Skilling

Skilling

I can't remember where the thought first came from exactly, but while biking in January, I decided that it'd be a good idea to level up artistically in 2014. I've always had sort of an odd relationship with my own skills as an artist. After all, I studied art history, not fine art, and only had time for two art classes in college, Drawing I at NCC and 2D Design at Columbia. Of course, in high school I took every art class available to me. Then during college I started to design flyers and posters for clubs and parties and after graduating, did the same as the in-department designer at Marwen. At the same time, I started making artwork during my senior year in college and haven't stopped.

But during this whole time I've remained untrained. Besides what I was taught in school, I learned everything through experimentation, especially when it came to using Photoshop and Illustrator. In my art practice I've made pieces which were visually easy to execute, mainly relying on printing, stenciling, and photography. Because my training is in knowledge and ideas (art history), I've always felt confident when it comes to the conceptual side of making art. And so I always work concept → visual. But lately I feel like if I worked on the other side of the equation, the visual side, my thinking might in turn expand, and my overall work and projects would grow stronger. I'm interested in the idea of reversing my process: visual → concept. Or, rather, creating more of a back and forth flow between the two. There's a long history of works that are simple skills-wise but balance that with a strong concept (relying on the concept of the "deskilling" of art), and that's where I've fit in so far. But I'm interested in expanding from that. I'm feeling more and more like I have a visual side inside of me that I want to break open, explore, get to know. I remember a boy named Darin in high school who was working on carving plaster during a foundations-level assignment. The teacher, walking around the room, turned to him and said, "It just makes sense to you, doesn't it?" I felt a little jealous of that, the feeling that he could just understand the material. And yet in my sophomore year of college when I was taking 2D Design, during the critique of my forth assignment, the professor said almost the same thing to me. I know that artists have different strengths, and I feel like what's always made sense to me has been composition. I understood the language of the design projects in that class because I took my composition ideas from photographs I'd taken, a suggestion that came from Miles. And the framing that's part of photography is something that's always made sense to me. Related to that, I've always felt little tugs towards collage, found objects, assembling, and scanning. I want to follow that inclination and see what I can discover about myself within it.

When I first started down this train of thought, I thought, "Do I have the time to explore all this? Is it really possible for me to reach a level of quality that I'll accept? Maybe I can only achieve a certain amateur level. That's how it is sometimes". I've always felt competent at things like design, but second-rate next to trained designers who've spent year honing their style and skill set. The more I think about all this though, the more excited and confident I become. Lately I feel like I do have it in me to become the kind of visual artist that I'd be satisfied with. I've already gotten started with Adobe tutorials and a new book of art assignments. I'm really excited to see where I can go from here.

The seventh piece in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity. I decided to only include each person's name and chosen identities to keep each piece more simple. But, to give some more information, so far two of the portraits were taken in Chicago and the rest in Japan. Of the participants, one was Canadian, today's is Jamaican, and the rest have been American.  In two weeks I'm setting up at an international festival in the city of Minamata and am excited to have the opportunity to photograph visitors from places like Slovenia and Mexico in addition to local Japanese people.

More info at the project site.

I finished "Which 'Aesthetics' Do You Mean" just in time to receive "Draw it with Your Eyes Closed" in the mail. I really want to stretch my artistic process in 2014, so I can't wait to get started!

The third piece and first male participant in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity.  More info at the project site.

Today is my second meeting with Ushibuka city hall employees to discuss Omoidemari, a temporary public art project I've been working on for the past year and hope to launch for the month of April to coincide with the Ushibuka Haiya Festival. I'm both nervous and excited, and I can't help feel at a disadvantage discussing complicated matters in a second language. Still, they seem excited. Hopefully we can make this happen together.  More information on the project here.

Playing with some design ideas. Inkjet on printer paper and marker on cardstock.