Studio Journal #2: The Journey Continues...

Last Wednesday, I had my critique in my Advanced Painting class and there were some artists suggested for me to look at: Troy Brauntuch, Kathe Kollwitz, Matvey Levenstein and Catherine Murphy. Many of my classmates also liked the window painting and suggested the idea of looking at architecture space within the frame and structure of the canvas itself. Thus, perhaps looking at doorways and frames, etc. Furthermore, with the black and white paint, there comes the question of how fast or slow the image should be revealed to the audience. Lastly, rather than stains, which I have been doing with taking away paint with cloth or paper, I should try to mix the midtones and paint them in.

Below are some of the works by the two artists I mentioned in my last journal entry:

Vincent Desiderio. Laughing Woman. 2010.

Vincent Desiderio. Sink. 2010.

Vincent Desiderio. Bride. 2011.

Vincent Desiderio. Mourning and Fecundity II. 2011.

Anne Neely. Kettle Hole. 2010-2011.

Anne Neely. Pond Park. 2009-2011.

Anne Neely. Aglow. 2011

Studio Journal #1: The Beginning of Another Mysterious Journey

Last Friday was the first small group critique. At first I thought it would be a long, four and half hours, boring, and quiet critique. But it turned out to be very useful and fun, especially learning more about fellow classmates' artworks and their ideas. When it was my turn to talk about my artwork, I showed the class the latest work that I had worked on towards the end of the spring semester in my painting III-b class. Because I was unsure about the direction I wanted to focus my painting on, I had decided to start from the basics, stripping my canvases from color and using limited amount of paint. Through these limitations, along with just using the black color I made from mixing blue and brown as well as the use of mineral spirits to thin out my paint to limit the paint quantity, I found that I began to paint in a way similar to watercolor as well as drawing. I first laid down the dark color to stain the canvas and then use the mineral spirits to begin moving the paint around, darkening certain places, as well as dabbing at the paint with a cloth to produce lighter areas. I found this process to be analogous to the rubber eraser taking charcoal or graphite from the paper to produce the sense of light.

"Bottle". Spring 2011. Christine Huang.

Furthermore, just how in drawing one would use a lot of charcoal or graphite for the dark shaded areas to give a more drastic contrast of light and dark, I added in a thicker application of paint to the darkest areas. Although much detail and meticulous handiwork was needed in each one, which took quite some time to finish one small painting, I found the experience and process, being able to push paint around to create light and shadows, to be calm, peaceful, relaxing, and fun.

"Window." Spring 2011. Christine Huang.

I feel that this technique also allows me to interact physically with my artwork. Other than applying paint with my paintbrushes, I also use my cloth and fingers to push around/take away the paint. One of the issues I wanted to have working in my artworks is interaction; during the critique we talked a little bit about the ways the audience could interact with the artworks. An example I showed in class were my interactive design books:

"Book on the 'Three Short Essays on Technology' by Virginia Hefferman". Spring 2010. Christine Huang. Pictures taken by Stephen Bondio.

"Radiation". Spring 2011. Christine Huang. Pictures taken by Stephen Bondio.

I always found pop-up books fascinating because rather than just reading the

story, the reader got to visualize the scenery better as well as interact with the scenery and perhaps characters and other things of the story as well. For the "Radiation" book, my design II-b class and I had to pick an event and create a book. I decided to pick the Japanese radiation event because it was current (and still is) at the time and provided me with abundant amount of information. I began to focus my book towards a journal-like feel. I believed that when a crisis occurs, it is hard to stay calm, especially with the media spitting out news here and there like wildfire.

In addition, some news may be misleading or false, which would scare readers, those especially in the crisis, even further. So I began to work my book into a two-idea format; the first, with the journal, including articles posted during the first few days of the radiation leakage. The second format is with the tiny booklets, posters, pictures, newspaper articles, and small postcards that all contain information and research on what is radiation. I wanted to portray the idea that while the media may be throwing out what could sound like so many scary news, one needs to know the knowledge and function of the object being mediated in order to make calm decisions and sort out false information. In my book, I include a radiation definition at the bottom of each page to help further the learning of radiation.

I know that for my thesis, I would like to incorporate interaction in some way for both my painting and design projects. As of now, my ideas for both painting and design are separate, as in, I have not yet figured out if I wanted to combine both mediums to make one project for thesis or not. An idea that came from class, mentioned by Tom, was the projection of a fake wall, installed into the gallery. From what I heard, I got that it would be an interesting idea if people were able to go up to the wall and pull out things (perhaps artworks or books) from this wall. I think it's a radical move, especially away from the tradition of hanging paintings on the wall; instead of being flat against the wall, an interactive painting, perhaps, would be vertical in the wall. More thinking is definitely needed to develop this creative idea; for example, the process that people would be touching the artwork and whether or not that is the intention of interaction~to let the artworks get messed up. Perhaps the way for interaction can be restricted to the visual senses only. Just how in Tim's artwork, one needed to go up close to see all the various sizes of blotches creating a whole imagery when seen from further away, or Ryan's outdoor paintings with multiple brushstrokes, quantity and application of paint, which two paintings were painted on thick cardboard that stuck way out from the wall. Going back to the idea of stripping my colors and starting from the basics, I began to paint self-portraits because I wanted something tangible that I could paint and see from. In other words, I stayed away from abstraction, surrealism, etc. What's more convenient than self portraits when one has a mirror?

"Self-Portraits". Spring 2011. Christine Huang.

Although they do not look the same, they are part of my process in finding what I want to paint and further understanding what I enjoy about this thin-application-of-paint technique.

Over the summer, I thought of what I wanted to paint and came up with trying to portray this idea that although I'm not an adult, I still think like a child most of the time. However, Gerry pointed out that it isn't so much of a child in an adult body, but more of being scared of transitions, which I think is a powerful word ~ "transition." My classmates talked about the window painting and how that may signify the fear of transitions, the fear of going out of the comfort zone and into the world of the unknown.

Over the weekend, I went to NYC to visit the galleries in Chelsea. I mainly tried to visit painting shows to see the various applications of paint that other artists use in their paintings. (I will post pictures in my next post ~ it's always very inconvenient posting pictures on blogger...) Anyway, one of the galleries I visited was the Lohin Geduld Gallery, where it is presenting works by Anne Neely. Neely uses an overwhelming thick application of paint along with extreme gloss added to make the paintings look smooth and wet. I find that the application of thick paint is very satisfying and would like to incorporate it along with the application of thin paint in a painting together. Another set of artworks that intrigued me are those of Vincent Desiderio, whose works are currently being shown at the Marlborough Gallery. Painted on gigantic canvases, the dramatic and overwhelming depictions of people seem realistic with smooth-like features of the body and setting. There are some paintings, such as the "Laughing Women" that have a more distinctive depiction of brushstrokes, which livens up the painting.

Since Saturday, I've worked on two paintings, based off of pictures I took while I was in NYC. I found that during the process, when I didn't have cloth, but used paper instead to pull away the paint, the paper was an interesting "tool" to create texture and patterns on the canvas. Despite the small canvas size, I find that it is good practice and idea flowing processing to paint more on the smaller canvases. I plan to paint on bigger canvases to see what feelings viewers get as opposed to the intimate and calm the smaller canvases produce.

"The Window Ledge". September 2011. Christine Huang.

"The Door". September 2011. Christine Huang.

The Interview Project

Stephen Bondio is a student at Mason Gross School of the Arts majoring in graphic design but is also interested in print and photo. The following interview relates his ideas about his works.

Christine: What is your concentration?

Stephen: I’m going for graphic design and on the side of that I’m taking print and photo classes.

Christine: What made you decide to concentrate in design?

Stephen: Growing up I’ve been around a lot of and worked at a skate park, it’s been my job since 10^th grade. I’ve just been around bunch of deck designs for snowboards, skateboards, etc. just all that in all. I’ve always been around since I started skateboarding and flipped through magazines and always wanted to do art for companies that dealt with extreme sports.

Christine: So did the advertising part appeal to you most or was it mostly the set up of the skate park?

Stephen: I just like the culture of it all, how everyone comes together and has fun with what they’re doing. I feel that every company all the graphic designers and artists are all one happy family and it would be cool to be a part of that family. Along with skating there’s so much video and photography and that’s how I started getting into photography too.

Christine: I see you have a lot of photos. Would you be able to talk about them?

Stephen: I like portraits. The thing about my art is trying to see how the world affects people. Every portrait is different. Every person is different and going from portrait to portrait you can tell they’re completely different people, you don’t know their background, or the facts about them, but it’s cool to have them standing there and think about what they have gone through in their life.

You become shaped when you’re younger to become who you are [now]. So it’s cool to see everyone’s lives layout. That’s why a lot of the photos are portraits for that reason. I also like repetition. Some of the photos you’ll see repetition, like the coke bottles, the idea of the meat, and in these the bananas, the fence.

Christine: I have a question [statement] about the portraits. You know how people sit or stand for a portrait, they’re not in their natural state, so in a way it seems they’re posing.

Stephen: Some of the portraits are random.

Christine: Did you just take the photograph at the moment?

Stephen: This was when this guy was walking down the street and I [asked] if I could get a portrait for an environmental project. [He was taking a picture?] He’s a surveyor and he came doing his work. It was kind of cool because we were dealing with large form cameras and this kind of look like a large form camera.

Christine: You’re interested in the mysterious-ness?

Stephen: I also did prints on conspiracy, how people interact with their surroundings and how everyone’s so unique in their own individual. These photos [have] the line where how if you’re in these areas, there’s that fine line, like do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable.

These are just basic shots around New Brunswick, at times it might look safe but the change of day makes it an equally different scenario. This picture is the hub and it’s perfectly fine but at night when you go out there there’s a bunch of homeless sitting outside and there’s people running in and out there, shady. But you would never think that, it looks normal.

Christine: What I don’t see is people.

Stephen: Yeah, kind of just awkward situations. Like this one, the steps just lead to nowhere.

Christine: There’s a mystery out there.

Stephen: There’s a security in the back door. Like the two red hand prints.

Christine: What inspires you for both photography and design?

Stephen: I like a lot of skate photography like Atida Ferguson. He does skate stuff but he does big projects too. His portfolio can be like Lebron James or Aircast. He’s all over the place. I like Terry Richardson too because he’s got a real real raw, obnoxious [pictures]. You got to just look at his pictures to understand.

His pictures are real dirty, but they’re interesting because he gets a lot of famous people, like he shot President Obama but also everyone from Jackass. He’s got famous pictures and he does one of these white walls and flashes; it’s a really high flash, literally pictures of people on this white wall, which is where I got the idea for this one. So that’s the two photographers that I like, but they’re definitely different. I would want to pull a little away from them and have my own [style]. Because of Mason Gross since it’s so rush I feel I’ve been pulling from different areas. I haven’t really put all together and pick a one way or style.

Christine: Why photography and design and not another medium?

Stephen: I feel that graphic design deals with a lot of pictures and I used to do a lot of print too. So I feel like taking print and photography and getting the general idea that they all come together as one. Painting…I didn’t take many art classes. When I started doing art it was more outside of high school. So the two years I’ve spent before I transferred here I messed around with stuff. I did a little bit [of art] in high school but not as much as most kids would. I only had two classes actually in high school, that’s why I feel like silk-screening that’s print and on all the decks. All the decks are silk screened. A lot of shirts are silk-screened, and going through magazines you see a lot of photos. There’s a person that puts it all together and designs.

Christine: So it’s a quick process, something you can duplicate or mass produce?

Stephen: It’s one of those things that I want to know a little bit of everything so I thought those two would be the perfect fit for my electives.

Christine: What are your ideas about photo manipulation? What are your thoughts about people who change photos using Photoshop?

Stephen: I think it’s really cool if you do the right away. [What do you mean by right way?] Some things are overly Photoshop-ed but are good if they’re comical but if they’re real serious it’s dumb because you’re just using the computer way too much, and it drowns everything. [So it’s subtle] It’s got to be really obnoxious for me to point that it’s comical or that it’s got to be real subtle so it doesn't ruin the actual photograph.

Christine: But then it’s not what it really is.

Stephen: I feel that you just need to use Photoshop the right way. [To make something else, another art.] I feel that it’s a whole different ball game because there are photographers that’s real studio and others that do a lot of Photoshop.

Christine: Photographs are quick or finding the place to snap is harder?

Stephen: I think developing, finding the right colors. For the color prints, you got to mess around a lot, got to do a lot of test strips, and you finally get something that looks good. I don’t have a problem with finding places because I’m kind of curious, I don’t mind going on adventure to go find a cool place to take pictures of. [Developing] for me is more of a process because after you get your film you don’t want to mess up your film and then taking care of negatives. I have so many negatives all the time. Making sure they’re all in order and then when going to print them making sure everything is all right. I want to make sure there’s enough highlights, blacks and whites, and make sure nothing is too dark or too bright.

Christine: Is process also what you feel in graphic design?

Stephen: Yeah I feel I have enough ideas but then when I go about doing them I am really picky as to what I finally end up doing. I go through a lot of different ideas until I finally get to something I think is right.

Christine: Of all the projects you did so far, website, a book, advertisements, which one did you find the best?

Stephen: I like both final projects. I think the book came out really well and the bag project, I did a box and I thought that came out really well.

Since I worked at a skate park during Christmas and parents always want a box to put different parts in just so you can wrap it. So I made a box that will fit most things. [What kind of parts would you put in it?] Skateboard wheels, barring, trucks, because it was based on the company so I did the company I worked for a while. I designed the box and incorporated with textures I found, took pictures of the ramps, the top looks like a skateboard deck. In skateboard people sometimes have logos on their decks so I cut the logo of the actual company onto the box. Looking from above it looks like a skateboard. That and the book I feel are great.

Christine: Do you like commercial art? Working for someone?

Stephen: I would definitely want to work for someone but also do my own thing on the side. I would want to do something graphics for t-shirts. None of my works is really graphic in that sense, working like a clothing company. But I would want to start something on the side and since there’s a whole scene of a lot of people, independent lines and coming out with so much each season, it’s just interesting. I would do something, just a line with just three or four shirts, certain size run, and go from there and then wait until fall, spring, summer. [Just like limited edition?] Yes, limited edition. I would, like I said before, like to work with a big skateboard company where everyone comes together and does project and design stuff together.

Christine: What are some things that you think needs work on?

Stephen: I guess probably, now when I go back, the website, working on website, html. [Learning the codes or stylizing?] Stylizing, which stinks because I’m only in Design II and III now, and there’s a lot of information to take in. That’s why I focus on photography even though I know I want to do graphic design.

Christine: What do you think is working well for you now?

Stephen: I think my photographs are even though there’s a bunch of themes I feel like that photography helped me a lot.

Christine: Have you thought of a way to maybe combine the two?

Stephen: Like a mixed media? [Yeah] I was thinking about actually for my thesis taking ideas of printing on top of photographs, taking different areas. Say like a big open field and somehow silk-screening stuff over it [Like layers?] yes, layers on top of photographs, silkscreen layers on top of photographs with intransigent transparency so from a distant you can’t really see but doing these real city shots, and have things hidden inside. That or taking design, which is all about typography, since it’s so industrial, once a typeface is made, it’s all pumped out and everyone can use it. A typeface is very organic because they’re all different. Maybe taking cinderblock walls, the whole industrial part of it, because they’re very hard and solid. There’s not a lot of graffiti art, but I love to follow street art, I’m a big fan. Anytime I’m in the city, I constantly look at stuff, graffiti and stickers. There’s a way to paint with moss and take these big walls and write with the moss and then it grows into what you write. [Would it be everywhere? Like on the streets or at school?] I was thinking just building cinderblock walls and just be installations. They would be outside and when it’s time for the show [I would] go out, get them and have them sitting in different areas. [It would also be with process and mysterious] yes, you don’t how it got there, how did I cut the moss? That’s the two things I was thinking about doing. There’s just a mixed, taking something, like photography, and turning into something else. Or taking the idea of type and graffiti, transforming it into something no one has seen before or have an idea how it’s been done. I don’t want to put a poster on the wall. I feel that’s too boring, too literal, and too cliché. [What if you had the moss growing out of the poster?] If I were going to do the moss I can take pictures of it so even if I had one wall actually in the show, I can have other pictures of what I did around.