Lectures and Life

Lectures are great, but being inspired is even better!

the Devil and Daniel Johnston... SPOILER

I am so glad I decided to watch this movie. However, at the end I was filled with sadness. Then I watched the deleted scene of him reuniting with his long lost love and I was then completely depressed.

Throughout this movie, you see this vibrant, brilliant person, battling with more and more of his demons. Gradually you see him losing his mind and a piece of himself. I was mortified to watch this energetic kid turn more and more into an old, half spent adult. Its not to say that he isn't still brilliant and a wonderful artist. He is. It just looks as if his body is weathering from all the demons in his head.

What really got me is during the movie everyone keeps saying how great it was that he was able not to attain his dream girl and thats what made his music and art so brilliant and that his dream girl wasn't "really" that important in his heart. I think all that is wrong. As soon as he saw her after 26 years, all he could do is stare at her and ask her if she would marry him and tell her that he won't let her go.

Would he have made all that music if he had gotten his wish 26 years ago to be with his dream girl? Probably not. But how can we say that thats for the better. Thats a totally selfish thing to say.

While watching the movie and seeing Daniel Johnston as the older Daniel Johnston, I couldn't help but think that he physically looks a lot like my dad. It also got me to think of what it would be like for us and for my dad if my dad didn't suffer from all his diseases. What did the world and I miss out on from my dad being the way he is? I think that made me incredibly sad as well.

I wish I could sing and play an instrument. I am so inspired to sing some of Johnston's songs, especially the one that they play at the end of the movie.

This movie was amazing and will stay in my mind for a very long time!

*** ALSO***

It is incredible how much time and energy this person spent on documenting his own life. He essentially wrote his own documentary and someone else added a few things and put it all together. This inspires me to leave more traces of myself and my life behind.

the 12 step program...

step one...

A> Morning Pages... every morning, for better or worse.

B> Artist Time... at least 2 hours a week

C> Find the Monsters of Your Past... remember them and confront them.

D> Affirmations... screw what the censors say!

E>Old Champions... at least 3

F> Letter to self

G> Avenge yourself, tell the Monsters what you think of them now.

H> Take your artist for a walk...



I start my morning pages in 10+ hours... I hope I can keep up with that for 7 days... till Thursday.

The hardest part will be spending time and walking with my artist, I need to get properly motivated!



"Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow."
-Talmud

Dear Blogger

I have been neglecting you as of late. I assume that will change soon...

I have been reading a sort of self help book, the Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron and I believe that I have found my second bible.

If anyone knows me I am not at all emotionally connected to my religion. I've had issues with religion all my life. It was not so much the lack of believing but the lack of reason to believe. My theory was always to do just enough to be on the safe side; get cool points for trying.

Perhaps the problem with me and religion has always lied in my inability to fit in. After a while it turned to an in-desire to fit in. I rather be alone than amid a group of like minded individuals. I rarely feel pride in anything that involves group effort and have never really been patriotic (although I have my loyalties). "If everyone else is doing it then what is the point," I always wondered? Somewhere along the line religion got placed into a category of group projects I didn't belong to.

However, with Cameron's book I feel that perhaps religion (or at least the interpretation of it that I chose to follow) can have a place in my life and in my art. The gist of the book can probably be summed up with one poignant quote:

"We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves."

Now, I must make it clear that I am in no way preaching religion or the power of Moses, Jesus Christ, Alah, (or any other recognizable religious figure ) to any reader (if any exist). I am simply saying that for me, perhaps there is something in this book that may help me gain a deeper understanding of myself and my art.

This book has a 12 week, 12 step program to creative rediscovery, which may be what I have been searching for in the Masters Program at VSW but not finding. Maybe this book is that 15% that I need to push me past the hurdles that I have faced within my art work. That 15% may be whats standing between me and my confidence as an artist and as a human being.

Who knows, this may be the last entry before a life altering event.

So here's to trying new things and to new beginnings....


... see you on the other side...

-Rona G

Book Comparison: History of Photography

Initially I started out with comparing two books, Hirsch’s, Seizing the Light and Taschen’s, A History of Photography. Although the writing styles are different, as are the placement of images within chapters, I felt that each book heavily relied on the George Eastman collection for their image sources and history. In the spirit of fair representation and research I chose a third book, Szarkowski's, Photography Until Now.

Taschen’s A History of Photography reads more like a catalog of the George Eastman collection than a collection of photographic history and information. With that being said, it would be incorrect to think that Taschen’s work is somehow less important. On the contrary, the book is a superb source for visual information. Although many of the images that appear in Taschen also appear in Hirsch, Taschen is very distinguishable in two important ways. First is that he features a large number of images of minorities and women. There are many images in the book that most people have either never seen before or have seen them very seldom anywhere else. The amount of images crammed into the little book is impressive. Second and perhaps the most interesting fact is that Taschen does not have the “holy grail” of images. The first photograph ever made is not in the George Eastman collection and therefore does not appear in Taschen’s book. What Taschen does offer instead is a picture of the “king” of photography himself, George Eastman.

What impressed me about Robert Hirsch’s book is the way he placed captions for images that were used throughout the book. Unlike many photo history books that place an image on the page as reference for the artist, Hirsch combines many of the images he uses with descriptive text, giving more of a context to an image other than just the dimensions, process by which it was made, year and name of its creator. The caption text is effective because it gives the reader a glimpse of the context in which to place the images, letting the reader relate the image with things like the historic events or places of origin. Effectively, the book works in a multi layered fashion, like two books in one. One layer tells about the general history of photography and the second layer deals more intimately with each image and the thoughts that went into making that image.

Szarkowski's, Photography Until Now, caught my eye for one reason. Szarkowski dedicates more space in the book for images. Instead of looking at an image that’s about thumbnail size, Szarkowski’s images are bigger (although not actual size). There are entire pages that contain only images, allowing the photographs to live by themselves without having the text infringe upon their freedom. It’s shocking that more authors or photo history books are not as generous to their images. After all, a history of photography should acknowledge the power of the image to speak for itself without having cumbersome words taking away from the visual language and glory.

The comparison inspired me to look deeper into how photo art historians use images to accompany their text. It is interesting to see what images each author chooses to include and exclude from their book because that dictates how the history of photographic art is written, read, studied and viewed in the future. The power of images is undeniable.

Artist Statement for Final Project

I have seen and read things that I doubt I’d ever want to see and read again. I don’t consider myself a sensitive person by any means, but this project really got to me. It made me realize how little value we have for the dead, which may just be a way for us to cope with our own mortality.

The written part of the project is a series of 5.5x 8inch pages that make up an easy reference guide to things you may never have known about death. It’s meant to read like a novelty book you’d find at Spencer or Hottopic. The reason I didn’t bind it or put a cover on it is because I did not feel like I was writing a book. Beside, I cannot start and finish a book that would do Death justice in one semester. I didn’t include images or graphics because my video piece was graphic enough.

The images I picked out for the video could have very easily come out of some book. However, to prove that we are a culture saturated in images of death, I decided to get on the internet and pick out images. It wasn’t hard at all to find what I was looking for. The music in the video is from my music library.

Finally, the video piece is not on You Tube because all images and sounds are copyright materials.

Research Continues

So, I was looking at the works of J. Witkin and I must say he really gets under my skin. Although his images are well composed I can't really look at them and not cringe. I consider myself pretty open minded when it comes to most things, but I guess when it comes to using the dead for personal monetary gain, I get a little sick to my stomach.

The images that really got to me were the ones where Witkin used dead babies. In addition to that, I read about how Witkin sets up these sets of the dead. How he pulls dead babies out of drawers in morgues. Something about that just seems very wrong to me.

Heavy Metal and Death in Art

Its been a while since my last post. So i figure i'd update everyone on my progress...

I've been making a decision as to how i want to approach this project. Through readings and research i decided to focus on popular culture, especially the heavy metal movement.



In my search to find articles online, i discovered a great book that explores the cultural sociology of the heavy metal movement.

The following is a link to the book. Its an easy read and I feel it does justice to the genre. So if you are interested, check it out.

http://books.google.com/books?id=D6tGaphXVlEC&pg=PA1&lpg=PP9&dq=positive+effects+of+heavy+metal+music&psp=9&sig=JJKAknXWtHygbmqA6uHlCVuxpLc


I have also started work on the audio-visual part of the project. I am going to include some work by Cannibal Corpse, Kreator, Obituary and Kitty. I am still looking for some compeling images and will probably look into Kutna Hora Bone Church in the Czech Republic as well as the works of Witkin.

This Project is Going to be the Death of Me

I have been reading and researching articles about death, art and anything having to do with the two.

I have not yet decided what angle I am going to follow in this project. I was thinking about making a timeline of human history and run it parallel to human use of death in art. The project will be a written one. It may consist of a book format that is accompanied by an audio-visual CD that combines images and sounds together.

The research includes psychology journals, anthropology journals and art journals. Although they are all interesting, nothing has really jumped out at me so far.

I looked into the works of Bill Viola which are interesting and would probably be great for the audio visual part of the project. The audio visual will also include musical works by Macabre, Cannibal Corpse, Cremaster and visual works by Jeol Peter Witkin, Marilyn Manson, and movie makers such as George A. Romero.

Death and Dying in the Arts

I have to be honest and apologetic, I really haven't had time to sit down and start writing and researching anything of substance in regards to the final project for the Thursday class. I've searched the web, read a few more myths and tales of death and dying but nothing super important to the project.

The following website caught my eye. It’s an easy read and touches on a few issues that I want to mention in my research project; human fear of the unknown, human experience, etc.

(NOTE:I Published the links 4 or 5 times but it won't link them on blogger so just copy and past them if you'd like to view them. Sorry about that... blame blogger :D)

http://http://www.lamortdanslart.com/main.htm

http://http://death.monstrous.com/art_and_death.htm

http://http://library.thinkquest.org/16665/frame2.htm

I am considering looking at popular culture and fascination with serial killers (many shock rockers take on stage names that are versions of serial killer names).

Books and novels (such as the Canterbury Tales, Frankenstein), mythology, poetry and everything else that is the macabre will be researched and discussed. Movies and TV shows (like Seven, Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummies Alive, CSI) will be discussed as part of the research. Also, less known cultures (Indonesia, South American, and African) art, mythology and religious practices are going to be mentioned in the project.

I am still debating if I should add music to a list of things I want to include in my research project. Music would include Classical, Opera, Shock Rock, Death Metal and perhaps a few other genres.

Those are the ideas/subjects that I'm working on... in my spare time.

Art and the Age of Death in Art Culture

Wherever I am, the macabre seems to follow. However, it’s not due to any underlying desire to scare or shock anyone. I don’t have homicidal or suicidal tendencies nor do I have adoration for necrophilia. As far as I am told, I am a well adjusted individual. My fascination (and dread) with death and the dead started when I was four or five. It was the same day that I discovered that my preconceptions of life after old age and “re-youth” didn’t really exist and that people actually died. Having never been to a funeral at that age, it was hard to imagine what death and dying was all about.

My project for the semester will delve into the use of death and the dead in art culture. I will attempt to look into different cultures and the way they view and treat their dead. My own culture and beliefs about death that I grew up with will be incorporated in my research.

If anyone has any knowledge of articles and/or books that I should look into, please let me know.

Art and Politics; My Experience

As a refugee from Eastern Europe, I found in the past, that keeping my opinions to myself, was the best policy. It was never due to ignorance or apathy but a desire not to completely ostracize myself from my family, friends and community.

My art work (which is photo oriented) has been largely based on experimental processes. The ultimate goal was to turn photography into something more than a two dimensional art form. I wanted to find a way to make it more sculptural and three dimensional. The only way I thought I could accomplish that was to experiment with various materials, methods and applications. There was never much room to incorporate politics.

Political works that move me are the works of Lewis Wickes Hines and his documentation on life in the slums, Dorothea Lange and her images of the Great Depression and Arthur Fellig (Weegee) and his dedicated work in capturing “true reality” on film. In the future I hope to include more of my own views on politics, my previous experience as a refugee and the works by my favorite artists, into my photography.

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