ArtBreak with MFA students 4/20/11

I enjoyed these talks because I did not know any of the MFA students at all and I was interested to hear what they had to say about their art and their process.  I also came at it from the standpoint that this is going to be me in a little over a year (just a BFA student) and I was hoping it might give me some ideas for what to look at during my BFA year and how I should talk about my own art.  I thought the talks were good, although a little on the short side.  I mean, I completely sympathize because I am definitely not super comfortable talking about my own work for very long, but I guess I just figured that these are older, more advanced students and I thought they would have more to say.  I did like hearing Nicole's talk, I especially enjoyed that she talked about how her's was kind of circuitous journey to get where she is today with her work.  It was nice to hear that she had times where she was unsure and searching for an approach to take.  

Nicole Weber, Untitled, 2011

Youngsheen was hard for me to hear, but I liked the concept behind her work.  I think it was pretty fascinating that she settled on the interaction of people and mannequins as a microcosm for her experiences being a foreigner in the U.S. as well as in Italy.  That sense of otherness and isolation is certainly a universal one that everyone can relate to.  

Youngsheen Ahn Jhe

I thought Mark's talk was a little cryptic but I appreciate his use of color and form simplification in his pieces.  I could definitely see how he was inspired by dramatic darks and lights like he mentioned at the beginning of his talk.  I was curious why he painted the objects that he did--did they have a specific meaning to him or were they just convenient?  

Mark Soderling, What It Is, 2011