Module #5 - Project # 2: Museum Visit

A.) Which artworks make an impact or impression on me? Why?

I went to the Burchfield Penney for my first gallery visit. The first artwork that made an impact on me was Craig Smith's Inkjet print from 2008 titled Team Pictures (M.I.T.). This print was featured in a collection at the Burchfield Penney that is about violence. This piece specifically made an impression on me because it made me uncomfortable from across the room and drew me over to it. It makes me uncomfortable because it is a group portrait, specifically a 'team' as Smith points out in his title of what appears to be professionals in business suits and professional dress, they all look happy, and yet, they are all posed with guns. The image makes me feel as if they are every day people with a dark secret of some kind.

 The next piece that grabbed my attention was Jonathan Rogers' 2004 oil painting Secret Dance from the Little Dancer Series. This painting interested me specifically with the bright orange and red surface. As I drew closer, I noticed the painting featured a child dancing with what appeared to be ghosts or demons under an eclipsed moon. The painting reminds me of childhood and how childhood often affects us and shapes us into adults; dancing with our pasts.

B.) Which artworks do I feel a connection with? Why?

I felt a connection with this 1997 chromogenic color print below by Marion Faller titled Carvings #4 beech tree, south park, Buffalo, N.Y. November 1997. I felt a connection with this print because it conveys memory to me. My own work is often focused on memory; not only of my own memories, but memories of places. I've always been infatuated with abandoned structures, and homes, and objects I see there; specifically the memories they allude to. The carvings on the tree are a reminder of people who have been in the park and spent time there, leaving a mark forever.

The next piece I felt a connection to was the 1989 Valdez Chair, Lest We Forget. The chair is constructed from oil on plywood, pine and oak, fabric dye and a glass eye. It was created by Edith Lunt Small. The chair first drew me in because it was so cute and reminded me of a chair a child would have in their bedroom or playroom. As I read the artists statement, I learned the chair was created to be a statement regarding the Valdez oil tanker spill in Prince William Sound in 1989. Small wanted the viewer to be reminded of all the innocent animals that were killed and affected by this oil spill. This is a cause that I am passionate about, and it's very sad to me that we let human greed dominate our economy and disregard the lives of animals and our environment.

C.) Which artworks would I like to know more about? Why?

The fist piece I'd like to know more about is Sara M. Zak's 2013 oil painting titled A Crowd of  Small Metamorphoses. I like this painting because of the motion Zak conveys. The subjects appear to be girls in dresses, and they appear to be in motion, or almost fragments of a memory. I'd like to see more of Zak's work, and also learn more about what and why she paints. 

The next piece I want to know more about is Jason L. Seeley's 2013 acrylic painting titled Backpack. I liked the way Seeley uses negative space in his painting, and specifically, the void his subjects are within. The painting was somewhat haunting to me in regards to the subject's body language, and it is enforced with the white space they are placed in. I want to know more about the context in which Seeley paints.