Research Journal 1

(This is an entry from my research journal. It contains my ideas and personal notes about my project.)

September 24
Researching Queer art and brainstorming projects. 4 hours.
http://www.queer-arts.org/
About us: “Until the recent advent of Queer Studies, the History of Art has omitted most material of direct relevance to lesbians and gays. Much has been suppressed, much has been lost due to neglect or censorship, and a great deal has simply been overlooked. QAR is expanding the range and depth of knowledge about contemporary and historical queer art, and making this information freely available on our website.
We realize that artistic identity is molded by myriad factors, an amalgam of gender, racial, ethnic and sexual, to name a few. But we also know that honest artistic expression by the queer community plays a role in combating homophobia and advancing the principles of intellectual integrity.”

After looking though several of the galleries, I have found that exploration of the self, especially exploration of the self in the context of sexuality, is a big theme. This makes me wonder, what makes queer art queer. Is it because the artist is queer, so whatever they make is queer? Or does a piece have to be set within the context of queerness to be considered such. Would a painting of a bird be as queer as a painting of a man in a dress? Surely one could justify the bird as queer in any explanation they want, but is it the intention behind the piece, or the creator of the piece that makes it queer?

This page displays many different types of art. These include painting, illustrations, design, writing, and photography. I hope to be able to include several of these mediums into my final project both to show that queer art comes from all directions, and in all forms and to test and display my own creativity and skill. I want to create small written pieces to accompany the larger pieces.

Other ideas for illustrations/paintings
-Multiplicity of identity- artichokes and hearts
-icon w/ artichoke heart
-artichoke technical illustration
-parts labeled as identities
-artichoke and heart with labels switched
-Individual expressions of sexuality and gender
-bisexual/pansexual playing claw machine with men and women in it instead of stuffed animals, or men and women shaped stuffed animals
-queer/trans- half man half woman face, man’s face on a woman’s body, bearded man in a dress!!
-my gender/queerness- sarah kuiken knits beards out of yarn, maybe she will teach me? Or make one I could use in a photo shoot? I’ve always wanted a beard… “beards over babies!”
-challenging gender stereotypes (SUPER old-school gender stereotypes)
-bearded manly man (probably Timm) in a skirt/dress, sewing/knitting/cleaning/doing laundry
-recreation of the picture in the couple book? Suited man and beared man in dress: put a woman in the suit instead, for another twist?
-woman jackhammering/plumbing/digging a hole/fixing a car, covered in dirt/grime/oil
-androgynous person doing androgynous things
-secret hiding/feeling trapped
-gagged and/or blind folded with handkerchiefs
-blindfolded lady in red reference photo!
-bondage (duh! Too obvious?)

October 3
IconI. 12 hours of conceptualizing, researching references, sketching and painting.
For my first painting (IconI) I chose to depict the idea of multiplicity of identity. In "The Event of Becoming," Jewelle L. Gomez wrote, “But people are not artichokes. It is very helpful in a therapeutic situation to peel each leaf and get to the heart of what has formed personality. But in human social interaction it is by exploring the full construction and interaction of the layers of character that we find the heart. To twist an old geometry principle – the whole equals more than the sum of its parts.” I really liked the idea of an artichoke as a heart. The image really stuck in my head. My first idea for the painting involved placing an artichoke into a chest, with connected veins and arteries. But as I thought about my own multiple identities, the images of religious icons stuck in my head, especially the icons where saints and other religious figures were holding their hearts. As I searched for such images, I found “Immaculate Heart of Mary,” which is an image of Mary holding the baby Jesus and they are both holding hearts. (http://www.aloysius.com/) I decided that I wanted to create a twist on this image by replacing Mary’s heart with an artichoke and Jesus’ with a piece of raw steak. The baby Jesus is holding a piece of steak to represent that the heart, like our bodies, is just a piece of meat, and it does not really define who we are or what we do.

One way that I like to brainstorm is by talking to other people. I will bring a basic idea or concept to a friend, and we will talk through different ideas or images to portray it with. One person I talk to a lot is my best friend Tim. He is really good at helping me refine my ideas to something concrete and powerful. He helped me come up with idea putting the piece of meat in Jesus’ hand. He also let me paint in his room until 7:30am and pushed me to finish the painting when I just wanted to take a nap.

I think I lost my original sketch somewhere at the DN, and my copied sketches are in Timm’s room still. But I am attaching a photo of the finished piece, as well as a photo of me working on it, the painting it’s based off of, and some reference photos I found for other pieces. I want to put all these types of things into a portfolio of sorts for my final project.

In order to create a decent collection, I plan to create at least one piece a week. My first piece was IconI, my next piece will be 1-3 illustrations that focus on the same theme as IconI. They will also use images of artichokes and anatomical hearts, and I hope to display them as a set with IconI.

How to proceed: Create artichoke illustrations. Contact Sarah about acquiring a yarn beard, or a pattern to make it. Solidify and find reference photos/sketch thumbnails for other ideas. Go to the library to look for non-internet references.