Thesis is Coming

Carlos Chavarria

"The term 'Downtown' designates the central area of the large American cities...and where all realities coexist within the same city."

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Eggleston: Faulkner with a camera

"Seeing a really good Eggleston picture is to be astonished by the knowledge that someone is seeing strange, remarkable things you could see yourself if you were just paying attention..."

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Are Artists Bored by Their Work?

James Elkins ponders the question why modern paintings are created much faster compared to paintings in different centuries.

"Why do modern artworks take less time to make, on average, than their Renaissance counterparts? It has been argued that modern paintings are like icebergs: what we see in a Picasso portrait is only the one-tenth that remains after the nine-tenths have been hidden..."

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So Contagious

My dad has been sick for the past two days, so this morning I brought him to the doctors. His heart rate was a little high and the doctor thought he might have had bronchitis, or even pneumonia, so he thought it would be better to send him to the ER. He is fine, except he does have the flu and he's a little weak. It's thankfully nothing to worry about.

Studio Journal - Phillip Toledano

In regards to starting my project about my father, it was recommended that I look at Days with My Father, by Phillip Toledano. I have never been moved to tears before by artwork, but these photographs hit so close to home. Already I feel this will be one of the biggest influences upon my upcoming work and the series is nothing short of beautiful.

Trees Part 2

It's been quite a few months. I've been on hiatus, but now I'm beginning to come back to life.

My last post was part of a study I did on trees for my final painting project. I figured I would reintroduce myself to life by showing what I came up with. Each painting is 3ft x 4ft and involved a lot of trial and error. With each one I learned something new about how to paint trees and wanted to follow different color schemes.

Since then, I've started a few more trees and have expanded on my original ideas. I am more or less creating a forest in my room and I couldn't be happier about it. There's always a new way to look a trees and I am discovering new ways to represent them all the time.

It's Paper Time Again

I am taking a class where the ultimate goal is to write an 8 to 10 page research paper by the end of the semester and the first rough draft is due tomorrow. I don't mind writing research papers, but it has been a while since I've had to write one and I'm having difficulty organizing my thoughts without being repetitive and overly flowery. I read this article a while ago (I don't even remember where now) about how some people think that the bad economy will generate some sort of "artistic Renaissance" and weed out all the overly commercial art. The theory is that if there aren't as many patrons for artists, they will start focusing on what they want to do and their own ideas, as opposed to making things for other people. I found it very interesting because if you think about it, this is not the first time that this has happened in the history of art One of the first examples that comes to mind (mainly because of Italian Cinema last semester) is Neorealism in Italian Cinema. It appeared after the WWII and introduced the style of filming on location and often using non professional actors. It captured life in a war torn country and its devastation.

I've been researching lately and I feel my topic is going even further than the development of a new artistic movement. There are quite a few news articles about how the economic crisis is hitting the art world pretty hard and the unemployment rate of artists "is twice that of other professional groups," according to Agnes Gund the President Emerita and Chairman of the International Council of MoMA. Lots of articles talk about how during the Depression the WPA generated created a lot of jobs for artists and they are wondering why something like that cannot be instituted today. More or less it has broadened my focus to different aspects of the situation and I'm actually enjoying doing the research since it is an extremely current and relevant issue, especially as an art student.

I know exactly what I want to talk about, but I'm having a hard time finishing the ideas I have because there isn't really aren't any conclusions to come to except that we will have to wait and see what happens. Nonetheless, it should be interesting enough to write.

From Rome Open City (Rome Citta Aperta) by Roberto Rossellini