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Art show review, Graduation Showing /  by Niclaus Cook

The graduate showing by Alyssa Razo and David Richards at Fresno State University provided an interesting out come to the series both artist have been working. Having partaken in classes with both of the exhibiting artists, I found the show to be an interesting outcome. Alyssa’s work, whom I am more familiar with, deals with the contemporary problem of high divorce rates among parents and the divide this causes in families. She tells her story of being a child of two cultures. Not truly connecting with her father, or his side of the family. She uses her camera to bridge the gap of language and time lost. She also documented her mother. Alyssa incorporated old family photos, which add an element of history and further incorporating herself into the story. The connection between the statistic of divorce rates and her story was strengthened Alyssa’s choice to dedicate a section of wall to telling the story of her cousin, a single parent, who is raising her own child. 

David’s work utilized the space differently, the arrangement of photos on the walls were meant to mimic that of the activity they depicted, rock climbing. There were also small installation touches that further enhanced the showing. The photos hold a conversation between the climber and the nature with which they interact. While not simple relaxed images, a tension could be felt between the images, a feeling, I imagine, one might feel being suspended from the side of a mountain. 

Together the graduate student work was interesting and provide to very diverse themes showcasing the artist.

Still Life's... /  by Niclaus Cook

I had to post a response to the below questions for my art 37 class, I thought that it seemed relevant enough to post here as well.

Questions:

  • Post a .jpg of your illustrator still life.
    • Do you think there is still life in "Still Life" art?
    • What art tools do you use to create...
    • Traditional art (paintbrush, charcoal, etc.)? 
    • Photoshop art (paintbrush, pencil, shape tools, etc.)?
    • How are traditional art tools and Photoshop tools different than creating art using Illustrator tools?
  • Which of the "Master Still Life Art" best resembles your Illustrator Still Life art? Why?
  • Do you prefer Photoshop or Illustrator or both as a platform for creating your graphic art? Why or why not?

The is unequivocally still life in “still life” art. While she us not known as a big time, but as an evangelist for adobe products, Julian Kost is a primer example to what still life photography is about. Her work is masterfully done, it takes objects of ordinary and gives them a deeper meaning through texture and stylization. The work has a psychological element to it, which is thanks to her studies in the subject.  Still life art is about what objects can tell the viewer. It could be something about the owner, or a commentary on a particular aspect of life… really anything.

I am a photographer, so my tool is the camera. All cameras, be it one made out of a card board box, or a shiny new digital one. For the purposes of my art, Photoshop is a secondary tool. When working on composites, it is used to blend my images together into a new one, otherwise, I don’t use it. I focus on lightroom to impose my particular edits to my photos.

The difference between illustrator and other art tools is illustrator is based solely in the digital realm. Photoshop is an extension of the original dark room tools, built for the digital age. The end result of Photoshop is still a real word thing, whereas illustrator begins in digital and ends in digital.

I think my work best relates to Roy Lichtenstein’s the Interior with water lilies. It is a simple depiction of an environment.

If I had to choice between illustrator and Photoshop, Photoshop would be my choice. It is simply more relevant to the work I do.

Farzana Wahidy /  by Niclaus Cook

In response to her gallery showing at Conley Art: 

Having not meet her or known much about the artist before viewing the show, I was struck by the quite nature of the photos. Photos that invoked a since of vivid movement, but also a pattern of the hellish circumstances the Afghan women live under. It was not until I was walking away from the gallery that I realized what Farzana was showing. The pattern of “self immolation”– as she refers to it– at the start we are confronted with the older generation, clad in their burkas, going through life, then the viewer is confronted with the grotesque scars that these woman hide, finally we are shown the younger generation of girls. Whom are shown in a way that seem like they will succeed in breaking from the traditional roles. The “Woman police officer” and the woman “saying good by to her friend at an airport” in particular stuck with me. They appear as evidence for a more hopeful future.  The images and video of the collective of photographers Farzana has established called the Afghanistan Photographers Association is another way Farzana is using her art and knowledge to promote promoting the expansion of education and art. Through her photos she is challenging what society has dictated for the woman of Afghanistan and showing the world what life is like through her eyes. 

In response to her portfolio review for Art 133 Fall 2017

Her style of capturing simple moments, becomes more evident after having meet Farzana. Quite, refrained, contemplative, patient… all these come to mind. Things that seem to show in her photographs as well. In witnessing her critique on the groups photos she had a willingness to “want” to understand, rather then merely passing up the opportunity to. Farzana would make connections between unrelated works and offer in site on how to unify those together. On my own work, she challenged my exclusion of certain photographs in my series weight. Most interestingly, was her response to my classroom documentary series. Her insight into the amount of time I spent working on the project actually made me realize how much time went into it. I had not before, considered the time frame of my completing the the project. Some confidence was also given in my most recent project involving cyanotypes. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the way the review went, and enjoyed speaking and listening to Farzana.

Art 20... So far. /  by Niclaus Cook

Being in a drawing class has defiantly secured my feeling about photography. That is, I better stick to it if I want to continue practicing art. While it has not been that bad, it has had challenges. A result of the class however, I am starting to build yet another body of images, (only snapshots, but still interesting to see, based off what I am drawing. Here are some:

4x5 Street Photography Experience /  by Niclaus Cook

Something interesting happened today… I did something different, sort of. As anyone who follows my Instagram may know, I enjoy shooting street photography. Typically, I shoot with my Fujifilm system. Its small, quick and lets me get my shot and be on my way. However, I forwent my Fuji cameras today for another, much larger one. My toyo 4x5. It is small in comparison to many other 4x5’s, but really for street photos its MASSSIVE. Slow, overt, cumbersome, difficult, heavy, limited shots, et cetera. All things that are really the opposite of what I want in my street set up. I pulled it off however, that is, I think I did. I somehow managed to fuck up my film while developing it and basically lost my entire days work. It sucks. I really felt like I had some keepers in the batch that I shot.

SO why bother writing about images that may have been good? I am an introverted individual, my street photography with a digital camera involves me being sneaky, capturing what I see and then running off. There have been many times where I have seen pictures, but failed to make them simply because of my timid-ness towards so overtly photographing people on the street. I know, frankly its embarrassing, and one might imagine how I felt taking a 4x5 camera on a tripod and walking around Fresno with it. I spent the first half hour just wondering around with my camera swung over my shoulder on the tripod. It took me that long before I realized that I was not actually making images or really doing anything other than killing my back.  I stopped, put the camera down and just stood there. I was thinking that I could either go back to my car and think of a project that didn’t really matter or I could at least try and make images of my surroundings. I chose to make images, I first was of a building (not very special but I had to start someway), my second was a slower speed shot of a group of trees (it was windy and I was hoping to gather the motion of the trees with the stillness of the buildings around them), my third was of an alleyway that had two men walking down it, the light was cutting across the ally splitting it up, I had tried to compose it so each man was in the light or dark side. I just kept going, and I spent the next 4 hours looking and carefully picking my shots until I had used up all my film holders. I can take a total of 24 shots before needing to reload. 4 hours for 24 pictures, that’s a long time, but a necessary requirement for shooting this way. I had to be more choosing with my pictures.  While I really will never know for sure whether the pictures were as good as they felt, I do feel that I got something more out of this shooting day then I have out of others in recent times. The 4x5 slows you down, forces you to be present in the moment, and in the case of street photography it causes you to see more. It does something else if you are like me too, it breaks your ability to be covert, and in doing so allows you to take the photos that you would otherwise shy away from. This may have been my first time, but it will certainly not be my last shooting 4x5 street photography.

In Response to Wednesday Nov. 16 Lecture… Part 1 /  by Niclaus Cook

Like the discussion of the SF MOMA Panel, the class discussion moved quickly away from the idea of whether or not “photography is dead,” and instead quickly took up the topic of “how do we become famous.” I’ll touch on whether photography is dead or not in part 2.

 

For now, I have some thoughts on being successful. I’m a science, turned English, turned art major, in that order. Conveniently that is also the same order that the pay grade follows for each respective subject. If I wanted to make money, I would have stayed where I was two majors ago. At least that’s what just about any person listening to my store may say, and while its true that a science degree (a specialized one at least) will pay more, our discussion was one interested in grandeur, and is precisely what I want to comment on. In science, the “my art is exhibited in the top 5 world galleries” equivalent would be an astounding new discovery made that impacts day to day life, such as Rosalind Franklin’s discovery of DNA’s structure. The same is for English, there are many, many writers yes, but world acclaimed writers that will go down in history, not all that many, Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien are the first to come to mind. There is a reason why scientist and English professionals become professors, because that position allows them to make a fair living, while they mull away on their own private works on the side. Is it any different for art? I think not. That all being said, I am not advocating that we stop trying to pursue being part of the elite, it is the pursuit to be better that drives us forward. Perhaps instead we should look to opening new doors, like Colberg suggested. Instead of looking towards those same five galleries everyone else is, maybe we should be looking for new ways to call attention to our work. Indie bands have their own micro worlds and followers, Prop builders have entire independent showings for makers to present their work, the RPF being the best and biggest example.  I do not have a clue to go about starting new ways for photographers, but it seems like a good place to start anyway.

 

The second area of discussion we touched on was with the advent of technological advances putting a more than half way decent camera in everyone’s pocket, what separates us (people who consider ourselves photographers in both a professional and artistic view) from them? Education, yes and no, I had taught myself how to use a camera in M mode long before I thought about being an art major and started taking photo courses. Anybody can do that, and if all anybody wants to do is shoot head shots or landscapes meaninglessly, then there’s hundreds of online courses for that. What about the art side? I did not really understand how I could use my photography as a means for expression and influence until I began my art degree. In that respect an art education can provide an upper hand. Just because someone has the tools to build a boat, does not mean they can do it. Sure, everyone is a photographer, sure everyone can send photos to one of the many corner lot Walgreens, but I am willing to bet that those photos will not be better then any one of us who actually practice photography.

 

Photographers still have a place, we are the people who see what others don’t, we document the real world happenings for sake of preservation, and analysis, we create new worlds to better convey the one we live in. Photographers are still relevant. Photography is not dead.

Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison Lecture /  by Niclaus Cook

A rather difficult question to answer. What do I want my photos, dare I say art,to do? More over, how do I produce something that is capable of having such profound impact. I suppose a more personal question to answer is, why do I take pictures, what compels me to turn the dials, scroll through settings and then push a button to create an image? Many questions, few answers.

The lecture given by Helen and Newton Harrison was fascinating because their art influenced whole nation policies, not once but multiple times. It was, in my opinion, for all the right reasons. Their work has led them to “…uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development” (The Harrison Studio,2015). What more is they are not scientist, politicians, local leaders, et cetera… they are artists that have made an impact by pursuing there beliefs.

Now, returning to the question. What do I want my art to do? I think I have an idea, yet it may be better illustrated with a Doctor Who reference:

There is an episode where the Doctor and his companion come across a painting of Time Lord origin. This painting depicts the destruction of an entire race of people and their planet. Time Lord art is special, paintings or photos are a literal instant of time captured and preserved in the picture. So that everything that is happening, (in this case the destruction of the planet) all the grief, loss, pain, suffering, every building crumbling is preserved in this painting. This makes the painting a 3 dimensional object, something that can be physically entered into.

Coming back to the real world, the photographs that we create may not be a literal time machine, but when one stops and thinks about what one instant really holds on a large scale, it becomes clear why this is so profound. Photographs do all the above, or they have the potential at the very least; they capture the emotions, the people, the place, the time… everything and when it all comes together thats when things happen.

Further returning to earth, my art, my photos, what do I want them to do? For one, I do not think I have ever taken a picture that would be worth calling art. I also have never thought about how it may impact others very much. Though I suppose that given my preference of landscape photography and my love of the ocean, I would want to try and influence more people to at the very least **TRY** to protect the ocean. It covers over 75% of the planet, it is only approximately 5% explored, and day by day, year by year, we are killing it. If I could make some impact that might help protect it, well that would be felicitous!


EDIT: It occurred after I posted this that I did not include something. The ocean is beautiful, a cliche, yes. Yet I think many people over look it. Rather then seeing the wonders before them, they look at the ocean and sea a big pool where Jaws may live. I believe that in order for people to start protecting the ocean, they must first see something that needs protecting.