Overall Experience

In my opinion, Art Now seminar in New York was:

- Inspiring, because I was able to draw ideas, concepts, and new ways of doing things from both contemporary artists and older artists whom I had never seen or heard of before.
- Eye opening, because it showed me that sometimes art is are for the sake of art. Sometimes a piece is not successful because it looks beautiful or expresses a strong message, sometimes it is just showing you something from a new angle.
- Provoking, because sometimes I did NOT enjoy what was presented to me. The work if Jeff Coons 'Made in Heaven' series specifically made me question whether what he was doing was actually art at all.


When walking through the galleries in Chelsea, DUMBO (Brooklyn) and uptown galleries, I thought that the most unusual media Encountered was was the glass and mirrors installation called 'tunnel of love'. Although I have seen glass work before I thought that paired together with the distorting mirrors and lights in the room made for a unique effect.
Although I did not appreciate all of Jeff Koons' work, there is something to be said for his approach to materials and process. When some of us asked about Jeff Koons, we found out that he does not put together a majority of his works. Instead he hired people to work for him in a similar fashion to the 'paint by number' method.
One set of contemporary works that I found powerful was Lee Friedlander's series, "Blush sweat and tears" (to see pictures of this, and all other works mentioned in this commentary, please view any of the photo sections on the web titled, 'pictures') I found int intriguing because it showed modeling in an extremely vulnerable thing, perhaps even negative. This is in direct contrast with the idea that models are at the pinnacle of beauty and fashion. I also enjoyed that the artist avoided the cliche of models fighting anorexia or other eating disorders. It's not that anorexia awareness is not also important, but I feel that it is a much more common idea the focusing on the process of modeling itself.

Art I observed on the New York trip has definitely already influenced my own work, especially in terms of stone work (see journal). Going to different catholic cathedrals, such as the cathedral of St. john the Divine let me see monumental size stone works in person, which is much different then seeing a picture. Seeing older works was very meaningful to me as an artist, because it is such a dramatic experience that it made me feel more connected with both the work, and the work that I am personally trying to accomplish.


I think and hope that film photography will make a huge come back as an art movement in the next 10 years. Photography lets you capture life as it is, or allows you to make placements and compositions to display a specific concepts. The process of film draws you closer to your own work, and I think that it has a different look to it then digital pictures.


The Metropolitan Museum of art was BY FAR my favorite museum at the trip. If you want to know what art is, that is the museum to go too. They had an extremely wide collection, so I was able to see art that spread out across the face of time, and splayed through different cultures. I really enjoyed the Met's collection of ceramic vessels, antique furniture, and Indonesian art displaying different gods and mythologies.


Top 5 experiences.
-Discussing EVERYTHING (concepts, ideas, techniques, why or why not something qualified as are, why a piece was strong or weak) with the group members, especially Sarah.
-Going to the Met.
-Going to China town, and Coney island on free day. I had my film camera with me and was able to work on a personal project with fresh inspiration from everything I had seen.
-Street are on the whole trip. How underground artists build up following
-Seinfeld diner.