I want to share a project that my academic advisor Judith gave me while at the January residency. She asked me to make a list of ten artists that I love and ten that I hate. Since the word hate is so loaded for me I changed it. I decided to make a list of my top ten artists and the bottom ten. I will also add if I can the body of work that I am responding to from this artist.
After seeing my completed list Judith suggested that explore each artist thoroughly and become aware of any patterns that may arise. Then she suggested that I answer the following regarding each artist:
• What is my criteria for my like/dislike?
• What would I do that they do, if you could
• What would you not do as an artist
• Create a work in relationship to their work
I agree this Judith that “this is a really quick way to learn a lot.” By doing this for all the artists on my list, I could learn a lot about myself and what I am most interested in.
I know that when my students are busy juggling jobs, family, and school, it is hard to complete the assignments that are not relevant to passing the course. I thought that if I share this in my blog and post one artist a month that I would have more commitment to finishing it. I do believe this project will help me learn and grow as an artist. I hope by making this public I will feel more accountability to share and post it with all of you.