LINE SKIDMORE’S ART REVIEW 7.4
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Editor Shea Barnett Treasurer Jake Rose Layout/Design Editor Rachel Port
DEAR ART LOVERS: We’re so excited to bring you the latest edition of LINE! Every semester LINE publishes opinions, perspectives and photos of a wide range of art found at Skidmore and in Saratoga. We hope we can inform you and bring attention to our school’s vibrant artistic community and the artists who strive to practice their craft to the best of their ability. Thank you to all the artists, writers, photographers and editors who made this issue possible! If you’re interested in promoting Skidmore’s art scene, get involved! Email us at lineartmag@ gmail.com. Also, don’t forget to check us out online at lineartmag. wordpress.com and facebook.com/ LineArtReview. We love hearing from you! Your Editor, Shea Barnett ‘15
Cover art by Meghan Murray
CONTENT
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Woman of the Print Leigh Wigon Photos by Layla Muchnik-Benali Student Artist Profile Lisa Fierstein Photos by Meghan Murray Fragments Jake Rose Photos by Jake Rose Dance Flurry Benjamin Wetherbee Photos by Ben Werner & Dale Winsor Healing the Soul with Color Shea Barnett Photos by Rachel Port
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WOMAN By Leigh Wigon
OF THE PRINT
4 A nun wearing her habit while working in an art studio sounds like the premise for a joke on religious expression. In a way, the Tang’s retrospect of Sister Corita Kent’s serigraphs, or prints designed using a silkscreen, is a commentary on what happens when a nun, an artist, and a layman “walk into a bar.” Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent – the first career-spanning survey of her work – introduces the viewer to Corita’s art and her affiliation with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Corita combined her two callings at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles where she worked as an art teacher from 1947 to 1968. While there, she created serigraphs with a graphic Catholic aesthetic, contrasting bold typefaces and colors with scrawled scripts proclaiming messages of faith and compassion. One of Corita’s legacies at the art department at IHC, prior to leaving for Boston in 1968, was a list she created to exemplify her zest for art and life, and guide her students on the right moral path. Rule 8 advises, “Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They come from different processes.” Thankfully, Corita’s
work at the Tang allows plenty of room for analysis and enjoyment. Corita’s commitment to both Christianity and expressive art transfigures beautifully in her Biblical-inspired pieces at the entrance of the exhibit. Prints depict religious figures in contemporary art styles of her time. In 1952, the year that Bertoia chairs were introduced, Corita showed them alongside Jesus and Mary in her serigraph, At Cana of Galilee. By combining the sacred with the mundane, Corita elevates mid-century furniture and brings Jesus and Mary to the masses of consumerist America. In Admirable Exchange from 1951, Corita draws inspiration from Pablo Picasso’s Cubism period to create an abstract image of Mary holding baby Jesus. The dashes of black line and the bright primary colors connect the viewer to the work in a way that most high devotional art does not. Corita’s love for the Church exudes from the print and embraces the viewer in its transfixion. By placing religious art at the forefront of the exhibit, viewers are encouraged to interpret Corita’s works through
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a religious, or, at the very least, spiritual lens. Keeping the impression of her religious prints in mind, Corita’s secular prints take on fresh, nuanced meanings. For Eleanor (1964), which features the logo of the General Mills brand, states, “The Big G Stands for Goodness,” and thus the symbol of General Mills is re-envisioned as a symbol for another almighty “G,” God. Religious themes are also present in Handle with Care (1967), which superimposes the text, “See The Man Who Can Save You The Most” on top of the words “Handle with Care!” The implication is clear: religion will protect the fragile like a wooden crate prevents its contents from breaking. Corita has a gift for sanctify-
ing commonplace images, such as the Wonder Bread logo (you will never think of the Wonder Bread logo the same way after seeing Enriched Bread), and colloquial phrases. Her prints are crowded with striking imagery, such as shapes that resemble a child’s construction paper cutouts, vibrant colors and acrobatic letters that seem to bend and twist beneath the glass. Much like the act of interpreting the Scripture, beyond the playful façade is an opportunity to internalize and decipher the hidden meaning for yourself. Sr. Corita Kent’s style seamlessly transitions from prints with a spiritual bent to those with a more accessible Pop Art perspective, often intersecting
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the two. While viewing the exhibit, it is easy to think that all the art was created within the last 10 years. But Corita lived from 1918-1986. Perhaps it is the bright colors and universal messages of faith and compassion, or because her Pop Art prints from the 60’s resemble graphic designs created today using Adobe Illustrator. Either way, Corita’s work will continue to preach to contemporary audiences. “Someday is Now:The Art of Corita Kent” is on view through July 28th at the Tang.That gives you plenty of time (and excuses) to go see it.
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by Lisa Fierstein
Meghan Murray
8 What was your impetus to get involved in art? I’ve known that this is my career path since I was in kindergarten. I always wanted to be an artist. It just comes naturally – I can’t image not making art. Fortunately my parents are incredibly supportive and have helped me be successful. What is your favorite medium to work with? Probably watercolor and ink, but it really depends on the subject of mood of the piece. I’ve recently started working in conte pencil, which I love. What’s an art medium that you’ve never worked with before but hope to in the future? I’d love to work more with gouache or encaustic painting, or in printmaking. I’ve experimented with many mediums, though, and there are several that I just want to master. What art opportunities has Skidmore provided you thus far? Skidmore’s great in its devotion to the arts – that’s one of the main reasons why I came here. I’m in the ProArts club, so the open model sessions are a great resource, as well as the incredible faculty. I have yet to have a show in Case Gallery, but hope-
fully next year I will. You recently attended a workshop for the entrepreneurial artist at Skidmore; what did this event entail and what skills did you learn? The workshop was geared toward those who want to start a career in the visual arts, mainly by starting their own business. Several Skidmore graduates spoke on a panel, and then with us individually. It was very encouraging to receive advice from working professionals in my field. We learned networking skills, how to interact with galleries and clients, how to balance the business and art. Really exciting. Has any of your work been exhibited? I’ve had my work exhibited at my studio, school, and local art shows. I’ve also been in a few competitions that ended with my work exhibited in Boston and in the Congress building in Washington, D.C.
9 What have been some challenges that you’ve faced as an artist? People don’t always take me seriously as an artist because I’m young. It’s kind of tough when adults encourage you to look into different careers because they know it’s difficult to succeed in the art business. It’s a little frustrating, but it just motivates me to work harder. Being successful in the art world takes more than just being talented; what other qualities do you think a person should possess if they want to make it as an artist? I think a real passion and dedication for the art is so important.You also need to be a professional in order to be taken seriously in the art world. Be proactive; be able to sell yourself and your talent, because that’s what it really comes down to. Do you have tentative plans for after you graduate Skidmore? I’m currently planning on attending RISD for my MFA in Illustration. Who knows, though – there are so many opportunities out there that I’d love to take advantage of. What is your ideal career? Ideally I’d like to be an illustrator, preferably of children’s literature. I have other
paths in mind, though, like working as a designer at Pixar Studios, or possibly in museum curation. I’ve seen some of your paintings that also have poems incorporated in them; how do the visual and literary arts intersect? I’ve always loved literature and art and I’m starting to realize that they can influence each other to create a more powerful experience. Words and phrases are amazing in their ability to evoke an image, while the images can evoke a deeper meaning or emotion. That’s why illustration is very exciting for me; it combines the literature and art perfectly. When you make a work of art, what kind of reaction do you hope to get from the viewers? Honestly, I think any reaction is a good one because it means the viewers are moved. However, when the piece leaves an impression on the viewer, keeps them thinking even after they walk away from it – that’s the best reaction. For example, I can still remember a piece that I viewed as a kid flipping through art books, because I was curious and they left that impression on me. I just wish I could remember what they were called so I could look them up again!
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Fragments By Jake Rose
Walking into the Saratoga Arts Center on a cold February night for the opening of their exhibition entitled “Fragments”, I was initially only excited by the free food and beer. It seemed like the Arts Center was naïve in trying to set up a coherent exhibit featuring three different artists, certainly a difficult task, even if it did have the foresight to provide free comestibles. However, after walking around the exhibit and talking to the artists themselves, I came to realize that “Fragments” is one of those unique exhibits in which each artist’s work is in fact enhanced by the presence of the others. Through focusing and elaborating on a central binary conflict that was humanization vs. dehumanization, this exhibition asked a lot of important questions of it’s viewers; even if it didn’t provide many answers.
One way to interpret “Fragments” as such is as an evolution in the response that humans have to their concept of self and their humanity. The method that all of the artists at this exhibit use for this introspection, and therefore what connects them, is to project human nature into unnatural spaces and then see how it reacts. The artist who takes the first step in this process is Diana Schmertz. Schmertz uses painting as her primary medium to deconstruct what it is to be human. Her paintings, consistently on large 36x30 inch white painted canvases, show close up images of human hands or feet intertwining. These images appear in circles of varying sizes throughout the canvas. In this way, Diana takes the humanity of an image of a hand, and places it firmly in a geometric shape, and then isolates that shape on a large
13 canvas. By fragmenting the body like this, and portraying it in such geometric order, she questions how we as humans organize our perceptions of the world and the self. She successfully takes a step toward dehumanizing, and perhaps then understanding, humans. Jake Winiski, the second artist featured at the Saratoga Arts Center exhibit, takes Schmertz’s concepts to the next level. His process of dehumanization in art further abstracts the concept of what it is to be human, and his medium reflects this. Winiski uses a complex mixed media process to produce photographs of sculptural constructions he makes. He then paints on the photographic print to produce truly surreal and bizarre pieces. Winiski, like Schmertz, is interested in projecting a concept of humanity onto foreign surfaces, but he does so in a more direct fashion. In Winiski’s artist statement he mentions that he is interested in the supernatural and the idea that myths and superstitions are created from an attempt to explain glimpses of alternate realities. His pieces utilize soft-focus and tilt-shift camera
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techniques to access that foreign plane of existence and in it, try to reassemble the human figure and then see how it reacts in the new environment. Finally, the artist Hyun-Joon Yoon completes the group of three artists that make up the “Fragments” exhibit. One of Yoon’s pieces, and perhaps his most important, is featured at roughly the center of the whole
exhibit. The piece is called “Monologue-Pebbles” and is essentially a bed of small, oblong stones set in a rectangular bed on the floor. Onto these stones is projected, from the ceiling, many small, moving mouths. Each mouth lines up nearly perfectly with the oval shape of the stones. The effect is complex, and for one second the viewer appears to be staring at a bed of talking oysters. Yoon’s
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approach to understanding humanity is the final and most radical form in this exhibit. It represents the end of the evolution of the idea of reevaluating what it means
to be human that started with Schmertz and was expanded by Winiski. What Yoon is saying, though, with his talking mouthstones, is entirely up to you.
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Dance Flurry A Cultural Whirlwind
By Benjamin Wetherbee
When you leave the Dance Flurry at the end of the weekend, you feel as if part of your body got stuck while you were there – stuck to the music, the dance, the people, and the rooms – and was then ripped off. This is not only a metaphor for the exhaustion you feel, but also for how the Dance Flurry can change you. I walked in to the City Center one cold, February weekend not knowing what to expect other than the fact that I’d be playing tons of music and probably embarrassing/discovering myself on the dance floor. After one six hour day followed by a fifteen-anda-half hour day of virtually nonstop jamming and dancing, I felt as if I might never be the same, or at least not for the coming few weeks. But perhaps I’m getting ahead
of myself. Let me explain: The Dance Flurry is a massive three day traditional music and dance festival held in the Saratoga Springs City Center on 522 Broadway each February. With a purchased armband, one is allowed access into multiple dance rooms throughout the Center. These rooms house everything from expansive contra dances and swing dances to African dance tutorials and Scandinavian folk dance. In the hallways, musicians jam day-in, day-out. Side rooms offer workshops with titles such as “Singing with the Fiddle: Darkest of the Dark Arts” and “How to Tell a Good Ghost Story”, many of which are led by the best of the best. It’s entirely possible to pass by groups of swing dancers, Irish musicians, Appalachian Old-Time musicians,
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and end up surrounded by salsa dancers all within a five-minute walk. Many come to the flurry for tradition. I met one woman who had come to every Flurry but the first (this year was the festival’s 26th anniversary). Everywhere around me, friends were meeting old friends from flurries past. Jam circles formed spontaneously as
musicians of all ages recognized old faces, many of whom met at events just like the Flurry. Yet, for all, the Flurry is a chance for discovery – including the discovery of new abilities, new friends, new acquaintances, and new music. I myself spent Saturday attempting one of the most eclectic mix of new activities I had ever tried (you have to fill fifteen-and-a-
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half hours somehow). I Scandinavian folk danced (quite fun, if you were wondering), contra danced more than I ever imagined I would, and Cajun danced. I even tried my hand at playing swing, Cajun, and Irish music. However, the greatest discovery is the people one meets. The dancing and playing truly brings everyone together. In the course of the day I was able to play fiddle
with musicians I had previously only dreamed of meeting. I jammed with one girl who came for the contra dancing but brought her cello just for fun and ended up learned wholly new styles of music. One highlight of the Saturday was a massive Irish jam circle of musicians practically all my age (in my experience, virtually unheard of). I knew only one or two faces in the crowd, and yet the music we as a whole
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produced attracted spectators and dancers alike from all across the floor. I still keep in touch with musicians from that circle. At its heart, the Flurry is an endurance test. It’s easy to get tired after three nonstop days of dancing and playing. Hence, it’s common to walk over groups of sleeping people on your way to the next event. But that is what the Flurry is perfect for: the uninhibited acquisition of new experiences. At times the Flurry feels like a carnival, complete with zestful costumes. Sometimes, it feels overwhelming.Yet, in the end, part of you is stuck there.You leave, wanting to go back for just one more day.You constantly feel the urge visit your Flurry self, but you know part of you will always be stuck at the Dance Flurry. Next year’s flurry is scheduled for Feb. 14-16, 2014.Visit flurryfestival.org and danceflurry.org for more information!
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Healing the Soul
COLOR
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By Shea Barnett
Although most of Skidmore’s older buildings like McClellan, Kimball and Wilmarth won’t win awards for architectural creativity or welcoming ambiance anytime soon, we still have to put up with them for now. In trying to bring life and vitality to otherwise dungeon-like surroundings, most dorm communities have put up colorful posters and charming painted murals. The departments and offices that share spaces in these buildings are no exception. This year, Health Services contacted Rachel Port ’13 to help illuminate their stretch of hallway in JoTo. Port was approached by Val Schultz to create a mural that
inspires joy and good cheer in their tucked-away corner of the building. Health Services’ offices has recently been making small changes, in lieu of a major renovation, to help brighten the facilities including painting their waiting room light purple and replacing lights in their hallway. Unfortunately better lighting has also made the bareness and dullness of the walls much more apparent. Schultz had the work of Peter Max in mind when proposing the idea to Port. Max’s work bares remarkable similarities to the trippy illustrations made famous by the 1960’s Beatles animated film, “Yellow Submarine." Although only in the beginning stages of
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painting at the time of writing, the mural already conveys some of this fancifulness. Despite Schultz’s vision for the mural, it’s clear that Port is more than enthusiastic to contribute her creative talents. This is especially true since the iconic “Yellow Submarine” holds a special place in Port’s heart—she says that “when I was little I used to show it to all of my friends who came over, and I still watch it at least twice a year." Her love for the film bled into her personal work but it was only until freshman year of college in her Color class that she realized just how much of an impact this inspira-
tional movie had on her. Today she describes her art as “happy, bright, fun, and colorful”, just what Health Services needed. In addition to Port’s love of this particular artistic style, Schultz couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate artist. Port, a senior psychology major and studio art minor, is more than prepared to produce a piece that is informed by her twin academic disciplines. At school she works with the psychology department with a focus on learning how color affects emotion. As anyone who’s ever been to either the counseling center or health services office can attest to, depending on what you’re being treated for, it can be a stressful experience. It’s all the better if there’s some way that color, art and psychology can be used together to lessen that discomfort. The initial sketches for the mural feature a surreal dreamscape of geometric shapes, a rainbow, mountains, clouds, planets, and sea creatures. Its central focal point is a human head in profile with a scalp
23 covered in a cluster of multicolored bubbles. Jellyfish float in a rippling pool of water under a disembodied hand and a watchful green eye. The piece stays true to the uncommon vision of Peter Max not only in its content but also its vibrant use of color. Upon first sight I wasn’t sure what I was looking at but that’s sort of point of the piece in my opinion. Its takes the viewer on a journey across the expanse of concrete and plaster starting from the center of the piece where a content countenance gazes out
through a stained glass window at a rippling, almost wriggling, mass of blues and gradient orange hues. Beneath the waves, your eye dives and swims through the tentacles of a jellyfish before breaking and soaring between the peaks of a distant mountain range. Rising and rising we “sail on to the sun” and the distant worlds and lands still unexplored. Thoroughly fantastical and wonderful in its playfulness, I feel that Port’s mural fits the bill. School can be a dark place, heck, life can be a dark place and in the mad dash to graduation it can be frighteningly easy to slip into a nearly inescapable pit of despair. This piece of art is made to greet the weary, the hurt
24 and the lost and invite them to seek salves for the mind, body and soul. Brightening our corridors means not only illuminating with wires and bulbs but also by inspiring comfort and good humor in the people who walk these halls. If you’d like to check it out, the mural will be prominently placed in the hallway between health services and counseling services on the first floor of Jonsson Tower.
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