Week One Reading Response

“The point is that you learn how to make your work by making your work, and a great many of the pieces you make along the way will never stand out as finished art.” Pg.6

“You make good work by (among other things) making lots of work that isn’t very good, and gradually weeding out the parts that aren’t good, the parts that aren’t yours.”  p. 26

1.       What work have you made that seems most yours? Why?

-So far the work that seems to be the most "mine" are my photographs. I think it's because I've already begun to develop a style and focus with my photography that I haven't quite been come to yet with anything else. I'm starting to with my painting, but I'm not quite there yet.  

“Chances are that whatever theme and technique attract you, someone has already experimented in the same direction. This is unavoidable: making any art piece inevitably engages the larger themes and basic techniques that artists have used for centuries. Finding your own work is a process of distilling from each those traces that ring true to your own spirit.”  p. 103

 Who are artists that are making work that relates to you?  Are there other influences? How are these other influences connected to your work?

-Specifically right now Sebastien Michel and Martin Schoeller are two photographers that I am hugely influenced by. I'm also looking at Gregory Scott right now who actually mergers his paintings and photography together, something I want to start doing soon, although he took a different approach. There are always other influences, local artists, famous artists, internet artists, technology makes finding inspiration so wonderful now. These other influences influence connect to my painting usually, if I need color inspiration or an idea or technique.

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“And while a hundred civilizations have prospered (sometimes for centuries) without computers or windmills or even the wheel, none have survived even a few generations without art.”  p. 104

Discuss, in your own words, why you think this is so.

-I think art is the mind's natural way of getting ideas out. It's a form of communication, it's a form of recording, it's a creative outlet. Art serves so many different purposes, but most importantly it keeps our brains from exploding. Computers and windmills and the wheel all came to be because of art, someone had those ideas and someone drew them out. Art is what comes first. 

“Art is something you do out in the world, or something you do about the world, or even something you do for the world. The need to make art may not stem solely from the need to express who you are, but from a need to complete a relationship with something outside of yourself.”  p. 108

 Which of these ideas resonates most with you? Why? If they all resonate, how do they differ?

-I think they are all valid. Sometimes art is something you simply just do to get an idea out, which I think might be the most common one for me. But I do also use art to "do about the world", such as if an issue needs to be made aware of, often a social one I use art to bring awareness. And art "for the world" is having a specific purpose in mind, often for the good of something. 

“Making art depends upon noticing things-things about yourself, your methods, your subject matter.”  p. 109

What do you notice about yourself? What are your methods?  Subject matter?  The answers do not have to be limited to art related topics.

-I notice that I have become a lot more self aware and a lot more self involved as I become more involved in my art. I am a perfectionist. I like to have plans, even if they don't work out. I like working in a studio (as a method). I set aside certain time periods for everything. My paintings are based off of photographs. My subject matter is almost always of people. If it's not of people it's of things that people care deeply about.

“The only work really worth doing- the only work you can do convincingly- is the work that focuses on the things you care about.”  p. 116

“All this suggests a useful working approach to making art: notice the objects you notice.” Pg.101

What do you care about? The answers do not have to be limited to art related topics.

-I care about details that people overlook or don't often think about. I care about people. I care about the everyday routine. I care about mental illness.