Leonardo and Work

I figured it would be somewhat appropriate to blog about Leonardo since we started talking about him in our art history class yesterday.

Presenting our final projects, I noticed there was a lot of room for expanding ideas -- there usually is. There's a strange situation with being an art student. We start projects and then have to move on to the next idea -- quickly, and it's hard to keep the life of any one given project when there's so many that have to be done.

I try to pour my ideas, premature as they may be, into the work I have to put out in class. A sort of pre-exploration of any concept that might interest me. Often I haven't finished them -- but that's the point; they're not finished. Like Leonardo Da Vinci said, "a work is never finished, only abandoned."

La Scapigliata (pictured here) is like a visualization of this idea. There's a beauty to our ideas, as bare as they are, but they continue there -- rough outlines, the embryos of what could be a great exploration.

I was talking to one of the girls I was going to photograph for an assignment. We talked about work and how much we had to do -- I advised that work has life outside of the classroom and our assignments. If we think of work as a grade and not a self-accomplishment merely asserted or denied by a grade, art's beauty can soon become tedious.

I've abandoned a great deal of works, but I intend on going back and exploring ideas over and over again. Some of them are bound to not happen, but we're always sure to find something new in the old.

Leonardo was always finding something new -- that was his greatness and his failure. We need only accept the fact that these things are still a move forward, even if they remain static in the timeline of our work's life.

Art breathes - even the incomplete type.

The Treachery of Images (and puns!)

Thank you Magritte hahaha. I ran into this once a few weeks ago. I saw peeps at the Corner Store for $0.79. I had to do it.

Enjoy.

Hey Stefan!!!

If I make one of these, how's that for extra credit!? hahahhaha

Just joking, but I think this is so awesome! Professor Davidhazy could probably have some fun doing this hahaha.

Just sharing :D

Douglas Gordon & Appropriation

Two years ago I spent a summer at a museum to learn how to write journalistic pieces on Art as a form of critique or for informative purposes.

I didn't realize how much I had learned that summer, mostly because it was all so latent until I came to college and started learning about different aspects of art.

The exhibit was "Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967,” a compilation of artworks in installation, video, illustrations and photographs that centered around Rock & Roll and music for the past 4 decades. A lot of it dealt with fantasy, it dealt with the transcendent idea of music, the self-indlugence of performance, the minds of musicians and the artists that wished to be musicians, the idolization of musicians, the parallel of going to a concert the way a devout Catholic attends mass every Sunday.

One of the most striking pieces was Douglas Gordon's clips from concerts, one from a Rolling Stones concert, another from the Cramps performing. They were bootleg videos shot by the audiences at these shows. The videos were slowed down to move at a glacial speed, the fast energy of the rock shows suddenly very considerate, slow and real. More easily felt, you could see the crowd and catch each individual motion because there was time for that.

They were all appropriated videos. In fact, his most famous piece is 24 Hour Psycho, a 35 second clip from Hitchcock's Psycho made to last 24 whole hours. His photographic work is also very similar with series of photographs in which the motion and changes between shots are subtle and almost imperceptible.

This reminded me of the talk the other day on appropriation of work and copyright. It's been in my mind lately a lot. I hadn't realized Gordon was one of these artist defying that idea as well (though not directly of course - not like Richard Prince).

That's all. Enjoy.

Productive with Product-ish Shots

I guess it's a step forward to working on something. It's better than any of the crap iv'e been doing. In any case, these were test shots for my actual work (which will be very Levinthal-ish).

Comments are more than welcome :P

The Passing

I have never met him. I knew him only through clothing and through quotes and interviews and what people had to say about him. All of that, made him seem great. I'm sure he was.

Alexander McQueen was without doubt one of my favorite artist in the world. There was something dark and beautiful about him and his work. I was always fully enthralled by his designs and his shows - he worked with psychology and social issues, messed with his audience. He was experiential and experimental - he wanted everyone to be part of his fantasy, and watch him unravel fearlessly and fearfully, both at the same time. He was so open to letting everyone see inside his mind and understand the fantastical way he absorbed the world.

Whatever the cause was - it was speculated that it was suicide, though no final word has been given - he carried with him a reputation of non-commitment, of freedom and of lightness that came across so heavily. He'll always be L'enfant terrible.

The strangest thing personally is how I personally become enamored with artist; Plath, McQueen, Collins and a million others. Not romantically, but in beauty. If they make beautiful things, for a second I'm in love with their mind and the way they're in love with the world. I'm in love with their sadness and whatever else motivates them to attempt expression. Like Camus said: "It's not your paintings I like, it's your painting."

I'm not sad he died so much as I'm in some disbelief that his art reached an end. I almost want to envision the last seconds he had to himself and hear his thoughts. I always do when I think of people dying - infamous last thoughts.

Just as he lived in beauty, I hope he rests in it.

Another funny thing

Some late night fashion-related browsing (I had to catch up) led me to this:

Richard Prince! AAAAAAAAAAAH hehehe I will talk more about him when I get the chance. I have lots to say. For now just this hahha.