Resume First Draft

Here is my very sparse first resume draft. Any suggestions as to what I should add would be helpful.

Welcome Back Show Review

            Although there were a lot of pieces at the welcome back show in the Mason Gross gallery the pieces that really caught my eye were the two digital prints by Shane Whilder in the main room. Both depicted the same digital landscape in a pixilated mosaic-like pattern with the left one rendered in dark tones and the other in lighter tones. To me it looked like shots of night and day in some digital landscape. The landscape itself was very empty with just some rolling hills going off into the distance. No other shapes except for these rolling hills and the faded wash of color above, which I interpreted as a sky. They’re simple pieces visually but that’s what I like about them.

            They remind me of early 3D video game landscapes during a time when developers had to make full environments using barely emerging technology. To do this developers would first create an infinitely empty flat plane and then wall off the area that the player would interact with. The player wasn’t supposed to see this infinite plane of nothing but sometimes there were glitches where one could find himself outside of the set boundaries and wander around.

            As a kid this happened to me here and there and whenever I would see this it gave me this eerie feeling. Once I remember actually walking out into this nothing for a good hour and not seeing anything all the while having this feeling of loneliness. It was both creepy and strangely captivating. That’s what I felt like when I saw Shane’s pieces and the more I looked at them the more I felt that sense of infinite nothing.

            The piece that bothered me the most was next to Shane’s and it was the installation done by Raphael Ortiz that included a large poster and TV screen that continuously played “Brother Can You Spare A Dime?”.  I’ll admit that when it comes to Graphic Design I can be nitpicky but I usually don’t let it sway my opinion too much. However the poster Ortiz has designed was, as I saw it, not designed well. There were multiple cases of squished text and text that had terrible resolution, in fact the images even had poor resolution. I don’t know if there was a point being made with the design but if there was it went over my head because I was just focused on multiple problems I had with the poster.

            As for the idea of the piece I could see what Ortiz was trying to say but it seems to fall flat. Maybe it was because of the images of elephants raining down from teabags or the music playing over 1920s depression images or it just could have been the design flaws but I just couldn’t get behind the message the artist was conveying. I kept coming back to the piece trying to see it in a different light but I couldn’t bring myself to feel compelled.

Thesis week #1

I've decided that my thesis exhibition will be an interactive piece (and I'm set on making a musical keyboard that projects visual images as you play it but we'll see how that goes). In fact, after doing some research into interactive design, I'm beginning to like the idea of becoming an interactive designer. As I think about it interactive media is something that I've always been interested in but didn't know it. When I was younger it was video game design, creating characters and environments or writing up some code for some well known video game company. Through my three years of college I felt drawn towards web design especially the kind where the user can interact with the web site.

It was the idea of immersion. A painting can be beautiful but in the end its a static image. You can walk around and even touch a sculpture but it can't respond. That's what draws me to interactive design because you can set up a program to respond to your actions or create an animation that can be both static and in motion. Although I don't know how I'll go about doing it I can see myself working in this media.

As for my project I've looked around and this video (that I've found so far) best describes what I'm trying to accomplish: Clavilux 2000

Catherine Weiss is a painter/photographer still trying to find herself as a budding artist. Finding inspiration from her personal life Catherine uses both photography and painting to explore different ranges of emotion. Always trying to push herself into unfamiliar territory she works with a number of mediums and techniques to express her style of portraiture and abstract art.


Max Churak: Tell me about yourself. What are you studying here in mason gross?
Catherine Weiss: My name is Catherine Weiss. I'm a fourth year student majoring in Painting and Photography.

MC: What classes are you currently taking?
CW: Right now I'm taking Advanced Painting, Photo III, Thesis, and Abnormal Psychology.

MC: What got you started in art?
CW: Art's always just been something that I have always done since I was younger. As I got older, and continued with it, I decided that i wanted to take it further and go to college for it. I wanted to see how good I could get and where I could take myself with art.

MC: So you knew coming into college that you'd want to major in art. What prompted you to pick Mason Gross over the other art schools?
CW: Well I had heard that it was a good school for art from teachers in high school, and I wasn't looking to go too far away from new york so it was really great that they accepted me.

MC: Tell me about your work.
CW: My work up until now has mainly consisted of portraits. After I got through with the base classes, I wanted to take my try at painting people since it was not something that we got to do very often. I looked at alot of Alex Katz's work in making my portraits since I never painted the figure by itself. They were always in a type of setting, just like Katz's paintings.

MC: You mentioned earlier you were heading in a more abstract direction with your paintings. Any particular reason why?
CW: Yeah. I want to try my hand at abstraction because it's a new challenge for me. Not saying that I have perfected anything that I have been doing, but I'm looking for something new. I'm always searching for something, in painting. It may be, because I don't feel like I have found my place in it yet...I'm not too sure, but I think that more abstract paintings might effect a greater audience than a portrait, and I just want the feelings and emotions I put into my paintings to reach a bigger audience than possibly just the person in the set portrait.

MC: So you do both photography and painting. Which one are you planning on pursuing after graduating? Or maybe you'd like to try both?
CW: I would like to try to pursue both. In my art, both take from each other. I love both, but I figured that photography was great in the sense that it is more modern and I might have more luck in a photography career. That aside I want to be a studio artist. It would be a goal of mine to hang work in galleries in new york and other cities, so I'll see how it works out! I'm not too inclined to teach, but if it came to it, I would just for the fact that I would be able to continue with my own artwork. That's really all I want in the end.

MC: Alright so when you do work on a project whats the starting process?
CW: Alot of thinking. I always seem to get stuck since I don't just dive into the process of painting. Photography comes alot easier to me since I also shoot photos of people and people at events. Painting is definitely where i struggle. I usually spend alot of time beforehand gathering inspiration. Like I'll try to go out to the city to see some art, or walk around and see what my friends are working on. I always work from a photograph though. So if I'm ever extremely stumped I'll search the web for images of things that are interesting to me in my life at the time.

MC: Where do you usually find inspiration for your work?
CW: Alot of places, but mainly my emotions for people. Which I suppose is where a part of my wanting to paint people came from. Everything that I've ever wanted to do artistically comes from an emotion that has to deal with a person in my life. I don't always have the most fluid explanation about that, because it's confusing to me, but that's where my inspiration comes from.

MC: How have you enjoyed studying at Mason Gross for the past 3 years?
CW: I've loved it. I think about it alot how glad I am that this is what I get to do...for school! It's also a challenge, but I feel that I need to  be challenged because I have a hard time motivating myself. I've realized that I've really learned alot, so I'm happy.

MC: What are your thoughts about the upcoming thesis class and exhibition?
CW: I'm nervous and excited. I don't have too many thoughts at the moment, which is where the nerves are coming from.

MC: Any preliminary ideas for a thesis project?
CW: No actually. I just want it to be bigger than what I've been doing in the past.

MC: Will you incorporate more abstract paintings in your thesis project?
CW: Yes. If I do end up sticking to portraiture, they will have to somehow have to be abstracted in a way for me to be happy with what I'm doing. This is something that I have been struggling to do for a long time and i would love it if I could successfully debut this side of my work during the exhibition.

MC: What have you learned after four years of art school?

CW: I've learned that art is alot harder than I thought. The whole issue of intention and grabbing inspiration when it needs to be called upon is tricky. I've also learned though that I am always improving. I don't always notice it until the year later when I reflect on what I've done, but I've gotten alot better, and I guess that's what I've learned...to just, keep going with what you are doing.

MC: Who is an artist that you admire?
CW: I'm going to have to say Andy Warhol.

MC: What is it about this artist that interests you?
CW: Everything. I am interested in everything that he's ever worked on. Wether it be his art, or his involvment in the new york music and fashion scene. It's all things that interest me, and I would love to be able to do as much as he did. It just seemed like he did what he wanted and...that's what I love about him.

MC: What are your hobbies outside of art?
CW: I like to write and see live music. I feel like that's a hard question to answer for some reason since whenever anyone asks me about a hobby my whole life, I've just answered with "art". But my life is pretty much consumed by different types of art wether it be painting, photo, music,  and fashion.

MC: As an artist what is your goal?
CW: I've always just wanted to relay something to others. I'm very much for expression and leaving things behind to be remembered by. I want to reach out to people through my work. I want them to feel something, or remember something, or wonder about me. Anything. I just want them to think. If something I create can make someone wonder about something, that would make me happy. Even if it's just as simple as "Who is that person in the painting?"

MC: Would you say that being here at Mason Gross has helped you reach this goal?
CW: Yeah. Taking art to this level of study has made me really think about what I want to be doing. Like, is art just a hobby for me? No. I think it's something that was just inevitable for me to end up doing. I love it. So I don't know if I've answered the question that well, but I'd say yeah, Mason Gross has helped. Or helped keep me on my path to wherever I'm going atleast.

MC: So final question: what advice would you give to the younger college kids majoring in art?
CW: Stick with it and work hard, and if you can't find inspiration or need help, talk to the teachers you have access to. They're really smart and helpful I'm really shy and learned that almost too late.

Manuel Osterholt (a.k.a. Superblast)

            Manuel Osterholt (a.k.a. Superblast) is a graffiti artist turned graphic designer who brings his personal street style into everything he does. No matter the medium or project his style always shows, it’s Osterholt’s personal mark on everything he does. For Osterholt the need to express a style wholly different from anyone else drives him. It comes largely in part from his experience as a graffiti artist where one had to compete with other street artists to get their name known.   To date Osterholt has worked for clients such as Echo Unltd., Sony Playstation Portable and Converse and continues to tag (make up graffiti art) whenever he can. 

            What’s interesting with Osterholt is that he came into graphic design from a unique background. Brought up by a German father and a Greek mother Osterholt was introduced to two different cultures at an early age. As he grew older Osterholt found himself interested in the graffiti art scene and made friends with many well-known artists. He spent his adolescent years becoming acquainted with this underground art scene and met fellow artists from around the world. It wasn’t until his college years that Osterholt began studying graphic design and typography (of which he discovered a love for the latter).

            All of Osterholt’s designs draw heavily on his background in graffiti art as well as from other influences such as punk and skater subcultures. In this way we can argue that Osterholt is an amateur turned professional, one who creates because he loves doing so. For Osterholt graffiti has always come first and design is a byproduct of his style, which he uses to make his mark. Whether its on tee shirts or snowboards he uses that medium to express himself (much like an artist). It can be said that Osterholt lacks (or rejects) the formal training of the Bauhaus and modernism for a more personal style. What he didn’t learn from Bauhaus he picked up from graffiti art, which included a respect for letterforms. 

            Osterholt believes that in order to create great tags one must first have solid letterforms, first comes the letters and then the style. He also advocates having knowledge of artists past and their history not with the intention to imitate but to turn it into something new. Osterholt’s style is founded by these rules, which is why it is so solid and unmistakable. It is all at once a personal expression of who he is and what he thinks of the world around him.

            While this style is very compelling it is not universal, Osterholt himself acknowledges this. It would not have the same effect if it were applied to a bank or research center in fact it would seem out of place. Osterholt succeeds within a niche that allows for such expression. However this does not diminish the boldness of his style and even though Osterholt knows it is not universal he would still accept a bank as a client if the situation arises. He’d do it for the challenge and the opportunity to see how far his style can go. That’s very much Osterholt’s character, always pushing himself to do something fresh and new that is his own.

Citations:

Osterholt, Manuel Neo Utopia: The Art and Work of Superblast Publikat; First Edition, April 1, 2008. Paperback (160pg)

Osterholt, Manuel Superblast 2009. Web. 30 November 2010

            http://www.superblast.de/

Modernist Design and Films

            Out of every movement comes another movement that rejects it. It’s an endless cycle of one generation carving out a concept of reality different from the one before it that will ultimately be replaced by another concept in the future. The film documentary Monterey Pop and Jacques Tati’s satire Playtime both reject the concepts behind modernist design. At the core of both of these films is a focus on individuality and democracy. Where modernist design upholds neutrality, simplicity and hierarchy Playtime and Monterey Pop (especially) encourage personality, expressiveness and spontaneity.

            Although these two films are similar in their motives they are presented differently and react towards the principles of modernist design in different ways. Playtime directly pokes fun at modernist design by emphasizing the fallacies behind it. Tati shows the viewer a highly modernized city that appears orderly and structured but at the same time confusing, unemotional and inhuman. It’s this lack of humanity that Tati emphasizes as the film switches between scenes of modern Paris and old Paris (which still retains its charm and liveliness). Where modern Paris is a wash of dark and light greys with cold geometric shapes old Paris is a cacophony of vibrant sounds and colors.

            The film documentary Monterey Pop (named after the festival it details) does not directly object to modernist design like Playtime however the way it was filmed and the culture emphasized in the film separate it from modernism. Monterey Pop is a documentary about the legendary Monterey International Pop Music Festival held in Monterey, California in the summer of 1967. Boasting a number of well-known folk, blues and rock artists as well as up and coming acts like The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Janis Joplan this festival was a focal point for the hippie counter culture that was emerging alongside modernism.

            The film was shot in a raw unedited fashion that focused on the crowds watching the bands as much as the bands themselves. D. A. Pennebaker (the director of Monterey Pop) captures the chaos and energy of each band as they perform coupled with candid shots of the crowd and fairgoers. It is all at once spontaneous and frenzied, which differentiates itself from the controlled and clean rules of modernist design. Monterey Pop comments on modernism not by bringing it into question but by existing as an alternative.

            There is one other theme that unifies the two films and that is the democratic way in which characters are portrayed. There is no one thing to focus on in both Playtime and Monterey Pop because the action is always moving from person to person and scene to scene. There is no formula or guideline (like in modernist design) it’s just a stream of events. It is this disregard of convention that sets these films apart and that is why they are a breath of fresh air. There are many advantages to establishing rules and after the turmoil of WWII order and stability were highly appealing. But too much order kills individuality and in response to this loss of humanity films like Monterey Pop and Playtime rose up in defiance.

Week 7

            If there is one thing the article on April Greiman that has stuck with me it’s this: technology is advancing faster than we actually realize. This article was written around the late 80s and it has been 20 years since then, that’s almost a quarter of a century. In almost one quarter of a century ago digital art was just emerging (pioneered by artists such as April Greiman who continues to experiment in the digital field). By today’s standards the digital tools used to make this art are primitive to say the least.  The program Greiman uses is not familiar to me (it’s called Graphic Paintbox) but they do mention the application of Photoshop in her work. One of the most surprising things to me was the cost of this program: $400,000!  That is at least 40 times the price of similar software today, something that I integrate so much in my work used to cost the price of a small mansion.

            The reason I find this leap in technological advance so surprising is because (as I have just stated) digital art is my forte. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and all the others; these are the tools I use most often in my work. Therefore I find this article amusing in it’s excitement over a digital design that could be made (all processes of layout and printing included) in minuets with today’s technologies. It’s worth mentioning that the article actually does emphasize the fact that the emerging digital tools sped up the design process. However, this only pertains to the process of layering the design and later on Todd Hays (the author of the article) mentions that the printing aspect is still complicated and time consuming.

            At the same time this was still faster than any other design method and was actually revolutionary. Although Greiman sounds like she doesn’t know exactly how Graphic Paintbox works she nevertheless used the relatively new tools she had and experimented. I myself work in that way, playing around with the program before actually learning how it works, and for Greiman it was a step into new territory. Although I don’t quite agree with the poster she designed, which feels so much like early 90s graphics (something I have come to dislike over the years), it’s worth some merit that this was a style not seen before.

            Even as I discuss this article and marvel at the gap between technological advancements I realize that in another 20 years I’ll look back on today and find the CS5 set amusing. “Photoshop and Illustrator?” I’ll say with a nostalgic grin, “wow that was back in the day when we actually worked on a computer. It’s so much better working from a brain chip computer implant.” There will always be something new to replace the old with new technologies that outstrip the previous models. The best I can do as a designer is keep an open mind and experiment with the tools I’ve got.

Museum Piece:

·      Computers have made design faster and more fluid.

·      Greiman was one of the first designers to experiment with this new digital field.

·      Such technologies at the time were rather expensive but limited in the commands they included.

·      Greiman pioneered the use of hybrid imagery (whatever that means).

·      The emerging digital process (although faster in the layout process) still required time and effort when it came time to print.