Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Ordinary/Extraordinary Critique

First off, sorry but I don't have my drawings documented yet. I will upload photos when I get a chance, but in the mean time, I will respond to the critique last Monday. Overall, I am excited to be in this class with all these different students. I know a few people, but the rest of you I've maybe seen around the school, or never before. So... it was interesting to see and hear feedback on everyone's work.

So, my drawings were in response to photos I had taken around my home. I grew up on a hobby farm west of the Twin Cities... my parents breed Arabians, so we have horses on the premises. I gathered pictures along the familiar walk from my house out to the horse pasture. I almost didn't know what to take pictures of because I have lived and played there for the last 23 years of my life... I know it all so well. So, the photos I drew from were of the house, some buildings on our property, and one of the horses. To me, it seemed like my drawings were more about the process and the mark makings, and not so much the content.

However, I was very surprised by the critique. I had a few comments on my drawing style, but I feel like the house picture and its message dominated most of the critique (well it was the largest drawing.) What stuck to me is that I have a creepy way of drawing things.... which led me to question what does "creepy" really mean, and why is it such and bad/good thing? I returned the question and received the response that it is my use of vertical lines. So what is the association with vertical lines and creepy? Haha. The rest of the critique people discussed the house and the trees coming out the bottom. I was surprised that no one saw the trees as roots.... that was sort of my intent in drawing the trees in the first place. I was also thinking about the idea of the family tree... the family tree of my own relatives, and the family tree of the people who have resided in the building which has been my family's house for the last 25 years. The house was built in 1880... so, it was many other families "house" before ours. This intrigues me. I have seen some weddings photos done on the farm back in the 50's... and it's neat because my wedding coming up in September will also be held on the farm.

I can't remember what else was said about my work. The name Tim Burton was thrown out... which wasn't a complete surprise but at the same time sort of bugs me just because his stuff has become so commercialized. I have always gravitated towards his work, ever since I was a little kid... but it is definitely becoming more generic as time goes on. Maybe I can get one of my drawings made into a poster and sold at Hot Topic... haha. My fiance actually has a shirt he designed for August Burns Red that is being sold at the store. It was really quite cool to see his work being sold on a mass market... and then there is something annoying about it too.

Okay well I don't know what else to say about the critique. I will be interested to see what we all come up with for our next project....











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