1. What do I do well? (Strength)

I feel that, while I have not done it as often as I should, one of my strengths is my ability to draw from observation. I enjoy using charcoal and drawing pencils because I have developed a familiarity with the marks that can be made with them and how exactly to manipulate these materials. The nature of the materials I prefer makes it easy for me to work both large and small, which I find very fortunate and useful. I have found that through a combination of both using materials I manipulate successfully and drawing from observation I keep myself from becoming generic in my mark-making while also yielding what I consider to be intriguing and beautiful work.

Now that I have finished fighting myself and trying to make art making more difficult than it needs to be I find I am also very good at getting myself into my “zone.” I make art with more passion now. I use a sort of automatic art making process. It is not entirely automatic, but my art is about the moment rather than enacting steps to reach a particular destination. I make spontaneous marks and smudges in conjunction with moments of careful editing or guidance of my work in a particular direction. The work never really comes out being something you can truly see and understand, but it is full of intensity and feeling. So I guess you could say I am good at making art which reflects intense feeling, and which tends to be confusing and even uncomfortable.

2. What can I improve upon? (Weakness)

I need to try making works which speak with one another rather than competing for attention. Right now I feel that while they want to read together in their similar style and appearance, they all hold an equal weight. It bothers me that I don’t really know what to do with them. It’s arguable that that might be a good thing, but it does not feel intentional enough. I want them to read together, not as a narrative, but as a body of work in which every work is complemented by the other works. They should have their own identity so to speak, which is emphasized and augmented by being viewed alongside another of my works.

I think I could do this by having more intention behind my work in general. I need to think more about my incorporation of color. If I choose to continue using color at all, it needs to feel more intentional and critical to the work. I need to think more about my incorporation of images. Why these images? The same is true of size and shape. Why this size? What does it do for the work? Does it feel right? I need to be aware of my composition as well. It needs to be interesting and keep the viewer’s eye moving throughout the work, but there needs also to be variation. Variation perhaps is the most important issue I am having with my work. There needs to be more variation within my work. The trick is doing this without altering my whole style and the feel of my work. The work should read together as a whole, but the mood of each piece and the pace at which the work is viewed should be different for each piece.

3. What’s next? (Future)

First and foremost, I need to keep this idea of variation in my mind this semester. I think it is the key to resolving many of my issues. If there is variation particularly in mood and how quickly the works are read, I feel an implicit sense of the mind and subconscious experience will begin to develop in my audience. To really emphasize this idea, though, I also want to consider repetition more this semester. I have already been repeating certain motifs such as hands and eyes, but I want to start repeating particular hands or eyes or situations so that a sense of memory develops. These repeating images may even begin to develop a set of personal symbols.

I also want to work on creating more depth within my work. I do not know that I want them to feel like places, and I certainly do not want them to be complete illusions, but I do want them to give the audience a sense of being engulfed. I want to be more conscious of what role the surface plays in my work, and consider the illusion vs. the mark.

And finally, I need to explore color this semester or at least warm and cool tones. I realized over break that black and white feels dead to me. Just the addition of a warm gray here and there really brings a lot of feeling to the work.