Revelation

Intrigue

Revelation (also, Apocalypse of John): the last book of the Christian bible, composed entirely of apocalyptic literature.

"An attempt to describe a spiritual reality and heavenly worship." - St. Augustine

I attended Sunday school for fourteen years and Catholic mass for several years after that. The only time the Book of Revelation was ever addressed was in a sermon one Sunday when the priest told us that being interested in Revelation meant you were turning away from Jesus and essentially, you were a bad Christian. I never really understand what it was about, aside from a a vast a vague concept of the end of the world. I wanted quite badly to learn more, but the priest made it seem as though concerning yourself at all with it was the equivalent of taking fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. And this sermon came at an age when I prayed immediately after accidentally saying the Lord's name in vain.

So now, as I explore these new boundaries and regularly take bites of forbidden fruit with no apologetic prayers, I am trying to make work which incorporates these discoveries.

London

Freedom

On New Year's Day of 2008, I set off with a friend for London with a single backpack filled with little more than clothes, books, and a new journal. We had no itinerary; we did not know necessarily where we would be sleeping that night. I had never left the country before.

When we touched down in Heathrow, we immediately ran for any exit we could find, so desperate for a cure for our nicotine withdrawal. I had never felt anything like when we burst out of the doors, dead tired but never more excited, and stared out at a whole new continent.

"Have you ever felt this free in your entire life?"

The experience of ten days of uninhibited exploration was life-changing. It is hard to describe succinctly the way it affects my work, but I think the raw power of taking on something completely new with only a small understanding of where you're going is a feeling I look to for inspiration and also desperately want to capture. I want that feeling when looking at a blank canvas or at the start of a new roll of film as much as I want to find a way to express it.

Incomplete

Paul Thulin has read your blog up to this point/entry. Your blog is currently not up to date and work has been recorded as incomplete.



- Thursday 10/16 entry missing

- missing 2nd September Lecture

Joel Peter Witkin

Joel Peter Witkin is an American photographer, born in 1939. From 1961 to 1964 he worked as a photographer in the Vietnam war. After receiving his BFA he began to focus more on his fine art work.

To describe his photography as morbid is an understatement. It is horrifying, eye-opening, and beautiful in a bizarre, inexplicable way, all of which is enhanced by the daguerreotype quality in his images. He cites this experience as part of what shaped his vision:

"It happened on a Sunday when my mother was escorting my twin brother and me down the steps of the tenement where we lived. We were going to church. While walking down the hallway to the entrance of the building, we heard an incredible crash mixed with screaming and cries for help. The accident involved three cars, all with families in them. Somehow, in the confusion, I was no longer holding my mother's hand. At the place where I stood at the curb, I could see something rolling from one of the overturned cars. It stopped at the curb where I stood. It was the head of a little girl. I bent down to touch the face, to speak to it -- but before I could touch it someone carried me away."

What initially drew me to his work was his use of religious icons in a manner previously unknown to me. That he found it necessary to include that it was a Sunday and he was on his way to church when this incident occurred provides an interesting insight into his images. There is also the fact that his parents divorced when he was a young boy - his father was Jewish while his mother was Roman Catholic and they could not reconcile their religious differences. He has also said, "I consider myself a Western Christian artist, and the basis that I hang all this stuff on is belief. "

http://www.cindymarlerphotography.com/Witkin%20text.html (Interview)

http://www.edelmangallery.com/witkin.htm (Gallery)

http://www.correnticalde.com/joelpeterwitkin/ (Website)

William J. Schaff Jr.

William J. Schaff Jr. in an American artist born in 1973. He is a musician and visual artist who works in a variety of mediums. He has created album artwork for several bands, including every release by Okkervil River on Jagjaguwar records. He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island.





http://www.flickr.com/photos/samsa1973/ (Website)

http://galleryagniel.com/home.php (Gallery)

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=264983 (Interview)

Todd Hido

Todd Hido is an American photographer born in Kent, Ohio. He received his BFA at Tufts University in 1991 and his MFA at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1996, along with a wealth of visual arts awards during his collegiate career. His work has been exhibited in a variety of galleries worldwide since 1993. He creates beautiful, ethereal imagery, mostly of houses at night and landscapes, using only available light. He also photographs interiors, sometimes creating portraiture by including women in the setting.







http://www.popphoto.com/photographynewswire/3879/lies-leading-to-truth.html (Interview)

http://www.wirtzgallery.com/exhibitions/2001/exhibitions_2001_07/exhibitions_th_2001_07.html (Gallery)

http://www.toddhido.com/ (Website)

Eroticism

Aesthetic or literary focus on sexual desire.

Anticipation.

"Man goes constantly in fear of himself. His erotic urges terrify him." - Georges Bataille, writer/philosopher

Mahon, Alyce. Eroticism and Art. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005. Alyce Mahon focuses primarily on the last 150 years of art and the debates surrounding erotica. The book explores the ideas surrounding the boundaries between art and pornography.


I have very mixed feelings about the word "erotic." The internet is likely to blame for this, but when I hear the word I immediately think of cheap vinyl costumes, black lipstick and bad photography. I am not interested in photographs which are only meant to serve to purpose of arousal. It all strikes me as cliche and boring. But put in a different context, eroticism can be very interesting. And there are so many facets to it that it might have nothing to do, in the end, with stirring sexual response.

I would never describe my work at erotic. There is no intent on my part to create images for the purpose of base sexual thought. However, it'd be a lie to say sexuality does not play a part in much of my work. I have become fixated on creating work which deals with my Catholic upbringing, primarily the struggle it created at puberty. But approaching, discussing, and dealing with sexuality through artwork is on a whole different plane than creating images which, to put it bluntly, get people off. I wish to continue exploring those lines.