purpose: For a oneness of creative mind spring.
Consolidating locations for thoughts. However, b/c of the images available in this tumblr blog, will keep this tumblr in existence for future reference.
CIAO,
EYP.
I think the biggest thing I’ve learned while studying art for the past three, four years, in pursuit of a life as a professional artist in one capacity or another, is that nothing can be created new. We can be Crea-TIVE. Everything is given to us in grace, and what we do with it ranges in possibility from one individual to the next. As artists, we acknowledge and set forth in mission to scavenge all the possibilities, questioning, answering, receiving, gathering, and so forth. I feel that as an artist who sets forth to be Crea-TIVE, not being at competition with the Original Creator who provides, but rather, to enhance and point back to these Original Creations and how to best be stewards of the Original Establishment—we have a responsibility that is intrinsic not just to the work itself, but our own sense of drawing/desire to it.
Of course, this is my way of seeing, and people may not see the same way. But I feel it important to at least begin to articulate these things not for my sake necessarily, but to be able to abridge gaps of communication and understanding with others.
While I’ve been blessed with such wonderful teachers (Rex Stevens, Mina Cheon, David Cloutier, Alex Heilner, Suzanne Garrigues, Jonathan Trundle, Kara Schenck) while at MICA, and even before that (Piano teacher, Mihyeh Ko, Song Yun Jung, Mr. V @ LCA)… they were mentors in developping my skills. I tried to create my own ideas, I tried to make ideas, but what resulted … was at best interesting. Yet with each, it is understood that just as with any other piece of art, Ecclesiastes’ voice will ring somewhere in the back of everyone’s mind at some passage of time—nothing under the sun is new. Perhaps I was trying my hand at being a philosopher, while claiming to pursue art.
Then God spoke to me, and God healed me, and God made me into a new creation, a new being. All at once, life was changing and all for the better, all towards something perfection though I—nor anyone else—truly understands and comprehends what perfection is. God provided me with vision, with understanding some, and with an idea for senior thesis. By seeking, He showed me the ways to understand and interpret the idea he provided me. Though he provided the idea, He did not show me with every detail how to do it, or what exactly to depict—for there to be 141 colors in a hand, or have a certain nonchalant brush stroke, or to go digital. It was just the idea He provided, and the rest, He seems to give me freedom for I don’t see exactly what it is to draw in a collection of 66 windows.
So I come to see that being an artist is not one of being a Creator Intellectual but a Creative one. Take ideas that are given to us by grace, that come to us by what might seem like chance for some, or through seeking that it (the idea) is found… and do what we can through interpretation and steadfast devotion to working at what is given to us, taking care to aim for perfection…. Understanding it will never be perfect, but we can try, and our understanding of perfection won’t be perfect in itself, but will make do with the job set forth.
& When something is given to us as a gift, it would be foolish not to say Thank you with a kind heart, and utilize it to its best capacity, no?
current environemnt: where cultures mix and converge pop culture spread via hip hop culture see world with sense of humor street culture wild/spontaneous form of expression hiphop: mix all different kinds of things together visuality, montage, music videos (an avatar does the work of speaking for cao fei since she speaks chinese?) - ‘rabid dogs’ 2002 working world. taste of reality. hence feel she can critique reality. yrs later, critique seems a bit severe. later works more on thorough understanding of society as whole, implicit feelings of earlier period - after first hiphop proj, try working ‘cosplayers’ 2004 chinese role playing generation under influence of cartoon culture, neither cosplay nor hiphop native to china, still feels original and indigenous when they experience it worked pt for advertising co’s, when scouting locations, see places that left deep impression on her important for characters and how they relate to each other even in real life, cosplayers place selves in cartoon roles so much they carry it into their everyday lives. role reversal, reflecting younger generation’s discontent with roles in real life. cosplay shows gap, b/t generations, neither willing to strike compromise/accord with other. - ‘whose utopia’ 2006. video shoot inside factory generally difficult bc of commercial protectioning. examining this kind of reality , how workers are on lookout for chance to survive, opportunity.. also has avatar like element with workers playing their fantasies. valid opportunity to make themselves, for corporations where artists do ….. artists doing is not so important to corporation, what’s important is the proj that’s created. - ‘i.mirror by china tracy’ 2007 composer intro her to 2nd life in 06 he was purchasing land in online game. can construct and have his own second life subsequently he made his own account for china tracy (her avatar), enthralled from beginning. how to talk to people, process captivating. china is sur name, tracy a given name. to see what happens out there. in beginning, work with predesigned personas. over time, spend lots of money to construct her appearance. feminine perspective, strong sense of self hood, own sense to explore the world. encounter w/ her and another is while she explore online world.drawn by piano music. saw handsome person. stood at distance, shooting scene of him playing piano. found him a gentleman with good sense of humor. behind scene may be two females, real life may have something different. so you can peek into digital world; everything much more intense than real world—unbridled and wild. people get hooked. people who want emotions they want in real life, but in end , you see documentary that is something beyond reach. - rmb city conceive while doing second life. wondering if she can make her own city and community. so begin to envision waht city might look like. in 07, video of rmb city is basically finished. drive of overall city. ‘rmb city’ 07 represent bldg and development of urban center w/ all it entails investment, development, etc. what it takes to run a real city first come up w/ list of options in component of bldg city, diff landmarks wanted in cityscape design urban plan , diff components, utilizing parts. bldg architectural model. virtual architects to upload in second life. cross river by touching storms…. each mayor of rmb city can have own interpretation fo city, releases cao fei from having any responsibility of the city. no party committee, a board of directors, etc. relationship w/ danger? is it deeply rooted in asian way of thinking differences and similarities of past and present, asian and west cityo f memories?
like to use end product to create new questions/possibilities/ unfinished state again.
- idealized img. kind of like postcard.
- imprecise img. map by rugen. maps give idea of place. illustration but clearly opposite of precise photograph. old world feeling. take out names/descriptions, map becomes even more non descript image. (*******MAP BY RUGEN IS PRETTY AWESOME, note to self; screen shots of it on computer for reference)
glorification of farmers state
illustration is another level of abstracting; another layer not linked to realism, open up your own world or mythmaking.
- illusion or idea of how it could look; very imprecise. postcard of past. like abstract gesture. (screen shot in computer) imgs of valley b/t mtns…
- just not be satisfied with photography as finished img, super realistic medium. bring computer to get imperfections. take finished img to become more possibilities, not so over determined in advance
- in the usa, photography is more est’d than in europe bc it grew w/ discovery of american west
- turn img into hundreds of dots from more and more scribbles drawn on, like a pointilist image
artwork can transport a person in a soulful way w/o fear of punishment or hell or sin or any of those good things
- always wanted attention , she did. did ballet lessons as a child. then want to do diving tower, spinning off the it. when told mother she wants to be an artist, mom said she’d starve to death.
it turns out doing art is a sort of mission she was on.
- while at sf state studying education, started doing pottery/ceramics. was very good at that. southern ca in 60s, big things for ceramics. abstract expressionist in huge scale. tremendous amount of craft skill. then get to know bruce nauman, in school at davis while she’s in berkeley, rest is history. met bruce wiley too at davis cos berkeley teachers hated her work.
beginning, art enterprise doing something important beautiful, sort of all by yourself. as she got into it, saw the most important thing about artowrk is COMMUNICATING and having conversation thru artwork.
not just formal values but also responses she can get. sometimes, atagonism—wants to cause trouble. that caused her trouble in graduate school. by then, she figures she wants to be on the edge, original, that means going against the status quo.
she switch her practice to being a painter. evolve out of sculpture. reason for painting on teh side is bc first they’re objects, then they’re pictures of something.
90s early, big recession. art mags have artists writing w/o pay. when ppl see img and read, then they start to like it. so she make titles, and write more. teh writing practice and art practice are really going hand in hand now.
every pc of abstract art she makes has a back story. gives fanciful titles relating to something going on with her. titles are like three word poem that’s a part of the piece.
she keeps a diary to see what was going on. she likes to do that. expressing emotion is something she likes to do. titles help with that, color helps, and then music metaphor is something she thinks about when she wants to put emotion into abstract work. scale does it. relation of parts to the whole piece, give a feeling of Feeling. lost, loneliness, claustrophobia, angoraphobia, free, freedom, lifted spirit, etc. melancholy, maybe joy in the same piece. and the titles help.
- from chinese/japanese ptg. you have a number of spaces.
deep space, right up on the surface.
converging lines, drip comign down face of painting, so that there are two realities going on in teh same painting.
ptg on double sq shaped canvas also speaks to that. oft put deep space kind of motif on canvas.. two squares of empty space make wall become part of ptg. - you get real space, fake space, then phys obj which is the shaped canvas.
- takes pictures , theyre in back of her mind. not really in the painting. you get two kind sof way of making imgs.. digital etches.
- always gives slide show while giving artist talks. lots of photographic imagery with the painting images.
- she’s a very holy little catholic girl at 6, 7, y/o . wanted to be a martyr. lions come at her, bc of bad romans, loved catholic culture as a kid. just as lions come, she’s carried up to heaven thru colosseum.
obj of art feels like icon the way icons were when she was younger. is a true thing. any one idea have resonance and make you have thoughts about other ideas. even talking about the drip as an icon. color can be thought in an iconographic way. she did a ptg based on martyrdom of st sebastian called ‘rosebud’
- tremendous love for spiritual part of her life, more ecumenical now. not so specific. her spiritual life is very important to her. artwork is icons. what’s great about artwork is you can meditate, make it one’s zone or anyone else’s.
- lol. ‘very bad to talk about it before it’s finished’ (while painting)
- leave that postmodern drip there.
- postmodern right now, mixing these two greens
he thinks the way art comes into the world is thru a metaphysical process
- ppl think he has a factory that just knocks out work; if you want to make work in different mediums, you have to have a lot of support
have people to work with, but only a few pieces a yr, are made
- studio is extension of what he grew up with; (self reliant, providing things); a sense of community
always enjoy not knowing who will open the door
- as artist wanting communication, interaction
@ art school , understood how art can connect you to human history, the kind of reservoir it can be. he continue with certain things. sensual imgs, flowers, really the same info — how you look at life; spiritual aspects, lots of things continue to come into play.
objs are metaphors for people, always turns to be about others.
not high low cultures, or the obj itself, always about the acceptance of others.
- jeff’s images made from very many sources. usu put on computer, and color correcting. everything done on maps. 141 colors for hand. as close to reference as possible is important. flesh is hard one. jeff’s really particular. people specialize in certain things. very particular painting—smooth, not too thick. generally 3 people on a painting at all times, 6-8 months per painting, sometimes longer. ideas change, techniques changing, always evolving. jeff keeps composing on computer until he’s happy with it. hands on daily with giving guidance on what he wants and how to make it look like what he wants it to look like.
- if you try to create art, it’s a decorative process. you get bored eventually then you say something, you focus on it, and before you know it, you’re in that metaphysical place.
- wood is a living material, keeps moving, spiritual side. church used it for its spiritual aspect. bear and policeman, … bear outgrows bobby the policeman, ready to blow bobby’s policeman. some sexual humiliation, overpowering the bobby. speaks, for jeff, artist should be powerful, use every tool of art, to communicate as strongly as possible. at the same time, morality comes along with that. respect of other people, their rights come in light too. art and power— being misused, going out of control? so he wants to embrace all powers of art but there’s a moral responsibility that comes with it.
- usher and banality from banality series. also made of wood. feels autobiographical for him. him as child pushing pig along (pushing art, cultural history, everything perfect, along. then is a foundation to move forward in life). art can be something that disempowers people, making them feel very inferior, and some people can get a sense of power from that. or it can be a vehicle to empower. he gets empowered from empowering.
- his artwork wants to show themself; they are extraverted. major salons are for public to be there. he has to position himself to be accepted within that situation just like any artist of court would have to present themself a certain way. he does that by a self portrait bust, on top of a plank designed by bernini. when he made this suggestion, assistants at versaille giggled — how can he do that? but he realize that’s kind of necessary, across portrait of louis couteur (sp?) and he thinks it worked.
when he’s at versaille, never seems to be about excess, but rather about DETAIL. and Enjoying the DETAIL.
lobster hanging at salon demarres. a bit like acrobat, performer, tenacles like moustache, graphics on lobster are like someone being burned at the stake. so you know that if you’re in the public eye long enough, that’s an inevitable fate.
- to be able to have an exhibition at versaille is a very special opportunity. he spent 5 wks of summer going thru palace, and gardens. 90K flowers. worked iwth team of gardeners, first time to plan a floral piece mathematically. light colors , dark colors, all done in mathematical patterns, he never did that before. felt it’s important for versaille.
one of things he realize in last year (had several major exhibitions), imgs can change a lot. some things more cerebral, others more physical. what doesn’t change is a reason for making it. the desire to be in the moment of making something. the sense of abandonment of any doubt, and just going forth. he hopes that main charge of viewer is the commitment gesture to move forward on something.
not trying to satisfy audience; responsibility is to the idea!
- exhibition is not end of something, but beginning of something.
see it out of their context, think of them differently.
then you start again.
- the activity of spinning, part of no. of pieces that went into whitney show… developped about same time he makes spinning tapes where he would spin.
broadway bldg. usc gave grad students. 7 floors. face ptg, white line.. spend time in a ball of ideas. maybe comes to you all at once, or in a glimmer, you develop an idea. you develop an idea.
whipped a wall with paint. combo of motor oil and paint. wanted to cover the whole wall, but didn’t have enough paint. window stayed like that for years.
- tapes in beginning were very much about him as artist using w/e’s in teh room. very minimal. with pieces like in sailor’s meat. cover head in tape , butter, the first thing that happens is to cover the face. persona start with mask or costume.
w/ the other ones spinning, you see his face, clear who he is.
- he’s kind of a class clown. so there’s always a performative doing , making people laugh or somethinglikethat. when he’s in school, he never equated it with performance work he began to do in sixties.
- as kid, involved with constructing, tree huts and underground places. big part of his childhood. huts. always subdivisions being built around. rural area. something on constructing architecture.
- ‘87: mike kelley. had a commission. mike kelley in the piece (liked his work; thought there’s a connection so he came to the studio) all improvise. the whole thing. at the time having children and seeing himself, almost standing in a relationship with his children.. standing in front of them being in the same posture/saying the same thing his father said to him. altho it seems to be about the conditioning of children, it’s more of that we ARE that. we are conditioned into a reality. kind of like struggling and thinking about those things. piece happen, just extrapolating that, who he is, and breaking out of a conditioned attitude.
- don’t think single channel. but settings with mulitple channels, become like big paintings. sometimes feel it’s closer to ptg (the vid) than film making which thinks narrative. ptg constructs maybe a narrative in the frame but it’s a different type of narrative than what we think of as film narrative. diff of making art and entertainment, bc he doesn’t care. it’s the exploration of ideas.
some of it really is about letting something go and finding something in there. some of it is about directing it and knowing long ahead that’s what is going to happen. it’s the process of making the sculpture that begins to be interesting, in the exception to get it right.
sculpting not for making a shape but as if you’re stroking an arm.
- 80’ inflatable pinnocchio head. vinyl full of air. giant obj that is ephemeral in a way, blows up, is full of air, kind of exists there for a short period of time, makes an image for people, then is gone.
a lot of wwhat goes on is about the … tearing down and opening up conventions. individuals that affect the world in one way, they’re real and in another way, they’re like santa claus or mickey mouse—some sort of fabricated sculpture.
pieces recycle into other pieces, pieces get used, bc they’re in the studio. ie hummels go on for years, come from hungaria, lots of people collect them. so one day he decided to make one. kind of clicked as a form that he would say ‘make this hummel’ or ‘let’s make this hummel’ and it would start forming, then it would begin to abstract. just keeps going, there’s always one or two or three or five going on, at different scales. at this point not really going out of his way to pick watts, doesn’t seem necessary—any will do. something to act on, something to alter and shift, like way of working through ideas, questions how far…
nature of hummel, sculpture itself, idea of purity and cleanliness. hygiene is kind of religion of fascism.
- feel like such real people; when she sees herself in it too much.. then feels it’s unsuccessful bc she’s not lost in the piece.
- had family album, circled herself in each photo, wrote “that’s me” under each one. forgot about it until college, then fake it as if handwriting evolve.
- 50s 60s , women did wear a lot of makeup. then as 60s 70s progress, all about being natural. she missed the transformation of what it does to you. to see what makeup can do to you. comic character.
- clowns.. how do you make clowns look like different person? look online at clown sites. have to be sincere people wanting to entertain at somebody’s birthday party, you see various faces and something about them, seems suspicious.. like, WHY are they a clown? idea continue where whole world is a world of clowns, as though it’s another dimension, another planet, where they all happen to be clowns.
- experimenting w/ new camera she got. set up lights in studio, playing around. first couple things is put tape on skin to pull back wrinkles, so did some tests with it. then, added a wig, evolve from there. hadn’t gone shopping for any costumes, wore red polka dot shirt. continue working on that, and turned into this other series .. like society portraits of rich upper east side people. trying to make her seem dowdy but firm, the rock center of her family or at least thinks she is. also first time to use green screen b/c realize she wants to add backgrounds. lab she works with said ‘please get a green screen’ bc it’s easier to separate figure from b/g. reshoot over and over, to be much older woman… add stomach and haunch.. b/g approach with same license that a painter would take, selectively removing things.
someone floating in the b/g. of woods..
- neutoric organiation of eyeballs, eye related things, tiny jewelry, big jewelry, eyes/teeth/lips, ears, noses, parts of masks.. etc.. cut up to use for other things..
- when in college, made book of doll clothes and self… for film course, want to bring doll to life, so shot herself doing all the poses, went to do several series with characters cut out, spread out like deck of cards or something, and from there, start to put figures together to tell narratives which is what mortimerse (sp?) pictures were, just as movement study and character study
realize just need to do one shot and alone, bc always working alone, how to imply narrative when working alone, just led her to film stills. didn’t wnat to make art that looks like ptg, but something looking mass produced—nothing to do with art theory, as though someone anyone will understand it. ‘i saw that in a movie’
- european movies, women look more blank. in a way character’s face isn’t really reacting. in between a reaction. just screamed or about to scream. you don’t know as a viewer what’s about to happen. film’s just been more influential to her than the art world. as a kid always watch tv in the basement, where she hung out with paints, projects, sit in front of tv and work on school projects or art projs, watching movies all the time.
hasn’t titled anything since film stills, those were only series with official title. indiv works were numbered according to the gallery.
some series named not by her, but by others writing books. fairy tales call, fairy tales bc she doesn’t know what else to call them.
centerfalls, also call the horizontals. didn’t wnat people to have preconceived notion of what they’re suppose to imagine this character to be. one of centerfold pictures which he calls the black sheets for obvious reasons, she thinks of the character as just woken from night out on town. has worst hangover and pulling sheets over her head, other people look at that thinking she’s a rape victim.
other series criticized bc ppl think she’s making too much fun of the characters she’s portraying ie hollywood hampton types.
recent work, mayb bc not so stereotypical, they seem extremely compassionate, poignant and moving.
in another series, pose as if for a painter. for hours, for days. a certain boredom. wants in some to have a bit of a joke. ie big nose on a young girl. breast as though like a half of grape fruit stuck to someone’s chest
hadn’t done so many man figures. rather easier than she thought it would be. sort of frozen in time with them, not anything emotional getting from the character other than they are just sitting there posing, looking like who they are. not done in any referential way to art history, just seeing how much she doesn’t care about it… but another thing that can influence her, along with television and cheap magazines. not any more relevant to her time than any of the other stuff.
when going to store, one particular thing in mind—for a character.
oft think, she can’t do this her whole life, her whole career. and in late 80s90s, she was experimenting more with taking herself out of the picture, where she’s just reflecting in something. a reflection in teh img. then eventually using lots of mannequins and dolls to suggest there’s a living person in teh picture while it’s all still life. a lot of that work, ppl assume she’s still there. hand is still hers, or eyes are hers, as though she still has to be in the picture somehow—though she’s not in the whole group of work.
it’s much harder than using herself. when not using herself, every picture is completely different.
wanted to make pics really in your face. before shooting anything. bc male artists do it all the time, they make a picture as big as the entire wall of the gallery. seems egotistical. she doesn’t know many women who do that, so she just wanted to do it. that’s part of it too.
