Anyhowways, 303 is over and done with finally! It only took a little over 4 years... and all of my remaining sanity.
To explain... 303 Individual Art Review is a required process for art majors at my college. The way I have been describing the courses to peers and observers is.. it's a progress report for my ENTIRE degree/concentration. I wanted to present a large breadth of work, as discussed in a few earlier posts (In Progress, Near completion), about the health issues in my family over the past few years. The actual execution of the drawings and compositions provided so much catharsis - I would often spend hours on each drawing without thinking about time or how much my hand, and head, were hurting.
The 303 review was easily the most stressful process of my degree so far. Even though my work was finished and ready to present (for the most part - those big canvases are BEASTLY) the stress of talking about the work and explaining it to an unfamiliar panel was nervewracking! In addition to that, I had the teaching conference in Lansing to prepare for - no pressure, right!? Wrong. All of the pressure. All of the double and triple checking and making sure everything is ready to show and display. I had a panel of 7 faculty members, including my education and concentration advisers, who wanted to talk about - and challenge - my work, statement, presentation, and progress as an artist.
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| in-class critique |
Most of the feedback I received concerned process - something I thought I had covered in my statement. In truth, I forgot to reference some very important influences and I was kicking myself pretty hard for that! My panel wanted me to reference the Surrealists and Paranoiac Critical Process - meaning the subconscious motivations and inspirations we have for creating and inspiring work. Uh, duh. Spending so much time and unconscious emotional energy on each piece should have prepared me for that comment, but in honesty I was working from repressed memories and feelings I did not want to address previously. You cannot say 'working from the heart' in a professional review, but that is what the process entailed the most.
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| MORE in-class critique |
The panelists judged my work in several categories, including: Physical structures (skills and knowledge), Physical Structures (productivity), Visual Structures (visual evidence), Visual Structures (oral evidence), Social Structures (visual evidence), Social Structures (oral evidence). What this all boils down to is being able to defend your work, your choices, your process, and how you talk and write about all of the above. The grading scale ranges from 1 to 5 with 3-5 being satisfactory in each category. In my review my statement was challenged, along with my process, in terms of cohesiveness and marriage. My method of executing the work was so deeply personal - I really struggled to write about the process and the meaning behind it, even though it was clear and present in my mind.
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| the final grading results |
After my review, which I passed with mostly 4s and 5s, I realized how much I still have to do when it comes to talking about my work and presenting process/findings. My panel gave me lots of good ideas about presentation, mainly for the large canvases. I plan on creating tapestry-type hangings so the work can be hung on the wall like banners. I also plan on creating more large-scale prints of the drawings and possibly (even, maybe, someday) printing onto glass or plastic to present the work in a transparent media. I was presented with questions about the lack of color and conversely the lack of white space.
I have a lot of decisions to make before I start working on my senior show pieces, which will be extremely similar in process and product as my 303 work. My master plan is to explore my own health concerns/issues that I have struggled with over the past few years. In the next post I will discuss that some more.. I really really wanna blog about my conference experience now though! And since it's my blog, I do what I want! So you will all have to wait ;)
Ms. Kanak
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