Art Menu - BSquared

Here are some photos of our 'Restaurant'

Getting Ready...

Our Signs...

Kelly, Dawn, and Ryan...

Our first customers...

Our most popular dish...

Our most difficult customer...

(just kidding!)

Not sure what she got herself into...

Dr. Fournier...

Hmmm....

Thomas Kinkade paint-by-numbers placemat...

Nikita...

Final Canvas'

Here are the class' finished canvas' put together!

And here is a close-up of mine!

Me at Forty!

3. Artist Statement :

Over the past 13 years I have been documenting lives, refining my skills as a creative artist, and working in the commercial photo industry. I am a freelance photographer and I love what I do. In my personal time I like to paint. It is something I discovered in college and always make time for it. I do it for fun and it helps me relax and unwind. I still live in Florida, but I also have a place in Boston. There are times when I feel like I have had no sleep, but my career has been very rewarding. I have worked for many prestigious clients such as Apple, BCG, Whole Foods, S.C. Johnson, Coca-Cola, Disney, and Johnson & Johnson. I have many personal clients in the commercial industry and as portrait clients as well. I also have many pieces of my personal work in galleries all over the world.

After I graduated college, I jumped right into the work force. By then I knew I loved shooting portraits and wanted to also shoot commercially. Be narrowing down what I enjoy about photography the most helped me to become the person I am today.

Currently I juggle being a wife, a mother, and a photographer. The main project I am working on is for a series in my new book. Twenty years ago I documented many different places and things all over the country. I am currently in the process of revisiting the places and re-capturing them. Most of the places have changed dramatically, a few not at all. It is easier to get to them with my new flying car that just came out. It has allowed me to be able to capture different angles and has been great for aerial shots!


1. Letter to Young Artists :

Calling all aspiring artists!

My career as an artist has taken a lot of training, hard work, and dedication. It didn’t happen overnight. My interest in photography began in high school where I was fortunate enough to take a couple of classes. I went on to college to study art more in depth. I also got a degree in business prior to completing my BFA in photography. Education is key. I have also taught myself just as many things if not more than what I learned throughout school.

My big break came when I started shooting for Coca-Cola. When future clients saw that I had worked for them and the work I did for them, it opened up a lot of other doors. Remember, this opportunity was preceded by hundreds of no thank yous.

One of the hardest things I have faced is selling my work. Not only do you have to create the art and then try to put a price on it, but you have to sell it also if you want to make money. This road is bumpier than the road you have to go down to create your masterpiece. Talk to as many people as you can. Carry a portfolio with you at all times. Market yourself.

There are times when you will be discouraged or someone will say that they absolutely don’t like your work, but don’t give up. Follow your heart and your dreams. Continue to educate yourself, be true to yourself, and don’t be judgmental, talk to everyone in your path. These are things I was told early on in my career. Everything will fall into place if you work hard. Most importantly, Don’t ever give up!

Nicole

a Piece of Dana Schutz

The drawing I chose to draw a black and white piece from was Man Eating Chicken by Dana Schutz.

Canvas Project

Our class was assigned to make their own 12x12 canvas.

Next the class took an ad out of a magazine and divided it into 20 squares. Here is how my square turned out!

For those who served...In Honor of Veteran's Day

I just wanted to post some photos I took last week in Honor of Veteran's Day!

My Hero, My Dad.

Each flag in this field represents a fallen soldier in Iraq.
Taking a piece of the wall home.

Never Forget.

A good friend of my Father. They share the same first and middle names.

Many people thought this was him...

Saying hello to an old friend.

arT menU - how to consume art

Group 4's overall concept for our 'restaurant' and menu is from a scientific approach. We saw a scientific theme overall in the artists we had chosen to share with the class last week. (My artist is Gillian Wearing and you can take a look at some of her work below). The layout of our 'restaurant' will look as if you just walked into a science lab. Two of the walls will include a mock-up of cabinets, counter space, and essentials to a lab such as beakers, sinks, and goggles. And there will be two tables in the center for dining. Please be aware of our sterile environment.

The way we are each displaying our artist's work will be magnifying!

Our menu will excite you. The choices will be a sight to see. Make a reservation to get your 'taste' of it!

IN the MAKING artist Gillian Wearing

The artist I chose to read/speak about from Linda Weintraub's book, In the Making, was Gillian Wearing (p110-118). I felt a connection with the series she did from the project we just completed in class on opposite day. She has her subjects speak or 'communicate' through a written statement on a piece of paper. Much of what I was doing last Wednesday, mine just involved a chalkboard and was only used as a form of alternate communication. A lot of her work involves discovering honest or unknown details of people. She had to meet people and instantly gain their trust. This can be seen on the images I've included and through one of her best pieces, Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say (1992-93). Gillian Wearing randomly stopped people on the street, had them write something down on a piece of paper, and then photographed them. You can see the shocking, yet funny results from the images I posted.

As with what we now have as Reality TV, Wearing brought the aspect of declaration through the way of fine art. From drunks to transsexuals to moms and blue collar workers, they all used Wearing's work as a creative outlet for themselves. As Wearing says "We all have secrets, we all have things we contain within our lives...you never lose those doubts. They inhabit your body forever. We see our bodies as vessels, and what goes on inside is often much more complex and complicated, that disparity between the look of a person and the things going on inside is what I wanted to bring out." And that is just what she did. She was able to provide an outlet for some people who may have not been able to freely say what they wrote down.

One point of this project was to look at perception. Most of the time we look at a someone, we automatically come up with ideas or thoughts about them based on how they look or what they are wearing and we don't even know anything about them! If we are then presented with the opportunity to talk to them, most of the time anyone can say they were being way too judgemental and critical. I love to meet new people and find out interesting facts about them. Many that I have met have taught me something, have been to some amazing places, or simply became a good friend.

After Wearing completed her eighteen-month-long project, she mounted the photographs on aluminum and hung them side-by-side.

Her work has been able to show us and teach us about making quick judgements. She showed people how false their initial convictions of someone could be and that the majority of the time they were. Wearing also took advantage of the power that signs create. Signs are mostly advertisements and "people today are programmed to read signs" (Weintraub p113).

Gillian Wearing also has video installations and other series she has done to first enlist people's trust and then have them reveal their most private information. One of them is called Drunk. It is a video installation and was created over several years. Wearing invites a bunch of homeless derelicts into her studio, provides them with shelter, friendship, and most importantly, free beer! What you see is what you get-most of the same as what you see on the streets-drinking beer, urinating, sleeping, fighting, intoxication, and all the other fun stuff you choose not to look at when you see them on the streets.

Gillian Wearing combines her photographic talent and psychological abilities to show people what might of been right in front of them before, but what they may have chosen not to notice. She gets more involved in her work than other artists might by gaining people's trust and befriending them. At the same time she is helping herself by creating art, she is helping others by providing them with an indispensable outlet.

oPPosite dAy

On wednesday, October 1, we had to dress-up as our opposite self for class. For everyone who knows me, they will tell you that I talk A LOT, so I decided not to speak. Instead I brought a chalkboard to class with me. Not talking was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do! After the first five minutes my leg started shaking and all I wanted to do was to talk! Even though I was still able to communicate with use of the chalkboard, it was sOoOoOo challenging. Another element I incorporated was being really mean. The hardest part about that was by the time I was able to write something down, people had already moved onto talking about something else and some people didn't know what I was talking about. I didn't really like that aspect I incorporated and after class I had to go up to a girl as I was worried she might had taken me seriously! She hadn't, but it wasn't me and didn't feel right. I also wore a bright pink shirt (as I am always in black or white or something neutral), was disruptive by letting my cell phone go off, and didn't give the teacher my full attention. I chose to read a book instead.

If I were to do this again, I would approach this just a little differently. Since I talk so much, maybe I shouldn't have talked at all or at least not tried to as much. I would have also thought of a better way to 'communicate' my message - either by walking up to people or having a little bell to ring or something. If I wanted to communicate what I was saying to everyone, it was not always grasped or it was picked up and said by other people.

FeAr part IV

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a very reckless painter. He was agressive, always got into brawls, and have pages of police records. During his lifetime he was wanted for murder and stirred up a lot of controversy with his use of prostitutes for models in his Virgin Mary paintings. Caravaggio was always interested in people and his surroundings. Much of his work came from his own experiences in life. Living with the fear of being hunted down and wanted for murder he fled from place to place until his death. I would not even want to imagine what that felt like.

I chose Caravaggio's work as his paintings suggest the desperate fears and frality of man. The first one is called Judith Beheading Holofernes. It's kind of funny how he was commissioned to paint a lot of religious scenes, yet was not a church-goer himself. In this painting, Judith sought out Holofernes, got him drunk and then behead him. This is definately a paiting that shows Holofernes had no idea what was coming to him. The look on Judith's face is priceless-it's like she's thinking eew, the blood got on my pillow and not oh no, I just killed someone. The old lady on the other hand looks as if she wanted nothing more than for him to be dead. She exudes so much anger. Holofernes on the other hand, shows us his fear and that he had no idea this would ever happen.



The next work of Caravaggio's I chose is called The Incredulity of Saint Thomas. When I first look at this painting, it makes me jump a little. It shows the unbelieveable, but at the same time curiostity. The man on the left (Christ) is even grabbing the other mans hand encouraging him to discover the truth. You can see St Thomas' eyes widening in incredulity. The crinkled foreheads of the men also add to their disbelief being proven wrong. Caravaggio was able to channel his passion into works of art that were as dramatic as his own life and personality.


Edvard Munch was a Symbolist painter, a printmaker, and a forerunner of expressionistic art. I chose him becuase of the fear he instills in his art. My project focuses on unknown fear which then leads to other things such as anxiety. All of his paintings have so much emotion in them. I had the pleasure of seeing his work in NY at MOMA a few years ago. Everyone is familiar with his famous painting, The Scream, which envokes fear and the unknown. Although I love The Scream, I chose two other pieces of his artwork to talk about. The first one is called Ashes. It pictures a woman who looks extremely frantic. There is some chaos around her as something has just happened. She is in the middle of what seems to be a forest and it also appears to be nighttime. Just each of these aspects by themselves are fearful to me. You don't know what will happen next or what may be in front of her. I know a million thoughts would be running through mt head like how am I going to get out of here?, is there anything/anyone else out here?, am I going to live?, and so on. My stage project focuses on the unknown and Munch creates a perfect example of the unknown here. She doesn't know what will happen next....



The other painting I chose from Munch's works is called Evening on Karl Johan. It also evokes the unknown and anxiety. The people in the front of the painting have just experienced something horrific or they know something the others walking the opposite direction don't. Their expressions show the worst, as if what they know is inevitable. Whatever is going to happen is close. I feel the darkeness of the sun setting and the lights that have come on inside the buildings are symbolic of that. It's like they're walking away from death to avoid it a little longer. They don't know exactly when it is going to happen and that is skyrocketing their anxiety levels.