Art Statement

I still do not forget my weird memory, like an electric shock, when I was a child. During New Year’s Day in January 1, 1984, my age was 12 years old, I meet an extra terrestrial on a television. The extra terrestrial showed strange and marvelous images or sounds on the television. I was thinking that the alien from another planet invaded our Earth and then, they are controlling every broadcasting station in the world.

After long time, when I was studying in high school, I finally knew what going on was in my strange experience in 1984. The extra terrestrial in my memory was a video artist, Nam June Paik, the father of video arts, and the image show was “Good Morning Mr. Orwell”; he aired the video show, linked New York, Paris, and other big cities in the world though a satellite. Mr. Paik has strong effect on me to see another filed which can give new ideas to change people’ viewpoints. As many artists or other people have been inspired, I also have been getting inspiration from my extra terrestrial, Mr. Paik, since I knew him; I think that he has effect on perfectly and absolutely at least one person who is me.

Like my experience, I think that artists have to give people a new way, idea, solution, inspiration, vision, and so on to change people’s stereotypes and keep a right of human in society; I do not agree that most artists must become a socialist, a politician, or a good leader of group. For example, Mr. Paik tried doing something new beyond people’s negative mind on differences in the world. When Mr. Paik was using a satellite as an artwork, many countries especially the United States and Soviet Union are using the satellites to keep their idealism as the military equipment. Moreover, Mr. Paik showed why artist have to find new way. According to his interview in the newspaper O Glovo(1988), “The context is the content; the content is the context. This means that the fine arts have always been interested in the new horizons of possibilities. When Picasso created Cubism, he did so because he was tired of Impressionism. Monet created Impressionism because he was tired of Academicism ÜÜ artists have always been interested in the new sensibility, in exploring new possibilities”. I really agree with his viewpoints. I also discover new possibilities on the arts. Now I am studying laser arts as a new possibility on visual communications and new video arts that is my purpose of art like acts of Monet, Picasso, and Nam June Paik.

Doo-Sung Yoo

Art Statement

As a relatively young and new artist, my art foci and motivations are still developing. As of now, my art tends to focus on the mundane and ordinary aspects and people of life that would not otherwise be acknowledged. I am someone who is interested in other people’s passions and joys, simply because there is excitement present, even though it might not be recognizable to just anybody. I prefer to use video to document things that I see in my life, my city, and my space. More specifically, I often prefer to document people and events in my family and personal life. My life has an interesting combination of the old and the new emerging into a new culture. My family immigrated to the US from Egypt in 1986 and so I am interested in the dynamics of immigrant life, immersion, and assimilation.

As an emerging artist and growing videographer, I would like my work to grow alongside my other interests of political and humanitarian issues, and be able to document and represent those ideas into an expressive, visual art form. These issues are definitely less mundane and ordinary, but fulfill my personal need to be a proactive member of society, as opposed to just a viewer. I would like to use documentary video as an art form to show people how others live and encounter problems. This could go for international issues, as well as very local issues.

My main interest lies in documentary video and I think that documentary art is a very accessible form of art. A goal of mine is to help people think, develop thoughts about other people and places, and I think documentary film is a good place to start because it is so approachable.

Amira Soliman

11.20.06

Art Statement

As an artist my hope is to make people think. I’m a big fan of movies, and series that allow the view to come up with his/her own theories on its plot, story, beginning and ending. You might not understand what I’m talking about, so if you ever have a couple hours of free time I highly suggest you watch an anime called ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’. Oh yah, you may already know this but I’m a huge anime fan. Out of all the ones I’ve seen, this in many ways is by far the best. It allows you to draw your own conclusions about the characters beliefs and goals, along with the general purpose behind the story. It also dives deep into the psyche of each individual character, showing you their past and how they got to their present. This along with the fact that some of the characters intentions and beliefs are never fully explained gives you an incredible sense of depth and immersion. This is what I want to do someday. I want to give people that feeling, that same feeling I had after I first saw ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, or ‘Glory’, or ‘The Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring’ (I thought those were all excellent movies). The feeling that makes me think “damn, that was a good movie” after the ending of a good long film.

Jonathan Ishida

Statement

What I look to achieve as an artist is to challenge myself. It sounds simple and cliché but this isn’t meant to be in the finished product alone but in the entire process of video making itself. What I am looking for when I make art, is a reaction from myself more so than a reaction from many other people, at least in this stage of my career.

I’m looking to become more versatile and to explore different ways to approach a project. I know the rules of video but it’s not just about breaking them, its about how I can approach and interpret them.

An example of what I am looking to gain would be if I did a short piece entirely of wide shots. Could I make the piece interesting without showing close emotion? Could there be dialogue and show a following in the story? Would the settings take away from the actual message of the video or is that the point I would be trying to make?

This piece probably wouldn’t make any money, but it would give me a huge understanding of wide shots and how best to use them. Something I would never get from just using a wide shot for what it is meant for.

As I continue to accumulate experience through actions, my projects would become more complex and shaping into something unique and worthwhile. Until then, all I can do to grow as an artist is to continue experimenting.

-Alex

Statement

I am a visual artist who uses text. I am a writer who uses images. I create video because time and audio add two more dimensions to the visual presentation of text and images which becomes an avenue for dynamic expression engaging the viewer by maximizing the number of senses which are stimulated. I view my art as communication with the viewer as well as a form of self-expression and purpose. My intention is to understand the ways media can be presented through various computer programs and web venues and combining them to create art.

An artist finds one’s voice and then expresses one’s purpose through various projects. For my graduate work, I intend to work collaboratively on an interdisciplinary project that encompasses several media forms and academic disciplines to communicate on multiple levels of perception. The video I anticipate producing will incorporate animation, compositing, and taped interviews (documentary) creating a video that operates on multiple levels to engage, inform and motivate change in the viewer’s thinking and behavior.

My intention is to establish a combination of multi-media approaches and uses that will express an understanding of the truth about a given topic. Combining words and images with consideration of color, form, and shape, as well as using movement, transitions, iconic forms, animation, composite images and montage, to create a communicative artwork that is both dynamic and persuasive. This process would be informed using color theory, narrative theory, cultural logic and moral mapping. It does not have to be limed to action, subject or scene, but can also include juxtaposition of images and non-sequiturs that will cause the viewer to think differently, making different or new associations which will illicit change in the viewer’s thinking and thereby their actions. This builds upon previous artists work such as John Heartfield who used his collage work as a political medium.

The work I intend to create in graduate school will inform my future work. Given the time-constraints involved with creating multi-media video art, it becomes essential to work collaboratively with other artists.

Michelle Aubrecht

Statement

I do art to express what I can't with simple alphabetical system that restrains all my emotion. I do art go outside the box with live it so everyday I want to stay a little longer in this crazy world. Art is my escape, my option not to hurt myself but to self express my pain.

Statement

Being an artist is something that I am. I have been one my whole life. I have always looked at the world in different ways than the average person. Seeing things in a different way is how I get my ideas. However, Being able to interpret the world around me and communicate an idea is where the challenge lies for me and other artists.

-Justin

Statement

My art is an expression of the world I see where as what may be everyday life to someone else is full of funny and twisted situations that could only be imagined.

-Hans

Statement

There isn't anything specific that I try to do or hope my work will do.

I like being able to present something, and letting that be interpreted by those watching (or experiencing) it. In many cases, my work is abstract, or it shows a subject without trying to make any overt statements about it. What is more interesting to me is how other people look at and interpret what I have made. What I find most interesting is when I get a remark that I wouldn't even think about. That something I make can get someone to think, instead of just walking by or having no response, is one of the best things about making art.

Statement

Art is found in the spaces in between --- within our everyday experiences. Words, conversational snippets, smells, sounds, and images -- together they create a layering of sensory information, which is encoded by personal perception and emotion into our memories. Day after day, these create our human experience.

To me, the pursuit of art is a creative discourse in the collective experience of what it is to be human, the one thing that we all share. It is about the importance of keeping this dialogue alive in a time when the mediated culture surrounding us contributes to our increasingly insular lifestyles. Through art, objects, actions, gestures, and spaces can provide fertile ground for our reflections and a place for conversations to exist. It is the possibility for this necessary reciprocity that interests me.

...Visual language that reveals personal content as a metaphor for our shared human experience.

Erin Hewgley

Statement

As an audio, video and text based artist, I aim to bring voice to the stories of marginalized communities. I believe art can be a powerful force for social change and by working with people on the fringes of mainstream society, I hope to both empower those communities and disrupt harmful stereotypes of folks who fall outside the norms of sexuality, class, race, gender, ability, etc.


Julia Applegate

Statement

I make art as if a conversation were taking place between my mind
and my body. My mind understands the world around me in a very
ephemeral way, from a point of view which works completely with
concepts. On the other hand my body has a particular way of
working within this world, which does not use concepts, in fact it
works with very concrete materials. The process of discussion
taking place between my minds concepts of the objects of my
interest, and my bodies actual production of those objects within
an actual space, is the creation of my work.

My goal as an artist recently has been to explore my own
understanding of particular icons which hold special meaning to
me. Archetypal objects such as houses, furniture, stairs, plumes of
smoke or exhaust, and Jet airliners are metaphors for me, of my
place within the greater American culture. These icons are familiar
to everyone, yet I am quite sure that everyone brings a different
idea of the meaning of these objects. In some ways then, my art
serves as both a key, and a barrier to understanding me.

Joshua Smith-Brennan

Statement

Most of our media culture is devoted to the single aim of encouraging consumption. We have been conditioned to the point where we can no longer distinguish between want and need, while we are only now becoming aware of the global catastrophic consequences of our appetite for natural resources. This problem has been greatly compounded by the export of our consumer media culture to what was once called the Third World. Now we must compete for a dwindling pool of resources with the exponentially increasing populations that we once exploited.

My goal is to create art that appropriates the images of the consumer culture and redirects the viewer’s attention back to the consequences of unchecked consumption.

Interactive art has several advantages for this type of message. First, the viewer becomes an active participant in the artwork, exploring the images that they have already been conditioned to respond to. Second, the global interconnections of exported culture and exploited resources can be concretely represented in the links between images and video that the viewer selects. Finally, when the viewer performs the physical action of clicking buttons and finding themselves moved from point A to B, they are forming the type of strong mental connections that can compete with the media connections formed through endless repetition.

S.C.

Statement

As an artist I have tried to explore the idea of a fictional reality or changing reality from everyday routine. I have been trying to see what I am capable of doing with my technical skills. My goal as an artist is just to open my mind to the different possibly this world as to offer.

Statement

I keep what I want in the distance in front of me. I see it, I try to reach it, I need to grab it, to take it. Keeping physical desire out of reach also moves me to make, to speak in metaphor, to learn without tasting and to love without expectation. In my current work I am expressing a personal acceptance of my desire to procreate, and the will decide how the interpretation of an emotion called “love” will shape the way that I choose a mate.

Dina Statement

in part, i make it to more directly/coherently/rigorously pose and answer the questions that make likfe interesting-- that (because i do not have a mastery of verbal/written language) must be asked through visual philosophy.
in part, i make it in hopes of passing on knowledge/inquiry/thoughts-- in other words to teach or add to the pool of knowledge
in part, i make it because i cannot not make it-- i would not be happy/sane/ living if i were not making.

Craig Statement

I don't know if I really consider myself an artist in the conventional
sense. I don't draw well, I don't paint well, and I don't do many
other things that people would call "artistic" well. There are two
mediums that I use to create art. One is my guitar, with which I
write and play music. The other is video. The reason I chose to do
an art major focused on video is because it is the one thing that I
really enjoy doing. I've found I can channel my creative ideas into
this medium, and produce art in various forms. When I graduate
from college I do not plan to become an "artist". I plan to pursue a
career in the more mainstream aspect of this field. I just hope to
avoid the much heard about evils of the tv/film/video industries.

-Craig Pentak

Celeste Statement

How do I tell someone that when he stands too close to me in a room full of people who are used to seeing a space where there now is none...how do I tell him what that means? How do I explain when words are inaccurate and actions, though clear, will cause unwanted anxiety? Well, I suppose I wouldn’t tell him...at least not directly.

But those sorts of emotions and thoughts seem so priceless and worth the effort of something not cliché. There must a place and time for them some where and my head is certainly not a proper storage place. So I find a way to tell him, and I nail it to a piece of wood, cover it in a mound of clay, put it in a video, and overpower it with music. It’s never certain he’ll see it, even less certain it would mean anything if he did. But it’s there, and it’s done, and all I can do is wait.

I suppose it’s somewhat self-involved to be putting such things in the world for everyone to view. However, I know the world to be a much less lonely place than it seems, and myself to be much less unique in thought than I feel...or so it is my hope. As for calling it art, well, that’s just an added bonus.

Celeste Tegtmeier

Michelle Statement

I am motivated to create art because I see it as an extension of myself. The art creation is an outlet for emtions and feelings that other people can also relate to. I am able to express my emotions when speech does not reflect the exact moment.

With an art creation I hope the audience will think about themselves and other topics present within the art. The art creation will provoke conscious thought and desire to understand. The art creation will become a part of them and they will continue to reflect upon it always. “Always play with their minds.”



Michelle DeChicco

A student

I am an artist because I love making something that can be so simple into something so creative. For example, I enjoy taking an ordinary picture and somehow manipulating it—cropping, color, text, graphics, etc.—to add a little more interest, depth, and curiosity into why it is presented in that particular way. Beauty is not the most important factor to my art (it is a plus but not a necessity); rather, I will try to go for the new and fascinating route, such as a gross close-up of an injury or a pile of earwax on a dinner plate. I especially tend to include humor in my creations. Art is fun for me (because I obviously would not be doing art if it were boring), and so I want my artwork to reflect that I had a good time making it. I also want my audience to have an amusing reaction, whether good or bad, when they see my art because then I would know that they were at least intrigued for a moment. But in the end, the values I want to hold true to the most are that I do art for me or at least in my own style, and that I hope I never lose passion for what I do.

Dean's

I have too many ideas to just keep to myself. I’m exploding with ideas but I don’t know how to fully express them. I can’t think of anything more frustrating than not being able to fully express yourself in the manner that you want. That’s why I make art.

I make art because I want people see what I was think. Sure I could write down my thoughts for future generations but that leaves too much to interpretation. I want everyone to know exactly want I was seeing in my mind.

I make art because creation is the ultimate freedom.

I make art becusae it is never the same twice.

I make art because I can keep it to myself and share it with everyone at the same time.

I make art because once it is made it can’t be unmade. Even if it is destroyed, it was made.

I make art because it can evoke emotion with words, or contact.

I make because it isn’t always good and it isn’t always bad.

I make art because your idea of art and my idea of art are two different things and that’s awesome.

I make art because it is constant even when the style changes.

I make art because everyone can make art but not like me.

I make art because it’s MYART.




-Dean Parham Jr