last reading questions

1.)  What is art therapy? I don’t know, but I think it’s about the person not the art.

2.)   
2.) Does your art making relate to therapy at all? If so, how? Well I’ve been making art since I was young and every time I would make art I would be in my own world or comfort zone so I guess you can say that it’s also my therapy.

3.)   
3.) How do you feel art therapy can help someone with special needs? Why would art therapy be the most appropriate  method? Art is probably the easiest way and you kind of just do it, there doesn’t have to be any thinking involved.

4.)   
4.) Have you ever used art making (painting, drawing, photography, etc) as a way to deal with a personal issue? Please explain.  Yes, I do that every day.

5.)    
5.) Do you think, as an artist, we have any responsibility to help others deal with problems through art? No, I don’t think as artists we’re responsible for that.

6.)   
6.) Can you see any kind of relationship between this video and how I approach my artwork? Yes.

7.)   
7.) Do you think any of my work is therapeutic? It could be.

8.)    
8.) Do you think my art will change when I leave school? Maybe, and if it does it will be for the better most likely.

1.) Did you find any similarities between the reading and the youtube video? Somewhat yes.

2.) Do you believe that attempting to remove certain tenets embedded deep within our society is an important aspect to the advancement of the human condition? For certain things yes, but we shouldn’t have to remove everything.

3.) Are there any examples of people considered to be insane for their attempt to remove unnecessary beliefs within our society? Probably but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

4.) Andrei Tarkovsky expresses the fact that you cannot force others to feel certain emotions, and that you may not experience life through anything other than your own personal experiences. Do you believe that this statement is beneficial to the creation of art? Yes.

5.) Do you agree, or disagree, with the opinions that Andrei Tarkovsky expresses about his view on art? Why? Somewhat yes, it’s a little confusing for myself.

6.) Do you find a similarity between my work and any of the information that I have presented to you? A little yes, but I can’t be sure.

7.) Are there any similarities between the work that you create and the presented information? Maybe.

8.) Is everything going to be okay? Sure, why wouldn’t it be.

Paul, Brittany and Danielle questions

1.      What, if any, are the similarities/differences of a slow,

meditative medium such as drawing/painting compared to an instant

appropriation tool such as photography? Would you consider a

photograph an object, as you would a painting/sculpture? Yes, but at that same time it’s more of an image than that of a painting or such.

2.      What is the “message” of a photographic record? To be honest I’m not sure.

3.      Would you consider “amateurism” when using a medium, an advantage

or a disadvantage, while producing work? For example, is

photo-realistic drawing the top of the heap? Does that

knowledge/technique get in the way of some-sort of innocence/potential

for inspiration? For me it seems to be half and half, and I also think that it has to do with the situation and who you’re making the work for whether it’s you or someone else.

4.      In the film, The Blood of a Poet by Jean Cocteau, what

images/sequences of voyeurism appear in the film? Does this have a

relationship to photography as appropriation? In some form yes.

5.      What does it mean psychologically when the theatre party applauds

the death of the card shark? What does it mean, when viewing it as an

artist? Not too sure.

6.      At what time does a highly personal, private, disgusting or elegant

moment or event, becomes a spectacle? (Please refer to # 4 & #5) I guess when it get out of control.

7.      (Made in 1930) Jean Cocteau uses several surrealistic motifs

throughout the film, which is simultaneously intermixed with personal

iconography. What about my work is self referential, and at the same

time referencing the time in which we are living? For me, it would be the images and people that you use in your work.

8.      Over the past two years, I have produced an extensive archive of

images, with 35mm film only. What do you consider to be the

differences between shooting in a digital format, and any sort of film

format? It seems that digital has better quality as to a clear image but sometimes images that come form film can look just as good and I guess it also depends on the person and what you’re looking for.

9.      What are your observed advantages for me using photographic processes?  To be honest I don’t know much about photography, so I don’t think I have any.

10.     How hot is Lee Miller? Literately or figuratively?

1. Is the author of this book being overly simplistic? I don’t think so at all.

2. Is the author being overly cynical? Maybe to some point, but not too much.

3. Can you be cynical and paranoid and still be correct in your assertions concerning matters that are highly subjective? You can, but I think that it’s rather difficult to do so.

4. Since "group think" is not only entrenched in the art world but the real world, should it not be encouraged in art school ?   Well, if its everywhere then maybe it should.

5. Does the fine arts department at Ringling College of Art and Design represent a microcosm of the Art World? I guess it could.

6. As stated in the reading "does privileging words over visual expression encourage a narrowly didactic approach to art making?" I think it does to some extent.

7. Is Automatism or any other intuitive approach discouraged in contemporary art academia? I think it is a little.

8. Do you believe my work would have been  better served had I not attended art college?  Probably

9. Do you believe my work to be self indulgent? I guess it could be but I don’t see it that way.

10. If all art is self indulgent to a certain extent, should I not embrace this approach? To be honest I think you should.

11. Does the "it's all about me" approach to my work alienate you the viewer? No, if anything it gives me more insight.        

1.    Do you agree or disagree with Elkin’s stance on art education? Explain? Yes, in all honesty I think that artists teaching artist is like retards teaching retards, it just doesn’t work.

2.    Explain your understanding of Elkin’s definition of “taught”.  Well it seem that art cannot be taught if anything it can only be guided.

3.    How does structure within academia foster or inhabit the creation of art? To be honest, I think that if there is structure it constricts that amount of freedom one has to create a piece.

4.    Do you think that art can be taught? Do you agree with the weak view of nothing can be taught, pgs 101-102? I think that many things can be taught, art is just not one of them.

5.    Do you feel Ringling has prepared you for when you’re working outside of a structured academic setting? Why? Nope, because I’m so used to structure now, when I first get out of Ringling I wouldn’t know what to do with myself and all the free time I have because I’m so used to having someone so far up my butt barking assignments at me.

6.    In relation to “Why Art Cannot Be Taught”, do you think that my work could have been made during a more traditional style of teaching? Does innovative teaching lead to non-traditional work? No, and yes sometimes it does.

7.    Do you think that compared to your peers in this academic setting that you are successful? What about the academic setting do you think has caused a major shift in my work in the last year, i.e. more freedoms leading to faster advances? Nope, and I don’t know what but I do know that your work has shifted greatly over the past year.

8.    Do you think that art practice being taught through an academic setting which is structured by materials (painting class, sculpture class, printmaking, etc) helped or hindered my using non traditional mediums to make art objects, ex: candy? Why or why not? What about in your own work? What would you like to alter about your academic experience? To be honest I think that it both hindered and helped in ways that I can not fully understand but for myself I wish that I knew what I was getting myself into, because if I did I would have not chosen to put myself in an academic setting for art because I have only struggled here, and all that I have learned is new techniques to use in my work noting else.

Trevor and Rachel questions

1.)         Do you think any of Graham Handcock's idea's in the video are plausible? Which ones, why? Some what, all of them seem to be along the lines of quantum physics with alternate situations for one problem.

2.)         What "state of mind" do you mainly make your art in? I guess conscious, being that I normally know or have an idea of what I’m making.

3.)         What do you think extraterrestrial alien art would look like, and/or what do you think extraterrestrial aliens would think of your art? To be honest I can’t even imagine that, mainly because I really don’t know that aliens have or perform art, I mean they probably do, but what they may consider art may be something else to us.

4.)         Do you believe its possible that quantum physics and spirituality are connected in anyway. Somewhere along the lines, yes.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

!.)          Do you think Graham Handcocks ideas relate to what I am making at all? As to an alternate reality, yes.

@.)         Do any of his idea relate to what i have talked about? To be honest I’m not sure, but I’m sure you have.

#)         Can you relate to my drawings? Not sure.

$)         Do you think the process of drawing relates to the idea of DNA being a device that passes on code. In a sense, yes.

Would you like to be able to live as long as you wanted?  If so, approximately how long do you think you would want to live? If not, what would be your preferred method of death? Yes, somewhere into my 80’s or 90’s but if not I would like to die when I’m in my sleep.

Do you think that it will be possible for machines to have consciousness in the future?  Is there a fundamental difference between humans and machines that will always remain? Yes to both.

What do you think about Kurzweil's predictions?  Do you think he is valid, totally crazy, or somewhere in between? I thing that he’s somewhere in between where as some of the things he says is valid while others are a little out there.

Do you think it is important for humans to continue on a quest for more intelligent and faster technology? Yes but at the same time no, mostly because technology scares me.

Do you think it is important for you to understand and communicate with machines/technology/tools in order to make art? Not all the time, I think on how you want to make the art.

Do you see any connection between this reading and the things that I make? Yes I do.

Do you think it is important to think about the future, and to make predictions about technology?  Do you think that artwork relating to this subject will effect the possible outcome of the future? I think that it is important to think about the future but as to technology, its always changing, so I don’t really think about it.

Is this subject at all interesting to you? Yes. 

arun and sandra's questions

1. Trevor von Eeden said that he learned to develop his own style by studying his own doodles. What sort of things have you observed about your own practice that you've been able to more consciously apply to your own work? I guess for me it’s in the process, most of the time when I just skip the process and planning my work normally turns out better.

2. "By making the extraordinary ordinary, it elevates your spirit." Is there an artist for you that you think exemplifies the sort of ideals von Eeden attributed to Neal Adams (similar to his analogy of what Bruce Lee would mean to a martial artist)? To be honest I’m not sure.

3. Von Eeden's work in comics developed independent of fan reaction. Has viewer response had an influence on your work? How much? Sometimes it has, but most of the time I really never pay attention to it.

4. What's more satisfying: the work? Or the piece that work produces? For me it what the work produces/the finished product.

5. Does my work tell you anything about me/my experiences? Yes, it seems your way of documenting your life in general.

6. Do you think those experiences/personal biography is even relevant to what I produce?  It seems as though sometimes it is and then at times it can seem a bit more random.

7. "...I'll never stop seeing my mistakes." Does my constant self-criticism of my own work affect your opinion of a piece I've done? Not really, I sometimes do the same with my own work although most of the time I don’t let it show.

1. How would you feel and what would you do if your performance piece became an internet meme? Well that would depend on if I intended it to be one or not, if so then great, if not ten I’d probably be a little up set.

2. People have created re-mixes of this performance, as well as images--most if not all a parody of this piece. As you view this article, do those images change how you regard the initial experience of the performance? Do they inform the work, or do they dismantle it? for me it changes the meaning of it being that people are pretty much making fun of it but in general it still ends with the same message and in a way making it more abstract by dismantling it.

3. If you just witnessed a performance piece that you do not understand or do not enjoy, would you applaud? Does the level of guts it takes to do a performance {like doing anything of a socially unacceptable nature} play into it? If so, why should it? Yes, I feel that it is polite and the right thing to do even if it is bad or if I don’t like it, in a sense that person still took the time to do the performance.

4. So! Apparently you're a hipster! Are you going to try and prove them wrong or will you resign to the definition this anonymous society has given you? To be honest I really don’t care, and I can’t remember that last time I paid attention to this stuff and cared about what people told or said about me.

5. Does this make you any more or less apprehensive about putting your work online? For me it doesn’t really change anything and I would still put my work online.

6. Can an artist recover his or her respect from this kind of publicity with time? Do you think it matters in the art world? Possibly but it still depends on who the artist is to impress.

7. Do I seem to be consciously careful not to gain that sort of attention from the audience that views my work? Yes, I personally hate it when things get blown out of proportion.

8. What does my choice of this article tell you about me or my work? Do be honest I’m not sure, but it seems as though that you’re afraid to put anything online.

Alex and Shellie questions

1.  How important is the process of destroying something ( personal object/ mental image/photograph)  to create a piece of work that is abstract?  I guess that depends on how much the object needs to be destroyed or how much the artist needs to destroy it to get what they are looking for.

2.  In your own work, how do you feel that the medium that you choose best expresses your meaning, message & own truth? I try to choose my medium to best translate what I really want to get across to people though my work, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

3.  In your opinion, why do you think that the Gerald Peters Gallery mainly selected Fair's photos for their abstract impact? (not showing the photographs of the smokestacks & factories).  Do you believe that these particular abstract photos were selected because of an "over-all" sense of platonic beauty? Do you believe that the GP Gallery wanted to appeal to the "masses" in order to make a better sale?  If anything I think that it’s a little bit of both because I’m sure that they want the work to both look beautiful and appeal to everyone else in order to make a sale.

4.  What are the similarities between art & documentation? If anything I’d say that there are times where the documentations of the work is the art.

5.  In my own work, do you feel that i convey a sense of environment & mood? Yes.

6.  Do you feel that the process & materials that i use, best expresses my message in my paintings?  If not, then please explain what materials would work best for the execution & final outcome of my work. Yes.

7.  How important is the use of scale in your own work? Scale is a main thing in my work because if something is one size it means something and if it’s another size it could mean something completely different. And do you believe that i use an appropriate size & scale for my paintings? Yes.

8.  What do you think of my color palette for my paintings?  What colors do you think I should use in my next painting. If anything I think that your color palette is the best thing about your, and I would like to see you go further with that and maybe use colors and combinations with colors you haven’t used.

Questions:

1. After reading this article analyzing Woody’s work do you feel like his movies mock how contemporary art classes approach talking about art? Why? In a way yes, it seems that the classes may go too deep or think too much into things.

2. Do you ever feel surrounded by people that you need to impress/fake being overly excited or emotional about your work? If you do ever fake these emotions, why? I used to feel like this, but I don’t any more because I stopped caring, and that I really only make my art for me and me only.

3. Would you say you art leans more towards needing emotional or intellectual appreciation? Does this relate to the aesthetics? Yes I think it does and if anything I think that art needs both emotional and intellectual appreciation.

4. Do you care about how your work looks while your creating it? Do you ever step back and move something around just because it looks bad? Does the work become less intellectual if this happens? Explain. I don’t worry about that while I’m creating it, although I may change or move something around because I don’t like it but other than that I really don’t think it changes anything intellectual.

5. When you view my art do you have any intellectual response? If not does this mean my work has no aesthetic value based on what the chapter requires for a meaningful aesthetic response. For the most part, yes.

6. Where is your fulcrum between intellect and emotion when creating your work on a scale of 1-10. 1 leaning more towards intellect and 10 being more towards emotion. Where is mine? I think mine is about an 8 and if people have more intellect about it, then that’s just icening on the cake, but for yours I’d like to say that you’re about a 5 or 6 because you seem t have both in your art.

7. Why do you think I tend to reject intellectualizing art? To be honest I really don’t know, but I’m sure you have your reasons as do I.

8. I would consider my work to be relaxing to the viewer. Do you agree/why?  Yes I do agree that your work is relaxing to the viewer and to myself as well, mostly due to your subject in which you make your art about and I also think that your color palette adds to that.

Jeffery's questions

What is "blocking" the students from comprehending McLuhan's message to them? It seems that the way the student live and communicate in their lifestyles is different than McLuhan’s which is blocking and preventing them from understanding.

How does McLuhan feel about the educational system he is involved in? It seems as though he thinks that it’s a little on the useless side and that why we even have it to begin with.

Do you fully understand McLuhan's message? What do you think he means? To be honest I’m not too sure of what the exact message is but it seems to be about the what we communicate today.

This recording was made many years ago... before the internet. Are there any predictions or observations made by McLuhan which are poignant in relationship to our present time? That the way we communicate, if anything, it’s through some sort of technology and less face to face.

Is the medium the "message", or just the "massage"? I think that it adds to the message but I don’t think that it is the message it’s more of the massage.

What is the psychological difference between hi-def and low-def media? One is more clear and more restored than the other.

Do you think there may be a direct relationship between the intellectual/artistic/cultural value of a meme and its viral impact? Personally no, although some of the people who put the memes can seem to take it very seriously as if it was art while some just want it to be funny or they just want to be famous.

What is the psychological difference between viewing a traditional drawing on a computer screen at a high resolution, or viewing the unmediated drawing on a well-lit wall? I’d say that it’s close to the same, the color may be slightly different, but the difference would be if you see it on a computer you just see the image but if you see it on a well lit wall you see it for what it really is, texture and all.

Jen and Kris questions

1.  What is meant by a poor image? It seems to mean something that is of poor quality much like something that is copied or something that isn’t clear.

2.  What is meant by the contemporary hierarchy of images? I think it’s meant to be more of a timetable of how poor images became images of better quality.

3. What qualifies a work as experimental? Things that I see that qualifies work as experimental is when a work is trying to work but it’s not and if it’s not finished as in it’s trying to get to a point where it should be different then what it is now.

4. Do you agree that poor images are poor because they are not assigned any vale from the clas society of images? Not really, I think it depends on who looking at the image, such as a image that I may look at could be poor in my eyes while another person may think otherwise.

5. What relevance does this have to painting? I see it as the same because paintings are also images and it depends on how it’s created or made whether it’s a poor image or not.

6. How do we measure the quality of image? I think we tend to measure the quality of the image on how it looks and how clear and deep the message is in that image.

7.  Do you consider these qualities when constructing work? Most of the time, but not all.

8.    What role does the human condition or the "everyday" have in your work? For my work human condition and things and ideas that are “everyday” have a huge role in my work, in fact it’s what I mostly use since my work tends to be somewhat about stereotypes.

1. What are your political concerns? Is there anything happening in the world beyond your self, that still effects you directly? Does this come into your work? 

I don’t really have any political concerns at the moment and I don’t really use politics in my work.

2. What insights should artists provide? Do you agree that poets(artists) are "uniquely suited" to "speak publicly and morally about human aspirations"? To be honest I’m not sure what insights artist should provide but I’d don’t think I’d mind seeing more poets/artist speak publicly and morally about human aspirations.

3. Are any artists that you know or are currently looking at, critiquing our cultural or political systems through their work? Please elaborate on why you think these people are able or aren't able to make these works… At the moment the artists that I’m looking at aren’t that political.

4. What does it mean to be politically active? For me, it is to take physical action in some thing that is political.

5. Are you able to relate to the work that I've made this year? What work? Do you relate it to any other artists or movements? In all honesty I don’t think that I am able to relate to any of the work you’ve made this year.

6. What do you think would make my work better? At this time I don’t think I could answer that question, I would have to take a better look at your work.

7. Do you think some of my work can be political, even if I don't say it is, or take a specific position? Is this an effective way of discussing work? In some aspects yes, and I thing that it’s an informative and effective way to discuss work. 

8. Does my work provide any insight? When it is explained, yes.