I feel that my thesis project was very successful. I got a great grade on my paper and have some useful feed back to explore and discuss. I wanted my audience to feel immersed. There were many facets to my project that aided the effect of the performance. The most obvious is the connection to water. My painting is about a spiritual transition. The act of drowning in water alone describes that very easily. Most people saw religious undertones in my figuration. There was a literal connection between water the Miserere text. Vox performed this piece from multiple places in the gallery, creating a live surround sound.
As far as the actual live performance, it was very difficult to present that atmosphere due to the conditions of the opening. There were so many people there! So naturally, everyone was talking and of course loudly. This made it an awkward performance for us because we couldn’t see or hear each other. It was also upsetting that many of the people that were talking were my own classmates.
I was told that the atmosphere of the gallery was eerie and effective. At first people were frustrated with the background noise, but after a few minutes, people found it powerful and effective. I believe that my goal of emersion was achieved.
The feedback I got was generally really good. The only complaint I had was the background noise, but it was clear that I could not control that. Most people really liked the wrinkles in the canvas. There are only a few people that were not really connecting to them, and they were usually artists. It seemed to be an aesthetic issue.
A few of my professors have questioned its connection to contemporary life and art. My one prof. told me that my work is disconnected from the past 200 years. I find this frustrating because I feel very pigeon-holed by my thesis project. I think that people react to my project/art differently than everyone else’s work because it doesn’t have any societal agendas. My work doesn’t talk about the same issues as most artists as well as people. However, just because my work is different does not mean that it’s not in conversation with my contemporaries. For one, unlike popular belief, my work has nothing to do with subjective religion. If anything, it is more about spirituality, but that’s still not the point. My only message is that God is there whether you believe it or not. People have trouble accepting that it is that simple. My work is not about Christianity, neither is it about all the complexities of religion within society. It just so happens that my Christian nature manifests in my work. I deliberately do not discuss these things because I feel that this one message is the most important thing in the world. It is the only thing that inspires my paintings. This work is both relevant and valuable today because I believe that most people in this world miss the ultimate truth in life because they let themselves get distracted by societal trends and preoccupations. Not many people’s works have the same point to it. I think I’m sort of I’m my own little category.
I think work is just as relevant visually. I have a very well rounded set of skills and paint with a variety of styles. I render tightly as well as blur and abstract the image. I feel that this is a very progressive way of figuration with which not many contemporary artist experiment. I feel that most of art society stopped working with similar concepts in the early 20th century. I have a very abstract way of painting that compares to the style of the old masters. I think that my art is a new development and a new direction for contemporary art to go, especially in the world of performance art and the theatrical aspects of it. I don’t think that it is fair for my professors to scrutinize my work because people are preoccupied with societal isms surrounding the subject matter with which my work has nothing to do. My works all about telling people the truth as purely as I can.
One artist with whose work mine has much in common is Bill Viola. Both he and I use water to portray a spiritual message or image. I don’t know if he gets his inspiration the way I do though, and my reason for creating is probably the main reason why I even paint at all. A good example of one of his works is The Crossing, 1996. This video installation describes purification as a spiritual transition. On an aesthetic level, the color pallet is every similar to that of my thesis painting- lots of contrast between black and grey blue.
Over all, I believe that my thesis was very successful and I really don’t think I could have done anything better than I did. I am very satisfied with how it went over. As moving forward, I’ve already completed one painting and currently have two underway. I’m going into a completely new direction with my painting and I think I’m doing very well. I feel like I’m about to go through another learning spree. I’m moving away from literal water connections but there will still always be traces of my aquatic rendering. I’m excited to create new work over the summer and start studying again in the fall.
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