[MUSIC PLAYING]
Good afternoon.
Welcome, everyone.
Thank you so much for joining us at today's Student Invitational
2022 Virtual Artists Reception and Walkthrough.
My name is Rebecca Trawick, Director and Curator
of the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art.
Before I hand off the introductions of Student
Invitational artists and the remaining program to Professor
Ming, I want to quickly introduce
the rest of the museum team.
We have with us Roman Stollenwerk, Assistant Curator.
And we have Andy Hadle, Museum Curator.
So they're both participating in the background.
So thanks to you both.
So next, I want to pass off the virtual mic to Leta Ming,
Professor of Art History and lead faculty of Student
Invitational.
Thank you, Leta.
Hi.
The Student Invitational, which we abbreviate as SI,
begins each fall.
That's when interested Chaffey art students
submit applications and portfolios to be
vetted by a jury of faculty.
A select group of students is then
invited to enroll in a class in the spring semester,
taught this year by me.
And that's when students dive into research
and develop an entirely new body of work
to be shown in this exhibition, the Student Invitational.
As you can see in this installation
shot of the Wignall Museum on Chaffey's Rancho campus,
the exhibition is set up in the galleries.
COVID has taught us that physical art exhibitions
are not something to be taken for granted.
We haven't been able to install the show or any show
for the past two years because of pandemic protocols.
So we're even more excited to be back in the galleries.
And students had the opportunity to contribute
to actually install their own work as well
as their other classmates.
They learned how to make sure that the works were hung evenly
on the wall or to find the correct hardware or a pedestal
to display their work or to see how the lighting and wall
text might frame specific aspects of their art objects.
We were able to give students this hands-on experience
of working in a professional exhibition environment
that SI is known for.
While there's no official theme for this kind of exhibition,
what I see is characteristic of all the work
is experimentation, particularly experimentation
with medium and materials.
And this choice to use a new material or a technique
is already a tall order for the artist.
To participate in SI, students have
to generate a completely new body of work,
but in just three months.
That's a daunting task in and of itself.
Compound that with the additional challenge
of incorporating an unknown material or technique.
That's hard and risky.
So to the students of SI 2022, I applaud you
for bravely taking on this challenge,
and in such a public way.
Bravo.
Their exploration of new materials
was not pure accident.
I did push the artists to challenge themselves.
Because to me, the mission of the Student Invitational
in particular, and of schooling more broadly,
is to allow the space for intellectual and artistic play.
This was meant to be a space for students to try out
new perspectives, and it's good to make students a little
uncomfortable sometimes.
But fortunately, they did not have to be uncomfortable alone.
Throughout this process, the students
had the support of many family and friends.
You know because you were there.
And thank you to those family and friends,
as well as help from people at Chaffey.
Campus leaders instrumental to our student success
include Misty Burrell, the Dean of Visual and Performing Arts,
and Nicole Farrand, the Art and Art History Coordinator.
They have both been longtime supporters of SI.
The students and I are also grateful for the other art,
digital media, and photography faculty mentors who
individually guided students in developing their projects.
Lastly, our deepest appreciation goes
to Rebecca Trawick, Roman Stollenwerk,
and Andy Hadle for putting together this beautiful show
and all of the related exhibition materials, one
of which is this exhibition guide,
and events like this virtual reception.
Let me now return to images of the installation.
And this is when we will transition to the presentations
by the artists.
We will go in alphabetical order.
And I will show images of the artist's work while they speak.
We will have a total of 10 artists total,
and they'll speak for 2 minutes each.
So our plan is to run through all of the artists at once,
and so you can save your applause for the end.
Then we'll take a quick break and return
for a question-and-answer session.
Our first artist, Faith Antillon,
experimented with a variety of mediums
before she settled on two primary ones, colored pencil
and watercolor, which allowed her
to combine a detailed realism with intensely
saturated veils of color.
My work for Student Invitational,
In the Comfort of Creatures, draws inspiration
from horror movie poster art with the color palettes
echoing movie posters of the different decades
from the 1940s and '50s to the 1980s and to now,
and the size of each drawing being
close to that of the usual movie poster size.
Like many horror film advertisement posters,
each of my drawings feature a central character
entangled with monstrous creatures.
Instead of them being uncomfortable or terrified,
I re-imagine them as if they found pleasure in their contact
with the creatures.
For example, when looking at the piece titled Retro,
the gruesome hand popping out at the character
does so in a gentle manner with no harm intended as she also
reaches out to the skeleton hand above,
indicating that she feels safe in their presence.
I also made the conscious decision
to draw the figures nude, as I feel
it adds a level of intimacy and vulnerability
and also plays on the erotic nature that has always
been present in horror films.
My work for Student Invitational is
intended to be a love letter to the horror film genre.
The grotesque, odd nature of these films
sparked my imagination in many ways.
And over the years, after spending countless hours
in these worlds of fear and fantasy,
I found that they have given me an unexpected comfort
and a distraction from any reality that I want to escape.
Horror films have also had this comforting effect
on others, as studies show that the staged fear allows
some individuals to refocus their minds away
from real-world problems and feel a sense of control.
The characters featured in this work
are ultimately a representation of myself.
Like me, they find solace in the wacky dark fantasies.
Thank you.
Prior to SI, Justin Braden specialized in drawings.
But here, he decided to take on the challenge
of making paintings in acrylic.
But he didn't stop there.
He continued by building up the surface
of each canvas with an additional collaged element.
The two paintings in the exhibition
were inspired by a trip to New York City a few years ago.
The first canvas, Cityscape, seeks
to capture the feeling I had walking around the city.
I placed tall buildings alongside smaller buildings,
mixed together hospitals, hotels, and businesses,
and put advertisements on the sides of some of the buildings.
My second painting, Underground, depicts
an imaginary ancient city set in a cave filled
with stalactites and stalagmites and a stream
flowing through it.
I wanted to incorporate Aztec and Mayan elements
that I recently learned about in a Mesoamerican art class.
I kept the underground setting but added
a triangle-shaped wall as viewed from a head-on point of view.
Up top, sitting in the center of buildings and columns,
is a small stone figure which shows power and wealth
during its active years.
Below is a village with stalagmites
growing into the old walls of the buildings.
Although you cannot see them, there are more structures
inside the cave waiting to be found by explorers of this lost
ancient site.
For this project, I challenged myself
to explore different types of perspective drawings,
using both one-point and two-point perspectives.
In addition, I experimented with two materials
that I have never used before, acrylic paint and tissue paper.
I adhered the tissue paper to the surface
of the canvas with watered-down down glue
to add texture to the stalagmites and stalactites
or to suggest movement of the sun and the river.
Thank you.
Our third artist today, Melanie Delaney,
created a series of work deeply rooted in a place,
but also enhanced with a bit of magic.
She experimented with many mediums in an effort
to achieve a naturalistic illustration-like style
and landed on oil pastels and colored pencil.
This collection of drawings all began
when an image of a bear playing an accordion
popped into my head.
This enchanting bear made me wonder, what kind of music
is he playing?
Where is he?
Is he playing alone?
After a bit of research, I ultimately
decided to set the scene in the Swiss Alps,
home to both brown bears and accordion-laced Alpine
folk, a musical genre originating in the Western
Alps.
Once the setting was decided, I chose other animals
native to the region to perform with the brown bear.
To the left, there's a raccoon with a clarinet playing
with the brown bear.
The middle piece depicts a red deer with an upright bass,
a mountain hare with a mandolin, and a red fox with a fiddle.
The last piece on the right showcases
two marmots with Alpine horns.
While animals standing upright playing instruments
is unrealistic, I tried to blend in some realistic attributes
to make these works convincing.
Not only are the facial features of these animals rendered
to appear somewhat realistic, I also
included qualities about them that are true to real life.
For example, mountain hares are a gray-brown color
in the summer and change to an almost completely white coat,
with the exception of their black-tipped ears,
in the winter in order to camouflage
in their current surroundings.
In the marmot piece, I tried to include some perspective
through the steep mountainside landscape
to express the true length of the 12-foot length
of the Alpine horns.
I knew from the start that I wanted my body of work
to evoke a sort of lighthearted and whimsical escape
from reality.
All the while, I wanted it to be reminiscent of childhood,
the time in our lives that's filled with so much magic
and wonder.
I thought, what better way to do this than to create
a collection of works that emulate
something that we've all likely shared
and still cherish from our childhoods
in one way or another--
children's storybooks?
Thank you.
Abby Erikson works in a digital medium,
meaning that her drawings were created using computer software
and then printed.
For this project, she experimented
with new digital tools to flesh out a complex character world
with layers of color, shadow, and modeling.
I grew up participating in theater,
where storytelling is a creative foundation.
I create characters because the process
helps me to feel a sense of control
over the world around me.
The work shown in this exhibition
showcases characters from my original story, Abnormality,
which has been in development since my childhood.
Modeled after tarot cards, each print
offers a concise snapshot of a single character
and serves as a window into their complex storyline.
Each character was designed to represent difficult events
or themes in my life--
for example, Radio, my persona.
As the daughter of Plague and Lyra,
she is extremely powerful--
she is an extremely powerful individual.
Her most notable feature includes the radio head
given to her by her father as an experiment.
I created Radio in high school as a way
to process my changing world and figure out who I was.
The swappable heads represent two things--
my difficulty with being the person I felt I had to be,
represented by the human head, and being
my genuine self as the Radio Now that I am older and more
secure, Radio is able to use both above our heads
as we tandem without feeling trapped to either one.
My process for creating digital art
is similar to my traditional art process.
However, I find that I have more creative freedom
with digital art.
As someone who finds it difficult to keep an organized
space, I like how the digital medium
allows me to keep my workspace simple
while also offering a broad scope of tools
to expand my artistic process.
With digital art programs, I can freely
experiment with different brushes, perspective tools,
and lighting effects without too much commitment.
Each piece follows a similar formula--
the character in the center situated in an environment
related to their story, either literally or figuratively.
Plague's piece is my favorite example of this process.
A new technique I developed for this specific body of work
is the use of the watercolor brush
to add soft lavender shadows over a multiply layer.
What this does is creates a darkened midpoint
blend between the color I'm using and the color beneath it
to create a shadow.
And the watercolor brush allows for a painterly rendering.
Plague's piece takes place on a stage
to represent his overall story, where
Plague must put on a show to keep a connection with Lyra,
his wife, and Death, his own brother, the figures seen
in the background.
He stands on the radio to represent the power he
holds over his daughter.
However, he feels some fatherly connection to her,
so he holds Radio's human head high.
Part of the difficulty of using characters
as a medium for an exhibit like this
is establishing a personal connection.
I didn't have time to speak about every aspect
of every character in detail.
So for this exhibition, I decided
to include my personal sketchbook
and a soul color personality test
to help bring my viewers into this world.
A big aspect of Abnormality--
the storyline revolves around souls and their colors,
representing different personality types.
The test was meant to be used by viewers to determine what
soul color best suits them and would match you
with the characters who had a compatible or similar color.
Overall, my goal with my art is to encourage others to create
and tell their own stories.
By choosing to showcase my characters,
I aim to present my own story to the public, a story
I have been attached to ever since I realized what art
really was in middle school.
Thus, I encourage others to create and tell
their own stories that might help them
work through their own lives.
Thank you.
Yves Jackson used a technique of assemblage,
or assemblage, which involves using found
pre-made used objects from the everyday world
and combining them into a sculpture.
As you'll hear from Yves, he turned
this creative improvisational method--
he turned to this once COVID hit.
Making sculptures out of clay was something I always enjoyed.
However, the COVID-19 disaster drastically
changed that, as I lost access to the ceramic studios
and kilns.
During this time, I was experimenting
with different ideas of doing art,
and I came up with the idea of making dioramas
using various found discarded objects.
This result is the work titled Peace of Mind.
Peace of Mind as a project gave me
a feeling of peace of mind while building it.
The content of the work represents
the places and activities I enjoy, namely
spending time in nature.
It was made up of objects that I happen
to find in parks and other places
where I go in my daily life.
As you can see in the images, I repurposed two skateboard decks
for the base, covered it with moss for the ground cover.
Within the larger piece, there is also a number
of what I call mini-projects.
Here is a building titled Pomona Queen building that represents
a place to eat and drink.
It is made from popsicle sticks and stone
and is set along a stream that is made
from blue beads and Saran wrap.
Another mini-project in Peace of Mind is the Steampunk Tower.
This tower started with a three-pronged piece
of metal decorated with gears, and then I
added cardboard advertising along
with a crashed drone and bird nest underneath the tower.
Each of these mini-projects was improvised
based on what I found on any given day.
The first mini-project that I made
was actually in this image of a little gazebo
where people hang out.
I repurposed a wooden birdhouse decorated with bottle caps
that I dug up and cardboard.
Inside the building, you can see one figure plus two others
in conversation outside.
You also might see the black cat in front.
Throughout Peace of Mind, there are various species of animals,
including an owl, flamingos, fish, cat, dog, giraffe,
moose, and dinosaurs.
These are animals that are seen in the wild, in the zoo,
kept as pets, and only in our imagination,
as dinosaurs are extinct.
The inclusion of all these species participating
in various activities in this work
suggests the coexistence of diversity
opposed to the crazy divided world that we live in.
Thank you.
Similar to Yves, Joseph Keryakes was also
working in an improvisational, open-minded mode.
In his ambitious series of hand-formed clay tiles,
he shows how having given fixed parameters
can ironically allow for expansive artistic
experimentation.
Inner Landscapes is a collection of 50 1-foot square tiles made
over the course of 50 days.
During this period, I made it a daily practice
to fabricate design or glaze a ceramic tile
with the goal of creating one tile for each day.
This is a form of disciplined physical and mental exercise,
much like the training I did the year before that led me to lose
70 pounds in two months.
When looking at Inner Landscapes as a whole,
we can see that something is missing.
Four spots or blank.
Yet I did, in fact, make 50 tiles.
Last minute, during the installation process,
number 37 shattered due to the epoxy failing
to stick to the wired hardware.
The other missing tiles had the same faulty hardware.
While not intentional, the missing tiles
makes Inner Landscapes read more like a sentence.
This is fitting since each have words
to describe my inner thoughts that day
carved onto their backs.
The first title I created, shown on the top left,
has the word "anxious" carved into its back.
I was anxious to the fact I had to make 49 more of these.
I punched and stabbed into the clay with the intention
to let go of my stresses in life.
And this process of creation was a form of meditation
over this slab of clay.
I could go on and on about different glazes
I used, but I'll just focus on one notable glazing technique--
Raku firing.
I used this for many of the titles
because it comes out the same day.
This gave me the ability to glaze more pieces
than would have been possible with normal glazing methods.
You can see a Raku fired piece on the bottom left
of this photo.
To keep my mind fresh through this long process,
I used different ceramic clays each time I made a tile.
You can see this by these unglazed pieces in this photo.
Thank you.
Like our previous artist, Evelin Gonzalez Padilla
also took on an ambitious project
for SI, creating an installation in the Wignall's project
room, which is a separate room that
is independent from the main open gallery space.
This was a big step for an artist
used to working in two-dimensional digital design.
When I began working on my project,
the media was filled with news about Russia's invasion
of Ukraine.
Could we be having a war on European soil in 2022?
How could wars be still happening
when history tells us that they do not
contribute to the well-being of its people?
Wars are something that I often reflect in my everyday life.
Now that we're in the middle of another war,
it felt natural to focus my project on this topic.
World of War is one of the ways I'm
attempting to make sense of the [INAUDIBLE] war.
It is [? photorealistic ?] representation
of a tragic history and also an idealistic place
for positive change.
I chose 12 wars by using three-dimensional dates,
from the Thirty Years' War, 1618,
through the Ukrainian War, 2022, followed
by a black line on the floor to a white text block.
My intention was to fill out the entire space
to create a more powerful presence
of the historical hardships.
By using quotes from war survivors--
on the wall, for example, this quote is from the Vietnam War--
"I was afraid of war because war brings [INAUDIBLE] happiness
and poverty to people."
By using quotes, I attempted to connect
more deeply with the viewer by adding a more humanistic
element to my installation.
The leading text on the project, which you see here in red,
"if war is the answer, we're asking the wrong question,"
translates all my feelings of war into a direct sentence.
[INAUDIBLE] in my head into my installation as the [INAUDIBLE]
text itself became the fundamental form of my project.
Previously, I mainly worked [INAUDIBLE] graphic elements
in a digital format.
I build on this previous way of working
and challenge myself to add depth
by incorporating two-dimensional forms
and adding lighting and sound.
In this way, I attempted to create a dynamic installation
to immerse the viewer in an environment
where the viewer can feel, see, and read,
to take action in what they have learned
and apply it to their lives.
Thank you.
If Evelin went big and filled that entire room,
our next artist, Lo Run, went in the opposite direction.
She created a dollhouse-scale model of rooms in her home.
And I'd also like to comment that her excursion
into this sculpted and modeled clay
is another example of the experimentation with materials
that is seen throughout the show.
I titled these works Home because they encompass
the feelings of stability and comfort
that I want these works to evoke.
Home includes two separate but connected environments
that are small-scale representations
of my actual studio and my bedroom.
These are places where I am typically alone
with my thoughts and creations, places
where I allow myself to be my most vulnerable and let
artistic expression consume me.
For this body of work, I really wanted to push myself
to the more open.
I am generally not one who flaunts my vulnerabilities
or speaks openly about inner emotions,
but I found that making these works
was a manageable way to do so.
By presenting these miniature spaces to you,
you gain an intimate view into my most private environments--
the potter's wheel where I've spent countless hours throwing
pots, the bed where I sleep every night,
and the floors upon which my bare feet drag daily.
Home is a culmination of three things that I absolutely love--
miniatures, clay, and color.
While I had originally planned to make everything out of clay,
I made the last-minute decision to incorporate
a few other materials.
I used real paper towels to make the miniature paper towels
in the ceramic studio, and I made the bedspread and pillows
in the bedroom out of fabric.
I also made the wooden floor of the bedroom
out of popsicle sticks, wood stain, and glue.
Additionally, instead of using glazes
to color the sculpted clay pieces, I used acrylic paints.
Home is me on display for everyone to see.
These works are my love letters to clay
and my thank you notes to the creative process.
Thank you for constantly destroying me and putting me
back together.
And to the viewer, thank you for looking upon my works
with curiosity and an opened mind.
Perhaps you will allow these environments to comfort you
the way that they have comforted me all these years.
If Lowe's work was a veiled self-portrait,
Morgan Turner's work, too, turns the view on the self.
Experimentation with media was also
central to her series of ink drawings,
including experimentation with the type of paper
as well as the display or the placement of the finished
drawings on the wall.
This body of work reflects a state of mind
and explores the themes of capacity and quantity
in an overwhelming nature and how
it relates to my personal experience
with being overwhelmed with excessive thoughts.
Like Professor Ming mentioned before,
ink is an extremely new material for me,
so I freaked out a little bit with figuring out
how to maneuver this material in the best way possible.
But I found that it was an easier process for me
to create a lot of work as opposed to just a few
so that I wouldn't box myself in creatively.
So in doing so, I was able to create more freely,
and I ended up making multiple works that
fit under the same subject matter capacity.
For example, you see pieces that are more abstract, where
I use gestural mark making to exaggerate
the idea of the overwhelmed mental state.
And then I have figurative works where I literally
put myself into the work just to explain
the direct relationship.
So this piece is organized in a way
to avoid grouping certain compositions together
because I really wanted it to be seen as a whole.
I chose not to frame the works because I wanted to keep
the raw edges on the paper.
That just supports the idea of vulnerability
where the paper is vulnerable on the wall,
and it also supports the idea of the vulnerable subject matter
as well.
To me, this seems more organic and not polished
because the mind is not perfect.
So this work is a personal journey
through self-reflection, acceptance, and trusting
the process.
To give even more transparency, I'm
in a continuous healing process from anxiety and depression.
I'm a Black woman who's figuring out her place in the world
and how to parent my eight-year-old, Gary.
So I have daily mental battles through negativity
and positivity.
So this piece, Headspace, is an introspective into my mind
that I think others can relate to as well.
Thank you.
Ruby Van Den Broek is our last artist to speak.
Before this year, Ruby's specialty was painting,
but here we see her explore this new world of clay.
She also incorporates objects from nature,
which suggests Ruby's academic focus on biology.
My [? series of work ?] Grounded was a physical and emotional
project to work on.
The series is about humans and our connection
to nature, combining natural found objects and clay.
Through art, I seem to become more connected
with the world around me.
Through spells of severe anxiety and depression,
I find myself often disconnected from my surroundings.
So while creating art and working with my hands,
I found the physical means to help me become more grounded
and slowly become reconnected with the world around me again.
Before embarking on my new body of work,
I had primarily worked in 2D media, such as acrylic paint
and watercolor paint.
But I found working with clay to be
much more of a physical and personal means to create.
The main figure in my series, Much-Needed Rest,
shows the process of death and returning back into the Earth.
The figure is embedded in moss, peacefully decomposing
and embracing death as they are becoming one
with the nature around them.
In the poplar tree, the main figure
is a curled-over body with a branch growing out of them.
The body is what's left of their past life
as they grow into a new form of tree,
expressing growth through pain and moving on.
My third piece, titled Enveloped,
is surrounded by a cocoon.
In this protective state, they are
left to go through their metamorphosis
into the next stage of their life.
Each figure is going through a process
of change and development, changes such as rebirth, death,
and [? grows, ?] all natural processes
every living being goes through on this Earth.
My goal for all my pieces in my series
was to have them look as natural as possible,
as if they belonged in a natural setting.
To create more of a natural feeling,
I often left the clay unglazed or even unfired in my pieces.
I even incorporated the found natural objects such as tree
branches and gnomes.
The natural objects of my pieces were all
found on nature walks I take when
I feel depressed or anxious.
I wanted to incorporate them in my work
as a way of creating something beautiful from times
in which I felt my lowest.
Hopefully, my series makes you feel a little bit more
at home in nature and grounded as well.
Thank you.
I am going to give a quick recap of the artists
to help us get our bearings, and then we'll
get into your questions.
So as I opened with, I think this idea of experimentation
with medium and material is a way
to tie together all of the works,
whether it was Ruby's move to clay after working in 2D
or Lo's turn to mini clay sculptures after throwing pots
or Yves' shift away from clay altogether and turn to
found objects.
We also saw how artists like Melanie and Faith
were searching for the right combination of colored media
to achieve the realism that they sought.
There is also Justin's use of glued tissue sculptural
elements to his otherwise flat paintings.
You saw how Abby discovered new digital ways
to enhance her animated characters
and how other artists like Evelin
dispensed with the digital tools altogether
to construct a 3D installation.
Finally, we observed in Joseph's work
as well as Morgan's drawings the idea
of versatility achieved through repetition
through this process of making work over and over again.
So as Rebecca might have mentioned in the chat,
you can put your questions there or raise your hand.
And that way, we will know who to call on.
So I am going to--
I think Pam is next.
OK.
Hi.
Thank you.
And thanks to all the students and to Leta
for putting together this fantastic presentation.
I was really impressed with the work and also the installation.
It had a very clean, focused design, so good
job to everybody.
And there was a few things that popped out
at me that really grabbed my attention.
Morgan, I'm someone who also works with ink and charcoal
and things of that nature.
And I was really impressed with your project.
I really loved the variety that you got out of the ink.
I think all of them together are almost like one drawing.
I don't know if they would be as strong without the one
next to them, but the totality of them is very impressive.
And I think it really communicates what you
were talking about quite well.
Those light-- can I just have a moment with those light ink
washes?
Can we just stop here and have a moment?
But my question for you, Morgan, is
you said this is a material and medium that you
didn't have a lot of experience with, or have used it
but not a lot.
So I'm curious about the experience of using ink
for this project and as in depth as you
went with ink in this project--
number one, what do you think you learned
about yourself in using this medium that you weren't quite
familiar with?
And how do you think you would approach--
how do you think you would approach a different medium
that you hadn't used?
Yes.
Great question.
And this SI project in dealing with ink,
I did learn a lot about myself.
Specifically, I had to learn to trust myself.
Because as you may know, with ink, there's no erasing.
Once you put that ink on the paper, it's there.
So I did struggle a little bit with--
I kind of took a while to get to the paper
because I felt as if things had to be perfect
when I went to the page.
A I just learned to trust myself, trust my instincts.
I had great mentors that helped me out with that as well.
And for other materials, I think it's just having fun with it
and not putting pressure.
My mentor, Suzanna, she actually told
me to use a stick with ink.
And that's just to play.
So if I go to another material, I
feel like using other objects instead of the actual material,
things like that, just to break out of perfectionism,
would help me move to other materials.
So thank you for your compliment.
I appreciate it.
Fantastic.
And I'm excited to see what you do next.
And I support and hope that you bring
that self-confidence of play.
I think that's so important.
So I look forward to see what you do in the future.
Thank you.
I think Nicole might be next.
I may not be going in the order that you raised your hands.
[INAUDIBLE]
I don't know if you mean me, Leta,
but I don't have my hand up.
I think it's Katherine.
Katherine, yeah.
Sorry.
I saw Katherine, and I instantly translated--
I figured that's what you did.
Katherine Turner, please.
Hi.
Can you guys hear me?
Yes, Katherine.
Great name.
I just wanted to say that I'm really proud of all the artists
and being--
I just wanted to bring up this point quick--
May is Mental Health Awareness, but we should be aware of it
all the time.
And I really liked how all the artists spoke about their depth
into their artistry, what it made them feel like.
And I have to tell you, that's my niece, Morgan,
and I just love--
I've already put my bid in for the picture I want.
And I love what she said.
And a lot of the art, I did feel,
expressed a lot of the inner depth.
The young lady with the horror pictures
and the death with the trees growing--
I don't remember everybody's name, but I just really--
and the young man with collecting things--
I mean, that's life.
We just collect a lot of things.
And so I loved everybody's pieces--
the titles, the war.
This young lady put out what a lot of us
want to say-- like, what can we do?
And what is the answer?
But I just thought it was really good
that the artist brought out all of those things
about how it soothed him and how it brings you back
to childhood, all those things.
I loved it all.
Just wanted to say thank you, everybody,
and thank you for inviting me here, Morgan.
Thanks, Katherine.
It's great to hear when people that are not necessarily
their professors are moved by their work.
Oh, yeah.
Love it.
I think that Stan--
go ahead, Stan.
Hey, everyone.
Boy, congratulations on the show, all. of you.
I'm really impressed with it.
But more specifically, I find that everyone and the way you
talk about it-- it felt like a real journey for all of you,
that it wasn't just sort of--
I just had this one idea, and you just kind knock it out,
and that's it.
All the projects, to me, seemed very layered
and that you were really plumbing yourselves.
I think it's a really weird time to be
doing art in the pandemic.
And I don't feel like some professor walking out
ahead of you.
I think we're all kind of rediscovering
what art is during this time.
And I think you did, really, a very admirable job trying
to make sense of this time.
And what you did, a lot of it was pretty profound.
Eve, it was so wonderful to see--
I know you weren't working in clay this time,
and I'm used to your clay work.
It's so fun to see you translating
your explosion of imagery into another material.
That was really fun to see.
I'm happy to see that you didn't hold back
and brought the explosive quality to this work.
It's really fun.
But anyway, congratulations.
I don't really have a question.
I just wanted to congratulate everyone
and for layered, deep work.
It was a great show.
So that's it.
Thanks.
Susanna.
Hi.
So congratulations, everyone.
It's pretty amazing to see.
And I've worked closely with Morgan,
so part of this question is to her, but also to Joseph.
I'm really interested in the parameters
that you set up for yourself, Joseph,
with the one tile a day, and there are certain things
that are regular for 50 tiles.
I'm curious what you thought of that,
how those parameters could actually
allow you to be super creative and inventive,
and then your relationship to unexpected things like mistakes
or errors.
So I'd love to hear from you, Joseph,
and then also, I'd love to hear from you, Morgan,
because I also know that you grappled
with a lot of unexpected things and unexpected turns.
Yeah, there was definitely a lot of unexpected things
that came up.
And I just went with it.
The whole process of making this body of work
was meditating over the piece of clay
and letting it become what it wants to become,
not trying to resemble anything, no realism, just meditating
over it and feeling what I feel and letting go of my stresses.
Yeah, so it was definitely a process.
And the hardware failures definitely
were sad, especially--
it was scary.
Like, oh, no, what if the other ones can fall?
So it was-- but it all ended up panning out,
so I think it is fine.
I think the gaps in the installation
make it so much more interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah, so I agree with Joseph.
It's the process of it all, and it's accepting of the process.
I will say that my entire project is unexpected for those
that know what my proposal was.
My proposal was nowhere near what actually came out.
So yeah, it's just trusting the process.
Like Joseph said, it's just letting
it be what it wants to be.
Nicole also helped me out with this, my painting teacher.
I guess I had a time where I was trying
to match my sketches to the actual paper.
And because it wasn't what I expected,
I thought that it was a problem.
But it's about letting the piece be what it is,
letting ink flow how it wants to flow.
And I guess it's a sense of letting go of control
and just letting it happen.
And things usually come out best when you do that.
Definitely.
Rebecca, looks like you have a question.
Yeah, thank you.
First, congratulations.
It's been wonderful to work with all of you in the little ways
that we've been able to and to see your installation come
to fruition.
So congrats to all of you.
I know that Professor Ming requires research
as part of your process while the work is ultimately
very personal in all cases.
This is sort of a general question for anyone
who might want to answer.
But I'm just curious how the process of research
during the development of your body of work--
how that impacted your final project and your practice
in general.
I definitely was inspired by On Kawara and his daily paintings.
So that definitely influenced my body of work.
I would like to say that as a person who grew up
doing internet art, I was never really exposed
to artists who were able to put their artwork in galleries
and in public spaces.
And I would always see it online.
And I feel that for me, the act of going out and finding
artists that do similar things to you but may not be the same,
or a presented style that they do,
or a certain theme that they have in their work,
regardless of whether or not it matches your work specifically,
was very valuable for me to really nail down
what I wanted to do and how I wanted
to present my own artwork.
Because I had many, many ideas, and I
went through a very long and arduous process of figuring out
how to write about my work specifically
and how to present it in this space.
And I think doing the research beforehand
made it a lot easier for me to decide on final details.
I think for me, when I was doing the research
portion of the project, I didn't necessarily
hone in on specific artists.
I kind of researched militarism as a whole.
And I was interested to find out that there's actually
a whole psychology behind why people
are interested in miniatures.
And it's basically-- it gives you a sense of control over it
because it's something so small that you can move the pieces,
and you can view it all at once.
And so I think for me, it made me realize, even more so,
that I'm definitely a control freak.
And I didn't even know that that's
why I was drawn to miniatures, but I think that's part of it.
I just wanted to show you Lo's work again just
to remind you of the level of control
that she exerted over her materials.
Roman, looks like you have a question.
Sure.
Congratulations, everybody.
And this is pretty much to the whole group.
When you're making work, I think some of you more than others,
you've talked about the idea of letting
go of expectations or control.
But I think for any artist, however you're working,
there's an element of that that applies to everybody.
And I'm curious-- through the process of the semester,
I know you have a mental picture of what you think your project
may well turn out to be--
if any of you want to speak to the difference between either
a mental picture that you have and what the final product is,
but also, one layer more-- because of course,
I'm working in the museum--
putting the work together where you
have a space that's large enough to show the work together--
did anything change?
Did you have a mental picture of what
it was going to be when it was installed that surprised you
when you saw it in the space?
Or what was your relationship to the final installation
and really seeing the piece in one place, installed,
and if that changed anything for you?
I think Evelin should answer this question.
I think because I wasn't able to go, I guess, every week,
or as often as I would like to, to see the space, measure
everything, and because I had to bring stuff, plan beforehand,
it was pretty hard to have an idea of how
it was going to look like.
So at the beginning, I just placed a rough draft
or a sketch in the computer of what
I would like the color palette to be
or what elements I wanted to be in the space.
But actually, it was more of being there,
seeing what it looks like, and if I needed to do changes.
Because I was very set on my idea, but I actually was like,
I don't even know if this is going
to work or not in this space until I placed it in the room.
So yeah, it was pretty--
I don't know.
I don't know if this is going to work or not.
But yeah.
I would also say for me, because--
I talked a little bit about the expectations
of the actual work, but installing it--
installation day was crazy.
I did have another idea of how I wanted to install it,
and that did not come to fruition on the day of.
Me and Melanie actually switched spots on the day of.
And I do think that it worked out better
than the initial idea.
But I had a lot of help from my classmates
to compose the pieces in the way that it was.
They helped me hold things up and let me
say, no, move this over here, move this over here.
And just having to see all of those words
be a composition within itself, that was a whole other process
that I had to do.
So it's all a learning experience, really,
but it was a great one.
Yeah, it was definitely hectic for me,
especially with all the work.
And I just have to say thank you to Melanie and Faith.
They definitely helped a lot, gluing all the hardware
onto the tiles.
And everyone else helped a lot too.
It was-- I mean, I had to go probably the most out
of everyone.
I had to go more days just to get everything done.
And it was definitely saddening to see some of them fall.
And before when we had time to fix things, one of them
fell that had the word "doubt" on the back.
So it felt really fitting that got
shattered, because I'm done.
I got the work done.
You know?
So that felt good.
Let's take the question from Stephanie Mitchell.
Hi.
I just want to say I'm a new art student,
and I really appreciated seeing everyone's work.
I found it really inspiring.
And to touch on what Catherine said earlier
about everyone's vulnerability and their work,
I really appreciated that a lot to hear.
And I didn't really know what to expect after I heard
about the Student Invitational.
But really loved it.
I enjoyed seeing everything.
I was fortunate enough to see the projects in person
with Nicole's class.
And I really-- I just wanted to do a quick shout out.
I really wanted to say I appreciated it
Evelyn's installation.
I was really amazed when I went in.
The immersive experience with the sound and the ambiance
was just--
it was just really another level.
I wish I had more words to say how amazing it was.
But honestly, shut out to everyone
because all the work was amazing,
and I enjoyed everything very thoroughly.
So thank you.
Thanks, Stephanie.
We didn't pay her to say that.
OK, Pam.
I guess I'm curious what's next, if any of these--
the process of this has inspired other ideas.
I know you guys are like, no, end of semester, chill time.
But I'm just curious if it generated some other things
that you would like to perhaps approach sooner or later.
How do you think about continuing now that you're
on the other side of it?
And this goes for all of you.
Just for starters, I know Faith, Melanie--
Justin, do you have some thoughts on this?
I was going to save my work was heavily
inspired by vintage children's illustration books.
And after creating all of my pieces, it made me have so much
of an appreciation, even more so, for them.
And it inspired me to hopefully create illustrations
for children's books in the future.
If I may chime in about my own steps forward--
because Abnormality has been a story that's
been happening for so long in my life,
I have debated on whether or not to actually go on
to produce it because I want to be an animator.
And I am proud to say that I am officially starting
a comic on [? web2 ?] Canvas.
The first episode should come up in June, preferably.
So I am going forward with that story.
And I think this class was a very valuable experience
to have to be able to push me into that
and finally get over my fear of failure to do that.
So thank you to everyone for helping me get through that.
Yay!
We can finally see Abby, as we talked about,
combining text and image.
Faith, did you have something to say,
or Ruby, before we go to the next question, or Justin?
Do you want to pause and answer another question?
OK.
I'm going to let Cassandra ask her question first.
Thank you so much, Leta.
It wasn't so much a question as I just
wanted to praise Melanie, I believe, for all
of her beautiful paintings.
I myself am actually extremely interested in being
an author/illustrator for children's books
or for novels in the future.
And I just found all of her paintings so delightful.
I can see the whimsy.
I can see this air of magic, the playfulness in all
of these images.
And I just found it really inspiring.
And it's so comforting to know that there
are other artists out there who have the same interests
or would also like to create the sort of fairy tale--
this magical theme in their artworks.
So I just wanted to say it was really great to see,
and I found it extremely inspiring.
Thank you so much.
OK.
I think-- Stan, did you have a follow-on question
that you asked before?
I asked it in chat.
Yeah, do you want to voice that?
Sure.
I was wondering if anybody--
I'll just read it-- if anyone felt they got in deeper
than they had thought they would or could
and were surprised by the scope of their project took on?
Did it get kind of like, oh, my goodness, this
is a lot more than I thought was there?
I was wondering if anyone was surprised
through your research.
Ruby, would you like to answer that?
Personally, I found--
I | actually had a bigger plan for my project.
So I wanted to create five sculptures
all inspired by biology and natural phenomena,
but I ended up putting more energy and work into the three
sculptures and making it more about the three.
And focusing on those was much better
in terms of time and quality.
As a person who, of course, worked
in 2D art before and doing paintings,
I could bust out paintings like crazy.
I could do a painting in like, two hours.
I could bust out, like, five or so.
But when it came to ceramics and clay,
it really taught me how to take my time
and really put my touch into it and like see it
from every single angle and really take
my time to breathe and put all my focus into it.
And yeah, I think that helped me a lot during my series of work.
But yeah.
I think also for me, to answer your question, Stan,
similar to Ruby, I originally was going to do three pieces,
and then I realized that was too much.
I couldn't pull it off in time.
But when I started making the pieces,
I was planning on making them not so personal.
I wanted them to be a broad thing
that everyone could connect to.
But as I was making them, I decided last minute
that I wanted to add these personal touches,
like my favorite books are in my bedroom,
or the paintings on my wall are actually
the paintings on my bedroom wall, and stuff like that.
So I think that was a direction that I wasn't expecting to take
when I initially started.
Cool.
Thanks.
A take a question from Amanda, who was in SI last year.
Yeah.
So I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone.
I think what's super cool is that you guys actually
had a virtual walkthrough.
And I think it worked really, really nicely
to actually see everyone's work in an installation,
especially since ours last year was in more of a virtual space.
So I think it's cool that you guys were actually
able to have a real space and virtual space.
I just think everything worked out really good.
And your guys' work is amazing.
Everyone just pulled off really, really interesting stuff.
So yeah, I just want to say thanks because it's so cool.
Yeah, there are some things that are done well
in the virtual space.
It does make the presentation a little bit easier
instead of trying to stand around
the gallery with 10 people.
That would have been a little cumbersome.
OK.
So a couple more questions.
Let's see.
Do we have any--
Justin and Faith, we haven't heard from you yet.
But do you have any future plans for your work?
Did this inspire you to continue moving in a certain direction?
And Yves, you too, actually.
I'd love to hear from you about all this.
Yeah, [INAUDIBLE].
We can hear you, Yves.
What was your question again?
Are you going to continue working
in this assemblage mode or--
Yeah.
Which direction do you think you're going to go in?
I am.
Even now that the ceramic studio is open?
Yeah.
And Justin, how about you?
Do you think you're going to keep painting now
and adding elements to it?
Yeah, I was thinking of not just keeping painting, but also
using more tissue paper since it was my first time doing it.
And I think it turned out pretty well for my tissue
paper for both of my pieces.
And I think maybe someday, I can maybe use full tissue paper
instead of paint someday when I get the chance.
Yeah.
Great.
Faith, how about you?
Are you going to continue this film poster?
Yeah, definitely going to continue.
Yeah, most of my artwork in general
is more horror, spooky theme elements,
so I'm definitely going to keep doing that.
I think there's one more question from Susanna.
Hi.
I have one more question.
Has anyone learned any approaches
to either formulating their project
or actually creating this more in-depth body of work
that you want to carry into future projects,
or is there something that you learned, like I'm not
going to do that again?
That was not helpful.
I'm going to chuck it.
And this is really for anybody.
In response to the second question,
I learned a lot about biting off more than you could chew.
Originally, my project was going to be much better.
I was trying to fit in all of these story elements.
And I got very frustrated when it wasn't working out,
and I had to reroute.
And I was frustrated because I wasn't
understanding, necessarily, what was best for the exhibit.
So I think it's good to learn that trying
to keep things simple is always the best solution, especially
when you want to do more detailed work
and start adding into your process
like I did for my pieces.
Something that I did that I thought was helpful
was I did imagery research on pieces
that I felt like related to my subject matter or pieces
that I just liked in general that I wanted
to incorporate for myself.
And I cut them out, and I put them all up around me
so that they can be in my subconscious as I was creating.
And I did a lot of them, so I was able to switch them out
as my moods changed.
So that's something that I like to keep with me when
I do other projects.
And something that I don't want to take
is probably just the avoidance factor
when you get stressed out and you avoid it for some time.
And I think prioritizing to at least approach it
a little bit more often would be more beneficial for me
in the future.
Yeah, I think I definitely learned a lot
about time management and what to prioritize
and when to prioritize.
I got to a point near the end where
I had to sculpt seven tiles a day
because I had to glaze everything,
and I had to cook everything to get ready to hang.
And I definitely learned the hanging hardware not to use.
And I learned some good lessons on what
to do next time if I want to hang something.
So it was definitely a lot of learning.
And it was really good because now I know I can do this,
and I have the confidence to do something else bigger.
And it's only going to get better from here.
Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us this afternoon.
I hope this inspired you to get your hands dirty,
to go start working with some new materials yourself.
We're telling our students, go take risks.
Everyone, I hope we all follow that advice.
And to those students, Chaffey students who are watching this,
like Stephanie, I hope you will be inspired
to apply in future years.
So thank you, and see you all in 2023.