Speaking of BFA...

I'm pretty sure I've made the decision to drop out of the BFA program.  There's been quite a few times I've stopped and thought about my real intentions with spending an entire year working toward a pumped up degree in my emphasis; and the truth is, I can't lie to myself anymore by saying that I want to do it.
I have a passion in fine arts, but I'm more interested in using that passion toward something else; specifically, academia. 

Next week I'll probably meet with the professor in charge of the art history department at my school.  From there, I hope I'll be in a few art history classes and less studio credits.  I still want to work on my portfolio, but I'm more willing to expand in a scholarly direction than I am yearning to keep working in an artistic, visual manner.

Also, apparently in order to get my bachelors degree in art history I have to take two language courses; German is specifically listed.  I've always wanted to learn German.

Assignments: Artist Biography and Statement

My assignment is to write a short artist biography and artist statement.  I dont really have to publish this in my blog or anything, but what the shoot, lets have fun on blogger. 

 And yes, I do have to refer to myself in third person. 

Elizabeth Wolf was born in 1988 in Beulah, North Dakota.  She is currently a full time student at Minnesota State University Moorhead and is studying for her Bachelors of Fine Arts.  As a student, Liz emphasizes her studio studies in printmaking and installation pieces.   In addition to her studies, Liz is the current president of the Works on Paper Plus Guild.  Liz will graduate in 2011 with an emphasis in printmaking and will continue her education to broaden her interests in contemporary art theory.  Her long term goal is to become a lecturing professor in the arts.


This is a pretty wimpy biography considering I've never been in any shows other than the required BA and I've never received any kick ass scholarships since I lucked out with a hefty trust fund.  I'll admit that it's pretty embarrassing to have hardly any credentials, especially since my closest friends have some pretty great things to put in their biography.  For me, it feels as though I am a failure compared to my peers; it's something that holds me back from time to time.  Accepting "failure" has been apart of my learning this past year, and it motivates me to push my work into the public.  Also, learning to be supportive of my friends as opposed to envying them had been an issue as well.   It's fun to grow up.

In my work, I convey social observations through the use of metaphors and space.  Since my freshman year in college, I have portrayed the jellyfish as a symbol of relationships among people in society.  But my observations of jellyfish was only accessable through the use of the internet; because of photo manipulation and selective researching, I was no longer representing a real creature.  Instead, I represented my own creature I had created based on my interests. 
My current work deals with the crafting of mental and social situations through the use of the internet.  As a young woman who has grown up with a rapidly developing technology, my perceptions and motivations are influenced by a vast network of people and ideas through the use of technology.  
By hand crafting the jellyfish to represent my skewed perceptions, I have represented an idea that the information I receive is personalized; and the personalization of a source that is intangible has become a comfortable means in which to engage in learning and social construction in every day life. 
In addition to craft and construction, multiplication and space are important elements in my work. I utilize multiplication as a means to either disseminate a trend in society or to exemplify an idea within a space.

 Although my biography is pretty weak, I feel pretty confident in my artist statements.  I think I'm ending on a short note in the end, but for now I'm satisfied.  It's hard to sum up your work so that it encompasses all the ideas you've explored in it. 

Anyways! Good enough for now. 

KISS, July 24th

 This blog was drafted quite some time ago, so any references to when something took place is out-dated. 

I get a lot of shit for liking KISS; and I understand why to a certain extent.  I'll admit that a lot of KISS songs are pretty dated and a little cheesy, and that they had their big flops with albums such as Dynasty that rubbed disco/pop-hating fans the wrong way. But how could anyone deny that this is not incredibly fucking cool? 
I was born into a house with a major KISS loving dad, and there are many times I can remember being  awoken at 8am on any given Saturday to the song "Unholy"; ironically, despite my severe annoyance with my dad's weekend ritual, this is my favorite song by KISS.

And because my dad is incredibly hard to shop for (he never wants anything), any and all christmas gifts have been KISS related.  Undoubtedly, KISS is by far the most merchandised band.  Lego characters, the fm radio, boxes of unopened KISS collectors cards, action figures, a gene simmons mask, and a few other items of schwag are now stored in the basement of my parents home.  On a visit back to my home town sometime last winter, the tupperware tote containing said KISS items had made its way to the living room; my parents wanted to sell all of it for my "college fund".   My brother and I firmly disagreed and they have since been declared family heirlooms.  You'd be surprised how much some of those things are worth $$genesimmons$$

Did You Know?

Gene Simmons is so filthy fucking rich because he profits the most from KISS.  

While members such as Peter Criss (the cat man) and Ace Freely (Spaceman) 

were too fucked to function, Simmons was (is) the backbone of the band.   

Thus, Simmons gets all the bread. 

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanely (the Starchild and the he/she) are the only two 

original members currently touring; 

but they're really all that matter anyways. 

For many reasons, I think KISS is fucking cool.  

To begin my explanation, I need to drop a few names.  One of my favorite bands is the Gorillaz, specifically the album "Demon Days".  And the best live show I have ever seen is Gwar.  

What do these two bands have in common? Neither band has any human band members and are constructed from ideas.

Based entirely on comic book characters by Jamie Hewlett, the Gorillaz is a completely fictional band.  The lead singer, 2D, is verbalized mostly by Damon Albarn of Blur; however, his voice in interviews is Nelson De Freitas, a British actor. 

Noodle, the female guitarst, joined the band at the age of 10.  In need of a guitarist, the band posted an ad and shortly after received a FedEx package containing the young Japanese-speaking girl.  She was named after the only word she knew in English: Noodle. 

And so on and so forth...  

Gwar

The same goes for Gwar, except I don't know all the gritty, gruesome details about their legend.   Honestly, I don't even listen to their music. But again, the members of the band are completely fictional.  Their shows consist of giant, monsterous costumes, stage props such as swords and penis guns, and special (puppet) guests who are decapitated or disemboweled.  Oh, and they spray copious amounts of blood, semen, and urine all over the audience.  It tastes like Kool-Aid! 

Because these bands are based on ideas that are materialized/aestheticized, we call these bands "conceptual"; and thats cooler than your average band.  So up yours, the Beatles!

To bring this back to the original topic, KISS is a concept.  Although the story and image is not nearly as elaborate as Gwar's or the Gorillaz, KISS is an early example of a successful, profitable, and conceptual band.  

Did You Know?

In Germany, it is illegal to display the SS insignia previously utilized by the Nazis.  Because KISS is spelled with two runic letters that are similar to Nazi insignia, the last two letters in KISS are modified in the Deutschland. 

My dad has seen KISS several (possibly seven?) times; the first  time being in 1977.  This past weekend* the family and a few straggler friends attended KISS at the grand Minot State Fair.  According to my dad, this was the best KISS performance he has seen.  Here's my review:

Because the band came out with a Wal-Mart exclusive $$ album "Sonic Boom" in 2009, they dedicated a majority of the first half of the concert to songs off of this album..... That I assume no one has really heard (or knew about).   The songs themselves, and my general impression of this album that I've never really listened to, is that KISS isn't cut out to produce music that will stimulate us anymore; this is mostly due to their relatively cheesy, sometimes easy lyrics that are masked by hard rock music. In short, theyre a little out dated to produce anything that will announce a "rebirth" or come-back to the band as far as releasing new records.
To make up for the audiences general disinterest/confusion of the first half of the show, they amped up the stage effects.  Also, Stanely demanded a lot of screaming and response from the crowd; a useful tactic, yet a bit tiring on the voice if I do say so myself. 

Even though the songs were unfamiliar, the stage performance was classic; all band members were in full swing: Band members pointed at the audience a lot, Stanely shook his ass for the big screen many dozens of times,  there was pyro, band members were lifted above the stage, and each member had his time to shine and performed a theatrical bit.

to top it all off, there were at least three instances where all of the members lined up next to each other and rocked side to side in unison. classic. 


Even though the first half of the show was a bit of a disappointment (despite rocking  a few classics  between their new songs) , the encore was made up entirely of their hits.  Although they didn't play any of their  "raunchier" songs, the second half of their show was what everyone had hoped for.  and as always,  and there was a ton  (more) pyro and fireworks. 
Ultimately, despite the bands aging, they can still play a pretty bad ass show. 

~*!Now its time for family photos!*~

(more coming soon)

Pre-concert.  

My brother and I

 Can you guess who that man is?  My dad. 

Even pa wants to point

nom nom nom. post concert polish sausage

Post concert.  A very drunk dad and my very hurty feet.

Also, a very classic Wolf family finger shot.

Maika Ueno

Last week a very good friend of mine, Maika Ueno, moved back to her home country of Japan.  Knowing that Maika would be leaving was pretty emotional for me, and it was rather hard to get in contact with her; I'll also admit that I'm not the most active in correspondence.  I'm going to make it a goal to stop being so shy about initiating contact so something like this doesn't happen again.  :(

anyways

Maika and I became close my sophomore year of college because we were both night owls.  It was pretty common for us to be the only two working in the studio; but after I came home from New York and she had quit school (BFA was difficult for her), I had a hard time working in the studio by myself.  It's rather lonesome to be by yourself in a large space, and it can be an emotional experience without having anyone to balance your sanity; and having someone else to problem solve when something goes wrong is incredibly beneficial.

 a very usual night.  maika hard at work, me waiting for screens to dry.

Most of all, Maika was dedicated to exploring and perfecting her techniques in reduction printing with linoleum cuts. 

(the process of reduction printing involve cutting into linoleum with a variety of sharp tools specific to the weight of the line or mark.  by removing an area of linoleum, rolling an ink onto the block, and sending it through a press to remove the ink onto paper, you are left with a print of the area you didn't cut. reduction cuts can be done on a variety of different materials: wood, plastic, plexiglass, or anything with a flat and soft enough surface to cut into)

this is a great visual aid courtesy of http://artinspired.pbworks.com/

it's also a great website for more information on different processes

Maika Ueno's Work

This is a rather early piece that I believe was apart of her BA show.  Maika also worked with lithography, unfortunately I do not have any of the lithographs.  Someday, though. 

This was also apart of her BA show.  While Maika and I were going through her vast portfolio, I noticed that daisies never appeared again in her work.  

Me: You didn't work with daisies much.  Why did you choose daisies?

Maika: I wanted to use a sunflower, but I couldn't find any

Me: Why a sunflower?

Maika: Because they always look up. They look up to the sun.

This actually isn't a correctly printed wood cut; hence the inconsistent black.  I just happened to find this; Maika was notorious for keeping her work scattered in the studio on top of various cabinets.  I was away in New York while she was exploring this way of working.  Here she is exploring mark making; I'm guessing she was working with wood because it was cheaper than linoleum.

one of the most admirable qualities in maika's work ethic was the amount of time she spent proofing

i do not own this print titled "snowball"; instead, i own the proofs.  its probably kind of creepy that i kept so much of maika's "trash", but this incredibly arduous process of proofing different colors is what makes maika's work beautiful and successful; she was truly dedicated to perfecting her skills. 
(i wish i could plug another student artist, shaina davis, here.  even her proofs are successful; alas, she has no website that i know of)

 Again, this is not inked enough.  This is actually a very labor intensive process called mezzotint. 

i suggest this website for an illustrated description

She gave this to me as an artist proof (a print not apart of an edition).  As you can see, this composition and mark making skill was explored in the previous wood cut. 
This print was apart of her time spent in BFA in which it was required of her to write an artist statement.  I feel as though this might have been the most challenging part of BFA for maika; she was not nearly as skilled as native english speaking students in clarifying her ideas through writing. 

This is her artist statement (revised):

Throughout my time spent as an undergraduate student, I have explored the concept of "migration".  

I was inspired to work with imagery in nature one day when I was walking to school.  On my way, I found a gingko leaf in a blanket of oak leaves; however, there was no gingko tree in sight.  Like the gingko leaf, I have experienced migration.  In my work I explore questions of origin and relocation.  Where did you come from? Where was your final destination? And did anybody wait for you there? 

Are you afraid of the head winds and where they will take you?

 Drunkards!
<3

date nights

Last week was rather eventful for me considering I rarely go out; in fact, the most social activity i engage in is the fairly regular "movie night" held at my apartment with a few art friends.  This past night we watched "Herb and Dorothy".  I recommend it. 


ANYWAYS


Last week started out with ~!!LADIES NIGHT!!~ at "the hub".  its basically one of those bars with a billion other bars in it, kind of like a strip mall.... of bars.  i would say that it was worth the five dollars to drink limitless until midnight; however, the djs had a weird pension for only playing crunk music to a bar of white people.  this would be reasonable if the majority of the people (ladies) enjoyed dancing to crunk, but my general impression was that they didnt because they didnt know how.  in other words, because they were white girls in fargo north dakota.  gotta love the ladies, but im just sayin'. 
attention all djs at the hub: please play more beastie boys.


the next day (friday), the usual crew of movie nighters went to our lovely (temporary) professors home for a meal and some wine.   shes actually not our professor anymore since shes not bond by a contract.  yay!!

 it was a pretty (hungover) dreary day, but it got brighter later

 specifically when loretta played the recorder as the dogs (howled)sang

also: notice the small penguin below lorettas arm in the garden

when we had first arrived, the penguin was facing us.  later, the penguin had its back to us. kind of freaky, but pretty cute.  loretta says the spirit of uncle bob (name?) lives in the penguin.  he died of cancer and gave the family the penguin.  smart man.

kaylyn has such a cool profile.  i hope she reads this.

michael has a way of dodging all snapshots.  this is unfortunate because he is surely the heart throb of the art department. on the other hand, this is fabulous portrait of chelsea lee and tina (her hair).
key ingredient to a fantastic dinner party: boones farm.  preferably with a shot of UV vodka, but mixing it with another wine is suitable as well. 

it was great.

and look at this bathroom! his and her sinks! so authentic.

goodness all around!

i work for a coorporate thrift store

i work at savers and i like my job a lot. savers (value village/village des valuers) is a corporate thrift store that is located in just about eeeevery state and in some parts of canada. unlike thrift stores around here, such as the boys dakota boys ranch and the arc, savers buys every donation from someone and gives that money to a charity (the YWCA in our case). other thrift stores get their items, price them, and put them on the sales floor. or at least thats what they tell me. they also tell me that i should NEVER EVER speak to someone who offers me paperwork about joining a union. this is a reasonable request because as far as i know, there is no need for one.

how that works:

• people donate their stuff.
• an employee takes it in the back of store
• someone puts it on a huge cart on top of a ton of other donations
• once the cart is full they weigh it
• according to how much it weighs, they buy it from the YWCA

after that:

• they sort everything out: clothes, hats, purses, bedding, furniture, electronics, books, etc.
• whoever is in that specific department for those items weeds out the bad from the good
• they price it according to its brand, quality, and demand (is it cool? is it from 1997?)
• they put it on the floor

my job:

• im a cashier. i total everything, give discounts, receipts, and stamp cards. i like to stamp cards.
• i put stuff away that people leave NEATLY on the DESIGNATED fitting room rack. RIGHT?!
• i make sure i talk to everyone within 10 ft of me and remind them of sales.... kind of.
• i take old stuff off the floor

CUTE STORY!!

ultimately, my job rocks. i love having the opportunity to make people feel awesome about finding a ton of stuff for a good price. the other day i came upon a little girl stepping out of the dressing room; she was tugging her shirt down and looking not very comfortable. her dad asked me if the shirt matched the shorts, and i said that it did but that she didnt look very comfortable. so i asked her if she wanted to pick out a different shirt and she nodded enthusiastically. so dad and i went and shopped a bit; he told me that he and his wife had just separated and that the kids needed some things to leave at his new place. all the while he was picking out some pretty stupid shirts; i found a nice quality, cotton half sleeved shirt with a pretty crochet neckline that had blue flowers on a soft beige for 4 bucks. very neutral. she went and put it on, came out with a big smile on her face, and twirled around a bunch and topped it all off with a high five.

there are quite a few people who come in with kids that are kind of in the down and outs of their lives. there was a woman who came and bought some kids clothes with a little girl. she remarked that the girl had just come from iowa missing some essentials. i asked (because im kind of nosy) what was in iowa; needless to say, the little girl was on an "extended vacation". on the bright side, she got some pretty rad clothes and a bunch of books we were all pretty excited about because they were titles we had grown up with. rad!


on the not so bright side

because im working around a bazillion different items from a billion different places, my allergies kick up on me a lot. there are pretty specific times when i notice something i touched/walked by has a particular something about it that sets me off in an eye itching, runny nose, sneezing hissy fit.
AND SO i just came home from work with an itch on my elbow and at the back of my scalp. needless to say, i scrubbed the shit out of my skin and hair once i got home and ate a reeses peanut butter cup.

now im waiting for my hair to dry and for this bagel to settle so i can do some yoga with rodney yee. if you think asians aint packin, rodney yee is sure to show you up on that thought.case in point


i like yoga

Introduction- or lack there of

theres probably no reason to begin this with an introduction of myself because anyone who reads this knows me. hopefully this wont always be the case; when that time comes, i'll let it all out.

im starting a blog because
1) i have to starting this fall semester and
2) because i like to rant

first off, 1.
this is a requirement for my bachelor of fine arts degree (as far as i know). for those of you who are unfamiliar with this program (like myself and any other person entering it), its a year dedicated to churning out a ton of art for the sake of your portfolio. from there, you (presumably) get an internship, artist in residency, or goto graduates school for your masters in fine arts.
bfa requires that i take bfa seminar. again, i (think) this entitles me to create a blog and update it with all of my really exciting trials and tribulations with art (pronounced: aaah-t). in the past i've heard that this class is a worthless work load with a very slim chance at success. but hey, anything to get me away from the three writing intensive courses i had to finish in order to be admitted to bfa. ill do it.

and 2,
already with writing the explanation of 1 i'm filled with the urge to rant and bitch and claw my way through my opinions. when i browsed previous bfa bloggers blogs i was so ready for any one of them to step on a bunch of toes and just let it all out; had some of them done this they probably wouldnt have been such a horrible mess to deal with on a regular basis.
i like to bitch.
but i also like to be nice and see nice things. so lets make that number 3.

and 3
be nice and see nice things

in conclusion, there are 3 reasons why i am starting this blog
1) i have to
2) i bitch
3) im nice