Workbook

LInk to my Reflection and Self Evaluation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cm2s7xy5w16oq8i/Cascino_final_reflection_evaluation_ARTE%205300C.docx?dl=0

4. I will work to thread a relatively consistent style and voice throughout my works of art so all four pieces live together.

Instead of adding to or ‘fixing’ the first piece that I created thinking about the digital realm involving ‘crowds’, I decided to redo at a smaller size as a study for what could be expanded in the future. I got rid of the word ‘categories’ I had made in the first collage, they seemed to cliché or obvious, telling the viewer what to think rather than inspiring thinking. Instead, I went back to what I liked in the first piece as it was being developed, the organic spread of paint representing general entities of a crowd gathering. The colors are rich and seemed very organic, sensual and I began to think more a term, HIVE MIND. Thinking of collective consciousness or collective intelligence on the internet, I realized that the stencil I was using to represent ‘thoughts and comments’ from individuals actually reminded me of a honeycomb from a beehive. I liked the actual golden stencil better than the painted effect is was generating. I cut it up and collaged it into the piece, trying to integrate a beehive feel. Just a few words did the, but covered and layered into the paper. And a few red and golden dots that represent collective input coming into the center and becoming part of the whole. I feel like this is more successful than the first attempt as I like the idea of ‘one’ collective mind, not separate categories or divided entities.

My final piece and some more progression that led up to developing the crowd personas. I realized I needed more movement and expression in this crowd compared to the subway crowd. I felt like the signs needed to be prominent as they were made and carried with such care along with the pink ‘pussy’ hats that were seen in clusters everywhere. I chose to make the sky as bleak as possible as that day was cold and gray with thin fog hazing over everything. There were strikingly stark bare trees lining the march pathways that loomed over the warm peaceful and bright crowd. I couldn’t help but think they were a slight overarching, creeping presence of the dark and cold administration that was being protested. At the last minute I put in some angular tree branches over the ‘fogged out’ tree to give a bit of contrast that had been lost. The monument stood tall and simple in the backdrop, a lot of marble and stone buildings that made me feel out of place and like a tourist, even though we were there to bond and fight for ideas and rights that should have felt like home.

Two timely instagram posts that came up in my feed by artists that seemed to have a similar thought process about layering textures, transparencies, color mixing and text as I have been following and learning about throughout my experimentation with the materials in my body of work.

Added the winter, barren, leafless trees that stretched over the crowd... they contrasted the white, cold, rainy sky and starkly stood out against the soft hazy fog that settled over the monument towering in the sky. I looked at the first tree, the largest one and the one closest to the view and I really disliked the way it came out. I wanted the trees to be crisp and angular but the glue made the black bleed into the sky and it just looked dirty to me, not how I envisioned. I started ripping up the branches from the canvas, and I like of liked the brown imprint it left underneath. I then started covering up the whole tree with the intentions of rebuilding it on top, but when I got as far as the above photo, something about the depth of colors and layers coming through made me pause here. I will move on to the crowd next and leave the tree like this for now, maybe it will be an interesting contrast to the other stark details, not sure now...

The underpainting and color block out for my final CROWD piece, this one harnessing the power of a peaceful gathering, a group that slowly fills in from the outside and remains calm despite the energy and surging of change, disruption and dissatisfaction. The calm comes from hope, the power of people all wanting the same thing in great numbers, unity of vision despite race, gender and class.

mysterious and idle time: mental meandering, exploratory time for the intellect insite occurs, then check it out to see if the connections genuinely make sense. fatal flaws appear! is the attitude and inner freedom of the creative person an elite privilege? luxury? work or play? I believe, yes in a way... but you can always find a space in your life to do the things you love, but money may come in a different way...

What is your greatest dream? I would like to make my son proud to have me as a mother, I would love to create illustrated books for him that he can pass on long after I am gone.

This is the third piece (mostly completed) in the body four pieces of work. The top post is the full piece, the next three are details of the piece to get the sections in focus. Then the process photos. I started with a gauche watercolor background as the others, but instead of just marking out the areas, I really started to paint in the ‘anonymous’ crowd at the bottom. I loved the way the water streaked and bled across the canvas, and was a bit disappointed that I lost a lot of the color and organic shapes when I moved on to using the stencils. Also, when the paint dried, It wasn’t as vibrant, so I felt like the crowd needed many layers. The general idea behind this work is I boiled down the power, community and sourcing of a crowd on social media into 6 major areas, crowd-funding, philanthropy, promoting independent arts/creative projects, political revolutions, crowd voting and a collective build of knowledge/intelligence. Each circular area generally represents each one of these spaces on the internet. I wanted to give a feeling of comments, thoughts, mental bits and pieces of ideas, thoughts, emotions are flowing from the crowd not only into each orb, but also fluidly between each space as well as these categories are very loose, integrated and need each other to exist. Still thinking on this one, might add or take away some depending on how it exists with the other pieces. Dismayed to find out that my canvas on this one was cut an inch smaller in width that the others, and only figured this out AFTER I finished, grrrr.

Wisdom: creating collective knowledge/intelligence (vs. madness of a mob mentality) sharing observations, insights and experiences give diversity, relevancy, better connection with listeners, wikipedia (openness and governance coupled with expertise and interest), online learning and tutoring communities, discussion forums, people working in teams are able to arrive at better and more creative solutions that people working alone. Student learning. different ideas about privacy and social boundaries. large scale data analysis.

Also, another artist pointed out to me with similar themes captured my attention,  Eric Von Lieshout. I was drawn towards Lieshout’s heads in his crowds, the eye follows the dark heavy lines and colors around the human shapes that are gathered together. His lines produce a movement and angst in the crowd and the pops of color guide the viewer through the paintings. When I look at Lieshout’s drawings I feel anger, vibration, intensity, movement. 

Coney Island beach crowds back in the day and now: July 4th 2017. So many people calmly enjoying the sunny hot holiday, what could go wrong?!

Amazed at human nature.

Leaving the subway crowd piece at this stage for now, I think its almost done, might need a little touch up when I finish the others. I made a decision to keep the faces just as simple shapes in the train car windows instead of detailed like I first envisioned because I felt like the other faces were so detailed with personality, I wanted my viewer to look at/focus on the platform crowd and who each one of them are and just have a sense of a packed train behind the windows. I also decided not to fill the whole platform after observing that people tend to pack together in groups and I needed the negative space between groups to draw the eye to the center of the art work. More thoughts on this process later, just wanted to post where I was at by the end of my work session.

As a collage artist, I can say my art making process is much described in this quote, “Every aesthetic decision is derived from a process of experimental or playful groupings of preexisting elements. That unexplainable moment of elements ‘working’ is the result of the inclusion of some combinations and the rejection of others.” I love the idea of my artwork being formed from many many ideas and forms that are found in previous works, literally and figuratively. It is important to me that my imagery is taken so out of context and cut down to such the bare minimum that the elements that I choose are unrecognizable on their own. The success of the piece to me, is when these small, abstract shapes and forms take on a new life and new meaning when combined together, ultimately a ‘new species’. I like to think about good music djs: a new mixed song is really only successful if listeners see it as an original sounding hit, even if the dj is using many fragmented and altered small pieces of previously made beats and note combinations from other composers. I do agree that in this day and age, artists are creating mutations and new species of art, influenced by past works of art, social media, videos, music and news around us. I’m ok with that, as I would be flattered personally if someone creative took small pieces of my photography, paintings, collages or sculptures and remade them into a new creation that was familiar yet unrecognizable to me, even though there would be a piece of ‘me’ within the new work. I find joy posting artwork for strangers to wonder about, make judgements about, steal bits and pieces from. Its ok...

As I read the essay, within the first paragraph I interrupt myself at least twice to wonder if my last invoice was paid and did I put sunscreen on Owen before camp this morning.... I guess after reading this I understand the strong reasoning by which I could not have followed in my mother’s footsteps of being an RN. The thought of completing daily work tasks methodically and carefully as people’s lives depended on my accuracy and timeliness has always scared the crap out of me even though I admired my mother’s ability to selflessly and willingly take on these medical tasks and make them her own. The self in me that is reckless and uncontrolled when the ideas rush in definitely presents itself as disorderly, absent-minded and unmanaged at times. Even though I have always been lucky to work in an artistic field, producing ideas and designs for clients that seek creativity for their brand, I always had trouble coming up with my best designs while the rest of my art team members were sitting right next to me, music playing, email reminders dinging, no solitude, no quiet to let the ideas flow freely. I would procrastinate until everyone left and then in a quarter of the time, work out my best ideas in a free flowing and unmanaged atmosphere. Now, when working on this body of work for class, I have had to push myself to stay engaged, not interrupt myself as I work on the floor of my living room–as i know I only have a set amount of time to work each day, every second counts. Unfortunately I can not push aside the part of my self that is run by the clock that sets my responsibilities each day and I am unable to be ‘heedless of social obligations’ without repercussions and some major guilt of neglect and priorities from husband and child. BUT, I do feel like I have learned to remain loyal to my creative self and pursue the adventures that lead me to complete the next piece by stepping out of my comfort zone and pushing myself to take an art studio class after 21 years of not being in a critique or classroom! I’m really happy about this time that has been carved out for me, this time has a name and now exists not only in my physical schedule but also in a section of my self, the place where I hold and remember my ideas that come in at all hours and am able to make them come to life when it’s time.