Miah Nate Johnson
Oliver Wasow
MFA Residency Semester 1
1st paper
January 3-12th 2013
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”. - Marcel Proust
"Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible." Paul Klee
Boston at AIB, start of the MFA program, I was truly lost the first day, there was so much information to consume, but when the week started all fell into place with clarity.
I really did not know what to expect from the MFA program, I entered it eyes open. Discussions and lectures where quite illuminating. Talks consisted of artist aging and the ideas of how their work changes through a life span of creating art work. Makes life an open door for one to question and see and at times to be slightly out of focus. We delved into looks and wanderings of the history of artist works. Talks of looking at art in a conceptual form of design, shape, history, symbols, metaphors and placement in time. With a division of a form by placement, and non placement of light source to finalize the subject. The lectures drew me in each day. Each discussion questioned us as artists. With the use of great statements and quotes to make us think in our hotel rooms late at night.
The critiques, went well, it is hard to look into my work, it was good to be questioned. I have my own personal beliefs, which where respected, but one starts to think I need to PUSH, get closer to the edge, could I, what if, what next, how, boxed in, if I can, these words race through my head while critiques where happening.
Each professor explained their thoughts and things to be aware of in my work,
One of the things I really respected was each professor went silent at times in thought, thinking, or pondering of what to say or question, I felt this was a respect to me as an artist.
Review highlights where responsive, terms to critique my work whereas follows. Well executed, formal images of 1970s, emotion, intense, composition, tradition of the frame, storytelling, super sleuthing, surrealistic displays, How is my work any different from those prior in the world of street photography. Where do I fit in?
Both sessions on critical theory and aging artists where real eye openers. I was introduced to a new way of seeing the world of art I had looked at for so many years. Each of these sessions made one leave not baffled but yearning to seek new things and ideas to read, look and create.
The discussing visual culture in the sessions of abstract expressionists really stayed with me “vomiting forth of pure emotionally expression of the soul” along with the idea of “reiterating ourselves as artist”, confirmed that being true to oneself and seeing anew, the work will show in the end. One of the magical parts of the Critical theory class was Stuarts flowing stage performance of really getting into the discussion of art. I felt drawn in every lecture and needed to seek new information, and bodies of work that where thrown our way. It is sad in a way that the classes where only four sessions, but time is time. The term “willing suspension of belief” put the question of how can I tie this ideal into my work so I as an artist I can move further into my work based on the discussions. Each session made me question myself as an artist with new words and thought, it truly was more of an experience then a class.
Aging artist was more then to be expected, I was amazed looking into bodies of works by the masters and seeing how they moved in their world from a young artist to an older artist. The explanations on detail that was put forth showing brush strokes, layering, hidden meanings, symbols and metaphors, with pallet changes of style and technique enriched my look at the arts as a whole.
Both lectures opened a new world of artists. Serra, Powers, Newman, along with a deeper appreciation into Michelangelo, DaVinci, Goya and Titian to name a few.
The visiting art lectures where wonderful, the views, perspective and variations of ideas, in which the artist came to that point of understanding and creating their body of work unlatched a door for me to seek more.
It was not till I got home that the talk on Cairo Stories really hit, I realized how a show like this in a modern twenty-first century city with traditional standards of male dominated society along with the studies of the Koran made this documentary a powerful cultural and economic life piece, not to mention to show on the streets in a public venue. I cannot fathom or even begin to comprehend the amount of work and drive behind such an endeavor.
The other visiting lecture that really moved me was Matt Saunders works. Matt went into an in depth explanation of how he moved forward in his work from the pop stylized paintings in his beginnings as an artist. From being alone in his loft in the West village watching old movies and how his work related to his body of work. The progression of his thought process of how he threw himself deeper into his works through experimentation and the mixture of expanding mediums.
The idea of motion of form through multiple paintings with fluid rough brush stokes of light and dark. Entranced the viewer with shifting design showing a form of layering and composition which pulls the viewer into the frame of his painting. The short films which made his painting move in a simple idea of constant motion based on his love for old films was pure magic, His work is truly a piece of art. The bicycles going down the street where equal to Vivaldi, Four Seasons, a true gem.
Beth Campbell’s body of work from the beginnings to the newer pieces where quite stunning,
The idea that she conveyed of repeating form and unending lines with uniformed structure is truly a marvel of design and thought. I felt that the work makes people think in a mind set of altered time and space that is not often thought of or looked upon, except in the world of mathematical science. She brings to her work the distinct individual presence of the everyday mundane made strange or unfamiliar, a melted sink, or a room that never ends. Which carried over to the series of lamps that gradually fold over do to aging or decay was well executed leaving the audience with a feeling of passed time. The last piece of the pillow lodge into a table was pure genius, she puts forth the idea of things passing from one dimension to the other and made it tangible for thought.
I now have to set out to create and to think of my work as whole, to question my work and the thought process behind what I do. I left the program thinking how do I begin to see my work and how to explain the portfolios I do are concise and direct. This leaves me with a thought that I am free to explore other bodies of work and styles that will only enhance my vision and thought process. The main part is to have fun being focused and creating for that is the true aspect of art, the freedom of expression.
Artist to look into:
Harold Feinstein 1931 American Photographer
Matt Saunders
Mathew Barney (films)
Hiram Powers sculpture
Taryn Simon 1975 American Photographer
Mark Cohen
Gregory Crewdson
Philip Lorca Dicorcia
Books: researched
Susan Meiselas, Carnival Strippers
Eugene Richards, 50 hours
Josef Koudelka, Gypsies
Jim Goldberg, Rich and Poor
Books: researched
Towards a Philosophy of Photography
American Art Since 1945 ( excellent)
Robert Frank Looking into the Americans
Street Photography Now
Mark Cohen Grim
Books Bought:
Pollock
Mark Cohen Grim
Doisneau
American Art Since 1945
Bansky Art
New Words and Worlds:
Transparent
Roughly
Scumbly
Fleshiness
Harmonized color
Unity in variety
Trace of hand
Dematerialized
Tangible presence
Pastiche
Edifying
Existentialism
Space markers
Overlapping
Work looked at:
Titian
Duchamp
Pollock, Rauschenberg, De Kooning, Newman, Serra, Haacke
Picasso
Early 19 th century painters
Kiki Smith
Stephen Greene
Goya, Black Paintings
Words I liked:
Reiterating ourselves as artist:
Willing suspension of belief
Deskilling of art
The art object itself is sacred on its own
Collision of styles and ideas
Logo rhythms of works
"The hand the eye and the heart" David Hockney
Written paper ideas:
The makings of Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand,
Street Photography 1
Looking into the new realm of street photographers leaning into the digital era. Looking into street photography past, now and where do I fit in.
A look into Photo League photographers.
Ben Shahn and my work, comparative images and writings
Photo projects IDEAS:
Photo essay on my mother Prof. Ilse Johnson age 87.
Street works, but looser more in face.
Using an IPHONE for street work, along with traditional 35mm.
Photo essay on the contemporary world of cell phones and the disconnection we have amongst ourselves, in public places.
Mentors:
Peter Bunnell, Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art Emeritus at Princeton University. (609) 258-3794
Howard Greenberg http://www.howardgreenberg.com... info@howardgreenberg.com
Robert Henry (painter) http://www.paam.org/mspaam_fall_09_legacy.html
Karen Haas, the Lane Collection Curator of Photographs 617-369-3426
Bruce Gilden, Magnum Photos
Robert Klein Gallery, http://www.robertkleingallery.com/
