MFA Exhibit Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly was born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington. He went to University of Washington and while he was there studying interior design he was introduced to glass blowing. He graduated in 1965. Soon after he enrolled in the first glass blowing program in the country at University of Wisconsin. He continues to study glass blowing at Rhode Island School of Design. While he was there is established a glass blowing program and taught there for ten years. In 1968 went to work at glass blowing factory in Venice. It was there were he observed the team in glass blowing which later became a key component to his later work. His work has concluded over 200 hundred museum collections around the world. He has also received many awards and has created more then a dozen of well know series of his work.

When I went and saw his show at the exhibit in the mfa. One of the first things I noticed was the darkness and how the glass was illuminating in the darkness. The second thing I noticed right away was how big, bright and colorful his sculptures were. His work seemed to be memorizing and almost playful because of the size of the sculptures. I almost wanted to touch or even get up onto the black shiny platform and walk through the life size sculptures. I felt that his whole exhibit gave off this dream like feel to it because of the brightness the sculptures were giving off in the dark and their size. Lastly I felt that there was a nice balance of some of his sculptures installed on these beautiful, black platform and these beautiful chandeliers sculptures installed up on the ceiling.

Dale Chihuly Work

Artist talk with Janet Echelman

Janet Echelman is a sculpture who reshapes urban airspace with her fluidity sculptures that can hold up to wind, water, sunlight and any other weather condition. She has done major sculpture commissions for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic winter games, a new civic icon for Phoenix and a 160 tall waterfront sculpture for Portugal. Also her art has been presented in Italy, Spain,India, Mexico, Hong Kong, Canada, US, Japan, Indonesia, Lithuania and Portugal. She went to Harvard and got her graduates degree in painting, phycology. After school she applied to seven different art schools and did not get into one.

Her career first started out she was a painter and paint batiks then she traveled to India and came across these locals who were weaving fish nets by hand. So she decided to learn the craft and it was then and there that she became inspired and made her first sculpture. Shortly after her career took off and she soon began to to loose her craft and her sculptures were soon no longer made by hand and were now being made machines.

It was interesting to know that its not her who is seeking out the funders for her projects. It's the funders that are seeking out a certain artist for their projects. She said that you will have visions of what you're going to do but your vision does not necessarily work out all the time. That sometimes she has to adjust her vision because of either the cost or the funders. Since her projects are now getting bigger and more complex she no longer makes her sculptures by hand. Her sculptures are now industrial made. However, she does miss being a lacemaker because of the experience and sense of time she feels when making her sculptures by hand. Lastly a majority of her sculptures are done in the cities because she feels that is where they are needed, thrive a get the most human interaction.

Janet Echelman

I wanted to play with having the figure slowly start to fade out the further I went down the page. The first figure starts out really strong and noticeable. By the time you get to the third figure all there is a couple of lines shaping the form. I did a couple of test runs on newsprint paper before I moved onto the big sheets of color paper. Lastly I played with watercolor and cante crayon.

Here I wanted to play with the color black and other colors. I wanted to play with figure and dress on the same page. By switching up charcoal with cante crayon. I also wanted to pair the movement of the figure and dress up together. Im not really sure if something is standing out to me or not. I do know I really like the results of using the cante crayon. There is something about that color that really stands out to me more so then the charcoal.

I stumbled upon a youtube video called danza della vergine suicdia. That played images of a women in this beautiful white dress dancing and I just had to gesture draw her. I soon began to realize that I was more drawn to the dress and her movement then anything else. So I decided to gesture draw it with cante crayon and loved the results.

Color Figured Gesture Drawing!

I soon got really burnt out with working in ink and black and white. So I decided to move on to watercolor, colored paper and acrylic paint. Before I moved onto color I decided to do another life size gesture figure drawing using a sponge and ink. Then I decided to move onto watercolor and acrylic paint. I took my finger and dipped in acrylic paint and applied it to the paper. I wanted to try using watercolor and found out that I loved it more more then ink. I felt that it allowed me less control then the ink. Which allowed me to relax and to let go with out worrying. I wanted to move from the newsprint and try working with working with watercolor on colored paper. I found to be that watercolor on colored paper really stood out to me more so then the watercolor on newsprint. there was something about it that drew me in. I finally feel like I had a break though with the color and the gesture drawing. You could really feel the weight and movement.

Last week I was in LA and I completely forgot to bring a pad of drawing paper and charcoal. I had so many opportunities to gesture draw my teammates when we had down time. This week I gesture drew figures from Muybridge video. I did roughly ten on newsprint paper using different size brushes and trying very hard not to have my figures just be made up of contour lines. This time I started on the middle of the figure and worked my way out. I also tried not to pick up my brush unless I needed to dip it in more ink. Lastly I did a couple of gesture figures on colored papered. Im not really sure what to think about them. The ink dint appear as dark as it did on the newsprint which was a bit frustrating.

Continuation of Gesture Figure Drawing

After last weeks critique I have decided to continue to gesture draw the figure because I feel that the drawings could be pushed more and I want to finish working life size. This time I want to start from the inside of the figure and work out. I think looking at some gesture drawings of the figure will also help. Im thinking of also maybe varying the thickness of the lines and hopefully that will show more movement and weight. Lastly shortening the time to 30 seconds or less so it will force me not to get stuck in doing contour lines.

I plan on another fifth teen gesture figure drawings on newsprint paper just to get warmed up and back into the swing of things. Then move on to color paper with ink and cante crayons. I have scraps of canvases and Im thinking of also trying that with ink. Then Lastly I want to work life size with using ink and a sponge and then changing it up and switching to house paint.

Round Two of Gesture Drawing

I continued to work from Muybridge videos. After doing a variety of different sizes last time. I decided to continue with doing the smaller gesture drawing because they came out more gestural for me last time. I also tried doing a life size one as well and that came out pretty well. I wished I did a second one of those. With the life size one I felt like I was my whole arm and was varying the brush strokes.

Figure Gesture Drawings

I had a lot of fun doing these figure gesture drawings. I ended up watching Muybridge videos and drawing from the models. I feel like I was really able to let go this time. I could not even think even if I wanted to. The more I did the easier it got. I only had enough time to react. I feel like some of the gesture drawings came out better then others. The smaller the paper was I feel like the more gestural the figures were.

Methods of Investigation

The material I chose to work with that I have never worked with is ink. When I was first learning how to use ink I found it be challenging and frustrating. If I was not careful enough the ink would not only ruin down my paper but also into other shades. I like not having that much control of over the ink because it allowed me not to think. However it allowed me to react quickly. It also allowed me no room for mistakes which can be a good thing because it allows you not only

to go with it but to work with it.

I wanted to show an experience or something personal that I have gone through. The problem is I don't know how to express it but I decided to give a shot anyways. I feel like I dint really stop thinking and dint really let go. I feel STUCK.

Identify Questions

Inspiration

My inspiration comes from a lot of different places. A lot of the times it comes from friends and family. Some of the paintings I have done have been portraits of my friends and family but necessarily in the traditional way. Things that have meaning, value or are personal to me in some way also inspire me. Even just driving or walking through different towns and places can also pull inspiration.

Sometimes I will look at myself as another source of inspiration. A lot of times I will draw or paint something that I am going through or feeling. It may not necessarily be spelled out in the work but something you can feel in the work. I love doing simple still lives and I will usually be drawn to objects that I find cool, interesting or grabs my attention is some sort of way. There are times were Im stuck for inspiration in that case I will go looking for it

Working Enviroment

My working environment varies from what mood I am in to what I am working on. I like to change up my environment because I get tired of constantly working in the same place all the time so I like to switch it up. Ill either work in my classroom studio or ill work at home. A lot of times I will work in the studio to get away and escape for a little bit. It also really allows me to focus on what im working on. I find it to be nice and relaxing if I listen to music as I work. It’s nice working in the studio because I feel like I can make a mess and not have to worry about ruining anything. When Im working at home I have to be careful about ruining things and that can get annoying and distracting

Sometimes with when I work in my classroom studio it gets to quiet and lonely for me to work in so I will work at home. When Im working at home I will either work in bedroom, family room or kitchen. I will usually be bounce back and forth from those three places. Lastly sometimes I will work with other people in the same room and talk to them while I work but that depends on if I can afford to talk.

Working Process

A lot of times I find helpful to do thumb nail sketches of how Im going to set up my composition for my painting. I will do as many thumb sketches, as I need to in order to find the right one. It’s very important for me before I start that I have everything I need and set up. It’s usually a slow start for me when I start painting but sometimes it can be a quick start. It all depends on how complicated the subject matter is.

I will start off by drawing with either pencil or paint. Sometimes I will just skip the drawing and just jump right into the painting by starting to just put down my light and dark values. Painting for me is a constant push and pull where Im satisfied with some things but not with other things. Now and then I will take a break or if Im getting frustrated with the way my painting is turning out I will walk away and then come back to it with fresh eyes.

Motivation

I am a majority of the time my own personal motivator. I find it that I will have more motivation and excitement for painting if Im really liking my subject matter. Which is usually a majority of the time but sometimes is not. Also my professors can motivate me to push my work further or help me take my work into a different direction. Getting some constructed criticism really help as well and will allow me work on things that I need to.

Time is also a huge motivator for me. To me time is very precious and valuable. I feel that there is never enough of it in the day so I need to be able to plan accordingly and use it wisely. Most importantly that I used it productively and at the end of the day I feel like I got a lot done.

Reading

Ill is completely honest I do not do a lot and I don’t really like to read. I have also been like that since I was a kid. I will read for however for required classes or I will read stuff that interests me in some way.

Most Inspiring Person

I don’t have just one most inspiring person. I have a couple of different painters that I find to be inspiring to me. A couple of them have similar subject matters in their paintings or their working style is similar.

The two artist that inspire me are Morandi Giorgio and Edwin Dickson. Giorgio color scheme and simple object still lives remind me a lot of my work. The way Dickson applies the paint and his short glare painting is very similar to how I apply the paint and I to like to just do stare paintings.

Mathew Ritchie

I really like Matthew Ritchie's work. I love the simplicity of his work and of his lines and how is able to blow and shrink is work. It seems that he is very involved with his work and his process and that he has a team working with him. I feel if he dint have a team with him it would be very difficult for him to get everything done. He will blow up his work on the wall, make sculptures, and drawing and is able to incorporate figures into his abstract work.

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