!

So nasty… imageoscillite: M.I.A. - Bad Girls | Directed...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:18:09 -0500

So nasty…

M.I.A. - Bad Girls | Directed by Romain Gavras

Says jasonflowers: “This is the video Kanye always thinks he’s making.”

Photo

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:44:49 -0500

Photo

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:48:14 -0500

Photo

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:04:12 -0500

BFA Tuesday… on Wednesday will be interrupted this week...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:47:54 -0500

BFA Tuesday… on Wednesday will be interrupted this week for this very special announcement :

This Friday night my fellow BFA brothers, Carleton Haack, Charles Greenberg, Jarrod Goldman and I will be showing work at Vinyl Music Hall downtown for Gallery night! If you’re in town and down there please stop by to have a look and say hello. These gentlemen are very talented, you shouldn’t want to miss it.

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:12:28 -0500

DigitalStudio: Found Image SelfPortrait

Ceramics : Hare Rhyton

Sculpture : Sail

Sculpture : Wood Abstract Form

Sculpture : Metal Torso

Ideas & Concepts Final : Self-Portrait

Digital Studio : Stencil

Digital Studio Final : Waiting for Godot

Sculpture : Reliquary

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student pursuing a BFA at the University of West Florida. Namely, this artist. //

Things are getting rolling for this Spring semester. Have already spent many a hour in the library and have homework/projects piling up. We’re off folks!

So since I don’t have anything new to show you yet here is a Highlight Reel from last semester. Enjoy!

BFA Update : Since we last spoke...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:09:26 -0500

My efforts to update my journey kept quite strong last semester, right up until the last few weeks came upon us. In the process of finishing out above water, it was inevitably my blog which was one of the first things to go. It was an act of lightening the load in order that the ship might not sink. But finish we did, and from the storm we prevailed. Floating in a sort of peaceful daze. The vessel has since been drifting along through the holidays, until today. Yes today the sails are hoisted yet again, in preparation for a new adventure, the new semester as a fulltime Bachelors of Fine Art student at the University of West Florida. (Que Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack!)

Course Schedule Spring 2012 -

Art after 1950

Drawing III

Sculptural Ceramics

History of Film and Exposure

C&C Router

Due to this only being the first week of class, thus no projects being due, next week will be an update showing all the completed pieces (worth looking at) from last semester. Feels good to be back! Happy Spring!

One bite of the fruit, knowledge of good and evil. Two bites, eternal life. And John the baptist...

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:10:09 -0500

One bite of the fruit, knowledge of good and evil. Two bites, eternal life.

And John the baptist came out of the womb talking.

The Bible is full of wonderment…

Time to illustrate the day away…

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:51:14 -0500

Time to illustrate the day away…

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student...

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:18:04 -0500

Fin

Tape off for paint job

Glaze

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student pursuing a BFA at the University of West Florida. Namely, this artist. //

In light of the last post regarding my proposal to speak at the NCECA, I will dedicate this BFA update to ceramics.

Assignment : Choose an animal from a specific ecosystem and create a Rhyton form with said animal incorporated into it.

You might be asking what a rhyton form is, as did I when we first received the assignment. Well, a rhyton form is a type of drinking vessel that sits on its lip. They tend to curve similarly to horn shapes. The idea was that one could not put down their drink until they were finished because the liquid would spill out, due to the rhytons shape. Seems like an ancient drinking game if you ask me.

This project followed our PreColumbian sculptures in the realm of handbuilding. Our parameters were to use coil-building…

I chose a hare and/or jackrabbit.

I created a stand for it to stand upright on (those front legs).

I’m happy with the way it turned out. The kiln ended up getting a little too hot and causing a few interesting idiosyncrasies such as the gloss finish (was supposed to be a matte glaze) and some dripping of the underglaze colors.

Pray all is well,

Filipe

A Proposal to speak at the NCECA

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:26:00 -0500

The NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) holds a big conference every year to celebrate and imagine the future of ceramics. This year the conference will be held in Seattle, Washington. The theme is On the Edge.

On the Edge - Seattle, as well as the entire Puget Sound region, is located in a unique geographical position; on the EDGE of the country and on the EDGE of the Pacific Rim. From this location ON THE EDGE, quite naturally, we have a broad perspective on objects, places and issues, and see great distances. We thrive on the intersection of old and new worlds. And we respect distant and historic cultures…Asian, Pacific, Native American, and all of our neighbors in North America. Most of all we appreciate how they have influenced our contemporary ceramic practices.

Through creative stretching, we also visit the EDGE of our imagination and appreciate the artistic use of clay in dynamic new ways. Even EDGY ways…often on the EDGE…sometimes with rough EDGES.

I heard about the conference from my ceramics professor who will actually be showing at the event. Him along with Beth Cavener Stichter, Alessandro Gallo and many others. Serious stuff here people.

All that to say I would really like to go. Seattle is awesome, Ceramics is awesome, trips away from home are awesome…

The cost is a bit pricy though (flight, lodging, food and entrance fee). But, knowing a few of us were interested in attending, my professor brought to our attention an opportunity to get a free pass to the conference (potentially saving $150+). This opportunity consists of participating in a program they offer during the conference entitled, Student Perspectives. Basically any student (undergraduate, graduate, post-bacc) can offer to give a lecture about any given topic (preferably about ceramics and/or On the Edge) and if they’re proposal is selected they get a free pass to the conference.

Proposals had to be 400 words long and turned in by today (Sunday, Nov. 13th). I decided to give it a go. Would be a good experience and I could use a free pass ;) So I spent the week working on a few drafts and just sent in the fourth revision a few minutes ago. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Everybody’s an Artist — the growing democratization of art and our response to it

My generation of artists currently finds itself on the edge of an issue that I believe needs addressing. Truly, I think we might have moved passed the edge a bit and began getting into the thick of it already.

We find ourselves within a unique atmosphere in the art world today. With the advancement of technology has come the ability to produce (and promote) work in a fraction of the time and effort it used to take. These tools, which were in the past only available to the elite, have been dropped into the laps of us adolescents and we have quickly learned and mastered abilities which were before only the craft of experts. This reality acts as a double edge sword artists have the pleasure of balancing across. While the benefits of such advances are obvious (new mediums, self-promotion, ease of production), I believe there are also converse repercussions which need examining. As these tools become more and more accessible (it seems everyone nowadays has a decent camera and photography software… on their phone) the chasm which once separated the amateur from the master is quickly shrinking. And so we find a shift in the who’s who between artist and audience. If everyone begins to think they are an artist, what happens to the role of the artist? Further still, if everyone begins to put out work (some of whom probably shouldn’t) and flood the world with mediocrity, what happens to masses taste in the truly fine and excellent? It seems the population will become comfortably numb with mediocrity and the truly talented will get lost in the sea of it.

It is on this democratization of art and how we as young fine artists respond to it that I aim to focus my address. For it is my belief that we who truly care for the cause of fine art can engage this growing population and help articulate a standard for what will be considered true and good art. Such an effort will by no means be easy, much a laborious work and time spent in lofty thinking and discussion must occur. But it is an effort I believe most certainly necessary. For as we know (and indeed are continually learning) art is more than just our work, it is us. And it is that being, that seriousness of the artistic endeavor, which must never be lost.

I hope to be selected, but if I’m not I will still try to make it to the conference anyway. Writing the proposal was a good exercise all the same. Hope you’ve enjoyed.

All the best,

Filipe

Beginnings of my Art website...

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:41:00 -0400

Beginnings of my Art website...:

Consists of some older work and some newer…

All in all I’m quite content with the final product. I...

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:38:00 -0400

Fin

Perhaps my favorite view/ rdctVScnstrct

Interior from behind

Interior from side

Last big cut I made

All in all I’m quite content with the final product. I certainly learned a great deal during the process. I now feel I have much more to invest into my next piece, which is in itself an exciting thought.

Pray you’ve enjoyed.

PS - I was accepted into the BFA program :)

BFA Tuesday, continued… (See last post before reading this...

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:30:00 -0400

One side after the bandsaw and a-grinder

Drillin holes!

Building up my other side out of SP

Measured and ready to glue

New side constructed from boards of SP

Interior ground out

More holes!

Getting the general form to be congruent

Filing away at those holes

Finally glued them together

BFA Tuesday, continued… (See last post before reading this one)

The bandsaw ended up crapping out on me. Yep, Big Blue decided that she would shut down and not function anymore. Right in the middle of shaping out the other half of my object. So, I ended up just working with the one half I had until she was fixed. I shaped the rest of the outside using the angle grinder again and then began drilling out the holes you can see in my sketches (see previous post).

It was around this time that I had another talk with my instructor. He, having witnessed the ideas I was exploring in my foam sculptures, proposed that I investigate using another material to make up the other half of my object. “Perhaps another kind of wood?” He wondered out loud. He brought up the idea of using different methods to make up each half and what possibilities might emerge from such a treatment. Intrigued me enough to explore.

This whole time I had been working in a reduction process. Taking away material from a solid form. What would happen if I used construction on the other side? Built it up and put it together with the hollowed out side? The idea became establishing a dialogue between not only materials used, but processess to create them also. How much more interesting would this object become?

I decided on the Select Pine as my material. The colors I thought would look really nice together, and that concept of construction versus reduction had me in it’s grips. I gathered all the scrap pieces I could find around the shop and began making measurements and putting this thing together. You can see it in its rawest form up top, just a bunch of panels of Pine, cut and glued together. The method for forming that shape was similar to the other side so it took no time at all to finish. That and the Pine in comparison with the hard maple seemed like butter. So soft it just sliced away with ease. After that I began cutting away the rest of the holes that were to be in it and finally glued the suckers together.

The pieces weren’t exactly the very same flatness for either side which made it problematic for glueing together evenly. So after sanding them down to almost nothing we put the glue on there and strapped it up (thus the frankenstin looking thing in the last photo). Had to get them as tight as possible!

After that came more shaping and filing until everything seemed quite even on both sides. As you might have noticed in my sketches there is a gap I designed in the piece where I was looking to create some tension. I ended up taking the orb to one of the smaller bandsaws and cutting that part out. It was one of the last things I did but was definitely one the most important. There was a sense of incompleteness before I made that cut. Super glad I went through with it. After all that it was time for the always fun touch up work and finishing. Basically sanding my life away and then putting polyurethane on the whole thing.

Due to the amount of photographs I have to make yet another post to show the finished product. My apologies for the scatteredness of this whole thing. Have to let you guys in on everything!

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student...

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:20:00 -0400

First Sketches

One half of my red maple log

Angle Grinding into that junk!

Interior

Perpendicular cuts into wood

Parallel cutting it all away

Getting closer

Further still

Back to the angle grinder

Found a small crack, wood-glued it back

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student pursuing a BFA at the University of West Florida. Namely, this artist. //

It is with an added pleasure that I create this BFA post today. For this update is dedicated to the wood sculpture that I have been in the process of making for some 5 weeks or so, and is thusly finished. The update will span 2 posts so be sure to read on.

Course — Sculpture

Assignment — Deriving inspiration from specific characteristics within two already created objects, create an abstract form out of wood exploring those characteristics.

I began this sculpture by simply making sketches of objects I saw and resonated with. Basically things I found aesthetically pleasing or interesting. The shape of a glass bottle, the form a parachute made when filled with air, etc. I remember sitting in Barnes and Noble with Beth Taylor and just looking around in magazines and drawing things. I really had no idea what I was going to create. We were asked to make two models exploring the concepts we were interested in and bring them to class to discuss our ideas with Gary (Professor Batzloff). I brought two little forms made out of cardboard.

As I was sitting on the floor of my room the night before (always the night before it seems) cutting up cardboard, bending and crumpling the pieces, I found that there were these ripple effects made on the interior space of the cardboard when it was bent a certain way. I liked them so much that I decided that I would explore the relationships between interior and exterior spaces with this wood piece. A couple nights later I made the sketches you see on the right side of my notebook up top, I designed the form and was now off to begin fleshing it out with the actual material.

I’ve always enjoyed working with wood. When I was younger I was continuously building forts and tree houses. Nailing pieces of plywood together, haphazardly drilling screws into trees and fences. My dad, papa, has an affinity with woodworking as well. Most of my enjoyment is probably derived from him. It has become a kind of bond we share now, and I am grateful for that.

Our wood choices for the project were between a 1”x2”x4” piece Select Pine or Popler. But as I was talking out my ideas with Gary he told me there was some scrap material outside I could use if I liked. I went out and found a shoddy looking log that I thought I could work my piece out of. We brought it in and cut it in half using the bandsaw. It turned out to be a beautiful Red Maple. I was pumped. Inspired by this gorgeous material I drove into my work with new found enthusiasm.

I think that the major element I have taken from working on this piece has not been stronger woodworking skills, but a better understanding of the significance of process. The way in which one creates a piece. The methods and inspiration found in the midst of creation. Learning to reflect on my own feelings and efforts while in the middle of a work. After I fleshed out my interior spaces with the angle grinder and began forming my exterior space I realized that the methods of working, though rarely seen in the finished project, can speak a great deal into ones work, and further more into oneself. This is I think where I am beginning to understand that truly being an artist far exceeds the simple act of producing some finished thing.

As I made all those small cuts perpendicular to the log with the bandsaw, forming the general shape of my object, I found an incredibly intriguing aesthetic develop. All those small cuts into the wood were so interesting! All of a sudden whether I worked in an aesthetically pleasing manner or not became an important thought; because these methods speak into a work. As I made the cut moving parallel with the form those small cuts and that interesting aesthetic were gone, and slowly with them went my preconceived notions about what my piece was going to be.

My second post will come tomorrow. Lots more pictures and thoughts to share!

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student...

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:31:00 -0400

Work being entered

Charles, Emily and Richard's work

Er'body

The setup..

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student pursuing his BFA at the University of West Florida. Namely, this artist. //

I have perhaps been misleading up until this point with my BFA Update posts. It turns out that I haven’t really been officially accepted into UWF’s Bachelors of Fine Arts program. I have lied to you and I am sorry, perhaps it’s just that I know at some point I will get in and so I am simply acting as though it has already happened. All the same, it is a program which exists separate from the regular Bachelors degree and into which one must be accepted. Each semester there is an opportunity to apply and this semester I am giving it a go. The process involves a filled out application and a Review of your work by the BFA Staff. Today is the setup day (each student reserves a wall/space to setup their work at) and tomorrow will be the review day. I’m excited and little anxious really. It won’t be the end of the world if I don’t get accepted because I have plenty of time to get in. I would though like to take advantage of my opportunities as much as I can while I am still in school.

So there you have it, wish me luck!

P.S. The next post will be on my Wood Sculpture that I have been working on for the past five weeks or so. Finally finished!

Cups have been glazed! Beverage ready. A Rhyton post will be...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:25:00 -0400

Cups have been glazed! Beverage ready.

A Rhyton post will be coming soon…

Next comes mugs. Exciting times in the ceramics studio.

"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just..."

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:11:25 -0400

“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”

- Oh, Clive. I love you. (via kim-a)

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:01:36 -0400

High School Silk Screen Design

BFA Tuesday : a look into the life of an art student pursuing his BFA at the University of West Florida. Namely, this artist. //

Course : Digital Studio

Assignment : Create two pieces of street art in Photoshop using grayscale (black&white).

In the class before getting this assignment we watched Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop” and wrote a little response to it (If you haven’t seen it and are interested at all by street art I would suggest checking it out. It’s on Netflix). Then we were given two class periods to complete this project.

During my senior year of High School I stumbled upon Banksy’s Book and become enraptured by the whole street art movement. A good bit of my work back then was heavily influenced by it. Large doses of sarcasm mixed with social commentary expressed via stencil and spray paint. The first photo above is from that era. I think the whole adventure aspect of graffiti was perhaps what was most attractive about the whole thing. Once you had a stencil you could just run around leaving it everywhere. It was fun.

I never really lost interest in the area, I kept up with a few different artists work from time to time. I have myself though been moving in a different direction the past few years with my art, so sort of getting back into the street art scene was kind of a nice experience.

I ended up taking the project a step further and actually making a stencil of my work and spraying it.

The last photo is what I wrote about the two pieces (“Always” and “chipup”) for the critique.

Enjoy!

BFA Update

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:29:13 -0400

I believe the only class I am currently in that I have yet to give a BFA updated on is Portfolio. This course consists of working through the painstaking task of putting us artists together in nice and neat packages to send off to the art world. Basically the “how to” on getting your ish together so that you can look like a serious, professional artist. Apparently it’s not all flowers and oil paint, which makes me question whether I still want in or not.

Our first assignment was to write an artist statement. An artist statement basically answers the questions, “What do you do?” “Why do you do it?” and “How do you it?”

Because I am currently pursuing my BFA to find out exactly what it is I do, answering some of these questions became a bit of a challenge. I’m still testing the waters right? Just swimming about, poking at fish and making new friends. I’m sure I’ll choose an island to setup camp on at some point… maybe.

Either way I set out to write up something I could hold to without giving any specifics about exact mediums.

I’ll post my first and second drafts. The critique called for something more clear and concise, so the second draft is the result that. My Professor thinks it’s good to go. I’m pretty happy with it too, just mulling over a few lines here and there.

Draft 1

Beauty, I have found, is a means in and of itself. We do not approach it with the intentions of any other gain, for it is within the very experience of it that we find a means. Wonderment works as a sort of moral compass. There is an air of clarity or enlightenment found either within the process of creation or in the final realization of it. It is within these enlightened states that I believe the artist, as well as the spectator, to be closest to their true selves. It is then my aim to be most fully and truly alive, and thus invite others to do so with me. If through the process of creation I am functioning as my truest self, which I believe I am, then the process becomes just as important as the work itself. In this way art has moved from simply something I do to the very way in which I live. To both give and receive life through the creation of beauty, manipulating whatever medium necessary in the process. Creating cosmos in the midst of chaos.

Draft 2 (Perhaps Final)

It is my aim to be most fully and truly alive, and thus invite others to do so with me. If through the process of creation I am functioning as my truest self, which I believe I am, then the action of creating becomes just as important as the work itself. In this way art moves from simply being something I do to the very way in which I live. To both give and receive life through the creation of cosmos in the midst of chaos; manipulating whatever medium necessary in the process.

Adding a bit to my philosophy would be my only tweaks I think. It feels a bit more overdependent on art than I believe myself to be. Doesn’t leave much room for the other parts of me that are equally, if not more so, important. Think the addition of a line or two would suffice. I’ll let you know how it goes!

All the best,

Filipe