Graffiti Art by Missy Ramsey

When I saw graffiti art, I absolutly loved how it was so different then what I even expected it was suppose to be.  I actually thought that graffiti art was going to be these gangs that draw on the walls of buildings, but the fact that people give out their wall space for artist to paint on makes me think that everything you see out there today is a canvas and can be made into one.  When you think of graffiti art, its hard not to automatically assume that you are illegal drawing on the walls of buildings, but rather with graffiti actually legalized, it makes you realize what you can do once you become an actual artist, and if you have the desire to draw or paint on walls, then become and artisst and you will get paid to do it!
Reverse Graffiti Art

My visit to Albany Airport Contemporary Art Gallery by Missy Ramsey

When you visit the Albany internatinal airport and walk up to the third floor, you will find a beautiful art gallery.  With light streaming from windows overlooking the busy airfield, Concourse A boasts 130 linear feet of wall space that functions as an auxiliary exhibition area to the third floor Gallery. With the advent of this new space in 2005, the Program broadened its ability to showcase the work of regional artists in biannual one person and thematic group shows as well as exhibits from other regional art centers and galleries.  There have been different types of exhibits at the airport with Scene/Reseen July 2008-January 2009, Joy Taylor: Drawings January-June 2009, Surface Tension in June 2009-January 2010, The best of SUNY in June- January 2010 and Benjamin Swett, Route 22 from June 2010 to January 2011. 
Going to the Albany international airport was not your normal day feeling of going to an art gallery, rathery it was a personal expience that you have alone looking at the paintings and trying to get sense of what they art wants you to feel without looking at the discripition...  I enjoyed going to the airport after have a stressful time with exams and the school year. 

These are pictures of the portaits that I really enjoyed at the art gallery!  The art work shown is done by 1) Joel Griffith, Oil on Panel, "The corner of Washburn Avenue",  2-4) Ken Ragsdale, Mixed Media, "Its in the book, Site Specific Installation", and 5-7) Stevan Jennis, Paint by Numbe Collage, "Plymouth", "Eagle", and "Boy Fishing".

Response to Collections by Missy Ramsey

When you look at collections, I do not think it will be art actually, rather more a hobby...  I do have a collection of all the movies and events that I have with my boyfriend to, I also give him a card for every annivesary that we have and intentionally put the date on the card so that there is one for every month.  However, Fred Wilson and Mark Dion believe that collections and art work that people do in their own homes can be considered art work.
 By filling up the art room with shapes out of wood or pictures of shapes is, I believe hard to make it an art piece because I would not understand why it would be art work in the first place.  My grandma collects precious moments, but I think that she only does this because she is religious and likes the dolls that are made, but not the art work that is made from them.  That is why I believe collection is a hobby rather than an art work.

Response to Appropriation Art by Missy Ramsey

To appropriate is to take possession of something. Appropriation artists deliberately copy images to take possession of them in their art. They are not stealing or plagiarizing. They are not passing off these images as their very own.  Appropriation artists want the viewer to recognize the images they copy, and they hope that the viewer will bring all of his/her original associations with the image to the artist's new context, be it a painting, a sculpture, a collage, a combine or an entire installation.  Some people may think that appropriation art is stealing another persons work, but rather the artist is actually borrowing the art work and making more meaning come out of the picture. 
Installation art, is a differnt type of art work, but in some ways I actually like them, but I do not like how they are from different artist, I do believe that these artist are in actually stealing the first art work.  If the artist who first orginally wanted that art to have that meaning, then he would have done it that way, that is why I do not think it is right for people to take a piece of art and "recontextualize" it.

Response to Installation Art by Missy Ramsey

Installation art is based more on a system.  The artist art work is by filling the space with what they have, filled edge to edge with so much stuff.  "Essentially, installation art takes into account the viewer’s entire sensory experience, rather than floating framed points of focus on a “neutral” wall or displaying isolated objects (literally) on a pedestal. This leaves space and time as its only dimensional constants. This implies dissolution of the line between art and life; Kaprow noted that “if we bypass ‘art’ and take nature itself as a model or point of departure, we may be able to devise a different kind of art… out of the sensory stuff of ordinary life” (Kaprow 12)." (wiki.com)
The way in which installation art insists upon the viewer’s presence in a space has necessarily led to a number of problems about how it is remembered. You have to make big imaginative leaps if you haven’t actually experienced the work first hand. Like a joke that fails to be funny when repeated, you had to be there.  I really enjoy installation art, because I thnk that it challentges the artist  to be able to go beyond what they are used to (canvas) and broadent what they can do into a large amount of space.  Installation art also allows the audience to have their personal experience, like the feeling "you just had to be there."  Its a feeling that you can't explaink, but try to allow the other people to have the same feeling, but can't unless they get to go.

Response to Performance Art by Missy Ramsey

Chris Burden is a performance artist, that I believe takes you back by surprise!  Performance art is when the artist experiences and some how there is interaction with the audience.  The artist can be a single performer, or can be a group or digital and normally the performance is held in a gallery or in a museum.  When I observed Chris Burden nailed to the back of a volkswagon, it made me wonder what in the heck was he thinking when he did this?  What made him think of doing this?  What reaction was he trying to get out of his audience?

Chris Burden was not the only performance artist of his time, there was also "Hermann Nitsch in 1962 presented his “Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries” (Orgien- und Mysterien Theater), a form close to the performing arts, and a precursor to performance art."  When I look at this image, I can only imagin what he is trying to capture to his audience.  It is a very moving piece, and when I saw it, it took me back by surprise.  I believe that Burden aqnd Nitsch have the same idea for what type of response they are trying to get from their audiences.  I'm not a big fan for performance art, because I do not think I understand the way it should, but also I'm afriad that I might find something out about myself that I might not want to know...

Response to Alison Watt- Contemporary Art by Missy Ramsey

"She gained early recognition as a painter, winning the National Portrait Gallery’s annual award as a student, then a commission to paint the Queen Mother’s portrait in 1989. Inspired by the nineteenth century painter Ingres, Watt’s portraits often focus upon the drapery which is traditionally used as a backdrop for the sitter. In her recent large-scale works, the human figure is entirely absent, allowing the texture and folds of the fabric to take centre stage." (contemporaryartetc.com) 

When I saw Alison Watt's fabric art, I was intrigued with how well she was able to shade and make it seem like you could just touch the fabric yourself. When I look at fabric art, I feel relaxed and imagin myself able to lay in a warm blanket that is soft.  Also the way she is able the whole canvas just amazes me with her technique.  I really like her contemporary art picture of fabric painting.

Art Exhibit Visit on 04/30/11

Artist: Graham Parker
Exhibit: The Confidence Man
At the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) --- RPI

"His work considers contemporary digital phenomena against the historic contexts and antecedents from which they emerged—often finding unexpected, even uncanny connections between these different moments and modes."

Graham Parker

Graham Parker is a New York artist and does film and audio work. He has always been interested in "spectrality", which is defined here as the concealing of one set of operations behind the appearance of another. Most of the work in this show, The Confidence Man, is united by an interest in presenting objects that have the look or texture of something recognizable (a newspaper, a neon sign, an ATM, a documentary, etc...) but which at second glance have crucial elements missing or distorted, so that our "confidence" in them is undermined. 

Hacked ATM machine, part of  the The Confidence Man exhibit

EMPAC

He works to create artwork that is built to "survive a mere glance", and cites the subject of computer spam as a comparison. Filtering this material requires a type of vigilance about who and what to trust. Parker's aim is to have us extend this vigilance into other areas of our daily lives...in order to see objects and forms for what they are, not as they should be. Technology tends to arrive with ideological systems and claims in tow. The confidence man and the spammer say, "This is what they claim, but this is what they do." In Parker's work, the challenge to us is not to accept the claims and systems of information technology at face value -- but to be 'delinquent' -- to expose what is inherent, rather than what is advertised. 

EMPAC on the inside -- Concert Hall

Artist's website:  http://www.grahamparker.info/cv.html

EMPAC website:  

 http://empac.rpi.edu/ 

Graffiti Art -- Reanne

http://www.banksy.co.uk/       

          Banksy is an anonymous graffiti artist whose pieces portray political and social messages. His stencil street art has been displayed in numerous cities throughout the world. 

          April 2010 marked the month of the premiere of his first film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, in San Francisco and five of his pieces appeared in various parts of the city. Then in May 2010, seven new Banksy pieces appeared in Toronto and Ontario, Canada. At the same time as the premiere of Exit through the Gift Shop in Royal Oak, Banksy left his mark in several places in Detroit and Warren. Shortly after the Detroit piece showing a little boy holding a can of red paint next to the words "I remember when all this was trees" was excavated by the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios. They claim that they do not intend to sell the work but plan to preserve it and display it at their Detroit gallery. 

          In late January 2011, Exit Through The Gift Shop was nominated for a 2010 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Banksy released a statement about the nomination, where he said, ""This is a big surprise... I don't agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I'm prepared to make an exception for the ones I'm nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me." Leading up to the Oscars, Banksy blanketed Los Angeles with street art.

The statement on Banksy's website states: "You're welcome to download whatever you wish from this site for personal use. However, making your own art or merchandise and passing it off as ‘official’ or authentic Banksy artwork is bad and very wrong." I'm not sure if this is just an example of Banksy's sense of humor... but it seems ironic that they would scold against such a thing when most of his work consists of adding something to some other artist's work. 

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

Response on collections -- Reanne

          As we discussed in class, people collect various things for various reasons. Having a collection of certain things can serve as a way to preserve memories, to protect family heirlooms, or to make a profit some day. Those are just a few examples of the numerous reasons that people have collections.
          Popular objects for collection are rocks and stones, coins, stuffed animals, baseball cards, movies, CDs, paintings, figurines, photographs, etc… An individual really can have a collection of anything that they value and appreciate.

          As a young child, I used to collect gems and crystals from different places that I traveled. This included both rocks that I found and ones that I bought in a shop. I kept them in a clear plastic box on display because I liked their shapes and shininess. I donated them to my church when I was about 14 years old, since we were moving and I was trying to consolidate and grow up.

          More recently, in terms of collections, I guess I could say that I collect DVDs and CDs (original and mixed/burnt) since I have so many. But this isn’t a collection that holds any special meaning to me. I do, however, have about ten photo albums, two scrap books, and a huge box filled with all of the pictures I’ve ever taken. These pictures include old family photos, vacation pictures, scenery, friends, etc… My picture collection does mean a lot to me in the sense that every photograph has a different memory—each picture reminds me of a certain person, a particular event, a special moment in my history. Vacation pictures, for example, remind me of the fun experiences I’ve shared with my parents over the years. Old family photos remind me of where I came from, and allow me to see the people I’ve never met or who I have lost. There is always a story behind each photo, and it is worth remembering whether I personally recall the story, or if someone explains it to me from their point of view. 

Cousins in Sarasota, Florida- Summer 2010

Grandmother in Naples, Florida- Summer 2010

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France- Spring 2006

Beach in Florida- Summer 2010

Plane view- Summer 2010

Townhouse mates- Fall 2010-Spring 2011

My best friend of 14 years

Danto's "After the End of Art" Response- Reanne

     Danto discusses Verver's experience of art involving "...the stirring thought that beauty and truth were identical, and that 'release from the bondage of ugliness' meant release from the bondage of ignorance, and hence that exposure to beauty was equivalent to a curriculum of knowledge." He thought of art as something that both exposes and redeems the "bleakness of ordinary life." Hence, art opened doors to greater personal knowledge, one need not have any specific predetermined knowledge in order to understand a work of art.
     The author states that such experiences of art make the existence of it worth while, even if those experiences never come to be. A piece of art affects different people in different ways, and even the same person can be affected differently, at different times, by the same art. "This is why we go back and back to the great works: not because we see something new in them each time, but because we expect them to help us see something new in ourselves."
     Danto relays that the museum itself was meant to make such experiences possible for everyone. People searching for "an art of their own", or "community-based art", are in fact exemplifying the belief that art belongs to everyone. This common art is in response to the present day American life in which people are searching for meaning. The author gives an example of such a piece that has impacted his life in a grand way- by merely taking so much time contemplating his experiences of it.

Artist: Andy Warhol
Title: Brillo Box
Taken from http://www.artnewsblog.com/2008/01/art-collector-with-800-andy-warhols.htm

"The Importance of Matthew Barney" Response- Reanne

<--Taken from http://theinitiatives.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/matthew-barney/

-->Taken from http://blogundine.blogspot.com/2010/07/matthew-barneys-cremaster-cycle-1-5.html

          Matthew Barney is a very popular sculptor, a photographer and a filmaker, best know for his Cremaster films. "A mixture of the odd, attractive, and downright obscene and brutal, the Cremaster, which takes its name from the muscle in the human body in charge of lowering and raising the male genital organ, is a feat in Avant-Garde film." He focuses on visual effects (colors, shapes, and forms).
          His work "can seem ingeniously complicated or nonsensical, depending on one's inclination. Suffice it to say that it is a mix of autobiography, history and private symbolism, and it has involved him doing various death-defying acts and wearing elaborate makeup and prostheses..."
          I like the sense of ambiguity in Barney's abstract art, which is evident in most of it (for example in the films where you can't tell if the character is male or female). I also like performance art, in this case video, because it tells a more elaborate story. The article describes him as a nice and intellegent guy, unconcerned with fame and money, which is further proven by the fact that his loyal crew continues to take death-defying risks to push limits with Barney.  

Mike Kelley (video segment response)- Reanne

Post 3
"Non-representational abstracts, layered acrylic paint, plexiglas and other media creating a rhythmic dimensionality."

Title: Hive #2                                                           Title: Tectonic 12
Acrylic on Linen                                                         Painted Plexiglas, Mixed Media on Maple Art PanelArtist: Mike Kelley                                                   Artist: Mike Kelley
Taken from www.mikekelleyart.com                                 Taken from www.mikekelleyart.com


Title: The Thirteen Seasons (Heavy on the Winter) #1: The Birth of the New Year (1994)
Acrylic on Wood
Artist: Mike Kelley
Taken from www.pbs.org/art21

"While music belongs to time, painting belongs to space. My art is about space and divisions of space."


Mike Kelley makes videos (356 tapes- 1 for every day of the year)

Coming from Catholicism has given him a real interest in ritual; he believes that ritual is beautiful. Therefore, his main interest in art is actually trying to develop a materialist ritual. His videos are based on high school yearbooks because they are one of the few places where one can find pictures of those sorts of rituals.

He also says that all motivation is based on suppressed feelings. His stuffed animals artwork was his way of responding to 80s commodity culture. But his viewers thought it was about child abuse, his own abuse. But he embraces all responses and runs with it- so he went with that idea. So this series was about his abuse, as well as everyone’s abuse… this shared culture. His original trauma was his student training, so he created “13 seasons”, a series of ovals with no ends (example above), eternally occurring abuse, with the missing time (the part you can't remember). Art is his way of working through things; things start simple and get more complex.

Kelley says that art must be available to both the laziest viewer, on a simple level, as well as to the most sophisticated viewer. Kelley says that his art is beautiful because it produces humor and something he calls a sublime effect. His art has narrative elements but is also visually interesting. The writing of his videos comes from his own experiences. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between real past experiences and experiences seen/felt from films, plays, etc… Therefore, Kelley makes no distinction between these experiences; his art is a type of fiction in that way.

Vernacular of Beauty

"The Beautiful is a thing. In images, beauty is the agency that cause visual pleasure in the beholder, and, since pleasure is the true occasion for looking at anything, any theory of images that is not grounded in the pleasure of the beholder begs the question of art's efficacy and dooms itself to inconsequence!" (pg 2)

After reading the the article, i have came to look at art in a total different perspective.  The quote above stuck out to me right away at the beginning when talking about beauty and out the the visual pleasure is in the beholder.  I never really looked at beauty in this way, but after a while I realized that when I do call something beautiful, it is the truth that is is in the eyes of the beholder.  Just like the picture that i have above, I typed in the view of the sky from underwater... When I saw the image, it was not something that someone had painted, but a picture that someone took and put it on the Internet.  Some people might not look at this as beautiful, but in the eye of the beholder I do believe that this image is very beautiful.  It takes a lot to make things beautiful, but the task is said that "beauty is to enfranchise the audience and acknowledge its power--- to designate a territory of shared value between the image and its beholder and then, in this territory, to advance an argument by valorizing the picture's problematic content." (pg 9)  I really like this quote also because this is lays out what it takes to make things considered to be beautiful.

"Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of Beauty" Response- Reanne

Post 2


Title: "Grevy's Zebra" (from the Endangered Species Portfolio) 1983
Artist: Andy Warhol
In 1983, Andy Warhol created a series of ten color screenprints that portrayed endangered animals from around the world. Using brilliant colors -- characteristic of his signature style -- and poignant expressions suggestive of the animal's fate, Warhol creates a dynamic tension between art and reality.
Taken from http://www.ackland.org/art/exhibitions/warhol/

          This article, "Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of Beauty", discusses the place of beauty in art, in the contexts of culture, politics, religion, the marketplace, etc.... I've included some specific quotes that I liked, also trying to summerize the main points of this article. The author describes beauty: "Beauty is not a thing. The Beautiful is a thing. In images, beauty is the agency that causes visual pleasure in the beholder, and, since pleasure is the true occasion for looking at anything, any theory of images that is not grounded in the pleasure of the beholder begs the question of art's efficacy and dooms itself to inconsequence!...The task of beauty is to enfranchise the audience and acknowledge its power--to designate a territory of shared values between the image and its beholder and then, in this territory, to advance an argument by valorizing the picture's problematic content. Without the urgent intention of reconstructing the beholder's view of things, the image has no reason to exist, much less to be beautiful." Baudelaire says, "'The beautiful is always strange'...It is always strangely familiar and vaguely surprising." Only with one's full appreciation and understanding of a piece of art can viewers "engage the argument of images that deal so intimately with trust, pain, love, and the giving up of the self" a true "visual experience".

          The author also discusses the new, liberal institution, which "is not as cavalier about appearances as the market is about meaning...The institution's curators hold a public trust. They must look attentively and genuinely care about what artists mean, and what this meaning means in a public context--and, therefore, almost of necessity, they must distrust appearances." Art created in this way "steals the institution's power". The beauty of this art is evident in the pure honesty of the art itself. And the author states that "the truth is never plain nor appearances sincere. To try to make them so is to neutralize the primary, gorgeous eccentricity of imagery in Western culture since the Reformation: the fact that it cannot be trusted, that images are always presumed to be proposing something contestable and controversial."

          "The vernacular of beauty, in its democratic appeal, remains a potent instrument for change. Mapplethorpe uses it, as does Warhol, as does Ruscha, to engage individuals within and without the cultural ghetto in arguments about what is good and what is beautiful."

"What you consider art"- Missy Ramsey

Jack Haas' official website

Books, visionary digital art, paintings, and videos by Jack Haas

                                                               700 x 525 px - 76KB

 Art:
Tells a story
Shows emotion
Gives us meaning
Give a feeling of happiness or sadness
Must not be something that is just there
Art is beautiful
Its a way to communicate with someone
Reflects how I feel
Makes us ponder things
Tells us about the past
Gives us a peek into the future
Lets us be a different places at once
Has a spirit
Can be anything
Needs to be unique
Must be considered art by other artist
Must be able to be bought
Can be a good fit in a living space or work place
Should be shown in a gallary or park
Must be original
Must be important
Must be expensive
Needs to be hand made
Can never be made by machine
Can never be considered a knock off
Cannot be always understood
Can be understood
Must be spiritual
Contains different elements
Can be different shapes and sizes
Has different themes
Give a different mood to everyone
Gives a different perspective to everyone
Art needs to be abstract
Art is colorful

"What I Think Art Is"- Reanne

 Post 1


Title: "the dynamic quaternity performing cosmic redemption"
Author/Artist: J. Haas

Visionary digital fine art, and modern abstract images created using a fractal program.

Taken from http://www.celestial-art.net/

Art must be original

Art must be unique

A peice of art must have a meaning to either all viewers, some viewers, or to the artist

Art is cherished

Art is important to some people

Art is evident everywhere and to all people

The popularity of art changes from one time to another

Art forms/styles change and evolve from one time to another

Art is a form of expression

Art is a form of communication

Art is versatile in terms of both style and 'genre' 

Art has more than one meaning

Art has monetary value

Art has emotional value

Art has sentimental value

Art has spiritual value

Art has the potential to make the artist/viewers think

Art has the potential to evoke an emotional response in the artist/viewers

Art takes many shapes (painting, sculpting, drawing, music, theater, photography, etc…)

Art requires certain skills

And at the same time, art is created by everyone

Art requires passion

Art requires creativity 

Art is not only for artists’ pleasure

Art is not only for viewers’ pleasure

Art is not always beautiful to every viewer

Art is not always expensive to buy

Art is not exclusively what one sees in a museum