This past wednesday I went to my second artist talk of this semester. It was another faculty talk which I like a lot because not only do you get to learn something from a professor that you may have had but also from an artist that you can learn from there work and there teaching skills. It is a neat way to learn about the art world and I am happy they do that here.
First Richard Fox spoke and I have never had him as a teacher however as I mentioned in my last artist talk lecture response I love painting so I was excited to hear what he had to say about his type of paintings. His perspective of paint is very unique. I had never heard someone talk about painting the way that he did. It was not so much about the techniques or the rules of painting, or the composition for him. Although I believe they thought about all of these things it was more of spiritual experience for him more than anything. That is what he wanted it to be and he tried really hard it seems to keep it that way. he talked about painting in such a way that felt so vulnerable to me like it was a really deep part of him that he was scared of but was on a mission to conquer in new ways all the time. I believe he mentioned being terrified of something that he loved when he talked about painting. I can relate to this when I paint I get overwhelmed easily if I try to hard to think about all the rule and things that I have learned about how to go about a painting however you cant let yourself get consumed with that and that was what he was trying to get across and just let it become a experience and not a test almost.
One very interesting part of his lecture that he said he almost didn't mention but I am glad he did because it was one of the coolest parts for me was when he talked about his struggle with horizontals and verticals in his paintings. How he wasn't sure what it represented but how he always saw it and struggled with the meaning of this type of reoccurring cross in his work and life. His paintings were so personal to him and I liked that part of it. Because his paintings were so sensitive and important to him they because important to the audience too I feel. I was very intent on following his intuition when it came to paintings. He talked about how he would go to places to paint and then decide he wasn't ready to do it yet. I think this is very interesting that he has that kind of self awareness of his way of painting.
The next artist that talked was Micheal McConnell. I was very interested to hear what she had to say because I have her for my introductory class for sculpture and this was good insight to understanding how she works as an artist and maybe what she is pushing for us to do in her class. As I have learned from her class and now confirmed from her lecture is that it is all about the process for her and for sculpting. There is a big challenge with sculpture I feel to understand the material that you are working with and it take several tries to get it right. It comes down to grasping an idea and the textures and then working through the process of getting there. She talked about how she liked taking small to large something about how it is confrontational and really presents something to the table in a way. She takes the steps so she can understand her concepts. She will do things such as draw or do a wire structure or several versions of her final piece with the material. She thinks of her work as problems that have to be solved. I think this is how I think of all of my work I am sometimes overwhelmed with questions about my work but have to push through in order to find the answers.
I learned a lot from this artist lecture from very different types of work. McConnell's work I feel was very texture oriented and geometrical almost. It played a lot of of the different shapes but they all worked together in a balanced form. Fox's work was a lot more free and emotional experience to look at with his effort expressed all over the canvas. They were abstract pieces but also some where very literal. The paintings all shared a sort of over tone mood and style to them that united them.
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