Lecture/Demo with
Peter and Donna Thomas, Papermakers and Book Artists
September 28th, 2012- Black Rock Press
September 28th, 2012- Black Rock Press
I can easily say that this was
one of my favorite lectures I’ve ever experienced. Everything about Peter and
Donna is so cool and inspiring…their collaborative artwork, their
do-it-yourself lifestyle, their broad definition of a book (something with
pages that’s meant to be looked at), and of course their little gypsy wagon
bookmobile!
I was reading Seven Days in the Art World when Peter
and Donna came to the Black Rock Press. The book reveals an art world that is far from the art world that I believe Peter and Donna
reside in, theirs being a world that is indebted to craft, that encourages
education and exploration, and that values the time and love put into the
handmade object. It was refreshing to see this lecture while reading that book,
because it allowed me to solidify my thoughts of what art world I want to
belong to, which is one similar to Peter and Donna’s, and definitely not the one illustrated in Seven Days in the Art World.
After the lecture I thought of a
discussion topic/question I would have liked to ask them which is: can you
discuss the significance that attribution or appropriation plays in the world
of book arts? For example, appropriating someone’s poem as content if a
hand-made book (in their case it could be John Muir’s poetry). Or the
importance of paying tribute to someone else’s words? It seems that this exercise
is very popular in book arts and is something I struggle with because I don’t have a huge desire to pay tribute to or appropriate anyone else’s
words, and I want to come up with my
own instead. Now however, this appropriation and attribution is something I
appreciate very much about book arts, and I see it as a positive characteristic
because paying tribute, having heroes, and being inspired are some of the most
important things we can do as artists.
#2
Prospectives ’12
International Festival of Digital Art October 18th
Panel Discussion- Wells Fargo Auditorium
in the UNR Knowledge Center
I felt rather
enlightened after this lecture given by recent MFA graduates and aspiring
doctorate students specializing in digital media. I do not feel as if I have a
better understanding of what exactly digital media encompasses even after
seeing this panel, but now I am much less inclined to simply turn my shoulder
and dismiss digital media art like I was in the past due to this lack of
understanding. I now realize that digital media art is extremely relevant,
especially for current art students, for we live in a digital age and it is not
at all surprising that some of us are going to use the latest technology that’s available to us as tools to make art;
that’s been done for generations and it will continue to happen. I also realize
that although a lot of digital art is presented on flattened, digital planes
like screens or projections (this flatness being something I dislike about
digital art), that this is not always the case.
The artist
I was most inspired by from this panel was Sophie Kahn. She’s the one who uses
3-D scanners to scan people’s faces, which were often processed on the screen
as fragmented, “broken” looking faces, which she morbidly and cleverly refers
to as “death masks.” After she scans the faces, she uses a 3-D printing software
to print these masks, which she then makes molds from so she can cast these
masks in materials like bronze, glass, or ceramic. What I appreciate most about
her process is that she is using the latest technology (3-d printing and
scanning) to yield a final product that is tangible, three-dimensional, and
semi-handmade, which is refreshing in a world where things are so often
represented on flattened screens. I was on the verge of asking her a question
but annoyingly, my nerves got the best of me. My question is, in a world where so much is represented
on flatted planes like screens or projections, can you discuss the significance
of making three-dimensional, tangible
objects and the role it plays for you as an artist? Thankfully she
referenced aspects of my question toward the end of the panel when Jeanne Jo
asked the students, do you consider
yourself a digital media artist?, by answering that she considers herself
more of a sculptor who uses digital media technology simply as a tool.
#3
Opening: In Other Worlds
Friday, November 9th at the
Holland Project Gallery
Currently on
display at the Holland Project Gallery is an exhitibion called In Other Worlds, displaying the
incredible artwork done by three separate artists: Kate Csillagi from Austin,
Texas, Andy Le from Mukilteo,
Washington, and Lucie van der Elst from Paris, France. Kate makes surreal,
childlike, and discreetly sexual fabric collages, Andy makes nostalgic black
and white photo-transfers with subtle hints of watercolor accents, and Lucie,
my favorite of the three artists, makes incredibly intricate and delightfully
imaginative collages using detailed paper-cuts. I was so enamored with Lucie’s
work that I purchased one of her pieces that night! This show is my favorite
show that I’ve seen at the Holland Project Gallery so far. The opening on
November 9th was mellow and heartwarming, and was followed by a very
sweet and imaginative puppet show of Penny
and Her Lower Case Kindred, done
by a local Reno chick, and then some local Reno bands. All in all the night was
a delight for the senses to say the least, and I left the Holland Project
feeling very much inspired. It’s great to see so much young talent in such a
supportive community. I believe that above all else, we as artists just need to
keep creating in whatever ways we can, for this can lead to some amazing
truths, even and especially if we don’t know what these truths are when we
begin creating in the first place. Yay for handmade, do-it-yourself art and
lifestyles!
One of Lucie's paper-cut collages
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