The lecture, given by Laura Vandenburgh that was discussed in class on Tuesday January 10 was directed at the art of drawing. Drawing is a form of art that in some way or another has been done by every person on earth who has touched a pen, pencil or type of tool. Drawing, “is the mark or trace done by an artist on a medium” – Laura Vandenburgh. After listening to the lecture and seeing the different styles of the way drawing can be done; I found myself puzzled at how complex and diverse drawing can be. In the lecture our class was able to see how drawing doesn’t just have to be doodles or just the use of pens and pencils but can be created with string, ropes, barb wires and other mediums. An example piece would be the cage of barbwire that looks to be levitating off the ground. Another example would be the three-dimensional pieces that seem to flow off the surface such as ink beginning to come off the paper in the form of a wire. I really enjoyed the pieces of work that seemed to have more complexity to it rather than just drawings. It shows how creative people can be and how art is truly complex and diverse. Other art pieces have drawings that cover the entire surfaces of the gallery walls.
Some examples of drawings from the slide show were really interesting to me because of the mistakes that were left on the artwork. It’s always neat for me to see the mistakes done by artists and see where he went wrong and how they were able to change the mistake to form the final piece. Lines left on the artwork show the artists brainstorming and the decisions that they made. Another example of a unique drawing style that I found interesting and creative was the gunpowder piece. This piece was created by Cai Guo-Qiang and used the medium gunpowder as a tool for drawing. It was weird to see because I always envisioned drawing as solely the use of a pencil or pen to create art but was proven wrong because there are several tools that can be used to create drawings.
Cai Guo-Qiang
This weeks reading assignment, “Art Theory for Beginners” was chosen to give us some background knowledge of art history and where art is currently headed. The reading was without a doubt long and tedious but contained so much useful information on the several different groups of art. The readings mentioned how art can affect us and how we choose to interact with it. “The sensation of art, its transgressive feeling, is more important than the interpretation of it” – Jean Francois Lyotard. The reading took us into the more detailed aspects of art showcasing how a variety of art can be formed and created.
Margaret Kilgallen is our artist chosen for this week. Folk art, printmaking, letterpress and flat painting were influences for her work. She also as a child enjoyed looking at pictures of old topography work in books. Margaret found the colors that they were using really emphasized the “folk art” aspect. She also seems to draw a lot from the strength that women have and I feel that she portrays that in her artwork. Margaret chooses to do all her work by hand without the use of any other mediums such as projectors and mechanics. “My hand will always be imperfect because it's human. And I think it's the part that's off that's interesting...that's where the beauty is." – Margaret Kilgallen.
Different points that I thought were noticeable and interesting between the artist Margaret and the photos from guest lecturer Laura, was how drawing can be portrayed on material that may not be the standard material to have drawings on. Examples would be how Margaret would draw full wall canvases as well as using trains or other surfaces to work on. Some of the artists that were shown on the slides were using different surfaces also such as writings and illustrations laid out across the walls of the gallery. The cool thing with artists using different surfaces to work on is how the surfaces can add depth or help the drawings feel more alive and vivid. Margaret mentions in the video, the one where she draws on trains, that the train itself carries history or has a folk aspect to it. She mentions that since the time when trains have been around people have been adding drawings to them. The trains themselves seem to have history written all over them and Margaret uses that to her advantage when she draws. In the video about Margaret’s piece at UCLA she talks about how at a distance the lines will look even and straight but when you walk up close to the piece you can see the curves and the humanness to the artwork. I liked that because it shows that she isn’t perfect and that you don’t need to be perfect to be an artist. In the photos from Laura’s lecture, the drawings shown had similar attributes. Many of the pieces didn’t necessarily have straight lines but that’s what made the pieces unique.
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