After reading and looking over these materials, provide a 100-200 word response detailing your reaction to both.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
E-Journal #4: Life After Graduation
Read the ART21 Blog posting, Life After Graduation from last April and look over the website of current graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill, Lee Delegard. Lee was one of my students at Beloit College, which has a studio art curriculum very similar to Rollins. The Way Things Are includes installation views of the works that Lee produced for her senior exhibition. I encourage you to look at her more current work as well, in order to get a sense of how her work has progressed.
After reading and looking over these materials, provide a 100-200 word response detailing your reaction to both.
Jeffrey Augustine Songco, "I've graduated before." Courtesy of the artist.
After reading and looking over these materials, provide a 100-200 word response detailing your reaction to both.
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“Life After Graduation” was a very nice article. As an art student it is nice to read something about one of my peers doing such great things. It is rare, but can happen. It seems as Jules de Balincourt was very motivated and talented, but special stress was put into his studio hours. This might be the area most students have a problem, because of everything else going on in life for a young adult. It is an art itself learning good studio work.
ReplyDeleteBut then it was back to reality after reading the section where Jeffery asked other classmates what they were doing after graduation that was more close to home. I felt more on their level, but I am looking to continue my education with masters in art education, advertisement, or graphic design.
Lee Delegrad had interesting work. I liked Lee’s prints/ drawings the most. This helped understand what a senior exhibition can look like
I think that reading "Life After Graduation" is both inspirational and frightening... it represents all the reasons why an art student should continue their education, yet at the same time depicts what to some may just be a fairy tale. Through persistence and hard work (and maybe a little bit of luck?), Jules de Balincourt achieved early on what most artists hope to achieve by the end of their career.
ReplyDeleteI too thought that there was a stress on the fact the Jules took full advantage of his studio, and made sure that no matter how hectic and packed his schedule was he always dedicated equal time to his art. I think that staying focused on your work is fundamental to making good art (that represents you well).
I enjoyed looking through Lee Delegrads work, specifically her plastic bottle sculpture and cardboard boxes.... I think this has challenged me to think of all surfaces in your allocated space: Walls, corner, floor, ceiling... every surface has equal potential for showing your work in new and interesting ways. It seems as though this is a common theme for her, to use unconventional ways to exhibit her work, which makes her shows that much more interesting to look at.
I really enjoyed Life After Graduation. There was definitely an emphasis on the importance of grad school in an art career. It was a realistic article about the future and I was glad to read what other students had planned for the future, even just to know I wasn’t alone in my choice to not pursue graduate school. All in all, the article was rather inspirational, and the section spent discussing Jules de Balincourt’s studio work ethic was something I’m going to mentally cling to up until graduation. I’m still trying to get past my studio anxiety and now that I feel more comfortable with my work I only see myself becoming more dedicated from this point onward.
ReplyDeleteLee’s work was very different from what I’d expected, but not in a bad way. I’ve seen a lot of sculpture, and normally I’m not a fan of this kind of it, but hers was so unique that I couldn’t help but be drawn in. As Jenn touched on, Lee successfully utilized every surface and this is definitely given me something to think about in terms of how I might want to display my work in the museum.
While I enjoyed reading this article, it might helped me more last semester. It was interesting to hear about people in our peer group making art now and some of their struggles. However on the other hand I am more scared than ever because I am not going to grad school, I have not take the GRE, started any applications, or even thought about getting letters of recommendation.
ReplyDeleteI have a plan for my future but after this article, I'm kind of freaking out that I may have just ended my art career before it even really got a chance to start.
I like Lee's work a lot. I've always been a fan of instillation pieces and I really liked her instillation The Way Things Are and the way she uses found materials like that in a museum setting. She is someone that I would definitely be interested in talking to about the progression of her work from a Senior Seminar class out into the world and into the creation of her other works.
I agree with Jen, I found this article extremely informative yet also frightening. This article has reinforces the correlation between studio time and how successful one’s work of art is. The main reason why Jules’ work has been successful is because of how dedicated he has been to working in the studio. He is an example of hard work paying off. However, Jule’s case is rare in the fact that it is not everyday you have someone as one has him being given the opportunity to put on their own individual art show at such a young age. All of this goes back to importance of continuing ones education to better succeed in the art world. Although I definitely plan to continue my art education somehow whether it be post baccalaureate then grad school or a residency somewhere, I have so much going on in my life right now that I like Margaret haven’t started any applications yet. This article has been a wake up call for me. I think I have been hesitant because I do not know where to really start and I am in denial about leaving college (which I know is ridiculous and wont get me anywhere).
ReplyDeleteMy favorite statement from this article is when the author states, “he has a fascinating way of learning on the institutions around him but never allowing them to stagnate his motivation and discarding their rules when necessary.” I along with the author completely agree with this, because if you loose sight of your own ambitions and goals you will never fully find out who you are not only as an artist but as person as well.
I love Lee’s work, specifically the sculpture pieces where she manipulates and uses materials to convey larger cultural and political issues in a non-literal way. This is what I hope to accomplish through my senior piece, accept having my work reflect aspects of my own personal life.
After reading the article "Life After Graduation", I find it amazing that Jules got such recognition so quickly and accomplished so much in so little time. While I do find it inspirational I know for myself that it's not the career I am looking for. Though I don't yet know what it is I want to be doing, I know at least at this point it won't make me happy and is much more an obligation for me than a passion. (Sorry to be so brutally honest). I would much rather just create on my own time what I wanted without the pressures of answering questions like, "why paint, why canvas, why this size and not this size?" it just seems to me to totally deconstruct what art is supposed to be. If you analyze each decision so intensely than I feel it loses all creativity. Aspects of Lee's work were really interesting, I liked her drawings and paintings, but her sculptural work I found hard to understand, perhaps I just don't have that concept based mind-set, but why is a wall of books unique and thought-provoking? Perhaps I need to spend more time reading into things, pardon the pun, but abstract works have never seemed to drawn me in the same way representational art has.
ReplyDeleteI found the article interesting, contrasting the quick acceptance of Jules de Balincourt in the art world and the more common careers of the other grad students. Balincourt’s story also showcased the role of grad schools and how it can aid in developing students’ art. His story shows the kind of determination needed to enter the art world and hopefully stay in the gallery system. However, most graduates leave school looking for a job to pay their debts like the other students in the article. Balincourt’s story seems more of a rare case.
ReplyDeleteIt was intriguing to see Lee Delegard’s art develop from the 2007 student show to the current work in 2010. I don’t see many student installation works and I liked how she utilized the space of the gallery effectively. I’m still curious how we are going to take advantage of the space in our student show and make things flow together. It was evident that her work became more minimalist in the materials used and her idea was more focused. I really liked the last installation of the books because it’s so simple yet formally appealing.