Chris Demchak - Thesis Paper

My original expectations for my artwork within this course were 2-D graphite and charcoal drawings and perhaps some acrylic paintings of various sizes. I’m pleased to say that I went the non-traditional route and worked with more of a mixed media and more 3-D oriented than originally planned.

The proposal for my intended body of work this semester was to focus on portraits and still-life as well as abstract and non representational pieces; these were to be done mostly in graphite and charcoal but was open to using “just about anything and everything.” The works would be a combination of 2-D and 3-D, and there were to be many of them of all different sizes. My main goal was to have a new outlook on art and turn my ideas into reality.
I seemed to have put my traditional way of thinking on the side and delved into the deep unknown. Most, if not all my works have been a mix of 2-D and 3-D. My use of graphite and charcoal are all but a tiny under-layer in my works, which show my origins but have been significantly downplayed. My outlook on art has been changed dramatically with the viewing of so many different artists in the many galleries on our trip to New York City. I’ve always been able to turn my sketches into full bodies of work before, but none as so large or demanding as in this class.

My first piece, the self portrait, started off with me being in my safety zone and looked at it as a simple graphite portrait. I realized that this wasn’t enough, and that I needed to step it up. It was then I took a good hard look at my face. I worked pretty loosely and saw my gesture lines under the detail. I saw structure, form…I saw my skull, bone; I saw an opportunity. Not only did I see a clever way to incorporate human anatomy into my piece, but a neat way of going about doing it a well. The ideas and excitement from working on this piece were something I haven’t felt in a while, and boy did it feel good.

My newfound interest in human anatomy carried over into my second piece, the personal belief system. Here I wanted to show the conflict of science vs. religion, while also showing how they relate to each other. I have four symbols: the cross, a heart, a skull, and a brain. The heart represents what we feel, the skull what we see, and the brain what we know. This relates to faith and the idea of seeing vs. believing. There’s also this idea of three – the holy trinity, as they are placed in a triangle around the cross, with thumbtacks “connecting” them. There is a small post-it note with the word “soul?” written on it to bring up the question “where does it fit in?” The bulletin board was chosen because it’s a place to organize thoughts – it can be public, personal, things that go up aren’t permanent, things change, etc. Man created science and religion, God created Man; both subjects go back to Him, both are represented in my work.

With all these ideas and new interests flowing through me, I was sure the Navajo project would be a success. I was disappointed however to find that any representation of the person (skeletal structure and the like) could be misconstrued as witchcraft and negative feelings/association with death. I decided to respect the culture and play it safe; but instead of making it about pattern, I accentuated the symbols and gave it a specific message. The crossed arrows means friendship, the cross in the center means paths crossed, and the ‘swastika’, connecting the four sets of crossed arrows, means peace. The colors and the way the arrows were positioned represented direction. The meaning of this piece was South-West meets North-East.

For my final installation, I focused more on my recent obsession with chair art then of human anatomy. I wanted to incorporate something with the human body interacting with chairs, and that’s how I came up with chairs as stairs. I knew from the beginning it was going to be difficult mounting chairs on the wall, but I wasn’t going to allow that to get in the way of my vision. In effect, the chairs cease to become chairs and are in fact something completely different. They lose their sense of purpose and are now part of something much greater. Even the last chair, the one on the bottom that’s not even mounted to wall isn’t seen as a chair because of the context it’s in. This is what I want to get across to people. Art is all around us, we just have to pay attention. There’s a little homage, particularly to Duchamp, who really brought this idea into the world and opened up peoples’ minds. The constant taking down and putting up of ten foot pieces of paper as well as getting those chairs mounted and lined up exactly was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do for art, but was beyond worth it.

I’ve worked with some pretty interesting materials this semester including Styrofoam, wood, aluminum, cardboard, and, well, chairs. The process of figuring out how to work and manipulate these materials was difficult but rewarding. Some problems I ran into were cutting out the Styrofoam pieces around my eye and mouth from the self portrait, getting the cross to stay up for my personal belief system, making and getting the arrows to stay on the cardboard (which I realize I should’ve glued them instead of stapled them), and last but not least getting the chairs mounted on the wall. It’s quite satisfying knowing that I used and worked out something difficult instead to going with something simpler.

While I do take critiques to heart and enjoy hearing comments about my work, I found that I really take pleasure in giving critiques and sharing my insights about other people’s work and what I take away from them. I’ve really opened up this semester and wanted my opinion heard, and I hope my fellow artists have enjoyed my comments thus far and maybe even inspired them to write a little more themselves.

I am interested in so many different art movements and artists that it was difficult to pick one topic for my visual culture presentation. I decided to do something that was fairly unknown to me that I had recent interest in which was medical illustration and more specifically artist Frank Netter. I noticed there wasn’t too much information about either and realized that it became more about Leonardo da Vinci and his contribution to medical science more than anything. Frank Netter had a way of painting very detailed images but making them understandable to “read” and not being too busy. Studying his work is a good way of learning how to bring out detail in a subject without overdoing it.

A good way to get a sense of the art world is to talk to the people who are already in it. Although I didn’t get too much out of the talk with artist Don Voisine, I did however learn how to pick and choose works from one’s portfolio when showing someone a general idea of what you do. Visiting and talking to artists such as Emil Lukas and Claire Seidl in their studios was very insightful and also very exciting to see these people who are so very passionate about art and what they do. The ones that made the biggest impression on me would have to be curator Renee Riccardo and editor Paul Laster as well the staff of the Allentown Art Museum and the Banana Factory. As much as I see the artist in me with Emil and Claire, as of now I see myself being in “Art Support” more than anything. Renee and Paul have such exciting jobs showcasing and reviewing art and I can definitely see myself doing something like that. The constant exposure to art and the passion behind the work as well as the learning experience is all too exciting. I see a lot of myself in Paul, who seems to be this powerhouse of art knowledge, and I would love to find out more about what he does.

There are no rules in art. There are guidelines which we may or may not follow, but there are no rules. Someone once said, “Art is about paying attention.” Something as ordinary and mundane as a folding chair can be seen as beautiful, to see the wonderful line created when one is placed diagonally with another. One’s mind must be just as opened as one’s eyes. Life is art and art is life. Live it.

- C. Demchak