AIB - MFA Coelynn McIninch

Shooting Blind

2009-02-26T23:49:00.002-05:00

http://www.seeingwithphotography.com/swpc_home.html

They have no sight.
They make images.
They paint with light and wait for some one else to describe the image back to them.
Then they paint the image into their mind . . .with words.

To know so completely that there is something wonderful there and to never see it or touch it.

When faith lies in the stutter of emotion, from the voice of a stranger.

I am still mesmerized . . .

mental dump

2009-02-26T23:34:00.002-05:00

Interactions with intangible technologies are altering our faith in the mind body link and weakening our hold on the physical.

Advances in science have given us answers to many of life’s mysteries.
Omniscience is stagnation, an end to creativity and an end to learning.

Expansion of the self beyond the physical body has weakened the link to the flesh that houses it.
Dislocation from the physical makes us all ghosts in nature and gods in the machine.

Where do we go when the power goes out?

When we detached our self and launched the psyche into a universe where we are in total control of all actions and appearances without age, deterioration or physical risk we tend toward hubris?

When you are a god, why do you need religion?

Anonymity is safety

Is language a substitute for human interaction and sensory clues?

Can images replace words?

Can words replace images?

Are words images?

Coe's apples

2009-01-30T17:21:00.004-05:00

This was a mental exercise with a hint of Joseph Kosuth: ie. 3and 1 chairs.

Mine was more a 4 ways apple.

1- Hyper-real / Photoshop version on the wall.
2- Video montage with pretty lighting and just a slight mist of glistening water droplets.
3- Audio of the apple being eaten.

All 3 digitally captured/altered and rendered

4- is the actual rotting remnant of the first 3 in a museum display box.

Presentation was not the main concern here, just the idea to play with and ponder.

Mental Architecture 2

2009-01-30T17:00:00.004-05:00

Vague, symmetrical
like the perfect memory
of a perfect face

or the easy calculations
of a virtual space
either way . . .
your choice

Mental architecture

2009-01-30T16:56:00.002-05:00

Implied structure. In cyberspace and mental space who needs walls? At least we know the floor will always be in the same place?

lifeless

2009-01-30T16:46:00.005-05:00

I can feel you but I can't touch you.

The nothing box

2009-01-30T16:07:00.006-05:00

This is a nothing box.

There is nothing special about the box itself
It's just wood
Its empty . . .and not
There is something in it
You cannot see it
You cannot hold it
It has no color
It has no shape

It is sound
the sounds of my memories
maybe they are familiar to you

people react to the nothing box in the most peculiar ways

When it chirps, they are surprised
When it ticks, they hold it suspiciously
When it sounds like water, they hold to one ear like a shell at the ocean.
When it purrs, they cuddle it

There is nothing special about the box itself.
It is just wood.
It is empty . . .and not

Post residency re-cap

2009-01-30T14:31:00.004-05:00

On the live-vellum -
the consensus is . . .

1) the sensual glowing screen of vellum should be made as a horizontal plane
2) to make it more accessible
3) to isolate the focus of the viewer (as they look down, the surrounding space disappears)
4) projecting on the same cloth it was shot on is poetic (death/re-animation/etc.) but frankly, it looks like shit.
5) the video is too slow now and probably needs a bit more side lighting to increase the shadows.
I'm working on the possibility of projecting from below and hiding the technology as much as possible.
Other than that . ..
It is still fascinating to watch.

peace

2009-01-28T21:30:00.003-05:00

the cold
the dark
the gentle rest of a universe in transition

the pause in thought that occurs when you are waiting for something to happen
while listening for confirmation of something whispered
the border between existence and the abyss
a richness that we naively call the void

It is the sum of all possibility
when all is removed and you can almost feel the hum of eternity as is slows
to a standstill
just before changing direction

It is that solitude that gives me peace

Quote for the Week 1/28/09

2009-01-28T21:26:00.001-05:00

"The heart of magic is illusion and without the cooperation of gullible men, there would be no magic at all"
-still can't find the source but its in this pile somewhere!

BUGS!

2008-10-18T20:58:00.005-04:00

update

2008-10-18T20:56:00.001-04:00

Moon city

I have a stand for this . . . .
It is still fighting me but I will post it once I have tamed physics . . . .

bits

2008-10-18T20:47:00.004-04:00

This chair was in the trash at a state housing facility.
The man who owned it died and the family didn't want to keep it.
It barely holds MY weight but he must have kept it for some reason.
It was made in the 40's.

I like to imagine what the man looked like who owned this chair and what caused each of the marks on it's surface.

I covered the seat with butterflies because they remind me of an old storyteller I used to see in Harvard Square when I was young.
His name is Brother Blue and he is always covered in Butterflies.
http://www.brotherblue.com/

My white cube

2008-09-12T21:45:00.002-04:00

Much easier to design an installation when you have your own portable white cube.
(That's my little helper Edna in there)

Ooooooooo Shiny

2008-09-12T21:41:00.002-04:00

Like liquid silver ......

Moon houses

2008-09-12T21:13:00.004-04:00

Accidental magic is the best kind. It always seems to sneak up on you when you are looking for something else entirely. And if you are not looking at all . . . .it will pass on by without a care. . . .

from Sticky Sublime - Beckley

2008-09-12T21:03:00.002-04:00

"To acknowledge the sublime is to admit that there is something, God or nature, that defines and transcends human culture and what it means to be human."

just for fun

2008-05-13T20:37:00.002-04:00

touch

2008-05-07T21:00:00.006-04:00

I just learned a bit of Final Cut Pro and quick time

This is the diffusion test w/o the vellum:
I find this one a bit creepy . . .

Just hands - this was supposed to be about touch but seems to go way beyond
into issues of voyeurism surveillance, eroticism and sexual ambiguity . . .
Let me know what you think. . .

"The Curator" by Miller Williams

2008-04-29T22:31:00.004-04:00

it just occurred to me . . .@10:30 pm . . .how much this poem has in common with everything that has been tumbling through my head.

Read it first, mull it over, come back for my reasons why it draws me in.

The Curator

by Miller Williams

We thought it would come, we thought the Germans would come,

were almost certain they would. I was thirty-two,

the youngest assistant curator in the country.

I had some good ideas in those days.

Well, what we did was this. We had boxes

precisely built to every size of canvas.

We put the boxes in the basement and waited.

When word came that the Germans were coming in,

we got each painting put in the proper box

and out of Leningrad in less than a week.

They were stored somewhere in southern Russia.

But what we did, you see, besides the boxes

waiting in the basement, which was fine,

a grand idea, you’ll agree, and it saved the art—

but what we did was leave the frames hanging,

so after the war it would be a simple thing

to put the paintings back where they belonged.

Nothing will seem surprised or sad again

compared to those imperious, vacant frames.

Well, the staff stayed on to clean the rubble

after the daily bombardments. We didn’t dream—

You know it lasted nine hundred days.

Much of the roof was lost and snow would lie

sometimes a foot deep on this very floor,

but the walls stood firm and hardly a frame fell.

Here is the story, now, that I want to tell you.

Early one day, a dark December morning,

we came on three young soldiers waiting outside,

pacing and swinging their arms against the cold.

They told us this: in three homes far from here

all dreamed of one day coming to Leningrad

to see the Hermitage, as they supposed

every Soviet citizen dreamed of doing.

Now they had been sent to defend the city,

a turn of fortune the three could hardly believe.

I had to tell them there was nothing to see

but hundreds and hundreds of frames where the paintings had hung.

“Please, sir,” one of them said, “let us see them.”

And so we did. It didn’t seem any stranger

than all of us being here in the first place,

inside such a building, strolling in snow.

We led them around most of the major rooms,

what they could take the time for, wall by wall.

Now and then we stopped and tried to tell them

part of what they would see if they saw the paintings.

I told them how those colors would come together,

described a brushstroke here, a dollop there,

mentioned a model and why she seemed to pout

and why this painter got the roses wrong.

The next day a dozen waited for us,

then thirty or more, gathered in twos and threes.

Each of us took a group in a different direction:

Castagno, Caravaggio, Brueghel, Cezanne, Matisse,

Orozco, Manet, da Vinci, Goya, Vermeer,

Picasso, Uccello, your Whistler, Wood, and Gropper.

We pointed to more details about the paintings,

I venture to say, than if we had had them there,

some unexpected use of line or light,

balance or movement, facing the cluster of faces

the same way we’d done it every morning

before the war, but then we didn’t pay

so much attention to what we talked about.

People could see for themselves. As a matter of fact

we’d sometimes said our lines as if they were learned

out of a book, with hardly a look at the paintings.

But now the guide and the listeners paid attention

to everything—the simple differences

between the first and post-impressionists,

romantic and heroic, shade and shadow.

Maybe this was a way to forget the war

a little while. Maybe more than that.

Whatever it was, the people continued to come.

It came to be called The Unseen Collection.

Here. Here is the story I want to tell you.

Slowly, blind people began to come.

A few at first then more of them every morning,

some led and some alone, some swaying a little.

They leaned and listened hard, they screwed their faces,

they seemed to shift their eyes, those that had them,

to see better what was being said.

And a cock of the head. My God, they paid attention.

After the siege was lifted and the Germans left

and the roof was fixed and the paintings were in their places,

the blind never came again. Not like before.

This seems strange, but what I think it was,

they couldn’t see the paintings anymore.

They could still have listened, but the lectures became

a little matter-of-fact. What can I say?

Confluences come when they will and they go away.

2008-04-21T16:29:00.002-04:00

Here's vellum and video (not my video, just a test)

tangibility

2008-04-13T13:39:00.007-04:00

I think I have pinned down what bothers me about technology and this web thing that I'm dumping coded information into.

It's all about the senses and empathy.

I can sun feel on my skin - but it does not touch me
I can feel music in my bones - but it does not touch me
I can smell a storm coming - but it does not touch me ('till it rains)
I can see colors - but they don't touch me

(Ok . . . scientifically we can argue for radiation, vibration of particles in the air and stuff like that but I'm trying to be poetic here so don't spoil it.)

I can shoot pictures with my digital camera - but the image has never touched the object (it's just a translation, not an imprint)

I can "chat" all I want - without body language, intonation, or sight.

There is distance there that I can't control or overcome.Direct interaction is important to me and now I find myself in a world full of distance and intangible possessions and interactions.
Here's few:

Diary = blog
Sketchbook = Photoshop
Photo Album = Snapfish
Slide show = Powerpoint
Books = ebook
letters = email
record = Mp3
Newspaper = MSNBC etc.

Crowds of people all in there own little worlds isolated - but not

I can connect myself to the four corners of the earth (funny, it being round and all) and still walk and chew gum at the same time. (or drive and drink a coolatta at the same time:)

I'm not so sure how I feel about this technological omnipresence thing. Suddenly my sense of self is located in all different places.

Here's an old question: Am I my physical body or the sum of all my cognitive connections and mediated translations?

Do I really need to be connected to everyone and everything? -No
Does it really matter if I know everything that is going on all over the world? -No
Do I really need to know who's winning on America Idol? -No
Will the world still carry on without me if I shut my cell phone off for a day? -Yes

So why do we get so disjointed when we are disconnected?
Maybe it's because we aren't really connected so we keep logging-in, tunning-in, and calling-in hoping for something more tangible but we sign-off, click-off and hang-up feeling unsatisfied by what was received.
Just blatantly mediated and translated brushes with the world.

More later

vague material

2008-04-13T11:45:00.009-04:00

In my search for tangibility I found a vellum that feels like human skin.
Sensual and Creepy

So I brought it home and played with it for a bit.
Then I added to it a bit.
Then I played with it a bit more.

This is a vellum backing with maple leaves punched out of vellum and acetate glued to the surface.

This is what happens when it is lit from behind.

This is what happens when it is lit from behind without the stupid florescent lights that are the bane of my creative existence!

I am really enjoying the translucent nature of the materials and am working on projecting video through the back.

More on that later . . .

flashbacks

2008-04-13T11:28:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you just have to play:)

When I was about 5 years old, I lived in an old house with big cast iron radiators.
They would hiss and steam and leak all the time. So one day I made the logical leap that seems so simple for a small child:
the radiator is hot -
heat melts things -
crayons melt-
So . . .
I took an entire box of 64 Crayolas, (the kind with the built in sharpener)
and melted them, one by one, on my radiator, dripping and melting and mixing all the way down to the floor.
I thought it was it was beautiful, my father did not share my concept of artistic genius.

In the dead of winter, he shut off the heat and handed me a bag of steel wool to scrub away my colorful experiment.

If only I had a radiator . . . . until I find one . . .

Lee Walton ICA

2008-04-13T10:56:00.005-04:00

http://www.leewalton.com/index.html

I happened across Lee Walton's site by accident and the world got a little smaller.

I signed on to his mailing list and ended up joining in on one of his live performances that was staged at the ICA.

The project:

"Collaborating with the Teen Arts Council at the ICA and students from the Art Institute of Boston, a series of postcards have been made and will be available to the spectators. These postcards will be the "key" to witnessing the performances that would otherwise go unnoticed."
link to the project web page

As you can see, I got card #8 and a spiffy blue sweater.

The card reads:

"Today, at precisely 2pm, a person wearing this sweater will be outside the museum looking in. She will have an orange in her pocket."

Arno Minkkinen

2008-04-13T10:46:00.007-04:00

http://www.arnorafaelminkkinen.org/

Talking with Arno is always a joy. He has such a simple gentle humor that is both poetic and profound. I have met him on several occasions but, this is the first time I have heard him speak about his work.

More Later . . .

Leonard Ragouzeos

2008-03-25T10:15:00.008-04:00

Big Drawings-
Leonard Ragouzeos: http://www.leonardragouzeos.com/
Hammond Gallery: Fitchburg State College

Angie @87
india ink on paper
108x60

41 years of teaching!
This man knows how to handle a shy crowd of students.

The talk was held in the gallery proper. He started with a brief history of his education and teaching history then started right in on talking about the current work in the gallery.

Introduction finished, he turned to the crowd (mostly undergrad students) and said with a smile: "Ok, I've been teaching for 41 years so, first I'm going to give you the answers to all the questions I know you are going to ask me and then I'll open it up to whatever I may have missed."
I couldn't help but chuckle as he asked himself questions: "what kind of paper are you using? . . .Yudo", "what kind of ink? . . .india ink","why work so big?" . . .to be immersed in the work visiually,"why not color?" . . . .color carries extra meaning","do you use photographs for reference?" etc . . . .
Once he opened the floor to further questions everyone was smiling and the students felt perfectly comfortable asking further questions.

His answers were longer than I recorded here but it's the visual of the artist wandering the gallery holding this pleasant question and answer session with himself that I remember most about the show:)

The work itself is amazing! The image at the top of this page was just slightly too tall to fit in the gallery but if you check out his site, the majority of his other "Big Drawings" were on display.

The paper is thick and glossy, not absorbent in the slightest. He works with a brush in one hand and a hair-dryer in the other to dry the ink before it travels too far down the wall. Thousands of strokes are built up and overlapped to create each image. Up close the drawings look completely hap-hazard and chaotic.
As you pull away from the image every random gesture and chance act of gravity on ink coalesces into an image with the vaguely translucent glow of pale skin at dusk when the daylight has faded just far enough for the color to drain yet the form remains.

I'm Back!!!

2008-03-25T09:41:00.002-04:00

For those of you who did not know, my girlfriend has been very sick for the past 2 months.
Doctor's visits, grocery shopping, medical research and an overactive mothering instinct have kept me completely drained for several weeks.
Fortunately, the new medication ($75 for 10 days!) is working great and her weight is up from 94lbs. to 102lbs. in the past 4 days:)

In all honesty, I did very little MFA work and spent almost no time in the studio.
I had a good week in the studio this week.

Thanks Lynda for passing along some wisdom about creating every day, no matter what, just get into the studio and do something!

Quote of the month

2007-10-24T17:17:00.001-04:00

The Positive Side Of Life:

Living on Earth is expensive,
But it does include a free trip
Around the sun every year.

Just a few on what I'm Makin'

2007-09-14T13:09:00.000-04:00

This is my studio space!
Lot's of room but small windows and lot's of ventilation noise. And . . .oh yeah a huge pile of used photo equipment.

Follow this link to see some close-ups of what I'm makin'.

http://www.coelynn.com/aib/projects1.html

Water influenced by thought?

2007-08-08T16:04:00.001-04:00

Fujiwara Dam, before offering a prayer

Fujiwara Dam, after offering a prayer

Masaru Emoto:
Messages From Water:
How Water Structure Reflects Our Consciousness

(And the shift of cosmic power and personal responsibility drifts a little closer to home.)

Some thoughts

2007-07-31T15:25:00.000-04:00

I have gotten a bit stuck on the theories behind Dark Matter and Dark energy. This was sparked by a reading suggestion from Tony Apesos: His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman - Laurel Leaf 2003 . An excellent read that combines fantasy particle physics and theology into a wonderful tale of an (not the) end of the world where they actually kill God. I have also been reading parts of "The View From the Center of the Universe" by Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams (http://viewfromthecenter.com/) which has given me an interesting new perspective on the universe and the ability of the human mind to reshape reality through simple games of logic.

As I go through my day, I find myself watching the space between objects, the space between people and how we react to it. We never Look at the space but we Feel distance, near or far. There is substance to space and we react to it instinctively. Its a sort of social Dark Matter or Dark energy. This can also be seen in the energy that we put into our technology. I am writing now as if I were talking, as if I knew someone would read this and that person reading it has a name and a face. I have no guarantee and these words are just symbols for ideas entered into a digital world ultimately translated and stored as invisible energy . To those who know me, you may picture my face as you read these words and you may here my voice in your head but, I personally did not speak these words that you are reading. All of it is ideas there is no substance in the transmission, nothing physically created or stored or tangible but, it has an effect. Symbols are nothing without ideas to go with them.
Thought is what? A chemical reaction?
One thought given voice by one person goes as far as the room.
One thought converted to symbols goes as far as those symbols are circulated and as long as the symbols are understood by the receiver.

The strange thing about the internet is how ideas are expressed. Everyone has a chance to be heard without being interrupted. It's a conversation in the dark with with full faith that there is a real person out there listening.
No speaking. Just typing. No body language.

Hours spent focusing on a glowing box looking for answers and waiting for a reply.

I can't touch you but you can feel me.

Dark Matter

2007-07-26T10:58:00.000-04:00

http://asymptotia.com/2007/01/07/dark-matter-in-3d

This is Dark Matter.
You can't see it.
You can't touch it exactly.

Science has no idea what it really is but it makes up most of the universe.

It is the space between everything and it has form and movement.
They know this because they can see its effect on cosmic objects.

And so, science drops into the world of philosophy and faith once more and we wonder who the next Copernicus will be.

Meanwhile let's build a giant particle accelerator and see if we can't replicate the big bang in a warehouse just to see what happens.

Is anyone else nervous about this prospect?

Rection to the residency

2007-07-26T10:41:00.000-04:00

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.

Quote for the Week 7/20/07

2007-07-20T20:30:00.000-04:00

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
Eleanor Roosevelt

Visit to the 2007 Decordova Annual Exhibition

2007-07-16T14:27:00.000-04:00

Anne Lilly

I could play with these for hours!

It's like watching a table-top version of the delicate balance of nature, put into motion by a small push or twist from the viewer.

The pieces are made from steel but the movements are gentle and smooth, each segment, just brushing by the others, separate and yet, a necessary part of the whole. Each sculpture is a beautifully intricate dance of mathematics.

I want one!

Visit to the 2007 Decordova Annual Exhibition

2007-07-16T14:14:00.000-04:00

Ria Brodell

Wormbunnies and Birdmen?

Twisted children's narrative gone wild in illustration and sculpture!

Her work was fun to explore and imagine along with but I'm still working on the deeper meaning part.

She seems to be using her creatures to safely approach the complexities of human interaction but, the story is so otherworldly that I get wrapped up in the oddness of her illustrations and sculptures without identifying with the characters enough to effectively empathize with them. I would love to hear her artist talk. I wonder which world is more real for her.

Visit to the 2007 Decordova Annual Exhibition

2007-07-16T14:07:00.001-04:00

Sandra Allen

40 feet tall!
All pencil!

This is not a photo!

Amazing!

What makes a person do this?

Joyce Tennyson at the Griffin Museum

2007-07-13T16:32:00.000-04:00

I have always enjoyed looking at Joyce Tennyson's images. Her lighting is graceful, subtle and ethereal. She seems to capture a woman's inner beauty and strength regardless of age. Her book "Wise Women" is full of some very heartwarming and surprising stories shared by women over 65 . The images are honest and powerful. It made me actually look forward to growing old.

The first time I heard Joyce speak was a couple of years ago at the Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA. She was showing, images from her most recent book entitled: "Intimacy- The sensual Essence of Flowers" published by Barnes and Noble in 2004. The flowers in the book are all set against a flat black background and are accompanied by selected bits of poetry from Rilke, Aniis Nin, Emily Dickinson and others. Joyce used a macro lens on a high resolution digital camera and natural lighting to capture images so full of texture and color, they seem to have an inner life. Through creative cropping and layout design, the flowers seem to interact and converse with each other across the pages as if the poems are their own.

All that being said, I was I bit disappointed with seeing Joyce Tennyson this second time around. She seems to have gone through some sort of personal awakening that must be working well for her personal strength but came across to me as outright arrogance.
I entered the talk a bit late and had to sneak to the back the darkened gallery while the history of Joyce Tennyson's work slowly came to life in a lovely display of Joyce's PowerPoint skills. Each section of work was accompanied by its own theme song. I found it distracting and contrived. I personally think that she should let the images stand on their own. Music used to illustrate photographs just becomes a gimmick to force feed emotion and meaning into the images i.e. (Enya= ethereal) or (Bjørk w/drum=powerful.)
Once the snazzy slide show was finished she gave a teary eyed statement about how powerful her images were with the music added to them. She went on to explain how much she learned about the beauty of growing old from these amazing women, giving her the strength to photograph herself nude at the age of 62. (Insert polite applause here.) She was too choked up to continue so she launched the PowerPoint of her flowers and grandchildren pictures form Maine. After the PowerPoint, Joyce opened the floor to questions. I was expecting to hear a bit more about her life and works but, it seemed that she was going under the assumption that we already knew everything and were just there to meet her in person. Each question asked launched a new colorful story about how "grace descended" and the work was made.

What I learned this time:

Joyce "cannot bear small talk."
Joyce is the only female artist sponsored by Epson.
Joyce is "very smart about getting what [she] wants."
Anyone can make a photo book.
Joyce has NEVER had someone criticize her for shooting or printing digitally. (I think I offended her with the question.)
Joyce is a perfectionist.
A $700.00 Plexiglas covering for a print is "not very expensive."
Joyce Tennyson does not change her shots or ideas for any client. And they all know it.
Plexiglas is pretty, shiny, very reflective and incredibly distracting in a gallery setting.
Stubbornness is really the key to success.

In conclusion: I still love her images, I am just a little less inclined to hear her talk about them.

2007 Decordova Annual Exhibition: Jeffu

2007-07-11T20:22:00.000-04:00

SPUDNIK
It's amazing, I grew up 15 minutes away from Decordova and the first time I ever visited the museum was when I was almost 20 years old. My Father was more the Museum of Science type than the MOMA type.

A co-worker of mine is in the Annual Exhibition so I started with his amusing and educational version of the global space race "SPUDNIK." Yes, that's not a typo: SPUD-NIK, as in potatoes.

"SPUDNIK is a sci-fry tale of space exploration by potatoes during the Cold Storage War." It has to be seen to be believed.
Jeff has done his research well and recreated his own vision of the need to explore outer space.
The footage resembles all the classic footage of NASA rocket launches cut with edible scenery, creative digital effects and commentary from a cast of "spuds." The creativity, nostalgia and humor reach people of all generations for all different reasons.
http://www.jeffu.tv/spudnik/index.html

Quote for the Week

2007-07-11T20:21:00.000-04:00

"The main threats to our survival result from the almost total disjunction between the power of our technologies and the wisdom required to use them over the long period during which their effects will last."

Joel R. Primak and Nancy Ellen Abrams. The View from the Center of the Universe. New York: Riverhead Books, 2006

1st Semester 1st Real Post

2007-07-08T09:24:00.000-04:00

So... first semester and I have so many ideas and so little time!
Just wandering through the rooms of work made me itch to try every medium under the sun!
I have calmed down a little bit since returning home but the urge is still there.

I don't believe I have ever taken in so much information at one time before and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to share it with.

I think that the energy, excitement, intelligence, openness and amazing creativity within our group is going make this AIB MFA experience much more than just a a means to an end.

I'm excited to see how far this program takes all of us in the next two years and beyond!

2007-07-05T10:51:00.000-04:00

Well . . . I finally got my blog to work!
I have plenty to write about so come back and visit soon!