Weāll be posting articles, quick tips, and artist features every Saturday, alongside answering questions that come into our inbox as a team!
For those already following the blog and familiar, weāve been around for a while now, but have been inactive for some time. We have rebooted for 2019 and canāt wait to share what we have in store!
Hereās the team:
Allyson - @allydsgnā
Abby - @abby-studies-artā
Dana - @studiolunareā
Lily - @pixels-study
Rain - @pastelstudyplace
Yumi - @mayuluh
We hope that you enjoy our content and that we help along your creative journeys!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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As promised before, I will be posting an exhibition review below for the Montreal Museum of Fine Artās Exhibition āOnce Upon a Timeā¦ The Westernā. This is a part of my final exam, however before you are thrown headfirst into the art world, I thought I would talk about what an exhibition review is and how to conduct one as an artist.
An exhibition review is much like a movie review, and as an artist or art student, you will right several over the course of your academic career. They discuss the themes and motives of the exhibition and the artworks featured, as well as the use of space and curation technique: what is the art like? How is it displayed?
Before you go:
Pick an exhibition, in most cases for your courses you will be required to pick one you can attend in real life, and I personally prefer those. If you are going to discuss a space, you should be able to go stand in it for best results.
Read some other exhibition reviews! The best part of an exhibition review is that it is about your feelings and your experience of the gallery, and shows through in other writings. You can also get a good sense of what kinds of things to talk about although I will try to help you there.
BRING A NOTEBOOK AND PENCIL! Seriously. You will not remember everything you need if you donāt write it down, and most galleries won't allow you to use pens near the art, to prevent potential vandalism.
With that being saidā¦ā¦ WRITE THINGS DOWN! If you like a piece, or the way itās displayed, or something about the gallery, make note of that! Your reactions, your thoughts, those are important things to have when you want to begin writing. You should also feel free (unless the museum or gallery forbids it) to take pictures of the works that particularly stick out to you, as well as the artist's description. You can also take pictures of the gallery space to help you remember what you saw, or if you are a drawing person, you can make sketches of the space and the works.
While you are there:
If the gallery has a guidebook or a pamphlet for the exhibition, take one! It will be a good reference for later and may provide information like the featured artist list and the names of the curators.
READ THE EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION. This will describe the goal or theme of the exhibition in the curatorās own words, and it is often up on the wall.
Take your time. Try to take in the exhibition as a whole. As you walk through the space, ask yourself some questions: what does the gallery space make you feel or remind you of? Can you relate it to the theme of the exhibition? How does the artwork shown relate to the theme? Is there any art that you donāt feel fits the theme? Would you arrange it differently? Who is making the art, does it all come from one group? Write down your answers because that is basically an exhibition review.
After your visit, while writing:
Talk to other visitors! Especially if you went with a class or a group for a school assignment. This will help you understand your own ideas, and hear what others thought. They may have different perspectives that you can use to inform your own writing, even if you do not agree.
Read exhibition reviews written by others! If you don't have access to other gallery visitors, then the internet can be a great resource, as many writers will post there. There are many art journals that operate online and they are worth checking out, I promise.
Visit the Museum website! There may be a full list of works shown for the whole show which can help refresh your memory.
While writing: don't be afraid to be honest! I have written many reviews about exhibitions I enjoyed, and I have written just as many about ones I did not. Share your opinion, but be sure to tell people why: if you didn't like the art, why? If you loved the use of space, why?
Language When Writing
We have arrived at the other aspect of the project, which involves confronting some frustrating situations and circumstances. If you are writing this for submission to a university, you will be required to write using some pretty stuffy and inaccessible language. This kind of āFormalā writing will often be required for a good grade.
However, this kind of voice used in academics can leave a lot of people out of the conversation. And in my opinion, art should not be exclusive, because are is universal. Everyone needs to be welcome in the conversation.
Because of this, I have written the following exhibition review using much more common language, in the interest of including everyone who comes across it on the internet. Hopefully, that will also make it easier for you to see how the writing is structured and give you some ideas on how to write this kind of review.
And if you have a thought or comment or if you have seen this show as well and want to talk about it, instead of sending me an ask, leave a comment! If someone has left a comment or question below and you feel like you have something to add or the answer, please feel free to respond! My goal is to foster discussion that welcomes everyone.
With that in mind, please be respectful of others and their opinions. You are allowed to disagree, but please keep it civil. Violence or inappropriate comments will be reported and blocked because this is meant as a positive platform for discussion.
The exhibition review is under the cut! Thank you so much for reading!
The exhibition, āOnce Upon a Timeā¦ The Westernā calls itself an āin-depth, interdisciplinary look at western genresā. It boasts multimedia displays, complex discussions of history, and a massive exhibition space made up of a maze of rooms and hallways. They use this space to discuss the romantic stereotypes that developed in the artistic representations of the west, and theyāre Ā continued effect today. The show is co-curated by Mary-Dailey Desmarais and Thomas Brent Smith, curator of modern art at the MMFA and Director of the Petrie Institute for Western American Art respectively.
The massive space is split up into a maze-like array of rooms, but it not hard to navigate. Each one has one entrance and one exit, meaning that even if you didnāt spend $7.00 on the audio guide, your tour of the exhibition will still have some structure. They move through chronologically, organized very carefully into parts, so it really is quite easy to guide yourself through and gain a good understanding of the themes the exhibition aims to discuss.
The first few rooms, following the Hollywood thread, are organized into āThe Setā which discusses the landscape of the west, which served to inspire the artists, āThe Castā which covers the tropes and stereotypes of the mounties, cowboys, vagrants and native americans that would all be manipulated and romanticized, ā The Real Charactersā which serves to showcase the real-life celebrities of the west, like Buffalo Bill and Billy the Kid, and āThe Dramaā discussing the so called ācommonā events that litter the plotlines of the hollywood western: kidnapping, train hijacking, robbery, battles, and runaway stage couches. While the first rooms do well to represent different media and art styles, they also address both side of the western story: that of the fictionalized settlers, and that of the displaced and abused indigenous people.
On the settler side of things, the first few rooms discuss the power of art, especially photography and painting. Both of these mediums presented a visual for the settlers arriving on the continent and greatly contributed to inspiring the writers and directors of Hollywood. One of these paintings, Thomas Moranās The Mirage (1879, oil on canvas), is a perfect example of this amazing scenery: sweeping valleys and towering mountains dwarf the riding party that cross the scene near the bottom of the canvas. This goes on into an exploration of the heroes and antiheroes that shone on screen, in front of these backdrops. The Cowboys, vagrants, mounties, sheriffs, some of whom are based on real outlaws, going about their lives thwarting the kidnappings, preventing (and orchestrating) bank robberies, getting into bar fights, and living free in the open air, as shown in Charles Marion Russellās Free Trapper (1911, oil on canvas).
The story told of the roles of the indigenous people is much more traumatic and horrifying to consider. Pushed out of their homes and lands for the sake of white colonial settlers, and massacred when they resisted, the remaining indigenous people were then further mistreated in art and film. The men became villains: holding up trains and threatening passenger, kidnapping and holding hostage āinnocentā settlers, and stealing women from their husbands, as shown in The Captive by Eanger Irving Course (1891, oil on canvas). The indigenous women were romanticised and sexualized and abused. This villainization and sexualization would continue up to the present day.
The āDramaā room is also the beginning of the second and third themes of the exhibition: the different varieties of westerns in Hollywood, and the effect of various world events on the genre, and modern indigenous responses to the representations of their ancestors, and the lasting impression those representations left on North America. The āDramaā room gives way to a series of smaller rooms, which discuss two major directors (complete with dramatic, shadow lettered names) John Ford and Sergio Leon. Ford was a famed director, and his 140 films were inspired directly by the 19th-century painters explored in the first few rooms. His film, Stagecoach (1939, film), Ā Leon came after the second world war, participating in the more international sect of western films, including the āSpaghetti Westernā Sergio Leon's films came at the end of the western genre as it had been known up until that point, and his characters were tropes of themselves. Their exhibition rooms include movie release posters, massive timelines detailing their filmographies, and on the right sides of both, a screening of clips from their films for visitors to sample.
Separating the two menās rooms is a room that discusses the effect of the end of the second world war had on the western genre. Heros became anti-heroes; brooding and outlaws, living isolated on the fringe of society. This isolation was meant to relate to the men who were returning home from the war, who themselves also felt isolated, and of course the constant threat of an atomic bomb.
Moving from these viewing rooms, we approach one of the final rooms of the exhibition. This room talks about the next age of the western after the post-war western: the western genreās interaction with the counterculture of the 1960ās in response to the Vietnam war. The cowboy character was played with especially, in their gender and sexuality. Andy Warholās film, Lonesome Cowboys (1968, film), played with this heavily in order to dramatize homosexuality in Hollywood. And finally, the indigenous were shown as the victims of a violent colonial attack, much like the citizens of Vietnam were casualties of the war.
The other end of this next-to-last room, and continued into the last room, we see modern era indigenous artists responding to these representations of their ancestors. Here the multimedia aspect of the art truly shines, especially in Llyn Foulkesā the Last Outpost (1983, mixed media) and a number of other indigenous artists, including Wendy Red Star and Gail Trembloy.
The very last room lead into a sort of entrance to the gift shop, which I referred to as the ābonus roomā. It had a few seats and was showing clips of modern westerns, including Django: Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, film, 2012) and True Grit (Ethan and John Coen, film, 2010). I felt as though more could have been done with this room, as the clips were hard to follow if you were not familiar with the films (I was not) and so it was hard to relate what were shown on screen to the rest of the exhibition. This room did lead into the gift shop, which had a few large cabinets of indigenous art for sale, providing visitors with the opportunity to support real indigenous artists. Among the handmade works was a few true treasures: a cast of Miss Chiefās praying hands by Kenneth Monkland, edition two of only ten made.
Overall, the exhibition met the expectations it set at the entrance. The decision to lay everything out chronologically made it seem much more like a story and recalled the films that it was aimed at critiquing. Some of the lighting was dark in some of the rooms, especially those with projections of films, which made it harder to read the information in some cases, but this was a minor issue that did not greatly affect the impact of the works being shown.
The show also aimed to explore the mistreatment of indigenous people during colonization and continuing today. While I was glad to see this aspect of the western explored at all and I was encouraged to see modern indigenous artists benefiting from the exhibition and sale of works, it should be noted that as someone who benefits from colonialism, I cannot accurately form an opinion on the representation in the exhibition.
The exhibition will be showing until the fourth of February in 2018 and is worth visiting for its interesting and depth look at the western genre and all its implications.
As you may have seen... we have a Discord server now for art/design students! You can check that out here. (we also have a few graduates and freelancers in our midsts!)
One part of our Discord server is having a monthly theme/activity for our members to participate in and to talk about... and this month weāre doing an event toĀ āMeet the Artistā!
Now that March is over we have a list of who participated and where to find theirĀ meet the artist post! Theyāll also be reblogged onto the Studioblr Collective blog so watch out for it!
Hereās the list!
(click on the names for the post and the username for their blogs)
A look at the newest products available on my redbubble!Ā
All of these designs are available in a variety of products including (but not limited to) notebooks, stickers, tote bags, pencil cases, iPhone and Samsung phone cases, and posters!Ā
You can find the link to my redbubble on my main page!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
The Studioblr Collective has been quiet for some time and thatās completely my fault, but the plan is to start anew in 2019!
Weāve got some great volunteers in the StudioblrĀ Chat Discord server that are willing to help me with producing content and sharing great things about the art and design world. Personally, now that Iām graduated with a full-time design job, I feel even more qualified and more available to share some things Iāve learned and help direct this content in a more professional direction. Iād love for this to be a bigger blog and possibly site one day, but for now, articles, tips, features, and more on a Tumblr blog (and weāre planning also an Instagram) will be what weāre planning to achieve in 2019.
If anyone is interested in joining in this escapade youāll have to be okay with using Google Drive and join the Discord server (sorry thatās where weāre discussing things) and let me know that youāre interested. Youāll get a role on the server for it to access the channel and stuff.
Responsibilities include helping write/brainstorm content and help to answer questions that we receiveĀ through the blog. Weāve gotten some asks already that I feel unqualified to answer, so I do need this team in order for this blog to continue being as helpful as itās been in the past.
Anyway, happy 2018, and canāt wait to see what unfolds in 2019!
