Illustration Friday - Pattern

A playful canvas for this week's word.  Sharpie on white canvas sneakers.

Great Book Find - Michael Freeman's "Photographer's" Series

An event earlier this week got me to thinking about my experiences with photography in the classroom; how I have approached it in the past, and how I would like to approach it in the future.  In my previous classrooms I have always had groups of students who were devoted to photography as a media, and also those who saw photography as an easy way out of what they viewed as more difficult art assignments.  After all, it is easy enough to push a shutter button on a camera.   I always explained to those who thought photography was an easy option, that good photography is nothing like easy.  Though I was also willing to admit to them that sometimes even a bad/mediocre photographer could get lucky and produce a compelling image.  I just didn't want them to base their grade in my class on a stroke of luck.  I needed to see evidence of thought, planning, problem solving, composition, content, technique.....you know, all those things we art teachers work so hard to instill in our students.

With all of this inner reflection floating around in my head, I found myself wandering into the photography section of my local Barnes and Noble Bookstore.  Most of the books I picked up were the expected technique driven tomes that I have perused over and over again when I have photography on my brain.  These books are interesting and useful, and often visually appealing, but they all fall short as an aide in helping to explain the difference between a technically good photograph and an exceptional work of fine art in which photography happens to be the media. That distinction is the hardest thing for most burgeoning photography/art students to grasp.

Just before giving up and wandering off to another section of the bookstore, a title caught my eye. "The Photographer's Vision - Understanding and Appreciating Great Photography" by Michael Freeman.  Aha! This one sounded promising.  As I started leafing through the pages I quickly realized that it was just exactly the kind of resource that I was hoping to find.  Mr. Freeman's book looks at a lot of excellent imagery throughout the history of photography and goes into details about why these images are accepted as significant contributions to the world of art and photography; what the artist was thinking, what was their process, their "vision."  And even better, right next to this book were two more on the shelf by the same author titled " The Photographer's Eye- Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos," and "The Photographer's Mind - Creative Thinking for Better Digital Photos."  I can only say that I felt like I was in a state of photography book euphoria. :)  All of these beautiful image filled books, while touching on technique, focused more specifically on the intent and creativity of the artists within the art form; just exactly the concepts I feel are most important to convey in an art classroom.  Technique is very learn-able and can be developed with time and practice, but the development of technique requires lower order thinking skills.  Developing a mental construct for creating content, meaning, composition, and artistry requires a student to  not only use but to stretch their higher order thinking skills.

Needless to say, I purchased all three of these books for my personal library, and I have been blissfully pouring over them since they arrived.  I admittedly wrote down the author, titles, and publisher (Focal Press) and ordered them from Amazon where they cost me nearly half what I would have paid at Barnes and Noble. I highly recommend these books to any art teacher or artist whether you teach/practice photography or not.  The visual concepts contained in them can be applied to any media.

Thank you Michael Freeman for filling an important void in the book market.  I love your books!

Exit Through the Gift Shop - Movie Review

I rarely spend more than about $10 on additions to my DVD collection, but when I happened upon this Banksy film while perusing the movie section of BestBuy, I quickly plunked down the $25 that it cost.  My high school students have always been fascinated by the illusive street artist Banksy, and the risk taking associated with his particular art form.  I like him because he is such an excellent example of the power of art as a means of communicating complex ideas and personal/political/cultural statements. 

This movie is rated R.  It has a documentary format and the "F word" pops up sporadically.  I would have no problem showing this movie to an upper level high school art class after sending home parental permission forms.  The best advice I can give here is to know your principle well and run it by him or her before showing it in any class.  That said, it is a very watchable and fascinating film.  Though Banksy is ultimately responsible for the existence of the film in its final version, the documentary is not about Banksey and his work per-se.  Instead, it is about a French film/video photographer who becomes obsessive about documenting street artists at work and ultimately becomes a participating street/pop artist himself.  Banksy and well known American street artist Shepard Fairey play pivotal roles in the development of the storyline. The film addresses the bizarre conditions at play when street art becomes commercially valuable.  It questions the nature of art, artists, and the art market.  It can lead to some solid reality based questions for your students to consider.  What is it that we value about art?  What is illegal about graffiti? What makes something "good art" or "bad art?"  How important is originality in making art?  Can someone become an artist overnight? How does marketing impact the value of art?

Speaking of marketing, the DVD comes packed with a few fun extras: the star-shaped paper glasses that you see in the photo above, a couple of grafitti art postcards, and a couple of grafitti art stickers are included.

I really enjoyed this film and give it a solid A.

Artist Spotlight - Jay Shinn

Bi-Slanted V
2009
stainless steel, latex paint, shadow
32" x 60" x 8"

Jay Shinn is an artists working and living in both Texas and New York.  Along with the other artists I have recently spotlighted, Shinn contributed to the “Silent Transmissions” exhibit that hung at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches Texas from Jan 28^th – Mar 31^st of 2012.  The works included by Shinn were 3 dimensional installations that were composed of stainless steel sculpture, painted shadows, and the variable actual shadows that were a function of lighting and daylight.  The resulting work is a form of tromp l’oeil that forces the viewer to really closely consider what he/she is seeing.  The painted shadows were so convincing that I viewed several of Shinn’s pieces before I recognized the visual trickery of Shinn’s technique.  To see more of Shinn’s hard-edged geometric art visit his website at http://www.jayshinn.com/ .

Artist Spotlight - John Pomara

Digital Dating no. 7, 2007

oil enamel on aluminum

36’’ x 48”

John Pomara is an artist and professor of Painting at the University of Texas Dallas.  He recently exhibited part of his “Digital Dating” series at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, Texas in the group exhibit “Silent Transmissions”.   Like the other contributing artists to this exhibit, Pomara’s work has a distinct connection to technology and the impact that technology has on human perception and experience.  On viewing Pomara’s art I grasped the immediately recognizable connection to computer circuitry and digital imagery.  However, I was even more deeply intrigued by the remnants for the artist’s hand seen in the scraped or “pulled” layered surfaces that are characteristic of Pomara’s technique. 

You can watch a full length interview of the artists discussing his work below in the “Art This Week” video posted to Vimeo by Richard Serrano.

Art This Week Interviews-John Pomara from Richard Serrano on Vimeo.

Artist Spotlight – James Marshall

Large Works:
glazed ceramic,
approx. 28" x 26" x 4”

James Marshall is a ceramic artist and college instructor from Santa Fe, NM.   He recently exhibited a group of large ceramic works at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, Texas that he calls “Liminal Objects”.  In his artist statement Marshall explains:

“If subliminal means that which is below the threshold of ordinary consciousness and perception, then the liminal is the point of emergence, the threshold itself, the turning point between one realm and another. The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. Liminality is a period of transition, during which usual boundaries of thought, self-understanding, and behavior shift, opening the way to something new.” 

Marshall creates bold monolithic ceramic sculptures coated in bright primary and secondary colored glazes.  From a distance the glazes appear to be a solid gloss of color, but on closer inspection divides into subtle shifts of texture and hue creating added interest to the simple but massive forms.  You can see more of Marshall’s work on his website at http://www.jamesmarshallart.com/index.html .

Artist Spotlight – Vincent Falsetta

191

14" x 14"

oil on panel

2008

Vincent Falsetta is a professor of Drawing and Painting at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.  He recently exhibited a number of his artworks at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, Texas in a group exhibit titled “Silent Transmissions.”   Falsetta’s large non-objective paintings vibrate with the energy of contrasting color choice and a unique manipulation of the actual physical paint.  Falsetta references nature, technology, and energy as sources of inspiration.  In his artist statement Falsetta notes “There is a feeling of a steady electric flow, somewhat like a visual electro-magnetic field that pulls the eye in every direction simultaneously.  The paintings evoke the natural world while acknowledging the technology that measures or records it.”

My first impressions on viewing Falsetta’s paintings was that they reminded me of beautifully marbled paper; much like the endpapers found in fine old leather bound books.  You can see more of Vincent Falsetta’s work on the REM Gallery website at http://www.remgallery.com/artists/falsetta1.html .

This concerns me.....

The Teaching Tolerance website is a good place to go and assess your own teaching practices and ideologies. This new article really saddened me. I invite you to sign this petition in support of this educator. No matter what your perspective is on this tragic event, teachers should not be fired for dealing with current and contemporary topics in their classrooms.






Change.org|Online Petition Template

Here's Lookin' at You Kid: The Use and Meaning of “Gaze” in Art

      The Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, TX is hosting a thought provoking exhibit titled "Silent Transmissions."  The exhibit includes the current work of contemporary artists Frances Bagley, Vincent Falsetta, James Marshall, John Pomara, and Jay Shinn.  Silent Transmissions will be on view at the Cole through March 31, 2012
     Of particular interest to me is Frances Bagley's video installation titled "Witness." (Follow the hyperlink for an image directly from Bagley's website.)  Bagley took video of a variety of different people's eyes while they were looking straight forward.  She then created a display of 26 video players on metal stands that plays in a continuous loop. The only noticeable movement is the occasional random blink of the eyes.  Bagley's purpose is to psychologically turn the viewer into the one who is being viewed, creating an unexpected tension.  The artist is manipulating a concept known in the worlds of art and psychology as "gaze."
     There are many different specific kinds of "gaze" that get talked about in the art world.  One of the most common is "the male gaze."  It is a hot topic in the world of art history and contemporary feminism, perhaps too hot of a topic for most public school systems.  But perfectly acceptable in a high school setting are the concepts of spectator gaze, intra-diegetic gaze, and extra-diegetic gaze.  ( Intra-what!!!  Don't worry I had to look it up too.)  Spectator gaze is of course the gaze of the actual viewer who is looking at the subject of a painting.  Intra-diegetic gaze is the gaze of a subject within work of art looking at another subject within that same work of art.  Diegetic essentially means "within the story", or "within the work of art."  So logically extra-diegetic means a subject in a work of art looking out to the viewer or out to the fourth wall beyond the visible illusions of the artwork.  
     Even though these concepts have only found their most comprehensive forms in contemporary psychology and art, artist have known about the power of a subject's gaze for hundreds of years.  As human beings we are instinctively interested in what other people (or animals) are looking at.  This tendency is actually a critical part of our own survival instinct.  Artist use their knowledge of the power of gaze to help drive the composition and message of their artwork.  In response to the Silent Transmissions exhibit I have developed a high school art lesson plan around the Francis Bagley video installation and the concept of "gaze" in art work.  If you are interested in a printable copy of the lesson plan drop me an email at edenhound@tannertaylor.com.  I will be happy to forward a copy of it to you either as a pdf or a word document.
     If you are in the vicinity of Nacogdoches, Texas between now and the end of March be sure to check out all of the outstanding artwork included in the "Silent Transmissions" exhibit.
     Below are a few images from art history that would be great discussion starters for the topic of "gaze".  The Bosch and Velasquez paintings are both part of my lesson plan in addition to the Bagley installation. 

Hieronymus Bosch, The Conjurer, 1475 -1505. oil on wood

Gustav Corbet, The Desperate Man, 1844 - 1845, oil on canvas

Caracalla, c. A.D. 215, marble, life size

Diego Velásquez, Las Meninas, 1656. oil on canvas

      

An invitation to visit "Somewhere Off Center"

It is currently spare and bare, but I can now invite everyone to visit my new blog dedicated to fine art and illustration titled "Somewhere Off Center"  The first post and works of art are up. Follow the link or paste http://sallyctaylor.blogspot.com/ into your browser.  Either one will get you there.  I hope my current followers will continue to follow my artistic journey on this new site.  I will be tweaking, organizing and improving it over the next several days.

Cheers!

Illustration Friday - Stay

 

Stay With Me

(while I monkey around with my career)

Collage and graphite

9.25 x 5 inches

Big changes have happened in my life since my last post.  I did something even I couldn't have anticipated.  I resigned my high school art teaching position.  This was one of the hardest decisions I have made in a long time, and I know a lot of people think I must be off my rocker.  Maybe I am...  I absolutely love teaching.  I work very hard to be good at it, and I can only hope that the effort is understood and appreciated by those who retain my services as an educator.  The students always get it, maybe not at first, but eventually and reliably.  I miss them already and we are only half way through the summer.  

But change is good even if it is hard.  As Newton tells us, a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and I am no exception to that rule.  The current plan is:

1. Make art full time -  It is a now or never opportunity to promote myself as a professional artist.  Teaching gave me freedom to make art for personal intellectual pleasure at my leisure.  I have been much more productive in the last couple of years than in the past but now is the time to ramp it up to the next level.

2. Finish up my Masters degree - I am five classes away from completion.  With more free time I should be able to finish up by the end of next spring semester

3. Start a new blog - I will be putting up a new blog that will deal more specifically with my production of fine art and illustration. Illustration Friday submissions will be posted there as well.  I have three recently completed large canvases that are the beginnings of a new body of work.  As soon as I have good photos, I will inaugurate the new blog.

4. Work part time at Micheal's - As a evening/weekend "Customer Experience Manager" and hopefully fine art instructor... I still need to be able to make my car payment and tuition. :(  I worked at Micheal's about six years ago as a framer and event coordinator before I started teaching.  They still like me and have been kind enough to take me back.

I showed my son Todd, the illustration for this week.  He asked me what the word was, when I told him, he looked blankly at me and said "I don't get it."  If you have read to this point I hope it now makes sense.  To those who have been kind enough to follow this blog, I hope you will "stay with me" as I move on in another direction.  I'll post here to let everyone know when the new blog is up and running.

Make art with all your heart, mind, and soul!

Sally

Illustration Friday - Shadow

Pasture Gate

9 x 6 inches

water soluble graphite and colored pencil 

on watercolor board

This is just a quick color and value sketch for an image that I would like to turn into a small oil painting.  I find a little pre-planning helps immensely.  This gate is just up the road from my house and on this particular day, the play of light and shadow created beautiful elongated patterns.  For me the most interesting times of day for shadows are early morning and late afternoon, but it is also the most fleeting.  The sun seems to move more quickly when it is near the horizon.  For this reason I am a strong proponent of carrying a camera in order to capture references of this magical part of the day.  I also like use the computer to desaturate my studies to make sure the composition holds up based on value in addition to color.  It is a good idea to do this with paintings while they are progressing as well.

Here is an example of this study in grey scale.  I think it is still fairly successful.  Time to get busy painting!

Art and Mutant Flowers

I have been crazy busy lately getting ready for art exhibits and possible art exhibits.  I spent the day yesterday at the family farm in Marshall, with my dad, making plinths for sculptures out of 100 year old barn wood.  Thanks Dad!  I couldn't have done it without you.  These are some sturdy (heavy) sculpture stands.

 

Barnwood Plinth

with 100 lb sculpture

I have also been painting as fast as I can... below is a small oil painting that I was actually fairly happy with.  I have plans for a couple more paintings along these lines.  I have been experimenting with a water soluble oil paint that can be mixed with acrylics. (I know, I couldn't believe it either!)  I have actually not been brave enough to try mixing it with acrylics yet, but I love the easy clean up of water soluble oil paints! I need to do a few test mixes next week when I have a little more free time.

 

Morning Light

6 x 12

Oil on Board

And here is a strange thing I just had to share.  (The science girl in me loves this kind of stuff.)  John and I went for a walk yesterday morning and I came across this freakishly mutated black eyed susan.  The stem is flattened out and twisted into a ribbon shape, and the center of the flower has grown elongated and curves into almost a complete circle.  As a result, there is an increased number of petals that are growing out from the sides of the center in voluminous ruffles.  I don't know if this is caused by disease or just a random mutation, but it is strange and fascinating no matter how it happened.

Crazy Mutant Black Eyed Susan

Lucy Revisited

Lucy Loves Ducky II
40 x 30

Acrylic on Canvas

A larger acrylic version of the last Illustration Friday image that I did.  

School is out for the summer and I will be taking two graduate classes, and making art like crazy! Who knows, if any of this stuff sells, I may have to give up teaching. :)

Illustration Friday - Toy

Lucy Loves Ducky

8.5 x 8.5 inches

Watercolor and Sharpie Pen

Playing with toys is a sign of intelligence, and all of the higher order animals do it; elephants to whales to dogs and cats.  The tendency for humans and animals to continue to play well into adulthood is both a learning activity as well as a stress reliever.  My border collie Lucy thinks it is just plain fun.

Illustration Friday - Cultivate

2 point perspective drawing sample

I am teaching perspective drawing at school to my Art 1 students this week, and it just occurred to me today that my sample drawing could work for this weeks Illustration Friday word.  The drawing is not finished, but it is far enough along that it is a good example for my students on drawing a cityscape with details in two point perspective.

In addition to cultivating young minds, I have been doing a lot of literal cultivating this week.  I have built three raised vegetable and flower garden beds using the a square foot gardening plan.  I also purchased root stock of male and female hardy kiwi berry plants at Sam's club. I have been researching online to determine the best way to plant them.  It turns out that the vines get really large, (think Kudzu) so I am going to have to find some spare fence line to plant them on, or consider building an arbor.

You might remember a couple of posts back that I commented on my notoriously black thumb.   I figure I have about a 25% chance that any of these current gardening efforts will turn out to be successful.  I am ever optimistic that I will find the magic spell that will turn my black thumb green.  The above drawing is pure fantasy. :)

Illustration Friday - Stir

 

Stir the stars with a silver spoon,

and say "goodnight" to the waning moon.

The Sandman sings in the willow tree,

Ta Loo Ra La, Ta Loo Ra Lee.

I almost gave up on developing an idea for this week's word.  It just wasn't inspiring me and everything I could come up with seemed cliche or trite.  I'm not sure if this is any different/better, but this little quatrain kept swimming around in my head, so I finally decided it was worth pursuing.  Who knows maybe it will develop into a full fledged poem some day.

I am including the initial rough sketch.  There are a few things about it that I actually prefer.  Also the scanner fails to pick up some of the pale color shifts and value changes that are in the actual color version. :(

Foreshortening can be an interesting challenge!

Illustration Friday - Warning

Don't Eat Me!

ATC 2.5 x 3.5 inches

mixed media

Vocabulary word of the day:  Aposematism - a visual warning signal (usually bright color or high contrast pattern) indicating that an organism has a secondary defense mechanism such as; unpalatabilty,  poisonous glands, stings, neurotoxins, or foul odor.

Old IF entry wins Best in Show

Who would have thought that a small drawing created last year as an Illustration Friday entry would lead me to fame and fortune?  OK...no real fame and only a small $200 award.  But still, I am very proud to say that this small colored pencil drawing won Best in Show at last nights opening of Main Street Gallery's juried still life exhibit.   What a truly fantastic surprise!


The show will be hanging from March 3rd - April 12.  If you find yourself in downtown Tyler Texas, stop by to see all of the beautiful artwork created by East Texas artists!

Illustration Friday - Swarm

Queen Bee

Ink,  marker and watercolor on mat board
4x6 inches

Wow!  It has been too long since I have participated in Illustration Friday and I am having serious withdrawal.  I may have to commit to another 1 year goal to make sure that I stay motivated to keep it up.  

This is just a quick one this week, but it had me thinking about the zen of being at one with nature.  Nature and I have a love hate relationship.  I consider myself something of a nature girl, but become literally depressed when things don't grow and flourish in the ways I envision.  We have had terrible drought conditions here in Texas for at least four of the six years that we have been back.  I have had very little success at growing anything.  OK, in reality I have a black thumb.  My husband commented on it just yesterday when I was fondling the plants in the garden department at Lowe's.  But despite my general ineptitude with growing things, I have always been happiest outside, breathing in fresh country air.  And I like to think that I will eventually get better at nurturing nature, if I just keep at it.  (And don't forget to water)

I remember being particularly concerned about the state of the natural world a couple of years ago when I heard that bees were disappearing.   Apparently a bee virus was decimating bee colonies, but they seem to be making a comeback.  I am still pretty upset about the fact that I haven't seen a firefly in several years.  No one really knows what has happened there.  But on the positive side, ground dwelling birds have returned to East Texas.  I have been seeing road runners and killdeer again for several seasons now.  Apparently the fire ants are finally finding a balance.  That is the thing about nature, isn't it?  It always finds balance.  How Zen!