Sustained investigation Check ins:
January 25, 26, 27--eight started, five finished
February 22, 23, 24--ten started, eight finished
March 22, 23, 24--15 started, ten finished
April 26, 27, 28--15 finished
August-September Course Work:
Construct a visual journal
“River” for sustained investigation. Your river should contain, but is not limited to: drawing/painting, writing, collage, brainstorming, connections, contrasts, banks, streams, movement, growth, and questions.
Bi-monthly visual journal entries-September 12 and 26
15 consecutive day self-studies due the last day of September. Each self-study should be different in combination of materials and conceptual intentions.
October Course Work--Open Studio: En Plein Air
Sustained Investigation: begin 5 works simultaneously
10 studies in your visual journal, each with a different material/combination of materials:
Observed landscape
5 ball point foliage studies
Define juxtaposition visually
Play with Abstraction
Portrait with interview
A Portrayal of your safe space
Foreshortening
Dada poem and illustration
Draw/paint your favorite song
Set up a still-life, draw it, distort it, repeat three times
November Course Work
Conversation about INSPIRATION
A portrait of your mentor/hero/someone you look up to…media: collage or assemblage…size: 11x14 or larger
Continue to work 5 sustained investigation artworks SIMULTANEOUSLY.
December Course Work
Weekly visual journal entries Sustained Investigation work
MDB BLOG
Some powerful sustained investigations:
Barbara Kruger (installation artist, graphic designer), Mark Bradford (painter), Julie Mehretu (painter), Kehinde Wiley (painter), Jenny Saville (painter), Francis Bacon (painter), Robert Rauschenberg (collage artist), Louise Bourgoise (drawer, painter, sculptor), James Jean (digital artist), Eva Hesse (sculptor), Janine Antoni, Ana Mendieta, Cindy Sherman (photographer), Nikki S. Lee (photographer), Kerry James Marshall (painter), Jenny Holzer (installation artist), Andy Goldsworthy (installation artist).
Sustained investigation Reminders:
+Think of each artwork within the larger context of the series. Think of the series as an album and the artworks as the songs.
+Work on multiple pieces at a time so they can inform each other.
+Try not to “begin” and “end” pieces, rather work on them continuously.
+Think of the artworks as sentences of a paragraph - parts to/of a whole.
+Arrange individual artworks, but in a flexible order.
+Let your ideas evolve during the production of the artworks instead of turning them on and off. Let them move in and out of each other.
+Keep commonalities between works.
+Working on artworks over an extended period of time allows more insight, exploration, and consistency.
+You are ultimately introducing the element of time, the passage of time. Art is not made in a fragment of a moment, nor is it experienced that way.
Instigation List
1. Draw/paint/collage the opposite feeling than you are experiencing right now.
2. Design a personal symbol and create a personal mantra.
3. Respond visually to any the following:
-Fuel in the fire.
-Underneath.
-Monochromatic garden.
-Bridges
4. Take a walk outside. Look for the following and capture in your visual journal:
-something tiny inside of something huge
-something confusing
-something organic merged with something mechanic
-an object shape cloud
-a sentence made of found words
5. Find an artist to collaborate with, make a scavenger hunt list or an instigation list for each other to investigate.
6. Draw/paint yourself, three styles in one sitting...Cubist, Minimalist, Impressionist.
7. Make an illustrated list of positives from this semester/this year.
Visually represent one of the following:
8. I'm in a jar.
9. Floating with despair.
10. Joint points.
11. Window v. mirror.
12. Reflex or reflection.
13. Lost not lost.
14. Hit the highway.
15. Start anywhere.
16. Paralyzed by fear.
17. Momentum.
18. Make marks with nature.
19. Visually describe your person of admiration.
20. What are you binging on? How can you interpret that into art?
21. Ball point pen hand studies.
Collaboratively Conceptual
Choose one idea or make combinations.
22. Expansion of self-acceptance
23. Fluidity of experience/the self
24. Forced energy
25. Basic needs to meet
26. The feeling of air
27. One day at a time
28. Parameters set
29. Parts to a whole
30. Measure up
31. I'm impenetrable now
32. Pressure points
33. Balance and chaos
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR ART HAS TO OFFER?
creativity
inspiration
understanding
communication
connection through barriers
narrative
expression
relating experiences
placing one's self in the world
education
subjectiveness
change
perspective
Below is an interview between Kerry James Marshall and ART 21. Please take a moment to read the article and browse the images.
