This week was my a week to get on track and review my progress in class.
On Monday we had a lecture about the figure and body and had a photo slideshow on different artists’ works. Abstraction was a large focus this week. For our Monday afternoon workshop we had a live model for three hours where we used the medium charcoal and later oil paint. I have struggled so far with breaking the habit of naturally drawing the subject rather than shape and other exercises- this week I got to breathe a little and dive into color usage and my own visual “taste”. I thoroughly enjoyed the oil painting of our live model as the structured time and scale for each painting taught me how to act fast and stay focused on our subject. I gained more confidence in my messy lines and color usage post-critique this day.

Midterm-conference.pdf

Moving onto Wednesday, I chose New York artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s, “No Such Luxury.”
I did not completely finish my gridded abstraction but I posted the attempt as the last image. For our copy assignment, I used oil with medium on canvas paper. My second copy, the creative, I used the leftover paint from the first copy and used one palette knife on the cardboard-esque back of a finished canvas pad.
I love using and experimenting with color variation and decided I want to carry this into our final projects. Duve’s Tevet read from week three has got me thinkin’ about recognizing a painting as a painting and the idea of deconstruction and decay.
Wednesday afternoon I had my mid conference meeting and established a fair structural frame to better my success in this class and further my constant learning. My ideas for my final project were discussed and I am wanting to look at memory/experience, color theory, subjectivity and or objectivity, and my bathroom.
Moving into Thursday we brought out images of someone from the shoulders up- I brought in the one and only very missed beloved Zac Kresl! So cute.
Like always, I took forever to get started on the assignment but I worked with close detail and decided to “blow up” (scale alongside composition) my image on a larger piece of canvas paper. I still need to do some work on this piece. I will be focusing on color in representation of my work in abstraction.
For week six I look forward to our Seattle trip and visiting The Henry and museums downtown. The next upcoming weeks hold personal challenges in time and work management, group communication and meets, and balancing everything else to my fullest capability.

This week I fell behind in the workload due to out of school situational circumstances.
To combat this, I used my available time and opportunities in week five to catch up.
Having our mid-conference check in during mid-week five helped me organize work priorities, organizational/structural approaches.
For our painting copy assignment this week, I chose Luc Tuymans “Still Life” 2002.
I chose this piece due to the layered background and first noticing the purple and light blue undertones. The scale of the painting would also be a challenge as the subjects are small in comparison to the overall size. I struggled with managing the background color when painting the subjects on top. I overcame this by using a fast drying medium and learning how to control my brush and attend to deeper detail. I did not get to produce a second copy of this piece unfortunately. I turned in my essay and for the most part am close to not being behind. I was absent for Monday’s study of the skeleton.

This week we read the chapter “Still Life and Life and Death” from Painting Today, Thierry de Duve’s “Nahum Tevet: Works on Glass” and Amy Sillman’s “On Color”. We watched a recording of Thierry de Duve’s ALS to deepen our understanding if his critique and prepare us for our ekphrastic essay. I enjoyed Duve’s text the most and started to learn the difference between subjectivity and objectivity present in the minimalism/post-minimalism art period and how Nahum Tevet pushed these boundaries and focused on objectness and a painting as merely as a painting regardless of medium and material. On Monday group one got to visit the woodshop where we built our wooden frames and learned how to use the various saws. I am familiar with saws and more labor intensive work and enjoyed this workshop! I made a couple of frames and got to take one home I made with a classmate. From this practice I learned the basics on how to create a frame for stretching canvas on.
On Wednesday our Maureen Gallace copies were due for critique. For my direct painting (top image), I painted on top of canvas paper and started with layering colors followed by creating texture with my fingers and the ends of my brushes. For my indirect/personal copy (bottom image), I went straight for the color and challenged the scale and composition of the painting. I naturally see the color tones which make up the finishing layers of a painting and have a hard time layering. This was my biggest struggle in the direct piece- not breaking the rules and having to wait for the oil to dry and say goodbye to my beautiful dark moody pink and tan tones. I definitely learned how to become patient by using medium for drying, applying thinner paint, and realizing how powerful white titanium is in oil painting. I learned more of a structural/organizational approach to painting too. I put my best effort into detail work and texture in my painting with a deep emphasis on color and trying to keep the original hues present in the finished work. Reflecting onto week four, I still need to practice being more vocal and not waiting to speak up in lecture or critique. I also need to catch up with my group as we are slightly falling behind. The past weeks have been very difficult but I am still pushing to my ability!

Five skills I have learned:
Structure in painting
An organizational approach
Layering
Drying time
Different mediums to use with oil painting to create texture, drying time, etc.
Five terms I have learned:
Context of a body
Sense/knowledge of form
“Inhabited World” – Maureen Gallace
Dimensional
Objectivity/Subjectivity/Objectness/Literalism

This week we began with a critique of our Paul Klee inspired Fort Worden color blocks. I focused on techniques we learned week one with watercolor such as layering paint, creating texture, and paying close attention to how one color affects another. We looked at various works including Fairfield Porter, Giorgio Morandi, Cézanne, and Picasso. I learned the painting term facture in which means the thickness of paint and surface texture along with learning more about planes of color as a special element in painting. Recognizing vertical small places in a the development of a painting is crucial to creating dimension, relationship, context, and structure is a key component in visual arts. We read four texts starting with an introduction and chapter of Painting Today and James Elkins “What Painting Is”. In the introduction of Painting Today, I learned about the importance of painting and the transitional artistic history and artist intent. I enjoyed the example of of Mark Rothko and Philip Guston (15-16) during an arguable crucial and confusing time of painting. I learned the importance of individual style and constant curiosity and questioning in a high stake time period from Guston’s artistic intent and speech. In workshops we played with contrast and value as seen in our ball and bottle style to understand the relationship of light and composition (frame) in our own work. I struggled with not trying to draw our still life rather than focus on the shapes of the objects themselves.
Going into Wednesday, we had the privilege to attend the art lecture series featuring Tacoma artist and a fellow Tacoma School of the Arts grad (I’m the class of 2016 wooo!!!), Christopher Paul Jordan. Jordan commonly talked about graffiti and lettering as an influence highlighting the Bronx in the 1980’s alongside the of decay of infrastructure and rise in gentrification present in his own neighborhood. Jordan emphasized the need to reclaim and take control of surroundings, environment, and public spaces that belong to the black community as the displacement of black bodies continues in gentrification. The significance of a basketball hoop in reflection of his childhood and community was a powerful image and motif in showing the audience a visual landscape of decay and displacement in local communities and cities.
Overall, I felt confident this week and learned more artistic terms in preparation for our Maureen Gallace visual copy assignment due in week three. I enjoyed the ALS and am excited to keep being challenged and pushed to learn more of the technicalities of painting through readings, visits, and assignments.
Five terms I learned this week
Facture
Context of a body (Maureen Gallace)
Altered scale
Vertical small planes
Spacial element

Fort Worden, Fall 2018

The study of color, blind contour, and finding a frame assigned on our school field trip. The importance of being comfortable and working with the “unknown” as an artist.