IMPORTANT DATES

FINAL PROJECT; 10-12 jpegs, 7-10 prints

Wednesday 11/4     Enough work completed to make a few prints

Monday 11/9    Midpoint (formal) critique–graded

Wednesday 11/11    Printing lab

Monday 11/16         Printing lab

Wednesday 11/18  Final critique (in-person). Prints on the wall

Friday 12/4  All work for the course due

• Projects/portfolio
• anything else that is overdue

FINAL PORTFOLIO. 1200 pixel jpegs, quality:10-12

• 10-12 project images
• 8-10 jpeg, "greatest hits" from other assignments (not including final project) in the class. Anything created for the course (cyanotypes, etc.) is fair game.

Bayles & Orland, round 2

For Monday 11/2. 

Please read chapter 3 of Bayles and Orland’s “Art & Fear.” 

Email written responses to Chris as word file. We will also have an active discussion of your answers:

1. What fears do you have about yourself, when it comes to making art? Everybody has them, so let's be frank. 
2. Ego cuts both ways; it can tell us we are special, talented, (or perhaps) above others. It can also tell us that we don’t have what it takes. Both are (mostly) wrong. What are your beliefs regarding “natural” talent and getting down to the business of actual art-making?
3. What is your relation to “perfection” as the authors describe it.
4. Is there a place for “magic” in your art? What is it? How do you make your own magic?
5. The authors suggest: “Ask your work what it needs, not what you need.” Let’s unpack this. Pick a piece of artwork from this class that you created over this past week. Sincerely and inquisitively ask your artwork what it needs, in order to develop. What next steps does it suggest? 
6. On the other hand, how might you be relying on your art to fulfill your (personal) needs? What might these needs or expectations be? Are they reasonable? How might this be helping/hindering your art? In your answer, argue both sides.

Reading assignment, written response and discussion. Art 418/518/618

For Monday 10/26. Email written responses to Chris as word file. We will also have an active discussion of your answers

Please read chapters 1&2 of Bayles and Orland’s “Art & Fear.” The file is located here:

https://alabama.box.com/s/i1wx69rv3zmmqyotj35u2oh423y3pwsl

Please answer the following questions in a reflective way. When quoting or paraphrasing from the book, please use a citation with a page number. Ex: (Bayles, Orland, p. 1)

1. According to the authors (Bayles and Orland), why can it be so difficult to make art?
2. What do you find difficult about art-making? What comes easily?
3. Who’s the artist: the “creative genius” or ordinary person? The authors suggest that the latter is more likely the “ideal artist.” Please explain this reasoning in your own words. Then describe your own strengths and challenges as an artist.
4. What does your own art have to teach you?
5. Drawing from chapter 2, what makes you thrive (or not quit) as an artist?
6. How is your art dangerous and revealing about who you are?
7. How do you navigate uncertainty as an artist?

Charting your course

Weekly class exercise, starting 10/19

Project plan

1. Working on my project this week, I will…
2. Working on my project next week, I will…
3. Working on my project today, I will…
4. Working on my project tomorrow, I will…
5. Regarding my project, the things I have an understanding of, and confidence in, are…
6. Regarding my project, the things I have concerns, questions or unknowns about are…
7. Some risks I could take right now are…
8. Some safe pathways I could follow right now are…

Graduate student reading assignment and discussion #2

Discussion: Wednesday, October 14th

Please read and prepare for written responses/discussion. Note, I've changed up the readings a bit, based on current relevance.

• Chapter 2 (The Photography Reader) Marjorie Perloff: What has Occurred only Once
• Chapter 34 (The Photography Reader) Bailey and Hall: The Vertigo of Displacement
• Chapter 35 (The Photography Reader) bell hooks: In Our Glory: Photography and Black Life
• Chapter 36 (The Photography Reader): Martin and Spence: Photo Therapy

Focus questions:

1. Where Barthes is concerned with finding pearls of personal meaning from a specific photo (of his mom), Boltanski seems more concerned with a sea of anonymous faces, each of whom might be anyone, or no-one at all. Based on Perloff's article, discuss how Christian Bolstanski's various art projects widen (and somewhat challenge) the conversation started by Barthes, about photography's ability to authenticate some kind of specific and knowable truth. Suggestion: focus on one of Boltanski's works to illustrate your points. It can also be helpful to look at his work online. Take your time with this article; it can be a slow go, but it has some useful ideas. 
2. Summarize bell hooks' position that the black liberation movement has been a "struggle over images," and how the camera and vernacular image-making in black life is a form a resistance to the misrepresentative "norms" of white, visual culture. How does the "keeper of walls" (a great phrase) perform the work of a cultural / political activist? How might this relate to art production that likewise engages personal/family histories?
3. According to the Martin and Spence article, how might any family photo album be as much (or more) about coded societal norms and expectations for photographic representation than it is about the individual lives depicted? Please also weigh-in with your own opinions about this (perhaps relating it to your own art practice).
4. How might some of the strategies suggested by Martin and Spence for using photography in therapy be used for art practices that likewise engage themes of identity and personal/family histories?