End post

Six weeks later and much has changed. My appreciation for art has grown and I feel more responsive to new forms of art. Before this class, I defined art as something with a meaning or message. I learned that art can fulfill an aesthetic purpose. Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial, Mary Cassatt's The Letter, and Bruce Nauman's Stairways have something in common.

I have also learned more about the processes of art. I have a larger grasp on shape, lines, color, and space. I can tell the difference between pigments, binders, and vehicles. I learned about the complexities and histories of process from line drawings to clay earthenware.

School is about taking a peek at a world that you're not familiar with. Going to Wynwood, the different art galleries, and De La Cruz private collection has helped me understand the art world. I feel more connected to art than before.

Most importantly (or at least in my opinion), this class inspired me. I have been drawing in my sketchpad like I was told and have had some ideas for pieces I would like to make. I don't know if I will ever pursue this path, but taking this class has made it an option.

At least in twenty days I will go into AP Art History with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the arts. And for that I am truly grateful.

Epic Rap Battle of History

So, I decided to make this one interesting...

Francis Bacon versus Richard Tuttle. It's an EPIC RAP BATTLE OF HISTORY!

FB: Yo, I'm Francis Bacon but just call me Frantic
I paint my lovers 'cause I'm pretty romantic
Some say that my work is alarming
The faces aren't meant to be charming


RT: Excuse me sir, but I'm Richard Tuttle
I guess you could say I'm a bit more subtle
I got of low percentage rate of those who "get it"
But don't worry, I don't sweat it

FB: Excuse yourself, that is pretty pathetic
Don't you know it isn't about the aesthetic
I don't mean to be unsympathetic
However, your work seems a bit apathetic



RT: When you see my work, you notice the fine detail
I go by my own scale
A piece of a rope on the wall is all I need
Unless you have a spare sesame seed?



I don't even know who won this but, after seeing both films, I feel sympathetic to both forms of art (though they are entirely different). Richard Tuttle defied contemporaneity art by the small scale he used. Francis Bacon defied art by the passion of his work and how he morphed all of the figures in his work. I might feel a closer connection with Bacon's work because of his take on religion. He showed "the soul" of Pope X. One literary connection that you can draw is the resemblance to Dorian Gray. Both lead scandalous lives, both had artwork that appears gruesome. Dorian destroys his portrait just as Bacon destroy the work he dislikes. Meanwhile, Tuttle said that he shows the woe work he makes mistakes in, too. Quite the contrast.

Janine Antoni

 Janine Antoni's work expresses an admiration for the body (specifically hers). Whether she is dipping her hair in ink and painting the floor (Loving Care) or molding herself from cow leather (Saddle), she uses her whole body in the process. I can appreciate her work because it has a deeper interpretation. 

One of my favorites, Eureka, is a bathtub filled with lard minus her body's imprint. She uses lard as a medium to represent the body so she is dipping herself in "body". Also, her use of the bathtub is ironic because she is not getting any cleaner by falling into a tub of lard. I appreciated her own interpretation or the story how density was discovered.

Loving Care

Saddle

Eureka, Antoni as she is being dipped in

De La Cruz

It was like a dream. Free admission, ability to take pictures, and an informative staff. Oh, and the art.

Ground Floor

When you enter, Sterling Ruby's Monument Stalagmite is exceptional. The theme, prison, is well captured in the over 18 foot tall work. The artist used bright yellows and reds to represent stalagmite (the limestone formations found in dark caves or dwellings).

On either side of the foyer, Mark Bradford symbolizes the urban landscape using mixed media to recreate the images of street posters. I have traveled a lot in my 16 years and no matter the city I visit, this is an ubiquitous element.

When our textbook talked about use of light, the example should have been Untitled (America #3) by Felix González-Torres. This simple work has as much influence as any of the large pieces in the De La Cruz Collection. 42 light bulbs hang from the ceiling reminding me that the art process is as universal as a light bulb. 

In fact, most of the contemporary pieces on the ground floor dealt with the art process. Even Rashid Johnson took an opportunity to "brush up on" a famous art style in Cosmic Slop"Hardcore Jollies" a piece focusing on his heritage.

The quality is terrible.

This is not my own photo. Photo courtesy Social Miami

To create this, Johnson poured black soap into a wood frame and used a stick to create scratches and indentations. The chaotic nature of the marks reminds the viewer of Jackson Pollock. The difference: while Pollock's work was an additive process, Johnson's is a subtractive process. The work also reminds me of Janine Anthoni who uses soap (because it is made out of lard) as a symbol of the female body. Johnson uses black soap to represent his African roots as he tries to "scratch at the surface".

Second Floor

The "Sculpture Garden" on the second floor was really interesting. Contrasts between different artists were even more profound when the work was in such close proximity. 

Rachel Harrison's Jungle Fever is humorous and childlike next to Wade Guyon's U Sculpture. It as if the small monkey is not gawking at the size of the wax pineapple but thinking "What the hell am I doing here?"

Or the monkey was thinking "What is this?"

Seth Price's Untitled is unique compared to everything else. It reminded me of Janine Antoni's Saddle. The white around the edge of the rope showed the imperfections. Other works of his on the lower floor were completely torn and tattered during the process of vacuuming out the air. The black of the canvas and the way the image comes out of the canvas gives the piece an eerie meaning. 

When I first saw this, I was traumatized. I just read an article in the New York Times recently about "Jumpers" from the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and this reminded me of that. The light blob next to the right line took on a human form and the lines represented the lines of the building. Later I was told it saw just a piece of weathered roof awning (how... valuable?). I still feel that artwork can be interpreted by the viewer however he or she feels. 

 Third Floor

 I was excited to see Gabriel Orozco's work. Seeing his work "in the flesh" gives a new light to it that the Art 21 left out. The game of ping pong looks so glorified and unworthy of my touch on the gallery floor. I was to afraid to pick up a racket because I thought I would ruin it and I didn't know gallery policy. That type of icy coldness to the piece was not portrayed over the video.

Gabriel Orozco, you got to let me be, man. I know you like to keep popping up everywhere but I have an assignment to do.

Bamboo Balls is another one of Orozco's game themed pieces.

It is all supported by one kickstand.

Jim Hodges focuses more on the delicate side of nature.

A Diary of Flowers by Hodges is poetic and strong. These 565 paper napkins represent those who die of AIDS. As the piece ages, the napkins curl and brown.

Of all the portraits, this one is the most interesting. 175 pounds (the weight of the artist's father) fluctuates as viewers take candies. I took one and gave it to my dad.

Tedd Nash Pomaski

MK: What do you define as art?

TP: Art is the result of creative energy. It has to be intentional. It has to be the intentional output of creative energy.

MK: What inspired you to become an artist?

TP: I had a friend whose mother was an artist. I always loved art, and, drawing and painting but it never occurred to me I could do it for a living. I was going to become an architect. But I had a friend whose mother was a painter. At a young age she decided that if she had to eat Ramen noodles or not she would do it and be a painter. I think she was the first person to inspire me to become an artist for a living.

MK: What inspires your art?

TP: I have this theory of ritual energy or psychic energy. If you go to a hospital operating room which is a subject I studied or a natural environment like where I am right now which is next to a river, the energy that accrues in those kind of places is totally different. Through meditating and through my art practice, I have become sensitive to those kind of changes in energy and the individual energy of a place. That is what draws me in and starts compelling me to document the place by painting, drawing, or videotaping.

MK: Do you do a lot of videotaping?

TP: Yes. A lot of my drawings are based on videos I shoot. I use them instead of photographs because I like to reference my subject’s energy and movement and video helps me do that more than photograph.

MK: I noticed that in a lot of your artwork you leave parts of the canvas empty and white. Is there a reason?

TP: It is the idea that I am extracting something from the environment and not taking the whole thing. I want to show what I am sensitive to in terms of the energy I have been talking about. Leaving emptiness around it is a way of indicating that I am not showing the whole picture. I am just showing parts that I am extracting from what is there and sort of there around me.

MK: I also saw that you have had exhibits in many locations especially Hawaii. Has Hawaii inspired you?

TP: Hugely. I left Hawaii to go to college and I never came back for 19 years and I came back last year for the first time and it was shocking how much my art has changed. It is reminding me of what my roots are. All of these years I was gone I would wonder why I am doing what I am doing. Coming back and exploring that has been really exciting for me.

MK: Why do you think you art changed?

TP: In a lot of my art, the origin is what inspired me. Spending time in a place, I start to feel different with different energies and different layers. May subjects in my paintings and my drawings are places I spent a considerable amount of time visiting on locations drawing many drawings, sketching many sketches, videotaping there. I got a job in a hospital for nine months to study the operating rooms and that totally changed the way I made my work for a long time being around that much trauma and death and disaster.

MK: There is one group of work you did called Pattern Intervention where you have a series of lines going through your art. Why did you do that?

TP: That is actually the most recent group; I am still working on, actually still in Hawaii. I started them here. That pattern is called a Cheveron. In Native American culture it means one thing but in Hawaiian culture it symbolizes death. I think one of those long term subjects of my work has been mortality and the way we face it and the way we embrace it and our eventual demise and how we incorporate ourselves back into the cycle of nature. Hawaiian religion is pretty nature based and it has a violent side to it and it is a way of reflecting who I am. It is not just about nature but nature in Hawaii and how that relates to me, and my upbringing, and my culture.

MK: When you did the series on the hospital, why did you refer to it as a “lighthouse”?

TP: If you read the titles they are all proverbs and one of the titles is “Darkness rains on the side of the lighthouse” which is another way of saying when you are in the light you can be in the most darkness. It is just another reference to mortality. In the hospital, life hangs on the balance almost every day and there is a constant closeness between life and death. It is more palpable there than anywhere else in my life. The proverb about the darkness and the lighthouse neatly sums that up.

MK: When I first discovered your work, the first group I saw was Travelling Watercolors. It was very colorful and then I saw your other work and I thought it was by a different artist. Why did you take that brief moment of… “colorfulness”?

TP: I actually paint with watercolors all year round, especially when I go camping. It is not like it is regular but when I know I am going on a camping trip and there will be water available like a river or a beach or a lake I will pack a little watercolor kit and paint on site. Most of those are from a trip to Oregon but I have hundreds. I paint all the time. To be honest, it is part of being in the art world. You can paint what you want but the art world take what it wants. The ones that have been the most critically received or have been shown have been my graphite work . There seems to be more interest in them. I keep making things I love to make but they don’t get circulated as much.

MK: My class is only an introduction to art appreciation so how would you want someone not familiar with art, with fresh eyes, to interpret your work?

TP: My goal is to make work that speaks to me about the process of making art. So when I am done I what their to be enough points of intrigue for a viewer so they can access it through many ways. I want them to insert themselves. That is why I don’t include people in my work. I hope the viewer inserts themselves into it.

Don't rain on my parade

Here lie my notebook. Torn, tattered, wet from rain. While my notebook looks terrible, this is nothing compared to Wynwood. The streets were not flooded... with cars. It was not raining... crowds of people. The weather dampened more than my notebook. I felt like Barbra Streisand singing Don't rain on my parade because the rain put a damper on the whole scene. The mood was different than my previous visits on Art Walk night. I still visited six galleries and I have plenty to say.

The first gallery I visited was Gallery 212. They had the best vibe. It was considerably filled with people, they had a great selection of artwork, and my sister was very excited to note the presence of wine.

I like this one because the parts are elevated at different heights. There are only uses two colors which is very simplistic yet it is detailed.

The cool colors are very obvious and contrast greatly with her "warmer side". The shapes are pretty geometric yet it forms a face.

I can't say I am any work of art but, this is sufficient proof that I was in Wynwood I hope.

Probably one of my favorite sculptures I saw that night. It is hard to see in the picture but this is supposed to be a whale tail. It is so majestic and smooth. The lines are very graceful despite the artificial look of the steel medium. Manmade-nature-inspired beauty.

Primary colors galore! While I do like the aesthetic appeal of this one, I don't think there is any higher purpose. It reminds me of an adult version of toy sail boats and flags. I think I feel that way because the colors have a childish connotation.

As I was exiting the gallery, I noticed these panthers. They are pretty small and are located on the floor under larger and more significant looking art. I don't understand why the gallery would choose to position them that way but I took notice nonetheless. Each panther seems to be in a stage of hunt. I find panthers very inspiring. I think it is because they are my school mascot. Art can do that. They can have an unintended affect on the viewer because of prior experiences. This is so important. Once I saw an artist who painted her murals of landscapes scenes on china dolls. The dolls reminded me of the ones I loved when I was little and it bothered me that she scared them with her brush. Different strokes for different folks.

The next gallery I hopped into was Evil World. Not my scene. The artwork was to... printed. Nothing felt original. It felt like it could be reprinted a hundred times. There is a certain point were the meaning and value is lost. Granted, I Gould one that I liked.

This one is called White Wedding (irony is my best friend). What is most surprising is he skeletons look so happy. That isn't supposed to happen.

It came with this poem. My sister, who speaks Spanish, translated it. 

Next stop: Yoamo 305. Well laid out.

Thought this sculpture was cute.

I was in a hurry because the weather so I ran to Alberto Linero gallery. My favorite. This was the best as far as how the art was positioned. Each artist had their own wall/alcove. It was easier to focus on the work rather than get distracted by something else.

These are the first you see at the entrance. Commonly, major figures of history, wealth, and power have a dark setting with draped cloth and jewels. This is much more playful and colorful. I can see the Hispanic influences on a traditional European piece. Each has a balance between the charge tee and the background: the background doesn't overpower but has its own role.

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."

In this work, a cherub shows a woman a portrait of you (a screen showing the image of a camera that is pointed outward from the painting. I love how the image not only has a significant message about a important and relevant social issue but interacts with the viewer. Also, instead the artist uses a camera and screen instead a mirror to bring the artwork into this century. Plus, it is generally aesthetically pleasing.

While I was in the gallery, I interviewed artist Santiago Betancur Z. He came to the US from Columbia about 5 years ago. Currently, he is working on three "theories" on the human condition. Influenced by other Colombian artists, he has a distinctive style. For example, he uses broader brush strokes that reveal less detail (leaving more for the viewers' imagination). He also paints the entire canvas leaving no space unclaimed by paint. To paraphrase, he says he wants the viewer to have a full experience.

These two are part of a series he is working on capturing large personalities. You can tell from the distinct color pallets. 

He calls these "egonauts". Each subject is trapped in their own bubble or ego. The darker colors compliment the sinister idea that these portray.

The gallery next door is Gold Leaf. They had a private event so I didn't stay long. I did, however, snap a photo of my favorite piece in the gallery.

This is unlike anything else I saw that night. For one, the colors were brighter and the theme more positive. There was also a sense of place in the work. I could smell the seawater and feel the coll winds of the East coast. The painting brought me in without showing as much detail. There are also very few colors used yet, the piece has its own complexity barbecue you can tell that different materials were used.

As I was leaving Wynwood I saw the gallery Diet. I waled in briefly (brief because their was only one piece). Their was a large tour in front of the sole painting so I wasn't able to get a picture. Still, it felt like a waste of space to have one gallery and only one item hanging on the wall. To have to jump out of the car and through the pouring rain and through the tour group to see one fakata work, I felt cheated. The lighting didn't bother me as much as the lack of art in the gallery.

Still, despite the rain and poor showing at Diet, I felt accomplished going to Wynwood. I saw art that reminded me of things that we have learned and I saw art that inspired me. Being able to explore the art world and learn more about art through this art walk is a valuable. (But I wouldn't save it for a rainy day.)

The Lowe Experience Pt. II

Me in front of the Lowe next to 

The Lowe Museum. Its own work of art. Complete with sculptures, gardens, and interesting architecture. The first gallery features the "Modern and Contemporary" styles. The first piece that really grabbed my attention was Sandy Skoglund's Breathing Glass. It is easily the largest item in the room and all that same shade of blue. The silver dragonflies on the back and the small white people on the bottom imply a more spiritual meaning. The larger blue people are made of mosaic.

Unfortunately, this was the only piece I was able to photograph before being scolded by the campus "fuzz". I was able to receive some photos via email later but they had no title and artist name. Furthermore, when I tried to contact the museum to inquire this information, I was directed by the receptionist to the answering machine of a director who was out of town. I was able to getnthe name of one from extensive research online but that's all, folks. I will post the other photos and my interpretation yet I am unable to give you titles. I apologize.

In the same gallery as Breathing Glass, Acropolis by ?  hilariously depicts two tour groups (one Asian, one American) touring the ancient Greek ruin of the Parthenon. I really loved the photographer's vantage point. He/she choose to take the photo behind someone from the Asian group who was taking a group picture. Instead of focusing on the famous ruins of an architectural classic, the photographer focused on the people who are around it.

Looking at this glass piece straight on (like this photo represents), shows are completely different feeling than looking at from the sides. First, the circular patterns add detail and texture. The zig-zag center of negative space breaks up the overwhelming image. From the side, it is possible to see through the inside and find a colorful background with interesting typography. Two totally different images. Same piece.

This sculpture was in the glass gallery along with the one above. What is interesting about this piece is the message. Although most art can be interpreted any way the viewer pleases, this work says the message like a slap in the face. The figures are trying to escape their test-tube-shaped cages. The second one from the left has already escaped and is helping another break free while the second from the right is trying to untangle himself from the "chains". What I found most interesting was the medium. While I have seen many art pieces about slavery, this is the first work where the medium was as icy and fragile as glass.

Still life. Essential, beautiful, meaningless. Still lifes rarely have significance ore some higher message. They are purely made to be aesthetically pleasing. This one fulfills its duty. While it isn't contemporary, out-there, or anything to get to excited about, there is nothing wrong with it. The subject, citrus fruit and a vase of water, are refreshing and light. The artist's brushstroke is broad yet neat. 

This museum had a wide range from different cultures, time periods, mediums, and processes. While I wish I could have shown more in my post, I am glad I have this museum available as a resource to learn about a broad landscape of art.