Good Girl Arts

The Good Girl Grooms

2011-05-02T05:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a new video.Please be advised that the audio is slightly PG-13. But I think you all can handle it. Thanks for viewing.

The Good Girl from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Gerd Ludwig: Grimm's Fairytales

2011-04-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

A really interesting take on Grimm's fairytales. Photojournalism meets culturally imbedded stories meets modern idea of appropriation of old classics. Anna Gaskell couldn't have done it better.

Beautiful Video

2011-04-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

Woodkid - Iron from WOODKID on Vimeo.

Here is a video my student shared with me. So beautiful. So interesting. THE LIGHTING!

Yoga Mom

2011-04-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Yoga Mom Sketch from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

This is a piece I did in collaboration with Allison Pugh, a mother and Yogi from Des Moines, Ia. I am interested in this piece for the interaction between my subjects and myself, the conversation and the imposed gaze that my camera brings to the situation. I asked Alison to perform head stands in her home environment, a feat that takes many years of practice combined with immense physical and mental strength. This piece also speaks to the balance of body as well as the balance of motherhood As my mother always said, and my grandpa before her, "Once you have kids, you always have kids."

Thank you Allison for your hand (stand) in this piece.

Tell Me I'm Pretty

2011-04-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Necklace is the Piece. The Photograph is a sketch. Looking for a better model and a better way to shoot the images of the "costume jewelry" I'm starting to create. Thinking about going 4x5. Here's a taste in the mean-time.

Things Organized Neatly

2011-04-04T16:42:00.001-07:00

OMGOMGOMG. BEAUTIFUL. BLOG. Somewhere inside me is an organized person and she is totally in love with this blog.

Janet Reno: Commentary on her Public Image

2011-04-04T12:33:00.001-07:00

From the Washington Post

How to Be a Lady

2011-04-04T08:05:00.001-07:00

By Candace Simpson-Giles (Note the hyphenated name)
Published in 2001.

Some particularly interesting tidbits:

"A lady learns how she looks best when being photographed."

"A lady knows how to make others feel at ease."

"A lady graciously accepts a compliment. She does not downgrade as if she did not deserve the admiration from the other person or persons. She simply responds with, "Thank you."

"A lady knows that her posture is as important as any article of clothing on her back."

"A lady is mindful of her appearance at all times."

"A lady knows that 'please' and 'thank you' are still the magic words."

"A lady does not raise her voice when angry. It is only proper to shout at someone when he or she is in danger or about to score a touchdown."

"A lady does not lead men on."

"A lady stands up for herself and is never a doormat."

Perhaps, I've been referencing a lady all this time, not simply a "good girl." Good girls are not necessarily ladies.

Business Cards!

2011-03-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

Front and back of one card.

Front and back of the other card.
DESIGNED BY THE BEAUTIFUL AND TALENTED ALI SABLE.
p.s. Image quality sucks b/c of me. The design is crisp and wonderful.

cHeCk HeR OuT

Portia Munson: PINK!

2011-03-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

Interesting meditation on the color PINK. Obviously relevant to my work. My concerns with early/instantaneous gendering and the consumer products that drive color identification in young people.

Rineke Dijstra: Park Portraits

2011-03-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

I've been familiar with Dijstra for some time. But these Park Portraits struck me more then any of her other work. And it was through these images that I started to understand her images as a whole. In my examination of these portraits, I focus on how we've been trained to present ourselves, both by our parents and by the camera. How we are poised and pose. And how children already have this sense of maturity and purpose that looks contrived or exterior to their very being.

The girl in the fairy costume is the exception. While she is the most costumed, she is also the most child-like. Letting us live in her fatally with her. Whereas the other children refer very strongly to what they will be when they grow up, or what they already are.

My Work in 75 Words or Less

2011-03-07T13:58:00.001-08:00

My work focuses on the stereotype and performance of the Good Girl –– her training, attire, social etiquette, intimate relationships and everyday operational tactics. I explore the inter-workings of her character through documented video performances, testing the limits of her composure, examining the fragility of her cultivated appearance and ultimately asking the question –– what does it mean to be good and what does it mean to be a girl?

Baby Limb Wall Hooks

2011-03-07T13:47:00.001-08:00

I find these to be fascinating. And Smart. And Funny.

For more crazy wall hooks, not related to dolls.

What Happened to Sally?

2011-03-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

This is a new work, commenting on the overwhelming influence of pink in a young girls life.

Untitled Doll: March 2011 from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Sally Mann: Proud Flesh

2011-02-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

Beautiful images exploring the aging male body. I'm particularly interested in Mann's words about looking.

Jeanette May

2011-02-07T08:18:00.000-08:00

Interesting work on how women view men in current visual/sexual culture.

Melanie Bonajo

2011-02-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

Really interesting Performance/Installation work. Visually beautiful as well as challenging.

Melanie Bonajo

Harvestworks: Digital Media Lab

2011-02-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

A call for work I'll be submitting to:

End to End

This site/place has amazing resources including classes, internships and workshops. I can't wait to explore more thoroughly.

Final Product: Posturing Piece

2011-01-28T14:40:00.001-08:00

Untitled (January 2011) from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Kristian Kozul

2011-01-28T12:33:00.000-08:00

Thinking about her work in relationship to my dolls. Humor plus heavily used consumer objects already encoded with their specific cultural stigmas. Altering the object to rediscover the object.

Woman-Girl-Doll: The Beginnings

2011-01-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

Woman-Girl-Doll from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Sorry about the quality. It doesn't compress well for Vimeo. I'll figure this out.

Here is the beginnings of an idea. The bare bones of the process and direction. Thoughts I'm ruminating on/around/above and below:

A.) The need to construct and deconstruct ideas of gender/femininity.
B.) Need to MAINTAIN control over performance of gender/femininity.
C.) Traditional vs. Contemporary standards of lady-like behavior.
D.) Standardization of dolls given to little girl. Who plays with dolls and what kind of women do they become. What if the dolls became the women that played with them.
E.) Do you have to rebel to be liberated? Does liberation dictate a change in appearance or only a change in mindset?
F.) The doll moves back and forth between tradition and liberation. Is she struggling? Is this reality? What does she gain through either transformation? What does she loose? Is it important that she is liberated? Is this reality?

Lilli Carre

2011-01-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

Beautiful little illustration and moving images. Made me laugh multiple times. I also enjoyed the function and form of her website. Check it out.

Chelsea Knight

2011-01-28T11:23:00.001-08:00

Another interesting video artist. Looking into researching her more.

Marianna Ellenburg

2011-01-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

Interesting artist I found while browsing possible gallery/exhibitoin spaces. Her work is a combination of video/sound/photographs about the body and phamecutical drugs. Beautifully asthetisized to lure us in and engage in a critic of prescription drugs.

Take a Look.

New Piece

2011-01-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

Here's my most recent piece. I need to adjust the audio and work with the levels in Color a bit, but otherwise I love it.

Untitled from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts

2011-01-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

I want to do this.

Black Rock Arts Foundations

2011-01-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

http://www.blackrockarts.org/grants

This grant organization sounds right up my ally. Interactive Community work.... I have an idea and a road trip evolving around this very subject.

Creative Capitol

2011-01-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

http://creative-capital.org/

An excellent grant program. I will dream and drool over this opportunity until I am qualified.

Pinky Bass

2011-01-10T10:10:00.001-08:00

I'm interested in Bass's use of embroidery, coupled with the natural photographed body. The results seem simultaneously intimate and objective, weaving the emotive throughout the scientific.

Pinky Bass

Her topic at SPE is "Can I Still Call Myself a Photographer?" And is that really important anyway?

I look forward to hearing her thoughts on this.

Thesis Proposal: First Three Paragraphs

2011-01-09T21:12:00.000-08:00

Through this body of work, Perfect Is As Perfect Does (working title), I investigate the relationship of the individual to larger social systems. Using the form and language of well-ingrained manners, media images and expectations, and gender performance, I am interrogating the underlying structures through which we participate in the creation of our own stereotypes. The main subject of my work is the creation, perception and perpetuation of the white, American, middle class “good girl” character. I examine the conflict between the American dream of individual agency and the system of influences aiming to create and recreate stereotypes, social structures, and class expectations.

I plan to explore the character of the middle-class girl using visual themes such costuming, absurdity, formal manners, exhaustion, deterioration, rehearsal, training and futility. By pushing the limits of the “good girl’s” external perfection, I examine individual choice as well as the pressure of choice within the American class system. By placing my character in direct questioning to the system in which she operates, I am acknowledging the conflict between personal agency and systematic dominance.

The “good girl” character is one I understand from my own experience. Through researching my upbringing—what I watched on television, read in books and magazines, and listened to on my personal CD player—I elaborate upon and critique the stereotype I embody. I explore the contemporary definition of the “good girl” through themes such as “Reviving Ophelia” and “Girl Power,” which emphasize both individualization and individual choice in young women while also recognizing the media systems and upbringings that create those same stereotypes. I draw upon public education, religion, media, language, and social structures, as well as the morals and ethics created by those chosen and reproduced environments.

Posture Practice

2011-01-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

Posturing Rough Draft from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

This piece is a very rough draft of ideas I'm beginning to work on. I'm interested in ideas of posture and it's relationship to feminine definitions of beauty. In the past, women stood for lengths of time with a book on their head practicing the "art" of standing up straight. Presumable for the lofty goal of getting a husband... and emphasizing boobage. Modern society considers these tactics outdated, perhaps even barbaric. Although the methods may have moved on, the desires and implications have not.

For further exploration of this idea I'll be looking into the trendy practice of yoga. What started out as an underground hippie counter-culture past time (and before that, an ancient asian art practiced by tiny little religious men) has now become a status symbols for fit soccer moms and career women everywhere.

"Where did you get those rockin' biceps? Your ass is so tight, for your age...."
"Well I do yoga 5 times a week. It's better then sleeping, better then eating. I feel whole and centered. I feel like I can conquer the world."

The benefits of yoga are nothing to wiggle your jelly roll at. I've seen the fruitful miracles of many dedicated middle age women and their daughters... but how are those "miracles" the same or different then then patience and tranquility instilled in young girls when they were training to be house wives?

Do a head stand to have excellent posture. Lift your leg over your head for flexibility... and better sex. Hold that strength pose longer, for powerful (slimmer) thighs and weight control. Go out in the world and hold you head high. You do yoga and you'll "turn out well."

Final Four Minute Version of the Jump Rope Video

2011-01-03T13:03:00.000-08:00

Untitled from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

This quarter, thus far.

2010-12-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

This quarter will be one of massive production and reading. My proposal is written, accepted and turned in and now the focus has turned to the work. I'm taking two classes to support my research, Feminist Theory and American Women from 1865-Today. Both are extremely engaging. I'll be posting writings and ideas I gather from both classes, as well as updating my blog with work in progress videos.

Exhibit one: The first topic we tackled in Feminist Theory was perhaps that most controversial. What does the word Feminist currently mean and what are it's social implications.

Here is what I wrote as a response to the readings.

The three readings all call into question this illusive and diverse word “feminism;” what it is, who participates within it, whose voices launch and clarify ideas, what the people look like, physically I mean and who it doesn’t look like, and last but never least, what the political agenda is. In essence, who are feminists and what are fighting for?

¬It seems like with every hot topic, we begin by grappling with the definition of the word, for shouldn’t this lead us to some sort of clarity on the direction and intention of the movement? But as the article “Lift and Separate” by Ariel Levy states, politics and feminism have somehow become distanced from each other, leaving a wicked shell that people shy away from. People say “we aren’t feminists” because the word seems, now more then ever, to attach itself to a look and an attitude rather then to politics and activism.

In the seventies, women were vocal. They were active. They rallied. They let their hair grow long on all areas of their body. They went “au natural.” In the eighties working outside the home out of desire instead of necessity became the badge of free women, right along with shoulder pads and by the nineties, women could “have it all” including a healthy sex life. Now, women are running for president; one claiming to be “traditional” and the other claiming a hard façade that would get the job done. Who was more of a feminist? Well, obviously that depends on your definition and your politics.

So has feminism become something like a religion? A doctrine that people are free to pick and choose from, simultaneously denounce and subscribe to? Something to dress up for? Something to talk about in hushed tones, not appropriate for formal dinners parties because no one believes the same thing anyway? Is feminism something that we all believe exists on some level but we aren’t so sure how we fit into it? Is it necessary to say it loud and proud if the zealots are out there doing all the shouting for us? How do we negotiate something that we don’t fully understand? And how do we participate in it while not believing everything the movement has to offer?

Hopscotch Sketches

2010-10-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hopscotch Sketch from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Hopscotch: A game of awkward mobility. A game of singular ambition and choices to be made. A maze the only goes forward, unless you get stuck on the sides. An uncomfortable jump between spaces. A negotiation of the next move to be made.

These are video sketches for an evolving idea. My appearance in the video is for stand-in purposes only. I am not costumed or groomed, in fact, I'm straight out of bed on a Sunday morning.

Things that are working for me: The awkwardness of the movement. The grid-like space in a suburban setting. Still working with it, complicating the narrative a bit.

Chalk and Wanting

2010-10-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

I'm reaching a ways back now, to the beginning of the school year. This is one of the first things I did when I arrived in Rochester this fall. My work is still focused on expectations of the modern female and the struggling between full-fulling those expectations, or turning away from them. Their is still a sense of complacency in this image. I've written the statement in chalk, which washes away at the first sign of weather. The idea of the thank you note, or being grateful, of doing what your mother trained you to do, is very present in this image. For better or for worse, we are trained to be something/someone. Behaviors become ingrained. And while we may consciously turn away from that person or puppet, instincts and agency are often at war.

Jen Denike

2010-10-27T06:23:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Graham Walzer for this artist reference and finally inspiring me to get back to blogging. This photograph is a document of an infinite pirouette, performed by a LA ballerina and directed by the artist.The idea of turning in an infinite circle, perfect and flawless but untouchable, was something I played with last year in my tutu stop-motion video (never fully realized).

Press Release about this piece.
The gallery the represent both her and Kate Gilmore.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

2010-08-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

The creators of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men might have had good intentions (John Krasinski aka Jim from The Office could never have bad intentions, unless it's toward dear Dwight) but the final and resounding taste of this film was overwhelmingly sour, like that experimental spice mix on your chicken that gave you horrible indigestion for days afterwards. Not. Pleasant.

While the running dialogue of the two young men (the British accent was a high point for me) does something to highlight the questions facing modern women and men's relationship with women, the rest of the unintelligible plot does nothing to actually examine real life consequences of these questions. Unless you count proposing that rape has positive consequences, such realizing you are a "real thing." This seems like an egregious statement for even the most "glass half full" rapist or bro-man trying to pick an "easy" girl up in bar.

I am not in a position to put down anyone's brand or belief of feminism, but it is my opinion that this film has nothing to do with that topic. In fact, the only remotely feminist character in the book barely said a word. Instead she sat piously back, judging the opinions of the men around her, wimpering like a kicked puppy. Her "research" to find out how gender equality has affected men is valid and reminds me of questions I've been dealing with as of late, but her follow through is not genuine. Feminism has affected men in other arenas outside the bedroom, all of which were ignored by her line of questioning. In fact, in the interviewer's intimate relationship, she appears happy only when she's in bed with her former lover, who cheated on her, or maybe didn't. This small detail is lost in Krasinski's sappy, true to TV character dialogue. So I think it's easy and logical to deduce that this movie once again devalues and sexualizes women from a man's perspective. Making it no more progressive that the "cutting edge" ads developed by the fictional but all to real creative directors of Mad Men.

This movie has obviously gotten under my skin. My next step is to read the book written by David Foster Wallace, before I dismiss him as completely as I've dismissed this movie.

What did you think? I need perspective?

Stills from the Jump Rope Video

2010-05-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Working Artist Statement

2010-05-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

This work is about the performance of “The Good Girl.” It talks about how she is fabricated, how she operates, how she presents herself, who she’s trying to impress, and the exhaustion of the falsified experience.

“The Good Girl” is not a specific person or set of actions, for it shows up differently in whoever is pulling the strings. For some, it could be a conservative way of dressing that supposedly keeps people from looking at the sexualized body beneath. For other’s it’s a fake smile, put on to keep people from asking the hard questions. It can take the form of perfectionism, with every duck neatly in row to escape an avalanche of critical reactions. Rather then rebelling, “The Good Girl” puts on a performance. Rather then giving up, she puts on more layers.

Nancy Friday discusses the formation of The Good Girl at length in her book The Power of Beauty.

“I believe we all, men and women, give up far more the necessary to fit the ridged standards of adolescence. The biggest mistake I’ve made in life, the roads not taken and opportunities not seized, I am sure, today, might have been avoided if only I’d been able to take into adolescence the girl I’d been prior to it. Reining her in, forcing her to obey the restricting rules by which girls had to live made me acutely self-conscious, overly cautious, unsure of myself, second-guessing everything for the rest of my life. And angry, don’t leave out anger at abandoning myself, teeth-grinding anger that I dutifully swallowed and ‘forgot.’”

In my work, the protagonist takes on the forms of the ballerina and the princess, both of whom are a repository for cultural stigmas on womanhood, filled with expectations of perfectionism, beauty, meekness and grace. Inherent in their job description is a necessity to keep their audience at bay while simultaneously creating a longing for their status and beauty.

I embody both of these characters in order to express my need to be one of them, identifying with the artifice that creates a wide gate around them. In reality, my stage becomes the hallway and the kitchen, the shopping mall and the restaurant. My act is a reveal that shows nothing more than what other people need me to be. The finale shows the princess in a pink dress, breathing heavily, exhausted and humanized, but ready to jump again tomorrow.

Untitled: The Tutu Piece

2010-05-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of my video projections for walk through.

Untitled from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Claude Cahun: Don't Kiss Me

2010-05-11T10:21:00.001-07:00

This photo, by 1920's Surrealist photographer Claude Cahun was running through the back of my mind as I made The People Pleaser. While Cahun worked most directly with gender ambiguity, show also presented feminine expectations in a new and confusing way. In the photograph above, Cahun tells us that we aren't allowed to kiss her because she's in training. In training for what? And who wanted to kiss her are the first questions that come to mind. I identify with the idea of keeping your audience at bay, while simultaneously teasing them with what could happen if they were only allowed. I also think that idea of training is essential to my work. I'm constantly exploring the ways female is conditioned and brought up through structured expectations of what it means to be "good" and feminine.

The People Pleaser

2010-05-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

The People Pleaser from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Kate Gilmore

2010-05-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

Kate Gilmore is somewhat of a Lone Ranger. At the present time she is working exclusively in video, creating single take films of her performances in front of the camera. In her videos we often see Gilmore climbing, breaking through, lifting or struggling against formidable barriers. As Gilmore struggles for resolution we realize that everything is happening authentically and nothing is predictable. Gilmore’s scenes are never rehearsed and her uncertainty and determination shows as she works to achieve her goal. The unrehearsed methodology mimics real life, talking about the obstacles that women face in the corporate and private world, where the outcome is never predictable.

We are made acutely aware of Gilmore’s femininity throughout her performances. She is always in a demure skirt or dress; wearing heels that often aid in kicking through the plaster walls she puts up. Her outfit is completed with bright colored lipstick and dainty black gloves. Although her femininity is not heightened to extreme measures, we are certain that we are watching the struggles of a female in society.

Her motifs, such as breaking through plaster walls and climbing up wooden planks on roller skates speak to insurmountable obstacles facing women in the workplace and society. The beauty of the work is Gilmore’s ability to approach the challenge without resentment, going head on to achieve the goal. And sometimes, but not all the time, she comes out a winner.

With Open Arms

In this video, made in 2005, Gilmore stands in front of the camera with her arms wide open. She grins at us with a forced, exaggerated smile and a flower in her hair while unseen enemies hurl tomatoes at her overdressed figured and star studded background.

The tomatoes look like they sting Gilmore’s skin as she stands ready and waiting for the attack and she often has to lower her arms and cover her face to wipe the remnants of the red flesh from her face.

The act is one of endurance. How much pain can she withstand, smiling and open armed before she starts yelling and screaming at the enemies behind the camera? Patience in the face of pain is the most prominent feature of this particular video. And it is so clearly a feminine patience. She stands in front of us with her dress stained red and smiles, waiting for it out so she can win.

Kelly Mark: I Really Should.

2010-04-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

I love the statement "I really should." There's a moment in Sex and the City where Carrie says "why are we shoulding all over ourselves?" The should implies an entanglement with something we are not in control of. But here, Mark is taking control, talking about all of the proper things she should do but doesn't. She is not a lady. She is an individual, selfish at times. Brave and independent in others. I wish I could hear the whole piece.

In my sounds pieces (which I have yet to upload to the web) I am working with the statements "I wish I wanted to" and "I didn't."

But I don't play the power position in either of the pieces. In both of my works, what I wish for and against and what I didn't do are in control. What I didn't do says far more about me then what I did do and what I wish I wanted inevitably will be what I get, whether I wanted it our not. I am bent towards the system and away from myself.

http://www.kellymark.com/IRS_CD.html

The Disney Princess meets the modern woman.

2010-04-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

But where is the middle?

This images are my first step towards talking about the princess and the real live fleshy, female body. At first I was taking out all the features of the Princess, replacing them with my own. but as my process evolved, I realized the growing duality in the expectation and obligations of the Princess. In my newer images, I am focusing on her interactions with her "subjects." She keeps her smile, but obtains my eyes. Her smile is her way of getting what she wants. My eyes are the reality of the situation.. being, the same things that liberate her also cage her in.

The Ballerina and Her TuTu

2010-04-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

The search for herself. from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

Ballerina Stop Motion: Bad Quality

2010-04-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Untitled from Whitney Warne on Vimeo.

i made this video at the beginning of the quarter. The quality is really low and the ideas are quite rudimentary, but it's the basis for what I've continued to work on this quarter.

Ballerina Production Stills

2010-04-25T13:04:00.001-07:00

Is it possible that the things that give us power also keep us restrained? Does the use of feminine beauty to get ahead also create a world where beauty is commodified and turned against those who don't have high amounts of the desired good?

I'm employing the societal models of the ballerina and the princess to talk about the slightly outmoded, but still very present "feminine ideal."

As a society, we can say that we are post-postmodern, that beauty is no longer currency and that playing by the rules only gets you so far, but that is only half the story and a naive one at that. What if playing by the rules gets you exactly the attention you were looking for. What if playing by the rules of femininity is rewarding?

Characters like the ballerina and the princess play by the rules to get their stories to turn out perfectly. But while they are getting what they want, are they not also captives of their "good girl" disguise? This duality of captivity and reward based on beauty and good girl actions is what I'm am working to visually represent.

Playing at Perfection

2010-04-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

Yves Klein: What a Man

2010-04-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

Anthropometries of the Blue Period and Fire Paintings

A slew of feminist banter comes to mind while watching this piece. It is an amazing example of the male gaze and the males artistic control and cultural control over women. I often wonder what sort of woman would allow herself to be smeared with paint and then directed as to where to put her body. But it is hard to deduce seeing the time period and socially accepted representations of women in art.

I'm thinking about this type of action painting in relation to the childhood action of finger painting, where the act is taken into the hands of someone naive and unknowing... sort of like the women in Klein's works. What would a grow woman with finger paints do now? how would she pint herself? How much would she recall of her childhood freedom to draw outside of the lines?

Anna Gaskell and the Theatrics of Girlhood

2010-04-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

Anna Gaskell and the Theatrics of Girlhood: Where Fantasy and Fright Meet.

Anna Gaskell’s work is beautiful by any aesthetic standard. Moving light, lovely little ladies and fairy tale forest scenes comprise the majority of her carefully constructed scenes. Fashion informs her shooting style and her subjects are definitely models torn from the pages of Teen Vogue. The women wear fetishized garments to carefully construct a world we all recognize from our now distant childhood –– her images are the making of a fairytale.

But the work turns us around. The faces aren’t happy. The poses aren’t serene. Everything is set up for perfection, but the moment doesn’t strike and the mood is left in limbo, creating an alternative fairy tale where the girls show their teeth, their slightly deranged eyes and their softly violent intimacy.

While Gaskell’s images might not be the perfect version of what a little girl should be, these slightly off kilter representations might be just what every little girl needs to look up to. Nancy Friday in her book The Power of Beauty writes,

"Still close to purity of emotion, children recognize in their bones exactly what the wretched stepsisters feel toward the more beautiful Cinderella, having felt the same murderous cruelty that very day toward their own bother or sister, whose golden curls, once again, won the last cookie on the plate..... Fairy tales divert children from these overly harsh accusations by giving them events and characters who represent and play out everything the child is feeling; the child no longer has to internalize the bad feelings, turn them against himself." pg 95

So perhaps Gaskell is trying to relieve us of the pressure of a perfect childhood or consequently, a perfect adulthood. Perhaps by showing us the uglier side of these beautiful little girls she is say, ‘All is not right. Everyone is not happy. But perhaps we don’t need to be.’O

On a more personal note: I enjoy Gaskell's work in relation to my own themes. I too am exploring the ways that childhood identity forms our adulthood mindset. I enjoy Gaskell's use of the unsettling, awkward and at times, violent moments that come through in the child's play and images. But throughout this their remains an undercurrent of perfection. The models are perfect looking and the images are highly aesthetisized in the way of fashion, again alluding to this higher beauty and power that stands out in images of glamour and fairy tale.

Eleanor Antin and her alter ego.

2010-03-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

A few things I'm looking at in relation to my ballerina piece....which is turning into a video at some point.

Art 21.

Here is the link to the Art:21 on Antin. I love her comments about walking on tiny stilts (point shoes) and how grabbing a woman's crotch and lifting her up can be called art.

Antin speaks up.

I found this to be an interesting interaction between the museum archive and Antin. I also enjoy the back story to her ballerina series.

I am currently reading "Being Antinovia," Antin's journal during the three weeks in the Seventies she spent in New York, performing full time as the black ballerina Eleanora Antinovia. The memoir is funny an engaging, filled with self absorbed details from a women who thought of little else but how other's perceived her. In her writings she discusses her paranioa over people being racist or discovering she was "playing black" through her makeup. She also takes about her need to be scene, and that as a black women, she was often not served in restaurant or waited on by doormen.

although Antin plays with the idea of being a black women, the entire personae would be about race if not for the part where she was also performing as a ballerina during this time, putting on nightly shows and wandering around the city in fabulously glamorous garb. In Antin's mind, the ballerina gave her free entrance into people's hearts. Performing as a culturally treasured female icon, she hoped to receive the same attention in everyday life. The vast difference between what she expected and what she got is something that I am exploring in my work as well. For while I put on the costume of the ballerina and the princess, I know full well that I can never be the characters I assume.

But I can be a character. The key to being a princess or a ballerina is to taking their invisible, innate qualities and applying them to yourself. Then, people don't know what they're looking at, but they know they like it. By manipulating the cultural standards of femininity, and using them to your benefit you turn the tables, even if somewhat naively. This is something I am interested in exploring in my work.

The Power of Beauty by Nancy Friday

2010-03-29T20:38:00.001-07:00

The following are quotes I'm considering in relation to my work.

"I cannot imagine a better battleground on which to examine our independance than the subject of this book –– looks, beauty, dress, the way we present our selves to others' eyes and see ourselves in all relfecting surfaces. Fashion appropriately spins like a top today, throwing away one look after another, bringing to mind the obsessed heroine of The Red Shoes, destined to dance her life away whenever she dons the slippers, which to me symbolize denial.

Women, men, none of us will ever understand or change our attitude about the way we look without going back to the source, she whose eye was our most critical mirror. She, along with father and siblings, created the primal stage on which we were cast in a role we continue to play or deny." pg 85

"Still close to purity of emotion, children recognize in their bones exactly what the wretched stepsisters feel toward the more beautiful Cinderella, having felt the same murderous cruelty that very day toward their own bother or sister, whose golden curls, once again, won the last cookie on the plate..... Fairy tales divert children from these overly harsh accusations by giving them events and characters who represent and play out everything the child is feeling; the child no longer has to internalize the bad feelings, turn them against himself." pg 95

" When children associate goodness with beauty, they simultaneously rank themselves, with their imperfect looks, as mean, bad, the worst, which becomes their secret selves, the blackness they will grow up to try to hide. Those of us who were the plainer ones often try to conceal this "bad character" with pretty finery, an exaggerated effort to please, behind which lurks the suspicion that when the who doesn't ring or the invitation doesn't arrive, the world has seen through our lovely exterior to the blackness within." pg 97

Performing Perfection

2010-03-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

With this new piece I'm trying to examine the intersection between perfection and real life. The ballerina has long been seen as a symbol of feminine beauty, strength and grace. Often depicted at a whispy speck of a human, her body has been embraced by the modeling industry and standards for beauty at large. By embodying the ballerina, albeit the imperfect one, I am both producer and performer of my actions and girlish fantasies. I am taking up this costume/facade of perfection –– this goal that is attainable to so few and performing my way through it, in an effort to show the performance of everyday life, in the everyday person.

My work is becoming increainsgly about performing this perfection –– about taking signifiers of embraced since girlhood and reconciling them as a young adult. Also, showing what happens when I "real" person takes up these roles. What struggles do they have? How do they fit into the costume? How do they perform the actions they've witnessed so many time? How can I put humanity back into these ridged constraints of beauty and perfection?

The end product will be a stop animation film installed as some sort of projection...still to be worked out. That's all for now.

Marina Abamovic at the MOMA

2010-03-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

I was transfixed by Marina Abramovic. Yugoslavian performance artists who emerged in the 70's as a powerful force for women's art, has been sitting at the MOMA n the same position for over a week now, staring at whomever sits across the table from her. She is scheduled to sit in the museum for the entirety of her show. I approached the performance from behind, seeing Marina from the back as a beautiful fleshy sculpture, and then came around to see her calm but attuned to her subject. The women sitting across from her at the present time was in her early forties, also a beautiful woman with lovely long grey hair. I circled the two performers several times moving to find the "best" angle on the action.

Marina's eyes opened and closed frequently, but they never wavered from her subject. She sat with her attention undivided, in spite of the camera flashes and a chaos around her. I couldn't help but admire the amazing mental strength it must have taken to remain so controlled... but then again, she has been practicing for this performance her whole career.

As I sat and watch the two women (the grey hair lady sat so long that the line behind her started to whisper and wonder if she'd ever leave) thinking about what was going on in each of their respective minds. As I built the narrative and dialogue up in my head I realized the genius of the silent exercise. These were my thoughts... not either of the subjects presented before me. There is no way for me to presume what they may or may not be thinking. I am left to consider my judgments as only my own. And who knows, Marina may only be thinking about how badly she has to pee.

In relationship to my work: I absorb Abramovic's use of struggle and violence towards oneself to discover oneself. I think there is an immense mental strength within her and a reflective capacity that I hope to someday achieve. I love the openness of her pieces, how she let's you fall in and out of them, taking what you will. But at the same time, she is very confrontational, forcing you to look at the horrors of self-inflicted tortures presented. I admire her gull, consistency and her commitment to performance as the most personal way of making art real for and with the audience.

Cindy Sherman: Doll Clothes

2010-03-15T20:14:00.000-07:00

I've been contemplating this stop animation piece quite a lot. I think this, more then anything else Sherman has done, has influenced my work and related most directly to the ideas I'm dealing with. Doll Clothes

I love the obsessive quality of stop animation. And the part about no going back. There is equal parts careful planning and spontaneity that can influence the piece.

Also, some images of hers throughout her career.

These are from her newest society lady series as seen on Art:21.

Congratulations

2010-03-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Pipilotti Rist

I’m most interested in her positive attitude, her freeness and mildness towards herself and her philosophy surrounding creating. I also love her ideas about the viewing experience. She puts a lot of thought into how people view her work, sometimes having them lie on topographical carpet maps to get the full effect. Pleasure and comfort of he viewer is often a consideration.

http://www.pipilottirist.net/

‘People often ask me if my art is feminist. I am a feminist , that’s a point of honour and logical, so long as society’s horizons are equally accessible for everyone. But there are thousands of insights that shape my inquires. Even though I have a positive view of humanity, there is room for ambivalence in my work; accepting this should foster a certain mildness towards oneself. This is what I strive for in my work.” (pg 20)

Rist, Pipilotti. Congratulations. Edited by Richard Julian. Stockholm: Gravity, Be My Friend, 2007.

My favorite Rist video and also one of her earliest. I'm Not a Girl Who Misses Much.

Pour Your Body Out: Interview with Rist at MOMA installation,.

Pertinent Quotes

2010-03-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

In various ways, I feel like these quotes relate or inform my process of thinking, making and acting out.

“Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object –– and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”

John Berger, Ways of Seeing (Great Britain: Penguin Books, 1972), 47.

“A woman’s presence expresses her own attitude towards herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste ––indeed there is nothing she can do which does not contribute to her presence.”

John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 46.

“…Broadly speaking there is a general tendency to endorse the idea that the individual subject as such is inseparable from the condition of being the subject to; for example, subject to ideology (of which gender ideologies are a significant instance), the state, commodity culture, and so forth.

Lisa Gabriella Mark, ed., WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, 337.

Nochlin writes, “Women must conceive of themselves as potentially, if not actually, equal subjects, and must be willing to look the facts of their situation full in the face, without self-pity, or cop-outs; at the same time they must view their situation with that high degree of emotional and intellectual commitment necessary to create a world in which equal achievement will be not only made possible but actively encouraged by social institutions.”

Linda Nochlin, Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays.

“Giving our bodies over to others to do as they want with them is a form of collusion in our own continuing infantilization.”

Dawn Ades and others, Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self Representation, 13.

Small thought.

2010-03-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

I feel like, at this point in time, I am interested in exploring the small, obsessive parts of identity that accumulate into a larger idea, that then snowball with other bits of identity, that then complete a whole person. But what is a whole person made of? What are the categories of identity? How far can I break them down before they desolve into unsubstantiated nothingingness? But if I can break any bit of identity down to it's most banal parts and then make it trivial, then what does that say? That we need the whole in order to validate all the little pieces that garner our attention along the way?

I weighed myself three times today. This is not abnormal.

3/9/10: 10:54am-176.4 lbs, 10:15pm-174.4 lbs, 12:17am-176 lbs.

This is obsessive. This is unnecessary. These measurements tell me nothing about the whole. But still, I want to know. I need to know to keep myself on track, to stay motivated, to be aware of who am at this moment. But the goal is larger and further away. The the issue of health is more complex then how much I weigh, but still I measure, in the most simple way I can, my "progress" and "myself."

A Statement

2010-02-21T08:51:00.000-08:00

My work examines the conflicting and often tangential desires of the modern female psyche. In a world filled with options and promise, I attempt to look simultaneously backwards and forwards. By contemplating historic female roles and modern day revolutions I hope to show how both worlds intersect for a confusing and schizophrenic lifestyle of over-inflated expectations, wants and needs. Through clothing choice and performance, I let my body and its interpretive visual language speak to the complexities of the current female’s social experience.

Selecting clothes from my own wardrobe, comprised of goodwill finds and modern day renditions on vintage items, I hope to personify the previous owner’s experience through my own lens. By contemplating her mindset, time period, social restrictions and domestic roles in relation to their modern day mutations and inflations, I hope to show the large rifts occurring in identity and sense of self. Using my body as a filter to embrace and questioning the rules and expectations of 2nd Wave Feminism, I show both what I’ve absorbed and rejected. By collapsing the generations into one body, I call into question ideas of progress, restriction, power, play and sexuality.

Nail on the head.

2010-02-21T08:39:00.000-08:00

Taken from a catolgue of Cindy Sherman's work, the following quote is from an article titled The Other Self of the Imagination: Cindy Sherman's Hysterical Performance by Elisabeth Brofen

"By presenting herself other then what she is, by refashioning the media images and narratives that influenced her self-image, she insists that the act of self-representation, as a means of expression, simultaneously always also performs the act it designates…..The subject of the portrait has been created performatively, in fact it can only be articulated as a performance. The represented subject can, therefore, be understood as a knot, binding together various languages that have shaped it and through which it is able to express, in a displaced and dislocated manner, its traumas, its memories, its desires and its fantasies. In addition, this represented subject performatively embodies the laws and dictates imposed upon it by the family and by society, as well as culturally acquired repertoire."

Elisabeth Bronfen, Cindy Sherman: Photographic Work 1975-1995, ed. by Zdenek Felix and Martin Schwander. (Germany: Schirmer Art Books ,1995), 14.

Although in my work, I attempt to suggest a stronger link between family and society then with my pop cultural surroundings, I think the sentiments, both general and specific, apply accurately to my work.

Photographing the photographs

2010-02-20T12:56:00.001-08:00

These photographs are documentation of what I've been working on this quarter. The photographs are 4x6, made to handle. I Like what they do in relationship to one another, both physically and conceptually. More installation shots to come after walk through.

Working Artist Statement

2010-02-08T05:58:00.001-08:00

My work hinges on the implications and expectations that the modern woman can “have it all”. I use the body and it’s adornments to express both the multitude of capabilities inherent in being a modern female, and the tiring restraints that are self inflicted and culturally imposed. Using my body, it’s gesture and inherent expressive qualities, I aim to both question and convey modern expectations of dress and behavior by showing strain, self-confidence, traditional values and modern drive and success.

An explanatory article on "Having it All"

2010-02-08T05:47:00.000-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/nov/27/gender.observerpolitics

In defense.

2010-02-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

In preparation for walk through I have thought through a series of questions that might be asked by my audience and the answers as of right now.

Why the white background? It's a useful vacuum space... alludes to advertisement but it’s like the pre-shoot to test the model's ability to create a successful image. My postures would keep me from any traditional job.

Why not use a model? I didn't want to be telling people what to do or how to think. While standing in front of the camera I am interpreting a lot of things I've consume, clothing culture, political culture and familial culture and then sending those thoughts out through my face and body. It would be difficult and inorganic to put that pressure on someone else. And I'm a control freak.

Also, using myself alludes directly to the introverted gaze and subverts the male/audience gaze. Being the only person of judgement in the room allows for full freedom of expression.

How do I choose the clothes? I choose clothes from my existing wardrobe, comprise of mostly second-hand finds. MY personal taste draws my to old items with character and history. I frequently shop at goodwill and second hand stores in search of fashion inspiration. This same inspiration translates to the pictures. I am using these garments with a history or a story to influence how I am thinking about my own femininity and role in modern society. Not of all the clothes are second hand, but the ones that don't carry special meaning to me or translate a certain idea in their style and prominence.

Why aren't you wearing shoes? I want to make it clear that I am not wearing outfits. These are pieces of clothing from my closet that I am wearing to show the range of female capability. But these outfits are not costumes either. I am not dressing up as someone else. I am dressing as me and expressing internal ideas, formed by preconceived notions of the people who wore the garment before me, or other people who would wear the same outfit in modern day.

How am I directing my expressions? My face is the vehicle to my mind. I have both very little control over my expression and total control. Fortunately for this work, my thoughts are conveyed directly onto the plains of my face, so I use this transfered emotion to control my expression. I use a lot of directed thinking and focused mental role playing to show the breadth of a female's response to her outer world. These emotions include strength,contemplation, suspicion, strain, deadpan, denial, control, and confidence. I am not focusing or negotiating physical beauty in either my face or my body. This will ether appear or not appear for the viewer depending on their personal preference.

In what size and format will you be presenting these self-portraits? I am printing on a very tactile matte paper that alludes to craft rather then advertising. Since my photos already hinge on their commercial implications, I felt necessary to stop this idea from seeping any further into the images. I've printed and presented the images in three sequenced groups of nine. The figures work better in relation to each other, communicating their individual message to the combined message of one feminine identity. They are the same person, all completely within her control and domain, but they express different sides of a complicated coin. She presents as feminine, domestic, proud, self confident, confrontational, masculine, balanced, sexual, flexible… all of these things become part of the whole. Part of a more complex identity. The size also alludes to the size of a small doll. I wanted to reference to be there, but not overt.

I'm sure their are more questions to come and I'm excited to receive further feedback and comments on my work thus far. Final Jpegs and installation shots to come.

The clothes, the posture, the body: The naked self.

2010-02-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

I began in the studio with a suitcase full of clothes, signifying pieces that stood out in my over-crowded wardrobe of goodwill finds and Target deals. I selected my rhinestone studded prom dress, a fifties housewife shift and a modern flower patterned dress whose shape suggesting an older era. I put the clothes on in front of the lights and a self timer and began to interpret. Alone in the studio, I let my whole mind and body be a part of the clothing. Who wears this garment? How does she wear this garment? What restrictions, both physically and socially, are placed on a woman wearing this piece of cloth. What can a piece of cloth do to a person? What can I do to this pliable material that simultaneously binds our bodies and frees our expression? I created images about women, for women.

John Berger writes "a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surrounds, taste –– indeed there is nothing she can do which does not contribute to her presence."

Throughout several subsequent photo shoots, I watched my body and mind react differently with each garment. Some outfits conjured action easier then others. Some outfits feel more natural to my everyday experiences and aspirations. But every pose, every personal glance, every moment of self confidence stems from within and then is placed on the exterior through the expression of my body. Does my self confidence change from the more revealing outfit to the more modest? Does my body language tell you that I am part of my experience? Do I look like I'm in control of my own representation?

In these pictures, I am both the object and the subject but for several reasons, I try to reject objectification. Yes, I realize that I will always appear as an object to some, but it is my intent that that impression does not start with me. I think it is important to note, that there is no mirror in the room. I am not checking my hair on a regular basis or re-applying make up. These aren't a part of my daily habits and I wasn't about to bring them into my artistic space.

Berger's text also talks about the difference between the naked woman and the nude woman in a historical art context. The naked woman is herself, with all her flaws. She would recognize herself in the positions she is portrayed in and her uniqueness would transfer to the audience through the image. In contrast, the nude woman is ideal. She is generalized for a mass audience. Her body is smoothed out and her gesture is without spontaneity, for surprise isn't as titillating for optimum arousal. The audience wants to be comfortable in seeing what they have seem many times before, not forced to contemplate a new patch of hair or an awkward lump.

For all intensive purposes, I appear metaphorically naked in these photographs. In some regard, I have no choice but to appear this way. I do not possess the ideal body or perfect skin, things needed in order to be generalized. But I take more control then that. Not wanting to rest on my looks, I quite frequently appear in unflattering, self assured and possibly confrontational positions. My face takes little interest in arousing the viewer, and at times has a more inquisitive nature. I am not nude. I am not generalized. And even if there is beauty in these photographs, I am not letting my image be controlled by a preconceived stereotype.

But no statement of selfhood can be distilled so easily. I have absorbed our culture. I am a part and product of how I grew up. I cannot escape wanting to feel good about myself. I can't deny the constant struggle I have with my body to conform to the generalized image. So with all the self confidence I can muster I say, "Although I am comfortable being me, their is a small part of myself that will never give up wanting to be 'her'."

Self Portraits cont. cont.

2010-01-22T15:27:00.000-08:00

I seem to have lost some of my energy in this second batch. I need a little direction but I haven't found it yet.

Self Portraits continued

2010-01-17T13:50:00.000-08:00

These images were originally taken to apply to the linens, but are starting to take on a life of their own. More thoughts on this later.

Self Portrait on Linens

2010-01-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

With these three objects, I am working with the tensions between the old model of femininity, the new model and how two still are continuing to butt heads and affect the modern woman's dress. I'm using the cloths to express aspects of women, but also how the cloths "make the WOman." Each outfit speaks to different physical restraints and implications of the wearer. I'm exploring all my options within my garments, as modern women seek to explore all their options and how their dress plays a crucial role in how they live life.

In the Midst of Chaos there is Clarity and Other Bullshit

2010-01-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

I've spent the majority of the weekend remaking my balloon video (which I realize is still not posted. I will put the most recent version on the web today or tomorrow). In the most recent version, I made a longer "dress" of balloons. Also, I wore a nude tank top and nylons as a base, verses a black tank top and black leggings. The nude colored undergarments emphasized the "dress" aspect of the balloon outfit, transforming it into a real garment.

The idea of the over-inflated, difficult to wear garment started to wear on my mind. As women, we put ourselves through physical rigors to wear the latest uncomfortable fashions. We buy expensive, non-practical clothing because it is beautiful, not because of it's comfort. I think my balloon dress is speaking to the difficulties and the impracticalities of dressing.

At the end of the video, I take of the dress and leave it in the frame. I have relaxed into my "natural state" and no longer have to negotiate the ridiculous fashion of the day. I leave the dress with it's own debris. They deserve each other.

Stills of the debris.

Things I learned this weekend: The Gold Nuggets

2010-01-11T05:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends. I am writing to tell you what I have learned over the course of the weekend. I am choosing to see all of this wonderful new information as nuggets of gold that I have inherited after many hours of endurance... not as the product of blood, sweat and yes....tears.

Balloons: can be found at any one of these stores: Jo Anne's, Target, Dollar Store and CVS. They range in size and color. A lot have HAPPY BIRTHDAY written on them. If you're lucky, they have multiple packs in stock. Balloons make your fingers very dry and dirty. And as a result of having dry dirty fingers, sometimes they bleed. I BLED FOR ART this weekend, people. Seriously.

Video Equipment: There are new JVC HD video camera's available at the cage. Please note that very few people know how to use these cameras, so you will be left to your own devices. That being said, I figured out that...to put the camera in full manual mode you need to press down the full auto button for just a moment, not for a long time, not twice. Just a moment. Also, you cannot record video unless you have a 16GB class 6 card. Not a class 4 or a 8 GB class 10 (if you buy this card from Best Buy, open it up, cut the packaging and try it out and then realize it is worthless, Best Buy will take it back!!!!). The 16 GB class 6 card are not available at Best Buy.

Canon 5D Mark 11. This camera might have saved my life. Scratch might and replace with did. It takes three buttons to make a video and I could use the 4 GB Extreme 111 card I already had. The buttons to happiness are (1) the button to the left of the viewfinder changes switches the camera into liveview/video mode (2) The button to the right of the viewfinder label AF auto focuses on your subject enabling you to shoot (3) The set button, or the button in the middle of the dial begins recording. Leave some time at the end of the video before you stop recording, if you don't you might not be able to view the footage at the end of your recording. After about a minute of idling, the camera automatically changes back to camera mode. All of these things were generally easy to do once I figured them out was generally very easy to use. The audio is adequate. I highly recommend experimenting.

Studio and after hours:You can sign up for after hours up to an hour before it's time to turn your keys in, but you must look very desperate and sad to pull this off, so plan ahead if you don't want to put your defeated face on. After hours on Saturday means that I had access to the studio all Sat. night and all day Sunday. WONDERFUL!!! This also meant that I need to arrive at school by 7:30 to return everything I checked out. Note: You do not have to leave your strobes set up for inspection. In fact, nobody checks your studio. Your keys are due to the 3rd Floor cage by 7:30, not the 4th Floor like you would expect. Then you should turn in your studio equipment around 7:45. Immediately after this, head down to the 3rd floor cage and turn in your camera equipment. You must do all of this in that order to not get docked. They do not tell you any of this in the cage "orientation."

I hope this was informational for all my RIT co-patriots. Carry on soldiers.

Tracey Emin: Thoughts on her most recent show

2009-12-21T10:56:00.000-08:00

My love for Tracey Emin continues to grow by the handfuls, so I was thrilled when she was showing at the same time I was in NYC. She showed in the Lower East Side, it was my mother and I's only reason for venturing that far down into the city... other then Katz's Deli and their pastrami sandwich and homemade pickles....

Her show situated itself on the wall and took on 3 of her classic forms of working, printmaking, embroidery on fabric, and neon word signs. I walked quickly past her prints, looking into each one of them but failing to take any interest.The subject matter: Emin's vagina rendered in a very sloppy way, often accompanied by backwards words. They were all the same, reinforcing an idea she has been working and reworking for many years. The prints are no longer surprising or edgy, but redundant. I moved on. What caught my eye was a large scale tapestry.

photo taken with a iPhone... sorry for the quality.

I admired the beauty, the craftsmanship, the intricacy and the obviously restraint. I loved how the essence of Emin's thoughts were contained in this one piece.

Nothing touches...with flowers splaying forth from her. Emin may be in the white dress but nobody asked her to get in it. She is wearing it but it has nothing to do with be married. In fact, it has everything to do with not being married, not being in love and not being content.

But perhaps this isn't Emin's point. Maybe it's mine and she got their first. Lately, I've been working out the notion of female desire to have it all; high powered career, kids, husband, friends, sex life, physical perfection, money, home. Enim is certainly desirous... but she admits that she doesn't have it all. In fact, it seems that what Emin has in spades is repetitive, deep-sewn anger. And I'm am increasingly interested in where that came from, not only in Emin, but in women in general. In a time where women can have it all, what are we missing?

Wanting to Want: Musings on Desire

2009-12-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

Thoughts in Process: Thoughts on Process: Thoughts for Progress:

The follow words are written to help my class visualize what I am trying to produce over the next few weeks. I am including the process, origination of ideas and thoughts on the end product. Settle in. I hope you enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/magazine/29sex-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Women who want to want&st=cse

I read an article over break about women who want to want….. sex. The article emphasized desire as a media construction, and arousal as the real sexual feeling that most women experience. So this desire, this highly sexualized personae modern women are supposed to employ, with fancy outfits and fun sex toys could all be modern marketing ploys. But even if we are aware that the media creates this expectation, we can still want it. This article, about a modern myth forced on a modern women, reminds me very much of Betty Freidan’s Feminine Mystic and the modern equivalents of the issues she raised in her liberating (at the time) novel.

So I have started creating work in relation to this idea, materializing it, breathing into it and hopefully helping to demystify desire. I am hand-stitching I want to want I wish I wanted, repeatedly onto my slip, the slip I wear underneath my dresses and smells like me. From far away, the slip looks like a delicately decorative undergarment meant to entice. But when you read the words, I hope the hesitation comes across.

I see the slip being a piece by itself, but I also hope it becomes a character in a view and a large scale photograph. The video would involve me as the subject in the garment. The environment with be close cropped but warm and inviting, sexual in nature. I see myself tracing the words that I have taken hours to stitch on the garment, taking my time as I trace the words with my fingers. I hope the whole experience with encapsulate the juxtaposition between the words and the action, showing the tug of war that is occurring between wanting desire and having it.

I also see this as a photograph, large scale and imposing in its nature. The images in my mind right now are both alluring and at the same time create very strict barriers of what is possible. The garment entices but the words repel. I want to create that in the photograph as well…. more thoughts on this as they come to me.

Is this issue personal? Wanting to want. Thinking I should want. Being pressured to want. These are all issues I think about regularly in regards to my personal choices my artistic output. The issue of being told you want something, believing you should want something, and thing then not wanting it is a powerful issue in my life, especially in regards to my role as a female. In a lifetime when women can “have it all” what can I really have? What is really possible in the expanses of just one person? Because really, it’s just me and I only have one lifetime. So how do I choose what to want?

A new idea: digital work in progress

2009-12-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

The are digital proofs of works that I hope will become touchable objects. I have taken my grandmothers linens that she embroidered upon and careful kept in perfect condition, and essentially, destroying them. I am destroying by re-appropriating. Right now I am working with modern media images from magazines that show that tug or war modern women play in today's society. Are we sex icons, working women, wives, mothers, housekeepers, warriors? Are we everything. Or really, are all our "selves" completely and completely washing away a true identity.

I find the embroidered linens to be the perfect canvas for a exploration of self. Made in a time where women had few options, the product of their lifestyle came through in standardized crafting... embroidery, sewing, knitting. All of which have recently been reclaimed by the DIY generation. But their is a sadness in these linens. They were made and used sparingly. Treasured but rarely admired. And so I blend the modern with the old. A newly trendy act with it's standardized origins. Combining visual imagery with handmade object, I hope to use craft to create art. I hope to emphasize our modern access to many choices on the canvas of a time where they were far less options. I hope to bring two words together and show how things are still sort of the same.

Body Shots....ya know.

2009-12-10T19:29:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to add context. I was using my high contrast lights... so the light is a little intense. My apologies.

Some inspiration: Look and love.

2009-12-02T17:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.joettamaue.com/index.html
I love the intimacy of the imagery and the way she embroiders as if she is drawing.
http://www.joychristiansen.com/index.html
I'm fascinated by the way Christiansen combines image with text and object. It's pretty much the epitome of what I'm working towards.
http://historically-inaccurate.blogspot.com/
I love the way Saja stitches and the canvas he chooses to use. I'm looking at a lot of embroidery and textile art lately. I'm finding that the more tactile oriented arts are driving my ideas towards an increasingly focused point.
http://www.calebcolephoto.com/pages/one/one.html
I love the humor and compassion that Cole embodies by wearing other people's clothes.
http://www.feelingstitchy.com/
Simply fun.
http://www.donaldyoung.com/mcelheny/josiah_mcelheny_index.html
I get lost in McElheny's pieces. They are beyond beautiful. Beyond sensual. Just beyond....

Sewing My Own

2009-11-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

Hello all. I am posting detail shots from my work this quarter. The time went fast and I feel like I just got started on this project, but I very excited about the possibilities. I haven't figured out how I'm going to present that actual clothing items... but I'm working on that. I don't have shots of the shirts in their entirety as of yet, but that's coming.

Working Artist Statement

The act of sewing simultaneously mass-produces and individually stitches the threads that bind our exterior identities. Utilizing photography, embroidery, and feminine postures, I hope to explore the modern female’s agency over exterior representation. These pieces carry my residue through application of personal text, image, and labor, creating an explorative and conscious construction of self. If social identity is constructed through the presentation of clothing decisions, then I strive to take representation one step further, adding real bits of my inner identity to the mass produced, making each piece one-of-a-kind and one-like-any-other.

The Work

This was the first piece I did where I felt like I got my point across. The images from here on out are not the work itself, but detail shots of the work. I stitched the names of all the people in my life who had a hand in making me who I am. I wanted to add real bits of my identity to the clothing conveying more of a truth through what I wear.

Black, long sleeved turtle neck

This piece is called the boyfriend t-shirt. I've scripted my relationship history around the collar of the shirt. I plan for this piece to continue as my love life evolves. It's really important for my pieces to weather and change as I do, that was one of the reasons for using clothing initially. The immediacy in connection to the body presented the best canvas for a truly interactive piece.

Blue, v-neck t-shirt

This piece focuses on the image and the character's relationship to clothing. I wanted to convey a skepticism and an irony, commenting about clothing, on clothing.

Blue draw string skirt, knee length

With this shirt called the Little Black Dress, I was playing with the idea of the shifting identity and how the body changes shape based on what it's wearing.

Black t-shirt

Detail shot.

Detail shot #2

In this piece, I was working with the possibilities in layering meaning that happens when I combine the clothing, embroidery and photography into one work.

Size 14 juniors baseball t-shirt

I think that photography and sewing have some interesting parallels. Both processes create collectible objects. And both, at their fundamental level, are seen as things that anybody can do.
And both photography and sewing, in combination and separately, are ways we convey character and self image.

Printed on inkjet fabric

And here I am playing with labels, both literally and physically. I used the available language presented on our clothing to create a new, playful dialogue.

So that is what I accomplished this quarter... along with adjusting to a new city and a new school. I would love to hear feedback.

First visit to Turk's

2009-09-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

These photos were taken just outside Bath, NY at a cluttered thrift store on top of a lake called Turk's. I only had 50 mins before closing so I'm just beginning. This place is full of happy accidents and I can't wait to explore all of them.

Post for Core Review

2009-09-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

These are the images I made over the summer. They have no theme other then portraits. But I've enjoyed making them and and getting a lot of ideas while working with my friends and family.

Honors Project

Illusional Landscapes

This group of images is my attempt to visually represent my split home life. My dad lives on a farmhouse in Southwest, Ia and my mom lives in a contemporary home in downtown Des Moines, Ia. I have combined the most beautiful aspects of each living style into one image, creating balance and harmony between my two worlds that have always remained so separate.

I’ve stitched together outdoor panoramas of mainly rural scenes, taking my time on beautiful fall days to make multiple exposures in the quiet serenity of country roads. I was welcomed into many homes in my mom’s neighborhood, enjoying the distinct glamour of each family’s decorating style. And then the process of selection begins. I combined images based on color temperature and my ability to maximize the more interesting parts of each landscape. With each new creation, I strive to maintain the integrity of both landscapes while also discovering how they fit together.

Anything but Yourself

“When you look in a mirror, it’s hard to see anything but yourself.”

The mirror simultaneously creates and defines my exterior presentation. I rely on my reflection and my critical judgment as a consistent barometer of my attractiveness. I know how my body looks in every position. I know what expressions my face conveys. I know every unpleasant feature I possess. Above all, I know how to best present myself. Because of this lifelong study, I am fully aware of the person I exhibit in everyday life.

I am fascinated with the idea of “mirror as truth” and how we, namely women, use our studied reflection to determine physical behavior. The young women reflected in my mirror had no idea what they looked like at the moment my shutter clicked. The image reflected back to them was one of me, taking their picture.

The idea of not knowing what you’re presenting to the world is uncomfortable, especially when confronted with a camera. To compensate my models used practiced poses extracted from studied and perfected daily behaviors, using their past mirror experiences to the influence their current mirror situation.

Amy J's Headshots

2009-08-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

There are the reposted images. Again, feedback.

Rena's scenic home/ a preview

2009-08-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this for Rena to look at and comment on, but other's feel free to chime in.

This landscape is a little different from my traditional works. Rena wanted to incorporate both the inside and outside of the home in the print so I created a scene where she could look out at her home from her livingroom. But I will continue to fiddle around.

Rock and Roll Wedding

2009-08-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

This was one of my favorite wedding experiences. It was completely chaotic and there was no schedule to follow but the details were beautiful and the people were so much fun. The getting ready shots were at the Marriot in Iowa City, the ceremony was at the Friends Church in West Branch and the reception was at a prairie reserve east of Iowa City. The bride had a beautiful son and daughter and I loved photographing them. And the couple actually spent a lot of time around each other, making it easier to capture pretty candid pics.

Merkle-Carrasco Wedding

2009-08-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

I assisted on this wedding on August 1, an absolutely beautiful day. The couple were friends of a friend so I was excited to be part of the day. The ceremony was at Preucil School. We took the formals out back of the school against a lovely wooded area and contrary to my last post about formal shots.. these were some of my favorite shots from the wedding. The reception was at the Quality Inn and very fun and relaxed. The couple thanked us publicly during their speech and my mouth dropped. It felt great to be recognized.

Oh, Nelle and Eric were at the wedding and the camera loves them. So do I.

Something I've been working on.

2009-08-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

The beginning of something.

2009-07-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

I recently photographed a beautiful home for some friends of the family, with the intention of creating an illusional landscape like I've done in the past. Here are the initial images. The final product will follow sometime in August.

Balloons for you.

2009-07-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here are the balloon portraits that I took of Maggie. There photos tuned into the collaborative project with Maggie and Nelle.

Maquoketa: Adventure Iowa

2009-07-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

John and I went for a little jaunt in Maquoketa, Ia. After briefly panicking when Garmin lead us astray on to a VERY unkept road, we arrived relatively unscathed at a little piece of paradise. The caves were beautiful, cool and dare I say – rugged. Here is what I took from the day. I published a photo essay with captions in the Little Village this month. Check it out. I don't think it's on the interweb..... but find it in print at many Iowa City locations.

New Collaborative Project Pics

2009-07-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here are so initial images from the collaborative project my two beautiful friends and I have started.

Back story: The lovely Maggie Voss and I headed out one day with a fist full of inflated balloons and a polarizing filter – those photos are on the way. We soon realized that the photos had narrative potential and invited our friend the wicked sexy Nelle Dunlap to jump into the story as well as the creative process. We are using all of our respective skills to put together a beautiful story of making your way in the world, greed and the treacherous path we take. The story and meanings are evolving as the time passes. Enjoy the still images to start. Eventually there will be a website, animation and a book at the hands of Maggie and Nelle.

Also, these are RAW images. No retoughing yet. Just wanted to put them out there.

Jefferson, IA and the state's amazing clouds

2009-06-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

My mom drove me around on Sat. and I shot a bunch of cloud pics out in the country. I also bought some awesome mud boots... so now I'm unstoppable.

Experimental Night Shots

2009-06-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

I love seeing how things look.

New-fangled barn

2009-06-08T19:55:00.001-07:00

This is what a new barn looks like. They've lost a little charm but they have motorized garage doors. The pioneers would have been impressed.

2009-06-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the barns I shot for the Little Village. I stopped at this barn on a whim. I drove up to the house and the owner immediately came out and showed me around the old barn, which housed a new momma dog and her litter of puppies. He advised that I didn't get too close.

Oh Man

2009-04-28T13:14:00.001-07:00

And I got a call from Oregon offering me a full ride. Decisions, decisions.

Ilene's Barn for Little Village

2009-04-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

This barn is featured on the "Iowa Red Barn" label for Wallace Winery. Ilene is co-owner of the winery and owner of the barn and sheep farm. Her family has been on working the land for about 100 years, with a three year exception. She applied for a grant from the Iowa Barn Foundation for repair money but found the restrictions and regulations to be too stringent.

Being on this farm was peaceful and homey. There were buildings surrounding me and animals roaming about. The sheep were quite entertaining. Once they realized I was there, they would charge in and out of the barn, confronting me with more beady-eyed faces in every round.

First Barn for Little Village

2009-04-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

I am privileged to be the photographer for a local free publication called Little Village. Maggie Anderson's barn story is my first assignment. I will be posting my rough shots as I go. I shot two barns today and am hoping to shoot a few more tomorrow. The first barn is falling over but the composition remains beautiful and the decay is a photographers dream. Farm owner Terry Johnson was kind enough to let me on to his property and tell me a bit about the barn.

Terry has lived on the farm since he was three years old. The barn predated him and his family and he guesses that it's age is over 80 years. The barn was built with wooden pegs which you can see throuhgout the structure. While we talked he kept repeating that he wasn't proud of this barn. And I quote "Every time we get a big wind storm I look out at the old barn and hope it's blown over. Then I won't have to pay anyone to come do it for me."

A man offered to start taking it down for him in exchange for the lumber. He stripped some of the shingles off the roof and gave up, saying it was too much work. The evidence of his brief labor lays in a bare strip up the middle of the barn roof.

Enjoy the photos.

Admitted.

2009-04-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

I got into RIT. Now I REALLY don't know what to do. I'm going to visit with my mom next week. And then, I suppose I'll have to make a decision.

Studio portraits of my mom

2009-04-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

These were shot at the same time as the fur coat portrait. I was shooting these with a 4x5 camera... and lets just say, I need some more work. But my model was perfect and I can't wait to re-shoot

Plans for next year.

2009-04-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

So, things have not worked out. Or perhaps they have. I'll be staying in Iowa City and searching for work. I'm assisting at Wilderness Studios this summer, during wedding season and then after that..... probably working part time and looking for supplement work. So if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. I'm interested in photographing, writing, making videos, and numerous other small jobs. I'd like to stay in Iowa City but would be willing to travel to Des Moines on occasion for work. I'm not looking for a lot of money, just things that have the potential to make me happy, teach me something or benefit me in some positive way. I'll be posting my resume when it's updated from this semester. Looking over it, I realize how many jobs I've had in my short life span. I should join over achiever anonymous and promptly take a vacation.

Images from Drew and Whitney's BFA show.

2009-03-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a great time. And now.... I'm going to graduate.

BFA/HONORS SHOW

2009-03-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

Here's the flyer for my show. Drew was kind enough to share his space with me and Maggie was fabulous enough to design my flyers. Thanks so much to you both.