Deanna Lardieri: Final Thesis

My artistic adventure is almost over. In retrospect, I think all of my experiences and discoveries will stick with me throughout my career and influence my future artwork.
After re-reading my original proposal paper I realized that my original intentions for this class were almost met completely with the exception of a few ideas. I mentioned wanting to use a different media and more compelling subject matter. The first project, the self portrait, was a nice transition from the previous works even though I used a photo of my face and the face of someone close to me which I wanted to move away from since I also spoke of making my work less personal this semester. The idea behind this work, though called self portrait was to show more or less a portrait of my style not necessarily through my face. I took a photo of my face and put it into Photoshop and played with the color layers until it looked like a topographical map of me. In the right eye, I drew my fiance’s face. This was to pay homage to him and the influence he has on my artwork as well as my life. I used a dark range of blues and whites which contrasted nicely and really accentuated the portrait. I used exposed cardboard which I discovered by accident when I ripped the cardboard while trying to split it in two. I liked the way it looked and kept it to represent how art has a mind of its own and we have to accommodate our artworks and tolerate those minds.
The next piece evolved a little more however. I used the same materials again but this time my content was a little more subtle. Being a personal belief themed piece, I couldn’t make it not represent something personal to me. I wanted to show my enthusiasm and belief of karma and a balance in the world. I made a spiral as the main panel, which is a universal symbol for karma or, “what goes around comes around.” This was made out of Styrofoam and cardboard. I used a different painting technique on the spiral in red and black. I chose warm colors in this piece since I used cool blues and grays in the first piece. I integrated a poem which sort of outlined my belief system which relates to my original intent of using quotations to inspire my pieces. It was by Emily Dickinson and reads, “Faith is a fine invention, when gentlemen can see but microscopes are prudent in an emergency.” I liked the merger of religion and science into this one lined poem. It relates to my belief of science and religion existing together in the world and how I don’t like to see them always at war. The front panel was my own creation of what the icon of my idea of religion would look like. I painted a three sided infinity symbol holding a heart, a horseshoe, and a flame. These represent love, luck and life respectively. I also added a hanging globe from wire which had a scale holding a crucifix and a planet on opposing sides inside of it. It was the beginning of what would become my obsession for collage.
As for the Navajo project, I went back to paint because the project was a little out of my comfort zone. This was a rug with four quadrants in which I placed four parts of Navajo lifestyle which I think best portrayed the culture. In the top left I painted a sunrise with a proverb about peace all around us. In the top right I painted a night scene with a spider web and a dream catcher. The bottom left showcased the art work of Navajo culture including jewelry and pottery. The bottom right showed the gathering of the harvest and the baskets they are known for. I wasn’t very happy with the way the piece came out but I had a lot of fun learning how to make dream catchers which I grew very fond of and I learned a lot about a different culture. I was very resourceful though when I had trouble making it. I used an old blanket for the canvas and I learned a technique called “tinning” where soldering wire is melted over twisted copper wire. So essentially I accidentally stuck by my objective to use new materials. And again, I used a quotation to tie it all together.
I really let loose with my display case piece which I call the gold piece. I spent a lot of time gathering found objects and putting them together to make a respectable mixed media collage, in my opinion. I used cardboard, curtain holders, light bulbs, a Christmas ornament, ribbon, string, glitter glue, plastic charms, Styrofoam, ink, and poster board. I used the cliché “all that glitters” as a theme. The project was not only made as shiny eye candy, but I wanted to get the idea across that all of these gold plated items were in fact junk that I found and put together. I became passionate about the idea that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and about incorporating found objects in my work. I believe all found objects have a story and a life about them which make them more relatable than something mass produced which we buy in a store. I also believe what makes them so special is that we actually don’t find them, they find us. I also added the story of King Midas in the background simply because it was another form of art, writing, and it was gold themed. This was probably my favorite out of my collection of work this semester.
I incorporated the same idea with the block I was chosen to work on for the Mercantile Home Gallery. I chose a mostly monochrome palette and used a plethora of found objects to create a piece which was very much in tune with my plans for important subject matter. I used chicken wire, bubble wrap, plastic molds, card stock, silicone beads, foil, paint, ink, newspaper, and magazine clippings, foam, and assorted found objects. The project represents the rubble of ground zero and is a tribute to the World Trade Center. I had a postcard with a view of the city which worked well because it looked like New York and because it matched the color theme Ito which I committed. It also sought out to display the controversy of the possible replacement of the buildings after the attack and the potential threats of Nuclear Power plants thereafter. I did this by adding the quote, “there is no substitute,” and super-imposed the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant into the spot where the twin towers once stood. It was kind of a play on the term nuclear war, which became the title, and the ironic fact that the two steam emitting towers resembled the September eleventh iconic image of the towers on fire. This was an idea that I wanted to depict for a while now and I was pleasantly surprised when I was chosen to participate in the Mercantile Home “Outside/In” exhibition because it gave me an outlet to use this idea. The numbers were another happy accident. I originally began molding the foil into a swirl which came out looking like a “2.” I went with the number idea and added the three and one. Not only could they be thought of as the clocks, or elevators, or room numbers which fell in the rubble, but the number 23 is often connected to the attack on September eleventh. Nine plus one plus one (or 9/11) is eleven. One plus one (from the previous sum) is two. Two plus zero plus zero plus one (or 2001) is three. Put together, we get “23.”
And then there’s the final installation. This is a recycle friendly piece that means to make its viewers think about littering and throwing away recyclables. I used plastic bread tabs, paper, cardboard, food coloring, paint, packing peanuts, packing paper, a plastic bag, glue, charcoal, and a syringe. I used yet another quote to show the idea behind it which was, “another victim of plastic surgery.” I wanted to say something witty yet poignant so I chose to compare the earth to the Hollywood actors who are more plastic than they are human anymore because of so much plastic surgery. In this case, obviously, I was alluding to the earth being more plastic than it is earth on account of the litter and non biodegradable garbage that sits on its surface every day. I made an earth out of packing peanuts in a plastic bag which I placed on a four canvases full of bread tabs. Underneath the earth sits a nurse holding a Botox syringe elaborating on the plastic surgery pun. I got the idea from my job where we throw away a lot of plastic bread tabs every day. I started to save all of them in the beginning of the year. I then asked all of my co workers to help me save them too. Originally I thought I was never going to have enough but after averaging about one thousand a month I realized I could cover a lot of space with them. I wanted to cover my whole wall space with just bread tabs but I decided against that idea because of the short amount of time we were given to install and de-install these projects. When the idea was refined and finalized, I wanted to make the viewers aware of how much plastic we waste every year by showing that if one out of a very successful and vast franchise of sandwich shops can save approximately five thousand tabs in five months, then how many tabs accumulatively must we be throwing out every year? Hopefully it will make people think and give people the impetus to recycle they’ve been lacking.
My intentions also included some things which I didn’t get to incorporate this semester. I wanted to use items such as feathers instead of brushes and foods in my mixed media. I did experiment with food coloring and wasn’t happy with the result but I also wanted to use coffee beans and pasta and possibly sugar. I will definitely still try to use these in the future because I still find them fascinating and unique.
Another project I wanted to try but didn’t have the time was a series of emotions to be hung in the Laub lounge. I thought non artists would relate to emotions better than they would something too generic or, on the other hand, too deep. I wanted to choose words that were abstract but powerful. I gave examples like, sorrow, greed, loneliness, and time. I wanted to use each word, and others, for inspiration for a multi-paneled piece. Each separate canvas would have represented each word in a subtle yet interpretable way. For example, I wouldn’t put the word “time” on the piece, but rather clock hands or a pendulum. Instead my Laub lounge piece became the Navajo rug.
I enjoyed the critiques this semester. I always enjoy hearing what fresh eyes see when they look at my work because I always wind up disliking it after spending so much time looking at and working with it. Everyone was always helpful and I was lucky not to hear too many bad or worse, arbitrary comments such as, “I like it,” or “it looks good.” I always welcome critiques even if I don’t take the advice I’m given. Some comments I’ve heard that have stuck with me were from several classmates who enjoyed my creativity and collage work. It really made me steer away from my old, meticulous, perfectionist, graphite-happy, style. I do hope to go back to it eventually, but not as the only kind of artwork I do of course. I just fear losing touch with it and losing the skills it took me most of my life to hone.
I chose to write my visual culture paper on the dada movement. Originally, I didn’t like dada art. I thought it was a cop out and it was n insult to those who had real talent. I thought Dadaists were unworthy of praise and didn’t deserve a name in the art world. After studying dada in several of my classes throughout my years in this college however, it slowly grew on me. And, after researching the movement and really studying the credo and history of Dadaism, I learned to really appreciate it. It is probably one of the most important movements in art history spinning off other movements such as pop art, surrealism, and futurism. It was created by angst ridden European poets and artists and actors who were affected by World War I. They took the idea of the inhumane society around them and applied it to the art they created, refusing to follow the rules and traditions of art as well. Art of the time was realistic, aesthetic, and had meaning that could be interpreted. These Europeans eliminated everything they knew art to be and became “non-artists.” They decided on the name “Dada,” meaning hobby horse, because it was the name that made the least sense to their “non movement of “non-art.” The idea behind dada is that it is anti art. It has no meaning and if people have a reaction or make a connection to a dada piece, it would be considered an unsuccessful dada work. Some of the most famous Dada artists included Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Hugo Ball, Hans Arp, Francis Picabia, and Tristen Tzara, among many others. Each one had his own style and his own views about the Dada movement. Although Dadaism sought out to rebel and offend the society they strongly opposed, it became one of the most influential movements in art history. If Dadaists weren’t bold enough to change the rules of art by eliminating them our creativity would be underdeveloped and our world would not know the advances it does today.
I got to meet and listen to many different influential people in the art world this semester. I really liked meeting Don Voisine because it was one on one and he seemed very humble and had a lot of nice things to say about me as an artist as well as some great advice for making a career out of art. He stressed not to give up a lot when I was talking with him because I expressed my fear of the art world to him.
I also really enjoyed meeting Emil Lucas. He is a very interesting man and artist who is very intelligent and very talented. I loved seeing his studio. It gave me a sense of how “real” artists live and the integrity of their work space. His studio and wood shop were surprisingly very clean. I’m used to the cluttered, cramped, junk-filled, art studios including my work space.
I loved everyone at the Banana Factory too. One artist I will never forget is Berrisford Boothe. He was a very enthusiastic studio artist and I felt welcome in his domain as soon as I walked into his studio. I think he is not only one of the most influential artists I’ve ever met, but probably one of the most influential people I’ve ever met too. He has a very inspiring story to tell and a sensational outlook on art. Whenever he mentioned something that inspires him, I think we all agreed and related to what he was speaking of. For instance, he brings a camera with him everywhere he goes because he is so observant that he’s always seeing something picture worthy. He told us about his people looking at him quizzically and his friends laughing about a shopping cart that caught his eye because of the light shining on it. I think we all smiled on the inside—because we’ve all been there with non artist friends who just don’t understand nor do they see the beauty in everything like we do.
Both New York trips were very inspiring. I felt closer to a real artist when we were there. They say every artist makes it in New York and I think that’s why it felt so much more real there. I got to see a Picasso, a Miro, and a Hopper in person, among many other great famous artists. I wish we had more time to stay in the Metropolitan Museum of Art though. That was my favorite of all the galleries and other museums we visited.
I am glad the semester is over because I am excited to move on and see how well I can do in the real art world. I’m glad I got to visit all the wonderful places, shows, and studios that I did. It really changed my rather pessimistic outlook on becoming an artist. It still sounds scary and stressful to become an artist but I don’t think I’ll ever give it up because it has always been a part of me. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost touch with something that has been in my life for so long.