Studio Entry No. 2

At last! My studio is set up and I have finally begun my long awaited art making process. I had some issues initially acquiring materials. Particularity getting some river stones from the Delaware near my home in Bucks County, PA to assimilate into some sculptures. But a friend helped me out and I was finally able to get a satisfying amount of work done this week!

I began my by spray painting a maquette I had made several weeks ago out of steal 1/4" pencil rod. This piece like a lot of my work in the past is inspired by systems within systems, interconnected relationships and their relation to form and space. This was also a good exercise in welding the pencil rod. It was also a learning experience, because as much as I was intrigued by the outcome of this work, I feel I would not be as interested in making it on a large scale as I had initially intended.

 

Dispite my enthusiasm about this work, my instructor Gary Kuehn was not so keen on this work. he told me it was boring and lacked any sophistication.  I disagreed with this but accepted his opinion.  He urged me to work with the stones I had acquired. 

I do jewelry design in addition to my sculpting. I make pendants, rings, bracelets, ect. using Sterling Sliver, fine gems and minerals, and wire wrapping techniques to build these pieces. Gary did however like this work and encouraged me to some how incorporate this strength into my sculpture. 

 

Sterling Silver, Aquamarine, Peridot, Scalpolite

 

This recommendation from my instructor transitioned me into my current body of work. Using my river stones, which I value as a part of nature, and being from my home, I wrap them in steal using extremely high temperatures to manipulate the metal. This work is loaded with conceptual motifs of entrapment, imprisonment, and nature vs. machine. Our societal disconnect with nature is of high interest to me, and is a theme I would like to pursue in the future of my work. 

 

I am still gaining a familiarity with the material, and still learning about it. I would consider most of these pieces maquetts as well because ideally i would like to go big!

 

This work is compositionaly different than most of my steal work in the past, but I like what is happening and plan to continue my explorations.

The twists are not complete works yet. I plan on getting some railroad ties to make wooden bases for them this weekend.

In review I had a highly productive week. I began exploring a new direction of my work that is still relevant to my ideas, concepts, and questions. Even though my instructor wasn't a fan of my previous body of work, I still plan to pursue it, perhaps after the current series I am producing now.

 

Day in the city with Gary Kuehn

This past week as a studio excersise, I traveled to NYC first thing in the morning with my Advanced Sculpture class of seven. Upon our arrival our professor Gary Kuehns gave us a tour of his beautiful studio apartment right in the heart of Chealsea. We spent time eating breakfast and looking at various sculptures, drawings and images of his work over the past 40 years.

Copper Drawing, 1977
copper and graphite on paper
24" x 61.5" (cm. 61 x 156)

After breakfast, we all loaded onto the N train uptown to Queens to visit the Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park, right around the corner, Neither had I visited prior to this trip. 

Noguchi Museum was great! He works particularly consists of abstract minimalist forms in stone, marbles, ect. I enjoyed the archaic value of the material he worked with since man has been sculpting form these for thousands of years. I found Noguchis work to be particularly inspiring. His meditative message of tranquility was a some what unique visual experience for me, since I see a lot of conceptual art that provokes though, rather than clearing the mind of any though at all. I also was drawn to his respect for the materials in which he was working. He showed much integrety to the stones he carved, and i absolotly loved the treatment of the stones that were left unpolished and raw. Also his use of bases/pedestals was highly inspiring to me. They were as important of a part of the piece as the entire work its self. They relied on each others presence strongly. This is something that i will need to consider for my thesis since i plan on doing some sort of sculptural installation. 

After Nogochi, We all traveled a few blocks up the river to the Socrates Sculpture Park. Although a beautiful little spot, i found the work here far less inspiring. Most of the installations contained an irking tacky element that kind of blew the whole piece for me and a lot of my classmates. Among the highlights how ever were some beautiful resin casts of old doors. Chips of the original door paint remained in the casts, evoking thoughts of nostalgia and memory. Also there was a living sculpture constructed from a dirt structure that had some beautiful little succulents growing all over it! This idea about living art and plants as art has always been one of curiously with me. 

From Socrates we continued our marathon with an afternoon stop at the Met, to check out some Brancusi's and Rodin's. I found their work to be impressive to say the least, as well as highly important historically, what caught my attention most at the Met was the Oceanic and African Art section. Also we caught the show "Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptors". This show consisted of inspiring figures of leaders carved of wood by Africans in the 19th and early 20th century. The proportions and simple abstractions of these figures were particularly interesting to me. 

After the engorging our selves to the brim with visual information, we were invited back to Gary's for dinner and drinks to unwind from a whirlwind day in town. 

This trip proved highly valuable in terms of inspiring my up and coming projects, which will be detailed on here very soon!

An Moment With Mary Conlon

Photographer Mary Conlon has been an avid photo student at Mason Gross for the past several years. She explores shooting in natural lighting often with candid figures as her subjects. She also has a strong interest in many conceptual components of her work. Recently, Mary traveled to Spain where she created an impressive body of work. After viewing this work I asked her a few questions.

Taos: Did you like the graffiti in Spain?
Mary: I like to take pictures of things on wall, signs, graffiti, but at the same time I feel kind of weird taking pictures of art. I often find myself taking pictures in museums, not of the artwork, but how people interact with the work.  


Taos: You are a photo major; have you always know you wanted that to be your artistic concentration?  
Mary: I actually started off taking video classes, but I figured photography was a better concentration.  


Taos: What drew you to photography over video? 
Mary: Video has so many more components than photography, sound and dialog, and photography one is just focusing on the cinemagraphic aspect, so I feel that allowed me to really focus the visual aesthetic quality of things. I enjoy making videos but it’s not something I’m as much drawn to. I like taking pictures of people, but not necessarily normal portraits, more of people who aren’t paying attention.  


Taos: So its fair to say you enjoy candid portraits? What draws you to these types of shots?  
Mary: I like natural lighting, real people in real environments. I look for odd situations with weird lightly. I think even though my concentration is photography, I often try to incorporate other aspects of art as well. I think a lot about drawing when I take pictures.

Taos: What makes you think about drawing when you are taking a photo? 
Mary: What I like about drawing is it’s a method, a certain system to fallow. I don’t like to draw actual things but like to draw in a system almost. I really like grid like drawings, and the work of Jonny Wynona Ross.  


Taos: So I notice you have all these shots of shadows and you mentioned you like to use natural lighting. What is your draw to that?  
Mary: I usually keep my photos how they are, opposed to cropping them. I enjoy the compassion of this type of lighting. I try to find places that are lit in an eerie sort of way, so that when you look at the photograph it appears strange to the viewer. 

Taos: You said before that you like to use photo shop to adjust the lighting?
Mary: I definitely use Photoshop to adjust the levels of the contrast and what not, but I really don’t like to alter the actual shoot. Its strange it feels like what I am inspired by is more not even photographs but concepts.  


Taos: What are these concepts that you are trying to adjust?  
Mary: I really like the idea of isolation, nostalgia, is a big thing for me, as well as memory and perception. I really like paintings my Edward hopper. I like the atmosphere that the painters paint, not so much what they are trying to convey, rather the general tone of the pictures, the color.  


Taos: Is that that something you strive for in your photos?  
Mary: Yea, and although I don’t paint, I take a lot of influence from painters. 


Taos: Besides actual fine artist, what are your influences outside of the art world?  
Mary: I’ve actually always in influenced by J.D. Salinger, and his short stories, and I found that when I was making my videos, I was taking my influence from reading his stories, and it’s always been like that with books for me. I like to visualize the work I’m reading. I like film a lot and have been studying that here at rutgers too, and again it’s the cinematography of films that inspires my photos. But I’m trying to get away from just plain photography and bring it to the next level.  


Taos: So are you interested in installation work then? 
Mary: Yea I am. I’ve been looking at light installations, like Dan Flavin. I have been getting into the idea of photography not just on paper, but maybe holographic or a projection. I also like installation work by Alex Aycock. Mathew barney, is also one on my favorite artist. I like how art for him is almost like a preformative tool.  


Taos: Is there a particular direction you envision your art heading over the course of the next year?  
Mary: I’m kind of interested in exploring New Brunswick as a subject. Having just been in Spain, I am also interested in speaking Spanish, so I’m hoping to look into the history of the Mexican population that lives here.