nues

I keep hoping that things will slow down a bit but that doesn't seem to be working. I'm super stoked to have a thesis studio at CSB now and I've finally started working on some drawings, paintings and planning out a book based on some drawings I did in France.

Last night we had our first Make Food, Eat Art meeting and it was really exciting. It's nice to know that there are people at MGSA that are actually interested in art, making it and talking about it. It's gonna be a weekly thang and I can't wait for next week's meeting.

I've found a couple people who's work I like a lot. Melanie Authier's pallet is similar to mine and I love her use of form to define space. Her use of the materials is a lot looser than mine but it's definitely something I would like to explore more.

David M. Cook's drawings have some really interesting content. They remind me a lot of the masks of Dia de los Muertos. The spectral lines add a lot, something that I have used in the past in etchings and drawings.

lovin' the cross in this one

Andrea Wan does makes these awesome mini journal drawings and this one reminded me a lot of the book project I mentioned above.

Here's a digital image that I'm working on for the book that will eventually be silk-screened.

As far as the Welcome Back Show...I think Jason and co. did a great job curating and setting it up. There was a really diverse body of work which can sometimes be a nightmare. I was pleased with most of the work that I saw. The only piece I wasn't to excited about was Traci Molloy's photo piece. I thought all the thumb tacks were a little excessive for such small works. It also conflicted with the general vibe of the gallery it was shown in but I understand that was a room curated according to color. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. My favorite piece was Travis' Glory Days. It immediately spoke to me on an aesthetic level. It was a very strong piece and I feel that his use of materials and execution were well thought out.

I've started working on a sculpture and drawing for the MGSA Annual and I am excited to see what kind of work people submit for it. Hopefully it will turn out to be a stronger and more cohesive show than last year's Water. We'll see.

On a side note, tomorrow is the first Critical Mass of the semester and it is going to RULE. Everybody should be riding...especially like this V
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workin on leavin the living

It took a lot of frustrating days but I finally got set up with a studio at LAB. I've had some ideas floating around so I began locking them down into working drawings and seeking out materials to start making maquettes. I spent this past weekend in New York. On Friday I took the train up and met some people from my art history class, "Women and Art", to see some exhibitions in Chelsea by female artists. The first show we saw was Siona Brown's My Magic Carpet. Her work was based on her experience growing up as a member of an extremely small Jewish sect in Mumbai. She showed mostly gouache paintings on mylar along with some larger works on board and a tent installation. We were fortunate enough to be able to speak Siona in the presence of her work. To be honest I was a little unimpressed by what I saw and heard. I questioned her about a painting of a woman with a comic book speech bubble saying "Who goes there...Friend or Foe?" in regards to her decision to include text in a painting, especially text that beats the meaning of the work onto the viewer. Her response was not satisfactory and so I dropped the issue, not wanting to be an asshole to her in her own exhibition.

We moved on to some other shows down the street. None of them struck me as significantly interesting, they just happened to be shows by women artists. Eventually we stumbled into Mixed Greens, where I have seen several good shows in the past, and I experienced Stacy Fisher's work for the first time. I was not expecting to be so pleasantly surprised but when I turned the corner into the back room of the gallery I immediately fell in love with her work. Rory told me it wasn't the best representation of her work, she only showed 3 pieces, but the one I really liked was Green Sculpture with Painting.

After Mixed Greens we walked over to see David Byrne's Globe piece as well as the Social Media show at Pace. I really enjoyed this exhibition because it explored a lot of ideas that I had been thinking about over the summer while I was taking classes. One was a Sociology of Mass Communication and the other was a Cultural Anthropology class with a focus on Social Networking. The show at Pace explored the boundaries of public and private on the internet and within social networking platforms.

After Pace our class was free to go so Rory and I walked around the corner to the Edward Thorp Galery opening. I really liked the paintings by Anthony Masullo, Craig Taylor and Gary Petersen. Next we headed uptown to 45th st. and 9th ave. I forget the name of the gallery we went to but they were having an opening and it was very crowded. The artists was showing three paintings and a sculpture. We saw a guy who teaches painting at Rutgers that Rory asked about the show. Apparently the artist had a very large body of work that had been leading up to this show and at the last minute decided to cutback and only show a few pieces. It was an interesting experience and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

After that, Rory headed back to New Brunswick and I headed uptown to the Bronx to stay with a friend. The next morning I woke up and walked to the Riverdale Metro North station. I walked up Independence Ave through a crazy-beautiful neighborhood with huge houses and well groomed yards. It did not feel like the Bronx at all. I stopped by Wave Hill Park, since it was a Target sponsored free admission day, and took in one of the greatest views of the Hudson River. Eventually I made it to the Riverdale stop and hopped on a north bound train headed for Beacon.

An hour and a half later I arrived at Beacon and began walking to Dia Beacon, an amazing sculpture museum that I have been waiting a long time to visit. The museum was everything I expected it to be. It houses works from a lot of artists I admire including Richard Serra, Sol LeWitt, Joseph Beuys and many more. They also had a special exhibition showing the work of Blinky Palermo.

It was really great to get away from New Brunswick for a few days and see a bunch of great art. The following are some photos of my studio and random things I have been working on...

horse realm

drawings, cardboard and wood maquette for a series of wall sculptures

sketch for a new glass and wood piece

sketch for a potential sculpture for the MGSA Annual

drawing for a wall sculpture, each line would be a sheet of cardboard.

side view of the wall sculpture (should be rotated 90 CCW)

INTERVU: Sal Forgione

Sal Forgione is a Design and Photography student who also experiments with mixed media collages.

from Pinhole Series

Ethan Sherman: How do you define the difference between commercial art and fine art?

Sal Forgione: I feel that commercial art, unlike fine art, almost always has a set of parameters and a sort of defined destiny, but that does not mean that there has to be a set of rules to follow.  I do find it to be a bit more difficult working with commercial art and art for informational purposes, but I always try and find a unique and interesting solution to these problems.  As for fine art, I believe that design and photography, if executed to near perfection, can be a fine art practice.  The ideas of fine art may not translate for some [people] right away through painting, sculpture, and drawing, but there is a way to define fine art. Some consider fine art as not design practices, but I would say that fine art, as opposed to commercial art, holds true the very own art’s intent.

ES: Design work often has a predetermined message, have you ever found it to be difficult working within a client's guidelines?

SF: Again, working with a predetermined message does have its flaws, but I try to make whatever I am doing interesting and make the message as clear as possible through my work.  It is difficult when the message that needs to be conveyed is rather broad, or quite frankly, idiotic or stupid, but again, referring back to design principles and the idea of the glass vase; what is more important? The actual content or the glass holding it. If you have a glass vase you can see the content and it does not compete with the vase, when you have an ornate gold or metallic vase to hold the contents the ideology is shifted from a focus on the vase rather than the contents. I use this principle in all of my design.

ES: How do you decide upon subject material for your photography?

from Churches

SF: Photography is a chance for me to see the world the way it really is through stills.  Capturing life in its current state and the idea of that photo being a stand still image of a moment is also in the back of my mind. Posterity is the most important part of photography in my mind, and what I capture through the lens is almost an after-affect.  Subject material is important, and I shoot a lot of architecture and people, probably for the sheer fact that in one hundred years no one living now will be alive, and in a few hundred years buildings I shot might not be standing.

ES: What inspired the Church and Hudson River series?

SF: I would have to say the same idea as is behind all of my photography, the idea of timelessness and the idea that ideology might be the same and live on, but structure and form change, i.e. the buildings of worship or wall street. 

from New York City Stills

ES: What medium or process do you enjoy the most or which field do you feel you have the most skills in?

SF: I feel that I have the most knowledge in design, and with design I am also learning new things everyday and it really helps my compositions for my other mediums and gives me an outlet to a plethora of ideas.

ES: Frame and setting are important elements in photography, how do they affect the decisions you make behind the lens?

SF: As mentioned previously, time and photography go hand in hand for me. As a photographer, it is important to realize the idea of the still, and hopefully having a narrative between the viewer and the image itself.

ES: What do you shoot with? Do you have a preference, film, SLR, pinhole etc?

SF: I really like the pinhole camera.  Most of the time I am shooting with a digital SLR but I really like the idea of slowing down and knowing that you have maybe a tenth of the material to work with as far as film and paper is concerned, and it gives me the opportunity to really focus on my work. Even when shooting with film or digital, I am always trying to give it a rustic and timeless look through Photoshop, giving my images a grainy look, or hand-made scratches, that’s probably why I like the blurry, gritty pinhole.

ES: How do you decide on the content of your mixed media collages?

SF: Content for my collages, unlike my photography and design, is [based] more on chance than anything.  I go into a collage with a white board, knowing it will be filled, knowing it might be cohesive or not, but that the canvas will get filled and whatever fills it might not be relative to juxtaposing content. It is also a nice break from commercial art and the computer to hand-cut and paste images. 

ES: Who influences your design and photography? Whose work do you look at the most?

San Antonio Meat Market Bag

SF: Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Stephan Sagmeister, and Milton Glaser for design. Elinor Carucci and Edward Burtynsky for photography.  I think all of these artists feed off of each other, even though some are not necessarily contemporaries of one another, they help me frame my work.

ES: Where/What would you like to be doing in ten years?

SF: I would like to possibly own an art gallery or a design studio.  I never really liked working for anyone per say, and hopefully I am given the opportunity to go in my own direction and shy away from the structured 9-5.

ES: Do you have any ideas for thesis? Will you expand or combine any processes?

ES: I’m not to sure what I am going to do for thesis, but I would like to use collage, the principles of design, and photography as a way to convey my message.  I might stick on the idea of timelessness or the actual timeline itself of events to make a cohesive piece.

ES: What inspired you to go to art school?

SF: Well I figured if I had to be in a structured institution for the next four years of my life it would have to be art school and a place that I can feel my personality and ideas working.  It is really nothing less than I expected and glad that I made the decision.

Hank Schmidt I want to be you when I grow up.