Frank Herrmann Lecture

Frank Herrmann Lecture

I attended a lecture given by former professor of DAAP, Frank Herrmann. He was discussing a show at the Weston Art Gallery. His body of work consisted of a multitude of pieces, each consisting of three areas. There was a band on top of each and a larger rectangular pace on the lower part of the canvas these to sections seemed to mimic a landscape in the sense that there was a clear separation between the two, which acted as a horizon. The third section in each piece was a tear drop shaped “pool,” as Herrmann would describe it. On a small table in the front of the room, he had some notebooks containing small watercolor experiments. As he was describing the process that formed as he began to accumulate more work, he said that he started off with the small watercolors and then moved on to large canvases.

    I was quite intrigued by Frank Herrmann as he didn’t have the pretentious attitude about the rules of the process as many other artists that I’ve seen. He even said that he didn’t have a real process other than “playing around” with different materials and seeing where it all went. His large pieces were all mixed media and for a particular grey-black pigment that he used in one of his large pieces, he said he gathered soot from his chimney in a bucket and made paint. I was refreshing to see an artist who didn’t have such strict standards for materials. Herrmann made it very clear that he didn’t start with any direction in mind. Of course having no end-goal means having no possibility of messing up. I know a lot of artists (myself included) who could benefit from this attitude.

9 Drawings Project Statement

The objective of the nine drawings project was to broaden the way we view objects as compositional subjects. I had to look at my objects from odd angles and distances in order to find find an intriguing position. Part of the project criteria was to use as many natural and/or fibrous objects as we could. This includes cloth and textiles. The second part of the project was to experiment with different types of dry media including vine and compressed charcoal, conte crayon, and graphite on charcoal paper, Mylar, newsprint, and rag paper. We were supposed to use each material at least once and our size limitations were between 8x8 and 12x12.

The material I struggled with the most was the charcoal, especially on newsprint. It rubbed off really easily, the paper got very messy, and it was hard to get a ride range of values. My favorite combinations of materials were conte crayon on Mylar and graphite on rag paper. I found that the surfaces I used picked up their respective media very well and I loved the finish that I got. I think that my most intriguing objects were my twisted rope and my small pine cone. These two objects provided a lot of good textures and values. I think that the rope also gave me good fibers to work with and the pine cone gave me really cool, irregular shapes and angles. I definitely think that this project was effective in helping me to look for interesting compositions.

9 Drawings Reference Objects

Paper Cutting Design Statement

“One Giant Leap for Mankind.”

    The concept for my paper cutting piece was formed around the idea of the formation of  conspiracy theories. Naturally, the best theory that I could think of was the moon landing conspiracy as it is well known and has been around enough for long, thought out theories to develop. I chose to show the formation of these ideas through a filmstrip, a modern day tapestry if you will, which allowed me to show step by step distortions of the original story. To provide an atmosphere for my piece, I used stars and nebulae cut out of the positive space provided by the paper. The filmstrip itself shows one thing being added into each frame to cultivate the conspiracy theories, for example the first frame is the constant and in the second frame, a fan has been added to make the flag start waving. Each new frame represents the new findings that come up in retellings of the moon landing story. The distortion of the filmstrip as it is bending and curving represents the distortion from the original story.

    The paper cutting itself was a big challenge as well as conceptual development. Despite the amount of paper that I practiced on or the number of mockups that I made, I was still surprised by the behaviour of the paper. Even after the practice that I did, it was hard to gauge how the paper would respond to cutting at such a large scale of 6’x3’. The greatest challenge that I faced in paper cutting was the piece pulling apart where cutouts were too vast and anchors, too thin. I even had to use artist’s tape a few times to reconnect or reinforce certain areas. Through time, I was able to navigate the murky, rough waters of large scale paper cutting, and my final product was a success.

“Imagination Unfolds in All Dimensions,” Summary

    “Imagination Unfolds in All Dimensions,” highlights artwork created by the late Louise Bourgeois at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibitions is made up of entire galleries of her work. The museum held about three hundred 2D or print pieces and twenty three sculptures. Bourgeois produced a massive amount of work over her ninety eight year life. Her work made a big impact and spread widely in the ‘90s. She gained a strong following and her exhibitions always brought in a lot of people who were fascinated by her concepts and compelled by her history. Bourgeois faced many hardships and coped with much trauma and instability throughout her life. This is reflected by her volume and quality of work.

    Each of the galleries containing her work at the MoMA holds a combination of early and late works. The pieces are all very cohesive and yet very distinct. One collection called, “The Fragile,” consists of thirty six fabric prints taken from early sketches which were later revisited and enhanced with red and blue dyes. This collection shows forms of women and representation of pregnancy/birth and is highly regarded as feminist art. This particular body of work mirrors the idea of woman that is continued in the work produced throughout her career. They also contain this repeated spider like image which is common throughout other pieces as well, especially in sculptures.

    Many of Louise Bourgeois’s sculptures are very emotionally moving and almost devastating in the way she portrays motherhood and loss. Her emotional connection to her work was clear and the depression that she dealt with is very visible. However, these are only a few qualities of her body of work which is extremely diverse and highly intriguing. Her work really does show the unfolding of her imagination and gives a glimpse into the inner workings of the wonderful Louise Bourgeois.

More can be found at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/arts/design/louise-bourgeois-imagination-unfolds-in-all-dimensions.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=world&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Art%20%26%20Design&action=swipe&region=FixedRight&pgtype=article

Visiting the CAC

    This summer I visited the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center and I saw one exhibit that was particularly popular this summer. At the CAC I saw Ugo Rondinone’s “Let’s start the day again,” installation. This exhibition was very grandiose and yet so detail oriented. While I walked through, I joked that I felt like one of the clowns was a real person waiting to jump out at me. The artist definitely captured a very realistic image of the human. The fact that each clown looked almost the same helped me make sense of the title of this show. The brightly colored walls gave me a sense of discomfort and a feeling that I can only describe as “headachey” which I think was Rondinone’s goal, considering the melancholy state of the clowns’ disposition.
      I think the artist was successful in evoking a feeling through this installation, and I liked how the clowns, being such comedic icons, were portrayed as very pensive and almost depressed. It was clear that the brightly colored walls were supposed to mirror the ideas portrayed by the clowns. In both instances, something with a fun connotation was so harshly displayed and unignorable to the viewer, which caused a groggy, almost melancholy feeling. It seems retroactive, but helps to accomplish that feeling of discomfort. If I’m being honest, I didn’t really like this show, but I do think it’s fair to say that the artist accomplished the goal of the exhibition (assuming, of course, that my interpretation was correct.)

Project Statement

In this new project the objective was to create a drawing in space with 16 gauge rebar wire. After making a more realistic wire sculpture the next step was to make an abstraction of that using prompts much like how artist Richard Serra used verbs to inspire his sculptures. At first it took me several attempts to get the wire to form the right shapes and keep its form. I also had problems with wire being overworked since it’s a very malleable material and doesn’t keep its straight, crisp shape after being bent. I practiced getting the right shapes with several swatches and worked on them by practicing with the shapes of the major parts of my piece. I also tried to continue with one continuous piece of wire for as long as possible. This actually helped me a lot with the support and balance of the piece. The abstraction of the piece was also a challenge because it involved coming up with another sculpture based on a verb prompt. It was really challenging because it caused you to think of how that verb would affect the function, structure or shape of the object.