First Friday; May

First Friday Artwalk
Richmond, Virginia
May 1, 2009


I usually use this blog to write about my personal feelings and reactions to individual pieces of art at the event I attended. I feel like last First Friday warrants a different kind of post; a post that doesn't deal with the pieces individually, but the Artwalk as a whole.


We visited a gallery or two, but seemed to just be waiting for the highly talked-about May Day Parade. We stood and watched as the liberal college students and community members were led down Broad Street by the police. We were entertained with music, chanting, shopping carts and stilts.



We then went through the usual Artwalk drill. We visited ghostprint, Gallery 5, 1708, Quirk, and all the others up and down Broad Street. I particularly liked how the pieces in the gallery pictured below were tied into the mural on the wall behind. Each piece was related to the others and they all blended well with the wall art. This gallery was also very open and spacious so the large crowd didn't seem overwhelming as it did in other galleries.


The two most anticipated stops we made were naturally the grad work at Five Past One and the senior photography show. We stopped at Five Past One first. I actually really liked this work.


At Five Past One, I may have been initially drawn to John Petrenko's work since he was my teacher last semester, but ended up being drawn to it the most because of context as well. The prints were very big which allowed many details to come out of already detailed shots and the colors were very rich. I have personally always loved texture shots, so his prints really appealed to me.


Morgan and Eric apparently loved Petrenko's work as well. Look at those excited looks!

The Artist.

Finally: The Senior Show. The senior show was decent. The one thing I was a little disappointed in was the fact that I had seen most of this work before, in the hallways of Pollack. I know the artist can't be blamed for that, but I was excited to see the senior's work, and a little dissapointed when I had already seen the majority of the art. This seires, above, is one that I had seen before, but still really enjoyed. The idea of being alone in what is usually a crowded place is very interesting to me, and I feel that his series was very well done. Overall, this first friday was packed with entertainment, that may have overshadowed the art, but fun and inciteful nonetheless.

Senior Show (Craft, Sculpture, KI, Painting)

Overall I thought the MFA Thesis Exhibition of Crafts and Kinetic Imaging was fantastic. I actually liked it a lot better than the Photo/Film/Interior Design one, which is odd for me. This piece to the left was by Jacki Walthers. I enjoyed this piece simply because of it's excellent craftsmanship. It was also visually interesting, made awesome shadows, and has really nice texture on the outside.

This piece to the right was made by Andrew Volpe. I liked this piece, first and foremost because of the vibrant colors that really draw you into the piece. I also really like the tessalations feel. It's been a long time since I've seen an effective tessellations piece and I really enjoyed this one.

Meg Roberts had a few pieces in the show that I really loved. This first piece was amazing because of how interactive it was. Everyone walking by was drawn to it and there was a diagram on the wall telling you how to act around the project, so people were constantly following the instruction panel.

This was another piece I really enjoyed. This was made by Meghan Resler. This whole piece was made by teabags. I don't have much to say about it, except that it's very creative and well-crafted. There were actually a number of other piece from the show that I really enjoyed, but this selection of photos and writings sums up the show pretty well.

MFA Thesis Exhibitions at Anderson

Honestly, there wasn't too much at Anderson that really blew me away, I would like to talk about a few creative pieces though.


The first pieces I want to write about were video pieces by Ryan Gothrup. When I saw them at the opening, I was unimpressed. I didn't spend much time watching them because of the crowds and because I didn't have very long before the gallery closed. When I went back the following Monday, I loved these pieces.

The first one was a baseball piece. You saw a guy in his living room hitting baseballs... and naturally they were smashing up the area. It was mixed with so many clips of actual professional baseball games that you didn't have time to think about where the baseballs were being thrown from. I assumed he had a machine throwing them outside the camera's view. After a while, however, the secret is revealed. The whole "living room" was just a set created in the middle of a baseball field and there was an actual pitcher throwing balls through the door from the pitcher's mound. Seeing the secret at the end made it so much more interesting.

The other piece Ryan Gothrup made was a basketball piece. You saw an athlete shooting basketball after basketball into the hoop at a park. Randomly... some basketballs would shatter! You realized some of them were real rubber basketballs and some of them were made from glass, but looked indentical. After watching this for a while, it got old. Really old. Then this random man comes up and starts screaming at the athlete. He apparently works at or near the park where this was being filmed and was furious they were breaking glass on the black-top where kids play. The cameras suddenly split into four camera angles and show a good ten minutes of screaming between artists and angry neighbors. The neighbors say they are calling the cops, start mocking the actions of the artists, and then it stops... you never find out the ending. This piece would have been only mediocre without the brawl in the latter half. But with it, it was a suspenseful, intense thrill to watch.


^ The other piece I liked was a cross between a sculpture piece and a photography piece. It was a clear mask they made over the faces of lots of different kinds of people. The size of the printing was really great and the amount of prints was as well. I really enjoyed just looking at the differents in these people, but how similar their expressions are because of the mask.

Hassan's Work

When I saw your piece at the opening, it was scary and overwhelming. I could hear the dramatic music, so loud the floor was vibrating, from down the hall. It was a great way to draw us into the room, but creepy all the same. When I watched it in the packed room or people constantly talking or moving, all I really got from it was a feeling of sharing a very personal moment with you, while you maintained a piercing stare with the audience. I was a little uncomfortable with the stare and that's all I could really focus on. A few days later, on Monday, I went back to Anderson. I felt like I hadn't really seen all I could have from that gallery during the opening because of all the people. I went back and saw your piece again and got a completely different feeling. It was hot in that room, I mean really humid, making it feel like the bathroom after a shower. When watching it the second time, I felt like you were really brave for exposing your true self to the audience. From this viewing, I got the sense of humbling oneself and bringing yourself down to the basics; showing your true colors. You shaved your whole head and everything the camera could see, took out all your piercings, and sat their humbled and vulnerable at the end. The stare was suddenly an honest reflection instead of a scary element. I really enjoyed going back to watch it the second time and learned a lesson about art viewing at openings.

Anderson Gallery: Student Juried Show

I went to see the Anderson Gallery's Student Show a few days ago with Amber and Morgan. To be honest, it was only decent in my opinion. It was a lot of AFO work that looked like AFO work. I feel hypocritical when I have to critique piece that were mostly craft and sculpture considering I have zero skills in those departments, but most of the piece just didn't seem to interest me.

There were a few pieces I enjoyed that I quietly took pictures of while no one was looking (The Anderson Gallery workers have been clear to me in the past that I should put my camera away.)

I really enjoyed this photo piece. It showed the texture of smells. The pictures were all creative and compositionally intersting.



This is Amber's piece. Not only do I like it, but I'm totally biased. So I won't talk about it, I'll just post the picture :) Yay Amber, Congrats.













I also really liked this piece. It was simple, creative, and just visually intersting. I don't have much more to say about it than that.

Shows/Contests Entered

The first photos I entered were to the Land/Sea/Air Student Photography Competition. I sent in digital files for their contest along with this entry form. All the paperwork I received in return was a confirmation email.

I also submitted three pieces to the Anderson Gallery Student Show. Here's one of the three entry forms minus personal contact information.

Artist Resume

I removed the personal and contact information, since this is being posted for everyone to see. It is of course included in the actual document.

Contact Information


Personal Information


Art Related Experience

Freelance Sports Photographer
Various Dates since Summer 2003
Photographed youth recreational sports baseball and swim teams for keepsakes for parents and athletes.

On Call Photographer
VCU Communications Office
Richmond, Virginia
February 2008- Present
Photograph various VCU events, buildings, and areas of Richmond for posters, brochures, and other publications through the Sitterding House. Also, keep up the image library’s organization and editing.

Education

Graduated with an Advanced Diploma and 3.89 High School GPA from Deep Run High School in Glen Allen, Virginia in 2007.
Currently attend VCU Arts in Richmond. Enrolled in the photography department with a 3.25 College GPA and am seeking a photography BFA with a Media Studies Minor.

Awards/ Accomplishments

High School Accomplishments
High school yearbook editor for four years.
Part of three honor societies in high school.

Dance
Competed and won many regional and national awards in tap, jazz, ballet, and hip-hop with Barabara Hammond’s School of Dance as well as Regency Dance Academy, both in Richmond, Virginia.
Was a part of two NYC Off-Broadway Productions: TapKids by Lisa Hopkins as well as Slide by Mike Minery and Gil Stromming.

Published in the Richmond- Times Dispatch
Shots of a house fire I took published in the Times-Dispatch Metro Section in January 2008. Published in the actual newspaper as well as in three online articles.

Computer/Language Skills

Knowledge in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Flash, Adobe Illustator, Adobe InDesign, Pagemaker, Ulead Video Studios, and YBPro.
Mediocre ability to speak and understand Spanish. I have six years of Spanish classes under my belt and can understand and communicate, but am in no way fluent.

Cameras/ Equipment

Familiar with Canon and Panasonic Products.
Own digital cameras of both brands and also a Pentax film camera.
Two additional lenses for the canon
Familiar with Mac Programs