My critique went a lot better than I expected. I think as artists we are programmed to automatically question our work, and hate it just a little bit. I mean, these are the things that are in our head that we try to regurgitate onto paper via print, or drawing, even collage (at least that's what I do) hoping that in some way it will cleanse our brains of the disorganization and the images and ideas that constantly ravage our minds. One of my printmaking teachers looked at my prints this week and told me that if I want to draw more than I want to print, I should do that. And also to make my creepy images a lot more creepy, which I was pretty excited about because I felt like it was the confirmation I needed to push myself. I just spend the past hour printing out reference images for small scale drawings I'm going to complete this week, which will be incorporated into a possible idea I have for thesis. Found these images tonight:
These dolls were used in the 18th and 19th centuries in what was Edo then, now Tokyo, as entertainment pieces in sideshow carnivals. It is also believed these dolls were mainly used to teach midwives how to deliver babies. I think these could definitely be considered disturbing, although somehow I recognize the fact that they are but I don't necessarily see them that way. I just draw the things that make me happy, that I have in my head, things that I'm interested in. A lot of times my prints or collages do use unsettling imagery but to me I treat those images like I would anything else. I'm not silkscreening a picture of a guy with wires and tubes coming out of his nose and ears and thinking, "Gosh, what is wrong with me? This is really gross," I'm just printing these images because I feel a connection to them, and I need to express an emotion, something in a dream I had, or I have an image stuck in my head I need to get onto paper. Maybe that is why some of the people in my critique group said my prints have a presence. I never thought of them that way. Well, I'm gonna do a collage/drawing with these tonight, and then tomorrow I'm off to tackle conjoined animal heads and mothers walking their children on leashes. Wish me luck.
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