Week Three

Inspiration

The background image here.

Mio and Mao: A claymation series by Misseri Studios.

By W. Scott Forbes

Work

Radio Music for Phillip

Reading Response: Implicit Meanings- Metaphor and Symbol, Michal Ronover

I have a problem with artists who insist that their work is highly metaphorical when it looks like all they did is shoot a video of some birds and add in the sound of a heicoptor.

I have a problem with people who believe in a collective human conscience.

That being said: I think this reading had a lot in it for me.
"First, metaphors are inventions ofthe artist's imagination. Second, metaphor meaning is a product of the viewer..."
This was an astoundingly profound insight to me. In the natural world things exist, things to be responded to. I personally have a hard time looking at art and knowing inherently that the fig branch to the left is a reference to Giotto's second most obscure work. But this is invention. This is the human need to see connections where none are, except in other humans. And that idea is extremely freeing. I don't think it's wrong if I miss what the artist was trying to allude to. And I don't think it's wrong if I see something deeper than just what's there. This is a cerebral game played far outside the world of the piece itself, having little to nothing to do with the existance of the art object, simply with the purpose for it's creation, which probably evolved during fabrication. Metaphors are all around us, but none of them are real, and that's totally okay.

Week Two

Inspiration

From the book Stray Stories by theBathos (or that's their Etsy name anyway)

By Sherri Dupree Bemis

Also by Sherri

Work

The Giant Beast Made of Fallen Leaves pannel 7 (I think?)



Reading Response: One-for-All, Thomas Kinkade

Reading this was a mixture of gratifying and crushing. Doing the math, Kinkaid made a bit above $4 million in 1999 alone just on his publicly traded company. On one hand, good for him. He's smart for turning his work into an entire world that is almost more engrossed in itself (elite collector societies, special certificates, etc) than with any individual painting. On the other, what the hell is this crap. He's like Andy Warhol but instead of doing anything edgy he's doing the opposite. Reading this reminded me of a visiting artist we had, Romero Britto, whose work I found horribly trite, but his marketing skills ridiculously impressive. He had his own store on cruise ships! Romero made a point of saying to "Not look to deep inside" because there's a lot of sad feelings. He "stays on the surface" because it's happy. And that sells. I think, coming from a world of mass produced comics and graphic novels, I can appreciate good marketing, branding (we all know a Tim Burton movie when we see it) and everything involving playing to a genre. I think the only issue I had was the book saying that the artists who disliked the kitschy happy-forever sentiment were in a minority who lived "outside mainstream culture." Well duh. Most art is not mainstream. That doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, but I think Katy Perry can admit that she's not playing on the same field as Muse. Pop is pop and the people who live "outside the mainstream" are not the minority. They are the artists undergraduates will be reading about after they die of poverty and starvation in a half century.

Portfolio Week 1

Work This Week: SKETCHES!!!

First ideas for Dumpy the cat.

First sketches for Mr. Crumbly, face shape drawn directly from Kate Beaton.

Second attempt at Mr. Crumbly with different proportions and a more human face. Didn't like it.

Mr. Crumbly, a more finalized Dumpy, and concepts for the children.

Dumpy "action pose" sketches working with an inverse-bean (curve on bottom) body. Don't like it as much as regular bean (see previous Dumpy).


Inspiration Images

by Kate Beaton for her web comic Hark! A Vagrant

You can tell

From the Chester 3000 XYV web comic by Jess Fink


1. What work have you made that seems most yours? Why?
My Flying Robert illustrations from Illustration 1. I was able to include humor and convey narrative and work in pen. Although it's not necessarily gallery-art, it's exactly what I want to do with my life. Books.

2. Who are artists that are making work that relates to you? Are there other influences? How are these other influences connected to your work?
There are so many artists whose work I admire in the fields of writing, illustration, and music, often overlapping. Joey Comeau, writer of A Softer World is friends with Ryan North, the genius behind Dinosaur Comics, who ended up being the writer for Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time comic book. Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance's lead singer wrote the best selling Umbrella Academy graphic novels working with artist Gabriel Ba', who in cooperation with his brother Fabio Moon created the masterwork Daytripper. And the illustrator James Jean, who did the original covers for the Umbrella Academy comic series also did the cover of Freaks! Alive on the Inside!, one of my favorite books. These have all lead me to other connected artists who have influenced my work.

3. Discuss, in your own words, why you think this is so.
I think it's a bit ridiculous to say any civilization lives without art at all. As discussed in the book art includes craft, which is present in all things made. If the quote suggests that civilizations can't survive without the western artist-centric idea of art, then I think that's a bit silly too, because as the book says, Eastern civilizations are still producing craft-centric work.

4. Which of these ideas resonates most with you? Why? If they all resonate, how do they differ?
Both ideas resonate. They're just different motivations for creating. I like the idea of doing things for the world, ie my funny stuff is obviously not just to make myself laugh, but I can also see how certain themes explored can be self revelations.

5. 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 seem to work in stories, playing between writing and illustrating, usually something of the dark-humor variety, or somewhere on that spectrum. I'm not really concerned in being a traditional gallery artist, I'm mostly concerned with concepts.

6. What do you care about? The answers do not have to be limited to art related topics.
I care about people, overall I suppose. I think a lot about the human condition and depending on my mood, try to think of ways to make the world better (humor, kindness, winnie-the-pooh stuff) or spiral into depression and rage about how nobody is self aware and constantly causes pain to one-another. So I write to avoid the real world, or critique it, or critique myself for being assuredly hypocritical. Humor helps the biting sarcasm go down.