Rection to the residency

Please note: This is pretty long. I had way too much to say so I won't be heartbroken if you don't read it all.

Reaction to My First AIB Residency

Overview:

I left the residency tired but not worn out; more like my 3-year-old nephew who will keep playing until sleep is unavoidable and drops him mid-step. Never before have I had so much input in so short a time. Just seeing so many different types of art in so many different stages was enough to make me desperate for a new medium.
I am very thankful for the Thursday Orientation. It would have been much harder to jump into the program with so many new faces at once and no idea which one to turn to for answers. As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Everyone I spoke with was more than willing to answer my questions and send me in new and interesting directions.
The presentations from the Graduating students were very insightful. It’s good to know a bit about what I will be facing in a couple of years and how to (or not to) design my presentation. I felt much more comfortable with the flexibility of the program after seeing the different directions each artist took.
The Critical Theory Seminar was a big eye opener. All my back ground in Art History is concerned with photography and the commercial media industry so I was very thankful for the overview of some the major movements outside of Photography. Stuart is an engaging and highly animated speaker. I appreciated the fact that he was more than willing to let us digress and debate the slides and the text freely.
I enjoyed the diversity of the Artist Talks. Not only were they each working with different mediums but, they each had different ways of talking about their work. In all honesty, not all of their work resonated with me personally but I do feel I learned something from each talk.
Wegman was a well-needed break from Boston traffic. It was much larger view of his work than I have ever seen before. I was very entertained and only wish we had more time to spend at the show.
Most important: I count myself very lucky for the group of people that I will be moving through this program with. They are talented, friendly, creative, motivated, open and a little bit crazy. We have our differences but I think our personalities balance each other out fairly well. It is very clear to me after this first residency that having a good solid support group for this program is invaluable. Our group has already been trading reading lists, contest information, show listings, technical assistance, ideas, and even artwork. I am very excited for the future of each member’s art.
One last note about the food: I have no complaints about the food because I did not have to prepare any of my own meals for ten days and I enjoyed every bite of it!

Critique Comments:

• Images have a graphic design, commercial quality
• Could be book covers
• Beautiful but vague
• Too finished and complete
• Reminiscent of album covers from the 60’s and 70’s
• Some images seem to tell stories
• Open to interpretation
• Over processed – obvious use of Photoshop
• Digital manipulation = Surreal/ Fantasy
• Some surrealist clichés
• Less like traditional Fantasy and more like Surrealism
• Recognizable color palate

Critique Suggestions:

• Digital manipulation = Surreal/ Fantasy
• Cut back on the Photoshop
• Loose the “design elements”
• Think more about the message
• Study spirituality in art
• Find modern theories on spirituality
• Try using some borrowed images?
• Study surrealism to better avoid clichés
• Avoid flashiness and the dramatic
• Print on alternative materials
• Construct the image without Photoshop
• Use lighting and subject to create message, not Photoshop
• Flex your storytelling muscles


My thoughts on the critiques:

If I had known how overused the word “spiritual” was, I never would have mentioned it in my presentation. Without actual study of spirituality, my claim is a bit hollow. I have come terms with the fact than the final destination for my images is very evident in the final construction and display of my work. I have been designing images to sell in the Fantasy/ Sci-Fi industry for several years now. The images I submitted for critique were constructed with a book cover/ illustration destination in mind. Ultimately, I suppose that I should be thankful that my intentions for creating these images came across so effectively however I am a bit disturbed by the fact that I have fallen into an obviously commercial rut.
Several people seemed impressed by my Photoshop skills but the message behind all the layers and filters appears to have gotten lost somewhere along the line. “It’s beautiful . . . what are you trying to say?” Several people at the residency were quick to help me figure out that just about anything that is worked on in Photoshop has a “spiritual” or “surreal” look to it. The problem is not with the images but with the tool itself. I have gotten so wrapped up in the use of Photoshop that I have been using it as a crutch and forcibly layering my image with indistinct imagery.
The comment that my work is too technically “perfect” and “finished” is still difficult for me to understand completely but I am letting that one marinate for a while to see how it reacts with some of the other comments. I agree with Scott Landis that I need to get more control over my original image and “ . . .flex my storytelling muscles.”
Some of the most interesting responses were about my black and white images. The responses were all very different and each one gave me a little insight into the way my visuals affect people without all the Photoshop manipulations. Scott Landis spoke of Weston dissected and Eike said my 4x5 eviscerated fruit series bespoke of a woman dying old and alone. (I’m not quite sure how to take Eike’s comment but it did make me smile.)
Starting the program with a trial by fire presentation of my own work was not the most comfortable thing I’ve ever done but I find it very interesting to look at my notes for the presentation after the residency and realize how different my presentation would be if I had to give it all over again.


Where to go from here:

Over the course of the residency I realized that I had far too many ideas to fit into one MFA program. My biggest challenge will be to focus in on one idea or concept. I have found that I work better when I have a central theme to start from so, I have decided to focus myself on a subject that I have been fascinated with for years: communications. I am planning to investigate the effects of technology on inter-personal communication.
Photography has never been the only medium that speaks to me. It has been a convenient way to make money playing with visuals but I feel it’s time to expand on my ideas. I have worked with watercolor, acrylics, plaster, wood, metal, ceramics, paper, and fabrics; essentially, just about anything I could get my hands on. I plan to use the first semester to get re-acquainted with some of these materials. I don’t intend to abandon photography entirely; instead, I will be using all my other interests to help me construct my images without being so dependent on Photoshop. I will also be experimenting with alternate forms of image capture and sound capture and incorporating these into multi-media works and sculptures that deal abstractly with concepts of technology and human communication. I have started a daily sketchbook to get back into drawing the human body again and to help me to diagram my ideas.
With regards to the academic portion of my semester, I have arranged to sit in on an art history course this fall to catch up on things outside of the world of Photography. I will be focusing on readings that focus on how technology and society interact and how they are expressed in the art world. And, I have also selected a couple of texts on surrealism to gain a better understanding of surrealist symbolism that many people commented on in my work. To help me understand current technology social trends, I am exploring online realities and chat rooms as well as the etiquette of everyday modes of communication that are mediated by technology. The one thing that I hope to accomplish is that my methods, medium and message all work together.