Post-graduation: what I've been doing

It's been 8 months since I graduated. Time has gone by so fast. Since I graduated in April I feel like my work has suffered a little bit but I am ready to jump back onto the horse. I am going to start researching more artists and spending time in the studio.

In May, Carey Francis, Andy Perkins, Venessa Gromek and I got a 1,000 sq. foot studio in the Ogden Industrial Park. It's a really nice big space and most of the time I feel like I have a huge studio all to myself--we are rarely there at the same moments. I miss school and being in class with other like-minded people the most. It really motivates me to work. I know that if I didn't have a studio I probably would have produced zero work so far, so I am glad we have it. We have also used the studio as an exhibition space. In mid-October we held a show titled The Ineluctable Modality of the Visible: An Exercise in Pretention. It was a one-night only show and it was fantastic. I think probably close to 100 people were at the opening, which is a lot for a little show in Ogden. We were really excited about it and are planning on doing another one in the Spring.

This summer I did some work with UMOCA. I painted a piano for the "Play Me I'm Yours" project. It was one of 10 pianos that were placed on the streets in Salt Lake City. Nordstrom at City Creek selected my piano out of the 10 to display in front of their window. It was cool because they coordinated my color palette with their window display. Here is the link -- Street Pianos. I also did a painting for the museum for the exhibition "Cantastoria." It was part of a project by Rainer Ganhal.

Other than those things I have been working little but trying to stay on top of things. My ideas have gotten away from me and at this point I am just trying to produce something. I basically did two series of works this summer and I have recently started on little paintings again. I am applying to Skowhegan, one of the nation's top residency programs. I am crossing my fingers I get in, I really need it. I was going to apply to grad school this year. I started the applications and everything, but I changed my mind recently. I don't feel like I am 100% ready to go yet. I know I want to go, but I want to see how I do on my own first, if I can get into any shows, etc. I want more time in our studio and I want to keep holding our own shows in our space. I am just not ready to leave and I don't think there is really anything wrong with that. I really need to build my body of work up some more...just a little more time is all.

New Site

Hey folks!

I now have a new website. I will still post on this blog, but the website will be more cohesive and profesh! Check it out.

www.hollyjarvis.com 

Art should be like sushi- less is more.

The show is up, the deed is done. I want to make a poem about how it feels to finally have finished but I come up with none.

er....

This morning, Aaron Moulton, curator at UMOCA came and had a guest crit with the BFA students. It was laid back, he had good comments and everyone was laughing at one point or another. One thing that I really took from his visit today was the idea that "less is more." There is no mystery anymore and sometimes we can get carried away and say too much. This topic came up with Holly D.'s work and with my own. Maybe my sculptures were getting carried away, maybe I haven't quite activated the space enough for my own purposes but it's all a learning experience. I am not going to change anything at this point. It's over and it's time to move on. It made me really think about art in a different way. Sometimes I get caught up in the richness of things, objects, ideas....that I forget to keep it simple and to let the viewer wonder.

Keep it simple stupid.

I am excited to start new work-eventually. I am needing a break. After graduation next Friday Brock and I are going to San Francisco and I am thrilled. I am going to see the SFMOMA while I am there and possibly check out the Art Institute. The semester is ending on a good note and only time will tell what happens from here. 

10 days to opening

It's 10 days away from the Thesis opening. I still have a lot of work to do on my large paintings, and the sculptures, but I think I have enough time to get it all done. In reflecting my semester, I think I put forward my best effort and I just hope that in the end it all looks good.

Since I haven't been blogging (at all) since January, I think that I lost a little bit of my direction conceptually. It's still there, but not actively thinking about it and just being worried about producing the work has definitely put a halt to any development. I don't think it's bad to focus on simply making for awhile, and I think I certainly need to take a vacation outside of my own head a little bit. I am trying to prepare the final stages of my artist statement, and I think that's going to be the hardest part of everything.

...

My work has essentially been centered on experience. Describing a certain reality of my own, and trying to imply one with the viewer. It stemmed from some kind of mental-emotional state I was in, but as I have worked through the paintings, I have also outgrown that state of mind. It still is true, and still applicable, but I think I am trying to look at the big picture of things. The figures in the work, both painting and sculpture are important for describing experience, creating empathy between viewer and work. Humanism is something relatable. Honestly, when I look at my paintings, I feel sad for the figures. I want to save them, but I am the one creating them and their insane environments. I think that is an interesting dichotomy between what I am capable of and what I am actually doing. I think that's what it's really all about. It's not about what kind of environment the figures are in, or what they are doing, but rather how I relate to them in that moment in time. In creating them, I felt like I was playing the role of absolute power , but now as I reflect on them I feel like I want to save them and I feel helpless with them.