Justine Kurland Artist Lecture

Juatine Kurland's work was in the romantic, dreamy tradition. She used women to create and display what she viewed as "American mythology." She thought that this american mythology was represetned by the female teenae runaway. For years she traveled the country searching for teenage girls to pose for her in the American wastelands between urban, suburban and rural. She often had them in underpasses or next to highways to show hiding and travel. She wanted to show the "search for utopia," as she called it. Another way she has taken her art is to show pepole in communes. She liked to create stoic, simple portraits that related to the civil war tradition of portraits. This was another project that involved her road tripping all over America. She to me creates art by emersing herself into the American mytholog and tradition that she tries so hard to display. She seemed to me as much of a runaway as her subjects. A nomad that lived out of her van and met people along the way to help create her vision. Her most recent work involved pregnant women and mothers with their children, nude in nature. This display of motherhood and mother nature entertwined with the body and search for utopia envelops most all of her ideals that he has been attempting to create with her other work. As a mother herself it shows that her life is mirroring her art in many ways. It makes me wonder where else she will be taking her art?

Su Friedrich Artist Lecture

"Personal is political" was the phrase that I remember most from Su Friedrich's lecture about her artwork. Her films were powerfully political and personal. The advice that she gave to we aspiring artists was to "let accidents happen" which I found is something that is good to be reminded of. I really enjoyed her film "Rules of the road" the most. This film was videotaping the car that her ex lover had driven. The stationwagon plagued her everywhere she went. Most everyone can commiserate with this event, seeing a part of their ex almost everywhere they go. I think that her opening with the playing cards that had the letters on it was genious. I liked her connection of solitary gameplay with newly single and being haunted by the fact that she was now alone. The reminder of the loss of a playing partner and life partner. She saw the car everywhere and decided documenting it would be a way to document her pain of loss and seperation.

Kate Gilmore Artist Lecture

I felt that the Kate Gilmore lecture was really inspiring. I thought that the way she took her art and how she got to the point that shes at now isn't as stuck up as some other artists I have heard talk. She began by video taping herself in a cocktail dress trying to escape plaster. I liked how her vision and art is generally minimalist. Her constructions are very confined and put you in a very distinct environment, ther is no room for distraction. My two favorites are Heartbreaker and Wallflower. These two pieces caught my eye because I found them to be very dramatic. I loved the destruction of the man made wooden heart in Heartbreaker. I was really intrigued when she stated that she couldn't believe her strength that she had throughout that piece. That heavy piece of wood hanging was manuevered with ease when she was in the throws of anger and frustration with her "heart". I felt uncomfertable thinking about what scenarios cause such anger or desperation towards something as delicate as a heart. The other piece that caught my eye was Wallflower. This piece consisted of Kate throwing furniture down a hole so that she could ultimately climb down it to get to the floor below. I watched doubting that she had enough stuff above to fill the floor for her to climb down. It made me nervous, hoping that it was also stable enough to hold her and not collapse the moment she stepped on it. I enjoyed her ability to make me feel uncomfertable and anxious. I think that that skill helps her art be more interesting than other performane artist's work.

Submissions

I mailed the two mandatory submissions on November 15th. These are the two envelopes I sent out, I have a receipt from the post office that has the date if this isnt proof enough.