Brandi Strickland is a collage and mixed media artist working from Charlotte, North Carolina. Strickland graduated with a BA from Queens University of Charlotte in 2007, and has exhibited and published her work extensively in a small amount of time. She has also taught classes and workshops, and is affiliated with the WAFA artist collective.
Strickland's collages are beautiful, colorful, and somewhat fantastical. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through her portfolio of series on her website. Not only does her work relate to mine through medium and technique, but she has the sense of unreality that I have been looking to bring to my work this semester. I admire her use of color, and the fact that I can sense her enjoyment of her own work through each piece. Please see a few of my favorites below.
Brandi Strickland, 16x16, mixed media on board, 2010
Brandi Strickland, Wonder, 12x12, mixed media on board, 2008
Brandi Strickland, Universe Kite, 12x12, mixed media on board, 2009
Brandi Strickland, Intertidal, 12x12, mixed media on board, 2009
One more thing: officially giving her super-cool status, Brandi also runs an online store with her significant other, Robert, and she has an Etsy store. Check those out here and here.
More specifically, how my work has recently been influenced by Cubism, and the definition of Synthetic Cubism.
In recent collages, I have been fragmenting the background to demonstrate some sort of dissolve between fantasy and reality. This new form that my work has been taking immediately struck me as a derivative of Cubism, which led me to this post. Whenever I begin using a term in relation to my work, I like to define it here on the blog (see earlier posts about the definition of collage, escapism, et cetera.)
Definition, per Wikipedia: "Cubism was a 20th century avant-gardeart movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism, known as Analytic Cubism, was both radical and influential as a short but highly significant art movement between 1907 and 1911 in France. In its second phase, Synthetic Cubism, the movement spread and remained vital until around 1919, when the Surrealist movement gained popularity."
My personal definition, through observation, would be that Cubism depicts a scene without the standard use of one-point perspective. The artist seeks to show the subject from multiple angles at once, resulting in the above mentioned fragmentation. For me, it is less about depicting physical perspective than mental perception of a situation (hope that makes sense!)
Tom introduced me to Fred Tomaselli's work a few weeks ago in Alternative Processes and Techniques, and I immediately thought of how it related to my Senior Portfolio work through image making technique.
Fred Tomaselli is an American artist known for his unconventional methods and materials for creating his large mixed-media paintings/collages. Most of his works include unorthodox items suspended in resin on wood panels (see Hang Over below, made of pills in resin.)
Aside from the use of collage, our work seems to be related in that it is very personal. My collages speak about my life and feelings, and Tomaselli's depict his interests. Of his work, Tomaselli says "I want people to get lost in the work. I want to seduce people into it and I want people to escape inside the world of the work. In that way the work is pre-Modernist. I throw all of my obsessions and loves into the work, and I try not to be too embarrassed about any of it. I love nature, I love gardening, I love watching birds, and all of that gets into the work. I just try to be true to who I am and make the work I want to see. I don’t have a radical agenda."
Please see a few of my favorites from Tomaselli below, and check out White Cube Gallery's Fred Tomaselli page here.
Fred Tomaselli, Study for Big Hummingbird, 2004 Mixed media, photo collage, acrylic, resin on wood panel
Fred Tomaselli, Hang Over, 2005 Leaves, pills, acrylic and resin on wood panel, 84x120 inches
Fred Tomaselli, Airborne Event, 2003 Mixed media, acrylic paint, resin on wood, 84x60x1 1/2 inches
Last semester, I upgraded to a MacBook Pro(!) and Photoshop CS4. I honestly did not use Photoshop that much last semester, and have only recently attempted to perfect some of my collage images before printing them. Much to my dismay, I realized that CS4 is very different, and I do not know how to use layer masks anymore. This is horrifying, because layer masks are my favorite way of selectively correcting color, exposure, et cetera. So this week I found a video on YouTube that walks you through the new process for layer masking. It's way more complicated now, but still so useful. Check it out:
I was really happy to have attended the Sanford Biggers lecture yesterday afternoon. Although I was unsure of my feelings towards his method of speaking about his work - I often felt like he was unclear or even unsure in his explanations - and it was slow-moving at times, I enjoyed the lecture, seeing his work, and hearing about his travels and experiences.
An excerpt from his website biography reads: "A native of Los Angeles, California, and current New York resident, Sanford Biggers uses the study of ethnological objects, popular icons, and the Dadaist tradition to explore cultural and creative syncretism, art history, and politics. An accomplished musician, Biggers often incorporates performative elements into his sculptures and installations, resulting in multilayered works that act as anecdotal vignettes, at once full of wit and clear formal intent. Biggers has won several awards including: The Creative Time Travel Grant, Creative Capital Project Grant, New York Percent for the Arts Commission, Art Matters Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Award in performance art/multidisciplinary work, the Lambent Fellowship in the arts, the Pennies From Heaven/ New York Community Trust Award, Tanne Foundation Award, Rema Hort Mann Foundation Award Grant, James Nelson Raymond Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Camille Hanks-Cosby Fellowship."
The first work that Biggers showed at the lecture was his collaboration with David Ellis, Mandala of the B-Bodhisvattva II, which consists of a hand-cut linoleum floor inspired by Buddhist Mandalas. The two artists created the floor, donated it to a breakdancing competition in the Bronx, and it has been showing in various museums since. Biggers mentioned that at every venue the floor shows in, they make an agreement that it must be available for dancers to use (see video below.)
After the Mandala, my favorite piece was Blossom, a sculpted tree growing out of an actual player-piano, with Biggers' own version of Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit playing on a loop. This work in particular deals with issues of race and discrimination, and was shown at the Prospect. 1 Biennial, New Orleans in 2007.
Please check out some of my favorite images documenting his work and the videos below, and visit Biggers' website here. His website is very thorough, and includes tons of images from his past and present work, as well as the other videos he shared at the lecture, Small World, and Cheshire.
Sanford Biggers, Blossom, 2007
Sanford Biggers and David Ellis, Mandala of the B-Bodhisvattva II 2000
Brandi Strickland, 16x16, mixed media on board, 2010
Brandi Strickland, Wonder, 12x12, mixed media on board, 2008
Brandi Strickland, Universe Kite, 12x12, mixed media on board, 2009
Brandi Strickland, Intertidal, 12x12, mixed media on board, 2009
