April Gornik Talks About Working From Photographs

So, there have been some of you who have asked me if we won't be breaking some cardinal rule by making drawings based on photographs rather than on direct observation. Well, there are plenty of artist out there that draw and/or paint with photographs as source material. Listen to April Gornik as she talks about her exhibition "Out Of Africa." When she describes her reasons for utilizing photographic source material, see what you think.

Reminder About Class Next Week

This is meant as a reminder to those who were in class today--and to inform the MANY OF YOU who were not here today (seriously, what is up with you guys this semester?)--of a few things you need for next week:

Here are the materials you need to have with you:

22"x30" Stonehenge fawn paper

Charcoal pencil

Black & white conte

Chamois

Hard Eraser

If it is nice outside, we will go to Veteran's Memorial to work. If it is nasty outside, we will go into the main building where we can use the hallways as subject matter.

READ THE ARTICLE I GAVE YOU!!!

Today, we only had seven people in class, and of those only two had read the material. Next week, we will discuss the reading at the very beginning of class. If you have not read the material, I will ASK YOU TO LEAVE THE CLASS and come back after lunch. I will COUNT IT AS AN EXTREME TARDY. Coming into class extremely late is something I do note in my grade book and it does affect your final grade in this class. Don't force me to have to be that kind of asshole, please. "Just Looking" is a short read and it is not overly dense. James Elkins (love him or hate him) is really good at taking complex concepts and expressing them in simple, understandable, down-to-earth language. Come to class Thursday having read the material and ready to discuss it. HAVE OPINIONS.

If you have misplaced the reading I gave you, click HERE for the full text of The Object Stares Back online. Scroll up to page 17 and read only the chapter entitled "Just Looking."

An Archive Artist: Brian Belott

Brian Belott is an artist who collects and archives anything he can get his hands on. While looking at the photos you all brought to class today I was reminded of him. The first video below is a studio visit with him. Below that is an odd collaborative performance piece of his called "The Wordless Chorus."

Artists Working On Toned Paper

Here are a few examples of established artists who use mark-making on toned paper similarly to the way you are using it in this class. Notice that not all of these artists are using warm toned paper and not all of them use exclusively black and white conte. Still they are good examples to observe and from which to learn.

Edgar Degas

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

John Currin

For Gino: Raymond Pettibon

This is an episode of Art:21 featuring an artist I mentioned to Gino: Raymond Pettibon. You can certainly feel free to watch the entire show (it is interesting) but you can also jump ahead to about the 15:00 mark for Pettibon's interview. You should dig his stuff, Gino.

An Experiment To See Who Is Actually Reading The Blog

Below are listing to three really good art shows opening Friday night. Go see all three, post photos of yourself at each show to your blog (with evidence in the photo that you are actually there), and write a synopsis of what you thought of each exhibition. Do this BEFORE MONDAY and I will average your highest homework grade twice for Midterm.

THIS IS A ONE-TIME, NEVER TO BE REPEATED OFFER!!!

If you have read this, keep it to yourself. OR, if you just absolutely MUST tell a classmate, just tell him or her that there is something on the blog that he or she should take a look at. I want to get a feel for who is actually utilizing the blog.

Local Flavors: Seven Regional Artists, co-curated by Jennifer Sargent and Dwayne Butcher, is an investigation of themes common to artists working within a region. The curators "wonder if there truly is a southern vernacular, and if so, how it influences an individuals art." Each of the artists created new works for the exhibition and live within a 200 mile radius of Memphis. The artists are: Bryan Blankenship, David Clemons, Stephen Crump, Wayne Edge, John Salvest, Emily Walls and Adam Yungbluth.

The Opening is Friday March 5th 6-8PM in the upper gallery at MCA.

Altiplano

New Works by

Keiko Gonzalez

Lisa Kurts Gallery

766 South White Station Road

Memphis, TN 38117

901.683.6200

Opening Reception: Friday, March 5, 6-8 PM

Exhibition on view March 5-April 30.

Susan Maakestad: "Traffic Land"
Friday, March 5, 2010
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location:
Material
2553 Broad Avenue
Memphis, TN

Material is excited to announce its fifty-sixth exhibition: Susan Maakestad: "Traffic Land."

Susan Maakestad: "Traffic Land" will run from March 5 through 27.

The reception will be on Friday, March 5, 2010 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

Susan Maakestad earned her M.F.A. in painting from The University of Iowa in 1987 and a B.A. and M.A. from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. She is Associate Professor of Art at Memphis College of Art, where she has taught since 1997. She was awarded a regional National Endowment for the Arts fellowship from Arts Midwest in 1988. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been included in the national publication "New American Paintings" and The Painting Center in New York's online "Art File." Her work has been exhibited nationally. She is represented by The Rymer Gallery in Nashville, Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis and Perry Nicole Fine Art in Memphis. She is also the long time radio host of "House Bayou" on WEVL 89.9 FM in Memphis.

About the show the artist writes:
“I am attracted to the spaces between things, the unnoticed marginal spaces in the urban landscape. Likewise, as a painter I like painting in the unsettling place between abstraction and naturalism. I find inspiration in ordinary and overlooked urban areas, spaces filled with concrete and asphalt. Merely imitating the natural world does not interest me. I am moved by the internal logic of paintings themselves, a world where things make sense somehow. Or almost don’t. Where everything lives and breathes in tension held together by beauty and paint.”

In January 2008 Maakestad began monitoring Milwaukee traffic cameras from her computer. She would watch as blizzards emptied the freeways of commuters and softened the geometry, blurring the edges of nature and culture. Empty spaces were filled first with snow and sleet and then with private distractions. Traffic Land is a series of drawings based on those webcam images. It is a construction, a vision of the urban landscape mediated by the practical role of traffic cameras and the poetic inclinations of a solitary viewer.

jpg info: maakestad_pr.jpg is "Mile Marker #3," 12 x 14", oil on canvas, 2009. Additional images of the artist’s work can be found at www.susanmaakestad.com.

Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue. Parking is available on both the north and south sides of Broad Avenue.

About Material: Founded by Hamlett Dobbins and Julie Meiman in late 2004, Material is a 19’ x 16’ exhibition space set in the storefront on Broad Avenue in the Binghamton neighborhood of Memphis. Taking the name from Montessori learning tools, Material was built to provide emerging and established artists with an intimate, clean space in which to share their work with Memphis’ growing arts community. The programming consists of monthly shows as well as artists’ lectures in connection with local colleges and universities. Material has served as a space for young artists to have their first shows, as well as a place for established local and regional artists to test new ideas in a public forum. In addition to serving local artists, Material has hosted artists from Birmingham to Tokyo. Come visit.

Contact:
Hamlett Dobbins, 901.219.1943, hamlettdobbins@hotmail.com
Susan Maakestad, 901.272.5187, susan@susanmaakestad.com

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