2/26/10

Work in progress for Friday.


CRAAAAAZZZY!!!!! This is something I'm working on for a materials and techniques class. I think I'll just resolve the upper right corner and then it will be done. It's gouche, acrylic, watercolor, and graphite on paper. I think it's 25" x 35" or something like that.



Fiber and narrative project I - Identity in four parts

This was my workspace on Wednesday night. Shown: Power tools. Not shown: bloody towel.

This was taken after everyone participated. The boxes are glued in those positions. The pink box is glued shut, but you can see someone tried to wedge something in there. In one of the boxes, someone put the instructions for the project.

This project took me a long time because I had to learn how to build things. I designed a toile pattern and then printed it on white fabric in four different colors. In the pattern of the toile there is, in addition to a floral motif, lipstick, a corset, needles (for botox perhaps) and razor blades. I wanted to suggest different ways of modifying the physical body. I'll take a close-up picture of the pattern later. It's actually quite a nice pattern.

This project is about identity. I wanted to ask some questions about what identity means and how we interpret our own identities. I gave everyone a handout with statements from pyschological tests, and their instructions were to tear off the statements and put them in the box they thought represented different parts of their identity. My critique went ok, lots of negative comments and some good ones, but overall I think people didn't like this project. It really frustrated people, which was kind of my intention. Here are some of their comments:

The boxes should be more clinical.
The statements seemed like they were from Seventeen magazine for girls to think about their feelings (they were from actual tests given to psychologists' patients, and one man stood up and said that men think about their feelings all the time)
People should have been directed toward the same final question more clearly
It was too gendered and feminine or not enough
Some people felt the statements didn't apply to them

I thought the last comment was the most interesting. People kept saying to me that some of the statements did or didn't apply to them, as if I was responsible for defining or knowing who they are. I do think who we are is defined in large majority by external factors, and when they disappear or change, we do the same, even though we have a strong sense that we remain the same person. If not for our memories, we might not have any specific identity at all.


2/23/10

One new drawing/painting of my dad


Sometimes it's really nice to make work that has nothing to do with any of my classes. Here's a picture of my dad that I did with graphite, charcoal, and coffee on watercolor paper. I wanted to do something at home with materials that I had around. I think it's 20" x 30". It isn't quite finished yet but I might move on and make a few more that have a more planned composition.

I've got a huge project due on Thursday, so I'll post pics of that after it's finished. It's fiber and printmaking related and I'm pretty excited about it. I get to make things in the woodshop!