UArts West

It was good to see painting graduate Lee Millard and his wife, Lisa, in LA this weekend. They were in town so Lisa could wrap up her connection to HGTV's Next Design Star (much Lisa adoration at this link). They made a few minutes to get together and go see SoCal: Southern California Art of the 60's and 70's at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (see above...note shadows of palm trees).

We keep hoping that the program will get wider in scope and take full advantage of the low-residency opportunities it suggests. That's a fancy way of saying, hey, if you're out this way, come see me. There's a lot to see and do in LA (regular reviews will soon be appearing monthly on hypercriticalwriting - my other UArts blog).

Hope all are well.

Morning Commute and Art Ethics

As I have been taking SEPTA's R8 into Center City this summer I have been reading the free Metro that I pick up at my origination station. In the August 7, 2007 printing I came across a book review that was interesting. The author of the book, Kate Chritensen, being reviewed by Amy Benfer, is quoted as saying about a main character in her, an artist, "I wanted him to be the kind of bad boy ass- who charms everyone, who gets away with it, never has to pay for his sins. So I made him an artist. It gave him access to women- naked woman. What other profession gives you that? Underwear salesman? Swimming coach?"

There you go. That is what the world thinks of us or atleast what Ms. Christensen thinks. Sounds like a fun life style. No wonder I chose this profession.

Visting Artist Laylah Ali

Laylah Ali presented a lecture to the program and its students and guests on Wednesday, August 1 and visited several people in their studios. Your impressions of the talk and anecdotes about the crits are welcome here.

Odili Donald Odita, Visiting Artist

Painter Odili Donald Odita paid us a visit on July 25, talking about his work in a variety of media and visiting studios. Your thoughts?

Visiting Artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons gave a fascinating lecture at UArts on Wednesday, July 18. While the faculty were stranded in a meeting, she made studio visits and spoke to several people about their work. What happened? You tell us.

Also, she mentioned her gallery - Gallery Artists Studio Projects - or GASP (founded with her husband, Neil Leonard) we thought you might like to visit. Follow the link.

Visting Artist Kukuli Velarde

Last week, sculptors, ceramics artists, and even a few painters got a chance to see and sit down with Kukuli Velarde. I know I was talking about her lecture to people for days, how did the studio visits go?

Do we need one of these...

I was just floating around the interenet, visiting the websites of other schools in the country to see what's goin' on in the MFA world when I stumbled across this interesting little gadget: The Roaming Art Gallery – a California College of the Arts invention.

Click here for more info.

Hiro Sakaguchi, Visiting Artist

Hiro Sakaguchi's lecture was Thursday, July 5, and we learned a whole heap about him, his work, and the cultural connections it draws upon. Some of you got to have Hiro in the studio (he's talking to Keith Gruber in the photo above), and here's where you can share your thoughts with the rest of us.

Visiting Artist James Hyde

James Hyde's lecture seems to have provoked a number of interesting reactions from students in the program. I had the chance to observe some of the crits he gave (in the photo, he's talking to third-year painter Tim Murphy). Carol and I thought it might be interesting if we shared some of the outlines of these conversations on this page, so look here after each lecture and feel free to post your thoughts and anything you might think helpful by hitting the "Add Comment" link below.

Next up, painter Hiro Sakaguchi on Thursday (Not Wednesday!) July 5 at noon.

(And, by the way, if the comments get out hand or someone starts advertising Viagra on our blog, we can make it necessary to have them approved before they go online...don't make me do that.)

Visiting Artist Kinga Araya

Kinga Araya's lecture on June 20 kicked off our summer lecture series and, before she started teaching Topics, she met with and critiqued a number of students.

You're invited to post reflections on her lecture or your crit here by clicking "Add Comment" below.

Hype

I wanted to give everyone a heads-up about an exhibit opening Friday at Gallery Joe. It's called INK! and includes work by William Anastasi, Astrid Bowlby, Emily Brown, Jacob El Hanani, Roland Flexner, Simon Frost, Gil Kerlin, Linn Meyers, Sharyn O’Mara, Samantha Simpson, and Martin Wilner. The reception is Friday from 6-8 and the show closes July 28.

If past years - I'm thinking those in which the question 'what is drawing?' seemed like a mantra- are any indication, the show will give us a lot to think about.

Extracurricular Source Analysis

The sub-heading to a story in the New York Times this morning:

"The tiny island nation of São Tomé may have attracted oil-related corruption without producing any oil."

The headline read, "No Oil Yet, but African Isle Finds Dealings Slippery."
Only when it's convenient for compacting a lot of information into a headline does the New York Times take an "assuming stance" on the corruption of the oil industry. This sub-heading assumes the reader believes the corruption of the oil industry is factual. It also states the position of the Times as believing the same thing.
Taking these underlying meanings into consideration, it also says less directly that the New York Times chooses to not write about the war profiteering that fuels the Iraq war and our continued interest in the Middle-East. And still less directly, but undeniably the fact of the matter, this sub-head states that this media organization, like most major media organizations is controlled. The proof is in print, as Harry Shearer is so fond of saying - "It's time to connect the dots!"

Thesis Nightmare: Is it too early for that?

I'm in a metaphorical football game. I've just hiked myself the ball and the plan is that I'm gonna run it – all the way. It's a tough run, I block myself from tackling myself several times. I'm gaining considerable yardage as the calls come closer and closer to leveling my momentum. I'm playing hard – I'm a "gamer" as they say. I reach my goal and spike the ball in a triumphant and manly downward stroke – as if I own the joint. The apposing team and its' administration crowd around me. It's made of smart, muscle-bound, 8-foot tall critics who are angrily pointing out that I've run in the wrong direction. I've run the ball directly into the sidelines of the apposing team. The overwhelming sound of thousands of people spontaneously bursting into energetic conversation with their neighbors floods the stadium as I'm washed away in it. Pointing fingers and hands thrown in the air of confusion lap my body as I rock uncontrollably in an ocean of dumb questions. My voice grows in a chorus-like mantra, harmonizing with the crowds babble, "these are the questions stimulated by your work, these are the questions..." Whirlpooling around the stadium-turned-funnel, I'm sucked through a tiny hole in the field of play. Lucky for me, the hole closes emitting only myself and an anonymous fans giant, foam pointy-finger. It's sitting in tall grass, pointing at me with the words, "YOU RULE!" printed across the knuckles. 11 beautiful women in white sun-dresses approach from behind me. They all want to put a hand on me and sit very close. They don't talk to me – they only talk to each other – in giggles. The Sun is at about 4:30PM on a beautiful summer day. The temperature's perfect – slightly warm with a cooling breeze. The air is a soft visible blanket of refracted light that stretches for miles across the grassy hills before us. My football team arrives – they're all sweaty versions of myself. Quarter-back me drops the ball and looses himself in the pile of women around me. My other team-mates follow suit while just over the hill in every direction, I notice the advancing heads of a beautiful, blonde army of girls. Then I realize they're all my girlfriend and they're armed with genital seeking heat-lasers. They ruthlessly open fire on my team-mates – castrating them one by one. I've been hypnotized by the version of my girlfriend directly in front of me as she trudges on towards me. She's the scariest because her aim is unmatched by the surrounding clones. She's the only one in the girlfriend army firing on the girls as she looks me dead in the eye. Alone on my back, lying in a lake of fire, she stands over me like a guerilla soldier wrapped in ammunition. She quietly scans the perimeter with her eyes and suddenly I feel safe and pure in the realization that I'm dating a Terminator robot.

Art critic or vandal...or have we forgotten something?

It was interesting to see the New York Times reporting on The Splasher. It seems some people are getting fed up with the successful street artists Shepard Fairey and others whose graffiti-inspired tactics have propelled them to modest levels of art-stardom. It would have been fun to get a copy of the Splasher tabloid...

But is adding to a work (or, some might argue, destroying it) a form of criticism? Street art is often discussed in terms of vandalism, and the response of the Splasher to the comodification of extra-gallery art is described an act of vandalism on top of that. But what about iconoclasm? Maybe the Splasher is a form of leveler, one who seeks to obscure or eliminate images based on the degree to which they are attracting un-deserved attention…

…but no one in the art world -- let alone the world of street art – is anyone getting un-deserved attention are they? No way!

When you need to get away this summer...

When you need a break this summer don't hesitate to go see Satoshi Kon's Paprika. There's only a few perfect movies in the world and this is one of those. What can I say after that? Don't miss it on the big screen – it's playing at the Ritz now. Below is a link to the trailer:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/paprika/trailer/

A little help from my ... iPod

I know. No one came here to become a writer. But I thought I'd share my latest excuse to care about sentence structure - Grammar Girl's pod casts.

I know. The only thing worse than diagramming sentences is listening to someone diagram sentences. But Grammar Girl's chipper and concise podcasts tackle thorny grammatical subjects with wit and insight, not schoolmarm-ish authority. She reminds us that writing well is communicating well - and that following the rules of doing so helps make the apparatus of writing disappear so meaning can become more clear.

If you're dreading the writing you have to do this summer, get ahead by tuning in and making being engaged. Afterall, you might as well work on all aspects of your craft while you're here...

Revving up...

Just a note to say we'll be renewing this blog for the summer. Hopefully it will get some use - alumni can follow what happens in the studios and when visiting artists come to town. Current students can snipe at one another (sorry - that's on our other blog!).

The big event of the week (aside from crits - expect terse posts from me) is Chris Houston's (MFA Painting '07) crit and BBQ on Saturday night. If you not heard, get in touch with him for details.

I also recommend the opening of Susan Arthur-Whitson's show at Yo Gallery (113 N. 23rd St) on Friday night from 6-9.

I'll be there. With jet lag.

Lecture @ Roger Williams

Hey everyone! I just gave a lecture on my work at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, last Tuesday. It went really well, and was the first lecture to that extent. It was nice to go to the New England area and visit Providence for a bit (even though it was through a car window). Anyways, the campus was beautiful and on a peninsula with lots of seagulls flying about.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Lee

Studios

There's always good reason to be interested in how others arrange their workspace, and I wanted to point readers to On My Desk, a blog that collects artists' images of their workspaces. Examples range form the overly domestic to the nearly industrial. The picture I've conected to is of artist Jane Ann Wynn's studio in Baltimore. The way she tells the story of moving her workspace around the house before finally building a dedicated space reminds me of an all-too-familiar narrative recited by artits in our program. Given the importance a studio plays in your success in the MFA program - and as an artist - I hope this chance to look at how (and where) others work is a little inspiring.

Warming up for Summer

It's gorgeous here in California, and I'm beginning to think about the sweltering summer in Philadelphia that's just around the corner. I'll be teaching Criticism Seminar with James Rosenthal, and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm especially interested in talking about Linda Nordin's piece in the February issue of Artforum - The Elephant in the Painting. I strongly suggest students entering thesis year read this and be ready to talk about it. I'll try to send out a copy when I can get a well-formatted PDF together.