THE THINKING MAN'S ART

CONCEPTUAL ART

Conceptual art is just that, it is based on a concept or idea. For many years I was not sure how to define myself or my art until I read about conceptual art. I have always been a teacher and a researcher.  I have loved both and often one generates the other.  I love thinking about how to relay an idea or concept to others.  Though much of my art is done intuitively that only happens when I get to the actual act of putting the material together.

Rene Magritte, Surrealist  

 Actually much research and thought goes into my art, as if I were writing a paper to present, or a class to teach.  I love learning and sharing what I have learned.  Being an art teacher for 37 years I do a good bit of both.  I learned early on the more I researched a lesson or a unit to teach students the more excited I was and the more the enthusiasm carried over to the students.  My research and my act of learning excited them and made them want to investigate and create.  

Ai Weiwei   Chinese Conceptual Artist
 from google image for  educational purposes

For all the years I taught I was an artist before and after, it was essential to me to always do art and share what I made. Working with conceptual art let me go back and forth between my world of teaching and my world of being an artist.  So I learned what I was doing was called Conceptual art and the realm I was working in was Surrealism.  These two areas gave me the path to doing intellect based art.  I could never be nor want to be a representational artist.  
Below are pictures form the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The architectural firm that designed the new Dali museum incorporated his interest in the double helix that is often found in his paintings. But the building design only allowed for one helix though.  

Of the last three conceptual art pieces I have done, one was 2 dimensional and two were  3 dimensional assemblage.  Both were created working from a theme for art membership shows at the Morean art center and one for the Dali Museum for a benefit. The piece for the Dali was done with Dali's complete history of Surrealism and his different periods in mind.  The theme was "Liquid Desires" working off many levels of meaning.  I responded with a piece named "Wet Dreams".  Freud's psychological theories were very prominent in the work of the surrealists. And in the piece I entered I included many symbols that would trigger unconscious meaning in the viewers mind. 

details of  assemblage "Wet Dreams"

The present piece I am working on will be conceptual and have multiple levels of meaning as well.  I am beginning with an African head and headdress base and then moving into universal themes and present day issues.  At least that is where my mind is now.  I am working with a sub theme of aphasia in on a personal level and on a universal level of the challenges of communication. The head itself lends one to think of speaking, communication, and reasoning.  African headdress often convey additional meaning in the details of what is woven or sewn or sculpted into the headdress.    Bits and parts of pieces of everyday life, a bit of a metal tag, a piece of cloth, a watch band, bullet casings, and what ever seems of value or to be honored.  It is a part of the celebration of life in the African culture where art is not a separate entity unto itself.  
I have been very interested in the concept of the brain, its function and how the separate parts of the brain can work independently when damaged.  My Mother had a stroke at 90 and had been having small TIA's for a few years before, my Grandmother also had a stroke and had brain damage.  In both cases I was and am intimately involved.  In addition half my career dealt with teaching special education with multiple handicaps and levels of thinking.  How the human brain functions is of great interest to me and I am in awe of how complex an organ it is.  
The piece I am working on now will at some level respond to all of  these issues.  It is still forming in my mind until it begins to form a shape and gel.  How will I work in all the ideas I have in mind and on all the varying levels at this point is still a mystery to me.  I would would like to incorporate a video loop somehow and/or layers of transparencies of images. The pieces below are the beginning of the collection of items I have collected or bought that I will be working with.

Head for designing hats

Antique Gas Mask

Ship building molds

*all highlighted areas are to click for more information

Maya Lin(click)

Vietnam War Memorial   Maya Lin               google image

At 21 years old as an undergraduate student, Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam War Memorial beat out 1,400 different proposals.  At the time it was controversial, many thought it should be a realistic  sculpture of the men who fought.  As a matter of fact such a memorial was later built by another sculptor, but it was never as successful nor meant as much to grieving friends and family as Maya Lin's design.  On her granite block cut sculpture they could fine their loved ones name, touch it, stand by it, pray by it, and cry by it.  A conceptual art work with so much deep and thought that called for interactive participation from the viewers was far more emotive than a realistic sculpture would have ever been.  Art, in some people's mind, is geared toward realism...art is rarely that, even realism isn't what people think it is...it is only a perception that is created on a two dimensional or three dimensional surface.  To open peoples mind, to change their views about what art is and is not, is a role as an art educator and artist has always been what I find interesting.  When showing my work I have met very educated people who can not see beyond realism and pretty, and I have met uneducated people who walk up and just start loving colors and shapes, thoughts and feelings.  I would have to say I appreciate them most, because they approach the work with out prejudice or preconceptions.

   Maya Lin  detail Vietnam War Memorial       google image

Maya Lin, Artist

May Lin was a college student in Athen, Ohio.  Her Aunt was a foremost architect in China.  Her work  makes one think deeply and is well designed.  She saw the design as a wound to the Earth in the soldiers memory.  

An Artist of Prickly Pears!!! Real Cati Sculpture...Ouch! A Artist of New Thought

RABBIT'S MOON STUDIO NEW ARTIST SERIES:


 INTRODUCES JONATHAN TAUBE

During our on site visit to New Orleans we were not only introduced to wonderful foods, cultural events, and galleries, but new artist as well.  Our last two post on artist in New Orleans, we talked of George Rodrigue and the Blue Dog and introduced Frank Relle photographer extradonaire. 

Jonathan Taube/New Orleans Sculptor/google image

Proposal for Baltimore Social Interaction Sculpture/Jonathan Taube/google image

But as in all travel wonderful things happen that are just happenstance.  When touring the New Orleans Glass and Print Studio I met a charming energetic young artist by the name of Jonathan Taube.    He is primarily a sculpture.  He talked in a way that I have begin to understand, among the new generations, who are born out of technology and a different social vision for our world, that is just mind blowing creative!  He, and many others of his generation, sees the world and our structures differently and is out to change the world.  I almost heard an audible click as if someone opened up a door to a new world I had not conceived.  He talked about art studio's being virtual, not set in one country or place, he talked of pop up art shows, he talked of collaboration with artists in other countries and areas in new ways, that is did not have to be permanent, and he talked of art as not having ownership not needing to claim it as one person and individualize it. 

Jonathan Taube, Floating Bench/Baltimore Proposal/google image

 We stood and talked while the glass blowers tuned molten glass, and the print makers walked around us trying to roll their presses...we talked while my partner patiently waited, the left after it was too long....it was exciting and enlightening!  I know you have had conversations like these at times....when they happen it is like a huge gift the universe has given you...Christmas presents under the tree, fireworks bursting in the air....so now lets talk about Prickly Pear Cacti Sculptures!!

Jonathan Taub, Prickly Pear Sculpture/google image

Why Cactus you say....why sharp needles, live, and temporary sculptures?


Jonathan has a great passion for prickly pear cactus, just ask him.  He knows everything about prickly pears, their origin, how they grow, where they grow, and everything else prickly pear.  He has studied them up front and close.  I am not sure how he would term himself as an artists, I might call him a conceptual artist, but he may have a different take.  In the photo below you can tell he its not only interested in presenting it as a live sculpture, but as something live that is deconstructing as well.  It opens up to other thought....living and dying, how and what happens when something dies, how the sculpture changes in color and shape, and that it is temporary......
Jonathan is an exciting new young and vibrant artist....he has done sculptures on site in Israel and Mexico, and many national venues.  He is an artist on the move....I think we best keep an eye on Jonathan he is up to lots of creative good for the world!!!