Sasha Waters Freyer Reflection
This lunchtime lecture felt kinda different from ones in the past; instead of talking about the history of the art form, like comic books, we discussed Freyer’s art process. I always love hearing about artist’s process because it is easy enough to analyze work by yourself, but only the artist knows how they created the piece and what their thought process was.
A little summary about Sasha Waters Freyer- she is the Department Chair of Photo/Film at VCU, and creates her own film projects on the side. She enjoys creating documentaries, and her film Gary Winogrand: All Things are Photographable won a Special Jury Prize at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, and will be aired on PBS. She also makes short, experimental films. These films usually end up being unresolved, and don’t really tell a story; instead they organize shorts artistically like a poet would compose lines, experimenting with shots like an artist would experiment with material. I really love the concept of experimental films- they remind me of the practice painting we did for our AbEx pieces. The clip we watched was from her short film “Respiration”, which I’ve linked down below. The scenes in the short were surprisingly not as modern as I thought they would be; I was expecting high quality clips with music and maybe some fun lighting. Instead, the film is in a way a digital collage, with clips that Freyer filmed and also old archived images and silent films. She opically reprints them, which is when you digitally copy film/images. While most of the video had a soundtrack over it, some parts were highlighted with sound effects, which she also records herself. I thought it was really interesting that there were no words in the piece where the speaker is being spoken to, and is rather in the background while the images speak for themselves directly. I was expecting the lighting to be manipulated more, or for some shots to be taken from odd or extreme angles, but I was surprised by how head on most everything was filmed, which gave the piece a very calm vibe that I enjoyed. My favorite part of the lecture, and in a way the most consoling part was when she talked about her process for the experimental films. While for the documentaries she has to plan and do lots and lots of research and work with other people to figure out when and how things are going to get done, with the experimental pieces she just films and gathers materials whenever time permits and something speaks to her, and then she puts it together when she gets a chance. And since they’re not meant to be final, finished, and resolved pieces, then she can move on whenever she feels like she's done with the project. It reminds me of how I created a vlog after my Hawaii trip and its not chronological at all, and is really more a collection of pretty scenery. I think in the future I’ll definitely try my own take on these experimental videos, especially since I enjoy editing.
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I've really enjoyed working on AbEx painting these past few weeks. Even though we spent quite a bit of time on this unit, including learning about the movement, the artists, and experimenting on smaller canvases, I was still surprised by how the time flew by while working on this piece. I gotta be honest, I really don't love it much. I like the rhythm of my piece, but wish the color scheme was more sophisticated. If I could, I would honestly just keep going with the same technique on top of the "finished" piece I have right now, but with different colors. That was another thing I realized with this piece; there's actually SO much planning you have to do when you want a lot of layers and have a limited amount of time, especially since the medium I was using took so long to dry, which is funny because it often seemed to me before that abstract painting take less planning. While i don't like the final piece, I am appreciative that I got to explore texture in a way I never have before, and I'm excited to try adding it in other places, like in mixed media pieces.
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Ria BakshiCheck out what I'm currently working on by clicking the PROCESS button! Archives
December 2020
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