During class and the mention of Earth works one artist came to my mind in particular. Andy Goldsworthy. His pieces are sometimes smaller and other times on a larger scale but no matter what he uses the natural objects around him at the time in order to create his pieces. I'm not quite sure what type of artist to label Goldsworthy, a sculptor, photographer, I really haven't the slightest clue. My first introduction to this artist was in a photography class wher ewe had watched a video on him getting to see how he creates his peices by hand and with only what is in nature around him whether it be rocks, plants, streams, or oceans. Watching his creation process was just as interesting to me as the end results. He is obviously inspired by nature and has decided to use that inpiration to its maximum. Andy Goldsworthy builds his peice then photographs it in its finished form, after the peice is usually left to be destroyed by natural forces, blown down by wind or washed away be stream or ocean. He is an artist to look at in my opinion and can easily be googled online. What I like most about his pieces is that they are not huge like some earth works which shows that this media is something that just about all of us could do if we wanted to, and the sublte hints of life and death and journey that you can see in all his pieces. Though I'm still unsure of what type of artist Andy Goldsworthy would be considered I very much enjoy his work.

Museum of Contemporary Art

I made my first trip to the Musuem of Contemporary Art in Chicago during November the same day that I went to the Art Institute all I can say is that I'm not really impressed. To be truthful I don't know if I'll visit that Museum again personally. Kara Walkers installation was.......I can't really think of a way to describe the room properly. The images surprised and disgusted me, I don't see how many if not all of these silhoutte pictures actually have to do with the history of the African race. Generally even if I'm not particularly fond of a piece I'll look at it a bit, this was the first piece that I actually sort of glanced at decided I didn't want to see and walked past at least twice with out taking a better look. I guess the images just seem......revolting to me and I couldn't believe that this was really in a Museum. Women having sex with horses, children trying to decapitate one another and other various sexually orientated images that if people where actually found doing or even thought to be doing would be jailed or put in an asylum somewhere. I couldn't see this as art but it does prove to me how for lack of a better word demented modern art has sometimes become. There were a few pieces that interested me unfortunatly I can't remember who they where by. Overall as I said before I'm not so sure of a repeat visit to this Museum I just wasn't impressed and didn't really enjoy the works there much.

Art Institute of Chicago

So I took a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago again this time with my younger sister and her boyfriend and I have to say that like any other time I get to go there I enjoy it. Even a bit more this time seeing as I was with people I like but rarely get to spend time with lately and that they acually try to talk about the peices though neither are trained in the art field, its interesting to hear what others have to say about various peices. While there we saw Hopper's Nighthawks painting, went through the miniatures section thats currently there, and spent most of our time in the Chinese and Korean ceramics. I've never noticed NightHawks there before and it was refreshing to see a painting that is often mentioned in any class that I take, a painting that I could readily recognize since I'll admit I not that good with art history, usually I can say I saw something a book but can't remember what the title or artist is. Another peice we saw that I was pleased with being able to recognize was a Giacometti peice in the lower level. A bronze cast piece caught my attention right around the corner from the Giacometti, it was by Antonin Mercie someone I haven't heard of, the head of Joan of Arc, the lighting that the peice was what really caught the eye it was placed basically directly under a spot light which made the piece almost glow the way one would imagine a saint to. I can't see that piece being put anywhere else. The miniatures impressed me alot. I would imagine that this was because I probaly don't have the patience to put something like together, and how realistic they look. Both Nate and I took a few pictures of different miniatures and when we went through them later we were stumped as to whos house it was at for a second before remembering where we had been the day before. The ceramics pieces have always been in interest for me, the smoothness and careful detail that some of the ceramists are able to get into this medium amazes me. I have difficulty just getting a piece in ceramics relatively smooth. Over all I enjoyed this trip as I usually do even with the cold walk from Union Station.

art communities

For this blog instead of choosing an artist or piece of art I'd like to bring some light to the online art community deviantart. I know many people already know of this site but I felt it would be a good thing to mention as I find it to be inspirational and a good source ideas when I am stuck on a project or thought. Deviantart offers membership to anyone, a place to present your art and even get feedback on it. The site has every kind of art on it from drawings, paintings, ceramics, computer art and photography even writing and fan art done from books, animes, and fanfiction. One thing I really like about the site is that the members are very friendly, you can send a message to another member about the construction of one of the peices and generally get a response telling you the general process they took to get their results. A note on the piece is available to be placed under the work where many people state their medium and sometimes inspiration or thoughts going into the piece and after thoughts of it. I have often found myselfeither just browsing through the site looking at peices for the enjoyment of it or studying different peices while I was in the middle of a work that I may or may not be stuck on and gaining some some sort of inspiration from some piece on deviantart. Deviantart is also full of members from all different parts of the world, the U.S. England, Japan, China, Australia, so when on the site you get see what people from differing cultures create. I know there are other art communities online one that I know of is Cheezyart.com but I haven't had a chance to look more at Cheezy or search for other sites similiar to deviantart. Over all http://www.deviantart.com/ is a good place to look for enjoyment, inspiration, and even advice when your working on a piece.

Links

Links wouldn't work in the blog so here they are:

Some Toubes Peices-

http://www.dubhecarrenogallery.com/xavier.htm

A little Xavier Toubes information-

http://www.pureform.org/pubblicationEvents2.htm

Xavier Toubes

"Xavier Toubes´s relationship with art is very clear and straightforward.However, it is so difficult to explain in an age in which the creativeprocess can not justify itself and artists are forced to find excuses andobjectives in contemporary social and political networks; whoeversearches for them must do so with the tenacious wisdom expressed inToubes´s ceramic heads.
Toubes has placed himself ?as a worker who knows of the hidden joy intransforming matter into spirit? in a world in which space and time arenot totally of the present but also of the past and of the future, of thedead and of the unborn. Perhaps this is why he never falls into theveneration of what has already been ?a path into ineptitude and inertia?not does he permit himself that superstition of the future which is nomore than the vanity of the present. Toubes is as opposed to theidolatrous traditionalism of the past as he is to the brutal and abstractprogressivism of those who, in wishing to open the doors of the future,are merely compounding the mistakes and short-sightedness of theirfictitious present. Toubes´s friendship with the dead of all ages and his loyalty to them is perhaps the best clue to his instinctive success inworking with clay like a poet, with freedom and universal reason."
from Teresa Barro. Matter and Spirit. Extracted from the catalogueInternational Ceramic Art, 1996

I don't think I could have described this artist's work any better then the person that originally wrote this. I happened across this ceramist while researching artists for a ceramics course that I am currently taking over at North Central College in Naperville. My reasons for using this man's work in both the ceramics course and this blog for the contemporay art history course is to show a few peices that I personally don't very much enjoy. I couldn't see the point in only finding art peices that I thought enjoyable to write of. The first Toubes information I came across was the photographs of his peices that are accesable through the first link, they are in my opinion hard on the eyes, and on a squeamishness in me that I don't normally have. The peices are abstracted forms which interested me after I got over the inital shock that they caused, but appear to be dribbling blood and dying or dead. The quote was pulled from the second link, this is where I was able to read a short about Toubes work which brought some understanding to the appearance of the peices and even some appreciation. I still could not bring myself to necessarily "like" or "enjoy" Toubes peices but I could appreciate them for the idea he made them with. "...Toubes´s friendship with the dead of all ages and hisloyalty to them is perhaps the best clue to his instinctive success inworking with clay like a poet, with freedom and universal reason." This particular section of the above quote is what brought me to see Toubes work for what I take is as, a tribute of sorts to death and the dead. He doesn't show this tribute in a way that I think we normally would choose to. Usually the dead are shown as pictures of their former selves, beautified even to show the gratefulness and love that they were given alive. While Toubes has choosen to show the dead in a sort of real time light, as dead decaying bodies, to show their life's blood pouring from them and about them. In all as I said above I don't particularly enjoy Xavier Toiubes' peices but I can appreciate them and while I also don't exactly like them they are good in my opinion. I really do wonder what others would think of Toubes ceramics, and wonder if his being from Spain inspired his chose to depict the dead in such a way through a cultural aspect that I am unaware of.

ceramist

The link above is the website of Denmark's Steen Ipsen. He is an educator/administrator at the Danish School of Design and as is site states works on intuiton and emotion rather then the logic and analyse that many of his peices would lead a viewer of the works to assume. Ipsen is one of Denmarks leading modern ceramist's. Through this site you can see some of his serial work such as,

tied-up: each piece is a collection of inter-connected spheres generally with a thin leather strip tied about them were the circles appear to connect to one another.

organic bubbles: similiar pieces to that of the tied-up collection but not with the leather stripping and more complex glazing. these peices seem to really grow and expand from some unseen central origin. The glazing he's used on them only helps with the appearance of the growth.

along with some of his other ceramic pieces. Here is what Ipsen says about his art,

Artist statement
By Steen Ipsen
I seek a complex and decorative ceramic expression that is kaleidoscopic, overwhelming and has lush visual and tactile appeal
My work is theme and variation. I make my works in series, turning over and challenging, repeating and varying a shape or decorative theme until individual pieces remain as unique objects. The works are structured and constructed, following certain rules. Elements of form are repeated and combined according to geometric systems or organic and mineral growth principles, such as cell division, gemmation and crystallization. For me, it’s very much about the relation between methodical and chaotic, simple and complex.
I work in a decorative ceramic expression involving both form and decoration. Decoration is integrated into the form, and the form itself is spatially decorative. Different layers of decorative devices engage in a complex interaction, by turns emerging, disappearing and coming together to form a whole again.

(The above statement taken from the Steen Ipsen web page)