Project Two - Plan

For project two we are required to create self-portraits through illustrator. These self-portraits will include a digital representative, an abstract background that is different from that of the original photo and some sort of text. Even though the text is one of the last things we will be working on I believe it is just as important as the photo we will be representing. That is why along with the image I am also choosing the text. While looking at the two final photos I plan to choose from I decided that a Dr. Seuss quote would most likely fit best. Dr. Seuss is known for is wonky quotes that simply state the obvious. With a simple quote and a digital portrait I will be able to show the audience my personality.

Artist Blog

Jean-Pierre Hébert is an independent artist that lives and works in Santa Barbara, California. He is a pioneer in the field of computer art and has been working with algorithmic art as well as mixed media since the 1970’s. Hébert was awarded a Pollock-Krasner foundation grant in 2006 and a David Bermant foundation grant in 2008-09. He had a solo show recently called drawing with the mind at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts forum and is currently showing collections at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art in Chicago and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Algorithmic art is mostly visual art generated by algorithms. It is a subset of generative art and is normally always executed by a computer. Hébert works both with the computer but also with mixed media. His works primary medium is on paper, mostly drawings, and some prints. He has also worked with films, steel, copper plates, wood, sand, and even air and water. “Hébert prefers to work on paper however he also is out to explore all possibilities of drawing, from the largest, most detailed pieces to the smallest, simplest sketches and cartoons” (1). This particular image is an algorithmic work of art that is drawn by hand rather than created on the computer or through a computer program. Laque Noire (1990) is a pen and ink drawing on paper that is in a collection of digital works started by the Block Museum. The image is meant to look digitally created, however Hébert created this image strictly from drawing.

I find this absolutely amazing, Hébert was one of the first few algorithmic artists in the world, however back in the 1970’s before computers they did all they drawings by hand. And still to this day he creates some of his artwork by hand, even though it appears to have been digitally created. Normally this is not the type of art I am into, but I just find this fascinating. Out of all the artists in the Paul Hertz’s reading Jean-Pierre Hébert was certainly my favorite. How they created digital art before personal computers were so readily available, I don’t know it is truly amazing.

Heather Harvey Artist Talk

Beneath, Behind (2007)

Heaver Harvey is a visiting professor here at St. Mary’s College of Maryland as well as a sculpture and installation based artist. Educationally, Harvey is passionate; she got a B.A. Anthropology in 1993 and an M.A. in Archaeology in 1997 as well as a B.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking in 2003 and an M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking in 2007. However, since 2003 she has been working on various installation shows and projects all around the United States. Harvey’s most recent installations include “Blue Ghost Revisited” a site-specific installation in 2009 in Lexington, VA, “Fractious Happy” a solo exhibition in 2009 in Wilmington, DE, and most recently “…into this honeyed presence strewn” which is a solo exhibition in 2010 in Wise, VA. Since this past exhibition Harvey has accepted a position at St. Mary’s College of Maryland as the professor of paint and printmaking.

Harvey’s installation pieces focuses specifically on the “power of quiet, hidden things, the things that nobody’s noticing, the hidden infrastructure of our lives” (Website). Her installations embody aspects of sculpture, painting, as well as drawing. By working directly on the wall, Harvey is able to change the walls from a simple space to something much stranger and less anticipated. While in the artist talk she asked herself what her work means. And replied by saying, “It doesn’t mean anything, you (as the viewer) choose your meaning, there is no message”. However, she remarked, “If I do not explain my work to the viewer they will assume the main meaning is based on how the work looks, esthetically”. Essentially, she is creating these strange installations that extend off the wall however unless she gives some explanation they will be seen as purely esthetic. This being what she does not want.

After looking at many different pictures of Harvey’s installation work, it has gathered my attention no more then her talk did. The way she comes up with her ideas is rather fascinating however; this is simply just not my cup of tea. I can’t grasp her ideas and understand these hanging objects. Although this is my opinion I will say that it is a very creative and interesting group of idea. Other than that, these works of art are a little to out there for my.

www.heather-harvey.net/installationStatement.html

Nick Hornby is a London based artist that installed the most recent sculpture series called Patrons, Muses, and Professionals onto Eyebeam’s window gallery. Nick Hornby received his education at the Slade School of Art, University College London and Chelsea School of Art. Hornby has been involved in many events from winning the Clifford Chance Sculpture Award in 2008, to being included in Anticipation a showcase for emerging artists for his life size sculptural slice of a bowing 727. He was also shortlisted for the inaugural Spitalfields Sculpture Prize in 2009, proposing a large-scale sculpture that merges six different aspects of Spitalfields. Hornby has recently been picked for the Evening Standard’s “Who to Watch in 2010”. His upcoming projects include the 2012 cultural Olympiad, which is a large public work for the South Bank Centre as well as the Tate Britain Triennial exhibition, which is Altermodern.

In the series Patrons, Muses, and Professionals Hornby presents three busts derived from eighteenth century portraits. Each work is the reproduction of three specific portraits in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “Hornby models his chosen portraits digitally, overlapping them to create composite virtual objects that reveal shifting aspects of their source material” (EB, ¶2). The results are carved via CNC and the artist casts the final busts by hand with plaster and clay from these computer-generated positives.

I feel that because Hornby is combining historical portraits with digital fabrication processes, he is able to show the difference between historically hand made art and new age “digitally” created art. Essentially, modern day works of art are primarily created using excessive amounts of technology or digital assistance. Historically, however everything was done through the artist’s hand, whether the artist worked with plaster, paints, clay, or wood, working with the material, hand tools and an amazing skill created their works of art. I think Hornby’s sculptures are remarkable. The fact that he looked into the past specifically at three portraits and added modern technology is an unbelievable idea. Also the fact that Hornby didn’t simple recreate the portraits using digital technology, he also added in a modern digital look. That being, an overlapping of the material to create virtual shifting objects.

Project #1