Art Fair Update

I've been checking in at the VIP Art Fair just about every day since it opened last Saturday. There is a ton of art out there to see and so many galleries. There are so many things that I can't believe anyone would want to buy, let alone spend horrendous amounts of money on. As part of my VIP pass, I'm able to access the VIP Lounge where they've had videos from the Art 21 series and interviews/tours with some collectors; it's been interested to hear how and why they collect art, what they see in the art they've amassed and why they bought pieces.

A different thought, I was doodeling today and I really enjoyed just drawing aimlessly. I also really enjoyed using a nice inky pen.

Yesterday when I was working I decided just to take a piece of paper and my compass and ruler and to see what I could do, I didn't have any plan for it, I just drew and saw what I could make. It was a really fun and liberating feeling just to be experimenting in a sense, not working towards a finite goal. I found some things that worked and which I'll use again and other things which I didn't like.


After I finished my line drawing I added some color, I didn't color or shade carefully I just put down the color. This isn't a finished piece, just an exercise.

The VIP Art Fair has begun, so far I haven't seen much but I hope to see some cool things.

I am excited for a weekend of viewing art! Tonight is the local gallery stroll and I've got a few galleries that I want to check out. There's a really cool looking gallery/museum that I'm going to see today and tomorrow I'm going with some of my friends to see an exhibit of Carl Bloch's work. I'm sometimes saddened by the distance between myself and places like the Met or Boston's MFA but if one looks a little harder, it's still possible to find some great art, even better I don't have to pay an entrance fee to see any of this art.

Here is the almost finished product of the circle pattern study, quite a change from it's beginnings.

So a while ago I started drawing and with one thing and another I just now finished it. As I was drawing I was reminded that one, it's really better to draw with one source of northern light rather than one or two sources of southern light, northern light is more consistent; and two, that it's better to do these sort of drawings from life in one go if at all possible because then you don't have to try to replicate the set up that you formerly had.

detail

The study continues. I decided to take another shot at what I started out to do when I ended up with this. When I got the final product, I didn't really care for it as much as I had thought I would and so I decided to add some color. I don't have pictures yet of the colored final product but is interesting to really pay attention to how various elements will effect a piece.

VIP Art Fair

I don't recall doing this but apparently at some point I signed up to receive emails from Cheim and Read; they're a very big gallery. I was suprised today when I received an email from them saying that they were participating in an international art fair online and they sent me a code that will allow me to be a VIP in this art fair. I haven't really been to any art fairs before and so I'm excited about this opportunity. The fair will be taking place from the 22nd to the 30th of this month. Non VIP registry is free for anyone out there interested in "attending" this fair. I'm very excited to attend and hopefully learn a lot.

Good news, I just learned how to crop my photos, perhaps it's a little late in coming but better late than never!

I really like the pattern of four circles overlapping one, but it is very different visually when the sections are filled in. With sections filled in the pattern is bold and graphic it's different and it's not really what I'm looking for but that's what what a study's all about I suppose. It was interesting to see the difference in it when I made the background green, also, note to self: pay attention to how the pattern lays out, and whether there's half the design hanging off. On the plus side of this study, I've been wanting to use color for a while but not to paint, which led to the use of prismacolor pencils and I do like the jewel tone colors. I apologize for the blurry photo below, I would love to be a great photographer but I am not there yet.



I went through most of my time studying art not having any one clear definition of art, this may seem strange, I'm sure that in almost any other branch of study the course of study would and could be clearly defined but to ask the definition of art, even or perhaps especially in an academic environment is likely to produce a heated debate because just about everyone in the room has their own opinion and most of them do not match up. I have adopted a definition offered me by my mentor, who was reluctant to offer it, I think it was one of my last years of school that he named it: art is craftsmanship plus inspiration. I feel good about getting behind such a definition, I don't really care for the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" taste may be in the eye of the beholder but whether one loves something or not does not change it's beauty. An example, both farm land and red rocks can be beautiful sights to behold, after driving through either for long periods of time I'm not crazy about either but that doesn't change the beauty that's there. I'm not crazy about tapestries or needle point but there is, or at least can be, real craftsman(woman)ship involved in making them. Right now my work, by the above definition is not art, it could be craftsmanship or in some cases, as the piece photographed, not even craftsmanship. Not every piece I make has to be art, but I hope that as I progress I will make fewer pieces that are craftsmanship or less. I'm starting out and even prodigies (not that I am or was one) must progress or they go backwards. Some things to think about for me and anyone who reads.

A great opportunity to see some great art. Check it out.

Frustration

I am a bit frustrated with myself and my art. There are often visions in my head of what I'd like a piece to look like and then there is the result and the two do not always look even similar, for example, the piece I posted yesterday, I started off with something completly different in mind, I think what I ended up with was better than the original vision, none the less the vision and the reality don't meet. In school I studied with Wulf Barsch, as I may have mentioned previously and both he and his work completly changed the way I looked at art and the directions I am now going in my own work. I'm frustrated today from looking over the beautiful work of a former classmate and how much I would like my work to be more like her work than it is. Someday maybe I'll be the artist that I want to be but for now I just have to keep plugging away.

Pattern Study

I've decided to study patterns, I am very interested in many patterns and want to understand them better and incorporate them in my work. Think Josef Albers and his squares, that sort of thing. Here's my first study piece.

A new drawing begun.

The final product of the acorn and oak leaf drawing. This piece is available for sale, leave a comment to find out more.

Untitled
Graphite
9x9 in.
2011

Here's the start of something new I'm working on.

I thought it might be interesting to see the progression of a piece. Here are the first and second days of work.
Day one's work

Day two's work