Field Notes: VisArts, Crit and Try-Me

Thank you for Wednesday's class!

I really enjoyed every aspect of Wednesday. Thank you, Amie, for making it possible for us to have a special tour of the Oscar Munoz installations. It was immensely instructive to spend an extended time with them while also hearing from Carolyn about the pieces. And the collectors' talk was a fascinating window on the art world. It was also good to have the opportunity to chat, and I appreciated all the comments on my work so far.

Alice Anne

Collector's and the Art Market

I was most interested in what was briefly mentioned. Where does the art go after its initial private acquisition? Third party buyers, auction, and valuation are areas of the art market that I would like to learn more about.

The art world often seems polarized. Art and the economy are critically related subjects and usually not discussed in an open forum.  I wish the investment question has been addressed by a dealer or curator present at the event. 

I am grateful to see contemporary collectors making art available to the public. When I first moved to Richmond this opportunity did not seem to be readily available.

Mary Buchanan

Mary Buchanan-Statement on New Work

Using icon as content and form to convey mood I venture to comment on being and feeling human. Nonspecific overlapping silhouettes are a frame of reference for greater  detail. Unfastened earrings, walkers, and symbolic crosses suggest human aid and vulnerability. Softer color, yielding materials and restorative stitching create an atmosphere of emotion and uncertainty. Being both very real and at the same time completely permeable defines the contrary and susceptible nature of our make up.

Alice Anne Ellis - draft Artist Satement

Alice Anne Ellis / Draft Artist Statement

I find that my painting is not so much making, as discovering  finding connections between shapes, finding echoes of stories in objects, and trying to find the essence of objects through simplification.

Since much of my inspiration comes from nature, I like to use leaves, twigs, and flowers to make marks.  They are not so much tools, as collaborators in the process.

I am also interested in symbols and writing. Letters seem to echo the human face, or physical objects. "O" makes the shape our mouth makes as we say it. "W" looks like a wave in water. Some pictograms can be traced to the objects they represent.

But let's abandon literacy and look at writing as just marks, like a child reading adult script, or a western eye looking at Japanese. We can appreciate the beauty of the letters as shapes, the paragraph as a shaded block. By taking away meaning, we add a layer of perception.

无为    -  Action without action.

Artist's statement draft

New work...hedgehog and fox tessellation

Still more layers to add but here is where I am starting...

Artist's Statement

Communication is key...communication is a key...what one speaks of, another may not understand or interpret similarly...what are the factors that make up our life...my artwork is very much about creating dialogue between the artwork and viewer...how does that dialogue build up or break down based on content and presentation of the particular content, and how is that information altered by a viewers' own experiences...I do not prefer a particular medium although I have practiced extensively with mosaic art, therefore I strive to collaborate and educate myself on mediums that I feel I could enjoy working with...currently I am creating tessellations that contain content which derive from my own social perspectives...What is humane?  What characterizes American culture?  What makes people interpret differently?  These are questions I ask my viewers to consider and to talk about.  Putting the pieces together and working with the given shape allows me to use that form to display content in a manner which the viewer may repeatedly engage with in different ways.  My process involves new experimentation with mediums that I am comfortable working with in a traditional manner, while aiming to turn technical flaws into positive aspects of the work.

-Andrew Woodward

Sean Scully

Comment about Sean Scully (painting at Try Me) from Alice Anne

I am glad that I saw his work at the VMFA along with his photographs of doors. The photographs really helped me understand the paintings more, I think. I really LIKED the paintings. I just didn't know what else to say about them, or, rather, how to start saying things about them. For instance, the colors were muted, so.....what? Now I can attach "muted" to "weathered," "old," "time-worn," etc. The doors opened doors...

Yes for Wednesday from Alice Anne

I will be there on Wednesday at 4:30. (Still not able to post comments. I tried with my wordpress address, as well as with just a name, since that is one of the options, but it wouldn't recognize the "@" symbol and told me my URL had illegal characters.) Thanks. 

Alice Anne Ellis.

Studio Notes

Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 28. 
We will meet at the VisArts center at 4:30 to see Oscar Munoz. Caroline Wright, curator for the True Luck Gallery @ VisArts will be meeting with us -  so please make a point of being in the gallery at 4:30. Even if you have already seen it, it will have changed! Park behind the center and leave your work in the car. We will look at your artwork after we see the show. We will then walk down Main St to Try-Me.  John Ravenal, a curator from the VMFA  and Pam and Bill Royall will share their insights regarding creating an art collection.


Between now and then be sure to take time to post what your are doing at present on the blog with a draft of an artist statement. Take time to respond to each others work and statement as well as the art that you have seen in the past few weeks at Try-Me and elsewhere. Please respond in the comment section below that you've received this notice and will be present at Vis Arts at 4:30. If you STILL are having problems commenting please send comments to my vcu email address. 


Reminder: Myron Helfgott's exhibition has been extended to April 15 at Gallery A. If you are out and about on Saturday March 24th there will a Design District reception at Gallery A from 4 to 7pm. Myron Helfgott will be present if you would like to meet him and have questions regarding his show.

DIVE INTO COLLECTING!       Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at Try-me, 1623 W. Main St. 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.          Interested in collecting art? Learn the ins and outs at 1708 Gallery's Dive into Collecting!   Moderator John Ravenal, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the VMFA, will guide the conversation as collectors Pam and Bill Royall, Ivan Jecklin, and others share their insights into the process of building a personal art collection. Wine and desserts will be served.    Dive into Collecting is organized in conjunction with CATCH 22, 1708 Gallery's 22nd Annual Art Auction, which will be held at 1708 Gallery on Saturday, April 14.     Please RSVP for Dive into Collecting to info@1708gallery.org or 804.643.1708 by Monday, March 26!      For more details about CATCH 22, including a list of participating artists and admission info, please visit www.1708gallery.org.

Pigment on Cotton: A Substrate, New Composition

Kehindy Wiley

I thought this was pertinent to our conversation regarding post soul. I sure was in the dark.

Discussion / Question

Here is a question that is bothering me. It is very easy to create pieces that are transient or vulnerable to time and the elements. It is also easy to immediately say things about the vulnerability of mind and matter, under the great sweep of Time. At what point does a piece become not rich and interesting but facile? How do you tell the difference?

    

Alice Anne Ellis

Oscar Munoz - another comment (Alice Anne)

Oscar Munoz – more comments (Alice Anne)

I really liked the screen prints on water. First of all, there was the tingling realization that these were not representations of screen prints on water (with the water represented by resin or plastic), but real charcoal floating delicately and vulnerably on real water. The meeting of the charcoal, paper and water made endlessly ambiguous shapes and textures. I forget now – did it say that at the end of the evaporation process, he eventually fixes and preserves the resulting dried image on the bottom of the Plexiglas tray?

Alice Anne Ellis

Alice Anne Ellis

Oscar Munoz comment from Alice Anne Ellis

Oscar Muniz - Visual Arts Center



At first I thought the Oscar Munoz installations were a little bit gimmicky and empty but, as time has passed and my reactions to them have ripened, I loved this show. I think there is so much to say about them. Watching his accomplished drawing is pleasant but seeing it being eroded by the elements lends tension and introduces a separate, random beauty as the evaporation creates a different shape. Artist vainly competes with the sun – one could talk about man's vanity, place in the universe, the transience of art and artifacts. In the spirit of recognizing transience, I took a picture of my neighbor’s shadow on the video projection.

Alice Anne Ellis

Katie Grinnan 'Brainwaves'

There was one major part of this work that spoke out to me...
I really enjoyed the twisted house forms that were woven into such a massive clump...the details were very accurate while the images were distorted to fit into the sculpture and the neon colors matched those aspects of the work.  I was happy that once
I got closer to the work it became more interesting and new subject matter changed my overall perception of the piece.

Andrew

Try-Me

I look forward to reading everyone's highlights of Try-Me!

Ghada Amer and Joan Gaustad at Try-Me

Our trip to Try-Me gallery was a pleasure. I had the opportunity to indulge in some great art and conversation. The curator was exceptionally informative and friendly. One of our discussions had to do with the placement of these two pieces which hung opposite one another with a large David Schnell painting in between. The placement seemed to me a curatorial success. The Schnell piece was a large visual draw but in no way detracted from these pieces. Gaustad's and Amer's work complimented one another in the use of line, color and figure ground relationships. They were most interesting in the gallery and I wonder if they would have still been as attractive if not placed so well in the space. 

Mary Buchanan