What didn't make it into the Student Exhibition?

I was walking around the Broad St. School of the Arts Building and took a look at the sculpture submissions for the VCU Student Exhibition. The pictures of the work that I posted I personally found very interesting. Some of them probably didn't make it into the show because of their physical size. Others maybe didn't make the cut because of the works fit and finish. Something more VCU students should consider when entering their work in any show.

Artist Statement

Inspired by the ability of main stream media motion pictures to alter the emotional state of viewers, David Thompson strives to bring this effect into his body of work. His goal is to make his work provocative enough that his viewers will question the content within the work and apply those questions to their physical environment. Playing off of the realities of main stream news stories and societies reactions, he creates imaginary works that tell the possibilities of what is to come with hope to inspire action within communities.

Artist CV

Follow the link to check out my artist cv. Link

VCU Student Exhibition @ Anderson Gallery

Not sure how I missed the info for this one but it popped up on my radar screen the day before the show. I managed to submit three pieces of work.



I feel like this one could have made it in if the picture didnt pop in the frame right after I submitted it.





The back of all the work looks like this:


(the little check box says NOT ACCEPTED, otherwise known as REJECTED)
So nothing made it into the show.

Next year I will mark my calendar better and make sure I have enough time to properly prepare my work for a gallery showing and I hopefully I'll have a better chance of getting in the show.

Amy Stein

Amy Stein must have paid attention to her kindergarten teacher when he/she told her to share because she knows how to share. Some artists like to keep their process or technique a secret. Amy Stein is a somewhat rare breed of artist who lets people of interest in on how she creates images. Annie Leibovitz and Chase Jarvis are also good artist to look into if your thirsty for more insider secrets.

Amy talked about her "Stranded" series and told us how she had grander plans but due to time, money and other limitations she had to be creative while compromising with natural forces against her. The end result is a wonderful series of people stranded on the side of the road. Some might question the pictures she chose to use but all together it is a cohesive body of work. Ultimately you can tell she is making conscious decisions with her work rather than letting things happen. Her work is very posed but posed so well it even confused National Geographic when they took a look at her "Domesticated" series. Amy let us in on how she likes to tell her version of the truth with her work by combining bits and pieces of true stories from the locals and mending it together in her mind to make something new. Amy has a fantastic talent of really getting to know people and their specialties. She uses the knowledge to find people to work with on her creation of images.

Amy is a great example of an artist who isnt afraid to tell secrets and it shows in her work.



Her website: http://www.amysteinphoto.com/

Spray Graphic's Mini Mini Art Show

Spraygraphic held it's Mini Mini art show in Tempe, Az March 2009. I myself submitted a piece to this show or rather project and must say I enjoyed the process. A community project involving artists from all around the world were welcome to submit work as long as it fit into the 4in x 4in space. Here are some pictures from their blog. Thanks for putting the show together!



Above: Piece I submitted. Made its way from VA to AZ.

SameTime 1:04

SameTime 1:04 is a spin off from the locally popular SameTime 7:15 project. Everyday a group of four people take a picture at exactly 1:04 pm.

Being inspired is an amazing thing. Being inspired to actually do something is even better. Like what you see, how about make your own. A few VCU students choose to do that and SameTime 1:04 is the result.

I wish the project had a better space than blogger. Some web development would go a long ways from keeping it from blending into the abyss of the internet. I think the layout of the images is too spread out and keeps me from viewing weird oddities of 4 people taking a picture. The added footnote of the images also takes me away from the image. I can for the most part tell whats going on in the images and don't the extra information. For the images I am unsure of what's going on, the text ruins my imagination. I'm afraid for the sake of being slightly different it led the project to some downfalls. Aside from the layout and the added text I am happy to see the project continued by a different group of people that opens insight into a different demographic of emerging photographers.

Imitation is flattery. I believe this project will lead each person involved into finding things they like about the work and things they hate, but it will be a journey for them and the experience is invaluable. The journey is somewhat personal and I am unsure of how much the imagery interests me but I enjoy the fact that people out there are striving for more and creating something.