Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Sister Corita Kent's rules on making art

Kevin Kremler, the MFA graduate student who graduated from UNR last spring, showed me this in the middle of one of what I like to call my "art-making-breakdowns" haha. I think all these rules are fantastic and incredibly important to keep in mind all day, every day.

 This link gives more info on Sister Corita Kent




First post! Ai Weiwei, Never Sorry


Alright, first time on the blog! A big step for me since I'm pretty computer-illiterate. Excited to get this going...please forgive me if I ramble or drift off using the oh-so-convenient “…..” I’m just going to try to be confident, fearless, deliberate, and try not to over-censor or over-edit myself, because I’m never going to get anywhere if I pretend I already know everything. 

Embarrassingly I had never heard of Ai Weiwei until yesterday when Joe sent out the email telling us about our trip to the theater.  I did some research beforehand, but didn't learn nearly as much as I did watching the film. Hats off to Ai Weiwei and all that he has done as an artist and a passionate activist. What an incredible story to say the least…his bravery and lack of self-censorship are admirable, although he doesn’t consider himself brave. It makes me thankful to have been brought up in a country and society in which dissent, free speech, and activism are acceptable and often encouraged.

Among other thoughts, I think the biggest notion I came away with from this film is the idea of the many different motives artists have to create artwork, Ai Weiwei’s motive obviously being dissent and activism. It made me wonder, does all art have to be critical of something? Can it be celebratory instead? Is being critical of something more impactful than celebrating something? Ai Weiwei’s work makes me feel like my art is somewhat ‘empty’ and not very profound…although everything is relative…because I do not feel that it my work is very critical...it is more celebratory than anything. And maybe that is because I’ve grown up in a society where free speech is encouraged as opposed to Ai Weiwei who has more to be upset about…And although there is much to be upset about in our time and country, I do not feel that I have to make work that is highly critical nor activism-based, and I can focus on what I find to be positive instead. And maybe my work is critical and I just haven’t figured that out yet…

Thoughts?