Final Thesis Blog Post : (

I really enjoyed the experience of working with a group to curate my thesis exhibition. While at times it was very stressful, it ended up being a great learning experience for the entire class. The main issue I encountered when installing my piece was that I was placed in the main gallery and for a piece that was going to take up some room, I felt it wasn’t the right location. I was then moved into a smaller room off the main gallery which was much more suitable for my piece. The problem I encountered there was that it was slightly blocking another artists work. I was very flexible with moving so I ended up moving to another space in the room, which ended up looking great in the end.

When building my installation I encountered some other issues. My dad helped me construct a space which was meant to be enclosed  but we decided that, with blue cellophane, I could create an this closed space at a cheaper cost. I felt it still needed something but kept it as was for the critic to see and give advising on my next move.

The critic was very helpful in helping me decide that the right thing to do would be to board up the walls with wood to create a totally dark room which you could not see from the outside. Having the walls boarded up would force my audience to have to open my closet door and experience my dream world. This ended up being a very easy procedure and wasn’t costly so we went for it. This was a great move towards completing my thesis how I had originally intended.

Meeting with my photography class to critique my work was very helpful as well. I was thinking of putting photographs on the wall next to my installation of close ups of the piece. They helped me decide that by doing that, people would already be able to know what is inside the space and may not realize to open the door. I decided in the end to just have the installation without the pictures. I got great feedback and my class loved the final piece. My 3d glasses were also a hit!

All in all, I think this was a great learning experience and would do it over a million times again. I will really miss this class and the great friends I’ve made. : ) 

Crit Week 5- February 18th, 2011

Recently, I have run into some issues with finding a place to work on my thesis. As fate should have it, Rutgers double-booked my studio and I am temporarily out of luck. (Gerry’s working on the issue) In the meantime, my friends have been nice enough to allow me to work on their back porch and store my stuff under their small coffee table. The problem with creating the installation I had planned on is that I would need a large enough space to create and store the environment I had planned on building. So for now I am stuck with this.

Another challenge I have run into is the space I was given in the gallery. In my opinion, I was given a great wall to be able to display my work, but not for what I was planning on installing. It would have looked ridiculous given the space. The gallery is divided into 7 rooms, one of which is the main room, which leads off into the other galleries. I was given an amazing space in the main gallery, visible immediately upon entering. It’s a large wall and will be able to be viewed from many locations in the gallery. This brings me to two issues. The fact that it’s a great space which I shouldn’t give up and that because its not in a corner or back room which would cause my landscape to be jutting out of the wall in-between two open walkways into other galleries.

Because of my dilemma I have come up with some ideas to fix deal with the issues presented by my space. My teacher, Kate Pollard, had told me in class that she didn’t see enough of me in my work. I usually work with people and was planning on not having any in my thesis. I am usually drawn to taking portraits and was going to try something different but I agree with Kate that I should involve some form of portraiture in my thesis. Instead of building an environment to place in the gallery like planned, I decided that I would bring the sculptures into the woods and would then shoot pictures of them along with people outdoors. To keep with my theme of lucid dreaming, I would take long exposures of people walking and interacting with my pieces as if it were a dream. This would show the movements of people as a blur walking through the woods.

During my critique I told the class and my graduate assistant, Megan Flaherty, my issues that have come up. Megan suggested looking at artist, Sandy Skolund, for inspiration. Her installation and photograph titled, Fresh Hybrid, is similar to what I will strive to create for my alternative plan for thesis. The installation is of a colorful fabricated landscape made from materials such as pipe cleaners and wool. Skolund’s artificial landscape was created to, “explore the shifting boundaries between life and lifelike,” which, like a dream, transforms nature into a different reality. I hope that by creating an installation and then photographing it I will be able to still give the overall feeling of a dream. Some fellow students suggested still showing the sculptures in the gallery along with my photos, which I may decide to do.

Sandy Skoglund, Fresh Hybrid

Heres the link to Sandy Skolund’s website: http://www.sandyskoglund.com/

- Thanks Megan! I love her work.

February Series

These images were shot in the bedrooms of my home at college. I live with three roommates and we are all extremely different. We all have very different personalities and style which I wanted to show through the rooms and places we keep our belongings. The four of us come from different backgrounds and towns but each seem to have creative personalities that can be seen in the way we live. These photographs were shot unknowingly early in the morning before the girls had a chance to make their beds. The ways in which they left their beds is their mark left in that space in that moment of waking up. Because I am interested in lucid dreaming and have been exploring taking pictures without people, I wanted to see if I could portray dreams and sleeping without the people who are creating them.

Jacki's Room

Andrea's Room

Katie's Room

Ali's Room