RESEARCH/RESPONSE

The purpose of the weekly journal is to provie you with the luxury of having time allotted in a class to a process that should be occurring in a developed art practice. 


As I mentioned to you, consider a work of art that inspires you. Consider : WHAT WAS THIS PERSON TRYING TO SOLVE? What questions were they seeking answers to? What were they interested in? What COMPELLED THEM? Almost any major monograph (a book dedicated to the work of one artist) and any major artist talk will start with this...early work, sketchbooks, collections, experiments...that led them to their later work. If you identify a few artists you are excited by, go find a monograph and take a look at their early work, their sketchbooks, their early experiments and trials....


Maybe it's myths.
Rituals. Ceremonial objects, dress.
Maybe it is an interest in color, and color relationships.
Form - in space.
Action. Political action and performance. 
Snow. 


You name it!  Literally YOU name it. 


So, some of you seemed to be asking for more information - for more clarity. I had a conversation with one of you after class, and this person was talking about their interest in the PROCESS of drawing, in the phenomena of light and dark and capturing that in a drawing, in texture. A journal exploration could be (but is not limited to) collecting images of drawings, paintings, scenes that capture a quality of light that you feel inspired by. It could be pages experimenting with mark making. It could be writing on dark and light, the way we use those words to describe phenomena, the connotations they have. 


The student (your classmate) said to me - "you know, there are so many images I come across online, but I don't have a computer, and so no way to save them, and I guess this is a great assignment so that I actually document and capture those sources of inspiration by printing them out and putting them in a book."


PRECISELY!


If you still need a starting point, consider giving your self a limitation. For instance:


- Collect and pair colors that you respond to positively (these could be the result of mixing paint or finding colors in a magazine)


- Grab a bunch of magazines, like National Geographic (boatloads available at your Waverly Book Thing) and cut out all of the images that inspire and intrigue you. Combine these on the page to create new relationships.


- Find a space on campus or in the city, take a photograph, make a sketch, write about it. What is it about the space that captivates or interests you. What would you do to recreate this feeling? Would you abstract it? Make a painting or drawing of it. Create an installation space about it? A sound recording. 


-Open the dictionary to a random page. Select the first word on the page and the last. Create two pages of your journal that connect these two words. 


- Go to the library. Peruse the magazine rack, Pull down magazines that interest you. Leaf through them. Make copies of images, pages that interest you. Compile these in your notebook.


- Find a structure that interests you. (A building, a fence, a piece of cloth, a coral reef, a beehive, the bark of a cedar tree, mushrooms on logs, canoes ...). Take a picture or (if it is small enough) put it in your book. Respond to it through writing or drawing. 
....