In the spirit of Halloween

Here are some freekishly realistic carvings done in pumpkins! I love the wrinkles that are exaggerated so heavily in these.  Now this is pumpkin carving to the extreme.

Carole Kalos

I really love Carole's use of color and abstract expressionist style.

"Landscape in Red"

"Remembering Aspen Again"

"Yellow Sky"

Photograph, or painting?

Alexa Meade, an artist living in Washington DC, creates photographs that look like paintings. Alexa explains, "Instead of painting a picture on a two dimensional canvas, I paint directly on top of my subjects in three dimensional space. The photographs of the painted scenes look like flat paintings without the assistance of Photoshop or digital manipulation.

"Blueprint 1"

"Blueprint" Installation

"Alexa split in two" 

"Transit"

Tulu's artist talk

            During Tulu’s artist talk, she mainly discussed her past works and then briefly talked about the “Playground” exhibit she just installed at the St Edwards Gallery.  Tulu is a multi media artist with a focus in photography.  In the past she has been inspired by outside sources as opposed to having a pragmatic approach.  Her work has a definite narrative quality and usually requires participation from the audience by requiring sensory involvement.  Some of Tulu’s work has a very playful aspect, but others are much heavier and have been created in response to issues around the world including domestic violence and religious controversies.

The first work she discussed is titled “Based on a True Story” where she interviewed 5 random women she met on the street.  It took a lot of interviewing to find 5 people who were willing and trusting, followed by a long process of getting to know each woman and becoming familiar with their every day experiences and trials.  (I wonder how much her vision of this installation changed after finding the women who were willing to participate.  Did she have a previous expectation as to the types of women she was going to use? )  Tulu has a background in formal photography but also enjoys experimenting with different techniques of photography.  For the prints used in “Based on a True Story” Tulu used household bleach to expose the images.  The completed installation had multi sensory elements including recorded dialect from each of the women, curtains the viewer had to touch to move into the space, and the visual aspect of the photos of the women projected onto a screen. Tulu has a very playful outlook on a lot of her pieces and wanted this to be a sort of game that the audience plays to figure out which photo goes with what voice. 

She then moved on to discuss some of her other works including Bleached Silver: “Admissions” which was a photography and sound Installation completed in 2001,  “Aphorism”, a photo and sound installation completed in 2003, and “Addicted”, a one hour performance space installation in 2006 raising awareness of domestic violence.

Tulu created several installations in 2005 one being “Confluence”, a video projection in response to an article about the banning of religious identity in France. Her response is very peaceful and pragmatic and can be seen as meditative.  She left it open-ended and free to a lot of different interpretation. Other pieces she created in 2005 were “Shelter”, a mixed media installation to acknowledge the refugees from all around the world, and “Page”, a video installation recognizing the discipline and time that went into the book the War Nurse.  I would be interested to know what backgrounds the viewer’s came from and how they felt after viewing these powerful pieces. 

Tulu then closed by giving us a little insight as to how “Playground” came to life.  “Playground” is and ongoing photo project involving the playful game of capturing another person taking a picture.  It started with a trip to Beijing where Tulu discovered countless tourists taking pictures of the empty stadium where the Olympics were held.  She saw it as her personal playground and found herself there for hours, catching people in the act of taking photos. Tulu didn’t see the potential of this project until she was editing her Beijing pictures and decided that it was going to be an ongoing project.  I think this project has a lot to offer contemporary photographers because she offers a new, collaborative approach to a photo project in which people from all over are involved.  

5 places I could potentially show my artwork

5 real places I could show my work: 

Thyme and Dough- This is my favorite breakfast spot in Dripping Springs. They always have local art on the walls and in the garden. 

Dominican Joes 
Doyle coffee shop 

St. Edwards Gallery

Austin Java

Magnolia Cafe

Senior Show proposal

A grief observed...  

April 23, 2010 my mom unexpectedly passed away. The immense sorrow and grief that followed has and will continue to impact me for the rest of my life.  The grieving process is almost impossible to understand for yourself, yet alone explain to an outside party. Grief is something so intimate and personal that I felt it difficult to relate even to my own Father, who had lost the same loved one.  Many times I found myself alone in my room crying, writing, praying to the only One who truly knew the depths of my heart.  For God “created my inmost being. He knit me together in my mother’s womb”.  I rested in that truth every night, knowing that all was going to be okay because the One who carefully created me in my mother’s womb knew me better than anyone on this earth ever could and would be there every step of the way.

I am going to create a series of self-portraits that embody the stages of grief and realizations that I went through after the death of my mom with the hope that I can dig deep to deal with unspoken emotions and learn more about myself and how I grieve, along the way.  I attempted my first self-portrait in Hollis’ class last year and was greatly challenged by it.  I realized that I perceived my outward appearance to be something that was very different from what others saw.  I drew it based on the way I felt at that period of my life and assumed that my demeanor correlated with those feelings.  Unfortunately, I have learned that I am far too good at masking how I really feel, so through these works I will force myself to express how I felt/feel.  I would like to explore my thoughts and be really honest with myself.  These self-portraits will be for personal growth as well as a statement of faith to my friends and family and show them what I have struggled with and how God has set me free of so many things.  I might experiment with oil on this one and use actual clips from my prayer journal in each painting or possibly just for the title.  

5 year plan

What is my lifetime goal as an artist?

To influence children or anyone through art- whether it be through teaching someone the skills or technique so they can create their own work, or by creating artwork for  non-profits or churches.  I would like to be bale to donate work to non-profits so they can sell it for their organization.
I do not care as much about having my own exhibitions or becoming a "well known" artist.

What is my 2-5 year plan?
Summer 2012: take Ceramics 2 at ACC and Capstone at St Edwards
Fall 2012: Student teach at en elementary school in Austin
December 2012: Graduate! 
Spring 2013: travel or find a job working with children in some way. Maybe in another country?

I would also like to have volunteered with Build a Bridge, an organization that uses the power of the arts to bring hope and healing to children and communities in tough places around the world. They do some incredible things and I would like to be a part of that organization in some way in the future.

Artist Bio

Kelly Case attends St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.  Kelly will be graduating in December of 2012 receiving her Bachelor of Art Education EC-12 Degree.  She was born and raised in Rockwall, Texas by a loving family and with a Christian upbringing.  Coming from a small suburb, her first move to Austin for her freshman year of college was very eye opening and provided Kelly with a much more stimulating environment to produce artwork.  The environment she is in and people she is around strongly influences her art and since moving to Austin Kelly has produced pieces very different from her past and isn’t afraid to try new things.  Her relationship with Jesus has also continued to be a huge influence on her work and life.  As an inspiring educator, Kelly enjoys learning and practicing all mediums of art and hopes to one day teach elementary school art.  

Artist Statement

As an aspiring elementary school art teacher, I have a particular interest in the way children develop mentally, physically, and emotionally.  This curiosity expanded into a much more broad fascination in human development in general and the different stages one goes through in a lifetime. All my past or current jobs have involved me working with children or people and have enabled me to further this curiosity.  I am constantly observing and creating new relationships with people and have been able to witness some pretty substantial stages of growth in other’s lives and in my own.  Over the past 2 years I have gone through many trials, all of which influence my artwork a great deal, and would like to continue incorporating the effects they have on my life in my art.

I also have a love for color and believe color is crucial in the depiction of a person or story.  Oil pastels provide me with a nice ability to blend together a variety of colors in my work, as well as glazes for sculptures, or oil paint.  These are the mediums I prefer to use, but as an aspiring teacher I like to experiment and learn the technicalities of each medium to better equip myself for the teaching environment. 

Anh Duong, you are great.

I came across Anh Duong last year on the hunt for a self portrait to replicate for my master copy assignment in Drawing 2.  I immediately fell in love with her work and the raw, honest way she depicts herself in her self portraits. I also am obsessed with the way she exaggerates imperfections and uses color to highlight them.  

Untitled (2002)

The Blue Knee (1998)

  

                     The Bitch (2001)