The Innocent Age

I listened to this album in the car the other day. I wanted to write something about it, simply because I think Dan Fogelberg is a great talent, and while his music is (and I'm going to go out on a limb here) something that just about everyone in thesis would not be interested in (however if anyone does enjoy it, that would be awesome). I digress though, the reason I wanted to write something about this is simply because, albums are something that I've always drawn inspiration from, so I figured I'd talk a little about his music, and maybe the effect it's had on me over the years, maybe someone might find this interesting...


Dan Fogelberg's albums will always be labeled in my mind as 'my dad's music', in so much as he's a favorite musician of my dad's, and Dan's music is something I'll always associate with my dad. In that way, growing up there were a few songs I liked but I really never listened to most of it, since it was a part of dad's collection, not mine. As I grew up, I started digging through my dad's library of music, and Dan Fogelberg's work was prominent in his collection. The thing I began to notice with Fogelberg's music, was the intense personal connection it has, every song that he wrote is heartfelt, sincere, and something that he clearly feels strongly about. His music also covers a decent amount of emotional ground. The song Tucson, Arizona (Gazette) has become a favorite of mine recently, it's a song that tells a great story, about a man who basically takes this girl on a long car ride, and later on they find the two dead. (that's the real short of it) but the song asks the question of, 'what drove him to that point?' and the closing line goes "The neighbors speculated what could make a good boy go so bad,Well, it might have been the desert heat, It might have been the home he never had". I've just found the song interesting.

Hm....looking back, I'm not sure this post accomplishes anything. But check out some of his music.

My good friend Jon goes to school at Fairleigh Dickinson for Graphic Design, he's really good at what he does, and he has started a blog (see the links to the side)

His recent post I thought made some really good points:

"I'm starting to get sick of having no websites or commercial media to use as a portfolio. I only have art that would be considered art-for-arts-sake. Why is it I can't find any other graphic designers who do the same type of work I do? All they seem to care about is making their brochures and event fliers and other commercial bull****. I understand the need for these things but when did the idea of art depart from graphic design. I challenge these students to make something that couldn't be used commercially. I have yet to see a fellow graphic designer in my classes who has art that was made for him or herself. /rant" - Jon

Thought that was interesting, and felt the need to share.

The Merry Gentleman

On a separate note, I recently watched this new Michael Keaton movie The Merry Gentleman, which he directed, that was pretty fantastic. Unfortunately it's currently available only to rent at Blockbuster, but I believe it comes out on DVD sometime in November.

The Merry Gentleman Trailer

I like the style, and the sort of emotion behind it, the character Keaton plays has such an understated presence, I really enjoyed it.

Gallery Visits.

This past weekend I headed into the city for a concert at the Fillmore, but hit some galleries on the way...because, well we had to....

Ah, we looked at a few shows and even hit the MET, which I'm not a fan of, we looked at the Robert Frank show there (which I actually liked, more on that later).

At the galleries we checked out a few shows, it happened to be a pretty miserable day, weather wise, and basically headed down the street stopping in each one getting drenched inbetween. now there were two shows that stuck out in my mind. The one had a bunch of cast objects most notably a car that was made out of leather, which was pretty neat, it was just hanging in the middle of this rather small space. What was neat was that the leather still had the number the cow was branded with on it. Pretty cool. David Baskin was the artist's name, at the Freight Volume gallery. I'm not sure if there was any substantial meaning behind everything, I just thought it looked neat.

The other gallery show that stuck out was the one that featured work by Sister Mary Corita, which was a design show. The works all had a really cool graphic use of text, but specifically hand-written text, it wasn't particularly clean. I liked how she took a lot of popular phrases and quotes, and mixed and matched them to create a new context. Another thing of note is that she was a Nun, and that a fair amount of work had a religious context, and a positive one at that, which was something different, and I thought to be really interesting.

The Robert Frank show reminded me of movies, and upon checking out wikipedia, I remembered why, he directed the really bizarre but interesting documentary on the Stones 'Cocksucker's Blues', which we had watched in Seminar last year.
The Americans photos were something I enjoyed, possibly because the subject matter seemed to be forgotten moments, and almost forgotten people. Most of the people in these photographs aren't really consequential, they're just regular, if not less than. The one photo that still stands out was the one of the man in the cafeteria, which had this haunting sadness and desperation, it told this guy's story with one single image.

Optimus Prime

Interview

Interview with Dominique:

Question: preferred medium?
A: Likes to work digitally, when she works non-digitally she prefers to work in oils and ink.

Q: Subject matter?
A: Mostly just draws people, it's her comfort zone. Tries to evoke a relaxing mood, where the people are at ease with themselves, there's nothing intense, she likes to have things be 'it is what it is', and not dark or brooding.

Q: Currently working on? Goals?
A: Short term she's working on finishing up a commissioned painting, hasn't been able to do much personal work, she feels she gets wrap up in school work, she wants to work on male forms because they tend to look girly. Also trying to work more realistically.

Q: Thesis?
A: Considering doing a series of oil paintings and somehow intertwining that with graphic design. Not sure about the execution. Thought she would just do the paintings, feels more able to express herself in paint, wants to do design commercially, not as a representation of self. Is searching for a healthy balance of the two.

Q: Commercial design?
A: Feels like all her design pieces just strike as advertising.

Q: Content for thesis?
A: Thinking about doing different stages of getting to thesis, doesn't want it to be a thesis type subject. Thinking of a type of conclusion like showing endings to stories with her paintings. Taking like a known story (ex. little red riding hood) where the story's ending is known, and she wants to portray the ending. Keeping her personal style between each of them. Afraid of being too orderly or messy.

Q: Influences?
A: Looks at all different types of artists. Liek some of the earlier work, like how they model people. Romare Bearden, likes his collage work. Aaron Douglass. Loves illustrators. Andy Warhol, for his ability to take like "lower art" but brought it up to fine art. And then some people who are her own peers. Not that crazy about modern art, where it's just too conceptual, says they take it too far, and feels they abuse what art is/can be.

Q: Influences outside of art?
A: Finds that movies, influence some of her ideas. Tries to make escapist art which is what movies tend to do, she likes comedies. Finds that music helps her go into that 'artist realm'.

Q: Post-grad plans?
A: Thinking of grad school, study graphic communications, if not that, maybe teach for a little while, doesn't want to teach for life though. Wants to start a non-profit arts program, is her big goal, things that she wasn't able to explore when she was younger. She feels there's so much more that kids can do with art, and they aren't challenged to think of it that way. Because they tend to just think of the starving artist. Interested in art direction.


I couldn't record the interview, so I jotted down notes as to what she had to say about her work.
I felt Dominique had some interesting things to say, and I really enjoyed her work, since she draws in a stylized illustrative manner, which is something that I'm always interested in.
I look forward to seeing what she produces for her show. I really hope she allows herself to use her digital work, because I think it's a strength of hers, and something that should not be ignored, despite what some people may think.

Tumor - The Trailer from Joshua Fialkov on Vimeo.

Really interested in this comic, and I like the idea behind this trailer, the way it's presented is really cool.