Artist Statement First Draft

Heres the first draft of my artist statement! (and it only took me a week to write it!)

Through my work I seek to explore my own thoughts and experiences in a visual and often visceral form. Reacting to the places and people around inform my subject matter more than any one thing. My work often explores themes of religion, violence, anxiety, humanity, memory, and place through juxtaposition. I am interested in art that makes people uncomfortable. I seek to create alternate realities in which varying degrees of realism coexist. While I do have themes that unite my work occasionally, I let things evolve organically and focus on my process as more than a means to an end. I am very interested in documentation of the creative process. My work is highly impacted by my response to the materials as well as the scale of the work. Color is important to me and has become an indispensible tool for visual communication and clarity. By working in many mediums I am able to bring in layers of handmade and manufactured materials and objects. I strive for visual depth and dynamism in my work while being open to changes of direction throughout the process.

Fake Artist Statement Generator

http://10gallon.com/statement2000/

This is ridiculous, but funny. Heres mine:

Devin’s Artist Statement
Through my work I attempt to examine the phenomenon of Donald Duck as a methaphorical interpretation of both Jackson Pollock and making.

What began as a personal journey of doucheism has translated into images of cheese and hands that resonate with native american people to question their own greenness.

My mixed media house embody an idiosyncratic view of Pope John Paul II, yet the familiar imagery allows for a connection between Elvis, Cats and eggs.

My work is in the private collection of Pamela Anderson who said ‘Gee!, that’s some real crazy Art.’

I am a recipient of a grant from Folsom Prison where I served time for stealing mugs and tie clips from the gift shop of The High. I have exhibited in group shows at McDonalds and Starbucks, though not at the same time. I currently spend my time between my Bedroom and Berlin.

Images for Upcoming

Here are some reference images for the upcoming painting project. I am aiming for something like this, but perhaps with more figure or structures. This first piece is by Kim Keever. Second one is Lucie Debelkova. The bottom three are by Thomas Scholes, who is definitely an inspiration for this project! Here is his blog: http://crayonboxofdoom.blogspot.com/

Painting Today

The discussion in painting today was interesting to me due to the variety of approaches to the task. Towards the end Nell talked a bit about discomfort through experiencing things differently. This really resonated with me as I am looking to foster discomfort in my senior work. Thus far I have done this by utilizing really gnarly graphic images of blood and violence and dead things, but lately I have been feeling like I should move away from this. I think instead I want to cultivate discomfort in the viewer by disrupting their expectations of the work so that they must approach familiar objects with an artist’s eye.

Rather than being able to label and categorize objects or places in my work I want the viewer to feel unsafe and be forced to directly experience the forms for what they are. Like Nell said, the opposite of survival mode. I want the viewer to be drawn in by an uneasiness in the work and then be forced to reconsider what they are seeing in front of them. Size will help this because I will be working smallish and the viewer will have to get somewhat close to the piece to see all its parts.

Another thing I realized today is how important materials are to my work. Not only painting, but also collaging, sculpture, drawing, etc. How I respond to a material has a lot to do with how a work evolves. This isn’t always a good thing though. For instance, I love working with oil pastels, but hate everything I make with them because I really don’t know how to use them effectively. Sometimes reacting to materials and letting the work go from there works, and other times it doesn’t. Either way I think this is a big part of my process and will definitely be written about in my artist statement.

Also, thoughts on the upcoming project. I definitely want to do a fantastical landscape on a giant canvas. At least as tall as me and wider than it is tall. Okay, maybe thats a little large, but something huge is what I’m going for. I want the viewer to be eclipsed by the size of the work, but drawn in by the subject so that they feel like a part of the piece. I want the landscape to be dark and sketchy, kindof like my skull painting, but based in realism and with thoughtful color. I am also excited to work on a big scale over a decently long period of time. I get nervous when I work large, but I feel that I will have enough time so that I don’t get ahead of myself and rush.

I also plan to film (hopefully) every minute of me working on this big painting and then speeding up the footage to create a short movie showing the process from beginning to end.

Some Changes

Since both Victoria and I wanted more wall space we set up a wall between our spaces. Even though it feels a bit isolated, I really like having the extra space to tack things up. I also like having a teensy bit more privacy even though that wasn’t really a problem to begin with. I like the community aspect of the 3rd floor studios.

Today I am going to begin work on my artist statement. I have been thinking a good bit about it this weekend and I’m pretty sure I know what I want to say. I will also begin work on a new series this week as soon as I can get to the big printer in the science building. Fingers crossed!

Storyboard

Since we had a lot of free time in class today I made my storyboard for the video project. Pretty self explanatory.

Hand Made

 

I printed out the components of two of my collages and constructed them by hand. While the process was somewhat nerve racking because I didn’t want to ruin any of the pieces, the results are exciting. The pieces have added depth and I was able to add watercolor for the blood, which I love. I plan to make many more like this.

Studio

 

My studi has changed quite a bit from the beginnings so I thought I’d take a picture of the controlled chaos.

2 hours

For this two hour painting I was extremely excited. But when we got into it I began to feel more and more uncomfortable with it. I really started fighting with the acrylic and tried to use it like watercolor by combining it with water. This was not very successful. After looking at other people’s work I saw a big glob of paint on someone’s canvas and loved it. So I started applying paint like icing and building up tiny mountain ranges. In the end I liked I had, but that isn’t really the point. When I let the medium do what it wanted I began to feel happier with the process!

Success!

I made some photo collages today which I like the direction of! I have printed two of them out and am going to construct them by hand to see how it affects them. I have a feeling it will be awesome but time consuming.