Studio SMP Critiques

Reena: Sculpture

Reena's sculpture is made up of a series of wooden, rectangular plains with red paint on selected edges. The plains connect and disconnected on a diagonal slant with some projecting out into the foreground while others remain flat. Reena's work before this project dealt more with box shapes but now she is focusing more on the surface plains. She wants her work to reflect a sliding movement and to approach the ideas of color and space. She is working on a larger scale in order to capture more of a sense of movement. Sculpture deals with movement from side to side but not as much from front to back. Work appears to be contained in it's space and the artist might want to think about displaying the wood panels in such a way that they appear to expand beyond their borders.

Ashley: Fiber/Portraits

Ashley displayed a series of three pieces. The first one represented spoons and the gradual tarnishing of the metal surface. The second piece had multiple impressions of the bottom of a muffin mold with oil cans stitched on top. Then the third piece had multiple stitch outlines of buttons ranging in size and style framed by paper shadow boxes. All of the work was stitched with thread. The idea behind the pieces is that of personal collections, how they develop, how they are displayed. Ashley tried to establish a personal and precious quality to the work by making the pieces small and intimate. The viewer has to stand closely to the work in order to see the detail. One of the main issues with the work is in its presentation of the pieces.

Tom: Photography

Tom created a photobook that contains image pairs. His intention is to focus on the connection or relationship between two things whether those things are people, places, or objects. He captured all of his images from his environment, nothing was staged. He originally wanted to create a 12 x12 book but has decided on a 8 x 8 book instead because it seems more intimate and friendly. Some pairs appear to be more successful than others. Tom separates the two images on the page with the white space of the paper. In some of the photos this works in creating a more spacial and linerary play on the eyes while some of the other images have more of a distinct break. To achieve overall success Tom might want to think about what direction he wants his images to take and how to express a common idea across all the images.

Vanessa: Drawing

Vanessa's work was a layout across the wall that contained drawing, magazine cutouts and household products. The pieces came together to reflect the journey of a young fox who reads a Cosmopolitan and follows the instructions provided in order to discover herself. The fox follows four steps in order to achieve this task. The steps were 5 religions one has to experience before they die, self-expression through fashion, how to find the man of your dreams, and how to find a great job. The images show this process and conclude with the everything backfiring. The intent is to display how female reading material tells women what they need to have the perfect life but in the end after they have done everything listed it can all still fall apart because there is not guarantee for a perfect life. The presentation was the biggest issue with the piece. The concept was interesting and the imagery and text was humerous but the display looked unpolished.

Postcard Proposal

" LADY DAY "

"If you hear a song in blue like a flower crying for the dew. That was my heart serenading you. My prelude to a kiss. "

Prelude to a Kiss

By: Billie Holiday

For my postcard project I want use Billie Holiday and Adrienne Rich. The images above are some of Billie Holiday herself and I have included a short lyrical clip from one of her many songs. I will use these as inspiration for the imagery that will appear on the postcard. I have not found as much information on Adrienne Rich that I want to use yet. I hope to pull from some of her poems and to use imagery that reflects the ideas presented in her work. Both of these women lived during the same time period and had a cultural impact on society. I have not fully decided on what kind of relationship I want to develop between them but I am leaning towards the idea of expressing their success in setting an example of what women are capable of despite the obstacles.