a statement

I am an artist because it makes me feel alive. As cliché of a statement that may sound, it is one of the few things I do that make me feel that way. To be able to take thoughts and ideas in my head and put them into the world not only gives me a fantastic sense of accomplishment, but it enables me to express things I could not do in any other form. Working on movies in particular, be it shooting or editing, is the one activity where literally hours can feel like seconds. It’s something that takes me away from myself, and immerses me entirely.

a statement

When it comes to creating art, I don't even see myself as an artist (at least not in the traditional sense anyway). I'm more of an observer than an artist. It isn't the necessary action of making or creating anything, it's more the reflection and reiteration of what I observe. So I look more to the observing than the actual 'creation' of material.

a statement

“The idea hovered and shimmered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else.” – Phillip Pullman, The Golden Compass

The way I am working now is completely new and foreign to me. It is vague, mysterious, sub-lingual, and subconscious. I am trusting my curiosity, my intrigue, my fascination as never before. This is a radical shift for me: I have long defined myself as a planner who deliberately and consciously makes artwork that responds directly to an issue or concept. But in the interest of growing beyond the known, I have let go to see what happens when I follow my impulses and experiment freely without regard to outcome. What I am discovering is that there is more here than I could have imagined. I have become a jealous lover to this way of working, bristling at any voice or situation that might deny me it. I strive to turn this flickering infatuation into something strong, deep and lasting, permanently transforming my personhood and practice by integrating itself harmoniously with my more philosophical and topical intentions. Until then, I must hold it gently, unconditionally, and often.

a statement

My hope is that through my art people will be able to understand what I was thinking about, what I was feeling while making the piece. I enjoy creating things and making visuals. Being able to express myself through the act of making a piece is very fulfilling. The first priority is whether or not I'm happy with the final piece, but if the audience enjoys it and understands it as well, it's an added plus.

a statement

What I want my work to achieve as art is a hard question for me to answer because I can not be completely sure the answer of the question what is art. Art to some may not be art to others so what to make my work achieve what I want is not necessarily making it art but putting my mind down in video or film.

I just want my work to be remembered, not necessarily by all but at least by some and most of all by me. I want to look back and see my ideas unfold in front of me and be glad that now anyone can see a somewhat organized glimpse into my mind.

Maybe the work will not be art to some or even most but to me it will be a masterpiece, my masterpiece that will live on forever at least in my mind and hopefully in the minds of some others.

a statement

A lot of my work as an artist is focused on the things in life that are usually invisible to the seeing eye, but have more affect on the world than those that are visible. In a strong sense, I believe the things people have to feel without being able to see have a stronger emotional affect on them. I try to visualize what these otherwise invisible feelings and senses would look like to a person related to how it would make them feel. Lately, I have been especially interested in the deterioration of a person's well-being and identity as their physical being is attacked by a disease or illness. From my experience of what I have seen people go through, the physical deterioration is apparently by simply sight, but the emotional and spiritual downfall slowly takes away their identity and changes the person more than their physical changes.

a statement

As a video artist who works mostly with live events and performances, I try to convey
my view and perception of the event in a manner that is as genuine and emotionally
connected as possible. I enjoy viewing each project from the audience perspective and
respecting the opportunity to be the link between a once in a lifetime story and the
viewer’s eyes. Bands will play shows all over the world and football at Ohio State will live long past my days here, but the subtle details of emotion and feeling that make each performance individual and unique are the focus of my work.

In personal exploration I find the most interesting aspect of video is the emergence of something new. Even the most horrific failures in advancements are of interest to me. The drive to make something truly unique and without influence by any other idea or concept is so rare today that I would like to show a perspective of reality through video in such a way, that it leaves the viewer with more of an emotional attachment and genuine understanding for when someone says, “you really should have been there”.

a statement

There is one thing that upsets me when trying to create my own work and that is other work. I don’t like seeing other work related to the subject and medium that I am going to work in because I don’t want to be influenced in any way. I like to be able to create my own ideas and use no other references in my work. When I start a project I try not to look at other artist or get influenced by other work around me. My instructors always ask me what artist I like or am influenced by and I always respond none because I don’t look at an artist for ideas. I want to find what is natural for me to create and not steal from another artist. I think the thousands of video feeds I have seen over the years can influence my work in this class, but I will not deliberately research any videos to create a project. I want my work to be a complete fabrication of my own life experiences and personal preferences. I want my work to be an expression of myself and to appeal to my taste. I will not change my ideas to please an instructor or other artist because it’s does not matter to me their opinion. Now I will try and make my work better by changing minor details and use suggestions to help portray my idea better but won’t change a concept for anyone else.

a statement

What is art?

According to Dictionary.com, art is the quality, production, expression, or realm according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. To me, art is the creation or arrangement of colors, sounds, forms, movements and other elements to produce emotion and reaction. With that said, oil painting and pastel drawing are two means for me to create art while igniting reactions in those who view my pieces. The reaction I strive to evoke in people is happiness because while creating art, I am most happy. Moreover, I believe life is about striving to be happy, and I pursue this through the use of color and subject.

While using bright reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues and purples, I paint and draw people and places. Usually these people and places are chosen while I am traveling because I find inspiration in those who are from different locations and cultures. Not only are the images I create colorful, but they are inspired by those far away people and places that many may never see for themselves. A dancer in a carnival parade in Brazil, a weaver in Peru, and a lake in Nicaragua are three examples of the images I have created.

These images directly reflect who I am from my love of travel and aspirations to teach people about the world and other cultures. In the past, I have explored and experimented with different mediums and techniques realizing that my passion is painting and drawing, and in the future, I want to integrate different materials that I find while traveling such as stones, leaves, hand woven yarn, seeds, and other elements in nature with my paintings and drawings. My vision and goals are to continue teaching people about the world through my art and to create happiness in those who view my pieces.

a statement

As an artist, I have often questioned my motives for creating. The reasons have evolved since my decision to become a fine artist, just as my techniques and inspirations. I find that the only way I am able to successfully fulfill my path as an artist is to evolve, and with that I look for inspiration from all angles. With that pre-empting, I am able to deduce that my mission as an artist is to combine what is often not combined, to display the expected in unexpected ways, and to push to the limit what habits have been perpetuated throughout the times., in regards to the visual world. If I am able to surprise and awe viewers, showing them that what they are seeing is perhaps not all that is before them, then I will have completed my short-term goals, eager to push through to the edge of my imagination.

a statement

I create contradictory art. I create art from necessity in the work place and to fulfill my own needs. I create art for the benefit of others and for my own satisfaction. I create art that is meant to be shared by the general public and art meant for my eyes only. I create both by mistake and intentionally. Sometimes I create art for no reason other than the fact that I like it. I create art that I am proud of and art that does not necessarily represent me. I hope to create art that can be viewed on multiple levels yet is beautiful in its simplicity.

a statement

Something I've learned about art during these past couple of years is the necessity of experimentation. One can only determine how others will react to a his/her artistic decisions by displaying them and receiving feedback & criticism...there doesn't seem to be any way to know beforehand how others will react to a particular artistic decision, unlike a scientific experiment...in which one has at least some idea of what will happen. This particular realization frightens me...despite the fact that my attempts to create art have typically been regarded positively. Perhaps this should be my motivation to continue experimenting, even when I'm sure no one will like my work. I may simply continue to be pleasantly surprised...or I may end up finally creating work that is a complete failure artistically. But then, doesn't one learn more from failure than from success in the first place?

a statement

I am not a conventional artist, I don’t think artistically at all times during the day. I don’t like to plan out my projects. I love to create on my own terms and at my own pace and I think that is when my best work is created.

Like many others I find it hard to explain what my work means, but one definite goal I have is to inspire. In creating, my hope is that I can draw emotions out of my audience, give them something to think about. I’m very interested in what kind of experience my viewers take from my pieces.

I believe that art is a way of expression. A way to represent sounds, images, colors, feelings, and shapes in a way that makes sense to the artist. The one that I enjoy about being an artist is the fact that art can be anything and there are no limitations to what can be created.

a statement

I create art as an antidote to Mean World Syndrome. A significant portion of the mass media that bombards me can tip me into hopeless if I am not balanced by holding onto lighter happier media. The primary goal of my art pieces is to create an oasis; small place where the mind can relax, before re-entering the fray.

I am interested in looking for moments. While this will not preclude sustained narrative, I believe that it is in these moments where I find inspiration into appreciation of my own personal moments. turning the eye to these small moments, over and over, eventually trains the mind to return to the place of appreciation of these tiny packets of now. It is there in that place of appreciation that I am able to withstand the barrage of media. This is truly an antidote to Mean World Syndrome.

a statement

My work is a body that stands alone. It is not me, it is its own. I simply allow myself to be a vessel. I believe in my work and therefore my work believes in itself and stands proud. We are separate of each other, yet we compliment one another - I feel that that is how it should be. I am the creator and the creation, we go hand in hand of each other perfectly.

a statement

My aim is to render the improbable as possible. I frequently do this in a manner that is inefficient (in terms of the software) and sometimes incomplete (yet still suggestive of the final goal). I think that a 'suggestive' art or project can be far more effective that an 'explicit' one. To this end, the leaving of gaps - whether in terms of process or of content - is somewhat critical.

a statement

I aim to visually manifest narratives of fact and fiction. I constantly search for
contradiction, fetish, and implication in both imagery and wordplay, and attempt
to exploit these nuances visually. As I explore family entanglements and romantic
transgressions, my curiosity tends to focus on the inanimate objects that bear witness
to emotional human events. A frequent visual cue found in my work is that of an implied
male presence. While an actual figure of a man almost never appears in a piece, his
existence and consequence is very much indicated. My recent work tends to obliterate
both male and female subjects completely and instead focuses on place and object.
The human touch is very close, yet absent. The scenes and situations I create convey
a narrative that is often autobiographical, and references rituals of consumption and
the compulsion to collect and idealize. I attempt to examine my personal history by
deconstructing and/or reconfiguring photos, bedsheets, and other relics. Truth is
certainly stranger than fiction, and by being painfully honest about my own past, the
ridiculous and the absurd surfaces (steeped in tragedy and complication of course).

I use traditional and digital printmaking techniques, as well as antiquated, alternative
photography processes. I am consciously utilizing current technology in conjunction with
tools and techniques that are often considered archaic and obsolete. These processess
are intricately layered, highly labor intensive, and quite scientific. Recently, I have
been working with video and film in conjunction with my practice of traditional, two-
dimensional methods of image construction. The complex processes I employ in my
studio are congruent with the complexities of content.

a statement

I realize that everything I create is only an extraction of what I have in my mind, and my ability to equate my ideas into another's perception. I've always feared the negative, which has resulted in my shyness, avoidance of conflict, depression, and my seemingly inability to be decisive. However I'm beginning to realize that choosing not to decide is still a choice, even if that choice wasn't presented. The more I realize that everything is built off the construct from which came before it, I feel hope for any future I will be presented with. I enjoy pondering the beginning of the Universe, because I believe it is one of the most fundamental divisions that separates humanity into two distinct poles. Either it began, or it always has been. If its always been, its easy for me to assume it always will be, which feels positive in my mind. However if it began then this signifies to me that there was a theoretical time in which it had not existed, and with another recent exploration of myself I've realized that if something has never been, then there can be no need to be. So if there was a beginning, then either it, or God, or something(one) else wanted this existence we call our universe, and as far as I can understand it, this seems equally as positive of a view. Ultimately I've come to a point in which that I can now question negativity, because in every perceivable case I've considered, a negative is always inherently positive when experienced in a constructed perspective that allows it be so. Unfortunately the reverse appears to be true as well, but perhaps that is where I can find my fortune.

Daniel's statement

My goals as an artist coincide with my goals as a person. My goals as a person include primarily a discovery of the self, the self I was thrown into and have been becoming and will be becoming until my heart eventually stops pumping oxygen to my life systems and I begin to become a tree or grass or particles of dust sinking to the bottom of the ocean. It is through this process of discovering myself that I discover everything else. We are all bubbles of matter and interactions floating in space bumping into each other and the world around us, collecting dust and stains and giving and taking and exploring until we pop and become a soft whisper in the cosmic night of nothingness and everything. Thus it is as a circle, making Venn diagrams with everything and everyone that I travel. The artifacts of this journey are the things that have come to be known as art. I find such definitions as confining the cacophony of the excitations and sublimations that peer beneath the sunset or peak behind the moon to wink and pop in the night. There are paths to worthy discovery and genuine knowledge and understanding in the world, the kind that lead to winding roads up chimney slopes and clouds of fluffy twirling singing notions of things forgotten and remembered. There exist truth, there is a hand on a keyboard and that hand exists or it does not. That may be as far as I can go right now; truth is a rare commodity in this green green world. It was long ago discovered that our fellow human can be led, that their actions can be corralled and their mind subverted to the desires and service of others. The conquest of the exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few has been a landslide defeat for the abused for thousands of years and this is the struggle I concern myself with: the revealing of falsehood, the destruction of privilege for the sake of Truth and Justice. This struggle is one we are all a part of. We all have a place in this world of deceit. We are either among the rotting corpses traveling in carts pulled by our slain brethren toward the mountainous walls of the crushed wills surrounding the castle of our keepers or we are dragging our broken bodies to the peaks of some forgotten shore to bask and bath in the sunlight.

Happiness and joy as well. We are all a part of this fabric of people, of time and place. All of our names are carved onto the wall. It is joy and happiness that fuels the engine of self discovery and reveals the world. It is the joy I feel in my entire self that brings sorrow and rage to my brow. It is through my happiness that I see sadness. Being content with the world may be impossible but at least some things make sense in smiles, in laughter. The world contains delightful moments of rapture and beauty, of the sublime and blissful. There are moments that take our very being and for a rare instance we vibrate in unison with everything. If it were not for the joy and happiness that can be found I would have nothing to offer but happiness in a warm gun. I want to reveal the world to those who cannot see it in order to bring about more well being. I want to find freedom for myself so that I can show others how to find it for themselves’ and us all. My art is joy and tyranny.

Daniel Guarnieri

a statement

Art to me doesn't just designate what is conventionally believed to be thought as such. I try to take art with me in all facets of my life.

My biggest drive in my art is humor. If I'm not crafting something that makes people laugh I don't fell that I've accomplished my goal.

When it comes down to it, art to me is something that makes people smile and question. I try to do that with the work I create.

a statement

I'm not sure what art is anymore. The term has been so used, misused, and widely applied that it's lost all sense of meaning to me. As a result, I tend not to concern myself with definitions and take a very subjective approach. It seems sort of pointless to argue over a label when it's so plain that everything in the various "arts" can greatly affect people. Painting, photography, sculpture, film & video, writing, dance, the other arts, and even the re-contextualization of objects or people can make us feel things, communicate information, and teach us. If they can do this - either intentionally or unintentionally - they are worthwhile endeavors.

a statement

Art today is like spinning a giant roulette wheel. You never know what you are going to get, you never know of it's value. It is like using a search engine. The information may or may not be useful. You are searching.
Art is:
tasting as many different foods as you can which may or may not be good,
ungraded,
unruled,
relentless,
serves no master,
controlled by no one,
free for the taking,
has no limit,
may or may not be understood,
guided and unguided,
always given a chance,
a good excuse,
raved about or rejected,
refined or lost,
searching for answers that have no questions,
having questions that have no answers,
down is up and up is down,
backwards is forwards and forwards is backwards,
you pull inwards while others shove outward,
reaching something that goes beyond the question why,
being so obviously understood and lost in the meaning,
what makes you sick,
never wrong,
never right,
always changing,
never there,
never is satisfied,
always taking and never giving,
always gives and never takes,
forgiving beyond comprehension,
unfair,
your cure,
the great scapegoat,
the expansion-less ideal,
the next step to freeing minds,
hoarding creativity,
squashing reality,
whatever you want it to be,
art.

a statement

My medium of expression, or art of choice, is film (or video) and initially I chose to pursue this medium simply because I felt more comfortable in it than other artistic avenues such as theatre or music. Ultimately, I would love to be able to film a script that brought a sense of unity to a group of people or gave people a new way of looking at an important issue that perhaps they hadn’t considered. However, at least presently, I am more concerned with just trying to figure how to use the tools of film and video (and screenwriting) to express my ideas than extensively contemplating how my work will be perceived. Once I have a better handle on the medium, I hope to enlighten people or at least (or at most, actually) make them laugh.

A statement

I am interested in using my heritage as a Native American and my life experience as a means of informing work that is based on experimentation. I work with paint, graphite, glass, and try to explore not only to capabilities of each medium, but also the boundaries of what is acceptable within each medium.

a statement

I like to blur the lines between fiction and reality.

a statement

In order to create authenticity and effectiviness in my work, I draw inspiration from many of my personal experiences. Each piece I make deals with an issue of some kind, whether it focuses on feelings, color, personal space, or influential change, my goal is to evoke thought and self evaluation in each viewer. Continuing my education and progressing as an art student, I have recently broken into the realm of focusing on the issues and affects of pesonal space in association with color, feeling, and emotions. I explore the connection between a viewer and my artwork while also focusing on the surroundings and feelings they experience in that space. Discovering how each individual experiences my work is almost as important as creating the work itself. I will continue to develop the issues I work with and hope to learn more about my work and the people who view it.

a statement

As an artist I’m constantly seeking out different ways to express myself. Yes, art is expression. However, a lot of times when things get rough, or your mood takes a turn, or your excited about something there isn’t a good way to show it. I personally have a huge issue finding the right words to say sometimes. So the best way I know how to express myself is through what I create. Most times it serves as a great outlet; a buffer for my sanity, if you will.

With video specifically, if I can take a character or an object and somehow creatively portray my feelings through someone or something else, then I’ve done my job. I get an intense sense of accomplishment when people understand me just because I was able to relate to them on an emotional level through something dissimilar to my circumstance, but emotionally equivalent.

At the end of the day, if I can get it out of my head and into a project, then I can look back on it with un-bias eyes. It’s the best way for me to relieve stress and work out my problems.

A Statement

I make art because it helps me figure out and relate to my chaotic surroundings.

A Statement

I hope that my work as art will be considered art by the majority of people who see it and that includes me as well. I am an artist because I crave creativity, I practice creativity, I live in creativity. And art is the perfect form to practice creativity in.

A Statement

I want to bring back the production values and aesthetics of horror films from the 80s. I view the intricate designs of the props and special effects as well as the musical themes and storytelling techniques as special to the 80s and represents the pinnacle of the horror genre. I feel horror movies from this time period are artistic and should get more artistic credit than they receive. A lot of horror films borrow lighting techniques and use of shadows from the German expression films from the 1920s. A lot of horror films from this era also deal with issues of the subconscious and the darker side of humanity as well as our fears and desires.Movie props and spfx from the 80s also had a certain exaggerated surrealism to them that I feel is absolutely gorgeous. Most modern films opt to make spfx digitally and I find this disappointing.