Diego Chilo

Diego definitely has a different way of doing things. His works are generally very abstract in that they all don't really seem to be representing anything. They are very decorative and I would even go as far as to say that his work is more representative of him as an individual because of how it shows his personality. I really appreciate art that doesn't have a purpose. A lot of critics say that this kind of purposeless art misses the point of art. I however take up the position that art is in the eye of the beholder and if you see a meaning in it, then you've taken something away from it. That is exactly what happens when you see some of his work. Each of the pieces takes everyone into a different place and beckons towards different styles and settings. 

Diego Chilo

This is a good example of art that really doesn't emulate anything we've seen before. It is there for the purpose of being there and looking good. The translucent qualities of the glass used in this work make the overall style of this piece very appealing. Not only that, but the form of the curves that make up the majority of the piece are very beautiful in and of themselves. 

Diego Chilo

Again, Diego shows us another piece that really doesn't have a specific goal in mind. It is there because it is there. Not only that, but the medium and overall qualities of the piece are far different from the previous piece in a way that not many artists enjoy doing. What I mean is that many artists find their niche and stick within those boundaries but I enjoy seeing artists in their full spectrum. I think it actually humanizes them a little bit more for me in that I see their strengths and their weaknesses. 

William Strange

William is truly strange in the art world in that he doesn't use the typical mediums that other artists use. He is a carpenter and you can see that in his work because everything he makes is made of wood. Though he has many elements of a traditional carpenter, he is definitely an artist. You see he actually makes furniture like a conventional carpenter would. However, his furniture is far from conventional. often times you’ll find an odd number of legs on what would otherwise be a very nice table. Other times you will find he makes conventional furniture out of unconventional material. All in all, this guy is one of the most creative carpenters I’ve seen and I think that he elevates carpentry into an art.

William Stranger, 2009

This piece is pretty typical of Will in that it is bizarre for a furniture design. The fact of the matter is that many people would pay a lot of money to have something like this in their home. I would categorize this piece under the pop art category in that it has a cultural reference that is specific to our nation. 

William Stranger, 2009

This is another personality that is represented through Wills work. It definitely has a more rustic feel than the previous work. I think that the bowling table is a more modern approach to the table whereas this holds the original form of the wood so as to represent the wood more directly. Will tends to do this and I'm not sure if I like it. I tend to lean more towards the modern and sleek look whereas this gives off a more old-fashioned and weathered feeling. 

Joan Robey

Joan Robey is another one of those artists who I would classify as abstract, even though she often uses real objects in her sculptures. Often in her pieces, you will find beautiful curves and awkward (in a good way) arrangements of very standard shapes. She enjoys using wood and acrylic paint to create a sort of giant building block feel to her works which give off a sort of childish aura but at the same time are very modern and fancy-looking. Another common feature you will  find in her work is the way she plays with balance and gravity. Often times when she uses real  objects they aren’t put into positions that you would normally see them. In fact there are several of her pieces that look like they are frozen in mid-fall.

"Machine Series: Third Position" Joan Robey

This is a really good example of a piece that has motion without literally having motion. As you can see, the cylinder on the top looks as though it should just roll off which makes the fact that it isn't moving make all the more tension-inducing. I'd also like to point out the quality of the curve that is created by the wooden arc. I think that the choice of items that are included also give the piece a little bit of context which also defines the style of the piece as a whole. Compositionally, the piece is very well-orchestrated. 

"Congruity" Joan Robey

This is another good example of the structures that Joan creates and how they never really seem like they should stay upright. Nevertheless she does a really good job of creating a wonderful composition without sacrificing creativity. I also would like to point out the variation in color and how they all seem to really compliment each other very nicely. There are also small bits of writing on there that I would equate to a sort of graffiti that actually adds a different twist you don't normally see in her works. 

Chris Mason

Chris Mason likes playing with the human figure. Not only that, but he also like to play with the conventional poses that wee see too often in the art world. His sculptures of human figure are made out of a relatively thick wire that is continually twisted until it makes the desired shape. I really appreciate the amount of accuracy he puts into his works. If you notice, all of the figures are very abstract but at the same time have all the appropriate amounts of digits on their limbs. I would say that he also does a good job of expressing emotion through his figures without incorporating faces into the composition. Though this choice to not include faces makes the figures have a less obvious center of attention, they also force you to search for it elsewhere

"Climber-Aluminum" Chris Mason

This piece is exactly what was referring to in the text above. Not only does this play with the classical poses that so many other artists use, but through that and the material choice you really turn a classic figure sculpture into a very abstract and interesting modern piece. The texture that is created by the meshing and tangling of the wires is no doubt done on purpose and changes the way the piece is read from simply a figure to a more mechanical style. I also think that specific elements of it were done really strategically to create tension and stress the sort of hanging force such as the way the shoulders are oriented or the way the feet are bent.

"Rewired 14" 

There are some pretty obvious implications with this particular piece. Obviously, he is referring to Spider man in the pose, the proportions, and the way it clings to the wall. Again, there are similar qualities to the ones we saw before but what makes it different is the pose which again, is unconventional in that it makes a pop culture reference. I'd also like to point out the digits and how different the piece would be without including details such as that. 

William Leslie

William Leslie’s work reminds me a lot of the first project we did as a class. His work include mostly skeleton and skin-based projects that have light emanating from the center of the work. The translucent qualities of the material he uses to be the skin makes this choice to put light in the center very appealing. not only that but the forms he creates using a variety of different materials, but I would assume mostly wire, are both elegant and stylish. They remind me of sea shells in that they are very balanced would look good in the medium he chose and in a more ceramic medium. All in all, I think he does an excellent job of keeping his forms elegant and sleek while not putting too many twists and turns into them.

William Leslie

His process is as follows. He stars with strips of wood and bends them into an appealing shape such as the one above. After the wood has settled and the joints are secure, he then covers the strips of wood with different type of paper. He chooses the type of paper strategically so that only so much light can penetrate through. Lastly he coats the paper with a polyvinyl resin in order to really stress the tension on the paper so as not to have any slack in between the strips of wood. Finally he takes a regular old light bulb and uses the previously created structure as a lamp shade. William takes every opportunity to be creative in this process. He often changes things like the structure he is emulating, the number of light bulbs involved in the piece, and the color of the paper that is stretched. 

William Leslie

This is just another example of how he uses all of the variables possible to create different pieces. Not only would anyone want to see this piece in a gallery, but it would also make a very interesting thing to put inside your house. 

Junior Fritz Jaquet

This is another one of those artists who you know has spent hours upon hours perfecting his technique. Junior is a paper sculptor. He uses paper to make objects ranging from amazingly abstract lamps to little human figures. Junior is extremely talented at what he does because he doesn't necessarily make the cleanest of folds on his pieces but that only adds to the style that he is attempting to create. As for the lamps, When you add the element of light into a translucent medium such as paper, the outcome is marvelously coordinated gradients of faded color that ends up looks beautiful. 

Junior Fritz Jaquet

This is another work by Junior. These three faces, as well as many others, are made from empty rolls of toilet paper. Not only is it remarkable that he uses this medium, but he also manages to pack tons of personality and individuality into each one. I'd like to take a second to mention that these three in particular remind me of the three stooges. But seriously, these little caricatures manage to maintain all the elements of a real human face in that you can see the cheekbone structure and can almost imagine a real person who looks like that. 

Junior Fritz Jaquet

This is one of the lamps I mentioned earlier. As you can see, the addition of the light into the already beautiful form that he made out of the paper takes this sculpture to a whole new level. With the light carefully placed inside the form, you get to see how the light reacts to different angles of the structure. as the points get further away from the body, they seem to get more and more saturated by the blue color that the paper most likely was initially. 

Junior Fritz Jaquet

Here is an example of Junior doing more traditional origami-like work in which you can see his representation of a human figure holding up this twisted mess of what would appear to be branches. Now about the figure, it is obviously stylized to his particular taste and I really like how the joints are slightly larger to the point where it looks like they were meant to fold in that method. The bramble-like structure that is being held up by the figure ha a really nice texture to it that is most-likely being created by crumpling up the paper so that the folds sit on top of each other. I really think that he does a good job of developing his style in this piece. 

Vik Muniz

Vik is one of those artists who tries and experiments with a lot of different types of art. The one I find most out of the ordinary is the photographs of junk. The really cool thing I find about the majority of his work is the amount of color that you find in trash. There aren't only colors you would affiliate with garbage, the color brown comes to mind. Rather there are large explosions of color through the random pieces scattered through the maze of garbage he creates. I also like the idea of taking something no one cares about and turning it into something remarkable.

"Sisyphus After Titian" Vik Muniz, 2006

One thing I really should mention about his work is that he not only performs through the medium of trash and generic garbage, but he also recreates classic paintings and other older works of art. Following this trend, he names his pieces after the old ones but adds "pictures of junk" after so as to not impersonate people like Monet. Granted, I will say that the execution is a little off because there aren't many ways to create the effects of shading through the material he used but I still would say that the images he creates are awfully two-dimensional in comparison to other art being created. 

Vik Muniz, 2008

This is another example of him turning trash into treasure. Not only do these small children's toys allow for him to create a much more believable portrait because of the size of the toys. With the previous picture, you would often run into big blocks of color whereas in this, the toys act as an almost pixel-like item that allows for full control of the form that the toys take. Given that this medium is still very restricting in comparison to other mediums, i find that the execution of this piece is phenomenal.