Monday, April 11

Influence

One of my biggest influences is Salvador Dali. I have always been drawn to his surrealist images set in dream-like landscapes. Although a bit of a narcissist, he was also a brilliant thinker and painter. Many psychologists used his images produced by his”paranoiac critical transformation” method to move beyond the many failures of the psychoanalytical methods of Freud to better understand mental illness and the paranoia of the schizophrenic.

It is well known that many of Dali’s images were conceived when he was in the state of being half asleep but still lucid. I try similar methods of allowing my mind’s eye to delve into the unconscious realms of my understanding of the world to inform the images I create. Unlike Dali’s lucid sleep method, I use meditation, mantras, and stream of consciousness sketching as research. These methods allow me to create and think freely while examining in the third person. Many of Dali’s themes and of sex, nature, identity, and time are still central to my own themes.

Sunday April 10th

Ceramics Ribs

These ceramic rib tools were made by creating a simple illustrator file, loading the file into the laser cutting machine at DAAP, and presto change-o two tools able to create with consistence custom cups and tiny pots!

Saturday, April 9th

Interviewer’s Name Christopher Taulbee

Artist #1 Name James Haynes  Location of Studio     Pleasant Ridge, Ohio

How long have you had a studio?   About 2 years

Why did you get a studio?

He uses the garage for his studio, he has had the house about two years and has been using half of the garage for his work space.

How do you financially support your artwork? (through sales, salary, grants, etc.)

Most of the materials he uses are from repurposed found objects or furniture so the cost of the materials are really cut down to paint, sandpaper, glue or any other random thing he needs. The local vendor he sells his work at charges a minimal fee for renting the space and everything else goes back into what he needs to survive and more material.

What are the problems you face in getting your artwork done?

Mostly the struggle is in finding the time to be alone with a high energy for making. He has a part time job as a delivery boy and he just bought a house with his wife so there is always something that need to be done to distract him from the work. Finding that time for him is really what its about because the feeling of creating something that is unique and could be hopefully equally enjoyed by someone else.

What do you do to market yourself as an artist?

He doesn’t really consider himself an artist, to him there are just too many presumptions that come with the label. He likes to best describe himself as a maker, whether he’s sketching crafting furniture, wooden toys, or other creating musical instruments he is just creating something enjoyable, for him thats enough. He hopes that this enjoyment will be spread through others experiencing his work and simply wanting one.

What type of person buys your art?

Middle class americans mostly,

What are your greatest challenges as an artist?

Two that are kind of one. Firstly he has the time to work enough to create a small income for his practice, and that in turn allows him the privilege of making it seem less to his wife that he’s just spending hours goofing off in the shed.

What are your greatest rewards as an artist?

The greatest enjoyment comes from the making. taking someone else garbage and making something beautiful out of it is how he measures his success.

What recommendations would you give to an artist who is just starting out?

To do the work. Getting all of the messing up and bad work out of the way is very important to finding what you’re about and what you want to create.

 

 

Teusday, April 5th

About Me

       I was born in Dover, Delaware in 1989. As a young child I would spend my days walking around the neighborhood drawing rose bushes and interesting trees. This excitement of seeking out, discovering and recording motifs in nature stirred a passion for art that has turned into a steady fire. I graduated from Centerville High school in 2007 and enrolled at Sinclair Community College for a BLA degree with a focus on Fine Arts and Psychology. Halfway through the second year of school my finances became so tight I could no longer afford to pay for the travel, books, parking and studio fees for the semester. I decided to take a year off of school and save up money from my full time job at the used book store. After a year, some discomfort in how I saw other employees treated, and a job opportunity in West Virginia at Class VI, I decided to quite my job. I leave the apartment I couldn’t afford, and take what little I loved or could fit in my car to Lansing. Not only was it amazing to ride down world renown rapids and camp with amazing and talented people for a summer, but I got the opportunity to wander through some of the most beautiful country I’ve seen in the United States. This reconnection with nature and my own natural process for living brought me back to that initial intention of seeking to discover ourselves and our condition in the nature around us. After all of recorded history we find ourselves back to the beginning of our understanding. We are not separate from the world around us but so intrinsically connected to and by it. I moved back to Cincinnati and got accepted to DAAP and am currently in my third year of the program. My work in any medium is aimed at this beauty found in nature and the systems of living that contrast or constrict the natural growth of the organisms that these systems are made of. I work mostly in graphite, charcoal, oil paints, and ceramics but very much enjoy pushing my media and ideas in any way I can.

 

 

Wednesday, February 17th

 Artist Statement

I am a visual artist that works in oil and acrylic painting, drawing, ceramic pottery and sculpture, film shorts, and just about anything else I can get my hands on. I am interested in systems of community, systems of living, and their juxtaposition to, and role in their environment. I feel that humanities relationships with nature will be the integral key to determining the path we will follow as a species. I try to use simple and relatable visual metaphors to convey my message of humanities current state of separation from each other and their true symbiotic place in the world. My goal is to hold my canvas to the world as a mirror for itself so it can see where we are and start the return to nature. The return to the beginning to find ourselves in others and the world above and around us. To return to symbiotically living with the world that we are very much apart of and connected to and through. It is important to me that my work communicates with everyone at all levels of intellect and age.

 

15th Cont’d

here is the same image rendered in graphite, I thought it very academic to produce the same image across multiple mediums. This rendering feels to me to be the most successful.

15th Cont’d

This is the same picture rendered in Terra Cotta and painted with underglaze. I started with a slab of clay and carved the image to recede at different thicknesses to give the tiles depth, the painted.

Maker’s Blog

 

Monday, February 15th

       I thought I would share my process of recording and recreating moment motifs in nature. This particular picture I enjoyed so much I decided to recreate it in two out of three of my favorite mediums. an oil reproduction is soon on its way.

I took this photograph while on a camping/fishing trip to my brother and I’s favorite lake. This family of baby ducks (their mother is to the left, outside of the picture plane) followed us along while we drifted along the shore, most likely getting their first feel of their sea legs.

First blog post

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