Blue Window

March 18, 2008: Paris

Currently at the Tate Modern there is a wonderful exhibit on Duchamp, Picabia and Man Ray (I HIGHLY recommend it). I was lucky enough to get to go with my Modern art in London class, which meant we had our professor there to give some extra information. I was SO excited to see all the Duchamp work that I had learned about last semester (Nude Descending a Staircase No.2, Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors Even, The Fountain.. etc.), but when I got there it wasn't Duchamp's work that blew me away. More so, I was very intrigued by Man Ray's work, his nudes in particular (surpise, surprise). At first I really couldn't understand how I could've missed studying his work the past few semesters as they do EXACTLY what I've sorda been trying to do with some of mine in terms of playing with light and how it looks on skin (Google Image: "Man Ray nudes" and check out the one of the woman looking to the right with her hand on her head and the incredible little spots of light on her breasts). More specifically I've become really interested in his use of solarization in combination with his nudes. I've always sorda thought solarization was a bit too cliche, and to be honest I had basically written it off as ever being an option of something to try (especially with the nude work I've been doing). Man Ray's work, however, has totally changed my mind on that. What I learned is what the process of solarization can do to nude skin is absolutely beautiful.. I still can't really get over it. Everytime I google his work (which is pretty often these days), I'm just blown away by the beauty if his nude shots, especially the ones of Lee Miller. I definately want to give solarizing a chance next semester and try to imitate some of Man's work.
All in all, I think I learned a couple really important things by way of going to that show.
1) Try not to only look at the work of artists I already know about, because it's usually the ones I've never heard of that really inspire me.
2) Never stop researching new inspiration because there are so many artists out there.. and I've barely cracked the surface of them (and inspiration can be found in all sorts of places).
3) Don't make any conclusions about an artistic process until I know the entire extent of what it can do.

For those who don't know, a couple weekends ago I spent three nights in Paris. Unfortunately, it rained pretty much the whole time, but I still managed to shoot 3 rolls of film and a bunch of digitals ( yes, I carried both cameras around the whole time, it was not fun). To be honest I think that the film work is probably much better, but I'm currently getting it developed and have to wait another week until they're ready. So, in the meantime I'm sorting through the digitals and finding ones I think work.

Here's two I chose mostly because I like the colors and the simplicity...

Green Doors and Wet Cobblestone

March 17, 2008: Paris

Graffiti

March 18, 2008: Paris

For the past 3 months of my life I've been living in London, working in an art gallery and seeing lot's of museums/galleries, and yet I barely wrote a word about it. To be honest, I usually dont like to write/talk about how I feel about art, mostly because I'm a bit embarassed. That is now going to change.

To be completely honest, being so submerged into the 'real' world of art has made me a bit cynical about it all. Whenever I go to show and see work hanging on the wall I have to question whether it's up there because the artist is really talented, because they have the "right personality" and talked their way in, or simply because they're popular and someone wanted to make some money off of it. Sometimes I just get plain annoyed that some else's work is hanging on the wall while mine is stuck (probably forever) in my portfolio in my closet. This brings me to one thing I truly enjoy about the gallery I work at (East West Gallery). David and Jill, the owners, pick artists to represent simply based on talent and how much they believe in the artists work. They don't care if the artist is popular at the time or if they're going to make them super-rich; they just want to show work which they believe in. I didn't really know it was possible to encounter people in the art world who functioned on such a completely unselfish manner, because so many other people I've met just seem to only think about themselves.

On a sorda different/ sorda similar note: What I find most confusing about art is that it's supposed to be about creating something beautiful and expressing oneself (cheesy, I know). But then all this business comes into it, and suddenly your art is being judged and criticized in a million different ways. And then you have to figure out how to make living off of it?!? It all seems so confusing to me. To say what I'm thinking rather bluntly, sometimes I (and I'm sure you all do to) just want to say "screw the art world, I just want to take pictures", and I don't want them judged and I don't want to explain why they're good or why they're not.. "I just want to take pictures". Why does it have to be so damn complicated?

Anyway, I have TONS of pictures from Paris and Prague to touch up / even more to still take in London. I am determined to come out of this trip with something that I actually like... I must show myself that I am capable of more than just take pictures of naked people and oak trees. So please stay tuned...

More film work, this time shot in Camden Town