15

Nan Goldin:
Her photos are raw. Raw emotion, real time, real people. No setup of fancy light or fancy backdrops, just living life at its current paces showing the veiwer an inside look. He photos seem to be photos we are not supposed to be looking at, dirty pictures. There is voyeurism appeal, along with a peeping tom attitude. She is showing us the everyday sex, drugs and rock and roll of east villagers of New York. She did what Ryan McGinley does but she did it first, photographed her friends in their most natural setting. There is not shyness in her photos openly shooting homosexuals and drag queens, people bathing, people getting high, the everyday thing.

14

Currently i would like to think my work investigates architectural space and the motion of light, while maintaining ideas of the self. Using wood i like to imitate architectural structures while incorporating textiles. The two mediums have a nice contrast against each other. Wood is sensual has grain, can be smooth or ruff and can provide structure or be absolutely flimsy and delicate.

Wood to me is a very intimate material. It is a basic building material capable of taking many different forms and functions. I have a relationship with wood that would be considered a love hate relationship. Wood can be my best friend allowing me to mock something quickly or build a strong structure. It can be my enemy in resisting its natural state of being planer and made of many smaller particles all susceptible to the mark of my hand.

Textiles go back to me earliest memories. My mom was a weaver and i can remember sitting on the floor next to her listening to the sound of the pedals going up and down and the shuttle moving back and forth. I like a repetitive action that in the end leads to a finished product, like knitting, crocheting, or weaving. Textiles have a materiality that allows coverage but also can be open and transparent allowing light and air to flow through freely. Currently i am knitting a pair of Nike Air force Ones. Nike's Air Force One seem to be the appitamy of masculinity when it comes to a symbol for sports. Crocheting a pair of these shoes is showing the woman in the man, showing some sort of irony between the hand made and the mass produced, the male activity of basketball and the female hobby of crocheting.

I am also knitting three screens to fit over three identical televisions. The televisions will be playing videos of solid color, one red, one blue, and one yellow. The three covers are going to be red blue and yellow. The yellow cover will go over the red televeision, the red cover over the blue television and the blue cover over the yellow television. I want to see how light and color change while being projected through these screens. It will also abstract the image on the screen even though there is no true image playing on the screen the viewer will try to abstract the light into familar images or thoughts.

I often time like to work in digital or video work. There is something so instant and satisfying with digital work. I can quickly make and edit a movie or capture and idea. The video or digital work that accompanies many of my sculpture deals with the everyday repetitive routine or ritual. These rituals are considered art to me. Allowing people to look in and have a different experience to be someone else for one second or one minute.

13

12

Bruce Nauman: I researched Bruce Nauman my freshman year at RISD. He interested me in that he made video surveillance work along with object and having an entirely different collection of work made up of neon signage. His use of the bodily image is continuous in his work. He uses castings of his body, measurements of his body, and simple body language to communicate simple gestures.

11

so what if im to distracted to write my thesis.
so what if im delaying like no other.
i will start in one hour.
and be done tomorrow by dawn with this freaking thing.

the library is becoming uninteresting to me right now.

10

From the list i have completed:


12. holograms, continue hologram research.
13. learn to knit pattern.***
18. Research net making and knotting.***
19. Make copys of anything inspiring in the library. ***

but i have started to
34. Knit a pair of Nike Boots

9

lets continue that list.

35. Knit some eminem lyrics.
36. Start shooting 35 mm again.
37. Bootleg darkroom.
38. Draw a lot more, my surroundings, outdoors, capture perspective.
39. Go to the nature lab and draw.
40. Research my past.
41. Learn about Uncle Roy and how his pig did in the rodeo.
42. Crochet some tacos.
43. Write a poem.

8

Ryan Mcinley:

This goes back. Way back. back to when i was 17 exploring the world of art and exploring myself. I remember reading about Mcginley and how he was going to be the youngest to show in the Whitney Biennial. This became my goal, show in the Whitney biennial as young as i could.
Why?
I dont know, it seemed to me t have so much power, being so young and showing your thoughts and emotions to thousands of people and then those peple possible wanting to buy it. That inspired me, not so much the buying aspect, but that the fact my work could be seen by thousands of people at a young age.
What was it about his work that inspired me?
In high school i loved photography. You couldn't take the camera out of my hand. I wanted to document everything and take a picture of it all. When i looked at Mcginley's photos i felt a sense of nostalgia, i don't know to what but to a better feeling. A feeling of being young forever and having freedom. A feeling of riding around in the car, in the middle of America, wind blowing aross my face, destination no where.

7

These artist inspire me and this is why.



Janine Antoni:
Her work is honest. Her body of work consist of performances, sculptures, videos, photographs and drawings. She was the first the reaffirm the idea that i could be the subject matter of my art. All art does not just have to be about politics, space, landscapes, or geometry, but art can be about those everyday feelings you have. The sight when you see the sun reflecting through the window, beams falling across the room onto a piece of bare skin, of a stranger.





I have always admired her work. I rember the first time hearing about her, she mpped the gallery floors with hair dye. What an outrageous idea i thought. How could this be art? how could this sell to anyone? How does this have so much more meaning than just the basic action. Basic daily routines become rituals, rituals can create artifacts, artifacts can become objects and objects can become art.

6

just in case you didnt already know and so i wont forget.
http://www.youtube.com/johnberryvidz

my resume:

5

34. Knit a pair of Nike Boots

4

Continue this thought process.

3

Artist Statement:
I grew up in a very structured chaotic house. Religion was first on my fathers mind, and letting me be a free spirit was first on my mothers mind. I like the idea of having structure through chaos and am currently investigating these ideas. I am completely a 21st century kid. I love the Internet. I love my cell phone; I love technology and where it has brought us. I also hate it for the lack of privacy, the internet has virtually everything on it. I want to find the Internet. The Internet inspires me showing me whatever I ask it to show me. Current trends in Hollywood are a must know, and yes I indulge in Us weekly. I just realized the word Internet is capitalized on spell check on my computer, just like God. Materially I never try not to feel limited. I like using plastics, wood, found objects, pictures, paintings, writing, color, in my sculptures. I like comparing soft and hard, found and made, 2d and 3d materials. Recently I also became interested in gender and gender roles. Why should I be told who to love? Why does it matter what gender I prefer? Why cant a man knit a quilt and still be as manly as the man shooting a bear? However right now nothing seems solid. Art could be the reflection of the Snapple bottle in the mid afternoon sun. I haven’t figure out what art is, but it is there and always here, and I see it all around me. I don’t know what it is but when I do I want to make it and make a lot of it.

2

This is my artist statement i wrote in October, the middle of my senior year of college at Rhode Island School of Design. I am guessing this could be a start to my thesis. I am going to go through it and write new thoughts.

John Berry
October 28, 2008
Artist Statement

Through drawings, videos and sculpture I like to play between tight consideration and free exploration of linear lines in space, architecture, and structure, while maintaining ideas of the self. (This sentence doesn't even make sense) Personal memory, self-reflection, personal moments or what the self means to me, are often investigated. ( This sentence is redundant) Architecture and structure interest me because of the precise lines, the walls that enclose us, and the negative space where invisible planes exist. Using metal, wood and various other materials, I deal with the space around us. Using existing architectural elements and themes I try to create new landscapes through existing ones. When exploring the self I often find myself using more personal materials like video, drawings and found objects. I explore the personal self while dealing with bigger topics of gender, religion, and personal memory. I never feel limited conceptually or materially. My art is trying to make a connection with the space around us, but also dealing with the personal memory, connecting them both with a linear aesthetic.
Personal memory has always been an intrinsic theme in my work. It is hard for me to disconnect myself from my work. These personal pieces give me an outlet to deal with the personal interest in gender, sexuality, and religion in a much broader field. I like to use my self as the medium usually performing a repetitive act or daily routine. It shows how I see as art in the every day routine or ritual. Even though some may not see these routines as art, they are just as important to me as the object or performance. My personal work is also always in flux materially and conceptually, because the personal is always in flux.
My sketchbook is where the ideas begin to form. Drawing is very important to me and helps me sort out my thoughts. When I draw fictional spaces I create false landscapes that provide depth and perspective. From these drawings I then chose a material that I find most suiting. Recently these drawings have taken form in steel rod. In my drawing in space exercises I like to use steel rod for the quickness I can weld shapes and literally draw in space. These metal sculptures are trying to mimic my drawings in creating a false landscape, while interrupting the room with their placement and size.
I like hobbies and craft. Currently I am interested creating specific processes that have an output, repetitive actions that have an outcome, have a finished object in the end; like weaving, crocheting, knitting and sewing there is a repetitive action that results in a finished product. These practices are often stuck in the realm of craft.
Currently I am making a linear plane, basically a rectangle made of wood with string tightly running long ways from one bar to the other to create a flat linear plane to project movies onto. By projecting the movie onto the string it is going to split up into lines of color form and movement. The projection is of my body making simple gestures. This is just a start of trying to combine the linear lines in space and the personal but also investigating the chopping up of the body, the projection and the space behind it.
I don’t really know how to end this accept to say that I still don’t even know what art necessarily is or isn’t. I see it everyday, I see it every minute, it could be that mark dragged across my wall from move in day, or maybe its just the idea. When I do know what art is, I will let you know, and I will make a lot of it.

never min never mind this is alll bull shit. lets start over start over freshh.

Straight Foward Ideas: (lets try to make 100.

1. Knitting using two people and their arms as the knitting needles. knitting a blanket big enough to cover themselves.
2. Going back to memory. Memory of my childhood making objects with meaning and honesty.
3. Still exploring the idea of Jesus as phenomena.
4. Working in the wood and metal shop to hone my skills and not lose them.
5. Letting the material speak for itself.
6. projecting onto several different intsersecting screens that encompass a room.
7. Making a french knitting loop big enought for my body so that i cant knit a womb around myself. ***
8. knitting the body obscurred.
9. buy a knitting machine
10. knitting the first page of the bible.
11. knitting covers to obscure tv screens ***
12. holograms, continue hologram research.
13. learn to knit pattern.***
14. knit mrs. owen into a knit square.
15. knit a texas.
16. make a box to contain the orange rods.
17. BECOME RADICALLY SIMPLE.***
18. Research net making and knotting.***
19. Make copys of anything inspiring in the library. ***
20. Knit an obscured shape net to fit over a structure of wood that is busting out.
21. knit a marijuana leaf.
22. Create a landscape throgh knitting, weaving, wood and metal.
23. Knit an Algorithm.
24. Words painted are different than words in a book.
25. Record my hand kniting and then draw them in repeat. ***
26. Every move I make will add up to the meaning. ***
27. Build my cabinet and project weed growing in the back of it.
28. Redraw my house floor plans from memory, make a metal structure scale size and color the rooms.
29. make short writings that are drawings of what I see as art. ***
30. Collaborative long distance project with josh. i will send him something and he will return it. ***
31. Collabrative project with mom, interviewing her about myself.
32. weaving something with the new lays that i have acquired.
33. Start a dream journal.
34. Get STARTED TONIGHT.

Because of 34 i must go. but i will finish the 100 by the end of the week along with other interesting posts, maybe even from my phone.

I am going to re-read these ideas and * the ones i want to do this week.

1

Lets begin
this will be my thought journal
please help me write these thoughts fluidly (jesus)
i am trying to graduate, get a job, make a website, write a 15 pg thesis, move to new york, and begin.
i dont care if this sounds cheezy. l am cheeze.