Mapping an Artist

This is a little map on Victoria Burge that resembles maps we made in class. It is meant to help us connect art and the artist to their sociocultural ideologies.

Materials & Tools in the Arts (SPA2)

     In all forms of art, an artist must use tools and materials to create. Whether it's painting or writing music, there are certain tools that are necessary in the process. Although, not all tools are physical objects that someone can hold in their hand. Dale Chihuly, a world renowned glassblower, is a great example of this. After losing vision in one eye in an accident and then later dislocating his shoulder in another accident, he hired a team to blow his glass for him. Chihuly describes his role in creating his glass artwork as, "more choreographer than dancer, more supervisor than participant, more director than actor."

     These are the tools Dale Chihuly needs to create his glass artwork...

• A kiln
• Torches
• A blowpipe
• Molten glass
• Jimmies
• Powdered glass
• A team of skilled glassblowers
• A large working space / studio 

Victoria Burge's Recycled Geographies (AR3)

     Victoria Burge creates prints and drawings that concentrate on the framework of 'line' in relation to mapping. She is greatly inspired by antique maps, diagrams, and chart. So much so that instead of using a blank sheet of paper as the surface she works on, she uses the antique blueprints that inspire her as the foundation of her art. By using patterns like rivers, railways, or repeating numbers and letters in United States cities and state maps from the late 1800's, she transforms a map of man-made boundaries on Earth's surface into a web of light that greatly resembles a map of astrological constellations in an expansive sky.

'Oregon'

     Maps are used to show the geographical aspects and differences between areas of the world but are also used to identify differences between people. Are you from this state or that state? This country or that country? Burge's reworked maps create a sense of connectedness, that there isn't really a separation between one place and another; just different pieces of a whole. She uses ink, acrylic, and pencil to rework many of her antique maps. A great example of this is her 'Oregon' print. The ink used over the map creates varying dark color tones while the acrylic white lines connecting at over a hundred points makes a brilliant geometric web. Burge also makes black and white map by using a method called photopolymer intaglio printmaking. To simply define it, it is when light-sensitive plastic is applied to it a hard surface with an engraved image to create a type of photograph. Her 'Montana Night' is one of her best photopolymer intaglio prints.

'Montana Night'

     Victoria Burge is living in Philadelphia, PA, where she is continuing to make art that denotes connection, but connotes the entanglement between a spiritual and a scientific view of space and boundaries.

     “These recycled landscapes represent an on going exploration between paper and print, typography and topography, history and imagination.” - Victoria Burge's artist statement for The Drawing Center's online portfolio.

Reading Response 1: The Social Production of Art

 In the first chapter of Janet Wolff's book, 'The Social Production of Art', she approaches the social nature of artistic creativity from a sociological standpoint. Wolff applies the social and economic viewpoints of Carl Marx to explain where creativity stands within Westernized society.

Chapter 1 Key Points:

• The generalized Western ideas and views of artists are that they are people who create art through divine inspiration; artists are glorified for their creative work and are treated like a separate entity of a society.
• A master painter of portraits is no more creative or brilliant than a scientific genius, both shaped by society and the 'capitalist mode of production'.
• The artist, like all people of a culture, are shaped by their culture which is reflected through their creativity.
• Creativity is bound by the artist's social norms, values, and ideological beliefs; therefore creativity is not a product of intellectual freedom because free will essentially does not exist.
• Although creativity of the human mind has it's limits, these limits are malleable, allowing the artist to creatively extend their art past social normalities.

Janet Wolff explains that creative nature is not just found within an artist. Creativity can be expressed through the creation and design of everything in our daily lives; advertisements, our cars, and architecture as examples. Even though artistic creativity is present in almost every aspect of society, general stereotypes of the artist and their work being divine or 'extra-human' creates an unrealistic social status. Wolf says, “I will argue that many other people are involved in producing the work, that social and ideological factors determine or affect the writer/painter's work, and that audiences and readers play an active and participatory role in creating the finished product.” The artist is not separate from society but rather tightly entwined within it. In our present day society, art is a means of economic growth by being mass produced and sold by the thousands. When an artist creates and sells their works of art, they are essentially creating a product, which is not different than a carpenter making a chair and selling it. When producing their product to make money, they create something that people will want which shapes their creativity. Who is to say that a computer software designer is not an artist. They are making something by having an idea, using tools and a method to create it, and then presenting it to the rest of society. This is exactly what an 'artist' does.    

Arny Weinstein's Extraordinary Kaleidoscopes (AR2)

'Up From The Skies'

     Arny Weinstein's hand crafted wood kaleidoscopes are far from ordinary. Most of us are familiar with the simple toy kaleidoscope; a cardboard tube containing two mirrors that reflect colorful plastic beads into bright, two-dimensional, geometric patterns. For the body of Weinstein's kaleidoscopes he shapes exotic hardwoods like Bubinga and Peruvian Walnut into alluring shapes that resemble waves of water or wind. He uses front surface mirrors to create crystal clear images of flame treated glass which float in liquid filled object cells (chambers that contain materials that are viewed through the lens). It's not just his contemporary physical design and use of wood that sets his kaleidoscopes apart from the rest, it is the intensely unique patterns and variation of color among each individual scope he has produced.

Mandala of 'Tall Tail'

'Tall Tail'

Column of 'Up From The Skies'

     In the body of his 'Tall Tail' kaleidoscope, there are two individual mirror systems. One system has two mirrors which shows a beautiful mandala pattern against a black background. The other system has three mirrors which creates a pattern that fills the entire visual field. This scope's mandala pattern greatly resembles Tibetan Buddhist sand mandalas; bight colors and circular design with elements of geometric patterns. The American Craft Council featured a small article on Weinstein's art, displaying a photo of 'Up From The Skies'. The scope creates a three-dimensional image from four mirrors and two object cells. The viewer uses both eyes to see a continuous curved column with rings surrounding it, resembling Saturn-like planets stacked on top of each other.

'Hipster'

     It seems that Arny Weinstein was put on this Earth to create and design. Kaleidoscopes were not always his passion. He originally went to college and graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Business Administration from SUNY Albany. He spent twenty years creating computer software until he walked into a small art gallery containing fine kaleidoscopes. After that he decided he would put his life long hobby of woodworking to use and create scopes. Reading about his work helped me realize that even a simple toy like a kaleidoscope can be crafted into beautiful complex works of art.

   

     Speaking of arts and crafts. In our last class we took a trip to the printing room in the art building to learn how to marble paper. The particular style was Japanese suminagashi marbling. I had never done it before but I really enjoyed using colored india ink to create interesting designs. I really wish we had more time to do it because my only two marbling designs did not come at as well as I wanted to. Much of the ink was sinking to the bottom of the try so it was hard to get the results I wanted, not to mention I was completely new to it. But I will definitely be getting my own india ink set to do it home. It was a lot of fun and I have a lot of color scheme ideas that I want to try in the future.

(Photos of my marbles paper will be posted next week.)

William Morris Glass Work (AR1)

     William Morris creates beautiful pieces of art by blowing glass. His elaborate glass work ranges from vividly colorful urns and pottery, to human skeletons that are astonishingly anatomically correct, as well as animal figurines. Much of the work he has crafted incorporate strong tones of shamanistic and animistic ideology. A most impressive aspect of his glass sculptures are the realistic textures he can create on glass. Many glass vessels and sculptures have an ancient look to them, as if they have been uncovered from ruins of a lost city.

     This was what initially caught my attention. Morris creates glass art that at first glance seems somewhat simplistic until its deeply observed, and then its easy to see how complex and detailed it is. It reminds me of looking at ancient city ruins, Mayan ruins in particular (because of his 'Mazorca' installation); just glancing at the temples is just seeing them exist. But then when you actually look at them you can see how much incredible work was put into creating monuments that have lasted thousands of years. The temples were not just stacked blocks of stone in the eyes of the people building them, it was a place of deep ritual significance. 

     When really looking at Morris's art I don't just see it as glass, I see it as he intended it be whether its a skull of a horned animal or a medicine jar. When I see art I have a tendency to first focus on the medium rather than what it is supposed to be. When looking at William Morris's glass I see what he created, and then become astonished with how he did it.