Artist Statement

Kerry Mairie Scott

“Where the Spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art”

–Leonardo da Vinci

My spirit is in my work. I treat each painting as a religious experience. My step-by-step approach is the ritual, a planned celebration of an ideal. The subject matter must be important to me and clearly stated. Why hold a ritual if I do not know or care what it is about? My spirituality is expressed not only in process and subject, but also in materials. My views on nature and the spirit realm are eclectic. I borrow bits and pieces from different cultures and religions and combine them into a harmony that helps me to understand and interpret the world. So, to parallel that, my paintings are often done with mixed media; oil, acrylic, spray paint, thread, beads, and wire put together into a cohesive whole. I am interested in both the physical properties of these materials and that which they represent in my world. Therefore, I have to manipulate them with my own hands to be between the media and the expression. I am the mediator, negotiator, synchronizer, and originator. I am the gate.

Let the gates be open.

Relevant: Reflection Reformation Revival: Rethinking Contemporary Native American Art

The Relevant show on display at the Natham Cumings Foundation is comprised of American Indian artists of different tribal lineages who are living in New York City. The aim of this show is to update and advance the viewers' ideas on contemporary Native American art and dispel the stereotypes. This is accomplished by dividing the exhibition into three sections, hece the title "Reflection, Reformation, Revival".
Reflection: This first section features painters Mercedes Bell and Pena Bonita, and sculptor Diane Schenandoah. These three artists feature the traditional myths and symbolic themes of their respective tribes in such a way that they may be reexamined and better understood by an outsider's eyes.
Reformation: This next section features painters Yakita Starr Fields and Jason Martinez, videographer Jeffrey Gibson, and photographer/printmaker Jason Lujan. Their work expresses mainstream society's effect on traditional culture and vice versa, using more cotemporary processes such as video and photography.
Revival: The third and final part of the exhibition displays work by painters Vernon B. Bigman and Mario Martinez, Sculptor Jude Norris, and an installation/scultpture by Lorenzo Clayton and Jacob Burckhardt.
The curation of this exhibition is confusing. Instead of a gallery setting, the Relevant show is displayed in the Nathan Cummings Foundation's office building, which unfortunately chips away at its relevance. Even though the pieces are in groups by room and are clearly labelled, they are scattered about with bookcases and smaller offices in between. Te busy atmosphere and background noise of people at work reduce some of the work, especially the traditional Reflection pieces, to an almost decorative status. In addition, the distinct order in wich the show is supposed to be viewed is skewed, so that most of the Revval work is in the forum where a guest first walks in, and Reflection is further down the hall. The curation fits around the venue, but an office is no place for this show.

On a personal note, I loved the work in this show. It is deep in the subject of identity and its conflicts and harmonies with mass culture, and it deserves a gallery setting where more people may see it. I chose this exhibition because of its themes of identity. Most of my work, not just my thesis, deals with my identity as a NeoPagan Druid, an extreme minority in a predominately Christian nation. I wanted to see how these artists expressed their beliefs and values without "illustrating" them in a stereotypical manner.

Grad Schools

These are 5 Grad schools (and one Doctorate program) that I am interested in. Rather than just using/selling art to polist my own ego, I want to use it to help troubled kids as an art therapist. Here are my top picks :

Marywood University
Master's in Art Therapy
Scranton, PA

Drexel University:HahnmannCreative Arts in Therapy Program
Master's in Art Therapy
Philadelphia, PA

Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions
Doctorate in Art Therapy
Philadelphia, PA

Seton Hill University
Division of Visual and Performing Arts
Master's Art Therapy
Greensburg, PA

Pratt Institute School of Art and Design
Master's in Creatice Therapy
brookville, NY

School of Visual Arts
Master's in Art Therapy
New York, NY

Blocks of Color

The Blocks of Color: American Woodcuts from the 1890's to the present exhibition at the Zimmerli museum is curated in a more or less chronological order of techniques and movements set into definitive, subdivided corridors that guide the viewer through the timeline. In the first half of the exhibition, the two rooms are color-coded to the specific movements and techniques they exhibit; blue for the era of strong Japanese influence, and yellow for the white-line technique and the growth of abstraction in America. From there the show becomes more ecclectic and the color coding disappears as more and more movements emerge simultaneously and incorporate the medium. The ecclecticism of styles put together in this retrospective gives an awe-inspiring view of all the many different uses the same simple process can have.

I chose this exhibition for the Karen Kunc pieces displayed right next the the show's entrance. Her use of color and movement invoke a spiritual experience, an effect which I also seek to produce in my own work.

Chapter 3

* "In the 1980's, when people started to feel uncomfortable with the word avante-garde, they adopted the euphemism 'cutting edge'. Now, with emergent art, anticipation of market potential replaces vanguard experiment. And a model in which individuals surface haphazardly overthrows a linear history in which leaders advance movements." Everyone wants to be the leader now!

*"There are no prices or red dots on the wall. Such an overt gesture at commerce is considered tacky." Well duh

* "When gallerists are confident about demand for an artist's work, they wouldn't dream of surrendering it to the first comer or highest bidder. They compile a list of interested parties so they can place the work in the most prodigious home."

* Roald Dahl rocks.

* "You can't use money as an index of quality. That is a fallacy. That will drive you crazy!" I agree.

*I don't completely understand why artists avoid art fairs like the plague. I like to talk to people, and see where my work is going to go. Even when I am just selling my handmade jewelry, I'm almost a bit disappointed when one of my helpers sells something while I'm away from the table. At a picnic I went to, I saw a girl wearing a necklace that had been sold at a previous event while I had been absent. I went to talk to her and learned that the piece meant a lot to her and she wore it every day. Hearing these things help me remember why I make them in the first place, and I have a very similar attitude toward my paintings. My attitude toward art is very sentimental, but I don't view that as a bad thing, that's just how I am, It's not something that's going to change very quickly.

*"Its like a free jazz concert in here, with a drunken monkey working the mixing board." You mean like Rutgers? >__< (kidding)

Chapter 6

Just some things I jotted as I read this chapter...
* Wow, expensive statue

*"Murakami's desire to help his assistants launch their own careers is unusual. Many artists loathe losing good helpand, more important, the appearance of creative isolation is central to their credability."

*Japanese Pop art? "I used to assume that they didn't have anything substantial to offer and that their main goal was to surround themselves with fame and fortune...But Takashi's got bigger ambitions. His works are not just superficial icons. His use of parody and nonsense give a critical edge to all that spectacle and branding."

* "Unlike Warhol's Factory, where, in the words of Caroline A. Jones, women were expected to work hard for no pay, suffer beautifully, and tell all..." God what an asshole. I think Andy Warhol said, "I think everybody should like everybody" because noone liked him(as a person)..."six of the seven artists whose independent careers are promoted by Kaikai Kiki are female." Rock.

* "...he had no power to communicate in words. That is why I twist to the painting." I chose art as a way to express myself because I have far less talent with the written and spoken word. I think many feel the same way. It becomes a problem when asked to explain ourselves. That's why I made the painting or print or drawing or doodle. I'm explaining myself.

* "If I just loom at one project, then immediately get the feeling it boring." ADD much :)

* It's like video game. They have frustration with my high expectations, so when they get my 'yes' for their work, they feel they've won a level." That's awesome. My boyfriend does the same thing with his birthdays. He doesn't age, he levels up.

*"An artist is a necromancer." Can we raise Da Vinci?

*" Hiropon, figures Kanye West would like that.

* All the money and success an artist could want and he lives like a homeless person. Very married to his work. My Dad's got a work ethic like that. If he didn't have my brothers and I, it would be his life.

Josiah McElheny

Josiah McElheny's show in the Andrea Rosen Gallery featured paid homage to building and household design through the use of exacting glass reproductions and drawings. The show occupied the large main room on the gallery's first floor, which gave the five pieces, arranged one on each of the four walls and one in the center, plenty of room to breath. This spacious curation added to the artist's attitude of minimally-adorned domestic modernism.

Nature as Artifice

Aperture Galley's Nature as Artifice:New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art includes eighteen artists and their individual views on the urban Dutch landscape. The exhibition was set up in a large ring around an enclosed space containing a time-lapse video. Moving around the ring I encountered brightly lit nocturnal skylines and highways, patches of farmland, pollution, and power lines. I noticed several reoccurring themes, time for example. a couple of artists included film and photographs of a specific area and how it changed over a set period. One artist recorded the growth and decay of park plants over the course of one year, while another artist photographed destruction, decay and re-growth in an urban neighborhood. Humans are not above nature. We are part of it. We just have bigger anthills.
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Side note, I absolutely loved the time-lapse photograph of the park. It's just one of those awesome things that most people are too busy to take note of. It happens around them and in front of them so slowly that the fast paced modern world forgets about it, until we have to rake leaves or shovel snow.

Barthelemy Toguo,

Toguo's show in the Robert Miller Gallery contained large watercolor paintings, photos, an installation, and a video, all grouped into the smaller rooms according to their mediums. The paintings had a technical play of freedom and control; the outlines of the figures were crisp and clean, while within the outlines the artist worked very wet and let the medium blotch and swirl and do what the water wanted. I found the images to be simultaneously playful and sinister; cartoonish creatures with vines coming from each orifice, like a disease. The installation in the back behind a thin veil hinted at secrecy and shamefulness, while the horny nuns and priests added humor. However, there was a sense of carelessness in all the pieces from small details like pencil guidelines showing from under the watercolor. Not sure if that was intentional or laziness.

Seven Days in the Art World. Chapter 2

Thoughts as I am reading this book...

* "Crits can also be painful rituals that resemble cross-examinations in which artists are forced to rationalize their work and defend themselves from a flurry of half-baked opinions that leave them feeling torn apart." Yeah that about covers it.

* Everyone who came to the crit brought some sort of activity,or pet, or pillows. How long is this crit going to be? Is everyone seriously going to be that bored? Aren't they supposed to be focusing on the work, rather than their crafts? Sort of hints at the student's relationships to each other in a critique. They are talking about one person's work, but ultimately the only ideas they care about are their own.

* "Why come to grad school? It's about paying a lot of money so you can change. Whatever you thought about how to make art is dismantled. You wobble. You don't make any sense at all. That's why you're here." Wow, good thing I've never given grad school a thought, at least not an MFA. Not really what I want.

*Haha. No one wants to define an artist. No one wants to give a definite answer and piss off someone else, or the art world is so convoluted,varied, and conceptual that no one fracking knows. Damn you Duchamp!

* "The work you do as an artist is really play, but it is play in the most serious sense. Like when a two year old discovers how to make a tower out of blocks. It is no halfhearted thing. You are materializing-taking something from the inside and putting it out into the world so you can be relieved of it."Leslie Dick. You know I think I really like this woman. This statement rings of truth and diplomacy.

*Interesting question. Should you know the artists intent before you look at a work? Read about it? ask the artist? or just take out of the piece what you see?

Many times, unless the meaning is incredibly obvious, I have no ability to pull meaning from art, especially if it's an abstract painting. If the meaning isn't shoved down the viewer's throat, I don't get it. I try to make points in my own work as clear as possible, and get comments back that its hammered. I guess I'm just not subtle.

*Holy crap how long is this crit????? This is kind of epic.

* "To get the most out of your crit you have to have a mysterious blend of complete commitment to your decisions and total openness to reconsider everything. There's no point in being too brazen."

* "MFA stands for yet another Mother-Fucking Artist" lol. crap what does BFA stand for then?

*Interesting how you can't be sure if the crit is meant to be a crit or just another of his teacher's performance pieces. He really doesn't contribute to the conversation like you think a teacher would...

A Bucket of Blood

I quite forgot we had to post about this...

Bucket of blood is a psychological thriller much akin to the original Wickerman with Christopher Lee. While most of the film in and of itself was more creepy than scary, it allows the viewer to think much more than recent horror movies. The film itself, about a young man so desperate to be an artist that he sinks to unthinkable lows to produce work, comments about people who take art too seriously, and for the wrong reasons. The "artist" in the film was after attention. He wanted to be an artist to gain respect and fame, not wishing to be a "nobody" for the rest of his life. His willingness to commit horrible crimes to achieve his goals criticizes artists who go to far in their attempts to shock, such as starving a dog or exploiting people they (the artist) supposedly care about.

Alex Bag

I enjoyed the movie very much, I even watched it twice. It was illuminating to watch the art student Bag grow and mature over the course of her eight semesters, along with the humorous dreams paired with each semester that further expressed her feelings for that period of time. The film made me reflect back to my own experiences over my college career, even though my views and experiences didn't quite match up with hers. In her early years she was fully concentrated on her artwork and didn't want to bother learning anything outside of it. She had a stubborn, superior attitude, and looked down on the art students outside the BFA program who actually wanted art-related jobs they could make a living off of. In the beginning she was completely self-centered and not quite living in the real world. Over time, she really grew and realized that she had to learn new things in order for her art to grow, and that making money is not as trivial a thing as first thought. The summer when she "Worked her ass off at the most horrible jobs and had no money" was a huge reality check. By the end of the film she made some realizations that made her a wiser person; that there isn't one person who knows everything, that just because she didn't agree with a professor didn't make her stupid. She graduated a little bitter, but independent and free-thinking. The only part of the film I didn't understand was the ending. Tears and Morrissey. Grow up and move on.

New Museum Visit

May I just reiterate that I despise New York City? My group got a bit lost on Friday which resulted in an abbreviated visit to the New Museum. I have a problem with the tendons in my left foot, so after much hiking I was in quite a lot of pain when we reached the museum. However, I was there for several hours and made it to two of the three shows.

My first stop was the Emory Douglas show. Despite being very uncomfortable (and not only because of my foot) I spent quite a bit of time there. These loud, bombastic, violent, graphic, and unapologetic images were completely targeted toward grabbing the people's attention and expounding upon the goals of the Black Panthers. The strong political content of the work, combined with its curation and the documentary-style video, gave the impression of a history museum rather than an art show. I learned quite a lot of things about the Black Panthers that I didn't learn in school, but very little about the work in and of itself. There was also a great quantity of work displayed with all the same themes, which, while I was raised to be "colorblind" was quite overwhelming and disconcerting. The style and content really have't changed over the years either, I noticed several prints from 2008 that were just as violent as the ones from the civil rights movement which made me ask "Seriously? Is the situation in this country REALLY still that bad?"

David Goldblatt's show, even with the large scale of its photographs, was slightly underwhelming after Douglas' propogandic style. The photos were large but quiet and still, and showed an impressive amount of detail. Even thought the political content was still very much evident, it was more possible to appreciate the thoughtful composition than in Douglas' work. Still, two floors of these large photos was a bit too much, the message was clear after the first few. As upsetting as the plight of the people under the apartheid was, you can only look at so many photographs of barren wasteland and run down buildings, though I did enjoy the jail installation on the staircase.

I regret that at this point I really needed to get home off my foot and did not stay to see the final show, which looked to be much more playful. I may go back and see that bit next time I'm in the city, I think I'd enjoy that one a lot more.