Final Project: Veiled Narratives

AMY CUTLER

NEO RAUCH

MARCEL DZAMA

TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK

PHILIP GUSTON

Class,

This week your task is twofold: Firstly, take time to choose a story that you would like to visualize for your final project. The narrative you choose can be autobiographical, historical, fictional or political in nature. Secondly, collect source material for your final series of drawings. The source material can be in the form of family photographs, diary entries, a letter from a friend, newspaper clippings, print outs from online sources, home videos, a favorite movie or film, youtube clips or objects of significance such as your favorite coffee mug, vintage tshirt, shell you collected from a beach vacation, an old concert ticket stub, etc.  Ideally, bring in a variety of source material that you can reference for their visual properties or written content.

Begin this process now. Think about stories of significance--stories that you would like to tell through drawing. It might take time to decide on a story, or let a new narrative form in your minds. This is a research, prep and planning week. Do whatever you need to do to conceptualize the direction for your project. If sketches are helpful, begin making small drawings to work out your idea.

Next week is a work day. I will meet with any of you who would like my input.

In terms of materials, size, format and quantity of drawings, you have options. Here are three to consider:

1. a series of 8-12 small drawings (8.5x11 or smaller) that are presented/read sequentially.
2. one larger drawing (24"x36" or larger) that suggests your narrative economically but complexly (i.e. one drawing that is content/image rich)
3. 2-3 medium sized drawings (9x12"-18x24") that make up a series of interrelated works. How you organize content is up to you.

If your idea calls for a different size/format that any of the suggestions above, think it through and propose your idea to me by next week.

Please bring in drawing supplies and surfaces to work on in class next week. 


Example of artists who tell stories through their drawings (and paintings) are below. Each of these artists tells their story indirectly or obliquely. Remember Kiki Smith's comment in the Art21 video about not wanting her work to be too obvious or declarative but instead wanting to tell open-ended stories that require the viewer to make their own meaning through her visual fragments. This is your task as well. To visually tell a story but in a way that obscures a direct reading. This can be done through:

1. Accumulation--including so much visual information that it distracts the viewer from a direct reading.
2. Layering surfaces--a way of hiding visual elements of your story through layers of transparent wash, paint or collage.....
3. Fragmentation/decontextualization--think of creating visual symbols as fragments that can be decontextualized and recontextualized in your pictures.

Enjoy the week and I'll see you on Monday,
Professor Cochran

Self Portraiture: final week/crit II prep

Class,

I enjoyed talking with all of you yesterday about your ideas and works in progress. For Crit II, please bring in your series of blind contour drawings (do some more if you missed the mark on these), along with four self portraits which embody the ideas of ideal, surreal, abject and real. Most of you need this full week to finalize the first three drawings so for the fourth "real" self portrait, feel free to use one of the drawings you made in the first week of this project (either as is or by developing it further). If you'd like to create a new drawing that more directly relates to the other three, please do.

If you have any questions, please email me. I look forward to seeing your works and discussing them as a group.

Best,
Prof K

And, for your pleasure, here's a John Ashbury poem about Parmigiano's Self Portrait painting. It's too long to include it in full so I've attached a link below. Enjoy!

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

As Parmigianino did it, the right hand
Bigger than the head, thrust at the viewer
And swerving easily away, as though to protect
What it advertises. A few leaded panes, old beams,
Fur, pleated muslin, a coral ring run together
In a movement supporting the face, which swims
Toward and away like the hand
Except that it is in repose. It is what is
Sequestered. Vasari says, "Francesco one day set himself
To take his own portrait, looking at himself from that purpose
In a convex mirror, such as is used by barbers . . .
He accordingly caused a ball of wood to be made
By a turner, and having divided it in half and
Brought it to the size of the mirror, he set himself
With great art to copy all that he saw in the glass,"
Chiefly his reflection, of which the portrait
Is the reflection, of which the portrait
Is the reflection once removed.
The glass chose to reflect only what he saw
Which was enough for his purpose: his image
Glazed, embalmed, projected at a 180-degree angle.
The time of day or the density of the light
Adhering to the face keeps it
Lively and intact in a recurring wave
Of arrival. The soul establishes itself.
But how far can it swim out through the eyes
And still return safely to its nest? The surface
Of the mirror being convex, the distance increases
Significantly; that is, enough to make the point
That the soul is a captive, treated humanely, kept
In suspension, unable to advance much farther
Than your look as it intercepts the picture.....

to read more visit: John Ashbury's, Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror

Body Project week 2--self portraits: Ideal, Surreal, Abject

Last week you focused on representing yourselves realistically through a practice of self-study and keen observation skills--that was the aim.

Across the next three weeks, you will continue your investigation of self and image through self portraiture. How will you, as image maker, represent yourself to the viewer? Last week this self-concsious act of looking at yourself was more about perceiving yourselves realistically--the aim was to observe well and translate your observations accurately and mimetically onto your drawing paper. This process was supposed to be less about the image you were presenting of yourself to viewers and more about honing your observation skills and searching (or perhaps struggling) to recreate a likeness of yourself--one unhindered by experiential knowledge, or predetermined by an intellectual construct of how you imagine yourself to be. Successfully representing yourself in a realistic way requires you, at least at first, to abandon your attachment to a particularly 'good' product.

Over the next two weeks, make one continuous blind contour drawing every day (size approximately 8x10 or 9x12"). These can be drawn in a sketchbook if you have one or on loose sheets of paper. Spend approximately 10-15 minutes on each drawing. Time yourself. Remember that blind contour drawings are a slow study. Your hand should follow your eye as you connect visually to the object--which, in this case, is your face (and neck and shoulders and the room you are in etc). I know that some of you will be traveling--use paper that is on hand and use any reflective surface that is available....DO NOT WORK FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OR DIGITAL IMAGE. Bring in 12 blind contour drawings to class on the 19th.

Additionally, work on three self portrait drawings that relate to the ideas of the ideal, the surreal, and the abject conceptually, materially and formally. Size, surface, medium, method and stylistic preference are up to you (yes you can work from a photograph as long as this method makes sense conceptually). Think about how these choices contribute to the idea behind the piece and be prepared to talk about them at our critique on 3/26/12. Bring these drawings to class on the 19th for a work day and individual consults to discuss your progress and ideas. They are due on 3/26.

IDEAL: a conception of perfection, embodying excellence, a model for imitation, an ultimate object of high or noble character.
SURREAL: irrational, dreamlike, unbelievable, fantastic, nonsensical, incorporating symbolism, dislocation, disjuncture or decontextualization.
ABJECT: existing in a low state or condition, debased, vile, hopeless, resigned, cast down, servile, spiritless, discouraged, despairing, humble, apologetic

Keep in mind that there are many ways to visualize these concepts (think about the non-objective, process drawings that you made and how line sensitivity, material choice and method all possess content of their own!). Be aware of literal or obvious strategies of representation.

In critique 2, be prepared to show and talk about four finished self portraits--ideal, surreal, abject and real. This will take place on 3/26/12. I will discuss the fourth realistic self portrait when we meet on the 19th.


DAVID HOCKNEY

FRIDA KAHLO

 KEHINDE WILEY

CHUCK CLOSE

 

ANDY WARHOL

VINCENT VAN GOGH

WENGECHI MUTU

ALICE NEEL