Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

Even though this is a little late, here's my post about Linda Nochlin's article I read over break, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" Main summary of my experience with the article:

1. I annotated a L O T (i'll post a picture at some point, my english teacher almost wanted to PHOTOCOPY them! probably a little excessive note taking but it was helpful)
2. I could only read a page at a time (due to the annotation and dense writing)
3. I liked the piece more than I expected
4. Everyone else in the class did too... I honestly wasn't expecting an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the piece in class but we all thought it was decent, which made for good conversation. 

It's interesting to think that this is an excerpt from a book (I think it's chapter 7), because it was a well written essay on its own but struggled to come to a conclusion with substantial evidence but had overwhelming concession statements. Having this essay be part of a book would make the organization of the writing more effective for sure. 

The attitude towards feminism was intriguing too; by constantly referencing "the feminist view" Nochlin distanced herself from the group, but at times made feminists comments. In the beginning of my reading I was conflicted whether or not she was a feminist but by the end, and after our class discussion, I'm sure she isn't. 

One of my favorite parts of the piece was the references to the stereotypical "feminine" characteristics to a work of art, that as Nochlin proves, do not actually exist. Another part I enjoyed was when Nochlin was, sometimes subtly sometimes brusquely, that the environment and precedent people were raised with is directly correlated to their career as an artist. The part of this that was the most interesting to me was the emphasis placed on childhood influences. The third thing I really liked was her statements that problems were altered from actuality by people's views on them, such as the "women problem" and that the only way to solve this problem is to ask "the right questions," which confuses me a bit. 

The second half of the essay had a lot of basis in art history and though I found it interesting the actual use of language and her moral opinions did not catch my interest as much. I enjoyed the piece and thought it was a good thing to read!

"Sunshine" Inspiration

Kinda playing off the title of the last post including the word sunshine, but this time it's recurring to the sunshine STATE, not person. Slightly delayed, but these are some pictures that sparked creative interest when I was in Florida a month ago. Hadn't used pictures in a post in a little while.

A little bit of drawing over looking
 the ocean from the 18th floor :)

The red shows emphasis....

chandeliers made entirely out of ZIP TIES!

Didn't understand this but used really cool materials: carabiner, bells, and a spring

Classic piece with a twist (I'm a fan of this version)... transformation? :)

Just loving the colors

I love elephants! (and the others too)
paper mache- esque animals of
newsprint! 

Feather tree (and PINK!).... transformation again! 

Sunshine's Prospectus

After a lot of thought on the subject (no pun intended), I've decided to branch off from people's perspective of me and assumption of what my art will/does look like. I'm not going to be "sunshine" all the time. My subject is disturbing and unsettling pieces - revolting images. My challenge is going to be not just picking a disturbing subject and composition that can be viewed as disturbing but can actually induce a revolted emotion.  I want to distance myself from my comfort zone of subjects and messages of "happy sunshine." Also, for me. working with a gross subject will be hard for me to stay with. My biggest concern is that I will make it look too cutesy.

So that's the prospectus. It was written a week ago, before I had actually put pencil to paper drawing. Luckily, it still applies to my project. Recently I've been aware of a theme around me of trying to lose the "cutesy kid" image. For me, with nicknames like "sunshine" and the new, "fitness barbie" (thanks Doyle) my motive for choosing revolting images is increasingly clear. Just because someone may seem blonde, ditsy, bubbly, peppy, dumb, loud, childish, and sunshiney does not mean that is all there is to there character. I want to show that I have the ability to branch out and try something new and show that there's more to me than cartoon elephants, flowers, and hearts. I'm nearing completion of two of the three planned pictures and am decently satisfied with both so far. I'll try to post pictures of the fly on the eye and struggling serpent soon. I've decided to title the series and final picture, appropriately, "Sunshine's Prospectus."

Dialogue with Kristen Mabie - UPDATE

As I assemble the final product of this project - I plan to mount the piece on blue paper - I'm looking back on the array of pictures I took of the process. I have never taken pictures of my progress on a piece before and I found it extremely helpful and great to have to look back on. Excluding the final product mounted on blue, this series of photos shows the progression of my most recent self portrait.

Transformation Update

My deadline (Wednesday) is approaching in two days, and I am surprisingly on schedule. Contrary to my original idea of creating both my metamorphosis and transformation as dark images, I decided on a heart/flower and an elephant (which is not surprising). This is the most recent image of my transformation piece, but there have been a few alterations since then.

Dialogue with Kristen Mabie - UPDATE

Originally, the project deadline was supposed to be this Friday. There is no way I am going to make that, even with the extra free blocks in the studio and lugging my drawing board home every night. Clearly, I have an efficiency issue - something to work on for the next project. However, I really want to finish this project (or at least close to) by the time year to date grades close (end of next week). Only a week off from the original deadline, pretty good for me.

In class today Smitty proposed the idea of taking pictures of your work as you go along. I've been doing that all along, so I felt pretty good about it. However, I had not thought about looking back at them for future ideas, I'm going to try that. Also, I've learned how to use a tool called a "pencil extender," which I now absolutely love!

So far I have accomplished: finishing my silhouette, finishing the "head and shoulders" version of the first twin and begun the face of my second twin. The first face I did was definitely easier, even though it took me an extremely long time to accomplish. Contrary to my usual result, I am pretty satisfied with it. However, I am struggling with the second face. Proportions and structural drawing, as well as reverting the absolute basics of "The Number 3," are guiding my work. My goal for the end of this week is to have finished the depictions of my twins.

Like I am told to do for sailing to reflect on my performance, I can break my update down into three things I've done well and three I need to improve.

Done Well:
1. learned how to use different kinds of pencils (especially range 4H-2B)
2. planned my ideas out well ahead of time (like Smitty said in class today, I've allowed my ideas to develop and change as the process continues, rather than forcing my original composition - which is now virtually non existent)
3. learned how to incorporate good contrast shading with pencil (whereas I have generally reverted to charcoal for high contrast pictures)

Need Improvement:
1. time management (need to work faster)
2. proportions (where features curve, use of negative space, and drawing on a diagonal axis)
3. look at the shapes that are there. draw what I see not what I think I see.

Dialogue with Kristen Mabie

reference image for distraught
"twin me" 

reference image for happy
"twin me" 

I took five plus pages of my sketchbook trying to come up with ideas, compositions, thumbnail sketches, and just discovering what "dialogue with myself" or just "dialogue" means. I finally decided on a composition, and started drawing the first lines on my final paper. So far, I have a silhouette but I'm optimistic!!