New Year

It looks like the new year is coming in faster than anticipated. Tonight we are having a party at Luna Playhouse (our theatre) all are welcome. It is a pot luck and a raffle will be presented to make money for the theatre. Come and enjoy -the crazies will be there!!! For more info call Luna at 818-500-7200.

Final Crit in Samantha Fields class

Though I have learned more than I can imagine, it seems that I have so much more to understand. The relationship between painting and old water damaged B&W negatives from my past is still unclear. I can only guess that I pursue certain things that interest me, but why do they interest me? As with the stereo images, am I using technique as a crutch or is there a subliminal incentive waiting to be discovered? Self expression is so "Modern" and no longer cuts the creative mustard. So this break I will be looking deep into the reasons for my work and researching those that have come before me.

Robert Fisk

Today I met Robert Fisk, a British Journalist who has been stationed in Beirut for 30 years writing for the "Independent". I showed him the booklet I produced for our Armenian Genocide Project. He said he will be in touch. He is looking for documentary film footage of the actual event. He feels there must be some somewhere because he has seen stills of men with film cameras filming the actual events in 1915. I will help him any way I can.

Class Notes Revisited

Wow, I got 5 comments on the picture from the short stories, I did not think of looking back at blog pages to look up comments. Yes that "ugly dude" is me being a mean and vicious type of Hollywood scoundrel, tempting the poor innocent tourist from Ohio into becoming my wanna-be starlet. This one (published spring 2001) did use photoshop, but most of the others (starting back to the mid-80's) were done as cut and paste before there was photoshop available or affordable. I would cut out images and then use colored markers and retouching inks and pencils to reduce the lines from the cuts. I should make a series and post them all on the net.

Walkthrough

Yesterday's walkthrough seemed to be less stressful than the previous ones. Either I am getting used to it or I have learned enough of the art jargon to convince teachers that I have a plan. John O'Brian always has something useful to say and he helped me realize that the photos I paint on have a freedom lacking in the stereo images. He felt this was because I was working in a new medium ("something highly discouraged usually for MFA candidates") and that this allowed me to explore in areas that the stereo images would not. He felt the eventual marriage of the two would be interesting. Thanks John. Having Michael as a roommate allowed me to sit in on his crits. Ron as usual had great insight into the work and reminded me it was time to make a narrative film. This would be the big secret of my life...Levon Parian the wanna-be film maker....finally realizes his secret desire. (Think that would make a good narrative? Nah.)

Artist Statement

So I am thinking that I need to build an artist's statement for the Walkthrough. Though the work I have put together does not show the break through I have reached in my understanding of why I do what I do. The question to really ask is; does understanding what you do -equate into developing themes for exploration? I think that has been my true quest since I have returned to school. After all, isn't an artist's statement a written justification of the visual work that is being done? No, what I have come to realize is that the artist's statement must develop an artist's character by forcing him or her to realize the possibilities and focus them into realities. Thus,this boldly displayed banner at the foot of my studio door must justify any nuances that has come from the work and allow, for those that bother to read it, a vague understanding of my thoughts. (Oh, is your artist statement supposed to make sense?)

Anyway I'm working on it.

Memory research

I have started researching the meaning of memory... How our brain uses it and how it develops in our own minds. An interesting comparison is human memory verses the image seen when viewing 3-D. The stereo image is also represented in our mind. There is a transformation of the image in the visual process and a mental interpretation that uses the physical image to create a new dimension. The brain interprets the image and sees relationships between space to create a new reality. Not a new concept.

Check out Ivan Sutherland's "head mounted display".
http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/timeline/Sutherland.html