inspiration, hiding in plain sight.

So I've been slowly organizing my studio at school - meaning picking up random chunks of wood that have littered my space. I always like the post-creation mess. It's a great way to document the residue of the process. I've always been the type that documents my process every step of the way, taking photos and keeping records in my sketchbook. I like to look back and see how things evolved and the physical evidence I leave behind.

Pinned to the wall in my studio, from the very beginning of the year, was a photo I took last year from the Met. This was taken during my 'fascinated with shadows' period. It's a Giacometti sculpture. I probably didn't even realize that I look at this every day and I suppose my subconscious finally made me act on how much I LOVE Giacometti but didn't know it.

One of the things that I really had to determine when making my figures was my vocabulary. I had made several maquettes of the pieces and there were some structural decisions that I had originally made that I edited out in my final work. (not to say that I won't re-introduce them in my next pieces) I really tried this time to focus on what makes a male figure look male and what makes a female female.

In the one form, the male figure has a broad chest made by adding an additional piece to the chest area, but in the others they ARE very narrow and simple. Just two arms along the body starting at the shoulders. For the women forms I went with smaller pieces and created hips. For the smaller, children, forms, they had no extra pieces, just the plain form without any physical development. Post-Modern? or Neo-Post-Modern? I'm not quite sure. But there is was. Waiting for me to discover it.

Even once the work was done.

what's NEXT?

Sorry for being so quiet the past couple weeks. It's been intense and i'm just now getting my head above water with anything non-thesis oriented. Oh, yeah, that. Thesis. Dropped off on March 19th and have been working to get it fully installed for the opening on April 14, from 8-10pm.

What a strange place my worked ended up in. I don't think I saw the work happen until it was in front of me like an army staring me down before battle. I did it. My spring break was spent in the studio making the pieces that only arrived in my head a few days before. Jim and Janis were talking to me about my pieces and really encouraged me, and they punched me in the gut too. With their help and guidance, my hands were ready to make things.

I had to think really hard about what I was trying to accomplish with this piece and how trying to get to my original idea caused this new approach. I created an 'army' of data. One thing that I think was in the back of my head was that these tall devices that I wanted to make were actually figural. Once I knew that, they started to create themselves in my head and THEN I knew what I needed them to be.

I had many sketches in my journal, all with various approaches to expressing the form. During the critique for the work (in Gallery 31) -  the maquettes - a 4x4 secured to a 17 x 17 inch board on casters. I didn't realize how figural they were until they were out of my studio and in a space, and then with my artist statement, it was only obvious. Then, Ivan pointed out the same fact and I knew it was was the piece was supposed to be. NOT some strange video carts with monitors on them.

I spent many hours at Home Depot trying to figure out the best way to produce these forms without revealing hardward or their structure. But that was the easy part. I KNEW what they needed to look like, and then after some trial and error, I knew how they would be created. Then, the whole 'paint or don't paint' dilemma that the Jim and Janis critique made me think about.

One day down in the sculpture studio talking to Dan or Elliot (both probably) I realized that they were to be painted black. for some reason, in my head they were always black. After painting the first one, and then looking at the base, I realized the base needed to be the white part. But then, how did I connect these pieces to all my other work this semester and create a cohesive - or close to cohesive - body of work. Flame orange. Yep. The flame orange - SAFETY - orange duct tape around the first painting of the QR code, was to be what the sides of the bases would be.

It's like the data from the QR Code painting arose from the canvas into these structural formal figural forms.  Odd how that works. NEVER was this my original idea, but I'm so glad that I allowed flexibility in my process to guide me. (so very NOT the way I used to work)

The final pieces, 10 total figures, will now be gathered on the second floor of the Museum and visitors will be encouraged to move them around. The cameras have been their own adventure and the Dropcam staff have been incredible. The cameras will be battery operated and I'm currently trying to resolve how to keep a constant feed going. Right now the cameras are plugged in, and you know the drill - you can watch on your comptuter: jeffherrity.net/focusgroup

the new cameras are here! the new cameras are here!

Last week was like Christmas in February for me, four brand spankin' new Dropcam cameras arrived on my doorstep. I was so terrified that they would be delivered and stolen (it has happened in the past with Amazon purchases) that I didn't go to class - I just waited by the door. I started to set them up at home and had several up and running and it's amazing to me that the process got easier than the previous Dropcam I have. At one point there were three cameras pointing at me and broadcasting my every move. And, like for my last project Target Audience, the cameras are on directed at me in my studio at school. So, like the last project, you can go to my camera page at any time and watch me work. As you can see from the screen image - the two bottom cameras are the new Dropcam HD, the top two (really one) is my original Dropcam that I modified (which made it fuzzy). 

AND for a very special treat, you may even get to focus on my 'in-progress' critique on Monday February 27! Just go to: jeffherrity.net/focusgroup and you can participate remotely. My critique should be interesting because if I didn't get my cameras we'd all be sitting around talking about a blank wall. Instead, we get to talk about many different approaches I am taking to the work, and I should have a pretty clear picture of where I can go in my next steps leading to the thesis show.

(April 14 2012 by the way)

After Monday, I should know how the piece will be installed in the museum and so the ominous March 19 drop-off isn't as terrifying to me now.

I suppose that I can make my official 'things I have to do to get this project done' checklist.

yikes.

will work for art

Well, I began my final semester of my fourth year in my BFA/MAT program here at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. I also have begun the first of my two consecutive years of thesis work. First up, fine art thesis. My thesis preview work has been well received and I think a great chance for me to begin to think about how I take a 4x4 foot tile piece with an embedded camera to the 'next level.' When I created that piece, I had some pretty clear thoughts about what the work was accomplishing, and what I was trying to communicate. It wasn't until my critique for that work that new ideas came to the surface and I realize that the work is about some other things that also fascinate me.

Surveillance. Watching. (not in the creepy way) What does it mean that we live in a post-9/11 world where we are constantly living our lives on cameras?  Is this for our safety and protection, or an invasion of our privacy? Are we different people when we know we are on camera? How does marketing influence the art world? How does technology influence our connectivity and communications with each other?

This is the direction my thesis work will be taking and I'm still in heavy research mode trying to understand my work. I know - at this point - how the 'piece' will be in the museum and the cameras have all been ordered and sketches sketched.

Because the nature of my work is marketing and communications it only made sense to me that I needed to involve sponsors to help me finance the work. I've been talking to friends that have small businesses and have had a great response towards my sponsorship goals.

I've created different levels of sponsorship, and there are many great benefits to them all. First and foremost, they get their company logo and name included in my artist statement, and incorporated into the piece in some way. BUT, the hidden benefit is that each level of support includes several hours of my marketing consultation time. Considering I spent over 15 years as a consultant, it only makes sense that support of me and my work translates back to MY support of my sponsors work. Perhaps this is the nature of the piece, this technology driven communication and connection between two individuals is really structured on a barter system.

please contact me if you want more information on sponsorships. And, watch this blog over the next few months for regular updates on my thesis project, and information specific to my sponsors. It goes without saying that I would like you to support them as well.

"boy, what a great show." - mike teavee

"Look at me, I'll be be the first person in the world to be sent by television!" - mike teavee Growing up, I loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder. To this day, the movie creates a sense of wonder in me and every time I watch it I want to be one of those kids who explores the great unknown world of Willy Wonka. (Don't get me started on the terrible Tim Burton version...) To me, Gene Wilder is the only Willy Wonka.

There is one moment in the movie that has stayed  with me all my life, and probably in some way guided me into a career in the internet. The scene where Willy Wonka is transporting the chocolate bar across the room and all the bits are zooming above everyone's heads. That also kind of freaked me out. But it has made me think about how we share information today. We send information, now wirelessly, almost anywhere. I always think about these little particles of information constantly floating over my head in our wireless wi-fi world. We even store our data in some magical cloud now. (which also totally freaks me out)

We have iDevices that allow us to pay our parking meters, video chat with people on the other side of the planet, control our homes while NOT at home, and surveil our surroundings. We can look and interact anytime, anywhere.

My latest piece that I have been documenting on this blog is nearly complete. Today I finished all of the grout work on the tiles, and I just need to wait for it to cure before I embed the webcam. This piece is also about how we see, and how we watch and how we look. But, at the same time, it's about how we are looked at and how we are seen, even when we don't know it.

As we all know, i've been exploring the current marketing phenomena - QR codes - and how through our devices we are able to quickly get a marketing message. That seems weird to me; companies are doing very little work to get their messages to us. WE do all the work. It only takes a few seconds to make a QR code. It's a total marketing win - just put this little doohicky on things and people will scan it and hopefully buy something. The ROI on these must be astounding.

But, what happens when these codes look back at us like we are animals in this greater marketing zoo? What would the QR code see?

I've been giving much thought to how people see with their new iDevices and how we use them to interact with our environment and the gallery space. Like I mentioned above, my large ceramic QR code has a webcam built into it. This webcam will broadcast, via the internet, a feed of the people interacting (scanning) with the code. This information will be transported to another part of the gallery during the show - much like Mike Teavee - and put back together so everyone can see themselves as they are seen by this code.

AND, even if you are not able to see the show in person, you can watch from wherever you are via the wondrous powers of the  internet. I've even been broadcasting the creation of the piece if you have been watching - and I know you have.

enjoy the show.

seeing the light.

Even though John and I specifically went to the Naples Museum of Art to see the Nevelson sculptures, we also walked through their collection and other special exhibits. For such a small museum, they have a great permanent collection and some fun temporary exhibits. Stephen Knapp's Lightpaintings exhibit blew me away. Because I'm so fascinated right now with utilizing light and shadows in my work, seeing another artist (not like he or I are even remotely the first...) who is using organic shapes and a light source to complete the work made me very excited. I usually gauge how much work moves me by how quickly I think to myself "I want to do that too." Of course I would never blatantly copy another artists work, unless for purely learning reasons and then I would never show the work as my own. Duh.  But I like to think how that specific artists work, and statement about the work, intersect with my own and then what I could use to 'make it mine' or enhance something I am working on.

I had already been thinking about how I can make my porcelain surfaces more reflective and how the reflection would interact with the viewer and the piece. I remember from my last contract in CORE studio last semester that I wanted my shards to hang from the ceiling (or from a structure or whatever) and then have bits of mirror on them and when the projector was shining, the room with dance with the light. Thankfully my studio instructor Lisa kept reigning in my flood of ideas and I ended up with the floor piece and the wall work.

These lightpaintings are also a revelation to me because as much as I would like to be a master painter, the chances of that happening in my lifetime are slim. This has made me think how I can apply my own skills and 'vision' and make paintings of my own, but with materials that are more familiar to me.  Even before seeing this show my sketchbook was quickly becoming filled with ideas for work along these lines and seeing Mr. Knapp's work has inspired me to go even further - to 'get dirty' with the ideas.  It is sometimes frustrating being in Florida for the summer for me because I cannot act on these clay urges as quickly as I could at home in my brand spankin' new studio. (What's even worse is that the one clay/ceramic studio in town where I COULD get my hands dirty is now a Jiu-Jitsu place - SOOOOO not the same experience.)

Seeing his work also makes me think alot about how the shadows will be cast from the piece. His work is often mounted directly to the wall with brackets and then also mounted on boards/MDF perhaps, and then mounted on the wall. for obvious reasons, the directly mounted pieces of glass have a much bigger impact visually and the scale is almost overwhelming. The 'smaller' pieces that are mounted on wood bothered me at first because their was an additional shadow cast from the mounting. Looking back I realize that those pieces are just as strong to me because I really like the 'frame' that the shadow creates. Very interesting effect.

One other thing that I struggle with in my shadow work and that this exhibit confirmed to me is that the light source CAN be integrated into the piece and not hidden. In my work I did a combination of hidden light (projections) and the flashlight on the floor. Being in art school often means that even the smallest decisions are going to be attacked if there isn't some deep hidden meaning to their inclusion. In my case, I sometimes just want something shiny and pretty. having a flashlight on the floor had no hidden meaning (but I could bullshit one if I had to...something along the lines of 'the flashlight is the ghost hunters friend and in this case...blah blah blah) No, it was just the light source, and that's ok.

I'm sad that the museum closed and I couldn't go back to buy the show book, which isn't on Amazon, and to just sit in the room and spend time with these pieces.

forest through the trees.

Usually John and I arrive in Naples at the very end of June and so we never get to go to the Naples Museum of Art - it closes on July 1 for the summer. I suppose the few tourists that come here in the summer do not have 'visit art museum' at the top of their to-do list. Luckily, this year we arrived earlier than normal and were able to visit.

I was lured there mostly for the Louise Nevelson: Dawn's Forest installation. I think that I have only seen smaller works and larger works but in black. In white they have a completely different presence and both John and I wondered how they were lit at night and what that did to them.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of it, and being the ever obedient museum goer, I took as many sneaky shots as I could. The one above is from the museum website. The ones below just magically appeared on my iPhone. Art elves put them there...

From the ground level, you can get a great feel for the scale of these giant pieces, some of them up to or over 28 feet in height, and then several hanging from the glass-domed ceiling like the spanish moss that is everywhere down here lazily drooping towards the ground.

From above, the second floor of the museum I took the picture looking down and was once again struck by what the shadows do to the work - it borders on chaotic. But I still love it and her all of her other work.