1st Crit.

I think our first critique was pretty amazing.
I really can't wait to see what the rest of the group has to offer.
So, after hearing of what some people had to say about my cemetery series, and the very interesting ideas some of them provided, I really have to say this is still the tip of the iceberg. I knew that the monuments conveyed a sense of emotion, but after placing the statues next to a photo of real people something else sparked. Like some of you said, there is a similarity, a sense of connectivity between them, like of what someone/thing someday may become...from
being alive to turning into a cold dead statue to which people mourn to. Well,
I'm still formulating ideas, i do however see how they relate to each
other thanks to the crit. Perhaps a trip to Peru will be necessary, perhaps not... but i guess that would be ideal to show the daily life right outside the cemetery. I posted these two images to show how similar some of my photos are - not intentionally ... which makes it a bit weird lol - anyhow, I would like to do something of this sort... we'll see how it goes from here ...

1st photo - Immigrant series shot during last year's Winter.

Interview with Joanna Regiec

1. Mason Gross offers various majors. Why have you decided to pursue Graphic Design as your concentration?

Well, I think that graphic design makes the most sense as far as an art related career is concerned. I certainly enjoy drawing and painting, but I’m not sure I’d be able to make a career out of it. When you tell people that you go to an art school, usually you get the same response, and that’s probably because people associate art schools with the image of the “starving artist”. In my opinion, however, graphic design offers some sense of stability, but also at the same time gives you the opportunity to be creative and produce work.

2. Graphic designers usually have to follow certain specs when it comes to individual projects. Do you feel that your work is sometimes limited by these specifications?

Yeah, at times I do feel like my work can be somewhat limited, but on the other hand it comes with the territory. As a graphic designer you do have to follow specifications. It’s simply part of the job description. It’s not like you can just do whatever you want, especially since most of the time you’re working with or for a client. Maybe as students we’re given a little bit more freedom to express our ideas or be creative, especially as seniors when it’s important to create portfolios that showcase our best work, but I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be that way once we’re actually in the field as entry level designers. And having specifications isn’t always bad. It often keeps you from going off track.

3. You are a graphic designer, do you consider graphic design to be a type of "art"? Explain.

You know that whole graphic designer/artist thing is debatable. I definitely think that a graphic designer needs to possess some kind of artistic skills or abilities, for instance have knowledge about color and composition etc. , but I don’t necessarily think that a graphic designer is always an artist. Artists create work that is more personal, whereas most of the time designers create work for someone else. Most of the time, designers have to follow specifications, and although a finished piece might be beautiful, I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a work of art.

4. Do you notice any repeating themes or ideas in your work?

A few people have told to me that my work is often quite feminine. Maybe it’s just something that I do subconsciously. I’m not really sure. Sometimes I don’t even notice it unless it’s pointed out to me. And I certainly do find myself reusing or “repeating” certain ideas. Naturally people have a tendency to go back to things they feel comfortable with. I don’t particularly see anything wrong with reusing old ideas and perhaps, at times altering them to fit a specific project/design. If it works, then it works.

5. Besides graphic design, do you have any other art related interests such as painting or photography? Do you try to incorporate your other interests in your work as a designer?

I definitely enjoy photography and have recently begun incorporating it in some of my work. I just think that there is an interesting relationship between photography and design.

6. Have you seen anything yet that has inspired you toward your thesis project?

Over these past few years, I have definitely seen work that I found inspiring or interesting especially by artists like Inez Van Lamsweerde and Jerry Uelsmann. I’m also very much interested in certain aspects of beauty. I’m not exactly sure what my thesis is going to be just yet, but I do know that I would somehow like to combine photography and graphic design.

7. How does using a computer compare to other mediums that you have worked with? And why do you prefer it over other mediums?

I don’t think that I prefer using the computer to other mediums, but it over the past few years it definitely has become something that I’m perhaps more comfortable with. It’s different from using paint or charcoal, but it’s still a tool used primarily to create visual images. Computer manipulation and programs like Photoshop or Illustrator have become a medium with pretty much endless possibilities these days.

8. Do you have a favorite body of work that you created while attending Mason Gross? Describe it briefly.

Well, I took a class with LaToya Frazier last year, and I really enjoyed some of the assignments that we were given. One of the projects required us to create a set of composite photographs where we had to place ourselves in a setting three times. So basically we had photograph ourselves first, then go back and put everything together using Photoshop. I haven’t done anything like that before, so I though it was pretty cool. And I was happy with my end result.

9. What are your plans after you graduate?

Oh boy, well I’m definitely not planning on going to grad school that’s for sure. Ideally, I’d get a job somewhere in the city as a graphic designer. It’s a little scary to think about especially considering the economy and what not….but we’ll just wait and see…

Chap. 5 The Magazine

"Artforum is to art what Vogue is to fashion and Rolling Stone was to rock and roll."

"The one essential thing: it cannot follow the market. Nor should it try actively to influence the market. It has to have its own point of view. It has to be honest. After that, clarity of writing, purity of design." When asked what makes a good magazine.

"A critic is a detective. You look at all this and you just try to make it mean something... It's a matter of trying to create meaning in these things in the world around you and giving art a place where it can resonate."

Guarino about contemporary art: "ninety-five percent of it cannot be taken seriously... I'm like the atheist priest who understands the salutary effect of religion"

"...If you start supporting artist who don't deserve it on in a manner that seems like overkill, you will drive your readers away and undermine your own credibility...There's some art that we jut don't touch..I have no idea why it sells or why people care"

Schjeldhal "To be a good [art] critic, you have to be able to make a new enemy every week and never run out of people to be your friend"

Andreas Kocks

Andreas Kocks
"Current Events"
@ the Winston Wachter Fine Arts

When I saw Kocks work I immediately thought splatter, and then Jackson Pollock but just in a different light. Here Kocks uses what look to be inky graphite splashes of a thick paper material (heavy water color paper) which spills down the wall and surrounds the viewer in a playful and enjoyable manner. These cut-out splashes seem like they were thrown from a distance and if you don't get close enough to them one really thinks that they are splashes of paint on the wall. Apparently, everyone that went into the gallery thought the same thing, as they would pose for their pictures as if they were throwing buckets of paint. The cut-outs create a feeling of energy engulfing the the work which spreads to the viewers. This work also has a very architectural feeling to it once you get over the splashing and get close enough to see the thickness of the paper and the manner on how it was cut. He cuts into the heavy paper and places multiple cut-outs next to each other to resemble a feeling of dripping and/or energy. What I loved about his work is that the entire gallery feels full of energy. He goes beyond the architectural boundaries and onto the wall as to become one. These aren't 3-dimensional objects but as the viewer moves the paper cut-out shine in different way and the cut-outs take their own individual form.

To Grad School, or not to grad school?

Programs I'm interested in (though money is short nowadays) are:

- UCLA
- School of the Art Institute in Chicago
- School of Visual Arts
- Yale

- School of Visual Arts - New York, NY

- New School - Parsons School of Design - New York, NY

- New York University - New York , NY

Anna Joelsdottir

Anna Joelsdottir
"Priest Chews velvet haddock"
A painting installation
@ the Stux Gallery

From what I read this is her second solo exhibition of installations, paintings and drawings, and I would have loved to see the fist one. Her new body of work, medium wise, is all over the place. She moves from using canvases as her main surface, to using other very interesting materials. She uses what seems to be large plastic strips painted over, or objects such as sticks and big three-dimensional installations,. In each medium however, the viewer can see how Anna always traces back to painting. This series seems, to me, to be very freeing and expressive, it lets the artist tear down or build up different colorful forms. At the same time, her meticulously painted sticks show her passion for paint and her love for organic and flexible movement on the very hard edges of the sticks. She always goes back to abstracted figures in all of her paintings no matter what the surface material is. The way the installations and paintings are placed is very successful, there is always something peaking around the corner that you can't wait to see. Each body of work relate to one another, no matter what material she used, the colors seem to be same, lots of yellow, reds and greens in a muddy field of curving black lines. She explains her relationship to space: “I am learning as I go… It is both thrilling and scary -- … I approach this problem as a painter, I try to see the space as a painting, try to imagine things in a space like they would fit into a painting.”. I find the tittle of the exhibition be very surrealist, “priest chews velvet haddock,” what does it mean?. Like many artist she is trying to let the viewer fill in the empty spaces. She leaves the viewers make their own meaning out of this exhibition. I find my meaning to be "genius". I really really, like her paintings. The burst of colors in the white canvas is just so eye catching. I have to say, this one of the best exhibitions I've ever been to.

Edward Del Rosario

Edward Del Rosario
"Bread and Circus" in the Nancy Margolis Gallery.
This was his first solo exhibitions in which he is showing eleven oil paintings.
His painting are very clean and meticulous most of them in a solid color background. The figures in the paintings are very small and curious looking, they seem to be doing a variety of things with each other or just by themselves. The process of these figures start as pencil drawings and then are later transferred to his canvas. These 3-dimensional figures sit, like I said before, in a flat space, they seem to be actors on a stage for the world to look, even tho some do seem to be hiding, or are turned. There is no single linear perspective, on the other hand there seems to be many. Some of the figures are set most of the time on what seems to be a blank room, but they are sometimes situated in cages or other exteriors but these are never really defined by the painter. The miniature figures are very interesting to look at, let's just say they carry a character of their own. Some of them are in formal suits and fancy dresses, but some other are like in this painting to the left, naked and turned away, though not all nudes in this painting are this shy, some of them are frontal with tattooed bodies. Some figures are dressed in costumes, from animals to native costumes form other countries, some of them have no heads! They have trees or animal heads growing from their bodies.
Del Rosario paints a multitude of people interacting with one another, most of these paintings are very puzzling and strange. You see the figures chasing one another, thought most of them, to me, seem very staged and frozen in time. On the other hand, these may also seem timeless, some of the characters may reveal a sense of real humanity, and the way people may act, perhaps how people view others, a caged lonely girl and a man opening her secured space may be a metaphor to other ideas.
I really the way the paintings were spaced out from each other. Some were like triptychs right next to each other, but they did not steal the spot light. Most of these paintings were of medium size and the 2 or 3 large ones had a wall to themselves. The lighting really helped bring out the colors in them, all very vivid colors against the solid background and the white wall; it was really a nice experience.