blog 19

• Did anyone critique your work this week? If so, what were their impressions?

sort of. paul looked at a few images. he said in crit i should show whatever i've done. some projects take awhile to create. so i ought to have multiple avenues of work. (on going projects.) if i come to a temporary stand still on one project, i can work on one of my other projects.

• What was the most motivational or creative moment of the past week?

doing studio shoot.

• What do you want to achieve in next week's studio practice?

i'd like to have a good edit of my latest work. also have a better understanding of "what i want to say" with my work.

• What did you achieve in your studio this past week?

i shot a lot of stuff.

• What has been an artistic failure this week?

still being under the weather and finding out why i'm always so tired. i can't get any work done when all i can think about is sleep.

• What was the most profound thought in relation to your practice this week?

i've got to have more faith in myself and my work. i need to read more on painting composition.

• If there was a visiting artist this week, what is your impression of their work and process in relation to your own?

N/A

Blog 18

Francis Alÿs El Gringo video
Artist Biography and brief explanation of work: Francis Alÿs was born in 1959 in Antwerp, Belgium, and currently lives in Mexico City. His projects include Paradox of Praxis (1997), for which the artist pushed a block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melted, and, most recently, When Faith Moves Mountains (2002), in which 500 people at Ventanilla, outside Lima, Peru, formed a single line at the foot of a giant sand dune and moved it four inches using shovels. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford (2002), the Lisson Gallery in London (1999 and 2001), the Galerie Peter Kilchmann in Zurich (1999 and 2001), the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver (1998), and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City (1997). He has also shown in group exhibitions at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York (2002), the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Witte de With center for contemporary art in Rotterdam, and the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (all 2001), and the Hayward Gallery in London (1999), among many others..




a link to an interview with the artist or a review: http://www.postmedia.net/alys/interview.htm


link to gallery representing artist: Lumen Eclipse

artist website: http://www.francisalys.com/

more unnaturalness

i'm sorry but this is too awesome not to share it with everyone else. i love it!

blog 17

Dude, I want to do this for a living:

• Did anyone critique your work this week? If so, what were their impressions?

no.

• What was the most motivational or creative moment of the past week?

a family pet photo album as a way of presenting my work. robin schwartz found my blog and emailed me. she wants to come speak at vcu. word

• What do you want to achieve in next week's studio practice?

i want a fairy to visit me in my sleep and give the photos i'm not getting.

• What did you achieve in your studio this past week?

nothing, i've been sick

• What has been an artistic failure this week?

i don't know how to edit be objective about my work.

• What was the most profound thought in relation to your practice this week?

i don't know how to be critical and objective. same as above.

• If there was a visiting artist this week, what is your impression of their work and process in relation to your own?

N/A

article/essay

Article from Dr. Milani

What are the down falls of viewing pets as family members?
If we elevate pets to a non human level we may undermine and not respect the needs of the animal. Dr. Milani says, "The bad news... (a lack) of knowledge and respect for each pet's unique species and individual physical, behavioral, and bond needs." We must remember that animals are not people and that they DO have different needs from our own.
In some cases, people view their pets in such high regard that the pet takes priority over the rest of the human family. Sometimes people get pets to fill an empty nest. For instance, the kids go off to college and mom gets a dog to fill her maternal needs. If mom treats the dog as a real child, the dog can become dominant and run the household. The dog will develop behavior problems, become unstable because the canine needs aren't being met and could attack anyone who tries to interfere/interact with mom.

Can both humans and animals benefit from the human-pet bond?
Yes. Many people know studies have shown that humans can benefit greatly from the presence of and relationship with animals. However, research is revealing that animals also benefit from us. Dr. Milani says, "Both human and animal have more opportunities to experience the positive physiological and effects of the human-animal bond. We all know about the benefits animal companionship offers humans in the form of improved health and mental well-being. Other studies indicate that quality human interaction yields similar benefits for our pets." The most important part for a healthy relationship between ourselves and our pets is developing appropriate human-animal family values.

blog 16

Robin Schwartz

Bio: Robin Schwartz's photographs are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Museum of Art, Washington, D.C., The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Chrysler Museum of Art and the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Amelia's World , edited by Tim Barber, will be published by The Aperture Foundaton, fall 2008. Robin's has also authored two books of photographs, LIKE US: Primate Portraits, 1993,W. W. Norton and Company, New York and Dog Watching 1995, Takarajima Books, New York and Japan. + scroll down

Robin's photographs have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, People, Entertainment Weekly, Interview Magazines, The Photo District News and she has worked on assignment for Life and Sports Illustrated Magazines. Her black & white photographs of animals are included in over 30 books, including books by J.C. Suares, Michael Rosen, Ruth Silverman, Diana Edkins, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, Chronicle and Welcome Books. Schwartz's photographs have been published as postcards, posters and journels by Graphique De France, Galison, Fotofolio and The Brooklyn Museum of Art. Robin Schwartz is an assistant professor in photography at William Paterson University and lives in Hoboken, New Jersey with her husband, Robert Forman , daughter, Amelia and companion animals.
Collections: go to her site and click on Public Collections. (the site won't allow copy and paste.)
Statement:

Amelia’s World

My photographs are drawn from real journeys undertaken with my daughter, Amelia. I am driven to depict relationships with animals but the photographs are not documents; they are evidence of the invented worlds that we explore and the fables we enact together. Photography gives us the opportunity to access our dreams, to discover the extraordinary.

Animals and interspecies relationships have always been an important part of my work. The animals in my photographs are not represented as beasts or nobility but as part of our everyday world. My first monograph, a series of primates at home with humans, guided me to the places of my own childhood fantasies.

I photograph myself with animals through Amelia. I am an only child who has an only child. Each of us has a strong fantasy world. Amelia and I play out our eccentricities in worlds where she and animals not only co-exist, but also interact. Animals are not props in my photographs and they are not photo-shopped in. The world that my daughter and I explore is one where the line between human and animal overlaps or is blurred.

An artist photographing her child can invite ridicule, but getting personal with my projects has always been both my need and my edge. This project evolves with my daughter’s maturing personality and aptitude. Amelia is my priority, my muse, my co-conspirator, my tormentor and my bliss. Collaborating with Amelia, I am able to go to any place in time.

some family history...

blog 15

• Did anyone critique your work this week? If so, what were their impressions?

Simen Johan. He thought that perhaps my idea was the art and it would and will be hard, maybe too hard to photograph such an "interesting" subject. i think he liked my pre-grad school work more.

• What was the most motivational or creative moment of the past week?

just going out and shooting as much as possible. i refuse to have the same crit again.

• What do you want to achieve in next week's studio practice?

print and get these businesses and individuals to let me into their spaces!

• What did you achieve in your studio this past week?

shoot, shoot, shoot. i've taken around 500 images in less than 4 days.

• What has been an artistic failure this week?

not shooting more spaces. i need better communication between myself and these businesses. ??? what to do??? without these people my work is nothing.

• What was the most profound thought in relation to your practice this week?

maybe i can't be anything but a documentary photographer.

• If there was a visiting artist this week, what is your impression of their work and process in relation to your own?

Johan's work is aesthetically pleasing. He puts a lot of time into his images, which i think should be comended. i don't have that kind of patience. I wasn't entirely pleased with his talk. I enjoyed my one on one discussion with him the most. but I don't think he understood where I am coming from in my work. as soon as he found out that my work involved animals, he wanted to discuss other artists who use animals and look them up on the internet. i wanted more suggestions and advice. when i asked him about his work specifically, he didn't answer my questions. he did have a different take on my work. he seemed to like the "cheesy" goo goo gah gah images of people with their pets the most. he found them the most relatable. he wanted to see close ups of them kissing, etc... he told me to get closer to my subjects, use more abstraction, and study painting composition.