Thoughts on Current Work #1

Sometimes I stop making and I wonder. What is all of this mess and why does it matter. I think back to yesterday being in solitude on the hiking trail. I listened and heard nothing. Nothing. That was what I wanted to hear. That's why I had gone there. 

I'm back in my studio now. I'm making the thing and wondering. What is all of this. 

All of this is everything and nothing. It is messy and it is experiment. It's waiting and it is wondering. It is magic and is nature. It is mistakes and it is purpose. It is everything. There is God in there. 

And to think that all of this didn't mean anything. I'm doing it and it is coming from somewhere inside. It is yesterday when a stranger yelled at me. It's a moment with friends where I looked around and saw there smiling faces laughing and enjoying themselves. It is a moment of solitude lying in bed, weeping at loneliness. It's a moment alone in the quiet of an unfamiliar place. It is a reaction, it is an interaction, it is a transaction. Desolate yet alive. 

It is my experience but it is yours too. We aren't far off, you and I. We have a heart in our chest, and feet on the ground. Look at it and tell me how do you feel now? 

The energy between you and I and our surroundings can be so ignored and invisible. No one takes the time to analyze the types of energy that happens. Can we take even the simplest moments and make them last. 

Drips resemble veins interconnecting. They feel like life on the surface. The salt feels permanent yet fragile. I think of preserving the moment and making it last. Everything is so precarious. Careful, now. 

I think that these paintings are dark for a reason. The darkness reveals the light. The eye has to see both to decipher. 

UC Davis Lecture: Peter Schjeldahl on "The Critic as Artist" by Oscar Wilde

Okay, so I have to be completely honest that I put off entering this trip into my blog in a timely fashion. And since then, I have had so much (too much) going on that I need to dig deep into my memory bank to recollect some of the enlightening things I had learned from the witty mind of New Yorker art critic Peter Schjedahl. At UC Davis on March 10, 2016, Schjedahl began his lecture by giving a discplaimer:
"This is not a lecture," he said to the overcrowded room.

He began his "not lecture" by reading from Oscar Wilde's "The Critic as Artist." I took down some notes of things that really stood out to me in reading and commentary and I will express my thoughts on a few of the things that were said that night.

"Critics as artists are 'stylists'"

When Schjedahl has spoken those words, I had never really thought about that before. I haven't had my worked looked at by a fancy critic or anything, but I definitely know what it is like to be criticized by someone who has no idea what kind of work goes into my personal process. It might not be exactly the same thing, but essentially I understand how the critic, someone who doesn't make the work, could be like a stylist. For instance a hair stylist. The hair stylist looks at a head of hair that is self sufficient, and grows on its own and maintains its own oils and vitamin. However, the stylist can come in and criticize it and tell the owner of the hair what could be a better look. Perhaps they are just opinions? But the stylist knows about hair, and the critic knows about art...right?

"Why should the artist care so much about the one that doesn't make the work?"

This then kind of bleeds into this next topic about why we should care so much about the person who doesn't even make the art. I think that this topic could be directed into many directions. I think that the artist should care to a certain extent, considering that we make work for others to see that don't even practice making art. However, I think that it is good to at one point say "screw you, I am going to make what I want." I am still learning to not be so compliant to all the opinions of the "experts" (faculty). I know that the faculty make work of their own, and perhaps it is starting to stray away from the topic a bit. But all the same, I think to a certain extent is only natural to care about what the "experts" think..I mean they look at a lot of work and have a lot to compare your work too. But in the end, however, if we boil all of us down to humans on earth with just one opinion, does it really matter anyway?

"'Artists don't need criticism, they need appreciation'"

This was a quote from Gertrude Stein that Schjedahl read to us. I pondered on this quote for a while after the lecture. In a way, I kind of disagree. I find that criticism has really built me as an artist. I never feel like I get anywhere when all I am getting is compliments. Although being complimented doesn't always mean you are being appreciated, genuine appreciation is always uplifting.

"Criticism is a performing art"
(especially the language)

Peter Schjedahl on stage at UC Davis

Trip to the Bay

During Spring break, my fellow grads and I took a trip to the Bay to not only go to the Firelei Baéz lecture, but to also visit as many galleries as we could fit into the day. I took so many pictures, that I even lost track of the names of some galleries. I took as many pamphlets and handouts that I could in order to remember where I went and what I saw. The day as a whole was really splendid and I thought it was really beneficial to get outside of Sacramento to see some different kinds of work. It made me excited to look for graduate programs outside of Sacramento too. Seeing the diversity in work out of my hometown made me eager to go look at art in other places.

Som, Trevor, and I beneath a sculpture(Union Square) in which its sister (about 20 yrds away) can retain the sound of the other. While Trevor, Som, and I talked within the piece, Chelsea was in the other one listening to our conversation and vice versa. 

We saw a lot of work that day, so I will narrow down a couple experiences that I found the most interesting.

Altman Siegal Gallery 

I was really excited by these paintings in 49 Geary Building at the Altman Siegel Gallery. The gallery was showcasing the work of Liam Everett. Everett works in mixed media, creating these large abstracts out of acrylic, enamel, alcohol, and salt on linen. According to Everett's artist statement, this body of work, all done in 2016, addresses the idea preconceptions of how a painting should be. He reflects on the writer Bertolt Brecht's writing and play The Elephant Calf, in which he borrows the show titles from. Because Brecht's play acted as an interlude or play within a play, Everett borrows from the idea with his very heavily layered paintings, purposely posing questions about the picture, or picture within the picture. His goal is for the not for the viewer to find some deeper meaning, or to narrate a certain story. He wants to communicate a "reality from the studio" and acknowledgment from his surrounding environment, considering spatial and temporal conditions when building paintings in his studio.  

I enjoyed the abundance of marks in the work, creating a textural experience in which all the marks gather to create a wall, and hardly dissipated except for some areas. After reading about the purpose behind these paintings, I was interested in the way Everett infused the work with his environmental experience. It makes me want to visit his studio, because I almost expect it to look like mine, messy and full,  with the type of work that he does. With a focus on his environmental experience, Everett gave me ideas on how I could shift my studio experience to broaden my own work. 

Gallery View 

Untitled (Teotihuacan), 2016 

Detail of Untitled (Teotihuacan) A.

B.

C. 

Untitled (Cahokia), 2016 

Som and Sean looking ( I was too busy taking pictures, I did not get one of me and the work) 

  Yerba Buena Center 

 At the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the piece that I admired the most was Samara Golden's A Trap in Soft Division. When I entered the room, there was a large area of the floor blocked off by a low wall that had a mirrored surface. When I looked down, I had to almost catch my balance. It felt like I was about to fall into the world that was being reflected. This world consisted of foam furniture, faux stain glass windows, lamps made of lighting gels and black caulk, fabric, glue, and polyurethane paint, and adapted found clothes and objects. This piece was installed on the ceiling, where each "room" was installed upside-down so that it gave the illusion of being below you in the mirrored world. I was so fascinated by this installation. It made me feel almost out of body and displaced from the reality I was in. I felt like if I leaned over the wall too much I could fall into the world and never return to reality. With my altered perception of my environment, I also felt nostalgic. When looking down into the world or up into it, I felt like gravity was taking me there either way I looked. The vastness of the piece welcomed me into it, and each room felt like a sister of the room next to it. Some of the furniture looked the same, but something seemed a bit different in each room, whether it was an added element or a shifted object. Golden really takes the viewer almost by force because it is almost impossible to not be engaged when viewing the work, looking up into it, or down into the mirrored reflection. It was very intriguing, and has lasted with me.  I am eager to see more of her work in the future.

The mirrored floor, feat. myself.

You can see the woman behind Trevor taking pictures of the ceiling where the work was installed.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw3IUxsscBs

Here is a very interesting video of Samara Golden's installation of A Trap in Soft Division and a little more about what it is about

My people, 

(left to right) Sean Hong, Trevor Pope-Lance, Chelsea Thompto, Bailey Anderson, Bobby Edwards, Som Sayosone, Me (Caiti Chan)

Artist Lecture: Firelei Baéz at San Fransisco Art Institute

During Spring break, my fellow grads and I drove to the Bay Area to explore some great art and to see artist Firelei Baéz speak about her paintings based on her interest between the crossover and evolution of Caribbean mixed with American culture. Being a young Caribbean female in America, Baéz's works vary from self portraits to historically driven narratives. She began her lecture by explaining to the audience a little about what drives her work, saying that she uses humor and fantasy to create  newness to self.
She showed us her early paintings, driven by the topic of skin color. She described to us the "brown paper bag test" in America. This was an unjust test in which certain privileges were taken from those whose skin color was darker than a brown paper bag. She quotes it as "American standard of Whiteness." Baéz took this idea and drove it into her work where she create these self-portraits to embrace her skin color and her hair as well. She described her using color and the shades of brown as an access to psychology. She also emphasized that along with skin color, hair was also an issue. "Black" female hair was encouraged to be covered up in her culture, so with her self portraits, she recorded the different states of her hair while emphasizing the flat brown surface that made up her painted silhouette. By keeping the portrait flat and minimal, Baéz lets the viewer delve into a politically charged art experience without the distraction of realism. She leaves her eyes to look back at the viewer, as if she is speaking through her 2-dimensional world into the soul of another human being just like her. These pieces, to me, are very approachable in that they speak on a level in which the only thing that matters is our humanity as equal despite skin color or hair type.

Another method of self-portraiture she executed that interested me the most are the larger palette portraits in which she applies paint intuitively to create abstracted patterns within the silhouette. By masking off her silhouette and creating an energetic play of color within the portrait, Baéz creates an entirely new energy within the frame of her own portrait. These portraits resonated with me because of the way i experiment with paint in my work. I was interested in the way Baéz applied the paint in such as way while keeping the outline so crisp and precise. At the end of her lecture, I even asked her how she was able to mask off the edges so that the paint didn't pour out of the confines of her silhouette. She told me about frisket and I and I am excited to try to use it in my own work. I had tried other ways of masking off areas, but none of my attempts have worked out the way I wanted them too. Thanks to Firelei, I am excited to try something new in my own work. This Summer, I need to work even further on my body of work to take them too the next step, and perhaps introducing this suggested material may help me figure things out. 

When one of your artist heroes emails you for your essay

I wanted to share the email showing artist Chris Trueman providing me with information for my genealogy paper. I will also be posting this link in the bibliography of my paper so that the reference can be seen publicly. Below I included a photo of Trueman's work so that if anyone does nto read my paper can apply the statement to the images.  

FTH, 40x60, acrylic and acrylic spray paint on canvas, 2015

GYS, 60x52, acrylic and acrylic spray paint on canvas, 2015

Ian Harvey and Koo Kyung Sook: Works on Paper

Koo Kyung Sook

Markings 14-2

Woodcut

2015

Shimo Center for the Arts is showing two artists who have been a huge influence to me as a student, painter, and creator. My professor and mentor Ian Harvey and his wife Koo Kyung Sook are peopel who I look up to immensely and consider friends. This weekend was their opening to their show titled Works on Paper. Saturday night at Shimo was a full house as students, friends, and faculty gathered in the small yet beautiful space. 
I wasnt surprised to see that the gallery was small, because Ian had also said something about being worried about installing the large works in the small space. However, upon entering the space, I was impressed to see how well the work held up the space. 

 

Koo Kyung Sook

Markings 14-1

Woodcut

2015

The way they install the work is really interesting as well, an art in itself. In a very sleek way, abandoning frames, Ian and Koo allow the work to stand off the wall by using heavy duty yet small magnets against metal brackets. If you look closely, you can see the very small metal magnet. I find it a very sleek way to install, and not distracting to the work.

Koo's work consisted of woodcut prints of what appear to be abstracted heads. These works really resonate with me because I too was exploring an idea of creating non representational portraits from drippings of paint for a while when I was finishing my undergraduate degree. After I was exploring this idea, being mentored by Ian, he then introduced me to his wife's interpretation of portraiture through her medium. I was immediately hooked.

                                                                           

Koo Kyung Sook

Markings 14-3

Woodcut

2015

Although I have strayed from the path of portraying any sort of "head", I still appreciate Koo's interest in identity. These heads seem to make me think about the "who". Who am I, who is it, and why? The existential emotion extending from from these prints fill me with a sense of wonder, while allowing me to be overwhelmed with texture and contrast.
Ian explained the method to me the other day when we talked. I am fairly familiar with woodcut prints, however I have not practiced with the medium at all. Some may not know, so i will briefly explain. In short, you create a relief out of the wood cut. Koo carves into the wood, then rolls the ink onto the block. After she does that she take the paper and essentially pounds it into the design she cut into the wood. She then will roll even more ink onto the wood, and do more and more layers. With all the layers, she creates the texture, the embossing. The texture on these works are so attractive. These images do not do it any sort of justice.

Koo Kyung Sook 

Markings 15-1

Woodcut

2015

Markings 15-1 (detail)

---

Ian Harvey

No. 157

Ink, acrylic, shellac, and oil

2016

Ian's work, and Ian's ideas, are very influential to me and my own work in the studio. Ian and I have communicated well when it comes to making work, and I have sought a lot of advice from him in my paintings. I remember when I had been in a few of Ian's classes, being mentored by him, and working through my issues in my work in 2014. I had not seen Ian's work until taking a few classes with him, and once I saw his work, it felt like everything clicked. All the ideas he had seemed to make sense with me and my work and I have continued to attempt at plowing through new ideas and finding my footing within my abstractions.
This painting No. 157 stood out to me the most in the show. Ian treats the material in a methodical way, while still allowing the medium to manifest on it's own. The painting has a strong sense of color,  pattern, and line. I enjoy the transparencies and opacities. These qualities are things I am interested in in my own work. I found it funny when I looked at my own work when I got back to my studio that night to see my own painting with a similar color scheme. I had not seen this painting prior to starting my painting below.

No. 157 (detail)

Caiti Chan 

Work in Progress (detail)

Ian and Koo's show will be on display at Shimo Center for the Arts until April 2. I highly recommend going to see the work before it comes down! 

The MFA Experience with James Angello

The Form Art Club at CSUS presented a lecture in which artist James Angello presented his experience in an MFA program. James went to UC Davis focusing on installation and sculpture. The club presented him with questions about his honest experience within the program at Davis and the advice that he could present to students interested in a graduate program. Being in the MA program here at Sac State, I was interested in the comparing and contrasting that I could do with the testimony he presented. The tips that I recorded for myself are below. I found all that James said very informative and honest.

Questions and tips presented:

• What do you do post undergrad or grad school when you do not have someone or something guiding you in a schools setting?
• Upon looking at graduate programs, look at the types of visiting artists the school presents throughout the year. This will give you an idea of the art the school is interested in.
• Talk to people! Visit professors/ email them/ be assertive in acquiring as much information as possible from faculty.
• Difference between an MA and MFA :
                  MA: 50% studio 50 % theory
                  MFA: 70-75% studio 25-30% theory
• Application process: James described how he set up his portfolio. He started off with a group of work he thought was a fair group of work. He then placed what he thought was his weakest group of work in the center of his portfolio. Then to end the application, he put his best work at the end. He wanted to grab the faculty with a good group of work and then wow them at the very end to increase his chances of being accepted into the program.
• "You need to think about what you need to do regarding the things that you like to do and the things that you need to do."
• Visit caa.org- the standard for academic art careers.
• Artist CV versus Artist Resume:
             CV: geared more towards jobs and teaching
             Resume: geared more towards exhibitions
• "Praise comes and goes like temperature."
• When looking for school, always look at the faculty's work.

James is a very good source for school related questions and for personal critiques on work. He is genuine and honest, and a great friend and experienced maker.

You can view his website here:
http://jamieangello.com
You can view his instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/___obsidian_/

15 "What Ifs" by Chelsea Thompto about my Current Paintings

Graduate seminar last night was led by professor Sarah Flohr, one of our full time faculty members here in painting at CSUS. We set up for what we thought was a simple critique, but instead Sarah assigned us each a piece or group of pieces to write 15 "What ifs". Chelsea Thompto, my grad peer and good friend was assigned my group of paintings that I had displayed for critique. Being who she is, a creative, genuine, and poetic woman- she came up with some great "what ifs" that stuck with me right away. I wanted to share those points here.



1. What if the pours were/ are representational of figure or landscape?
2. What if borders were addressed more?
3. What if you were colorblind?
4. What if your canvases were square?
5. What of your paintings were on the ground?
6. What if you made your own painting tools?
7. What if the learned painting canon had more women?
8. What if chance operation was a fallacy?
9. What if your painting gestures were considered political?
10. What if you made paintings in zero gravity?
11. What if you changed the role of drips in your paintings?
12. What if your palette was based on your clothes?
13. What if you painted in the dark?
14. What if being a painter was immoral?
15. What if you disregarded everything I wrote?

Bonus (alteration of #14)

16. What if painting was considered a sin?

Visiting Artists from Berlin: AnnaKatrin Kraus and Hans Aescht

Annakatrin and Hans took time to come to the Sac State studios and present a powerpoint of current work they had been involved in. These artists specialize in collaborative work, their latest work in Sacramento was featured in the Art Hotel in Sacramento. They live and work in Berlin, Germany. AnnaKatrin is originally from California and Hans is from Romania.

I have this photo in my previous blog post, and I was excited to have met the minds behind this project. Annakatrin and Hans are interested in a fusion of architecture and sculpture. 

I was happy to hear the background story of this work, because it was definitely one of the ones in the Art Hotel that stayed with me. This photo was also the one I chose to post on social media, because ti was one of my favorites. When I had entered the room with this installation, I was immediately drawn into the space, with an urge to run in and out of the frames, as if they were doorways. The artists discussed their interest in "absence and presence" and how those ideas were inspiration for this installation. They explained that the light in that room was also very purposeful for these ideas in that it felt like it was taking me to a world where I felt like I was alone in it, whilst feeling a little uneasy. Along the sides of the walls, they placed hung up sheets in which reminded me of a classic "ghost". Although I had initially felt alone, once my eyes and wondered over to those sheets hanging on the wall, the uneasiness came about me. I enjoyed the installation very much, and once the artists described there interest in absence and presence, it started to click to me that I had felt those things walking into it. 

They carried  on in their lecture, and discussed another current project that took place in the Ice Hotel.

 

They told us of their unique experience and how working with the ice was a completely new material for them. I found it interesting that in the application process, you didn't need any type of experience working with ice! I was impressed by how quickly they learned to work with the material, and how they pulled of this beautiful piece. They even told us that they stayed in it one evening, and that they were given zero degree space bags to sleep in. Now, the artists told us that the work keeps changing with the nature of material and weather. Anna described the look of it as a "weird Dali-esque room" now. 

These artists' interest in sculpture fused with architecture was a really interesting topic to hear. I was really interested in the ideas of collaborating with fellow artists, and hopefully that can happen sometime in the future with my own work. 

To see more about the ice hotel with this work, you can go to:

 http://www.icehotel.com/art-and-design/icehotel-2016/

To see more of Anna's work you can visit: 

http://www.annakatrinkraus.com

This website is not in English, but you can see more about Hans here:

http://www.kunstgut.com/hans-aescht.html

And if you did not get to view the Art Hotel, here is an article by the Sacramento Bee!:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/city-beat/article57405383.html

Art Hotel 916

I had no idea that there would so many people in the city of Sacramento interested in this time sensitive art experience. Every time I had gone, I was told that there would be a long wait. Yesterday, I was able to get a time slot, even though I had to wait two hours! It was completely worth it, even though we only had 25 minutes to view the work. To see how popular it was really made me happy, because to see a diverse group of people that are  interested in local art is rare!
My goal to race against the clock was to start at the top floor and work my way to the bottom. I saw everything from giant wooden figures to reptilian shrines. I saw teeny tiny paintings the size of a cracker to television screens showing miscelanious footage. I saw projections of my face on walls, and projections of others on walls. Sticky notes strewed some surfaces, various materials jutted out of the floors. If I had the choice, I would have stayed their for hours.
Although I didn't have enough time to see which artist did what, I was able to see a fellow peer of mine, Franceska Gamez, and she was one of the masterminds behind the scenes. It was very cool to see her work involved in such a popular and valuable art experience in Sacramento. I had taken drawing and painting classes with Frankie, and she has really taken the ideas that I had seen a year ago into a more mature direction. I was happy to see her still making so much work and caring so dearly about the Art Hotel.
The Art Hotel only runs until February 13th, then the building go under construction. Please go and try to see this place while it still exists! It is located at the Hotel Marshall on 7th and L street downtown.

Follow Frankie's instagram to see the work:
https://www.instagram.com/ewfrank/

Artist Lecture: Mustafa Shaheen on "And Bring to Bloom the Flowers"

My fellow peer and friend Mustafa Shaheen took a breath of relief today as we walked out of Capastrano hall, where he gave his artist lecture on his current exhibition in the Union gallery titled And Bring to Bloom the Flowers. My friend Mustafa has been working exhaustingly hard this past year to get this show up and running for us this Winter of 2016. The paintings in the show are well composed, striking in detail, and energetic in color. I highly recommend anyone to see this show.

From watching my friend work closely on this body of work, to hear him speak about it interested me. I have become so attuned, and perhaps immune, to the portraits because I am so familiar with them- being his studio mate. Being at his lecture was insightful because I gained some more detailed information on how he arrived at his current series. I enjoyed how he laid out his lecture like a narrative, telling a story of how he has grown throughout his undergraduate career. Mustafa discussed how he was interested in portraiture and how as he progressed through his undergrad, he could apply deeper content to such a traditional concept of painting the human face. He discussed with the audience how his interest in empathy through daily mundane actions connect us all as fellow humans. He then lead to his deeper interest, depicted in his current exhibition, of revealing our connections with the world around us through physical objects. For instance, in the portrait (of myself) And Then She Cut Her Hair, I decided to wear my Father's jade ring around my neck. My Father had grown ill over the past year, and I wanted to show my connection to him when Mustafa painted my portrait. I was also wanting to show the connection to my heritage, because I am Chinese and jade has a deep history in Chinese culture. Having decided to wear these when Mustafa took photo references of me, I knew that he could accomplish the overall purpose of producing work depicting that connection. He is a very capable and hard working individual who cares deeply about his work and about the art world.
The reception for And Bring to Bloom the Flowers was also very successful and had a large turn out of people. I immensely enjoyed the conversation and community among the guests that arrived to support Mustafa.

You can view the exhibition in the Union Gallery located of the second floor of the university union until February 18.

You can visit Mustafa's website at www.mshaheen.com.
His instagram username mustafashaheen.