L'ART QUE JE-FAIS: October 2010

I have a list of all the Visual Art Majors taped up on my wall. Each time I study it, I am able to find appeal in all ten of options. However, I do have a particular interest in Painting & Printmaking, along with Sculpture and Craft/Material Studies. Of course, this lead me to the art building on Broad Street. This was actually the first time I'd been there since I visited VCU back in April, before I was even a student. For a while I just wandered around, admiring all the art and glancing into the different studios.

Everyone was busy at work with one thing or another, but I did manage to talk to a few people.

I approached these guys in one of the painting rooms, assuming they were majoring in painting & printmaking, as it turns out, both of them are in Communication Arts. I asked them what made them decide on Comm Arts and they had similar answers. They explained that they liked the wide range of skills and techniques they would develop through communication arts. For them, it made the most sense to be able to study all different kinds of mediums. I asked if Comm Arts was their first choice when applying to majors, they said yes and explained that it has to be your first choice if you end up getting it, seeing as it's so competitive. After talking with them, I am a bit more interested in Comm Arts, it appears as though it is one of the most useful majors for a career.

They're all sophomores and painting majors. For the two on the right, painting was their first choice as a major, the girl on the left said she initially wanted to do communication arts, but realized painting was more of her thing. I talked to them about a bunch of things, including what they wanted to do after college. This is something that's always in the back of my mind: "What kind of career will I/can I have by majoring in art/what kind of art should I major in?" I was particularly curious about what these painting majors planned on doing, simply because I've always been lead to believe majoring in painting is a bad idea if I want to have a good career. They all sort of had the same career goal, they told me that they wanted to teach (first as T.A.s, then high school, then finally professors, they really liked the idea of being a professor) and have their art displayed in a gallery at some point. I've never really considered being a teacher, but I guess it's not something to rule out.

I came up with several ideas for this project and finally decided upon making a box with seven layers of cardboard. For each layer of cardboard, I am creating a new scene. Each time the scene is done, I will cut out that layer of cardboard and paint on the one below. I struggled with narrowing down my central message/meaning.

I've decided upon capturing flaws in human relations, first with regard to the treatment of women, then expanding to people in general. I intend to create a progression of images through word association. My progression goes as follows- gift, girl, bra, cow, milk carton, face on a milk carton, Harvey Milk. Each of these images build on one another, representing a cycle of neglect and objectification that exists within our culture.

(there is a second video continuing the unwrapping, but it will not upload for some reason)