Artist Talk: BFA Candidates

I've been to some of the previous years BFA Candidates artist talks and I always enjoy them. I enjoy seeing the body of work they've produced and listening to them talk about it. I especially enjoy listening to them talk about the process they went through, how they dealt with problems, and how they eventually found what they were looking for. I know that sometimes we lose the passion and excitement for the type of artwork we produce and that it can be very difficult to produce any work at all when you have something similar to 'writer's block' however it was so exciting to listen to the BFA students talk about their struggle with this problem and their eventual success.

I loved hearing about how Monica struggled with what she called "museum worthy work" and what that actually meant. I think that a lot of us in the art world struggle with that. I especially loved that she ended up with a body of work, of drawings not even paintings, that she was proud of and that she loved. I liked hearing about the different aspects of her process that she planned to use when she went back to painting and how she was excited to go back to painting.

I liked how enthusiastic Katie was about printmaking and how she used her experience over the summer working with different types of printmaking, to find a specific one that she especially enjoyed. I loved the way she described her work as simply little moments in our everyday lives that we sometimes take for granted. Looking at her work, I really got a sense of that. It was nice to see an artist not so focused on creating these huge, picturesque pieces, but rather small pieces with everyday items as the subject.

I absolutely enjoyed how Kathryn spoke about her paintings with the plants and vegetables. I enjoyed how she even included some of her experiences with working in a studio with the other BFA students. I really liked the way she described being able to sit down at the table with her mom for breakfast and being able to paint her subject right there, in the midst of conversation. I got the impression that her work was not only a project for her to finish off her BFA year but a real part of her daily life.

Margo's sculptures of the stilt walkers was great. I got the impression that not only her experience seeing stilt walkers in another country but the extended period of time that she spent on crutches definitely affected her artwork. I was so glad to see her be comfortable enough to talk about her failures and not just what worked and made it into the final series. I was amazed with all the detail in her sculptures and the way in which she described why she did what was great. I got a sense that this body of work was something she was really proud of and to see her exploring new territory with the face casting is great.

I've been friends with Annie for a while now. This year I've watched her struggle with BFA and trying to impress her professors and her peers. It's hard to see someone who makes beautiful work struggle, but it's part of the process and I'm sure that she would agree, something absolutely worth it. That being said, there were a lot of things about this body of work that Annie produced that I didn't know. I was unaware she used the 4x5 to shoot some of the images and that some of them were from a different country all together. I loved listening to her talk about the sort of epiphany she had while shooting and editing and how she used that to her advantage. I loved that she found out the different meanings behind the trees she was shooting and was able to keep those meanings in mind while creating her photographs. I like that she wasn't afraid to talk about her weaknesses and her shortcomings with previous projects until she found what she was looking for.

Overall I loved listening to these artists talk about their work and the processes they went through. I think that being able to talk about your work and the struggles is part of the entire process of creating a body of work to be proud of.