Deanna Troy Henry

On May, 12, 2011, I went to Becky Simpson’s and Susan Hampton’s reviews. They were reviewed by Beth Balliro, John Crowe, Steve Locke and yourself. I know John Crowe and yourself but I did not know Beth and Steve so I am glad that they were at the reviews so I could get to know them better and see what they expect for artwork.

Becky’s review was first. I took notes for her; I ended up taking four pages of notes, which I’m sure she greatly appreciates. The piece Becky had reviewed was her final piece. This was a landscape seen made with various materials that included glass with etchings of dragons. Becky had this displayed with black lights to emphasis the dragons. The reviewers said that the black lights did not help. Ultimately they said the piece did not work because it was too cluttered and confusing with the various materials. But to my surprise they weren’t only reviewing her piece they were reviewing her life and artistic choices; what pressure!

When Becky told the reviewers that she asked people with more expertise with the materials for help, Steve Locke seemed to attack her a little. He asked her why she cared about what other’s think and that she shouldn’t and that no one can tell her how to do her artwork. She just needs to find what she loves and do it and not worry about what anyone else thinks.

I had mixed feelings about this advice; I thought it was kind of hypocritical coming from a person that is there to give their opinions on someone’s work. If we are “not supposed to care what people think” at art school then why do we even have reviews where people tell us how our piece “works” or “doesn’t work” and how to improve it? Also making the arts as a career is all about other people’s opinion, because if no one likes your work, you will never get money. So I am very confused as to why this advice is given, not just by Steve Locke, but by all the MassArt community. Yes one should do what they love but if I really didn’t care what people thought about my artwork I would never try to make anything I did “meaningful”, I would just create whatever I wanted. But at MassArt everything must be so “deep”. I just feel that ideologies at MassArt conflict sometimes.

This review made me nervous for my own future reviews, because Becky had such good answers to all of these questions that I wouldn’t even begin to know how to start answering! But this was a good experience for me because I can start thinking of my answers to all of these questions;

“How is this subject/piece important to you?”

“What do you most want to do with art making?”

“Do you care what other’s think?” I already know the answer to this one; “Oh no I do not care what people think or my end product, I just love the process” If I say this at a review then everyone will be happy, because that is the answer MassArt wants.

Next I attended Susan’s review. She had all of her Myan inspired work displayed for her review. Susan’s review surprised me. Since she has such a strong and clear idea of what she loves and wants to do with her work, I thought her review was going to go more smoothly than Becky’s. However the panelists were still not satisfied!

They said that Susan’s work was basically just copying a practice that was done a while ago and that even though she related it to her life it wasn’t really “her own”. For this they suggested trying to make her work more “modern” like instead of using Myan symbols, use “modern” symbols. “Three dashes equals Addias” is a example that John gave. Also instead of focusing on doing everything “right” she should focus more on feelings than technique, because she obviously has got that down pat. For example, Steve Locke suggested that she should focus on that feeling of “coming home” that she had in Guatemala.

It was funny how I went to too opposite people’s reviews. Becky seeks advice on her work and she is not sure sometimes of what to do which contrasts with Susan, who is set in her ways and knows exactly what she wants. So it was interesting to hear what the reviewers had to say to both of them. But even though these students are different, I feel that the reviewers gave them very good advice on their art making and on their lives.

Overall, attending both of these reviews was a great experience for me because I got to know some teachers better and it gave me insight as to what reviewers will be looking for from future my work.

Basically to make great art, all I have to do is listen to my heart and share visually to others what is inside it; like I did for my final painting. I guess that is why I got a really good review for it, because I was really passionate about it and sure of the message I was trying to get across. So I just have to keep doing this process for future works!

For my final piece I did a painting reflecting on a traumatizing situation that is going on in my life at the moment. For my final critique, I showed all my work throughout the semester. I was nervous at first not because of the quality of my work, but because I wasn’t sure about how I was going to effectively discuss what I was feeling with my final painting without telling everyone the whole story (which I did not want to do). I had my artist statement, which I felt effectively did this but I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to read them aloud, or if I even wanted to. But as I was explaining my work, the class asked me to read the artist statement, so I had no choice. I tried to read it but I started to choke up and tear, which was kind of embarrassing but it showed everyone how personal this subject matter was to me. Our guest Candace Brooks read my artist statement for me. She read it so beautifully, definitely better than I could have. When she was done everyone clapped. Everyone loved the artist statement and they felt that it made my piece stronger and it is definitely needed with the painting. Our other guest Rob Clifford said my artist statement was almost like poetry!

Here is the artist statement:

“This illustrates a decision; a painful decision in which not everyone wins in the end. A choice that will change my life and others’ lives forever. Do I go with reason or emotion? Comfort or spontaneity? Do I pick the easy route or the road less traveled? People advise me to use intuition, but what if my intuition has an ever-changing mind? How do you choose between two people? They are not objects; you cannot just throw one away without thinking about them afterwards.

For the image of this painting, I sat down and thought about what my verdict would do. I thought of the extreme pain of those involved; the tears, the yells, the cries. All I could think about was how it would destroy someone’s heart but savor the other’s. Thus, this image of the hands holding the two hearts came to fruition. The hearts are made with two different mediums, pastel and acrylic. Pastel shows off the soft and stable heart of one person while the acrylic shows off the strong and whimsical other. The veins coming out of the hearts and through my arms represent the overwhelming nature of the situation. It depicts that not only do I see the victims’ pain; I feel it with me no matter where I go or what I’m doing. Also the veins mimic the boldness and softness of the individuals as they creep up my arm like a race to win the ultimate prize, me. I was originally going to have one heart being squashed while the other was embraced, but I am still in the process of this conclusion so I am unaware of what the outcome will be. They say you know, when you know; I don’t know.

They say to follow your heart, but what if your heart wants to travel in two different paths?”

One thing the class was impressed with was how I effectively gave just enough information with my artist statement and my painting to be personal and relatable while not being too much. I showed what I felt without forcing people to see things my way. I was very happy with this praise because filtering information in my artwork is a skill that I have been wrestling with for my whole time at MassArt. So I am happy to see that I have finally gotten good at this. Candace even said, “You don’t have to give away everything and you’re smart enough to know this, that’s something that just can’t be taught”

Another thing the class was impressed with was how every visual component of my painting made since. They even brought some illustrative aspects of my piece to my attention that I didn’t even think of! For instance, Rob said that the hearts looked transparent almost because of the placement of the muscles of the heart. He said that this was a good thing and that it made my hand look one with the heart. He said this made since with how hard this decision is for me because it shows how much the people involved are apart of me. Also a student in the class said that the orientation of the hands pulls the reader into the decision and invites them to help choose. Another student said that the dramatic lighting reminded her of an interrogation room with a bright light shining on the subject while asking them intense and dramatic questions, like I am asking myself in this piece. Plus the class agreed that with all the visual cues one can tell that this is a slow and painful decision.

The two guests enjoyed my other pieces from the semester as well. They said that the giraffes were innocent yet powerful. Their only critique with this piece was that they wished the part where the baby giraffe overlaps the mom giraffe was more defined. Also they said that the “This is not conceptual” graffiti art was hilarious and great. Their only critique with this was that I should try putting it in male bathrooms, especially on walls attached to urinals so that people would be forced to stare at it.

Finally we also discussed my work process. Lyssa brought up how I have gone through the same pattern these last two semesters; starting with “surface” work and then eventually progressing into more personal work. The class agrees that I should start with personal work from now on. To help me not digress back into my comfort zone, they suggest creating art in the summer and writing down things I’m feeling so that I can call upon them later if I want to use them for inspiration.

Overall I feel my critique went very well. I got a lot of praise for my accomplishments this semester and I received great feedback for how to improve my work and work process.

Here are pictures of my final critique display, a close up on my final painting and notes taken of my critique.

The Bank of America Exhibit contains pieces from the Bank of America Collection. This exhibit’s specific focus is on an aspect of the Bank’s collection that was significantly influenced by scholars Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, who in the late 1960s assembled a core group of works for the Exchange National Bank of Chicago, a legacy Bank of America institution. The exhibit is arranged thematically by portraits, landscapes, still lifes, documentary images and experimental abstractions to create a visual “conversations” on each wall of the exhibition. (details from artist statement of exhibit)

One of the first photographs that caught my interested in the exhibit was the piece titled Audience 4, by Thomas Smith. This was a photograph of people in a museum gazing before Michelangelo’s famous David at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, without the David in the shot. The shot was beautiful but the main reason I liked it was because of the subject matter; people’s interactions with art. I think that this is a very interesting and unique topic.

Another photograph I enjoyed was Untitled by Hellen van Meene. This was an image of a young girl (about 10 years old) wearing some kind of undergarment and clutching it as she is looking backwards. It caught my eye because it was a striking photo. Striking not only for it’s beauty but also because of the girl’s odd posture that seems inappropriate even though she not doing anything wrong. In the artist statement I learned that these are one of many of Van Meene’s portraits of girls on the verge of womanhood. She focuses on these girls’ youthful freshness and adolescent insecurities. Plus it says that she provides them clothing to enhance their natural femininity. Reading this artist statement creped me out a little bit because this seemed very child-pornographic to me. But I know that it is not and it’s good piece because it makes you question things, which is a good photograph to put in an exhibit called “Conversations”.

Tomoko Sawada’s piece called ID400 (#1-100) also grabbed my attention. This was an image of 100 portraits of Sawada in different disguises. This picture is one of my favorites in the exhibit because it fooled me. I thought the 100 portraits were all of different people! I was shocked when I learned that they were all of her.

I enjoyed Carrie Mae Weems’ Untitled piece as well. This photograph was of a confrontation of some sort with a mother and a daughter around a kitchen table. This is an image from a series called The Kitchen Table. This is a series in which Weem organized images of dramatic events with a mom, father and daughter around a kitchen table. I really was struck by this image because the scene conveyed such intense emotions and one could read that it was about a mom confronting a daughter about something but it was a mystery as to what. It was a piece that you couldn’t help but stare at because you wanted to figure it out.

Finally, the photograph by Ben Gest called, Chuck. Alice and Dale was another favorite of mine. This picture was a favorite of mine because it was also a tricky shot. Upon first glance this picture looks like a normal scene where someone is drinking coffee, someone is getting a book and someone is reading a book. But upon further examination one can see that the interactions between the people in the scene are awkward. Then I read the artist statement and learned that Gest made this shot by combining over a dozen different exposures! Gest uses this combination of exposures to create strange relationships with the subjects, and strange perspectives to show that photographs always have an element of fiction to them.

Overall the exhibit was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed myself at it.

I went into the MFA on a whim; I was looking for an exhibit that caught my attention. I walked indifferently past the normal renaissance paintings and ancient pieces, but then I came across something that I had never seen before. A whole wall in the MFA dedicated to children’s’ artwork. The wall had a huge tree painted on it and had various drawings of children’s families that were done by the children themselves. The wall also had shelves with objects and pictures that related to the images at the end of every branch; like teddy bears and baseball cards. I read the artist statement and I learned that this was a collaborative piece between children from eight different Boston community centers lead by artist Raul Gonzalez III. The children used Joseph Moore and His Family by Erastus Salisbury Field and The Reverend John Atwood and His Family by Henry Darby as the inspiration for the look and the feel of the installation. The theme of their family portraits is that family is anyone who has made a difference your life.

What I was most impressed by with these portraits was their diversity. Some are the usual drawings of a mom, dad, and offspring. But some don’t even have people in them! For example many of them have objects that represent their family members like cars and soda bottles! Also the skill level of them ranged completely as well. Some were the average 8-10 year old drawings but others had a very developed sense of space and design. Here are some favorites of mine from the exhibit with reasons why.

Overall this exhibit warmed my heart and I am actually jealous of these kids that they get to have their art hang in the MFA. When I was their age (and now) I would have died with joy at my art being hung in a famous museum! I know that this experience gave them valuable artistic knowledge and beneficial confidence boosting. In the future I hope that I can give my art students an amazing experience like this.

On Tuesday April 12^th, I went to the Artist Talk of Janet Echelman. I didn’t know anything about her upon going into the talk but I was extremely impressed when I walked out of the talk. She began by telling us her history and how she got into art. Apparently she applied to seven art schools and got rejected from all of them! This greatly intrigued me because she is obviously a successful artist so it’s crazy to hear that she didn’t go to art school. Instead she studied psychology and painting, but she never studied sculpture, which is her prime forte now. She was always interested in painting but she started sculpting when she went out of the country. The fisherman in the place she went to and their nets inspired her and they gave her the idea to make sculptures out of nets. Then gradually this idea expanded and evolved as she created bigger sculptures with better materials. She says she likes to put her huge bubbly/spaceship-esk sculptures in urban areas because she feels like those landscapes are craving for art. My favorite project that she discussed with us is one that is still under construction and will be done by 2013. This project is the Dilworth Plaza Project at the Dilworth Plaza in front of Philadelphia City Hall. She explained this project from the bottom up, she told us the commissioners just wanted something in the plaza. It was her that constructed the brilliant idea, one that I have never heard of or seen before in my life. She told us about her thought process with the whole thing and finally what the end result was. I was not expecting it at all and when she showed us the simulation video my jaw literally dropped. She plans to have the plaza trace the subways underneath with colored steam, to create colorful lines in real time. Also people can touch the steam and play with it, creating their own art. It is going to be amazing! I want her to create something like this in Boston! Here is the simulation video along with her website which shows her other pieces as well:

http://www.echelman.com/

Besides talking about herself, Janet Echelman also gave us some advice for being artists. Someone asked her what are the most important skills for an artist are and she said two things; communication and not being afraid of limits. She said communication is a very big skill for artists; because artists need to work with people all of the time. Whether it’s a collaboration project or not, people need to know what you want for your work. She also said that an artist should not be afraid of limits and not to be afraid of things that “don’t exist”. She said there are so many other tracks of being an artist beside the traditional gallery artist that possibilities are endless.

Overall I was very impressed and inspired by Janet Echelman and I am glad I went to the artist talk. She has a very modest and comfortable manner about herself that made me feel that anything is possible for anyone.

For Phase 4, I would like to do something that I have been wanting to do since I came back from Venice, to paint/draw from the many images I have collected. I know it’s not heavy conceptually but I just wanted to do something for me. Also I would like to paint them with pastels because it is my favorite medium but I haven’t worked with them in two years! This is because I have been afraid of transporting pieces to and from class because they smudge very easily. But that is ridiculous and I can’t believe that I have shied away from a medium that is so close to my heart!

This is my artist’s book. Overall I am pleased with how it came out. The class seemed to enjoy it as well. However there were some things that they said, (and I agreed with) that I should change. The two main things they said I should work on are the cover and the blank pages on the opposite side of the pages. The cover they said was too in-between being simple and complex, they said I should just pick one and go with it. They said the two maps were too much and it made the cover unintentionally understate my work inside. One suggestion was that I should just have the Italian newspaper by itself so that it looks like a newspaper and the viewer can be surprised upon opening it. Also they said that I should maybe put a frame around the newspaper cover.

With the blank pages they just said I should put something there. The main suggestion was to keep them simple so that they don’t compete with the real pages. One more specific suggestion was to have writing from my Venice journal on the blank pages. Another suggestion was to put maps on these blank pages and to show with dotted lines where I went that day I made the page. Or they said I could just do a neutral wash on the blank pages so they won’t be as white.

Simple things I need to change are the spelling of beauty on Page 7 and I need to glue the last page to the back cover to give the book closure.

I like all of these suggestions but I am nervous about two of them. My mother brought to my attention that if I put something on the blank pages then they could leak onto the real pages and ruin them! So I am wary about putting something on the blank pages. Also I like the journal entry idea but I have a lot of material in that journal that I don’t want people to see. I guess I can just edit it down to the words that I want people to see though.

I will consider all of these suggestions and I want to follow through with some of them so that my book can be the best it can be for the Venice Travel Course Art Gallery that David Nolta and Ellen Shapiro are holding for us students to show in. I do not know when they will call for art, but I want to be ready for when they do.

Today I had a meeting about my artist’s book. I have so many materials to work with; 3,000 pictures, ticket stubs, receipts, fliers, journal entries and sketches!

I have just finished scanning my sketches here they are:

During our meeting we discussed many aspects of my book. Here were some topics that came up:

Surprise/Randomness:

Both you and Jessica liked how my sketchbook was carefree and random, which made every page a surprise. Both of you agreed that my artist’s book should also reflect this whimsicality. I also agree that this would make a delightful book. Based on advice from this meeting I will try not to be so worried about making every page perfect, instead I will go with my gut and instinct in creating the pages.

Book Format:

Jessica suggested that I should have something that’s not a book, such as having the pages be in my fanny-pack. You also agreed that a strange format might add to the “surprise” element of it all. That is an interesting idea but I think I am just going to have it be in a book because this will force me to be lose and not worrying about mistakes because I can’t fix something in a set book.

So today at Blick I got a wet media sketchbook that has 15 pages in this, this is the amount of pages I was thinking of anyway so it’s perfect!

My course of action for the next two weeks is the following:

-plan out each page

-make them

-decorate the outside of the sketchbook

I am excited to make this book so I will start right away!

I watched JR’s wish announcement on the TED movie. I enjoyed this very much because I did not expect it. My favorite project he did was with the Israelis and the Palestinians. This is my favorite because he basically slaps it in there face that even though they may have some differences they are still the same. I thought it was funny when the guards couldn’t even tell their people apart from the others! I also liked the project when he put the portraits on top of buildings and used vinyl so that the people’s houses would be more protected than before!

Everything he did was amazing but I can’t help but wonder…Where does he get the funds to do this? He is not getting paid by anyone for any of these pieces so how can he afford it all? There was no mention about this topic at all and I really wonder what his secret is.

Also his wish impressed me:

“I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…INSIDE OUT.” “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…INSIDE OUT.”

My favorite part about his wish is that on his site he actually helps you with it by letting you send in a picture and making a poster for you to paste (I wonder if he charges for this!). Overall JR was an excellent speaker, he was funny, he was serious, he had it all and his wish was a great one.

In thinking about my travel journal/artist’s book. I have collect some quotes about Italy and traveling that I might use in my journal, here is my list as of now:

Traveling

“Oh my god, I can’t believe it, I’ve never been this far away from home”

“It don’t matter to me
‘Cause all I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar”

Oh my god

Kaiser Cheifs

Lily Allen (cover)

Rome

“when in rome, do as the romans do”

“rome wasn’t built in a day”

“all roads lead to rome”

“No sooner had we arrived in Italy than the loveliness of the earth and the serenity of the sky made the greatest difference in my sensation”

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Venice

“This was Venice, the flattering and suspect beauty – this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism.”

Thomas Mann

“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.”

Truman Capote

Italian

“Check out my contacts, Italian flags”

On the Jersey Shore

Mark Douglas

“I was born and raised a guido. It’s just a lifestyle, it’s being Italian, it’s representing, family, friends, tanning, gel, everything.”

Pauly D

Jersey Shore

“My ideal man would be Italian, dark, muscles, juice-head, guido.”

Snooki

Jersey Shore

“Pauly pulled out his DJ equipment. He’s got the Italian thing on the equipment, he has another Italian flag on his book bag, another Italian flag on his laptop. He’s the ultimate guido, he really is.”

Vinnie

Jersey Shore

“Go home. You don’t belong here. You don’t even look Italian!”

Sammi Sweetheart

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
Samuel Johnson

Certainly, in Italy, nobody takes light for granted.
Barbara Steele

Everything in Italy that is particularly elegant and grand borders upon insanity and absurdity or at least is reminiscent of childhood.
Alexander Herzen

Hollywood cools, and when it cools you have to go to where the work is. I ran off to Italy to do spaghetti westerns.
Tab Hunter

In Italy the censor is very old and there are many judges and psychiatrists who analyse you.
Dario Argento

In Italy, I had an Afro, and a lot of the kids came up and felt my hair. It really was funny. I wish I had understood Italian.
Sugar Ray Leonard

In Italy, they add work and life on to food and wine.
Robin Leach

Italy is divided between us and them, rich and poor, north and south, young and old, employed and unemployed.

Romano Prodi

You may have the universe if I may have Italy.

Giuseppe Verdi
“The Creator made Italy from designs by Michelangelo.”

Mark Twain