Art 21 Reflection Three

Imagine skating on that.  Really cool, right?

This time, I will write about Maya Lin and Tim Hawkinson.  Ms. Lin is an artist who clearly uses a lot of architecture in her work, as she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  She is shown making an "ecliptic ice rink," that has lights underneath it so it looks like the night sky.  She says her work "deals with naturally occurring phenomena" and is "closely aligned with geology and landscape."  Based on what I have watched and read so far (memorial and ice rink), Ms. Lin's work is about transforming the atmosphere around the art, or creating a "mood."  I think that the mood the rink creates is really peaceful, and creates a calm atmosphere for the people of the city.  I think it is great for Ms. Lin that she did a favor to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Her work is one of my favorites so far, and I even liked it as much as the gunpowder drawings.  Sometimes, it is hard for me to explain why I like or dislike something, but I just do.  I just like the idea that the piece of art will become a part of the community, like the library or the corner store is a part of a town.  These installations help the community be unique, and this one even includes a restroom!  I can not relate to making a giant ice rink project that took years, but I can't help but wonder how she came up with the idea.  It's like John and Joe's idea for the mural:  I still don't know where that came from (maybe they just wanted to throw something).  After I saw how Ms. Lin had multiple diagrams, those atlases, and all of those people working on it, I can appreciate how much work it took to complete this.

This is the "Emoter," a clever combination
 of "emotion" and "motor."  It moves, too!

Tim Hawkinson is an artist who seems to generally make giant installations of kinetic sculptures.  The moving sculpture featured in the episode is called the "Emoter."  From what I can tell, this is a picture of Mr. Hawkinson's face, with movable features that move automatically depending on what's on TV.  He says that he often starts with his own image, but by the time he is done with it, he doesn't identify with it anymore.  His art is about the human body and how it experiences the world around it.  I don't think art has to have deep meaning to it, so when I look at the Emoter, I see a complex machine that the artist probably explored for a long time.  I don't know how Mr. Hawkinson did it, but he clearly sees things differently than the rest of us.  I like his work because it is different from what many of us consider art.  You might say, "You didn't like Mr. Baldessari's work.  How is this any different?" but I really don't know the answer to that, so please don't.  I just think that the Emoter (and the "Drop" machine too) are interesting and innovative designs, and I don't see a moving face machine every day.  The best way I can think to relate to this is those "Rube Goldberg" machines (I really like those things).  I did a group project of that in seventh grade, and enjoyed them a lot.  They required us to be creative to find out how to make something work, and I bet Mr. Hawkinson's experience was similarish, but way more in depth.

Here is a video of one of those Rube Goldberg machines, in a Honda Commercial:  This one's really cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_qUjrMtMec

Art 21 Reflection Two

That looks like an amazing job!

This time, I decided to choose a couple of artists from the "what to watch" doc, to see if I like them better.  I chose Cai Guo-Qiang (gun powder) and Vija Celmins (pencil drawings).  I will start with Cai "the powder guy" Guo Qiang :), because that is the one I could find first, and he seemed really interesting.  Mr. Cai seems to specialize in gun powder, and having worked with it for years, he has gotten to know it and made some conclusions.  He is drawn to gunpowder for his art because it represents "beauty and romance" on the one hand, but also can be used for destruction.  After working with it for years, he has learned to accept that it is dangerous to anyone nearby, and that he needs to stand back and give the powder most of the "control."  The rest will sort of fix itself (boom!).  I don't think that there is any way for me to relate to exploding things for art (Do I wish so?  Yes. Is that at all possible?  Not really...), but I guess I like the way/mindset he has when making artwork.  He seems so relaxed even though he is working with a potentially deadly material, and lets things happen the way they normally would.  I was a little uncomfortable (but also laughing my head off) when he compared making art to making love, but if that inspires him, it's okay with me.  I really like his work because it is unique and one of a kind.  There aren't many people in the world who do that kind of thing.  Before I watched the video, it looked like it would be really easy: just dribble powder and your are good to go.  However, after watching him, I can appreciate how much work and precision goes into each painting.  Dusting?  Not sure.  Anyways, he has his own style to express himself with, and I am sure many people around the world, especially kids (well, pretty much anyone) who are interested in it too.  (Note that I saw the rest, but as a kid, I am the most interested in talking about the gunpowder.  His dad's scroll was really cool though).

Doesn't that look like a photo to you?

Vija Celmins is an artist who does incredibly detailed and labor-intensive drawings and paintings.  At the beginning, she said that she used the photo she was not exactly copying as an inspiration to her.  It helped her focus on getting the "feel" of the cosmos, almost sharpening her mind so she could make those painstaking looking little stars.  In that painting, she had worked on it for over a year, and painted it a dozen times.  She doesn't throw away the ones she finds that she has lost the touch on.  Instead, she paints over them, letting them accumulate and giving the painting a different feel.  She considers sanding away the layers part of her process, and calls her numerous attempts "building a painting."  I really like her work too because it is so realistic, and if I didn't know better, I would think it was a photograph.  I am using the one up there (the plane) as an example, and she used all gray in the painting (the plane and the sky).  This may be really easy to you professional artist types, but it is amazing to me.  Knowing how long it took her to make the comet painting, I can only imagine how long this one took.  I can not relate to making incredibly realistic paintings, but I think I can relate to her process, in a less extreme sort of way.  To me, cleaning the slate and starting fresh is a part of the process, and sometimes it makes things feel better. My drawings do not turn out like that one when I start over, but I think ideas come to me more easily when I am in front of a blank piece of paper.  In fact, I think it is easier for me to work on one thing for hours (with less breaks) so that I can keep my mind blankish instead of working on it for an hour, taking a break, getting back into the "feel" of it, etc.  Ironically, even as I say that, I think I will stop there for now.

Art 21 Reflection One

This is some of her art.  As you can see, lots of lines :)

The episode "systems" includes art by Julie Mehretu, John Baldessari, Kimsooja, and Allan McCollum.  Julie Mehretu is an abstract artist, and she calls her old style of painting "maplike" and her new style of painting "atmospheric."  Her goal is not to explain one of her life stories or show people a message, so she doesn't say what her art is about.  Instead, she tries to make the paintings interesting and make the viewer "feel" where she is coming from.  Her paintings are massive, and she even has a 21 by 84ish painting that takes a year and a half to make.  She works in a team with several other people, and each has a self-assigned job.  A lot of her influences and ideas come from another artist she lives with (I'm not sure if they are married or anything like that.  Maybe...), Jessica Rankin.  They give each other ideas and feedback and look at each other's work all day.  Even though I don't understand it, I think I like her art because it is huge, it captures my attention, and I can appreciate the fact that it took years and many people to make it.

You never know, maybe someone actually does like this.

John Baldessari is another abstract artist (almost all of them probably will be).  His main idea is that he would like to challenge the popular beliefs about what art is and is not.  He tries to push the boundaries of the subject and broaden the people's ideas about it.  He doesn't paint anymore because he thinks it is too much based off of opinion and he prefers a systematic approach.  Mr. Baldessari uses photos, often more than one per piece, words, and colors in his work.  His studio is littered with photos that he edited or colored over.  He is crazy, but I guess artists are allowed to be.  I am mostly saying he is crazy because he looks like one of those dwarves from the movies.  I do not particularly like his art because they look like photos with crayon colored over them, but maybe some people are into that kind of thing.  I do like the part where he helps out the art students, though.

This is the one with lanterns.  I don't know which side is
 the ground, but it looks interesting..

Kimsooja is an artist who uses the environment, music, sounds, lights, videos, and more for her work.  She often does installations, or pieces that were made for a certain space.  Her main idea is that she tries to find peace and enlightenment, I think, through her work and tries to give the audience the same things by seeing/hearing it.  She believes she is always making work and that her whole life is one piece of art.  She took videos of her standing still with people passing by, calling herself a "needle woman."  I like her work the most so far, but I still think she is a little "out there" (not really a bad thing, just different).  To me, in order to make art like that, a person has to work differently than others.  S I thought the "needle woman" part was boringish because they were videos of her standing there, but I guess she found meaning in it.  I like the installation with the thousands of lanterns because, if I was there looking at it, it would capture my attention for longer than the needle woman videos.

Each one of those framed pictures is the symbol of a person.

Alan McCollum is an artist who took a lot of influence from his uncle, who ran a television program called "Learn to Draw" (guess what it's about!).  He made massive quantities of pencil drawings of symbols for various things for an installation.  He tried to make shapes that symbolized everything on the planet.  I really like his work because I think that it is a really interesting concept to work on.  I don't know why, but the room full of framed shapes was interesting to me.  Maybe if I knew his system for symbolism, I could find a symbol for myself.  He explained how thousands of things to look at is awe inspiring and overwhelming to people, and I think that it is great.