Part One: Research :: What makes a good Artist Portfolio

-Li Fan-

http://www.liography.com/

Li Fan’s website drew my eye for a couple of reason. The first reason being that it is very simple and direct. There is no confusion on whether something is button or not, which makes it very easy to navigate your away around. It is not too simple, to the point were it is boring. The second thing I liked about this website was that color scheme. For the home page there is a very neutral gray but it is contrasted by bright green of the grass that the ducks are on. This makes the picture really stand out, as if the ducks were jumping off the page. The very last thing that I liked about his website is that the theme remains constant through out all the pages. The gray, white and orange color scheme on his “photo blog” creates a subtle, but nice eye movement, and makes for interesting page. Although I do think that some parts of the webpage could be a little bit more dynamic, not too much, but just a little bit. Overall, I love the simplicity of the website, and the neutral color choices.

RESEARCH- Alberto Giacametti

("Cat" left "Walking Man" right)

The sculptures that Alberto Giacometti are all bronze which can be somewhat boring to see, but he does it in such a minimalistic way that its truly eye grabbing. The sculptures have this feeling that they were excavated from Pompeii or volcanic site. They have a very eerie feeling to them the really catches my eye and makes me want to stair at them for hours on end. Also I like how the sculptures have so little detail to them yet they are still very identifiable.

RESEARCH- Tony Smith

("Stinger" left, "Smoke" right)

The next artist that I liked was Tony Smith. The main reason why I liked his work so much was due to the sheer size of his sculptures, for example his sculpture “Smoke”. It does not really resemble that of smoke, which is probably because he went to a minimalist school. The thing that impressed me the most was that his sculptures are made from concrete. I also liked the geometric forms, and the angles; they are just so sleek and sharp. This is implemented from the background he had in architecture.

RESEARCH- Alexander

("Woman Combing Her Hair" left, "Woman" right)

Alexander Archipenko’s work caught my eye for one reason, and one reason only and that is because it reminds me of Picasso’s art. His sculptures deal with many simple shapes the really help accentuate the figure, and that is what grabs me about Picasso’s art. I really like his sculpture “Woman” because the shapes by themselves they would just be arbitrary, but together they resemble that of a woman, which makes for a very intriguing sculpture.

RESEARCH- Eva Hesse

("Sequal" right, "Right After" left)

Eva Hesse, was a truly a minimalist artists. She took the most simplistic materials and ideas and still made them artful, for example the latex walnut piece she did entitled, “Sequel”. The piece of hers that I like the best was the one she did with only string a wire, “Right After”. What intrigued me the most about this piece is how the weight of it is completely contrasted by its scale. I like how she does not use the same materials over and over, which make her pieces very interesting to look at.

Professional Concept Proposal

The concept of my video is going to start with me sitting at the bus stop just waiting. Then the bus will come down street, as that happens I will walk out into the street with my arms outstretched. After I walk into the street I will cut between shots of me standing in the street and the bus coming down the road to build intensity. I want to show it as though the bus and I are going to collide. While this is going on loud opera music will be playing in the background, which will help heighten the intensity even more. Once the bus and I collide, it will cut to a dead silent shot of me sitting on the bus leaning against the window with a smirk on my face. The intensions of my video are geared towards opportunity. Great opportunities only come by once and a while, and we need to take them when they come around. The audio for my video will be opera music. There will be a series of different shots but mainly close ups, full shots, and extreme close-ups.

Project 2-1 (Reading Response QUIZ)

1)Name an Early artist mentioned in the article for CONCEPTUAL WORK performing in front of the camera.Describe a work. (2points)

John Baldessari is an artist from the 1960’s and in 1971 I produced a series of black and white short films entitled in I Am Making Art. The film was about twenty minutes long and consisted of a series of gestures and he repeats the title of the film over and over.

2)Name an artist mentioned who deals with PERSONAL NARRATIVE. Describe a work. (2 points)

One artist that deals with personal narrative is Bill Viola, in 1973 he made a video called, Information. The video dealt with a sequence of images that he could control from the out side of the camera, often he add light and dark interplay on the center of his images. He also wore a loud speaker on his back to add sound.

3)Describe the piece you were most interested in viewing after reading this article. Look the work up on the links, and expand on Rush's comments. (2 points)

The video that found most interesting was Peter Campus’s Three Transitions. In Rush’s article he discusses how the video is a metaphor for internal and external selves. Which is very evident in the first two transitions, but he does not explain or even introduce the third transition. Which is a reflection of him on a piece of paper that he burns. Which emulates an underling tone of emotion. The film is an interesting fete of editing, which like his other films if shot with a series of cameras.

4)What do you better understand now about Video Art? (2 points)

Before reading this article my perception of filming and video art was more less that it was used for trying to tell a story. But Rush has opened my eyes and helped me realize that it can be much more then that. Video art is also about trying to convey a feeling to your target audience. Also, film allows you to incorporate all different types of medias into art, such as filming a painting, or a photograph. Just because you are using video does not necessarily mean that there has to be movement taking place in shot. Overall this article was very informative, a bit long, but I am glad that I was exposed to it.

5)Based on Rush and this article, what makes Video Art vs. an "artful video"? (2 points)

Video Art consist of things such as documentaries, news reporting’s. Although many artful techniques help make commercial television and advertising more interesting they are not to be considered and artful video. An artful video lies within the intentions of the artist. It is to produce something with out limits and for no other purpose but your own. Even though the differences in these two types of videos are minute, ultimately it is the artist who makes the decision.