Larry Rivers is an abstract artist who lived and created art for the greater part of the 20th century. He worked mostly with paint, though he used a variety of mediums through his career. Rivers' work was influential to many artists from the pop art movement as well as some in the abstract expressionist movement.

I really enjoy looking at Rivers' artwork, because not only is it visually pleasing, but there are lots of details in each piece which warrant multiple examinations. While I don't paint, I do work with figures and people like Rivers, and it is interesting to look at how he uses and sometimes distorts figures in his work. Some of his paintings also have an almost collage-like feel to them, and I'm impressed that he was able to create that look and feel with the paint he worked with (and his actual collages are very good too). The amount of words Rivers also uses in his work also helps set it apart, and it was very interesting to look at the kinds of paintings he chose to utilize words in and which ones he didn't. His work also has this interesting trend that changed over time, but still managed to feel consistent, which I enjoyed seeing.

I worked on adding more charcoal to the bottom of my piece,but still have a ways to go before I'm done

I started putting in the values in charcoal on the bottom half of the piece, but I was only here on Monday due to my ACL surgery.

I got the basic values in charcoal pretty much done on the top half of the piece, but not the bottom one yet.

In class project: Working on starting the basics of the charcoal drawing

At home project: I finished my home project and brought it in for critique

In class project: I'm still working on the same thing as I was for the last critique

At home project: I have the charcoal shading almost done.

 Over spring break, I had the amazing opportunity to spend a week in Morocco, and while the entire experience was fantastic, one of the best things I saw was the art there. Throughout the cities I visited, there were beautiful mosaics in various buildings and public fountains and houses. While in Fez, I was able to take a guided tour of a workshop where artisans handcraft and make all of these ceramics using the same techniques people did hundreds of years ago (I also got to see people making cloth and leather in traditional ways as well). It amazed me that the people working there were able to create mosaics some which looked like they could be over a hundred years old, and some with more modern designs on them using the exact same method of assembly. This made me think a lot about the way we make art today, and how we still use a lot of the same materials and techniques that people did hundreds of years ago. I work in charcoal, but so did a lot of people in the Renaissance and middle ages. And I'm confident many people used the same drawing and blending techniques that I use today (minus the whole 'destroying the work' aspect of my art). Considering that a lot of the materials and techniques people use to learn and make art are similar to those used by people a long time ago, it's amazing to see how much art has evolved content-wise. 

Overall I had an amazing time in Morocco and it was so interesting to see artwork which isn't figure-based. Due to Morocco being a Muslim country, most of the artwork that existed was based on beautiful geometric patterns rather than figures. The contrast between the types of art I saw when I was in Europe, which was often depictions of religious figures in churches, and the art I saw in Morocco was just really cool to note. This was one of the best examples I can think of a culture influencing the type of artwork people produce and spread. 

Sonya Clark is a Richmond-based artist whose work primarily involves American culture, and different aspects associated with it. Clark also likes using hair, specifically hair from African American women in her work. 

I think Clark's work is some of the most inventive work that manages to carry such a powerful message. The Confederate flag is still such a powerful symbol even today, and to many Southerners, desecrating the Confederate flag would almost be like desecrating the American one. It isn't used super often in artwork that I've seen, and I'm really glad to find someone who isn't afraid to use it. I like the way she incorporates the hair into her work; it's such an interesting and inventive way to represent a group of people that remains both recognizable yet adaptable enough to be used in a variety of different ways. It is also really nice to see the work of an artist who works and lives so close to us in Richmond. I don't know a whole lot about the local art scene, so I'm glad to be taking steps to rectify that.  

Sonya Clark's website

I tend to like and gravitate toward art that I think is visually pleasing and cool to look at, and with that in mind, it's no surprise that I really love the work of Tomohiro Inaba. Inaba is a Japanese artist who works in Japan and mainly works sculpturally. Inaba mainly uses metal  that looks solid and densely coiled near the ground, but ends up almost disintegrating as the sculpture extends into the air. It's so impressive how Inaba is able to manipulate iron like this, and that most of the iron he uses seem to be in long, single pieces. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find Inaba's artist statement despite a long time Google searching, so I'm not entirely sure how Inaba wants his work to be interpreted, but it is also interesting to try and make my own meaning out of these pieces.

Because of this, I started thinking more about the importance of having an artist statement alongside your work. Some work like Inaba's doesn't have a clear meaning from just one look at it, and different people will glean different meanings based on who they are and how their minds work. In some ways, letting viewers create their own meaning out of your work is a cool concept, but in others, it would be interesting to see what was going on in the artist's mind when they decided to make the work. Hopefully someday I'll find Inaba's artist statement.

Inaba's Website

I was in Morocco from 3/28 until 4/4, then had half a day before going out of town until 4/9. I didn't have time to work on either of my projects.