The Art of Curtis

As of today I have an additional medium in my arts, film photography. With the arrival of my Nikon N80 and five rolls of Fujifilm Neopan 400 this morning, I am diving into the world of film photography in the 35mm format. I will be developing my own film in my bathroom. The method for prints has not yet been determined, but obviously I will need either a high quality service that will actually handle black and white negatives or I will have to find a way to do them myself, either by obtaining an enlarger and further turning my bathroom into a dark room, or by using a film scanner and using a professional black and white printing service for the scanned negatives.

I am somewhere between nervous and excited about this new medium. In some ways it is boring and very much out-dated, but in others it is exciting and totally new to me.

I have taken a bit of a hiatus from art recently. I have all but suspended ceramics at the present time, but I am hoping to resume in a few days, and certainly no later than the end of the month. I am intending to spend a lot of time this summer on ceramics, perhaps even finally getting my online gallery set up.

Photography has taken a unique twist. I have broken out of my shell which involves photographing only plants and other impersonal scenes. I have gotten as far as attempting to photograph athletes and other individuals whom can be observed someone from a distance, but I really want to start being closer to my subject and begin a portfolio of individuals doing things that they enjoy (for some it would be work, others, it would be sports or other hobbies). I suppose this goes along with my psychological interests.  I still sometimes feel like a freak for carrying such an enormous camera and stopping at random places to take photos. I know I need to get out more with the camera, but getting over the feeling is going to take time (but I don’t intend to let the feeling stop me from carrying my  camera).

I look at the world around me and I do not feel inspired to take photographs. It is winter and there is nothing that appeals to me to photograph. During the summer there is a lot of activity and life in the world, plants blooming, athletes playing and lots of water moving. During the winter the world is grey and there is not much to photo.
I want to find a concept, something to photo and create a theme based on until the weather warms and there is more color in the world. I could do the typical black and white photos of random things to sybolize my mood regarding art in winter, but that seems a little too cliche and not very much fun.
I am presently bored by photography because I have nothing good to do with it. There were warm days earlier in the winter when it was really fun to take pictures outside, but its back to being cold now and I just feel lost behind the lens, like nothing grasps my attention at all.

I have decided to write an independent statement for each major medium I work in. This is a fragment of my first draft for ceramics:

Looking back on the last two weeks I feel more like a ceramic artist now than I have in a while. I like everything I have made and have been proud to send it through the kiln. I have also made more work and spent more time working on ceramics than I think I have in this period of time before. A lot of my throwing in the past, outside of an academic environment, has been very random and almost spastic. I have been making whatever came off the wheel, but in the last few weeks I have been declaring things that I was going to do, or at least attempt. I dared to try a rolled lip, it worked out. I tested the limits of "squared" bowls (bowls with a harsh angle and not a curve) and they fought back, but I still got some good examples from it. I held my breath and put my weakest bottle on its head to trim, they were resilient. I have had more kiln loads running in the last few weeks than I used to do in a month. Doing all of this makes me feel good, it makes me feel like a ceramic artist, or at the very least, a potter.

Picking a new clay body (Standard 563) was very important to this happening, it has made me feel like I am starting again with things, and taking off in a more positive direction. I am also working with a stoneware body again, not falling back to earthenware, so it is like I am growing up ceramically.

I feel like I am getting a lot done lately, but I look over at my bisque shelves and see lots of very white pieces that really need to be glazed. I really hate glazing, I must be a potter.

What is in an Artist statement? Its my statement, its about my work… right? So why is it so hard? I have tried many times to just sit down and write this statement. I know what I do, and I know what I like, but how do I put it into words? I am generally good at writing, but when it comes to writing about my work, I am absolutely stuck! How do artists do it? Where do you find the inspiration to write about your own work and find the guidance to know what to say? I need the answers to those questions to move forward with what I want to do.
Perhaps I should just collect all of the parts of statements I have started writing and see if there is anything there… until then, I guess I will just use a placeholder for my statement. Time to drag out the Latin generator (I bet someone I know will try to translate it).

As much as I enjoy blogging about my art here, it doesn’t seem to happen very often, so I feel as though I should once again make a change to things. I feel like a more suitable alternative would be a true gallery style configuration for this site, or a separate site set up in a configuration like that. What does this mean exactly? Well, it doesn’t mean use a lame photo gallery software to set up a site, that’s for certain. I want to set up a site that is me, artistically, and just that, nothing else. I think I want to open with my artist’s statement (I should probably write one) and then have users step through the site like they are going through an actual gallery. Images of each work will be displayed with their technical details and a few words from the artist (me) about each one. I think I want to give the user the ability to “step” into any “room” of my gallery they like (most likely by medium) and but the only other navigation is back/forward between pieces… like in a real gallery. The entire idea needs to be let out for some air before I start any actual development on such a site, but I think it would be really cool.

For the purpose of my academic pursuit of digital photography my assignments will be posted here throughout the semester: http://aux.livecurt.net/ART390.

There has been much speculation about my academic involvement in art. In the beginning I took a wheel ceramics course to satisfy my desire to acquire the skill to perform such a simple thing as throwing a bowl. In my second wheel course I was encouraged to expand and do things more interesting. This lead to my movement to sculptural ceramics. Sometime later, I had the acknowledgment of the fact that you don’t have to know how to draw to take a course in drawing. Now… I don’t know. I am in my second drawing course, have completed 3 ceramics courses and will be venturing into photography in the summer, oh, and not to leave out the liberal studies (western history and culture) course that I took in the field of Art History.

I am still unsure whether I will pursue the full BFA degree, but at the least, I wish to work on an AFA degree to evaluate my interest in going the full length for the higher degree. I could potentially find it within myself to complete an MFA degree, but in what field? I have an interest in ceramics, drawing, photography, painting and culinary arts. I have never truely focused myself, but I feel that after a few more studio courses I will be able to find my field in art.

I feel that getting away from art at UNCC for a little while will be healthy, as most instuctors in the department all act the same way and think the same way. I need difference, I need exploration.