a museum to create the exhibitions seen by the public. Responsibilities may include managing/documenting collections, researching pieces, developing and executing exhibitions, writing proposals, creating labels and other supplemental materials for exhibited works, training staff (ie docents) on the exhibition's information, and developing/overseeing educational programs or donor cultivation. According to Peter van Mensch (a Dutch museologist) a curator is involved in every aspect of the workings of a museum: preservation, communication, and study. My favorite aspect of their job is definitely the display part - curators control the way that the public views the exhibition, which I think is really powerful. You have the opportunity to help both artists and viewers at the same time.
Becoming an art curator generally requires several years of experience in a museum/gallery, in positions like assistant curator or museum technician. Most museums require a master's in art, art history, or a related field. However, some larger institutions may require a doctorate. There aren't really any specific top schools for this - after analyzing the educational histories of 100 top curators, the most popular master's program among them was the MA in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies at Bard College, but only five of the curators in the article attended. So the range of programs is quite wide, and any school with a good art history or curation program will do. For PhD's, the most popular was the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, but that only had three out of one hundred graduates. box me in (part 2)Each cassette box is 4.25" x 2.75" Paper collage in plastic cassette boxes 2020 These are really just exploratory - playing around with disparate imagery, layering, destruction and patchwork - more than any set content. To link this series I did want to include some connecting themes and imagery in each box, so I played around with time in all of them (modern glitter and neon, old Hollywood glamour, crumbling statues). 1. inverse 2. hello 3. seeing stars 4. lunacy 5. conversation hearts 6. dissected 7. sweet as sugar 8. contemplation 9. pedestal rose colored glasses12" x 16"
Acrylic paint on canvas 2020 As hard as you might try, sometimes when you try to view yourself in a positive light, the difficulty of objective scrutiny can make those rose colored glasses fragile (like delicate petals over your eyes, not bulletproof glass). It can even feel like it hurts, like vines around your throat and thorns drawing blood. HEAD
is this all i am 2020 embroidery on cotton 1' diameter BLOOM 2020 acrylic on mirror 1'x3'10" HEART BOX ME IN:
paper, glue, cassette tape box 3.75"x4.25" two roads diverged in a yellow wood 2020 paper, glass, vinyl record, plastic bones, glue 1' diameter HEART: Even though I only ever did it once for the play pages, I want to do collage for my Heart answer. I especially love mixed media collage, with a mix of photos, drawings, paintings, words, and random objects. I like the idea of synthesizing so many disparate images into a cohesive whole that uses its parts to send a message.
HEAD: Since I mostly drew my own hands, I was staring at them all the time. And constantly looking at my hands made me notice every little change about them - a scribbled "note to self," more chipped nail polish, fatter fingers, thinner fingers. Everything that I was used to scrutinizing about the rest of my body, I started noticing in my hands, and the distortion became more apparent, since this dissection wasn't as habitual. So I suppose a common theme for a lot of them was the inherent bias and falsehood of self-scrutiny - my absolute inability to view my own body in an objective way. To be honest, I felt like I was using the word "scrutiny" a lot in this description, so I googled it to find synonyms. And a little box popped up on the side that said "Scrutiny. In Roman times, the 'scrutari' of cities and towns were those who laboriously searched for valuables amidst the waste and cast-offs of others. The modern English "scrutiny" is derived from this root, indicating a careful examination or inquiry. (Wikipedia)" I just find that kind of ironic - scrutari were looking for something valuable, but scrutiny hardly ever searches for good things, only flaws. So I also want to explore that idea in my work. I know that freedom can stifle creativity and it's hard to come up with ideas out of nothing and it's easiest to be guided by a prompt, but by a couple weeks into the play pages, I just felt bored and repetitive, not inspired, and looking back at all of my play pages, they all just kind of blend together. I kind of started hating hands, to be honest. Throughout them all, there weren't that many overt themes or contents. I remember thinking at the beginning that they were supposed to have at least some content...and then basically ignoring and forgetting that within a week. I did enjoy the exploration of color in some of them, like the marker and pastel ones. One kind of accidental theme that emerged was self reflection - for a few I used Pinterest photos or no references, but for the vast majority, I drew my own hands. It's a lot easier to just hold your hand next to the paper than to spend twenty minutes searching for the perfect picture, and it's certainly always available.
I think the medium I had the most fun with was the origami skeleton hand I made, surprisingly enough. After so many hours of folding paper butterflies, I thought I might scream doing origami again, but when it didn't last quite as long, it was actually fairly enjoyable, and I loved seeing the idea in my head come to life in a 3D form so simply. I never truly did it, because I thought it was too similar to the colorful line drawing cutouts I did, but one of my favorite forms of artmaking is collage, especially mixed media collage. I remember one that I made in Art I or II from old Seventeen magazines my aunt gave me for Christmas about the media and how it can affect self-worth. I spent hours flipping through those magazines choosing photos, cutting them out, painstakingly arranging them, and gluing them down, without even realizing it. And I wish that I'd just done it again for the play pages, despite its vague similarity, because it's something that I really love. Another that I really enjoy is embroidery, which I also didn't do for these play pages for some reason. It's so time consuming and laborious and extremely difficult to do with a cat in the room, but once I get into it it's so relaxing and I love the results. The one where I got the most into the flow of creation was the pink two page one, with the hands cut out of the first one to show the pink page underneath. When I started that one, to be quite honest I had no idea where I was going with it. I had complete line drawings of hands finished, but I decided I didn't like them, so naturally I completely cut them away. And then I decided that I liked the subtle 3D effect of the shadow of the cut outs on the next page, so I colored that, then just started doodling to give it something more, and by the end I had something completely unexpected, but I really liked it. My favorite ended up being that colorful cut out circle of hands. I just really like those bold colors together, especially with the plain contour drawings, and I really like the radial arrangement (even though I had absolutely no intention to do that in the beginning. I think it turned out so well because it was close to a medium I really liked (collage), and because it was really spontaneous - I just did whatever seemed to look best in the moment. My least favorite is probably the pencil drawing with the marionette - I don't really have a problem with the way the hand looks, but I absolutely hate the ballerina. And to be quite honest, it's simply because of time. I drew the dancer a few days after I drew the hand, because I noticed that it kind of looked like it could be controlling a marionette. However, I was in pre-calculus, used no reference, and class ended about ten minutes after I started and I never went back to it. Some art doesn't need a lot of time or effort to be effective, but that drawing definitely needed more. Like many artists', Joan Snyder's style emerged as a reaction to and rejection of the predominant fields in her era. She first began creating in the 1960s and 70s, when male dominated abstract expressionism and clinical minimalism were all the rage, so she developed her own presence to express her story and emotions. What really drew me to her work was that life, that vitality that drips off every piece. I don't want to make work that looks pretty or shows realism - I want to make work that screams. Work you can't tear your eyes away from, but in a car crash kind of way.ONE (3/9-11)
This week we've just been working on brunaille, which I don't particularly enjoy but I know that it's necessary in the end. I think it's important to experiment with different methods and not just stick to one thing, but at least so far I really prefer direct painting. It just feels like I'm making more progress - with brunaille it's more like I'm repainting the same thing over and over again, in only two colors on an ugly orange background. In terms of actual difficulties, the biggest one for me right now is the changing light on my objects and the shifts in value every time the paint dries, so that I no longer really have any clue what I've painted wrong and what has just changed shade for one reason or another since last time I painted. |
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