Jocelyn Foye

While I was exploring Jene Robinson's sight I came across a colab with Jocelyn Foye...anyway what's important is that I linked over to Jocelyn's work and really liked her "mixed media" pieces.

Pole Dance, silicone rubber 34" x 31"

Backflip, urethane rubber 16" x 22"

I also found the "Roller Derby Project" that included both sculptural and photographic work, and while I absolutely love love love our local doll's this work really sealed the deal for me.

"For those not in the loop on her work, Jocelyn Foye captures the performances and actions, primarily by athletes, in clay and then uses those imprints to make sculptural works. Live performances/actions or photographic documentation of performances often accompanies the work."

I know i know so predictable of me right? Ah well... Check the link to the work its really interesting (and by my use of interesting I mean in a non-clique lets use this word when we have nothing else to say kinda way). Also the journal and event photo's lead to a certain ex lab-tech everyone loved to hate...could be fun

Three's Company

Last year some of us caught a small visiting artist lecture in the video lab, former CSULB MFA grad Jene Robinson. She has some beautiful video work I've been recently thinking about. Among my favorites video's where Beast, Outside, and Three's Company... what I love is her exploration into these moments she finds captivating or fascinating and her ability to hold and stretch out these moments.

"A contemporary interpretation of questions about birth, death, love, emotion and existence. A dual-screen projection of characters in profound contemplation."

Just hear me out

So my progression for 406 has moved to sound. Or I've started experimenting with sound as an alternative approach to image making. Staying close to my senor show project I started by recording sound in the gym. I was initially thinking about how we have the ability to mentally construct an image with our imagination. Then I started thinking about the confidence and the athletic mentality> this led to recording some of the athletes. Basically I wanted to hear their mental space or what they were thinking to themselves before competing or while practicing. I wondered if it was a lot like the same things I used to think about back in the day when I played competitively. And I got exactly what I expected ...a series of encouraging phrases repeated over and over (your own personal cheerleader). Then I started doing research into mental coaching. Mostly these techniques are used as self help- self esteem boosters. Psychologist and self help coaches have used these techniques to help people with confidence problems. The concept itself is called "self talk" and it is something that everyone does. Based on The law of repetition which is one of the three laws of memory...we have this internal dialog with ourselves in order to firmly convince ourselves of something we want to believe. By repeating it over and over to our brain it becomes true. Thus we boost our own confidence.

Now I know what your thinking "what the hell Stephanie what does this have to do with advanced digital" well... I don't know but that's a damn good question. This is more of my process as it evolves into a workable project.

So with all this information i started thinking about what i could do with these recording or if I really needed these recordings. I thought well maybe these recordings plus an image or multiple images as stop motion or video. But then it all led to a very clique like athletic based piece which I am sure it has evolved from. What I like is the intensity these girls have when they are "self talking" out loud it kind of becomes about that instead of the fact that they are athletes. So I went to a friend for a different perspective... a very good perspective. Who suggested I keep the intense and athletic type of self talk but apply it something/ anything else. Since i'm also interested in the build up or hype you get out of hearing this self dialog the idea was to apply it to everyday or mundane actions. So now i'm finally in a happy place. Excited about making this sound plus image work out.

Man she really kills me

Miranda July & Roe Ethridge movie extra's for vice. So funny...

Poppin' a pose

I was thinking a lot about the complexity of posing...If that makes any sense. Shooting young girls has become funny in many ways, it seems like every time one of them gets in front of the camera their body automatically holds a pose you know they've practices several hundred times before. I can't help but smile to myself because i know its something everyone does. This Miranda July video popped into my head and now every I see someone in front of a camera I picture them poppin a pose! It also reminds me of the way old school commercial photographers used to do their portraits...model's memorize a pose in relation to a number, a number is picked and instant photo! Haha I think i need to make a book of go-to poses and carry it around with me when i shoot. "hey you can you handle pose # 1,3 and 7?.. great thank you"

New Topographics

"While the original "New Topographics" artists all made work that was aesthetically aware, they were more concerned with clear-eyed, dispassionate documentation. This was a huge break from tradition; these were not Ansel Adams's bombastic peaks and canyons, enhanced by complex darkroom manipulation. These prints were smallish and somewhat dull, but that was partly the point. As Nicholas Nixon's artist statement succinctly puts it: "The world is infinitely more interesting than any of my opinions concerning it."

Although the exhibition came and went without much fanfare in 1975, "new topographics photography" has become a widely understood term throughout the art world, and the show is unanimously considered a turning point in the history of the medium. Artreview: New topographics

This show is incredible (still swooooning over the B&W prints)

clearing my head

Thinking and talking a lot today about work, making work and how it all comes together for me. It was kind of nice to speak out loud about my internal process. I felt like the whole rest of the day my concept of self projection in terms of my BFA series was lingering in my head, so much so that when I shot tonight it felt right like a gut feeling kind of right.

"A photograph is a subjective impression... it is still what we see that comes out in the images, it is our reaction to the subject and in the end, the whole corpus of our work becomes a portrait of ourselves."

Marilyn Silverstone

Fromex

Why oh why do they have to be the only convenient place to get c-41 processed in L.B.? You'd think after constant scratches, gunk and weird temperature spots- not to mention countless hours of meticulous photoshop corrections to fix all the problems they put on your emulsion- we'd abandon this joke of a lab! Maybe we should have a L.A. day where we bribe someone to collect and take our neg's to a professional lab (oh and A&I your totally dropping the ball too) free pinks anyone? I'm just sayin...

Kiel can we be friends?

Look who's I stumbled upon on Beautiful/ Decay...

Remember how ya'll photo geeks were ooogling over Kiel and Theo's cardboard twins lens reflex in the lab the other week? Low and behold, there's a video! Good job Kiel (totally gonna steel it if I ever see it unattended again. lol )

Kiel Johnson's Cardboard Twin Lens Reflex Camera Time Lapse from Theo Jemison on Vimeo.

kudos on the video Theo!
So the "camera sculpture" is actually a giant pin hole here are some of the images they worked all day to get.

Photoshop superheros

Dibs on lens flare...

Bobby McFerrin

Using the Audience as an instrument
oh the power of the pentatonic scale

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

so talented it hurts

"My paper works have been based around an exploration of the relationship between two and three dimensionality. I find this materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form almost a magic process..."

Peter Callesen

Oleg Duryagin

Oleg Duryagin is a Russian Photographer working with the human figure/face.

"...his aim is to question post-human identity. All that is flesh goes through a kind of digital metamorphosis; it is erased, smoothed, and rendered to extreme precision. The finished portraits look very sculptural, non-human, surreal, inanimate, and in many cases, you can see a transparency of the porcelain skin underlining the fragility of every portrait."

Talk about serious skin retouching skills. I pulled images from 3 of his series; Toy story, Tears, and Paper and Paint. There is sooo much more on his sight. What I really like in many of his images is his ability to eloquently strip gender down to an almost androgynous feel.

Is CMYK really that much cooler?

Michelle This one's for YOU!

Enjoy Mon Cheri!


From the series Milky Way

you me and every color we need to know

From the series Supervision work in progress..

Eye candy! Would love to give you more on this and her other bodies of work, unfortunately I can't find anything. (FYI her sight is made with indexibit. Just sayin...) So in the true nature of consuming images we must learn to not rely on artist statements haha what a novel concept.

Kerstin zu Pan

left unfinished

"To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture."

Pablo Picasso

Wooah...

Alexey Titarenko.
Works from his Time Stands still, and City of Shadow series.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Wim Wenders on photography

...just re-thinking my life/ bfa project. Mark suggested I look into Wim Wenders. (Thanks)
"I think that analogous photography has to do a lot with the vanity of life."
Maybe I am a romantic, but it doesn't negate that fact that he is brilliant.

Check it! Its a sweet Interview

Torrance Meeting

After shooting Wednesday, a couple of shop owners turned me on to a meeting of the minds. Which was basically a pow wow open to discussing ideas for "revitalizing" the area. It consisted of about 20 people, mostly store owners with a sprinkle of community members. It was a little surreal being the youngest person there, but then again i think that's probably just a reflection of the interest of the area. Origionally I decided attending would help give me a feel for some of the personalities on that strip and boy did I.

What I learned from the meeting
a. All the store owners are unhappy. (most are disgruntled and want you to know it over and over again)
b. They are open to the idea of injecting the area with art/ artist, but have no idea what that entails (my idea)
c. I need to keep my mouth shut or I end up committing myself to wonderful things and making my life really really hectic...

colors colors colors

Seriously it had me at Olafur Arnalds, directed by Esteban Diacono

Ólafur Arnalds - Ljósið (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

Who needs sleep

So I've been thinking a lot about portraits, interiors, color...and nostalgia. Actually really liked some of Aaron Ruell's work for one of the above reasons. Go Kip Dynamite!

Kent Twitchell and 6 L.A. artist live forever...

Look familiar?
Okay okay how about another Torrance name drop. Kent Twitchell.













Ed Ruscha Monument, 1978-87




L.A. Marathon, 1990




Harbor Freeway Overture, 1991-93




* 6 L.A. Artist, 1979 (this one's in Torrance)


(Heard a rumor..."paint by numbers")

pacific Electric railroad bridge now

Grabbed this image for comparison sake. Thanks random photo-enthusiast

Torrance fact of the week...

Architect Irving Gill does time in the big T!

While on a walk about with the Torrance historical society, I tried to keep a level head as I heard big names being dropped. "Irving Gill, Diego Rivera...yada yada" Turns out the Irving Gill part is true. We've got 9 Irving Gill's, one of which happens to be a personal favorite that I drive though almost on a daily basis. (Gill Considered an architectural "cubist" of his day he was famous for his minimalistic approach with hygiene and economy in mind. For him, "the source of all architectural strength" emerged from the straight line, the arch, the cube, and the circle in combination." The New Architecture of the West, 1916 )

Darren Rigo

Inka Lindergard and Niclas Holmstrom, Watching humans watching