Art Review - Mike Vance

I want to talk about art.

But since I'm in Portland now and MECA won't let me roam their studios critiquing other people's work – their loss – I'm going to take a stab at this writing thing. This is an exercise for me, but also I think documenting thoughts and sharing them can only be good. Plus no one wanted to do the podcast. In the very least Mike Vance will have a review he can point to if he ever needs one.

Berger's Book List: Inside the White Cube

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Alright during my senior year I read a lot. If anything half of what I did that year was read and it really shaped how i approached my work. So of course got to share what I read and this seemed like a good place to do it.

Montserrat Library has this book, I actually made them order it.

finished product

looking through all these images I really need to get my inventory put together.  Got other shit to do first though.

Senior Year

Small update.  had to clean up after a night of work and i was pretty proud of how my studio wall was looking.  The only new painting i'm starting is a collage for the senior show, 'cause they scheduled that during when my shows going up.  little touch up on the driver license and the map is going to get text... other than that some more text is going to be made and it's all installation planning from here on out.  anyways cya all around.

Bookcase

I'm doing sculpture mwhahahaha.  But no I kind of am.  After watching everyone else do fun things with found objects I figured I'd jump into the fray as well.  Though mine is a hybrid shudders that Mike found that I stole and pine that I bought at the lumber yard.

I've been playing around with the idea of community / collaboration / installation.  From this cess pool of thought, a bookcase appeared in my mind.  One for me to put books on that I'm currently reading. I want it to do more though.


I want people to feel encouraged to browse through the materials, and also perhaps contribute readings that they feel are relevant.

I'm thinking of putting up posters that try to promote this idea, though I left my bookcase in my studio with no poster for a while to see if anything would happen organically.  I also probably have to clear more of my shit off If I want anyone to feel encouraged to go through it.

Anyways that's what I'm working on right now.  Lets see if we can keep up this kind of weekly update.

Online Critique

Alright, I'm going to be trying to update this blog more often. I got a backlog of stuff I was to talk about on here, but i'll stagger it to not overwhelm you and so i can try to create this habit of posting regularly to this blog.

So this is the fruit of most of my recent labors in paint, and i guess I threw it up here to see what everyone thought and if they had any suggestions. Right now the juxaposition of the flat space, the represented head, and the play with a type; trying to find a balance between all of those. I'm going with the old fashion idea that you should see the whole painting first and not just the head, so making it easier to switch between the head and the type up top is my biggest problem. I have a stencil now for the text up there so i'm going to keep on playing with it to see if i can get that sort of relationship a bit more equal. While i'm waiting for the text to dry i've been playing with the head, trying to keep my paint handling loose so it doesn't go too tight and become stagnant.

we'll see how it progresses, and if i have any other thoughts i'll edit them in here.

also i got a kool 10 most recent comments thinging for the left hand side of my blog. it's not really a notification system but it's the next best thing i could do. I might eventually play with the type there so it looks prettier.

alright have a nice day folks