Group Critique - February 18th

I will continue to post everything onto my blog because most of my other classmates have not created links to theirs as of yet.

During this critique, we looked at work from artists who had very different ideas, and used very different techniques to illustrate their work.

Ilana Cloud - We visited Ilana's studio in order to take a closer look at her work. Ilana continued to use canvases that contained abstracted paintings and different signatures on top of it. She had a variety of these paintings in that some where black and white, and some used very vivid, bright colors. In addition, she used a variety of sizes to illustrate her work. I have always found her work to be very primitively modern, which draws my eye in to look at her pieces. I enjoy the color palette she uses, from brights to very darks. I made a suggestion to her in one of her pieces, and perhaps others, that it would be interesting to see hand, finger, or even footprints on some of her canvases to emphasize the primitiveness her work exudes.
     Ilana also described to the group the way in which she plans to show her work in our thesis show. Ilana described a structure that was almost like a combination of a dome and a tent in which she would hang her work all over --- from floor to ceiling --- and engulf the viewer in it. I thought that it would be interesting to have different footprints leading up to the entrance of the tent to underline how she wants to express different cultures and nationalities.

Princess Belton - We also visited Princess Belton's studio where she showed us some of the paintings she was working on. Princess showed us a 3 paintings in which she glamorized Black models portrayed in hair books that are in over-exaggerated poses and heavy make-up.  In addition to these paintings, Princess also showed us an illustration of a woman who seemed regular, and had natural hair. This woman stood out to my classmates and I because of it's simplicity and because she was facing us straight on, as opposed to the other models that were turned to the side. Although Princess has changed her ideas for the thesis show a few times, her underlying concept has remained the same --- African-American hair. I believe that she has changed her project once again, but I am not sure what she plans to do now.

Jenny Chang - Jenny showed us some mock-ups of ideas she had for her graphic design project. Her idea is to take common phrases that are said in the United States and jumble them up, so they are wrong and not understandable. For instance, one of her sayings was "Like a good farm, state neighbor there." She intends to jumble up American phrases like many Americans jumble Chinese lettering. Many individuals get Chinese symbols tattooed onto their skin and do not even understand the culture behind it, or what it means. I believe Jenny is trying to express how it feels to the audience to misunderstand someone else's culture. She intends to place these different phrases on silkscreen in order to put them on t-shirts and hang them in the gallery. I think it would be more interesting if she had people wear the shirts and walk around during the reception. This would help to turn her piece into more of a discussion.

Alexandra Berger - Alexandra showed us some pictures of the sculptures that she is creating. She is using a mixture of materials, including a foam that hardens. She said she intends to make an environment of her project using items she's seen in some of her dreams. I believe she wants to make her objects glow in the dark, which I think would add a surreal quality to her overall piece and emphasize what she is going for.The term she used to describe this was "lucid dreaming". I feel that her project ideas are very interesting and fun, but she should narrow her focus a little bit more before she creates her environment in the show. Perhaps she should use one specific dream that she can remember very well instead of a combination of a few of them.