Artist - Gregory Crewdson

http://www.gagosian.com/artists/gregory-crewdson/

Gregory Crewdson is a photographer/ visual artist who is well known for creating very surreal and dramatic dreamlike images of suburban America. Crewdson studied photography at SUNY Purchase in the 80's. He received his M.F.A. from Yale and has taught at Sarah Lawrence, Cooper Union, Vassar College, and currently at Yale. Crewdson has had several publications and exhibitions. He has shown work at the BlumHelman Warehouse in New York, the Feigen Gallery in Illinois, and even the Galleri Charlotte Lund in Sweden.

I picked Gregory Crewdson in my work this week, because I feel he truly captures the cinematic feel that I would like aesthetically in my work. He also creates these narratives within his imagery that are incredibly surreal though only use every day items. These are all elements that I strive for in my images, but am struggling to create. I find great inspiration in Crewdsons work and use of lighting, color, and substance. So far I feel that Crewdson's work is aesthetically and conceptually closest to what I want to portray in my study this semester.

"I think that, in a sense, there's something about photography in general that we could associate with memory, or the past, or childhood. I never literally made miniature trains, tableaus, or anything. But there is something very childlike in the process"

Lopez, Antonio. Site Santa Fe. 2001. Web.

      http://www.sitesantafe.org/exhibitions/virtualgalleries/frcrwan/crewdsonqa.html

"Gregory Crewdson doesn't so much take pictures as make them. Some critics say the photographer and artist is reinventing the genre by using film techniques to stage pictures. Crewdson's carefully constructed tableaus generate more questions than answers,"

NPR. "Gregory Crewdson's Photo Alchemy". 2006. Web.

         http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5157819

http://www.whitecube.com/



idea 10/7 - identity

I have found, recently, in my work I am beginning to deal a lot with identity. Most importantly I am dealing with self identity. I am seeing this work as a reflection of myself and how I have developed as a person over the last 21 years. I am interested to learn how trauma, joy, and the other range of emotional experiences affect human development. I find it important that I acknowledge that I am doing work about my own personal identity. In bringing that theme to the forefront I feel I may be able to push it further in the long run. On my last critique blog it was mentioned to maybe find models to convey emotions that I have felt if I am having trouble conveying them myself, but I feel it is important to the theme of self and identity that I remain in the images.

Guardo, Carol J. Bohan, Janis Beebe. "Development of a Sense of Self-identity in Children". Child
         Development. 1971. Print.

Summary
This article "Development of a Sense of Self-identity in Children" approaches how children learn and develop. Guardo and Bohan discuss what "self-identity" means and why it is important."It refers to an immediate, intraorganismic experience whereby the individual is aware of his own being and functioning"(1910). Why is self-identity important in human experience? Why do people work so hard to discover "who they really are"? Guardo and Bohan state that the four dimensions of self identity stem from "humanity, sexuality, individuality, and continuity" (1910)

key quotations
"A sense of self identity involves the experience of having or being certain characteristics which are essential to the human individual in that they contribute to "personeity," that is, to this experience of himself as a person with a unique identity" (1910).

"In summary, a sense of self-identity or "personeity" encompasses that experience whereby the individual is aware that he is one being with a unique identity who has been, is, and will be a male (or female) human person seperate from and entirely like no other" (1911).

Visiting Artist - Julika Rudelius

Julika Rudelius is a native German artist who predominently works within the subject matter of social classes and interactions. She has produced work in multiple countries, including the U.S. Rudelius stated that her work first stemmed from anger and discomfort that she herself experienced. She has produced controversial work dealing with pornography (in a non-traditional sense) and the objectifying of women in culture. Most of her later work, however, deals more with social class and the wealthy. I found her film on the women of the Hamptons to be very comical and insightful to the life that the wealthy lead. It was interesting to hear their concerns and thoughts on the world. Ofcourse they lived up to the stereotype that society gives them, which is what most of Julika's work seems to do despite her efforts to steer it elsewhere.

I will say, I do wish I did not know that Rudelius' is mostly under her control. I was more fond of it when I thought that these people were saying and doing these things out of their own normal routines. Though, I do understand as an artist why you must manipulate your work to make it do or say what you want it to do/say. I feel Rudelius does a great job of manipulating her subjects to stand where she wants them, talk about what she wants them to, etc. without it being too obvious about what she is doing.

I do think it would have been nice to see more of Julika Rudelius' work, and was bummed about the technical issues that arose.

Artist - Julie Blackmon

http://www.julieblackmon.com/

Julie Blackmon is a photography based visual artist who currently resides in Springfield, Missouri. Over the past 6 years, Blackmon has been in several shows and received numerous awards. She has shown work at Drury University (2005), Claire Oliver Gallery in New York (2007), and Catherine Eldeman Gallery in Chicago (2008). Her work also appears in several private collections, such as University of Arkansas at Little Rock, George Eastman House (New York), and Museum of Fine Arts in Austin, Texas.

I find Julie Blackmons work very inspirational to what I want to create this semester. Her imagery is beautiful and I love the way that she captures these scenes in a very dynamic way. I feel as if I am looking at a single slice in time. Her use of contrast and rich colours are also fascinating, and something I push for in my own work. I also am very fond of her subject matter, how she uses her children to create these scenes that at first glance seem kind of normal, but at the same moment it seems as though something is out of place.

"The Dutch saying “a Jan Steen household” originated in the seventeenth century and has come to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings. The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, are the direct inspiration behind the layered domestic scenes of Julie Blackmon’s photographic work. "

Nordstrom, Alison. Artbook. Radius Books. 2008. Web. http://www.artbook.com/9781934435045.html

"It’s all ignorant bliss, until you notice the pool glimmering on the left with the naked tot at the rim, and a boy’s body splayed just under the water’s surface. Blackmon pushes the dramatic tension with her stringent composition, which veers toward abstraction. A bull’s-eye beach umbrella opposes a round chair. The pool’s corner fills out a perfect square on the upper left. It’s a harmonious world. Only the people throw it askew"

McQuaid, Cate. Intensely Controlled Chaos. The Boston Globe. 2010. Web. http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/03/24/julie_blackmons_photos_speak_of_intensely_controlled_chaos/

http://www.ggibsongallery.com/