Untitled Potential

Untitled Potential JMU MFA Exhibition Jan 12 – Jan 24 2015

Artworks Gallery James Madison University Harrisonburg, Virginia

Ben Wailes

#1 Abstract #11811 #2 Abstract #118112 #3 Abstract #118113

We talk about how artist statements are living documents that are always changing. Well five days before my first ever-graduate review, I totally trashed mine. I really did not want to, but most were telling me, the work I completed, did not match the statement. So here I am writing my statement again. After some thought, I think the best decision is to discuss the work, I completed this semester, in this artist statement.

Simple shapes have always been the major focus of my work. The portfolio that I applied to graduate school was a mix of simple colorful organic shapes that were painted flat .One of my goals for the work, this semester was to work the surface more, and create a surface that was somewhere between expressive and flat. I created a great deal of organic shapes and also monochromatic paintings, that met this criteria.

Process is very important to my work. All of my work starts with quick thumb nail sketches.

These are very quick drawings, done on cheap copy paper. I usually try and create at least 20 of these, before I begin a painting.

After completing these drawings, I take a look at them one last time, and then put the sketches out of sight, and then I start with the blank canvas.

I usually put down a few colors and see how the painting is going. I look for movements and composition ideas. I am always destroying the painting that I have, by painting over it, looking to get the painting that is not yet known, that can result in a better or worse work, depending on the decisions that I make. This process can take many layers, and sometimes up to six months to complete. I usually work on multiple paintings at a time. Sometimes I will look at a painting for days and other paintings come very quickly. It is no way to tell which ones are going to work, and which ones will not. Some of the paintings that start out the worse, end up being the strongest work.

The paintings almost have a life of their own, and I let them develop organically.

The grid paintings were the last paintings that I completed this semester. Most of these were completed, over the week, we had off, for Thanksgiving break. In my critical theory class, we had to do a paper, on a subject that was not a major part of our work. Well this paper inspired me to do a grid series. This series made me think of what an iconic symbol the rectangle is, in our culture.

Computer screens, televisions, most of the great paintings in the world, and so many things in the world we live in, are in the shape of a rectangle.

Other artists are also a big inspiration behind my work. I try and study contemporary artists as well as historical artists. A major theme to my work is to use everyday visual things in my life.

Looking at the world I live in is very important, to what I am doing in my work.

Ellen Reid #4

Untitled

Tara Ott! #5 Video- "days of painting�!

projected on painted backdrop!

#6

Photos: a. Day one b. Day two c. Day three d. Day five e. Day eight f. Day nine A LL DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Joliza Terry #7 #8

Joliza David

Mengjiao Wang #9

breathe and protection

ceramics

Statement:

Art is like a person who I can always talk to. Instead of using words, art is transferred by-passes words and become an aesthetic. As an international student, I am experiencing both Chinese and American culture. That is how I feel different—a Chinese artist who lives in the US and continues to pursue art here. I want to use the different experiences to apply to my work.

Clay is basic material we have in nature; it even provides nutrition for many creatures.

Nature is art that the world gifts to human beings. However, are we protecting our nature? The answer is not really. Look at the environment around us; pollution is everywhere. Go back to where I am from, Beijing, air pollution in Beijing is the topic that we discuss every day. Dust haze (pollution haze) and PM 2.5 (PM 2.5 refers to fine particles. Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter are called "fine" particles) are the most important things that Beijing citizens will pay attention to every single day.

“Forbidden City” is another name for Beijing, is supposed to be safe and secure, but the air pollution is like the enemy trying to break the safety in Beijing.

Rather than writing a topic linked to air pollution, I would like to focus on ceramics as the media to tell the story. Air pollution causes many diseases and it will influence people who live in Beijing, especially our next generation. Ceramics is fragile; human health is fragile as well. We desire to see the blue sky and green plants in Beijing.

I want to tell more people what is happening in Beijing using my work and I want people who have never experienced air pollution to know how it feels for those in Beijing. I am far away from my roots, but as a leaf of the tree, I yearn my best wishes to my motherhood place.

I love to hold clay in my hands, the way it feels resembles a healing method during difficult times to reconnect with my mind, body, and soul. I hope that air pollution can be healed by human beings. We are part of the nature and have the responsibility to take care of our world.

Nathaniel St. Amour

#10 #11 #12

Just Another Face II 18x24�

Oil, enamel and photo transfer on canvas Just Another Face III 18x24" Oil, enamel and photo transfer on canvas

#13

Just Another Face IV 24x36" Oil, enamel and photo transfer on canvas

#14

A Digital Painting I 12x7" Paint on canvas

#15

A Digital Painting II 20x10" Paint on canvas

Patricia Drummond

#16 A Mul1plicity of Acts Date: 2014 (Installa1on 2015) Media: Book Arts

I grew up in an extraordinary, yet untraditional, family. From this I find a strong pull towards understanding how the mind works and how memory has a physical and emotional impact on our personal and communal lives; specifically the role of the vernacular photograph and its oddities, curiosities, introspections and realities.

Photography has become the very essence of contemporary vernacular archiving. Though it started as an artistic and scientific endeavor that has lived in both worlds since its conception, and spread to many other disciplines, photography has come to exist as, and remain, the medium of choice for those who want to record.

Our own vernacular archive of photographs is a literal and figurative reflection of society. It becomes our own time machine into the past and present, bearing witness to the moments shared. It reflects our mutual story, in its own time; while living multiple lives, as each story and reading we give it breathes new life into the obvious yet unattainable story of the photograph’s inception. It is this synergy between the act of vernacular photography, the physical element produced (and or the lack there of) and the human interaction in all the stages of the photograph’s existence that I explore.

My work is a journey to find the links between the here and the now and the then and the there. It is my own active response to the universal act of vernacular archiving in photography and life. It is not nostalgia that drives me to make these images, but a respect for what was once important, and an understanding that everything is temporary and nothing is unimportant. I apply process and repetition to go beyond the surface of the everyday and to expand upon my own relationship with the work. The images reflect my own story and those stories I choose to create and collect, an archive of self and created myth. Recognizable imagery may be found within the photographs, lending meaning to the story unfolding; while hidden information and the absurdity of repetition, obscure and inhibit while inciting questions and insight.

#17 Un1tled Media: Polaroid LiG Year: 2015

JON HENRY

# 18 (IN)SECURITY

2015 Water Collected from the Shenandoah River in Front Royal, Va.

Front Royal is home to the Avtex Fibers Superfund Site. The site was Virginia’s largest Superfund location. Avtex created a variety of materials with many contracts for the US military. The plant was one of the largest single employers in the area.

For more than 45 years, the 440-­‐acre Avtex Fibers plant manufactured rayon, polyester, and polypropylene fibers for commercial, defense, and space industries. It employed over 2,500 people in the area. It operated from 1940 until 1989, when Avtex closed the plant and declared bankruptcy. In June 1986, the site was listed on the Superfund program’s National Priorities List.

During the plants operation, many residents complained about the smell of sulfur, rotten eggs, and smoke.

This former rayon manufacturing facility is being recovered to provide a 175-­‐acre eco-­‐friendly office park, 30 acres of soccer fields, and 240 acres of conservancy park along the Shenandoah River.

Residents are still advised to only eat 2 fish from the river a month

#19 A.F.A.R 2014---

Advancing Frontiers of Artist Residencies is an subsidiary project of the Old Furnace Artist Residency. Participants are invited to reside within the space for a minimum of 5 mins. They can complete a variety of tasks/projects/meditations/ digestions/etc.

After 5 mins of engagement, they are awarded a diploma.

You are encouraged to design and leave behind a postcard.

Jennifer Trembly #20 #21 #22

Surface/Tension 34 Surface/Tension 29 Depression Diaries