My 5 Artists

                                          

            While searching through the Art21 videos, several artists stuck out to me. One was William Kentridge and what I loved was his animated films made with charcoal. He talked about how artist uses feeling of others and themselves, and incorporates that in his work. One of his challenges was the same feeling most artists have; about falling in love with your work and not wanting to change it. His charcoal animations are just that though; using one drawing, taking a still shot, and erasing/drawing over to make movement, and take another shot. This process forces him to continuously edit his art, even if he loved a particular drawing, he had to let go to tell the story he wanted to convey. I remember seeing his work in another class and did a stop-motion charcoal piece myself. It was a lot of fun and challenging and ran into the same issue of not wanting to change anything because I loved the drawing. It helped me let go of that feeling, and I’d love to make more charcoal animations.

            Another artist I saw was Tanya Anuiñiga and she talked about Borderlands. She started with furniture and craft design, and eventually started with the Border Art Workshop or Taller de Arte Fronterizo collective. Her work is about social justice and I love the way she uses collective work made by many people to show more about the need of empathy and connection we need as a whole. I would like to make more conscious art and make something for a cause because that is what helps make the problems we face more well known and connects people. 

            Sarah Sze made “Blueprint for a Landscape” (2017) which is a large installation of immersive artwork for the Second Ave Subway in NYC and the connecting mezzanine at the 96^th Street Statin. Because she felt that subways were the “most democratic places you can find” she found it challenging. Through this she took the opportunity to closely examine how we move through space and took inspiration from Italian Futurists Russian Constructivists, blending photographs of sculptures and NYC landscape. I saw how she look outside the box and found inspiration in many things to put in her work, and I like the way she thinks. I want to look at more differing things for inspiration like her and keep challenging myself t be better. 

            I immediately felt a connection when watching Jordan Casteel “New York Close Up” on Art21. She talks about how she’s an introvert, like myself, and finds others that normally would go unnoticed, standing off to the side. She photographs them and takes hours to love over the image. I like how she takes the time to slow down and analyze and investigates the scene to get a better understanding of the subjects, which are mostly black men. She sees these subjects and people and not characters and paints in a way to show who they are. I like how she connects with them and shows us these unseen parts of life that we normally pass on by. I would like to start slowing down and properly analyze the people I use in my works. 

            Firelei Báez has a series of paintings that are based on the folklore and colonial history of the Caribbean. Her work is incredibly detailed and this particular series of the character of ciguapa from Dominican folklore. She chose the misunderstood and ever changing figure of ciquapa who is described as a siren that ensnares explorers and cunning woman. But in Báez’s work she sees her as “highly independent, self-possessed” woman who hopes to see the world. I like her rendition of the siren-like woman, because it is true that women are often depicted as evil for being independent and must be subservient, like how Báez explain in a lot of 18^th Century explorer Carl Linnaeus work that made it seem like people of the new world were animals. She’s taking that narrative and creating a new more positive outlook on the folklore and stories of black and brown people. It makes me think of old folklore of my parents country with similar stories and makes me want to look further into it and explore. 

            All these artists have different styles and outlooks on their work, but all are very interesting and unique. Watching these videos made me want to explore more things to incorporate in my art and now have inspiration to do so.