This one's for Chave

Raquette Lake

I would have to say that yes it would be nice to see the professors create something and I would also have like other activities. I felt like at points we had too much free time that I didn't know what to do with. Although it was a good experience, and in the end I did enjoy it I would have like more ideas to do together.

raquette lake was great for one reason and one reason only. CHAVE. I dont know where i would be now if i did not meet the beautiful unicorn known as chave. And i guess what everyone else said makes sense too. i would also like to thank all the professors _ pause_ thank you.

I have to agree with everyone else, I would have liked to see the professors create something. It'd be nice to see what they would create under the same conditions Other than that I wouldn't change anything. I think it was a great bonding experience and should be done yearly with the art department. I feel like we all wouldn't have been as close during the semester if we wouldn't have gone.

12 Noon

I agree with CBrown... if there were one thing to add/change about the Raquette Lake trip it would be for the professors to make a piece of art in the woods as well. It is not often that we get to see or hear them talk about work that they made on a personal level. And I think that would be a great opportunity for that.

the lake experience

Being up there was really fun even though i didn't catch a fish i guess it's ok. I don't think i would change much at all the experience was really great and it helped me to get to know people in the art department. I would say to change something is the interaction between prof's and students while we were building our art of nature. I would say that everyone should have jumped in the water it was very refreshing.

Raquette Lake:)

I had a really great time going to Raquette lake. I thought the whole experience was beautiful and would honestly change very little. I really enjoyed getting to know everyone better. Its kind of odd that the more you value a friendship with someone the more you trust and respect their opinions on your own work. I liked that it allowed everyone to removed themselves a bit from their own work and start something completely new. On the other hand, I loved seeing everyones sketches, maybe if everyone brought pictures or something of a few things they are working on there could be sort of an open critique. This could also set the tone for more open critiques throughout the year....Just a thought. I hope everyone has a great winter break! :)

raquette lake

Raquette lake was definitely an experience. i definitely enjoyed all the free time that we had at night and on sunday, it was definitely a time to enjoy each other's company and get to know those students you didn't already know. i loved being able to become a part of the environment with our earthworks that we created. i would have liked to see the professors become more involved, perhaps if they formed a group themselves, or each of the professors were assigned one of our groups. they could've maybe given an in process critique to each group they were assigned to in between the work sessions. besides that, i really don't see how much more the weekend could have improved. i am not the outdoors type of girl, and i wasn't exactly looking forward to the weekend, and i really don't have anything negative to say about the weekend. (afterall, we were supposed to be thinking postive the whole weekend, right? no negativity!)

Raquette Lake

I loved going to Raquette lake with everyone. It was such a bonding experience for me and I hope it still happens in the future. There is only one thing that could be changed to make it better and that would be to go with a different group besides the leadership group. They did provide so much entertainment for us but I feel that all we did was make fun of each other the whole time. I think that it wasn't the point of the trip to bicker with the other group and then each of us make complete fun of the other. But besides that whole deal I thought it was fun, and don't get me wrong,...I throughly enjoyed making fun of the leadership group because they were so uptight.

how to improve...

I thought the weekend at Raquette Lake was awesome. I enjoyed the games that we played, especially the drawing game, and I enjoyed the time that we had to ourselves at the end to go paddle boating and kayaking. The time at night for ourselves was really nice too and I think it was a nice little bonding moment for all of us, and we all had a lot of fun. I also loved our environmental piece that we had to do. I really enjoyed my time there so its hard to say how I could have made it better. I thought we had a great group of people and to be there with leadership just ended up being priceless. I think I would have liked to see more Professors join in on making the earth art. I loved Jeremiah's piece and it was really motivating. I think it would have been more interesting if all of the Professors did something, or even if you all just got together in one group and made one piece, like we did in our groups. But I have to say, I do wish we could all go back again for more fun!!!

Thanks everyone and I hope you all have a wonderful winter break!!

More

Photos

Nice.

Thank you all for contributing this semester!  I love to see you all connecting on this level.  I will keep this blog up for you to continue your conversation....  I also want to post more pictures.

Maybe we should start an art department blog and open it to majors?  A great place to post work and get feedback...  It is also just a great place to stay in contact.

I really enjoyed being the instructor on record for this course. Thanks again.

Best,
M

snow

so since there is snow out, are we going to be building a wall of snow ? and if so when and were ?

Artist

MY Three Artist
1. Suelan Modrejewski - Photographer: http://www.suelanphotography.com
2. Harry Yeff - Doesn't have an official page but I do have images of some of his work, he is a graffiti artist I have seen him do an art show back this summer at a secret wars competition between NY and London



3. Jimi Crayon and artist I met at another Graffiti art war that attended, he does a little of everything, graffiti makes videos that are pretty interesting (about art work and what not) and yeah check it out (he's on our blogger wooo) http://seymourdoomore.blogspot.com/

Sketches

*The first two sketches are two different ideas that I had for ballroom gowns or maybe red carpet gowns (I'm dreaming and I was watching the vma's when I drew these) I wanted something fancy and big. For the first one I was thinking of a light blue, with a grey feeling to it, and a black material as well. I would want there to be some kind of intrigued design but I have yet to think of it yet. For the second dress I Picture it red a bright, or may be a dark deep red but something that stands out, I want the dress to have the senese of being "Puffy" but I want the person to move in it, now I merely drew these but thats I how I see it functioning once I get someone to make this one day.

For the last Sketch is part of a few sketches I made of a black and white kind of collection I was fooling around with some ideas of short dresses. Things I would wear and things I wouldn't. I think this is something different, I'm still playing around with adding color, or if I want to keep the black and white theme.

artists

Jeremy Fish

Alex Pardee

Chris Sandlin

TIM WAS HERE

This first sketch is of my original idea for our Raquette Lake project. The idea was to build a bridge that broke through a wall and this would be related to overcoming barriers - which would fit well with the Cortland intellectual theme (or whatever it is) of walls/barriers/etc.

This sketch was so I could get a basic understanding of what I wanted to build for Sculpture. Our assignment was to find a wooden chair, take it apart and build a bridge that would span 6 feet and would be able to hold Vaughn. I sketched about half of it to understand how I was going to put the pieces together and I made notes about what I wanted to focus on

This last sketch is an idea I have for a future project. It's simply an idea right now and I haven't taken much time in developing this idea right now. If I make it into the BFA program next semester, I may try and bring this project to life. There aren't many notes or details with it because I already know what I want it to be and what I want to accomplish with it, so adding notes would just be pointless.

Basically, I want to line up 4 tvs or monitors or whatever, so that it forms a box. I want to make 4 of the same animation, but from different angles so that when it's played on the monitors, it's a 3D experience for the viewers. I have a couple other ideas for this, but I don't really want to say much until I begin to flesh this idea out.

One artist I'm looking at is Banksy. I like what he does with stencils because it's quick and easy, yet still accomplishes a job successfully. I'm slowly doing more and more research about him because I really enjoy what he does with mixed media.

Another artist I'm looking at is... I forgot his name. I'll find the link I saved when I get home and then I'll edit this post later.

Most of what I sketch is either to practice areas that I feel I need work in, or early stages of a piece that later comes to a more-whole fruition. For line quality and value change, I've been looking at Taylor White. Her use of subtle line is amazing, and certainlysomething to make note of. I'm always looking at Esao Andrews, for his attention to detail. I've been looking at John Malloy for his use of color, as I've been trying to develop a more sophisticated color pallet. For more surrealist refference, I've been looking at Jaroslaw Kukowski. For content and color, I've been looking at Yuta Onoda.

This page was part of a series of sketches I did work on facial expressions. I was also trying to work out a way to successfully convey hair, that was more life-like than I've done in the past, but still stylized. I think a slight Yuta Onoda reference can be seen here. It's definitely an aesthetic that I'm going to keep pursuing, because I think he embodies a much more refined representation of the lines and shape that I've been drawn to for some time.

This page was part of a concept work-out for Fibers I, based on the idea of the Republican party always having a short-sighted, ill thought out response to current social issues. The first response is often "no," rather than a concise, cogent one. In general, it seems like a group of people that are unable to be reasoned with, because they are entirely impervious to reason.

This page shows the early sketch for the near full-sized Japanese Hannya mask that I eventually made out of plasticine. I've since made a rubber mold, and several wax castings, with the intention of eventually casting them in iron. I've also used the rubber mold to press mold clay for my final ceramics I project. I always fine that preliminary sketches like this one help to identify areas of possible embellishment from the source material, and allows me to put the object into my terms, even if the final media is different.

so the one that looks like a maze to me is like sending hidden messages. After watching some shows with all these people with tattoo's it shows hidden messages or just sending messages out to people who see them. But this one just has my name and my birthday date in it. The second 1 is a doodle of happy rugged bold guy that wants to be cool but really is not. His stance is leaning on a wall and just handing out this could be loaded up and made to look more cartoonist. The bird was just for fun and the colors don't make sense at all but it helps me with layering color or color and shading. When working on photoshop layers on layers is also helpful very different from layering pastel but kind of the same concept.

sketches n such

These three sketches from my sketch book are the original scafolding (I dont think thats not spelled right) for three paintings I am currently working through in Lori's painting II class. The series is based on a monstrous creature (who is very naughty) a knightly-type (who is also naughty in his own violent way) and a clash of the two characters. The knight can be seen with a boar-head helm whereas the monster can be seen with a bald head and a naked distorted body. I drew inspiration for this theme from the story of beawulf (or wolf?) and the novel based on beowulf called "Grendel". Two artists I looked into were Goya (Saturno) and Munch (Puberty and Madonna). I would be happy to put up links to these pieces but I am on an un-familiar computer and I cant seem to make my link-things work. If I have left any questions unanswered feel free to ask and feel free to check out the progress of the paintings! Thanks all! PS everyones stuff looks awesome. -Chimbo

These are some sketches related to some poems that I am currently working on. Recently I have been concentrating on the interpreted meaning of words and how they relate to each other. By combining the imagery related to the words and the developed story I have been trying to depict this mood into imagery to develop the intended message.

These are some artists that I have been recently interested in while their work relates to fibers and not poetry I have been trying to draw inspiration from their instillations. Johanna Scheizer creates figures which are woven into creature like depictions of the human form. While Gerda Steiner and Joer Lenzling create large romantic whimsical instillation. I am particularly fascinated by their work because they work together to on large exhibits. This is such a challenge but in the end they are able to create such magical scenes. .http://fiberartsmixedmedia.ning.com/profile/JOHANNASCHWEIZER
http://www.steinerlenzlinger.ch/

sketchbook drawings

I chose to create this sketch in colored soft pastels. In my life drawing class we had worked with color and the figure but it was always a challenge for me to really grasp it so I wanted to take the chance to work on that with this sketchbook. The inspiration for this was a watercolor image I found on istockphoto.com. It was created by Isabelle Z.-Finet, a German artist born in 1974. You can see some of her work at www.meine-art.com, but unfortunately it is all in French and German.
This is a charcoal sketch...unfinished. I chose to do a lot of my sketch book in charcoal drawings. When doing art work that is outside of the computer my favorite medium is charcoal. I took a life drawing class at Fredonia a year ago and fell in love with it. In a lot of my work I typically use a grayscale color palette and I think that is why I am also attracted to the look of charcoal drawings.
This ink drawing was inspired by a French artist named Lotie. I discovered her work in a UK magazine called Computer Art. She uses a lot of simple line draws but adds a lot of small detail. A lot of her work involves these types of drawings mixed with computer art that have beautiful color gradations. I wanted to try to use this artist as an influence on my work to help push the organic an simplistic feel for art. You can see Lotie's awesome work at www.lotie.com

In the past two years, experimenting with the different kinds of weavings there are (ikats, woven shibori, double weaves, etc) I have become particularly interested in the colors and ideas that come out of the culture of India. I have currently been working on ideas that I will be able to portray in my fibers class for next semester. I have yet to incorporate both surface design and weaving together, except for the simple dying of a white cotton warp. So next semester I am hoping to mend the two together to help me with my ideas.

The first sketch on the left is of an Indian elephant. Elephants being my favorite animal, I created this image as an idea for a silk screen 1- for a printmaking project but 2- also for an idea that may evolve for a weaving as well. I would take the silk screen and print it over the weaving, giving the image more texture behind it. With this idea I wish to also include some current colors or ideologies from our culture.

The second sketch on the left is a layout for a weaving I have already started. With the ideas that come out of India, one we are all familiar with is that of karma. After doing research on the idea, the "purple flame" is one that is supposedly charged with the "light of divine freedom." It burns off karma to come in other lifetimes. I am taking this idea and connecting it with colors that I feel represent this idea in our culture. Sketches for weavings are very simple- seeing as how most patterns that are seen in weavings come from books, the only options are the colors and types of yarns that you use. I am using a pattern that is wavy, and after the weaving is complete I plan to embroider on top of it a pattern of flames of a fire (hence

the quick sketch of flames on the bottom of the page) to give my piece more movement and make it more coherent.

Since my time in drawing 2 and projects with self portraiture, my new doodle while being bored is parts of the face, in particular the eye. The reality that is possible to portray amazes me. To the left is just one of my quick doodles during a class when I was bored, from imagination. I love to try and portray the roundness of the eye. As you can see I always number the sketch to keep in my own mind how many I have drawn, and to keep for my own record in the future. I like to make note of different ways I can improve my sketches as well.

One artist that I have been looking at, particularly for color choices is Julie Evans. She has worked in India, and borrowed the color palettes from the country since the start of her career. Though she works with miniature paintings, she inspires me to use the colors from the Indian culture and add some of my own instincts to pair these colors with others in my weavings.

http://www.saulgallery.com/chronicle/evans_2007.html

http://www.saulgallery.com/evans/statement.html

Another artist I have just recently come upon is Shrikant Kadam. He is an Indian artist who uses the exact colors I always imagine to go along with the Indian culture. He is inspired by nature (who isn't?) and uses abstract forms to portray his ideas. He has made me think that to convey my ideas I could also use these simple, very bold colors, to create a piece that is abstract to the point where you don't know what it is at all, yet the viewer would know that the inspiration came from the Indian culture.

http://shrikantkadam.com/default.asp?pageno=1

Sketches

Well to start, my sketchbook is my personal journal. I free write and sketch out ideas, usually pertaining to my ceramics, but sometimes these small sketches are ideas for my drawings. None of the sketches in my sketchbook are actually completed; they usually take me a short amount of time. I like to sketch them quickly so I can get all of my ideas out before I forget and new ideas arrive. Also with my sketches there is usually always writing whether it is how I feel at the moment or a song lyric or a poem. I think this is something that keeps coming up in my artwork and I need to figure out how to incorporate the writing into my work. I have been looking at work by Hella Jongerius . She does a lot of ceramic work as well as modern furniture design. Her ceramic pieces are beautiful and she has a great way of incorporating her figures into vessel forms. I have also been looking at Ken Fergusons work. He also incorporates his sculptural elements into the vessel forms, and does it in a way with much purposefulness.

My first sketch is actually a sketch that I brought to life in a model in ceramics. I have a lot of these headless figures throughout my sketchbook. They are confused figures looking for their heads or minds. As you can see the figure in this sketch is being overcome by a blanket like form. The blanket of the back of the figure is supposed to represent some sort of emotional burden or weight on the shoulders; something that would bring a person down.

My second sketch is a combination of my free writing and some sketches of a form. This particular form came to me in my sketches one day and after that I decided to bring it to life in ceramics. It is almost like a half pitcher half planter, that’s kind of the only way I am ever able to describe it. With this form, I had a hard time getting it the way that I could see it in my head, therefore I made many models and practiced drawing the form not only in my sketchbook, but also at a larger scale.

My last sketch is again my headless figures. In this particular sketch though I was trying to figure out how to draw one of the arms reaching up and then bending in. I found it difficult to draw because of the way that the 2 segments of the arms overlapped. Also in the top right corner of the page is another sketch of another piece that I made in ceramics. The words and sketch on the left are of a bag. I have been making these sac-like forms out of porcelain that I love and really speak a lot about emptiness.

sketches

This is a sketch i did for a tee-shirt design for aea. It is a lot cleaner than the drawings i usually i do which i usually very sketchy.

I've often drawn and made city scene pieces. I like using simple shapes as the buildings and also simplifying the background. I enjoy taking busy and complicated scenes or objects and breaking them down into geometric shapes and lines.

This is done with paint. like the city scenes, i've often made pieces, specifically paintings where i keep the facial features very simple, and then make the piece more interesting my adding a lot of texture shapes and lines in the background.

I've been playing around with a lot of different ideas this semester to find exactly what i want to focus on next semester when i continue my concentration. I've been looking at a lot of african art, becuase i am very interesting in how they simplify facial features and the figure.

I'm also interested in Lorraine Roy. I enjoy the texture and the many different aspects and colors of the pieces. They remind me of my paintings and made me realize i could bring my style of painting into my fibers work

this first sketch combines two themes that i like to work with. i often like to work with geometric shapes that fit into each other to make a whole, like puzzle pieces almost. i'm working on a fibers piece that goes along with this idea. the other part of this sketch has to do with the colored in triangle. i like to explore the concept of significance. 
I think this sketch is most representative of the way i work/draw. i started out trying to draw a hand and then i got distracted and bored with it so i just started to draw the awkward contour lines around it. then i went to write 'it's hard to draw a hand' so i would remember not to try to draw one again but when i went to write the word 'draw', i accidentally wrote the letter 'b' instead of 'd' so i then changed my phrase to 'it's hard to be a hand'. i really like the way the lines look with the image of the half hand. i like working with contour lines and repeating lines and awkward looking lines. 

This sketch was inspired by an assignment i had last year in my drawing 1 class when we had to draw a striped fabric that was draped over a chair. I liked the way the stripes/lines could describe the shape and movement of the fabric. I wanted this sketch to come out looking like a draped/crinkled/wavy piece of fabric but I dont know how successful i was at accomplishing that. 

one artist that i have been researching is Mariska Karasz, you can see her work at MariskaKarasz.com  - her fibers pieces are really amazing. 

sketches

A lot of my sketches this semester have been in preparation for next semester when I will be focusing more on clothing, and more specifically tee shirt design. I have always been interested with the idea of humans expressing themselves with the clothes that they wear, and the idea of clothing as art. Not in a project runway type of way, but in the casual form of a tee shirt or a hoodie. I have always found myself drawing in a graffiti, cartoonist style and I have been experimenting with placement, color, and size of my drawings on tee shirts. The images that I draw come from many aspects of life. Things such as nature, abstract characters, and technology.

The first three designs below are ones that I have experimented placing on tee shirts.

The Last two images are from a project that I am currently working on in Multimedia. The goal of the project is to create an interactive experience which is visually stimulating for the viewer. the piece has to bring the viewer to different places or rooms with each button that they click. In my piece, I am allowing my viewer to navigate to different places on their own by having the choice of what part of the flower to click.

The first sketch on the upper left corner is a drawing of my friend nick. I drew this from photo reference, and chose to draw this because i really liked the folds in his shirt. i had been doing a few sketches pertaining to drapery and wanted to experiment a bit further with it. The second sketch is of course a sketch of the corpse, it was drawn from observation, and does not even compare to the real deal. While drawing this i was really trying to capture the layers which it was made of. I also really wanted to incorporate the reflecting light from the water, which i believed was the most challenging part of the drawing. The third drawing is of a cake my grandmother made for thanksgiving. This was also drawn from observation, and i chose to draw this because it looks delicious of course, and also because of all the varied textures. The texture the of the icing was what really inspired me to draw this cake; i loved the way it folded over the cake, and the shadows the imbedded strawberries made. All of these sketches are just a collaboration of experimenting with light and texture. I am trying to broaden my drawing capabilities, especially pertaining to figure drawings. Two artists i am currently looking at are Robert Rauschenberg, and Brice Marden. I am inspired by these abstract artists because of their choice of color and shape. I am inspired by Robert Rauschenberg's take on pop art, his work is exciting and has a very diverse appeal to it. His work can be appreciated in a fine arts sense, and also appreciated by the public. I am inspired by Brice Mardens work because it is very similar to the experiments i have been working with. The brilliant line and texture which he uses in his work is something i am trying to accomplish in my own.