Michelle Andreano -- Altered & Assembled at Lafayette College

The show “Altered and Assembled” featured works created almost exclusively of found objects, many incorporating a book into their work.. There was a wide range of pieces, from very small boxes to a large mobile, necessitating many different ways of hanging and displaying the works. Some of the book pieces required pedestals, and other pieces were hung on the wall.

As a group, I was most drawn to the pieces primarily composed of books that were altered, because to me books are an experience. Books hold a history because many people have read that same book and they often pass through several owners. The one book piece featured a library book with the word discard stamped on it, with a magnifying lens placed in the cutout cover, reminding me of a seeing glass showing another world, which is very much how i see books – as an escape from the everyday into anyplace you could possibly want to go. A truly good book will draw you into it and stay with you long after you've read it – and to me, the same goes for art. It should make you think and want to know more about why the artist did that and why they chose that color, and so on.

The artist whose work stood out to me the most was Wally Barnette; all of his works stood out as being about secrets or a dark past. They all seemed to have a story behind them.

“Assembling the Illusion,” was composed of a wooden box with two compartments, the top part of which was open with a coiled piece of wire looking like a tree (like an abstract outdoor scene). The bottom part had wire mesh with a 'lock' on it holding a picture of a women without a head and darkness behind the rest. Together it said to me that life appears to be free and open but really we are all trapped in our own locked 'box.'

“Southern Dirt,”also by Wally Barnette, was composed of a large lidded box with a smaller one inside and dirt between the two. Old photographs and what looked like a light-bulb socket with a chain hanging were in the lid of the larger one. Bones of some creature were in the dirt as well as a pocketwatch. Inside the smaller box was an even smaller one with some trinkets within. The piece looked like one of the heavier ones there and sat on one of the pedestals.

It seemed like a piece about very dark family secrets, buried deep in the ground, as shown by the dirt and bones, and time passed, as indicated by the pocket watch. The light socket without a light right next to the photos seemed meant to convey that these secrets were meant to be hidden either by the people in the photos, from them, or for their benefit. This is the work that spoke to me the most, probably because secrets have been the issue in some of my recent work.

All of the pieces used found items in a compelling way, and I especially appreciated the use of old boxes or books as a blank 'canvas.' Using something that is worn and obviously used gives the piece a unique feel that you don't get using new materials unless you try to recreate the patina of time passed by, but I don't think you can ever give a new item the same history an old one does. Putting an item that has passed through time into a new project changes the nature of it and gives it age and makes people think about why you chose that piece. After seeing this show, I have been seeing the potential of found objects more and hope to incorporate some altered pieces into my art more.

Courtney S. NY Galleries 5 artists

1. Georgia O'Keefe. Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue,

Oil on canvas; H. 39-7/8, W. 35-7/8 in. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1952

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. "Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue," is said to be one one of O'Keeffe's most famous works, although I had never come across it before. I really enjoyed this because I am currently using a bear skull in my piece. This is one of her earliest studies of a single animal bone isolated from its natural environment. I appreciate the skull and the backround she uses to display it and the isolation it portrays. Despite its Southwestern subject matter, the painting was most likely done in Lake George during fall 1931. The cow's skull was one of several bones O'Keeffe had shipped East the year before, with the intention of painting them. I also wanted to paint the bear skull but unfortunatly can't becuase it is my fathers and he didn't want me to "destroy" it. Georgia left the skull in its natural color which makes it even more interesting with the background design. The interesting shapes and textures of the bones and their natural play of positive form and negative space repeatedly inspired her. She saw in their jagged edges, worn surfaces, and pale color the essence of the desert. Met's websites description states, "O'Keeffe was able to create compositions of extraordinary simplicity that can be appreciated on many levels. "Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue" is masterful, both as an eloquent abstraction of form and line and as a symbolic image that raises issues of nationalism and religion."

2. Jim Dine. Bedspring, 1960. Mixed-media assemblage on wire bedspring, 57 1/2 x 74 3/4 x 11 inches. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM.

I love this sculpture's interweaving of collage and wire. I also appreciate art that is from old things that are then turned into new art, such as this bedspring. During the early 1960s Jim Dine was part of a loosely affiliated group of artists—including Red Grooms, Claes Oldenburg, and Lucas Samaras—who extended the gestural and subjective implications of Abstract Expressionist painting into outrageous performances, known as Happenings. Inspired by John Cage’s radical approach to musical composition, which involved chance, indeterminacy, and an emphatic disregard for all artistic boundaries, they sought to transgress preexisting aesthetic values. I'm really into exploring sculpture and playing with these idea also.

3. Roy Lichtenstein. Stepping Out, 1978. Oil and magna on canvas; 86 x 70 in. THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. I was drawn to this piece because I usually think of Lichenstein's art as the comic strips of his Pop Art. But these characters are more abstract then the perfect female paintings I have seen, and remind me of a Pop Picasso. His usual restriction to the primary colors and to black and white through his thick black lines. Lichtenstein here depicts a man and woman, side by side, both stylishy dressed. The male is based on a figure in Fernand Léger's painting "Three Musicians" of 1944 (Museum of Modern Art, New York), but seen in mirror image. I think the title, Stepping Out is appropriate because Lichenstein is stepping out in different art directions with the borrowing of "Three Musicians" and the Surrealistic women depicted by Picasso.

4. Daniel Lee. Transfiguration, 2008 archival ink jet print 37.5 x 49.5 inches. OK HARRIS. Lee uses software to combine human portraits with animal features, he creates blended digital images that are startlingly lifelike. Though image editing tools make such obvious manipulation possible, they also allow subtle yet powerful adjustments that are completely invisible to the viewer. I appreciate his imagination and ability to use photoshop in such strange and amusing images. I am jealous of people who are able to create such amazing things with adobe programs and wish to learn to understand them better.

Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawing #260, 1975. Chalk on painted wall, dimensions variable. THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART. LeWitt produced more than 1,200 wall drawings which is very impressive. This reminds me of the chalk drawings of Keith Haring that have been preserved and even erased. I think it is awesome that this installation fills a single large gallery and is kept safe from nature and human destruction. The work's subtitle helps to describe the installation: "on black walls, all two-part combinations of white arcs from corners and sides, and white straight, not-straight, and broken lines." Although LeWitt's wall drawings evoke the tradition of Italian fresco paintings, they have established a distinct tradition of their own, in linear designs, created by LeWitt.

Michele O - Allentown Art Museum

I think Steve Gamler has a really cool job that I would love to have. He got to witness the art at each step in takes in the museum - upon its arrival and until it is hung. He gets to handle priceless works of art every single day, so he must feel a great deal of pressure. I would probably run away and live in a cave if I ever destroyed one of those priceless ancient artifacts. I’ve always wanted to work behind the scenes in a museum and a job along these lines would be great - except for all the technical stuff and the use of math.
Jane Kinztner’s job as the Director of Education is not one that would appeal to me because I am not really a good teacher. However, I did think it was interesting that she got to create all the different classes and lessons - that requires a lot of creative thinking. I also thought it was cool that she gets to work with people of all ages - from young children to the elderly and even whole families. Her job at the museum probably requires the most people and social skills.
Jackie Atkins had an interesting job too, the head curator of the museum and the curator of textiles. She basically has a part in everything that goes on in the museum. This job does not really appeal to me because I find textiles boring, and while a curators job is very interesting and it is a job she is lucky to have, it seems very overwhelming.

Michele O - Interview with Frank Mann

Interview With Artist Frank Mann

Being able to talk with and have my artwork evaluated by Frank Mann was a one of a kind experience that I will surely never forget. He gave me tips, ideas, and his thoughts on my work. He truly looked and thought about my pieces and what he wanted to say about them for some time. Probably the most surprising thing was that he did not embody the traditional stigma that artists are stuck-up, standoffish, and pretentious. In fact, he was quite personable and seemed more than willing to offer his advice and experience to us.
Frank Mann told me that the basis of my work reminded him of himself, which I took as a huge complement. While our styles are very different, he pointed out that we both have an abstract way of leading the viewers eye around the canvas. He also said that my work tends to have a “decorative” feel and a somewhat design-like aesthetic, and although that is not the direction I intended to go in, he is right, and that is something I would like to change. I plan to move to a more representational and illustrative, but still somewhat abstract aesthetic.
This meeting with Frank Mann was very informative. It was a big help to have gotten advice from someone who has been involved in the art world for many years. It helped me come to realize a few things about my work that I would not have noticed had he not pointed them out. It also helped to better decide where I want my work this semester to go. Overall it was a very inspiring experience and I could not have thanked him enough for giving up his time to talk to my classmates and myself about our work, and to give us advice on where to go next.

Michele O - First NY trip

I really enjoyed going to New York to explore the art world and some of its underground aspects. Seeing all the galleries and works and even personal art studios was a little overwhelming but extremely inspiring and informative. I learned a lot about how to get your foot in the door of New York’s art scene - you basically just have to put yourself out there, and I think that was the most important lesson of the day.
Seeing John Kings studio and home was the first thing we did and I for me the most interesting thing about that was that him and Nancy have made art a part of their entire lives. Their home felt like a gallery, and I almost felt I should have had to pay an admission. John King talked to us at length about his methods using wax and graphite that he used to create his beautiful encaustic pieces. He also talked to us about how he branched out and worked with writers to have his work published in books. John King has been involved in the New York art scene for a long time and it is not hard to see why - his networking skills are as amazing as his work.
After leaving John King’s we stopped at two galleries to check out installations by Walter de Maria. While this was not the most interesting exhibit to me, I was very impressed by the enormity and precision of “The Broken Kilometer”. I found “New York Earth Room” much more interested because the work incorporated the entire space and it seemed to affect everyone who walked in the room. It even affected the air - I found the room to be almost suffocating. It was a very emotional piece.
Paul Laster and Renee Riccardo’s exhibit, The Garden at 4am, was one of my favorite parts of the day. They talked about how they wanted to curate an exhibit in which the pieces were all cohesive in that they referenced Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and that they referenced the garden, good and evil, and the captivation of the human spirit. There was one work from each artist who were from all over the world. Julie Heffernan’s “Self Portrait as Albatross” was probably my favorite work in the show because the artist had all the talent of a classic renaissance painter, but the subject matter and hidden nuances she incorporated were very modern.
I really enjoyed just walking around Chelsea and going into and exploring all the different galleries. Louise Nevelson, Paul Morrison, and especially Tony Oursler were among my favorites. Oursler’s show was very different and to me, the most interesting, of the day. His video art combined sculpture, moving imagery, and sound, and the subject matter was hard hitting and I believe it represented human nature, addiction, and obsession.
Pulse art fair was like a whole other world. It was nothing like a traditional gallery or art show - there were so many different artists and so many different mediums and kinds of art. One thing for sure was that it was mostly very modern and tended to push the boundaries of traditional art. There was not a piece in the entire fair that did not evoke a lot of thinking and analyzing.
Overall the visit to New York was very interesting. It was quite an experience to be able to get a behind the scenes look at the New York art world, and to get tips from professionals themselves. And to top it off, a trip to New York is never complete without a trip to Mamoun’s for some falafel.

Michele O - Visual Culture Paper

David Wojnarowicz & The Art Scene In New York’s East Village in the 1980’s

The art industry was very big in New York’s East Village in the 1980’s. Many musicians and artists got their start there, and it became almost a sanctuary for them. There were many neighborhoods, such as Alphabet City, Loisaida, and the Bowery, where these countercultures and artistic movements got their beginning. The East Village is still known for its artistic culture and nightlife, but it does not contain nearly as much galleries, exhibits, and unusual and inspirational artistic meccas as it used to.
It all started in the 1960’s, when the East Village was still known as part of the Lower East Side. When artists and hippies began to move into the area and develop their own culture, it became known as the East Village, and its music and art scene began to develop. Bands like the Talking Heads, The Velvet Underground, and the Grateful Dead were just some of the few bands who got their start in the East Village.
Many artists gained fame due to the artistic opportunities that the East Village offered. Andy Warhol is probably one of the first and most famous to get their start in the East Village. He rented out a warehouse, known as “The Factory”, where he and fellow artists experimented with film, silk screens, and other forms of art. Many other artists and musicians found artistic freedom in the east village, including Warhol’s close friend Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Velvet Underground’s lead singer Loud Reed, Kutztown-born Keith Haring, the very prolific and shock provoking David Wojnarowicz.
David Wojnarowicz was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1954. He had an extremely difficult childhood - he was a homosexual and his family life was very abusive. After traveling all over the United States and parts of Europe he finally ended up in the East Village in 1978. Wojnarowicz was a painter, sculptor, filmmaker, photographer, writer, performance artist and actor. He was in a band for a short time called 3 Teens Kill Four, but they only released one record and were popular mainly for their cover of “Tell Me Something Good.“ Most of Wojnarowicz’s work is derived from his personal experiences and the people he met during his travels, and it often summarizes the revealing and hard-hitting themes of homosexual, the human anatomy, AIDS, and violence. Although David Wojnarowicz was known to be a quiet, soft-spoken man, his work speaks very loudly. In viewing Wojnarowicz’s work, one may feel like they are intruding in on something that is very personal.
Unfortunately, David Wojnarowicz was a sufferer of the AIDS epidemic. His later works were filled with anger towards society for giving so little attention to this disease that was killing so many people. Since it was labeled as “the gay disease”, people discriminated and did so little to fund for its research and cure. In 1990 he starred in a black and white film documentary with several other gay artists, writers, and musicians called Silence = Death. The idea of the documentary, directed by Rosa Von Praunheim, was that people needed to speak up and become educated about AIDS and HIV, and if they did not, it would just lead to more unnecessary casualties. For this film, Wojnarowicz had his mouth physically sewn shut to present the idea that people should be able to speak their minds and be themselves without risking contempt and hatred from others. He also has made many other videos from an AIDS activist’s standpoint. He is quoted in one of his AIDS activism videos saying, “its the use of aids as a weapon to enforce a conservative agenda, that’s what’s heavy” and that “homosexuals and intravenous drug users are expendable in our society and AIDS is treated the same fucking way that homosexuals and drug users are”. These videos are extremely emotional and you really begin to feel his anger as he rants on about the issue of AIDS awareness.
After David Wojnarowicz was diagnosed with AIDS, he said he felt “an incredible pressure to leave something of himself behind.” I believe that he definitely left a big part of himself behind in his work. His work in AIDS activism is still important to people today who share the same beliefs, and his artwork is still greatly appreciated among artists and art-lovers today. David Wojnarowizc was just one member of the large amount of creative entities that made of New York’s East Village in the 1980’s. The art scene in the East Village declined in the late 1980’s and eventually moved over to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with what some believe to be less luster and appeal.

Works Cited
1. Andy Warhol Biography. Artelino. http.//www.artelino.com/articles/andy_warhol.asp.
2. David Wojnarowicz. http://www.queer-arts.org.
3. East Village, Manhattan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/east_village,_manhattan.
4. YouTube. David Wojnarowicz Part 2 and 3. www.youtube.com.

Michele O - Review of Altered & Assembled

Review of “Altered and Assembled”
The “Altered and Assembled” exhibit at Lafayette College was a very interesting experience. The show was organized like most other local college shows I have attended, however, the work was very unique. Among a room with white painted walls hang individual worlds. There are even some microcosms on the floor in front of you. Some of the works were just placed on the ground, while others have special wires or planks to keep them standing. Some pieces are eye level on the wall, others are on the floor and you have to look down into them. The one thing every piece has in common is that they all have place cards starting the artists’ name, the name of the work, it’s dimension and components, and the year of it’s creation.
Indeed the pieces in this exhibit each seem to create their own world that the viewer inevitably will fall into and become a part of. One artist who work caught my eye as soon as I walked into the room was Ellen Siegel. The three-dimensional assemblages she creates seem to mostly be made of found objects. In her piece “Split”, created in 2006, Siegel uses pieces of wood, paint, and miniature figurines of a man and a woman going around in a circle in what appears to be a cuckoo clock. The Man and the woman are split from each other by a piece of wood - the spindle that spins them around in their dance, and above them written in blood-red script, it reads “SPLIT”. This piece evokes a feeling of detachment between two people. This feeling is brought on by the wood that separates them, the endless circle they keep going around in, and most obviously, the title of the piece and the words written above them, “SPLIT”. The cuckoo clock, the floral border, and the Bavarian look of the man and the woman give this piece a very European feel and its puts you in a whole other world.
This is just one of Siegel’s assemblages that are very thought-provoking and other-worldly. Siegel is just one of the many artists whose work was featured in “Altered and Assembled”, and all together it was a very impressive exhibit filled with many interesting pieces. Even though I was in a room in a college in Eastern Pennsylvania, these works allowed me to put myself in whatever world the artist had intended for me.