LoBueNicole Blog Post #3

Beth Cavener

Upon reading the prompt, I immediately remembered an artist’s work I had seen in the past and been drawn to. I couldn’t remember the artist’s name at first but it didn’t take long to figure out since her animal sculptures are easily distinguishable. Born on November 25, 1972, the 44-year-old full-time professional studio artist is currently living in Montana. On the About tab in Beth Cavener’s digital portfolio, she states that her sculptures “focus on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal and human forms.” Her goal is “to pry at those uncomfortable, awkward edges between animal and human” and I’d say her work does this rather well. Her most recent exhibition, The Other, opened on July 3, 2017 and aimed to “[address] the strained edges of identity as defined by the presence of another.”

Beth Cavener “Entertwined Ermines” from The Other exhibit

One of her works I particularly enjoy is titled “Tangled Up In You.” Designed with and painted by Alessandro Gallo, it “portrays a human-scale hare suspended in midair at eye-level with the viewer, curling in on itself and sinuously intertwined with the twisting body of a 19 food anaconda snake. The sculpture hangs from the coiled tail of the snake wrapped around a rope attached to the ceiling, while the head of the snake twists around and is latched, mouth wide onto the shoulder of the hare…Embedded within the tattoos, the subtle narrative of the two figures unfolded within the context of a wild, wind-tossed storm of stylized clouds and crashing waves…The combination of the undulating form of the snake, accentuated by the animated design of the tattoos, and the inward spiral of the hare poised in midair evoke a powerful flow of tangled emotion and energy.”

Beth Cavener “Tangled Up In You”

LoBueNicole Blog Post#1 1st Year Visual Seminar

Part 1:

  1. What are the main points of each article?

First Article: 1) Artists are “neophiles,” 2) artists are humanists, 3) artists are craftspeople, 4) artists are like children, 5) artists rely on their intuition, 6) artists are comfortable with ambiguity, 7) artists are holistic, interdisciplinary thinkers, 8) artists thrive under constraints, 9) artists are great storytellers, 10) artists are conduits and not “masters of the universe,” 11) artists are passionate about their work, and 12) artists are contrarians

Second Article: Both artists and entrepreneurs are driven by passion, find themselves having to veer towards demands of the market, must learn to deal with the realities of life, business, and their own limitations.

  1. What can artists learn from their “entrepreneurial cousins”?

Artists can “follow the lead of their entrepreneurial cousins and leverage the many resources available to remove the burdens of doing business as an independent artist.”

  1. Do you agree that artists are entrepreneurs? Why?

Yes–artists make their ideas a reality, just as entrepreneurs do, and both bring something new and exciting to the world.

  1. Which of the 12 characteristics of artists do you agree with?

I strongly agree with point number 6, that artists are comfortable with ambiguity.

  1. What others would you add to the list?

I can’t think of anything I would add to the list.

  1. Additional thoughts.

Both are interesting articles.

Part 2:

  1. Do you have grit, or is this something you need to work on?

I scored 3.36 on the grit scale, so I’d say I have a decent amount, but it’s not necessarily a strength of mine.

  1. List a couple of things you could do to increase your level of grit.

Stop procrastinating and get done what needs to get done.

CREATIVITY and MAKING_Flusser

Honestly, I was completely and utterly lost the first time I read through the excerpt. Even a second read through did little to clear my confusion, so I simply let the thoughts ferment for a while in my mind before returning to compose my reflections on the material. The author spends the most time on—or what seemed to take up most of the passage, I should say—the concept of black and white. I probably came up with more questions than I did answers whilst thinking on it, but one thought that stuck with me was, from what I understand, the idea of black and white being the only ‘true’ colors. I usually think of black and white as opposites, but really, it’s more accurate to describe them as inverses of each other. In terms of pigmentation, black is all the colors combined while white is the absence of pigment. However, in terms of light, black is the absence of light while white is all the colors combined. Both black and white can be thought about and described as all colors combined, making them the ‘true’ colors, normal colors then simply being facets or parts of the whole, hence the designation of black and white as the only ‘true’ colors that initially confused me.

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