Inquiry and discovery

The ideas and goals of my practice have too many components and ideas that reach farther than how I have been actualizing them in my paintings. I think that the paintings I did in Core Studio 2D can be a series in my arts practice, but I need to continue to study and experiment how people experience the values they build in their lives to find better ways to communicate my sought after experience. With helpful input from the critique I realized that my paintings might only interest a select few. People are interested in what artists have to say. In my paintings I am not blatantly making any sort of statement, claim, or raising any kind of question, I am, trying to, offer an experience that I hope will act as a sort of catalyst of understanding for my audience. I am letting the audience guide themselves through the familiarity and form of the paintings and discover things on their own and at their own pace. This is not an ideal way of getting through to everyone, which is something that I want in my work.

My next step is to experiment more with a 3D aspect of my work, I think my understanding of how we interact with objects will expand and in form my painting practice. I also think a more literal and less abstract approach to a new series of paintings could be more approachable and engaging. I think that keeping the hues of the objects that inspire the forms, while making the brushwork more expressive in my paintings could be a key move in building the ambiguity and the familiarity at the same time. I need to make work that is approachable to more people and that gets through the message I’m compared to share in an effective way. Things just exist and we place our own values, meanings, and associations to them. We don’t see anything objectively, everything we see is a summation of ideas and things we associate from previous experiences. Nothing we see is pure. These are some of the notions I want to communicate. You can draw conclusions about these ideas from the way I have talked about my paintings and the experience I am trying to create, but I am not, blatantly, unapologetically getting stating this message or getting it across, like an artist should, at least the kind I want to be. In the paintings I have completed I am more so confusing the audience than jolting their viewing experience, which is not a problem in itself. I don’t have a problem confusing my audience, but this is only a small part of the experience I want to get across.

For project my intention was to continue with the abstract series I started in project 2. I wanted to continue engaging with the paint and hopefully learn in the process what it is that makes us assume and value things about certain forms. A key part of continuing my practice is to study and observe the behaviors and object interactions of myself and people I encounter. I want people to see my works, recognize and assign their own means to forms and reinstall a sense of wonder and objectiveness in the objects around us. The same way a young child is just as likely to be entertained by household objects, as they are the toys meant for them to play with. I want to them to step back and realize the way they build layers of meaning to understand the world, and how everything we know is labeled by ourselves. Things just exist and we place our own meanings on to them. I want to visually replicate the sensation of semantic satiation, when someone says a word repeatedly until the sounds of the word lose the meaning. You begin to hear your own language and actions of speaking for what it is; you are an animal making sounds. Not too long ago I had an experience walking through Tompkins Square Park where I saw mother pigeon with group of around 10 baby pigeons following. The pigeons were very small, round, and fluffy and were traveling in a tight group. This small group of ball like pigeons made me gag at the sight of them. For some reason fact they looked like little balls that were closely moving together in a group visually reminded me of a group of puff ball fungi, pimples, and other, personally unpleasant, organic forms. This was my first experience with trypophobia or a similar condition. In this moment I subconsciously saw the general form of the pigeons and associated it with similar visual experience. This is something I want to give my audience. I want them to acknowledge we don’t see everything objectively, and that what we see is a summation of the literal visuals, and all the associations our mind places in relation to what we see.

For my painting itself I tried to bring a much gritty tone to it. I didn’t use any white, the forms I tried to build much darker and muddier than my previous piece. I intend to abstract the forms that inspire me in the composition so that the piece sits like a still life, seems familiar, but is abstracted past the point being recognized. Humans recognize things by color as well as form, which is the reason behind my choice of such saturated, vibrant colors. I want to take the forms outside their usual context. I want to get the audience to unknow what it is that they believe is familiar or important. Like when you a repeat a word and it becomes meaningless, I want them to realize that the meanings and value system they’ve built up don’t exist. There is no right or wrong, objects just exist and things just happen.

My questions for my interviewees are to inform my understanding of how certain people value objects and commodities, specifically people who are involved in the practice or study the selling and or presenting them. It is fairly simple to interact and consume an object or form and build your own thoughts about it, but it is different to understand the intentions of the person who allowed or attracted you to do so. Each interview has questions tailored for that specific person.

Interview 1:

John Phan

Graphic Designer

John: I’m John Phan and I consent the use of this interview.

Vincent: Hi John, I am interviewing you because as a designer one of your key jobs is to communicate ideas and experiences about certain products, brands, or companies in order to attract your audience to interact or purchase something. How has your value and view, if it all, changed towards the products and objects around you since you started designing/advertising?

J: When I am buying stuff I sort of see objects for what they are now. I don’t get wrapped up in packaging, design, or resell value. I’m more concerned with how it’s made and if it’s efficient. Of course visuals matter though, if the world around us was always drab and worn down it would affect our mood. Good-looking surroundings boost your mood and outlook toward your surroundings. The thing is good design and visuals does not equal to perceived brand value. There are good products that get overlooked because the brand is not high end. Perfume for example is dirt cheap to make, but designer companies sell it for hundreds of dollars per bottle.

V: Since you have come to see commodities more objectively has that informed the way that you approach the way you design to sell a product?

J: I’ve become more grounded in the way I approach it. I’m always trying to genuinely depict what or who I’m designing for as much as I can. I try to make genuine experiences and interaction and instead of recycling and rotting visual trends. Design has to make sense, be innovative, push forward, it can’t just be meaningless pretty visuals.

V: What do you think of the objects that are sold at extremely high prices simply because of a brand or artist affiliation?

J: I think something is only as valuable as someone thinks it is. Someone can preach objectivity and the reject façade that brands put on to sell their products so high, but at the end of the day if someone is willing to pay a certain price that is what it’s is in reality.

V: This is Damien Hirst’s commissioned Camel cigarette pack. He said the choice of butterflies is because they have the shortest life span. These are of course are being resold at higher prices for over 500 dollars. Give me your thoughts.

J: He’s a genius. He took Camel’s money, made his statement and left. He didn’t play by Camel’s rules, he was genuine in his design choices. If that’s what they’re worth that’s what they’re worth. In twenty years MOMA will probably buy one. This guy is Warhol to the 10^th power.

V: Thank you for time John your perspective is insightful.

Interview 2:

Alexander Riker

Economist

Alexander: My name is Alexander Harland Riker and I authorize the use of this interview for academic purposes.

Vincent: All right Alex, one of reasons I chose to interview because I know you’re an economist and you are, from the people that I know, the least of an avid consumer. You’re not attached to fashion commodities and are resourceful in the way you reuse, modify, and repurpose the things you own. So, can you expand on how you have come to value the objects you do? And has that informed why or the way you approach economics?

A: There’s two aspects of that. One is the fact that my mom often always used to throw away my stuff for no reason and I would go out one day and I would come back… So that has always to taught me to make everything my own and keep it dearly. Try to keep it as much as I can and try to really maximize the utilization of each commodity and the durability that they’re made to last for. And the other part has to more do with growing up in a family where sometimes we’d struggle to reach the end of the month, that teaches you a lot. Teaches you the priorities of how to spend your money. And so I’ve never seen it necessary for my happiness or social standing for me to have the best brands. For example, I’m from Italy all my friends used to have a moped— even before the moped a bicycle my friends all had a bike when they were seven, I got my first back at thirteen. And after one year of having a bicycle all my friends had a moped because that’s when you get your license. I’ve always been unable to reach the trends that my friends could, it’s just a consequence not being spoiled.

V: I can understand that. You’re attached themselves, the ones you have, just not to the idea of consuming more objects.

A: Yes that’s true that’s what I live by. I feel one of the greatest virtues that a human being can be judged by is their ability to show restraint when it comes to spending money. A prudent man a frugal man is man that can truly maximize his happiness because happiness isn’t derived from commodities that are absolutely useless to you that are just to show the emblem of what society stands for… a man that is prudent or frugal will always be happy because he’ll always have sufficiency and the ability to just get what he needs and nothing more nothing less.

V: Did the way you have come to value objects through the way you were brought up inform your choices to pursue economics, politics, and history?

A: It definitely did as everything does, If I had been more demanding about my parents money I probably wouldn’t have the means to even be here here in New York to survive. And even worse to go to school, which is the reason I’m here. Always waste is a huge problem I mean I’m twenty two I’ve inherited a world which is absolutely filled with things that are older than us. If everybody just paid a little more attention to avoid the trains the gain and end quickly, the tiny bit of satisfaction you get from buying into trends, and pay more attention on how to actually make a better future for our children.

V: Since you’ve become interested in economics how has your views towards commodities shifted and the way the world around you works?

A: A lot definitely, economics is a behavior more, commodities don’t have to be a negative it’s a natural consequence of social development, the barter of it, it’s normal. What is not normal is that a commodity that has little to no value in the world today can be sold at prices unimaginably higher than what it is made to produce. You see it a lot in brands like Supreme and brands that have hype that just try to keep the market scarce so that those commodities, a logo can create wealth. Which is stupid because that money could be spent in a more effective way.

V: Although it’s impossible to do so completely, at what point did you start removing these logos and visual systems from your value system?

A: What I’ve started to do is not care as much is how pristine an object may be. I tend to buy bigger brands clothes from outlets or seconds hand shops. I think you told me previously the production of jeans is damaging to the environment just the amount of water alone is insane. The production of denim in the last fifty years has been so high that there’s a enough denim in the world, in trash bags, in second hand shops that there’s no need to produce more just to recycle.

V: Alex this here is a Camel Pack designed by Damien Hirst. Camel commissioned him to do a pack and he did one with these butterflies and said the reason he chose them is because they have the shortest lifespan. These are being resold upwards of $500 dollars. What are your thoughts?

A: It’s interesting because he took a corporation’s money and designed a cigarette pack that is a rejection of capitalism and specifically cigarettes, but at the same time promoted the cigarettes. And the fact that they are being resold at an absurd price definitely adds to it.

V: Well Alex thank you for your time this was very informative.

Interview 3:

Gilbert _____

Business Owner/CCO

Gilbert: I’m Gilbert and Vincent has permission to use this interview without disclosing my last name.

Vincent: Thank you for squeezing me into your busy schedule for this interview. The reason I chose to interview you is because I am interested in how someone as yourself, a self made businessman who comes from poverty, has come to view the objects around you since you have owned business and began to sell your own commodities.

G: Well having my own businesses and building my own brands means I can relate and gauge the work that other companies and brands put in to get where they are. When I see other companies making moves and even the companies that stay at the top of their industry and then I see their products in person I can appreciate all the works that went in to getting it to my hands at that moment. I will buy a Louis Vuitton bag at that price not only because I can afford it, but also because I respect the brands presence and longevity. I don’t know anything about French fashion or fashion in general, but it has come to signify something different to people.

V: Do you think your own products are equal in value and price?

G: I think I put genuine work and attention into my businesses, I think my products speak for themselves in quality and innovation within their respective industries. I have built my businesses from scratch and hold majority shares in them all. So I think that our prices are fair for being a high-end leader in the industry.

V: This a Camel cigarette pack designed by the artist Damien Hirst. When asked about his choice to use the butterfly motif he said it was because they have the shortest lifespan. Some only live 12 hours from when they are born. These are being resold at high prices over 500 dollars. What is your response to this?

G: I’m not much into art, but he got paid and made a statement on the health impact. People will pay for what they like. I think it’s good promotion for the artist and Camel too even though he belittled them. Resell prices are a good way to gauge the public value and buzz around a brand. People will pay a high price for something they highly value, but not if they feel like they’re getting ripped off. Camel wouldn’t be able to sell many packs if they directly priced them at $500.

V: Thank you Gilbert, this has been very revealing. I appreciate your time.

I am interested in the values that we subconsciously assign to objects, form, and color. We build layers of assigned meaning to the things around us to place them context with each other understand the world. Since a persons reality is only made up of what they experience they are enabled to feel complacent in what they know and understand. Sometimes new knowledge can uproot the reality in which someone has built from themselves. My intention for my work is too destabilize the comfort my audience has built up for themselves. Someone walking into an art presentation space is fairly comfortable enough with the what they know of their reality to walk into a space where people present work about the outside world and their reality. It takes layers and layers of conjured meaning to understand what it means to walk into an art institution. My goal is to take visual familiarities and use them to uproot the assigned meanings they have constructed, so that the audience isn’t complacent, they are dissatisfied and actively aware. Using familiar/recognizable forms to emulate the destabilization that occurs with new knowledge. Using what audience already knows to inform them further.

My art practice up until now has mostly dealt with creating a sense of familiarity and obscurity for the audience by composing specific recognizable forms in a manner that makes the edges indistinct. The colors I have been using often are bold and fauvist reminiscent. This is so objects that I am vaguely depicting on the canvas are looked at objectively as forms and not within their recognizable usual day-to-day contexts.

Vincent Garcia

Anne Gaines

Core Studio 2D

People assign and attach values and associations to objects and shapes that objectively have none. To make sense of the world around us we have built up layers of assigned significance to the objects around us to place them in context of each other. We do this to feel comfortable; people want and do things to make them comfortable and secure. My goal for my piece is to destabilize the reason and comfortability the audience has built up for themselves even just to understand the space and institution they have entered. I want the viewer to experience familiarity and specificity by looking at the ambiguous forms and blending edges I create on the canvas. I want the user to want and expect things of the forms and make their own associations and attachments to them. When you see a form or object you also see all the subconscious thoughts and memories of it, this is what I want the audience to experience.

My research and ideas were much too broad and conceptual to make a solid basis for my work. As I began to compose and lightly paint my piece I began to understand what I wanted from the paint as well as what I wanted to communicate. I knew I wanted to focus on expectations and associations, and how that relates to desire and mentally building around us a world that is logical for every individual, but I wasn’t sure how to translate these ideas in a 2D visual format. I believe this piece aligns with abstract expressionist and postmodern art. It is abstract in subject and rendering and it is meant to take exploit the meanings we built up because of modern life and extract them from their built up associations.

Something I am struggling with, as a first time oil painter, is that I am not using enough paint. I am afraid of the liquidity and slow-drying of oil so I have been building up thin layers of paint, instead of blending with thicker paint and medium. I need to stay conscious of this in order to continually improve. One thing I am doing that I consistently have is under painting in a mono/duochrome manner to set up the value and hue for the whole painting to be cohesive.

Vincent Garcia

Anne Gaines

Core Studio 2D

Narrative Planning

            People want things to make them comfortable, either mentally, socially, or physically, and are willing to sacrifice one type of comfort for the other depending on what is important to them. People set boundaries, put up posters, cover themselves in cloth in order to feel comfortable with themselves, to not feel so vulnerable. Our lives our built on layers upon layers of assigned and inherent values we have created to feel secure and in control. As humans we often think of ourselves different than other animals, when in actuality they probably have a similar process for understanding the world, we are just more capable. Humans often are subject to the wild/instinctual reactions they accuse other animals of. When you catch someone in a comfortable or compromising position or mindset they are prone to impulsive irrational reactions.

The goal for my work is to destabilize the comfortability and reason the viewers have built up for themselves. To make a piece subverted from their normal logic they step down from the pedestal they put themselves/their life is built on.

Reading Response:

In Catherine Soussloff’s “Michel Foucault and the Point of Paint” she uses Foucault as a lens to speak on the essence of painting. In the first half of the reading she emphasizes Foucault’s heavy investment in the history of art and cites texts from Foucault and names older Philosophers whom Foucault aligned with. Soussloff touches on the historical significance of painting as the highest field of art. Historically (from a Western perspective) painting has always been about translating a story or idea into a visual form, with the most valued being historical paintings.

The second half touches on the idea of painting as form of knowledge building and expression parallel to writing. Painting and art in general is always done with a set of ideas inspiring the chosen subject. A painting is a culmination of ideas surrounding the space and time it was painted, and rest of the world’s discourse, as well as all work that has come before. By analyzing an artist’s work over time you can see their progression in knowledge and perspective. In painting knowledge and technique are both equally essential. An artist’s masterpiece is their peak in technique, ideas, and innovation in their career span.

Narrative:

What do I want to know more about and discuss in my work? What knowledge would I like to gain?

I don’t know exactly what I want to know but I am interested in value systems/morals and attached value, entitlement/expectations and incentives. There has always been a gap in what I learned to be right as I grew up and what I was experiencing. We have built up the comfort of our lives from a long and layered foundation of attached values where there is a basis for nothing, like the stock market. As a graphic designer it is important for me in part to understand why people want things. I was never an open space to express or discover myself, I had to accommodate to others expectations and entitlements. Now that I am older I have difficulty discerning how I really feel about something. I don’t feel true want. I feel my mature emotions are dull after an intense upbringing, it all feels superficial.

People want things to make them feel comfortable. Either socially or physically. People will sacrifice one comfort for the other.

Indifference.

Commodity-sign

Self censorship Pantopticism.

When you see an object you see the physical thing as well as all the social and emotional experiences you attach to it. impossible to get away from.

visual methodologies gillian rose

mythologies rolan barthes

destabilize comfortability and reason of the viewer

Artists:

Fernando Botero: I appreciate his rounded, blob like depictions of people. His political humor is witty and dry.

Amedeo Modigiliani: His portraits are captivating. Seem very indifferent. His rejection of the art establishment of his time is interesting considering how pivotal it of a moment he lived, no matter how brief.

Christian Rex van Minnen: His organic grotesque forms are easy to get lost in. I like how he uses very historical references for his compositions like dutch still lives and portraits.