Saturday, December 31, 2005

Kathy Butterly

KATHY BUTTERLY: Slide lecture and dinner! Friday, February 10, 2006. This sought after ceramic artist and Moore College of Art and Design / UC Davis graduate, will lecture at 6:30pm at the University of Pennsylvania Chemistry Building, 231 S. 34th Street in Philadelphia. The event will be followed by dinner in a private area residence at 8pm. For more info and ticket information contact Christina Edleman at The Clay Studio, 215-925-3453 x13 or go to www.theclaystudio.org. Seating for both events is limited. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Where is your art supposed to go, anyway?

Is it really a surprise to anyone that museums exhibit less than 5% of the work they collect?

The Los Angeles Times would have us believe that this is, in fact, news. And while artists are shocked (...shocked!) to find there's no room in the museum for their work, museums remain the gold standard for achievement in our profession. What is wrong with this picture?

I've been having this sidebar conversation via email with an artist who's getting his MFA and is thinking about his thesis show and how it seems like an artificial thing. While everyone asks him if he's showing, his frustration about the need to exhibit while he's still growing as an artist has been simmering. To him, rolling out a bunch of canvases and standing there delivering the artspeak to his teachers and invited guests isn't going to transform him into the artist he wants to be. To him, showing these paintings is a step on a path that is supposed to last a lifetime. When I was in school, we used to say we were learning to paint so we could be great artists in our 60s. That's what I read between the lines of this artist’s emails.

Of course, at the time we were all saying this, others were snickering that we were only saying it because there was no room in the Whitney Biennial for us and that this was some sort of sour-grapes strategy. But really. With nearly 10,000 new artists getting degrees every year, where the hell are all these paintings, sculptures, installations, ceramics, prints, books, and whatever supposed to go?

I recall preparing for my thesis exhibition and working on these paintings that I wanted to have a certain pearly finish. One of the people who came to my studio, perhaps in an effort to get me to lighten up, told me that she regarded student work as proposals for mature work. Maquettes, essentially, for work we’d be really do when we got out of school. I did lighten up and get the paintings done, but I’ve been haunted by this feeling for a few years, that most art I look at is really a discursive foray, not an object made to any kind of exacting specifications.

One of the most interesting books I’ve looked at recently is Deep Storage: Storing, Collecting Archiving in Contemporary Art, edited by Ingrid Schaffner and Matthais Winzen. It’s a kind of index of an exhibition and a practice artists (and – whoa- non-artists, too) are deeply engaged with in society (Google “scrapbooking” if you don’t believe me). In a weird way, it reminded me of an equally fascinating but less hip book, David Halle’s Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home. Halle’s writing is not exactly memorable, but the book is illustrated with dozens of images of the interiors of people’s houses and the art that hangs in such spaces. It’s a little like a hardcore version of Dwell or Met Home except that unlike these sterilized decorator magazines, one sees how lives are rearranged to accommodate paintings and sculpture and how these things – removed from their white cubes and glossy art magazines – might really affect people who live with them.

Maybe this is just another way of getting at the problem of gross overproduction in studio art. Consider the thing you’re making in its life outside of the studio, the gallery, the museum, or the magazine. Consider making things that cannot be photographed so you don’t place more value on the slide or digital image than on the thing you’re making. Consider that the art most of us love, doesn’t come with an artist who stands beside it and drones on in artspeak.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Out of Body


Perhaps it began with Dave Hickey's successful attempt to make beauty an "issue", but it seems that the thing underlying most contemporary exhibitions now is a desire on the part of curators to present art as overwhelming, even ravishing, to the viewer. The beauty debate returned sensualism to the table, giving it some long-overdue new vocabulary.

As a result, it's not enough now to look at work or think about it, one must be staggered by it. Consider the complexity-theme in the Fabric Workshop's "Swarm" exhibit. It exists to create the impression that art is just too much to understand intellectually, that at some point, the information passing through your eyes will be too much for your brain, that overload is inevitable and your flight instinct ought to be kicking in soon lest you face a dangerous neurological episode brought on by too much looking.

This ideas followed me to Ecstasy: In and About Altered States at the LA MoCA. The show is at times like a flashback to early teenage parties – complete with the boredom of watching stoned people fascinated by themselves. Matt Mullican’s entranced video, in which the artist plays with pens, rolls of tape and trash cans in a hypnotized state - is a chore, and Paul Sietsema’s Untitled (Beautiful Place) is nineteen minutes of starting at a houseplant. That’s more than I could do even under the influence of some passport to an Altered State.

But thankfully, there’s more to the show than ruminations on drug culture, though these references are abundant (more on that in a minute). One of the exhibit’s announced agendas is to “simulate or induce” metaphysical states in the viewer. Here is where the show’s most successful works can be found. Olafur Eiasson’s Your strange certainty still kept (1996) employs economical means to extraordinary ends. In a darkened room, four strobe lights pulse and appear to freeze tiny droplets of water in midair. As you and other viewers walk around the room at normal speed, the droplets hover and hop around as if they’re in another part of the time/space continuum.

Erwin Redl’s Matrix II is similarly low-tech (which matters in a town where special effects are a big deal). Hundreds of tiny green LEDs hang in straight lines from the ceiling, creating rows of pale blips that call to mind the torrents of computer code in the Wachowski bothers’ movies. The piece, which at first seemed underwhelming, is saved by its enormity. At first, it’s hard to believe one isn’t looking at house-of-mirrors trick, but when you walk into the illuminated field and see the various tricks simple geometry can play, it’s hard not to be stunned into a pleasurable numbness.

The show also includes strong works by Pipilotti Rist (whose video installation of dreamy projections and ethereal music suggests a ride at some future conglomerate of Disney and MTV) and Eija-Liisa Ahtila (whose multi channel video, Talo/The House gives one hope that artists might in fact be able to produce compelling cinematic works). And of course there are some pleasant standbys as well, like Tom Friedman’s Play-Doh placebos Sylvie Fleury's glam space orb, 8.

But too often the show is a parody of itself. I overheard people walking the galleries peeking into rooms and asking one another, “have we done this room yet?” At one point, a visitor asked the guard about the work upstairs. “Is there anything worth seeing up there?” One can’t fault a show for the visitors it attracts, God knows museums should be happy enough to see anything with a pulse walk in the door these days. But exhibitions can be faulted for the way arrange art works and create experience. To that end, one wants to laugh at Peter Huyghe’s L’expedition scintillant: a musical Acte 2: Lightbox in which tiny curls of smoke drift toward miniature theater lights, suggesting fantastic images. It’s not the object that is so ridiculous, but the artist’s use of music by Eric Satie and the arrangement of work itself, which suggests nothing so much as a banal 1970s living room where hip parents aspire to aesthetic transcendence while their children are upstairs raiding the medicine cabinet.

The whole drug thing goes horribly overboard with the repetitious mushroom imagery. Come now. Do were really need three different artists mushroom images? One looks to curators for choices – select the best image for the show. Shrooms from Roxy Paine and Takashi Murakami and Carsten Holler (whose Upside-Down Mushroom Room is in the picture above, by the way) make it look like you’re covering your bases, not like we’re getting insight into nuances of a subject.

On the whole, Ecstasy’s greatest strength is its articulation of visual experiences so exciting they defy judgment. When looking at the best works in the show, it simply seems irrelevant to ask about their importance as art; they’re too busy delivering a charge. Those pieces that “simulate or induce” perceptual phenomena from sci-fi to schizophrenia are magical in ways that conventional representation cannot be. Painting suffers horribly in Ecstasy. It’s too abstract, too pictorial

Perhaps all this is a reflection of ongoing tensions over the split between the mind and the body. Perhaps it's a feverish attempt to relocate the mind inside the body, to make art less intellectually forceful and more, well, forceful. I’m not sure I think it’s a good thing for art to enter a realm where criticism is irrelevant, but it makes for a good trip.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Turn it up.


Maybe it's just that seeing MFA shows puts me in a frame of mind that seeks underlying aesthetics that could unify disparate artists, but I was amused to read Jerry Saltz Village Voice reviews of Mike Kelly and Jon Kessler's exhibits. Like a scientist diagnosing a new strain of art virus, Saltz whizzes through a flurry of names for the syndrome he’s trying to articulate – “the New Cacophony or the Old Cacophony, Agglomerationism, Disorientationism, the Anti Dia, or just a raging bile duct” – before asserting that “terms that describe this sculptural strategy include grandiose and testosterone-driven.” (italics original)

Hmmm. "Testosterone-driven?" I wonder what Erin, whose thesis installation was conceptually and structurally a whirlwind would say about that (and I'll invite her to respond). I wonder what Vanessa, who expressed such keen interest in the Swarm Exhibit at the Fabric Workshop and Museum would say. Or Terri, whose work may not manifest clutter in the way Kessler or Kelley do, but who pours references from the body to Beslan into her work. Or anyone who is a little curious about the ease with which such approaches are regarded as "strategic" rather than "tactical" or even in non-oppositional terms all together. But let's save that for another posting.

Before asserting that the "new cacophony" is "very gendered and very male", Saltz did offer one interesting read of the shows, which went like this:

Nowadays this all-at-once gambit can be seen as a way to compete with the paranoia and havoc of everyday life; a homeopathic dose of poison whereby ruins are created to counteract ruin; a manic-depressive panic attack in the face of information overload; a rejoinder to minimalism; a way to fill space and get attention.

Which put me in the mind of the Ellen Harvey show I was able to run in and see while in Philly. If you've not seen it yet, get off yer' ass and go(there's tiny picture above. It's tiny to frustrate you into going to see the real deal...). The four large mirrors are, on their own, enchanting enough to hold the space without the video elements of the show. But this notion that the image of a ruin of the Academy within its walls might constitute some form of inoculation rather than assault (Alex Baker's essay on the show was stunningly confrontational, wasn't it?) is an engaging notion, and perhaps one that deserves more thorough and consideration than the latest incarnation of bad-boy art.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Arts Journal Dance Forum

I know, I know. You hardly have time to read about art let alone dance, but I wanted to point out the ArtsJournal.com on-line debate on the state of dance as a model for our spring BlogStorm. Give it a look to get the idea, and be in touch.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

The Coming Storm

I want to thank everyone for the fascinating and skillful presentations in yesterday's all-too-brief meeting of the Writing Projects and Thesis Prep class. In several cases, talking about your research gave me insights into how it might be made more focused and useful for your studio - I hope it was helpful for you all to cap off the term by talking about the work you'd done and to hear about the impressive variety of work done by your peers.

Plans are afoot for the spring - I will distribute a revised syllabus by e-mail but I wanted to alert you to some significant changes:

Deadlines: It became almost unmanageably confusing for me to have writing coming in from all directions at anytime in the term. In order to budget time to properly respond to your papers, I'm going to set three target dates for you to pass in writing to me. You may continue to explore numerous short pieces (as Keith did) or develop longer works (like Mike or Paul), but I will respond to everything I get in relation to the target dates. It's important that I get writing at each target, because they will be tied to the dates I need to issue deficiency notices or take other administrative actions.

BlogStorm: I'm going to try something this spring. In lieu of writing one major paper, students may participate in a week-long BlogStorm I'm cooking up. I alluded to this in class yesterday and details will be forthcoming, but the gist of the idea is that everyday for a week invited guests will contribute blog postings on ideas that have been found in several students' writing to that point; you must provide three comments (totaling about 750 words) in the week to be excused from one of the papers. I think this will help restore some of the sense of information sharing that is missing from this remote and nomadic course, and hopefully it will put you in touch with a few new resources.

Bibliographies: I'm going to be revisiting the way the bibliography is incorporated into the proposals you submit at the beginning of the semester. I can't unilaterally abolish them, but I want them to be more evolutionary than summary documents (in other words, I want to change the idea that the class is about retrieving information and reporting it in a linear fashion and introduce the idea that this process is more of a loop; information begets expression, which instigates a search for new information that needs to be processed, summarized and expressed, leading to new inquiry). What we're after in the big picture is a more sustainable practice in the studio, and I think we can model that a little hear. I will therefore be asking you to look at the bibliography a little differently.

Again, details on all these will follow, but they are the major modifications I'm suggesting. I look forward to reading the course evals, but it would be more direct to comment on this posting if there's something you'd like to see happen in this class.

best of luck to all and I look forward to hearing about the crits - perhaps we could post comments about crits on the general MFA blog, which is still available but also under-used...

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Arts Journal Changes

It looks like changes are afoot over at ArtsJournal.com, one of my perennial favorite news sources for arts-related gab and info. I encourage everyone to bookmark the site and look at it daily, but I'm especially keen to see that they are going to be doing some topic-driven group blogging in the weeks ahead, in which invited guests will comment on aspects of a specific subject (it begins with dance).
Frankly, as a discussion forum, this blog has turned out to be something of a disappointment and I fear that one of the worst aspects of UArts' traditional modus operandi continues unabated. I'm referring to the tendency of discourse to be a two-way track between teacher and student rather than a multi-focal dialog among peers (a far and away more appropriate way for things to work in graduate school). So far this semester, I've read literally dozens of papers in which the research and discoveries of one student would have been useful to another. Concluding with presentations is an opportunity to present findings, but I'm concerned that the rush to give everyone time will severely limit discussion and information-sharing.
Seeing as how we won't have a great deal of time to talk in ourt meeting (between the hour and forty minutes alotted for presentations, changing computers a handful of times, loading new PowerPoints, taking a little coffee-or-pee break once, we're going to puch that two hour limit pretty hard) the blog provides a chance for interaction and comment that appears to being high demand (as I read the FUTURES Committee report, the single greatest issue facing the program is the need for improved communication). I urge you all to use this space to hash out how we're going to make better use of the course you're taking.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Final Presentations...take two

Okay - I haven't heard from many people about the final presentations, which is not terribly reassuring since I asked for some input on speaking order, etc. Here are the updated announcements on final presentations:

• We are meeting in Anderson Hall, Room 633 (this is a change - we are not in 808)
• All of us are meeting from as one large group from Noon to 2pm
• You should be prepared to make a ten minute presentation including allowance for questions on your research this semester. It may be a summary of the papers you've written or you may present the most successful one you've written.
• Unless there are strong objectiosn, we'll go in alphbetical order by class year; first years first (Gruber, Murphy, Schick, Yarrington) then second years (DeMarco, Houston, Juriga, Navarro, Reenock, Saulin). That's one hour and forty minutes if everyone takes the ten he or she is allotted. We'll have to keep it moving.
Visuals are strongly encouraged. I have reserved a computer cart wit h DVD, projector, and speakers. If you need special gear, tell Erin right away.
• After the last presentation, I'll need a few minutes to talk about the way things went this semester from my perspective and to hear about it form yours. We will be working together again next semester and there are some things I think we could fix to make it more productive. Please bring your suggestions as well.
• I'll be available for short one-on-one meetings after our group meeting, at which time I can talk about grades if you're curious.
After the presentations you'll fill out evaluations for this course.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

The end of the insurgency...in name only

Those who suffered through Topics this summer might be amused to know that the Pentagon has decided that the fighting in Iraq is not against an insurgency. In the latest bit of linguist ballet from an administration that, this summer, tried to change what it had originally and aggressively sold as "The War on Terror" to "The Global Conflict Against Violent Extremism" (see George Packer's item in the August 8 & 15 issue of The New Yorker), National Public Radio today reported that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld objects to the use of the word insurgent to describe the opposition in Iraq. You can listen to the story by taking the NPR link.

Politics of the war not withstanding, it seemed by the end of summer of that the investigation of the insurgent personality had attained some traction among students who regarded it as continuous with the iconoclastic and avant gardist persona of the modern artist. I’ve been pouring over writing about artists and research lately (see the November 16 post asking for help with "research") and one thing that's impressed me is the importance of an artist's "iconoclastic tradition" of inquiry when art and research are combined. Stephan WIlson writes eloquently about it in his book Information Art: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology (which I know Terri and Denise have looked through - and thanks to Jane Marsching for reminding me of Wilson's thoughts in her artist's statement.)

Perhaps, at least as far as insurgency in the arts, the war is at home after all.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Politicality


One of my brighter Art Center students came up to me today and seemed distraught. She told me she'd had a "discussion" with a friend in which they disagreed about the nature of art. Her friend suggested she go out and ask a few more people's opinions. The issue? They were debating whether or not all art is political.

Fortunately, my student was smart enough to know that the answer partly depends on what your definition of political is, but she seemed more than a little disappointed by the rapidity with which I said I thought, sure, art is political. (I guess I know what side of the argument she was making...). We talked about how, in Western art before modernism, all art was political in the sense that it reinforced the power of the church and state. In The Invisible Dragon, Dave Hickey convincingly talks about the art of the Baroque, for example, as a form of religious propaganda.

Things obviously get muddier the closer you come to the present. After all, what is political about a Pollock? An image like Lavender Mist (above) doesn't seem to have much to do with politics. Turns out that there may be plenty. Not too long ago, Louis Menand contributed an article to the New Yorker in which he addressed the oft-made claim that Abstract Expressionism was a tool of the CIA. I've been interested in this idea for a while - one of art my heroes, the poet Frank O'Hara, was involved in the development of international touring exhibitions of the art some have called political propaganda for American-style democracy. I'm fairly sure, based on my research, that he was as apolitical as they come (which I consider a fault, but that's another story).

What I realized (too late) that I should have said is that I don't think anything is inherently anything - things become meaningful based on how they are used. Art may not be intended to serve some political agenda, but once it leaves the artist's studio and belongs to the world, it gets put to use in ways the artist never imagined. Many people like to say they hate political art, but I think what is often meant by that statement is that they hate art which is overtly political - art that insists on being used in a certain way, like some craft objects insist on being used in certain ways by their use of certain forms and participation in certain traditions. It makes sense to hate art that is dictatorial as much as it makes sense to hate governments that are dictatorial.

Of course, this raises a whole slew of issues – how do we make sure the objects we make are put to uses we don’t find deplorable? Should we care? If we don’t care, are we immoral? I’d greatly appreciate your comments so I can pass them on to my student…

Monday, November 21, 2005

Final Presentations

I sent this out as an email earlier but wanted to make sure it was in a fixed place so everyone could find it:

I got the green light from Carol for us to meet in Room 808 from 12-2 to do final presentations of research findings. Everyone should plan on taking about ten minutes to present a paper or a summary of the semester's work, and should be prepared to answer questions. I will arrange for a computer and a projector for those whose papers are supplemented by imagery.
I would like to give a little thought to the speaking order so I can put people whose subjects are related close to one another. It would be extremely helpful if I could get a short abstract of the paper you intend to present before 12/2. I'll post a helpful little ditty about writing abstracts on the blog later today or tomorrow to make that easier.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Gaetano Pesce

Hi All, Gaetano Pesce is lecturing at the PMA this Friday, Nov. 18th at 6pm. Admission is 10$ w/ student ID, 25$ members, 35$ non-members. Check out www.philamuseum.org. for more info about him and his work. Best, Terri

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Research


I've been asked to teach a class next semester at Art Center and I'm fishing for ideas. The class is called The Art of Research and it is a studio course that aims to close the gap between students' interest making and their familiarity with the context of their practice. It's not a history class, but a class that should give them some research methodologies they might take with them into their practice. Trouble is, how do you teach research without researching something?
I've been polling artists about the way they do research and what place it has in their practice, and I'll eventually share the findings with y'all, but if you've got a moment, could you tell me a little about the roll of research in your studio practice and how you go about it? This is all off the record - I'm not looking to hear so much about this class as about if this class has been helpful in the studio at all, and if so how, and if not, how might it be more so?
Thanks -

Thursday, November 10, 2005

winter crit

Quick question, when we go up to Philly to present our papers, which I'm guessing should be done by power pont, do we also have a crit with the studio portion? Or is that all together? I'm trying to figure out what i should bring up there besides the paper. Then, do we write two new study plans for the spring? Any info will help. -deb

Time to give up on cool?

An amusing story from artsjournal.com today attempts to gauge the over-valuation of cool. It comes from the Times online and author Grayson Perry; an excerpt:

Few groups can be more conservative than teenagers who take coolness seriously: they pounce on difference; goodness is boiled down to the lowest common denominator of “correct” brands, bands and overwrought hair. What makes cool an immature value system is its simple hip/square, in/out, mingin’/blingin’ binary, while being adult is dealing with shades of grey and with compromise. With luck, as we mature we can trust our judgment about what feels good or bad. We can cast aside the crutches of cool.

This quote appears in the context of an article about how often the author hears artists described as cool when they are often wierdos with off beat obsessions that no one appreciates or understands. Until, that is, a mediating institution (gallery, museum, critic, publisher) steps in and transforms the outrageous into the exceptional, and now it's cool.
When I began to be active as a critic and curator, I would go to artists' studios and have mild panic attacks. Nothing looked finished, nothing looked real to me. I quickly realized that I had been brought up on museums and galleries, and that I had a pretty undeveloped digestive system for the kind of unprocessed art that one sees in a studio. I was sort of used to eating baby food and art in studios was too rich, too textured, too complicated for my senses, which were used to visual-Velveeta.
Since then I've learned that art is, in fact, truly un-cool. It gets made into cool by a number of forces and, increasingly, that makes it less interesting to me. I think of Macolm Gladwell's influential article, The Coolhunt and how things are less interesting when they have caught on, and how it's when they catch on that they become cool.
All this is to say that I think making a cohesive body of work, that aiming for the gallery, that looking at what one student referred to as "great art" in a recent e-mail (troubling quoting a faculty member), may be the wrong move. An artist friend of mine uses as his highest form of praise for a work the description that it looks "store-bought" as opposed to home-made. For me? Forget about the store. Show me the factory.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Free Space!

Erin sent this out, but I wanted to post a reminder that you should apply for this opportunity to get a free studio space from the Maria Walsh Sharpe Foundation. Go for it.

I'll be posting later about a new class I learned about the other day, one which focuses on integrating research into art-making practice. Hope all are well.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Damn, I got some good papers....

Congratulations on some interesting writing this time around. Highlights so far have included Keith's musings on artists in fiction and the way their training reflects on the way artists are really trained; Malese's observations about a Jewish ritual bath and its echoes in a performance by contemporary artist Marina Abramovic; Deb Yarrington's outstanding analysis of the evolution of fairy tales and conjectures about their place in contemporary society; Aubrey's biographical look at Hanry Darger; and Chris Houston's impassioned examination of the effects of celebrity culture on fine art.
I wish I could post the papers on line, as at several points your interests overlap and I think you could teach one another (in fact, almost everything I've read seems to address a feeling of rudderless ness in contemporary art, as if our training were inadequate, we lacked the common ground offered by utopian literature or the grounding offered by ritual, or that celebrity culture is corroding our impact on society. Again, I encourage you to use this site to exchange ideas and information. There is, after all, only so much I can teach you.
I'll be getting to the rest of the papers I've received soon, so hang in there. I just felt the good work I've seen deserved a shout from the West.

Ken Vavrek: Recent Wall Sculpture Rosenfeld Gallery 113 Arch Street Phila.Pa. 19106 215 922-1376 www.therosenfeldgallery.com. Show continues until November 27th  Posted by Picasa

Thursday, November 03, 2005

My Mentors!

Both of my under-grad ceramics instructors are having an opening this First Friday, 11/4/05. Jack Thompson is exhibiting at Projects Gallery, 629 N. 2nd St. in Phila. Ken Vavrek, a founder of The Clay Studio is exhibiting at Rosenfeld Gallery, 113 Arch St. in Phila. I'll be posting the sites for the galleries and thoughts about the work soon! Try to catch the shows if you can. Vavrek's show has another reception on Sun., 11/6.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Get Reviewed!

Although this event happened a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to call attention to it, for if it happens again, I would urge you to participate. Lori is a very cool person and has a great eye.

PRESS RELEASE

60 WRD/MIN ART CRITIC, LORI WAXMAN, TO PERFORM AT DUMBO ARTS FESTIVAL. OCTOBER 15-16, 2005, 12-6 P.M., 55 WASHINGTON STREET, 9TH FLOOR, BROOKLYN. BRIEF, SERIOUS REVIEWS GUARANTEED TO ALL ARTISTS ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED BASIS.

The short review is at once a challenge, an insult, a record, and a piece of advertising. Its purpose is debatable and arguably quite different for the various parties involved: the writer gets a tear sheet, a couple of bucks, and some editorial gratification; the reader, in the best case scenario, gets a succinct, opinionated description of a body of work they probably did not see in person; and the artist gets published recognition and an entry for their bibliography. But think, for a moment, of the artist who has never been reviewed. Do you need a review to get a show? You need a show to get a review.

Installed in vacated offices overlooking the Manhattan bridge, Lori Waxman and her receptionist Frank Olive will receive artists in need of reviews between the hours of noon and six p.m. on Saturday, October 15, and Sunday, October 16. Reviews will be scheduled and written in twenty-minute increments between those hours and those hours only. Reviews will be signed, published, and ready for pick-up within the time frame of the exhibition. Artists whose work has been reviewed are invited to include mention of the text on their resume.

All submissions must be made in person and include adequate materials. Depending on the work to be reviewed, this may include but is not limited to: slides, printed matter, artist statement, brief biography. Documents that require a computer, projector, stereo, VCR, or any other media player for viewing or listening regrettably cannot be accepted. Time-based art is, however, otherwise welcome. Artists can maximize the time devoted to criticism by packaging their work in a succinct fashion. All materials will be returned to the artist in person upon completion of the review process.

Reviews are free of charge, but are not guaranteed to contain positive responses to the work submitted. Critics are not meant to be cheerleaders or educators or advertisers; they are opinionated, thoughtful, informed commentators. Or so they try.

For more information about the 60 wrd/min art critic, please contact lori.waxman@nyu.edu. Email requests for reviews cannot be answered.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

That studio thing we do...


I've been envious of y'all posting images to the blog, and I finally found one so ravishing that I had to put it up. Trouble is that it's a piece of clip art from a radical pro-life site that opposes the use of stem cells in medical research. The ethics of using images from sources with which you disagree is a subject for another posting. Several years ago, I made my first forays into digital studio production using an image of HIV cells to generate a translation matrix for a poem by my favorite poet, Frank O'Hara. The resulting image - Sleeping on the Wing looks like this. But it gets at something that I have been wondering about for some time...what is work?

I have been increasingly reliant on my computer as a means of studio production rather than as a preparation for work, yet I still feel a lingering sense that I'm not makeing anything sufficiently physical to embody my ideas about what art ought to be. I'm not happy with the solution that immediately comes to mind - that of disembodying the image through projection - but at the same time, it's the only way I can get things done in this post-studio period of life and society at large. In some ways, it feels more and more like society has collectively abandoned real space for virtual space (my readings lately have been a lot about cyberspace in science fiction cinema, and authors like Scott Bukatman argue convincingly for a supplement to our real world in the ether of online experience).
This post perhaps comes in response to others' fishing for ideas on the blog, and to thinking about Mike's recent writings on the studio and its evolution as a "site" in contemporary practice, but I welcome any feedback.

Friday, October 28, 2005

"The Kids Aren't All RIght."

People looking for the very latest in criticisms of art school as ruining artists will have to stop by Aaron Rose's column in the LA Weekly for a glance. Rose stopped into Art Center to complain about the exhibit Supersonic, which features the work of some area MFA students. Not surprisingly, he finds it lacking when compared to...something he co-curated, a show called Beautiful Losers, a hymn to skater art, graffiti-inspired painting, and street culture that is currently makings its way through the spotless galleries of America (accompanied by a catalog with essays by, among others, PAFA's Alex Baker) . To give you a little sense of Rose's argument, here's a passage:

Contemporary art is not a luxury. I believe it is a necessity. It satisfies not only a visual need, but also an educational and, most importantly, a spiritual need for us. Art should teach us about how we relate to the world. It seems ironic, then, that the curriculum taught in most MFA programs addresses almost everything but fulfilling these needs. Art institutions today work more like business schools than any kind of creative laboratory...From the creative side, art theory has begun to play such a dominant role in art school that I feel it has lobotomized many young creative minds.

In my recollection, UArts' program has not come in for a lot criticism as being too focussed on "the business", so I'm curious how Rose's criticism of the MFA as an institution plays with you guys.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Dave Hickey Lecture

I see Dave Hickey is speaking at Penn on November 1...someone has got to go to this and report on it for the blog! Please!

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

On Trial: a new paper

When forming an opinion it is better to see art work first hand. The experience and concrete description of the work helps define the criticism. When the writer is an echo chamber, forming opinions based on another writer's experiences, the experiences are not as broad nor flexible because the (latter) writer has narrowed their focus for clarity sake. Some key pieces of the puzzle are often missing. (Although, the echo idea is an interesting angle for forming an opinion, and opening up creative options, based on conjecture rather than fact.) But after reading some articles by Jed Perl and Donald Kuspit I decided I might actually have an opinion of my own worth exploring.
Whether an artwork is considered valuable or not, either dollarwise or in a social or historical context, or whether artwork is even worth writing about, has become the an important issue in the last decade or two. Donald Kuspit's "I Wanna be an Art Star" in Art New England, June/July 2003, Jed Perl's "Oh Cool" in The New Republic, Sept. 2003, and "Beyond Belief" Feb. 2004, have presented some enlightening commentary regarding the true value of contemporary art. These articles parallel the Grayson Perry, Times article Gerard suggested reading last Monday, where the word "clever" becomes the dark casm between "good art" and just a cool idea.
So now I get to write my own personal opinion, and I can back it up by echoing great art criticism and by using examples I've seen first hand.

Note: If you want to see a critic rip the art hierarchy, "Beyond Belief" is for you. Mike would probably like this one too. Perl goes off on a related tangent discussing modern art and its relationship/counterrelationship to figurative work. Happy reading and writing.

Bumper Sticker: How's my spelling. Phone 555-555-5555

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Citations

Uh...I was reading some papers this week and found a strong tendancy to ignore in-text citations and failure to assemble correct documentation of "Works Cited". I think we all want to read about ideas, and there have been some really interesting papers so far, but I'm concerned that it seems that quite a few people need to know more about when and how to cite sources.

The faculty has agreed that we will use Diana Hacker's book, A Writer's Reference, as our standard writing text book. You should have a copy. It doesn't cost much. Much of it is available on-line, and there is a link on the sidebar of the blog. Papers for this class are written in MLA format, which is exhuastively detailed on pp. 329-377.

I now consider everyone officially notified about standards for documentation. As far as grading policy goes, you cannot score above a B if you don't properly cite and integrate sources. It's a skill you'll need to have when you do your thesis; you'll need it if ever you present a paper at CAA (which many expressed interest in doing).

If there are persistant problems with this material, (or if you've simply never been introduced to it before), I can suggest some of the helpful on-line exercises that teach what kind of information needs to be cited and how it should be recorded. You can contact me by email if you're hopelessly in the dark about this, or I'll assign exercises based on how your papers look.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Heads up

There's a new reality show we all ought to be looking out for. Send celebrities to art school and see how they do? That could be frightening. But the article describing the show addresses the way art has become a complicated language of internal references. It might interest some readers, and I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

New York on Tues. 10/25

Hi All, Going on the Moore bus trip to the big city this coming Tues. I welcome any suggestions for must seeums'. Thanx!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Trials and Triumphs not

Whew! I chose to explore current artistic trends and criticism regarding traditional forms of art and more controversial postmodern traditions. It was a good excuse to read current (within past 2 years) articles from Art in America, Artforum, Critical Review, etc., and to update my perception of the postmodern experience. The reading was everything I expected. Writing about those readings was another animal altogether.
One aspect of the reading was separating subject related articles from the unrelated flotsam, and some articles were just to hard to resist. For instance there was an interesting article in last month's Art in America describing how Seattle was booming as a cultural hub. This was a hard one to resist because I had just returned from there, visiting the museums, galleries, and famous Seattle artist, Fred Holcomb. It was fascinating to read another writer's description of what you've just experienced, though I think they wrongly omitted mentioning Fred's work in the article.
An article from last month's Artforum that did focus on criticism of Postmodern Art was about Michael Krebber's work. Here, three writers, Daniel Birnbaum, John Kelsey, and Jessica Morgan, wrote short essays responding to his recent exhibitions. According to these writers Krebber's recent work was not much more than stretched bed linens and scratched photographs, but they amazingly dug up background and comparisons that yielded three unique reactions. The article is a "must read" from a journalistic standpoint because they make interesting points about not- so-visually interesting work.
O.K. So what is harder than writing about not-so -interesting work? Writing about what people have written about not-so-interesting work. What was I thinking when I chose this topic for investigation? Writing about art is one thing. It can be described colorfully, it can be compared to other works of art, it can even be compared to other experiences such as eating pan seared scallops or a crunchy bag of Frittos. Writing about someone else's writing (about art) is really confusing. Does one write about the artwork based on what others have described? Does one criticize what the writers have written about the artist's artwork without having seen it? Or does one try to form an opinion backed up by what has been written? Self inflicted torture is the only way to describe the dilemma. After editing pages upon pages that combined all three strategies the final strategy emerged as the approved method.
It is enjoyable to read current articles reviewing current artwork. The difficulty in writing about what others have experienced, where you have little personal experience or research available, is like chewing on a flat inner tube.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Giving a talk

So I was asked by my studio mentor if I wouldn't mind giving a talk to the undergraduates at the local college about getting into Graduate school. At first I was a little shocked but I think I'm gonna do it! It's tomorrow at 6:00 pm. Then, my old ceramics professor ( from the same school) asked me to be part of her panel of visiting artists. Every year they find a few local graduates from the college and invite them to come back and talk about life after undergraduate school. They show slides of there work, talk about where they are in their field and so on. Sooo, I think I might say yes to that as well! So Does anybody have any scary or life-lesson-learning experiences about graduate school that they think I should mention? I guess, if there was one thing you all could have known before getting into graduate school what would it have been?

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Responses

Because I have access to high-speed internet on Mondays and Thursdays, I'm trying to get all my responses out on those days. If yhou need to reach me, please feel free to call anytime, but I may reserve the right to get back to you on one of those days for convenience. My apologies for any inconvenience.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

215 Festival

Hi Folks, This evening opens the 215 Literary Festival. If interested check out www.215festival.com for the schedule of events. Of particular interest is John Hodgeman's COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE presentation at the PMA on Friday, October 7th, 5-8:15. The 215 runs Oct.5th-10th. There are a variety of events, literary, art and music, encouraging all to take a peek!

Saturday, October 01, 2005

See'ums

A couple of shows in Philadelphia I think no one should miss (and when I can see them from LA, one should assume they loom large...)
First, there's Very Early Pictures at Arcadia University Art Gallery. I saw this show in California this summer and it was tremedously thought provoking. What makes the drawings interesting is the sense of foreshadowing, as if one can read this interests of mature artists in their childhood works. This idea - that artists are somehow 'destined' to be what they become - seems to sit interestingly with some of the recent posts about how artists are taught, about the importance of categories in exhibiting and educating artists and understanding art output, and other subects. I strongly recommend the show.
Closer to downtown, there's Ellen Harvey's project opening at the PA Acdemy on October 15. Harvey is a smart, funny artist whose work has interested me for a long time and I'm pleased to see there's finally an opportunity to see her work in Philly (she appeared in an ICA project a couple of years back, but her piece was a bit overwhelmed by the exhibit that contained it). Examples of her other work can be found on her site (here, and the "New York Beautification Project" is just one of the many novel approaches to piracy I couldn't squeeze into summer Topics class...) and maybe she would make a good speaker for Summer 06, what do y'all think?

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Dissolving...Eroding

I just returned from a meeting at Moore. It's been decided that we will no longer be addressing "Fine Arts" in the traditional 2-d/3-d fashion. We will now be having an all encompassing "Fine Arts" major. Back when I was in under-grad, there were majors like, Printmaking, Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics...which then turned into 2-d/3-d a few years back. There has been a decline in specialized majors, not to mention some budget confusion. I'm confused by the turn of events...but looking forward to a change in the way information is absorbed. An idea for a Freshman elective is also on the block, The content is Symbol x Shelter = House x Home. The objective is to expose freshman to different materials and processes, outside of the basics core. For lack of a better term, a "fun" class. Those who will be teaching will have to have a backround dealing with a variety of materials to accomodate what the students may wish to create. (We used to have a broad theme like "Book," that students had opportunity to translate into materials common to different departments, like Ceramics, Metals, Illustration, Fashion Design, etc. Students were placed in a Fine Arts Class for 6 weeks, then switched w/ a Professional Arts class at mid-point. A final crit of 2 projects of both diciplines was had at the end. Metals and Fibers...Ceramics and Illustration...Printmaking and Fashion Design were some of the teams paired to try on. The goal was to cross diciplines and examine how broad themes could be contemplated in different mediums. The quality of the work varied...students were afraid to make choices, but at the same time were disappointed they were placed in the class and didn't get to choose it.) The goal is still the same, but not to be used as a major recruting tool, as it was in the past...because majors have now been dissolved! I am intrigued by the idea, but have concerns it may be too nebulous for the freshman to really sink their teeth into in a three hour class. It also sounds like an enormous amount of prep...that will probably fall to adjuncts! I also worry that a jack of all trades mentality is permeating the atmosphere and wonder where it will lead. Any thoughts??? Please let me know. Terri

Saturday, September 24, 2005

All Access

I was reading a review of a show by Pae White at 1301PE Gallery in the LA Times and thought of several people in this class. Critic David Pagel describes White's work as "mobiles, sculptures and wallpaper [that] bring back a good deal of cheesy goofiness that has been purged from midcentury Modernist design" and generally praises her humorous take on high design through ceramics, glass and prints. (some yummy images unrelated to her current exhibt can be seen here.)

I got to thinking about how - as Paul pointed out in his proposal - we've reached a point of category-collapse where the category of "artist" is uselessly broad. I've thought that other disciplinary boundaries have been eroding for some time, like curator and critic, but I think the one most under siege may be the category of "design", especially in its modern incarnation.
in the name of democratizing design, now everyone (okay, pointedly not everyone, but the middle class) can got ot Target and get "good design" on the cheap. Magazines have sprung up to help us recognize (and eventually, one would assume, buy) good design. Design has become another of the things reasonably educated people are supposed to care about, along with that list of books we were supposed to read in college but most of us never did.

And as I thought further, I found myslef thinking of the magazine ReadyMade, in which a certain homely modernist aesthetic is promoted on a do-it-yourself level, as if Martha and Mies were collabortors, or at least engaged in some careful market segmentation. Sure enough, in the August/September issue, the MacGyver Milk Crate Challenge was won by Philadelphia's own Basekamp, the artists' collective fronted by Scott Rignby, Leigh Stevens and Jen Goettner. It may be true that everyone wants to be an artist, but the artists, it would seem, increasingly want to be designers.

I'm not sure what all this means, but I put it out to you - especially those who are thinking about decoration, installation, kitsch, and the indentity of the artist.

Friday, September 23, 2005

This week in Phily!

Hello Friends, If anyone is nearby and available...This Sunday, 9/25, Rain Harris will talk about her recent installation at Nexus Gallery...next to the Clay Studio at 4pm. Filmmaker David Lynch is lecturing at UPENN's Harrison Auditorium, this coming Wed., 9/28 at 7pm. Both events are free and open to the public. Best, Terri

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Seeing Is Forgetting

Hey all,
Included in my readings on Robert Irwin for my paper is "Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin" By Lawrence Weschler. If you know Irwin's work and have ever wanted to do some reading on him this is a great book.

If you have too much reading to do already and want to watch a video I have also found an informative lecture he had given at Rice University in 2000. He is quite a good teacher in his lecture; he simplifies the "big stuff" without dumbing it down for the audience. It’s a 77 minute long RealPlayer file and it’s not for the dialups and still may take a couple tries - Enjoy.

The Video Link:http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=On%20the%20Nature%20of%20Abstraction&link=http%3A%2F%2Frealaudio.rice.edu%2FPresLect%2FIrwin%2FIrwin.ram

Submitting Papers

I have a favor to ask - when you submit a paper electronically, please name the file this way so I can keep things straight:

LastNamePaper#Date.doc

So, if I emailed my first paper today, the file would be named

BrownPaper1092205.doc

thanks. That will make it a lot easier to get things sorted out.
Hope all are well,
gb

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Junk Posts

I'm glad to see you contacting one another through the blog for research advice and help. Meanwhile, we seem to have contracted a bad case of random marketing, as solicitations for ads from deperate losers clog our comments.
In the spirit of the internet a giant clearinghouse for information, I had wanted to the blog to be open for comments from anyone. But this crap gets in the way so, unless I hear a cogent reason why I shouldn't do this, I'm going to close off the comments so only members can post remarks.
We'll still be able to comment to one another, but there will be no opportunity for random readers to post responses. Comments about this idea are are welcome below, so long as they don't advertise cheap mortgages or Viagra.

Monday, September 19, 2005


These are images from Cherry Crush! The image published with the post was a previous work! Posted by Picasa

Bewitched , Bothered and Bewildered... Hi all, I just returned from the Rain Harris installation at Nexus Gallery in Philadelphia. I'm keenly interested in her work as a ceramic artist and for her use of an entire space. I hate to use the word "installation," but have to for now. I'm still digesting. It seems Harris has gone from the Baroque interests to Austin Powers meets the Victorian. I appreciate the the change in work habbit, trying on a new hat and a bold move confronting the space. I was disappointed with the way the walls were painted! It was not slick. In previous exhibitions, I noted many many similarities between ceramic, Super-Giant, Adrian Saxe. There was never a loose end. Harris's wall works were painstakingly executed. There was no coloring outside of the lines. This exhibition appeared more like some college kids, decorating their dorm in a shocking fashion, and Rain fixing her ceramic modules to the wall after. I wonder...I really do see the potential for the work and imagine at the same time, difficulty pulling it together. I had a big disappointment this weekend. I was invited to participate in a show in early june. The opening on 9/16 was cancelled, due to an electrical problem.It has been re-scheduled for 9/30. Great! I have to do anither mailing! I was also under enormous time constraints w/ grad-school expectations and teaching responsibilities. Did Rain have a similar stumbling block? I feel like I want to re-do the whole show at this point. I question how Rain feels. She is giving a gallery talk at NEXUS, 137 N. 2nd St., on Sept. 25th at 4pm. I'll be there! Terri  Posted by Picasa

Monday, September 12, 2005

Little Red

So I am about to be finished with the book "Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked", and I have to say that this was an amazing book. It not only gives you a rich history of the tale of Little Red Riding Hood but it also ties her into the social, political, and cultural history of the world. It really shows how fairy tales shape and reflect our view of the world. I think this was an excellent suggestion to read, given my obsession with fairy tales and the fantastical. Catherine Orenstein (the author) mentions Bruno Bettelheim's, "The Uses of Enchantment" quite a bit in this book so I plan to read that next. If anyone else is interested in the topic of fairy tales, I strongly recommend "Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked". It will blow you away!

Works in Progress

Here’s a short list of what each member of the class will be researching this fall (I’ve copied short passages from each proposal to ensure accuracy). Please keep your eyes open for relevant articles or exhibits and share information with your peers.

Keith Gruber: I will be examining how artists have been portrayed in fiction, as well as the narratives surrounding these artists’ works.
Ann Kelly: Plans to a) Explore Postmodernist philosophy as a movement in art, b) [Examine] How signs and codes are used in Postmodernism, and c) [Research] how ‘implosion’ is used in PostModernism.
Tim Murphy: I will be comparing Robert Irwin’s paintings (dot paintings and disc pieces) and Richard Pousette-Dart’s “Presence” paintings to compare the artists’ intent and the physical characteristics that create the energy or presence in their work.
Maleese Schick: This semester I would like to focuses on the combination of installation and performance and how they are influenced through rituals like religion and daily activity.
Deb Yarrington: My goals for the independent writing project are to investigate the uses of mythology, fairy tales, caricature and the grotesque as seen in literature and art over the past decade. I plan to research and compare the history of mythology and fairy tales and how these two similar yet different themes have been used to portray characters found in visual art.
Paul DeMarco: My topic is “Decadence” and its relation to two concepts that I have yet to formally articulate: The Homogenization of Popular Culture and The Dissolution of Category from outside of the art world.
Chris Houston: I would like to investigate the differences between traditional art practices used by contemporary artists and those based on abstraction or a conceptual approach. Chris will compare the discussion of these subjects in various art publications, including Art in America, ArtForum, Critical Inquiry, and others.
Vanessa Juriga: I will be focusing on three specific areas of interest: the Braille language, word art, and optical art.
Aubrey Navarro: I plan to study the narrative conventions used in painting and narrative ideas that are talked about outside the realm of contemporary art.
Mike Reenock: I plan on expanding my understanding of “The Artist’s Studio.” The ‘uniqueness’ of past established artists’ studios makes me curious about the historical background of the artist’s studio. I have chosen to begin here, with examination and insight into the question, what is the Artist’s Studio?
Terri Saulin: My interests lie in study of life at a cellular level, the decorative and color. I am intrigued by things that can be repulsive or deadly, yet beautiful. I plan to research the path of many contemporary artists who have created works of great complexity after decades of minimal practice in the art world.

I’ve intentionally been very concise in selecting project descriptions to encourage curiosity in your peers’ work. If something sparks your imagination, use the blog to comment or offer ideas, or contact your classmates directly with suggestions.
Obviously, this gives me a lot of reading to do and I look forward to hearing what you all come up with.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Reminder - How to use this blog

This is a space for posting comments for the whole section to think about, please don't use it to ask individual questions about your writing plan (if the question applies to more than one student, I'll make a post of it). Think of it this way - if I'm the only one who could possibly know the answer to the question, direct it to me by email.
Also, some things are getting buried in comments to postings instead of getting to me, so it's important that you e-mail me with questions or start new threads when you've got something to say.
Finally, I expect to see regular postings about what you're readings and what your're seeing in exhibits to fulfill the requirement that you complete three hours a week of work toward this class. That's where the blog can be a helpful brainstorming tool, when you use it to put out ideas that are new and need testing. You might get valuable feedback or someone might be able to use your research on his or her topic.
Hope all are well, talk to you soon,
gerard

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

did u get my plan?

Hey Gerard, just wondering if you were able to open up the attachments I sent you with my writing plan. I have been having issues sending these plans. I'm not sure whats up. Just let me know! -DEB

Friday, September 02, 2005

Target Dates

None of the proposals I've seen so far have shown much specificity as to how you want to address the papers you plan to write this semester. As a reminder, I'm posting the schedule Tom and Pat passed out.

September 3 - Study plans are due. I will comment on these within 24-48 hours and get them back to you. Some revisions may be needed.
September 16 - Research progress report due
September 30 - First Paper due
October 21 - Research progress report due
November 4 - Second paper due
November 18 - Topic and outline/draft of final paper due
December 2 - Third paper due; presentations of final papers will take place at Winter Crit.

Remember, you're at liberty to pass in a greater number of shorter papers, but I need to know what I should expect from you and when I should expect it. A good place to tell me is in the "Goals" section of your proposal, where you might include a sentence such as "I plan to write x papers on y areas of my research. I will send these writings in on z timetable."

Friday, August 26, 2005

What to write

Hello everyone. SO I have been brainstorming about what to write about this fall and I have to say that it is quite difficult to find books and articles that really relate to what I want to talk about. So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or suggestions for me. If you all remember, my summer work dealt with characters from classic fairytales. I have been free writing a lot in my sketchbook and have decided that the reason I was having such a difficult time trying to create new depictions of these characters was, that these were all well established and "over-done" characters, and though I found them interesting they didn't have a true deeper connection to me. SO it was like I wasn't really creating anything new and personally tied to me. Does that make sense? So I had this idea to maybe start writing short stories and create my own drawings for these stories and then eventually create three-dimensional sculptures of the drawings. This is something I'm really excited about and I think because the stories will be of my own creation that the content and context in the sculptural pieces will be clearer.(could I have used the word "create" any more in that paragraph?)SO, I have been thinking about looking into Mythology, figure drawing, cartooning, and even caricature drawing, but all the books I find are "how to..." Books and collections of stories, and that's not what I really want. I'm more interested in how myths and fables came to be told; their history. And I guess I'm looking for a good book or article on ceramics and sculpture and figure and character creation in ceramics. A lot huh? Well if anyone has any input it will be more then helpful I'm sure. Let me know! Thanks!!

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

So... how do you become an art critic?

Readers of ArtsJournal.com saw an interseting posting this morning - an interview with The Nation's art critic, Arthur Danto (if you missed it, you can find it here). It's interesting to note that Danto was a painter before deciding to pursue philosophy (and wierd that he compares himself to Lana Turner at one point...), and I hope you're interested in his ideas about how we're all practicing after the end of art. Strangely enough the Boston Globe is accepting applications for the position of art critic (see the sidebar of artsjournal, which frequently posts opportunities and professional news). Enjoy.

Thursday, August 18, 2005


I'm very proud that I learned how to do this. Hey Girard, now you don't have to struggle w/ opening files! Posted by Picasa

this was the runner up Posted by Picasa

whats up everyone!!! Posted by Picasa

Monday, August 15, 2005

Pictures! Excellent....

I'm glad to see y'all getting some pictures posted on this thing. Please feel free to use it post images through the semester. Perhaps I'll even figure out how to use that feature...
Meanwhile, I wanted to announce another link in our column at right - this one connects to the website for Diana Hacker's text book, "A Writer's Reference", which is the default book for our program's writing requirments. You might wish to consult it for guidance on making bibliographies as well as other questions. Enjoy!

Introduction


Let me introduce myself.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Where is "I" in this essay?

Note: This is the first in an occasional series of postings on general writing concerns. As always, your comments are welcome and encouraged.

One of the most frequently asked questions in my writings classes must be, “can I use the word ‘I’ in my paper?” I usually toss off a rather flip answer (did I ask you to write the paper? Do you refer to yourself as I?), but I’m in constant amazement about this question. Are there still legions of teachers out there telling people that I weakens a paper? Does anyone really think readers prefer the opinions and experiences of semi-anonymous constructs to the thoughts and ideas of their students? Or does no one really have an idea where I belongs in a paper?

Okay, some guidelines. Ask yourself, before you use I, if you are doing so because you’ve not been able to locate another reference who says what your about to say. If not, you may not be done with your research. If you can honestly say that no one in your research is saying what you’ve got to say, go for it. This of course means that you have to use I when you’re talking about personal experiences or observations. Which brings us to the real reason I can’t stand teachers who refuse to admit the first person singular to an academic paper.

Once upon a time, academic writing consisted of carefully researched and annotated prose. These were not the good old days; they were the days in which only certain things (things others had written about before) were admissible subjects for academic discourse. One of the major arguments of feminist writers in the late 60’s and early 70’s was to get I taken seriously in a world in which one was only taken seriously for his ability to refer to the experience of others.

Finally, I’m of the school of thought that if you can’t deny subjectivity, you might as well admit it wholeheartedly. An assignment to write a paper is an invitation to take your place in the ongoing conversation that is education. You are assigned to write because we want to know what you think about a given subject. So when you have made an original observation or have an original thought, and you’ve done your homework to be certain that it’s yours, use I fearlessly. Take your place in the conversation to which you’re invited.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Welcome

In addition to students' responses, I'll be occasionally posting excerpts from essays I've been working on for comments. I hope this will be a litlte like a writing lab, where we can reherse ideas.