Art Event # 4: "Living as an Artist in NYC" Opening

            The exhibition called “Sense of Place:  Living as an Artist in NYC,” was unlike any other opening I’d ever been to.  These artists were so creative in so many different ways.  It was interesting to have pieces that interacted with sounds.  It made the exhibition experience a lot more interactive and fun. 

            One of the most interesting pieces to me was the water bucket in the middle of the gallery. Inspired by performance art, the piece encouraged interaction by having lots of rocks next to it.  When a person threw a rock into the bucket the piece would make sounds (there was an underwater microphone in the bottom).  There were small rocks and larger ones, and when thrown in the bucket the sound would be loud or soft depending on the impact.  The artist also said it attempts to measure the pitch of the stones.  This piece was basically a virtual simulation of a rainstorm.  The storm would start off quietly, then get louder with thunder, then slowly soften again as it passed.  It was really peaceful, almost like hearing rain right above you on a tin roof.  

            There were lots of other pieces in the show that weren’t interactive.  One of my favorite was by an artist names Peter Schroth.  His pieces were very colorful and abstract, similar to my artistic style.  The pieces I enjoyed the most of his were a triptych inspired by dead flower bouquets.  The piece called Orange + Gray almost seemed 3-dimensional to me at times.  The longer I stood in front of it, it seemed like the whole piece was moving.  The piece was very abstract.  I couldn’t see the inspiration of a flower bouquet until after I read the artist statement.  I liked Orange + Gray a lot because the color seemed to pop out.  Outlining his orange abstract parts with blue was a really great idea.  Using complimentary colors helped both of them to stand out better and really pop out at the viewer.

            This exhibition was absolutely amazing.  It really inspired me.  It was nice to see some interactive pieces in Foreman because I’ve never seen any there before.  I loved the whole modern feel to exhibit.  It really made you think.

ART EVENT # 3: Guerrilla Girl, Jane Kaufman

On October 6^th, 2011 Hartwick College was privileged to have Guerrilla Girl, Jane Kaufman come and speak.  Kaufman was an original member of the Guerilla Girls.  Starting in 1985, the group was formed by a bunch of passionate women in the hopes of getting more women artists the recognition they deserved.  During this time period there were very few women artists, and they strived for there to be more.

            The Guerilla Girls took place in New York City.  The group of about 15 would get together to come up with ideas for posters.  These posters would express important messages using humor.  Once everyone agreed on every word in the poster, they would be created and put up all over the city during the night.  Two Guerilla Girl members would go out with a shopping cart, posters, and glue.  One person would put up the posters as the other looked out for policemen.  It was important they didn’t get caught, some of the things they put up they could have been sued for.  Once the morning arrived, there were posters with these messages covering the whole city for everyone to see.

            My favorite poster showed a traditional woman holding a fan with a gorilla mask on.  The woman was nude and the poster said, “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?”  This was the humor of the piece.  However, they followed it up with a shocking fact.  “Less than 3% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 83% of the nudes are female.”  Combining factual information and humor, the Guerilla Girls created posters like these to inform people on the sexism of the art world.  They really made people think, causing this issue to rise in museums such as the Met.

            Jane Kaufman showed us a lot of the work the Guerilla Girls created.  She would explain the posters and answer questions we had about them.  After the Guerilla Girls work was shown, she showed us her individual artwork.  This woman was extremely funny.  She loves to show her sense of humor in her work.  It was truly entertaining to be able to see her pieces and ask her questions about her life as a Guerilla Girl.

            Going to this event really helped me understand and respect the Guerilla Girls as a group.  I think it’s incredible what they were able to do.  Remaining anonymous until just last year, this group really changed the art world for the better.  Who knows where the art world would have been today without them. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to pursue my passion as an art major.  They deserve a huge thank you for putting themselves out there for the future of art.

ART EVENT # 2: Carl Plansky

The opening of local artist Carl Plansky was an interesting event.  There were lots of his pieces that were expressive and colorful.  Also on display were his “studies” and even paint palettes.  Carl Plansky unfortunately passed recently.  However, people are still recognizing his wonderful artistic abilities.

            I really enjoyed looking at his “Tree studies.”  Looking at artist’s studies and practices help the viewer to get a look inside their brain and see what they were thinking.  I could see all the different brush strokes he used to see which one he liked best.  Plansky used a lot of paint.  He liked to put layers and layers of oils on one page.  These studies were interesting because they were almost abstract, but you could still understand what object he was creating.  The complimentary blue shadows and orange highlights created a really interesting play off one another.

            His piece “Winter Landscape” was created with the help of some of his tree studies.  I was amazed at how long his brush strokes were.  They weren’t precise and intricate like lots of famous art pieces.  Even though he used the longest brush stokes, you could still understand the wintery cold, but beautiful snowy day he was trying to recreate.

            Carl Plansky really enjoyed using oil paints.  However, when he traveled he would often use acrylics so the paint would be able to dry faster.  A palette that Plansky applied with oil paints in August is in the museum and is still in the process of drying.

            This event was a great one to go to.  I enjoyed getting to see the work of a local artist, and being able to see studies instead of just the final pieces he created.  It was almost like I had set foot into his art studio, which I thought was overall the best part of the show.

            

ART EVENT #1 Richard Deon: “Paradox and Conformity”

CLICK HERE TO VISIT RICHARD DEON'S WEBSITE

         When going to the opening for Richard Deon’s “Paradox and Conformity,” I had an open mind and looked at every single art piece.  By the end of the viewing, I was puzzled and confused.  There were so many shapes and people reoccurring throughout the pieces, I felt like I was in some sort of suspenseful movie the whole time.

            My favorite piece in the show was called “Matter of Perspective.”  It was made with acrylic and was 114 by 143.5 feet.  This piece was the most confusing to me.  There were two men in the painting.  One was very stiff, his arms were at his side and he was standing in place.  The other seemed to be a professor of some sort.  He was pointing with a pointer as if teaching a lesson.  There was a large, abstract shape in the middle of the men.  This shape reoccurred throughout the whole gallery, in every single piece.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t identify what it was, or what it could mean.  However, I thought the most interesting part of the piece was the background.  There was a bridge of some sort, train tracks that one of the men was standing on, land, and water.  The two men reflected on the ground.  What confused me most was their reflections.  How does someone reflect on train tracks, and how does someone’s reflection show perfectly in the grass?  The piece had me questioning absolutely everything.  Was he really standing on train tracks, or was it something else?

            The other piece I focused on a lot was “Madam I’m Adam.”  Like the other works in the gallery, this one was hard to figure out exactly what was happening.  But I looked at this piece more because it was aesthetically pleasing to me.  The bright oranges and yellows stood out against everything else.  The bold black lines created great contrast within the piece.  The people in the work were only black and white, giving them a cartoon character feeling.  However, the bright background colors really made the people stand out from the piece.

            After looking around the gallery I read an article saying Richard Dion explored 1950’s social studies textbooks.  This show was inspired by the illustrations found in these books.  After reading this, the whole concept made a little more sense to me.  However, the way he placed images, used his colors, and kept repeating similar shapes and objects, really made his viewers think about his pieces.  Making the viewers stop and think about your artwork is really important, and I think this show was extremely successful in doing just that.