Post 1: State of the Union

All about Alice's artistic mode:


Media I like to work in:
Acrylic paint, conte and gesso, cut paper, comics, pen and ink, dip pen, digital painting, digital collage, collaged tissue paper, poetry, paperclay, sculpey, fabric, wire, wood (and drawing on wood).

Media I dislike:
Pencil (for anything more than the under drawing), because it's messy and smudgy, and a lot of (i believe) unnecessary work to get value, when you could have just used a darker/bolder media in conjunction. I don't like glue, though it's a necessary component to collage, because it's difficult and sticky, and I hate peeling glue skins off my fingers. I dislike pastels, because if you don't constantly affix them with an inch-thick coat of spray fix, they smear all over the place and get ugly. I like media that doesn't smudge or smear when you run your hand over it. I like to work on mat board or stiff material that doesn't accidentally crinkle or tear. I like to have a permanence to my marks, so they don't accidentally get ruined. I feel the same way about ceramics: too fragile, compared to say, woodworking or found-object assemblage.

Four classes that have inspired my work:
World Drama: I really connected with the plays in their visual aspects, simple layouts, on a stage, like illustrations, every element placed just so, for a certain meaning. Also, specific plays, like Genet's "The Maids" or "The Screens" and Lorca's "Blood Wedding" gave me very strong visual and ideological inspiration for work.

Surrealism and Film: What can I say, but awesome visual images, and thought provoking conceptually. Especially in the Bunuel films, for underlying social ideas/criticism, and especially with the link between that and sexuality. The Cocteau films for their stunning visuals, especially his Beauty and the Beast. Man Ray's film "L'etoile De Mer" was also pretty inspirational, and Dali's En Chien Andalou. The excruciating strangeness and stilted imagery appealed to my aesthetic senses.

Sculpture/Ceramics: I've been very interested in combining 2D and 3D in my illustrations. In my ceramics class, too, which was combined with a higher level class, I got to see other Illustration students doing just that, as well as exploring some more conceptual abstract concepts and designs myself.

Figure Drawing/Drawing Comp: Helped me a lot technically, to develop the freeness of my line, working large, being bold, using collage and mixed media, mixing markmaking, controlling the composition of works.


Cocteau's B&B... the 2005 Phantom of the Opera ripped him off on those arms-from-the-wall-holding-candelabras, bigtime.


The kind of subject matter I like to incorporate in my work most:
Figures and character designs, animals, dresses/period fashion, swirly organic lines, insects/insect-people, demons, creatures, masks, character designs or revamping of existing fictional characters, elements from nature interwoven into figures/characters. Often, dark subject matter calls to me most: vampires, night-creatures, spiders/bats, chimeras, deformity, death. Also, I gravitate towards historical subjects: especially the 1920s (Weimar Rep. Germany), and 1700s (France), and the Victorian era (1900s, America)


Subjects I read about:
Fantasy/historical fiction, gothic/horror fiction, classic novels, vampire novels, insect field guides,


Music:
Rock/metal: Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Abba, Orgy, Bush: A lot of the Rock music I get exposed to is just by listening to the radio. I like rock and techno because of the loud, lively beat. It's good working music for me, also sometimes relaxing.

20's german cabaret/jazz: Marlene Dietrich, Zarah Leander, Ernst Bush/Lotte Lenya: Puts me in mind of a certain place. Also, I think it's sexy,

60's folk: Simon and Garfunkel: Relaxing, pretty, clear, environmentally and politically conscious, reminiscent of a time and place that was pretty happening.

Showtunes: Lively, also, you call to mind the characters and their relationships and personalities, as well as the story and mood of the musical.


Non-art-related interests/hobbies/skills
-Dance: classical ballet, club dancing, swing dancing, latin dancing (interest, rather than skill)
-Chess
-Tree-climbing
-Fashion design/clothing/costuming

Corset Cameo by Louise Black: How awesome is this.

Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake" : An absolutely gorgeous ballet with modern coreography and an all-male cast.




Something I like that nobody else likes:
Obscure, lame, underappreciated villians. I love most all of them to death. It doesn't matter how pathetic their death scene was, or how little screen-time they had, or how corny their evil-scientist laugh was, they are close to my heart.

Mouse> from Armitage III, Frollo> Hunchback of Notre Dame, Rufus> FFVII , Scarecrow> Batman, Oriya> Descendant of Darkness .....heaps more that I currently can't remember.

If I had the run of the world's museums, I'd like to own:
Winged Victory/Nike of Samothrace.


Klimt's 'Watersnakes'