Kara Walker

Kara installing "The end of Uncle Tom" - 1997

One of the most important things that I have come away with from my Art 108 class is a better understanding of art itself. I have a new found awareness when reading an art piece. I take into consideration every aspect of the work, instead of taking it at face value. I feel like I can view work from artist like Kara Walker and get a lot closer to finding the artists intent.

"Excavated from the Black Heart of a Negress" -2002

I was originally drawn to Kara's art because it is very graphic and eye catching. Her silhouettes have a whimsical quality that I found very appealing, but once you start to take in the narrative, you realize the depth that is there. I don't know if her message could have been better illustrated any other way. The comic quality of her work makes a difficult subject matter, very approachable. Knowing that there is a lot of emotion tied to the subject of slavery, especially in the Civil War era, I found it wise to keep the art simple and void of color. I really think that Kara's approach allows you to get past your preconceived ideas and view the subject matter in a new way.

"Slavery! Slavery! " Cyclorama - 1997

In reading about Kara and her artistic process, I found her reasons for choosing the silhouette form to depict her characters, extremely fascinating. She talks about wanting to get away from paint because of how she felt it historically represented her ethnical origins. The silhouette has links to "middle class" and "craft" and there is a "reduction of human beings to their physical appearance" She also talks about the cutouts being void of the human touches that paint often has.



The art of Kara Walker is so important for so many reasons. She addresses things like race, sexuality, gender and oppression. She depicts these things in a accessible, yet thought provoking way and although her art has impacted many people, I get the sense that her work is also a personal journey. I find more and more that successful art, to me, is when I get the sense that the finished product is just evidence of the path the artist was taking.

“I didn’t want a completely passive viewer. Art means too much to me. To be able to articulate something visually is really an important thing. I wanted to make work where the viewer wouldn’t walk away; he would either giggle nervously, get pulled into history, into fiction, into something totally demeaning and possibly very beautiful. I wanted to create something that looks like you. It looks like a cartoon character, it’s a shadow, it’s a piece of paper, but it’s out of scale. It refers to your shadow, to some extent to purity, to the mirror.” —Kara Walker 

Anna Gillespie

"Waiting Game" - Unique Bronze, Found Steel
12x8x8 inches - 2011

What first drew me to Anna Gillespie's art is the way she incorporates nature into her sculptures. She successful ties her personal environmental concerns into her work. I find her art compelling and beautifully executed.

Anna has made sculptures in more traditional mediums like bronze and plaster, but has also done very compelling work with found object including, bark, acorns, masking and duct tape. She studied stone masonry for two years in Bath and then went on to work under sculptor Nigel Konstanan in Italy. 

"Biggest Tree" - Acorn cups and Mixed Media
19x13x22 inches - 2010

Other than her work itself, I think Im drawn to Anna because her journey to become an artist is one I can identify with. She grew up in an artistic family, but decided to move away from her artistic roots and initially pursued her education in philosophy, economics and politics. She began to realize that her heart wasn't in her current field and decided to go back to school to pursue her first love, sculpture. I admire the leap of faith that it took for her to start over again.

"Taste the Rain" - Bark, Mixed Media, Bronze
78x22x15 inches - 2008

I love Anna's bronze work but I find myself very drawn to her nature series. Anna's use of found natural objects, creates a sense of harmony between us and our surroundings, a symbioses between man and nature. You can't view her work without reading her concern for how we relate and interact with the natural world. Viewing her work, I get a sense of how far removed we are from nature and it puts in me a longing to reconnect with it.

"Woodsman" - Acorn cups, Mixed Media, Bronze - 6th Edition
44x13x8 inches - 2012

"I feel I've got a long way to go personally in drawing closer to nature. Art for me is an approach to that, a way to fuse with where we have come from and what we rely on, what sustains us." Anna Gillespie

Jeff Koons

Puppy -Stainless steel, wood, plants
40'x40'x21'- Installation at Arolsen - 1992

Love him or hate him, Jeff Koons has established himself as a notable figure in contemporary art. This New York artist has been successfully working in found objects, metals, plastic, ceramic and paint since the 1980's. Regardless of anyone's opinion of the work itself, no one can deny that he has been successful and that, in and of itself, is what Jeff's art is about.

I view Jeff Koons as a calculating mastermind, someone who saw art as something he could manipulate and exploit to become rich. His studio is a production house, an assembly line, designed to generate art. When he speaks about his work, he uses buzz words that may catch peoples attention, but if you really listen, he is not saying anything at all. He has figured out how to play the game, he dose it well, and he knows it. 

Balloon Dog (Yellow) - Chromium Stainless steel
10'x12'x4' - 1994-2000

Why do people pay millions of dollars for Jeff Koons artwork? I think it's because long ago he figured out how to market himself well. Is Jeff an artist? I would have to say yes. I don't think highly of his motivation, but his art dose what it was intended to do, make him lots of money. 

In 1994 Jeff conceived his Celebration series. These large scale balloon sculptures are made out of high-chromium stainless steel, with a mirror finish surfaces. Of all his work, I find these sculptures to be the most interesting. They are fun and have a whimsical quality, but what I'm drawn to is not the sculptures themselves, but the way they reflect their surroundings. When seeing one of Jeff's Balloon Dogs in an installation in the Gardens of  Versailles, I was struck by the beauty of the reflections on its surfaces.

Fait D'Hiver - Porcelain
2'x5'x3' - 1988

I do think that the artwork of Jeff Koons has its place in contemporary art. It forces us to yet again ponder those universal questions. What is art? Why is it important? I hate to give him any more reason for an inflated ego, but perhaps Jeff's work will inspire a new generation of artist to produce work with depth, something I find laking in his own.


"I love the gallery, the arena of representation. It's a commercial world, and morality is based generally around economics, and that's taking place in the art gallery." - Jeff Koons

Vic Muniz

Self-Portrait - Pictures of Magazines
Cut outs of magazines 100x72 - 2003 

I first heard of Vic Muniz about 8 years ago. I was flipping channels on the T.V. and caught the tail end of a documentary about this unique artist. The artwork I saw stayed with me even though the artist name did not. I have often thought of the work I saw in that program over the years, it resonated with some part of me.

Now years later, needing to write about contemporary artist for my class, I had reason to search out the name of "That guy who made pictures of children out of sugar." I'm so glad I rediscovered the work of Vic Muniz.

Valentine, The Fastest - Sugar Children
Gelatin-silver print 16x20 -1996

Vic, a Brazilian artist primarily working with found objects and unconventional materials, often recreates famous artwork which he photographs. His career took off in 1997 when his series "Sugar Children" was featured in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During a trip to Saint Kitts, Vic encountered a group of local children who's parents and grandparent spent their lives working in the local sugar plantations. Looking for a way to capture the spirit of these children that he had made a connection with, he decided that drawing their portraits in sugar would be fitting. Working off of Polaroid pictures he took of the children, he recreated their likeness in sugar. When the portraits were complete, they were photographed and the sugar from each portrait was bottled and labeled with it's corresponding portrait.

There is obvious skill that goes into Vic's work; he is meticulous in his execution. What is truly inspiring however is, through the use of every day household items, he can bring new depth and profoundness to his art. The work of Vic Muniz has a playful quality, but yet when viewing his work you get the sense that there is a lot of heart behind it as well.

The Gipsy Magna — Pictures of Garbage
Photograph of  original art - 2008

What Vic's art dose for me, is the essence of what I think great artwork should do, have the ability to change the viewer, the subject and even the artist. Art that is moving, enlightening and thought provoking, art that can change things for the better is art that is worthwhile. I think that Vic's art absolutely falls in that category.

“The really magical things are the ones that happen right in front of you. A lot of the time you keep looking for beauty, but it is already there. And if you look with a bit more intention, you see it.” - Vic Muniz

David Mach

Spaceman - Metal coat hangers - 2000

David Mach is a scottish sculpture, primarily working with massed produced objects. His work with match sticks, coat hangers, and large scale collages has earned him many awards and accolades over the years. David's most recent exhibition entitled "Precious Light" incorporates many of his trademark art works, focussed on the impact of the King James Bible on our culture.

Once asked in an interview why he used the kinds of materials he did, David responded saying that using everyday objects captured the attention of the "everyday" person. He wanted to engage people that may not normally consider art.

There are a number of David's pieces that I'm intrigued by, like his magazine sculpture installations. The idea of massed produced magazines, taking over everything is visually, very powerful. I feel it speaks to the excess of useless materials floating around, consuming resources for no purpose. I also read that theses magazine sculptures spoke to our individuality being robed by a culture obsessed by mass produced products and I find that idea equally compelling.

'fuel for the fire' magazines and furniture - 1986

Although I appreciate David Mach's artwork, I find myself troubled by some of the things I have read about him. He clearly has meaning and intent in his work, but in a number of interviews I get the impression that money is a big motivating factor. Making a living as an artist is a tall order and I have no problem with David March's success to this end, but it's hard for me to not to view his work in a new light and wonder at his motivations.

Elvis Bust - 50,000 Matchsticks -  2010

Regardless of his artistic views, David March has produced some impressive and thought provoking pieces.

"I believe that an artist must be an ideasmonger responding to all kinds of physical location, social and political environments, to materials, to processes, to timescales and budgets." - David March