Morgan Price

There is a romantic notion between artists and their work.  No matter how many times things don't turn out in the studio, there is still hope to get a physical thing by the end of the day.  This is crucial to being fueled as a maker.  You also have to have fun.  Sometimes we are consumed with overbearing stress from the world around us and its nice to be able to have fun (or add to the stresses) of our own creation.  Either way we are growing.  Although being in our little bubble is fun, we also need to communicate to the outside world through the work.  This adds to the feeling of doing something mindful and worthwhile.

Morgan Price
University Galleries
Research Colloquium Lecture

Morgan Price is the Assistant Professor of Art at Illinois State University where he teaches Lithography.   He recently was a part of University Galleries' Research Colloquium Lecture Series.  In the paragraph above are some things that Morgan was talking about in the beginning of his lecture.  He started the conversation off with, "Why do I make the art that I make?"  Having fun was the first one.  Doing something worthwhile followed and ended with communication (effectively).

Morgan wants his work to reside in a rundown greaser apartment that is too cluttered to clean and the people inhabiting this space don't care enough to clean it.  He is very comedic with the sincerity of his work.  You can see the relationship between Morgan and his work.  It is romantic.  In a Beetlejuice kind of way.

Morgan Price
'I Don't Give a Crap'
2013

Two things that that Morgan gets excited about are tools and processes.  These are some of the reasons why I am a ceramicist.  The repetitive nature can seem like a nightmare, but its actually ritual. Collecting tools is fun too.  Also the joy of discovering is also something that Morgan holds dear. Even the smallest discovery can lead to other things or ideas.  Morgan is an advocate of learning, growing, and collaboration.  Humor is a big part of Morgan's work too.  As you can see from the image to the left he has no problem letting it all out. He finds the structure of our society to be funny.  Mainly how context dictates the significance or severity of something.  For example high impact sports (boxing, mama).  In these sports people are glorified for violence, while if that happened in another scenario it would be seen as bad.  Morgan believes it is important to make fun and laugh, to an extent.

Why make work like this though?  Well it's a preference for Morgan.  There are some things that he can not explain.    Like why he likes lumpy stuff and strange faces.  It is something that had always peaked his interest.  

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Seeing Morgan talk was phenomenal and a breath of fresh air.  To see someone that is so passionate and invested in their work is something special.  Also the sincerity and humor of his work are something amazing as well.  During his lecture he talked about a lot of the romantic things that go on in an artist's life in the studio.  Some things that get passed by easily.  Im glad he refreshed my memory .

Jason Walker

Jason Walker introduces himself to University Galleries

  When it comes to clay, there are only a few things that really catch me upside the head and have me flabbergasted.  One artist that continues to do this is an artist by the name of Jason Walker.  Jason started off painting business signs in his home state of Idaho and this transferred to his clay when he started work in that medium.  His virtuoso paintings on his mechanized forms are some that make me green with envy, but it is something that inspires me as well.  Sometimes you come across an artist who is fully immersed in the technical aspects of their work.  This is Jason Walker.  Not to say that that is the only aspect that comes forward in his work because it surely is not.  It was not until graduate school that Jason really started experimenting with his painting techniques and forms.

Illustrated bowl.
Photo Credit: Jason Walker 

In undergrad it was mostly design for Jason, but graduate school is when his painterly skills started to blossom into something great.  Like most artists Jason was consumed by the academic schedule. Jason picked up a position at a community college after grad school and had enough at that point.  He decided to become a studio artist and rely on that for a while.  From that point Jason attended many artist residencies anywhere from Hawaii to China (the long way).  His work has transformed from objects of utility to compelling sculptural phenomena.

"Split down the middle, but one always wants more"
 Photo Credit: Jason Walker

  Jason uses animals to convey certain conceptual messages in his work.  He uses birds because of the connection of flight.  Birds are able to "fly to the heavens".  In a world where we look up to the sky for answers for the realm we have created.  Above is an image of two birds on opposite sides of the nest.  In the nest there is a divide that is created.  One side is a city scene, the other is open land.  This show the tension that both create with each other and how each takes from the other, sometimes not for the better of the other.  Another animal is the fish.  In Asia the fish is a sign of wealth.  It is a food source and if you are lucky enough to be near the source you can flourish. He makes these forms mechanical.  A cultural critique if you will.  A self reflection of his own perceptions to show that technology is friend, but it is also foe.

"Whirling Disease"
Photo Credit: Jason Walker

"Stopping to sniff the flowers in my concrete shoes, I gave a crust of bread to John Muir"
Photo Credit: Jason Walker

Another source from the animal kingdom is the bear.  He states that when you see a bear it is most likely not where the masses inhabit.  In the image of the bear above, Jason incorporates the writer John Muir.   Jason walker quoted John Muir in his lecture, the abstract is this, "Humans need wilderness to escape the mechanisms of life." He  also incorporates Deer because of their resilience to adapt and move to all different areas and coexist with humans.  In the photo below it show a deer in a city.  Although the buildings are blades of grass below it's feet and he also incorporates other aspects of urban life such as cars, hazard signs and a lightbulb.
  

"Redtail"
Photo Credit: Jason Walker

Jason speaks to us about the divide that we have created between ourselves and nature.  He wants us to question it.  Why do we have to drive an hour to go "see" nature?  Is there not nature all around us? Or has technology made it impossible for us to see?  Well I'll have to say it is relative to the viewer.  I do believe there is a constant struggle between nature and culture.  Jason's work shows that they can coexist, if we are more conscious and allow them to.  At least in our own minds. That is a start in the right direction.

A Beach (For Carl Sagan)

Photo Credit: Peter McCullough

A Beach (For Carl Sagan) by: Andrew S. Young (Middle view)

A Beach (For Carl Sagan) by: Andrew S. Young (entrance view)

I made a trip to Chicago to see my brother.  Somehow he has a schedule busier than mine and so we had to plan this hang session about a month in advance.  After the date had been decided I figured one of our stops could be to the Museum of Contemporary Art because I was very young when i had my last visit.  My brother has a very small background in art, so I did not know what his reaction might be when i sprung it on him.  Luckily my brother has a imperturbable tranquility to him so he did not mind.  We walked around to browsing for a while in the beautiful specimen of architecture that is known as The Museum of Contemporary Art.  Although there was one section that held most of our intrigue.  

It was a small nook at the top of the stairs that consumed us by its atmosphere.  It contained seven tons of sand, radios, an LED light box, and single-channel video (sound).  The installation was a model to scale of the galaxy.  Each grain of sand was representative of a star.  The LED light box contains 1,500 grains of sand and  represents the milky way galaxy.   So in comparison it is trying to show the mass outside of us that we can not comprehend.  Although this helped us with that.   According to Andrew S. Young "This exhibition is a meditation on our galaxy."  Whilst inside of this fabrication, the mounds of sand look as if they were extracted from a desolate planet.  Also while you are inside of the space low frequency radios project static from the ceiling creating a wave like feel, thus creating the feel of an inter terrestrial beach.

A Beach (For Carl Sagan)
by: Andrew S. Young (Far corner view)

What's (The) Matter by: Andrew S. Yang

Included in this exhibition was a table of objects that look like they may be of this space that we encountered.  Upon closer inspection we found them to be varying from things that were objects of our natural world to objects that were fabricated to look like things we may recognize from our world.  This was a clever play on looking at the constructs that we create.  And how we make associations to this, according to the structures that have been placed before us.  Especially when the object is not made up of any of the materials that we assume it to be. In this Yang deteriorates the the strictures of nature and culture.

What's (The) Matter by: Andrew S. Yang

This exhibition was a humbling experience.  Im even happier that my brother and I both walked away with the same conditions that resonated.  It really puts your place in the world into perspective in multiple ways.  Whether it's just in our little bubble that we perceive to be all encompassing or the unknown that we tend to disregard.   

A Beach (For Carl Sagan)

Photo Credit: Peter McCullough

I made a trip to Chicago to see my brother.  Somehow he has a schedule busier than mine and so we had to plan this hang session about a month in advance.  After the date had been decided I figured one of our stops could be to the Museum of Contemporary Art because I was very young when i had my last visit.  My brother has a very small background in art, so I did not know what his reaction might be when i sprung it on him.  Luckily my brother has a imperturbable tranquility to him so he did not mind.  We walked around to browsing for a while in the beautiful specimen of architecture that is known as The Museum of Contemporary Art.  Although there was one section that held most of our intrigue.  

A Beach (For Carl Sagan) by: Andrew S. Young (Far corner  view)

It was a small nook at the top of the stairs that consumed us by its atmosphere.  It contained seven tons of sand, radios, an LED light box, and single-channel video (sound).  The installation was a model to scale of the galaxy.  Each grain of sand was representative of a star.  The LED light box contains 1,500 grains of sand and  represents the milky way galaxy.   So in comparison it is trying to show the mass outside of us that we can not comprehend.  Although this helped us with that.   According to Andrew S. Young "This exhibition is a meditation on our galaxy"  

A Beach (For Carl Sagan) by: Andrew S. Young (Middle view)

Whilst inside of this fabrication the mounds of sand look as if they were extracted from a desolate planet.  Also while you are inside of the space low frequency radios project static from the ceiling creating a wave like feel, thus creating the feel of an inter terrestrial beach.  Included in this exhibition was a table of objects that look like they may be of this space that we encountered.  Upon closer inspection we found them to be varying from things that were objects of our natural world to objects that were fabricated to look like things we may recognize from our world.  This was a clever play on looking at the constructs that we create.  And how we make associations to this, according to the structures that have been placed before us.  Especially when the object is not made up of any of the materials that we assume it to be.