Today Jean Petrolle will give a lecture on “Madness, Medicine, and Literature.” Above are works by two surreal female artists, Leonora Carrington (below) and Remedios Varo (above). Jean has devoted much study to the work of these two artists. They did not receive much notoriety until recently, and Jean is most interested in how their friendship and collaboration with one another inspired them to create more detailed and unique work. These two pieces are strikingly similar. Can you relate to a relationship that pushed you to be a better artist? Describe a collaboration project you've done in the past. Columbia College promotes interdisciplinary work; musicans work with designers, poets work with painters. If you could propose a collaboration project what would it be?
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ReplyDeleteThere were times when I just felt like giving up on dance. I thought that my technique was not getting any stronger. Yes, I still had the dedication and love for it, but I was so down on myself that it was easy to just say “I’m done.” I was so upset by the way I felt I had to talk to someone about it. My friend Rich is always there for me one hundred percent. I explained to him how I felt. He was so mad at me for even having the thoughts that I did. He came to almost every game or competition that I had. He told me that if he did not see the potential in me that he does, he would have agreed on my decision to no longer dance. He knew how to boost my confidence and wake me up to see that I am great dancer. It takes time for some people to develop the skill, for others it comes a bit more naturally. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. When I was in my schools variety show we did a collaboration project. The whole show is played by a live rock band. For one of the songs, we had the schools marching band come into the performing arts center and play two songs. We did this to honor the band conductor that had been teaching at Andrew High School since it opened in the 70’s. If I could promote some kind of collaboration project, I think it would have to be with a musician and an artist. I would love for an artist to make the backdrop connecting with the lyrics the musician wrote. The dancers would dance the story that both tell!
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, to me art is so many things but as far as a project that I did was that I would take random pictures of everyday life. It was very fascinating to me to see the mood of morning transitioning to afternoon to night how the moods would change that was my form of art a took a lot of the pictures right in my neighborhood. A friend came across a couple of my pictures I took and she actually liked them which kept me motivated to take more. Although it’s a hobby I still take pictures of the randomness in life.
ReplyDeleteSomething that really pushed me to do better in my art was my art teacher. He picking out the smallest things in my art work that I would have never noticed. He would tell me that some of the colors I used didn’t blend or something didn’t look right for what he was looking at. He pushed me to do better and to look back for those mistakes and fix them if they had happened again. He would also tell me how much of a good job I had done on my work and how much time I had put into it because there would be times where I would take my work home and finish it there and work on the same project but brand new one. So I would ask him which one he liked better and he would pick one and I would figure out what was wrong with the other and make the other one better. He would always motivate me to do better in my computer graphic then how I was then.
ReplyDeleteBeing at columbia and meeting new poeple that is intersted in the same thing I am has pushed me to become a better artist beacue we all want the same thing, to be successful. It is pretty cool to talk to one another about what we love, and why is it our passion, or even how can we make our art even better.When it comes down to it, we feed off of each other with encouragement. If I could purpose a collaboration project it would be for actors or dancers to put together a performace that would show the differences and similarity of the performers life.
ReplyDeleteDuring the many phases of my life music always seemed to be apart of it. Each phase revolved around a different style of music. Back in junior high I was more into the music of the seventies and eighties and the style of my being reflected that. When I was in high school and going through my "Hip Hop" phase my style reflected that and so on through the many phases of me. So through all the phases of my life I thought that going into something that dealt with music would best fit me. I personally haven't done any collaborations in my life yet but while I'm studying music business here at Columbia, I intend to collaborate with different types of musicians and see where that can take me. Hopefully it will eventually give me the opportunity to sign them to a label or promote them in some way.
ReplyDeleteMost occasions when I felt my artistic abilities rising, it was on account of some new human interaction. I can't be certain that these individuals have directly impacted my artistry at the time, but I do know that they were in some way part of my new found originality. Simply by being present they inspired new ideas. Anyone who is an artist knows what it means to take your art from everything around you. A collabrative idea I would be interested in doing would be something that brings depth and meaning into physical form. Like a sculpture or a painting. Every person creates a piece and finds a way to add it to the whole. I would even like to simply start a band and make music that delivered a message. A message that starts a positive movement.
ReplyDeleteFor years I have been expressing my works of art with others by collaborating. When I am at my dance studio I would constantly create my own piece but grab someone else in the studio and we would put our ideas together. By incorporating another individuals dance with mine it all becomes the same yet very different. I am still doing my own thing while my partner does theirs but we are inspired by each other. By looking at the two pieces of art work created by Carrington and Varo, it is clear that they both are inspired by the same figure and like to use the concept of a circle to create their piece. However, once created, they both veer off into opposite directions to finish it and make the art complete. For me it is the same way, when I am with another dancer we are both inspired by our music but are very different on how we execute from it. The same goes with my singing, when I’ve done duets with my vocal coach we shall both sing the same song but the way our voices feed off of each other is different entirely. If I could propose a collaboration project it would be on finger paints. Everyone would bring their hands together on a giant canvas with paint, because no matter where one goes our hands can be very magical and we are so grateful for them.
ReplyDeleteA relationship that has pushed me to become a better actress is the fact my friend Divinity and I like to be the center of attention. Divinity and I like to perform in front of crowds and just please the audience. When we are together on stage anything is possible. We make our audience want to be intrigued by our talent and our character. We both love theatre even though she plays basketball. If I could propose a collaboration project it would be a lot of theatre majors like me putting on a huge show. Our show would be so huge that we could help raise money for the school. It would be a theatre fundraiser and succeed into reaching our goal by raising money. For the students attending Columbia our tuition would'nt cost as high. Hopefully, we can help bring the tuition lower than it is due to our fundraiser. Especially, for kids like me who come from an low income family it would help out alot.
ReplyDeleteBeen an artist takes alot and makes work hard for what you want and is passionate about.Sometimes the people you work with in your area of desire help you in so many ways to become the best you that you can be.Like with dance I have people I dance with that don't like me and think that I'm all that but those people give me courage to keep pushing and be on my stuff and to give more of myself to get the effect i want in dance.There are also some people who in my dance crew try to compete and that have made me a stronger dancer to this day.Most people in life always try to break you but hey don't understand that can make you want to work harder and prove a point.I can remember when I was in dance practice and this girl was my partner and we love each other art and talents but my friend whenever working with me she always got excited because we would have to make up choregraphy work to perform together as a duet and we was free styling and it was great because we learned from one another and we made a piece that was great.The night of the show we had got a crowd.When we did our second show we got a crowd of 250 peole and we was only expecting 50 to 100 people like the last show and to this day we love each others and are best friends and we create and peform together all the time.I would propose a collaboration project for dance with photography or dance with film.Well dance with photography would be great for each other because dancers are always using their bodies but no one can really see it when dancing on a stage far.Dance can work with film to show the practice and hard work of been a dancer and also can work with them for angle and position of the bodies.
ReplyDeleteThe “relationship” that pushed me the hardest to be come a better Dj, was with a local Dj at my high school named Dj Fitted. Perry Mitchel was his real name, he was known around school as a pretty good Dj. There weren’t many Dj’s that I knew of at the time either, he was in my first period class and we became good friends. He use to come to school and play his mixes for me and others in the class to hear, at this point in time I wasn’t really deep into mixing yet so I thought he was extremely good. One day I asked him to teach me how to mix, after all the time we had been cool you know what he told me. I would have to start like he did, moving his equipment and cords until I worked my way up into learning how to mix. From that day forward I told my self I will become ten times better of a DJ then he could ever be his entire life. Slowly but surly I’ve become better then him in most aspects of mixing, my ultimate goal is to shut him down almost completely. So I guess you can say it’s a rivalry and within that rivalry I pushed myself to become a better DJ. Two days before the bridge program I mixed at a local event alongside a fresh new DJ named DJ Qsax. He had just started mixing a couple months prior to this event, to a more developed DJ you could spot that he was new at this. We originally was supposed to have separate sets at the end of the night but plans changed and we found ourselves collaborating in one giant mix. I was up first because not only did it take me less time to set up but I had the opening intros ready to go. His genre is Dub step which is a serious of super hard pulsating beats with industrial sounds, mine on the other hand is Electro which consists of banging base lines with great vocals to really get you moving. As the mix went on we ended up having the biggest reaction from the crowd then all the other performers combined. My ultimate collaboration would definitely include almost all majors in Columbia College Chicago.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to a relationship that helped me to become a better artist. In high school, art was my favorite subject because I have a desire to be part of the fashion industry. In class I would always try to take the easy way out by putting low effort towards my work. My art teacher Mrs. Weber pushed me by assigning assignments that will increase my artistic skills. Since I want to become a designer, she assigned a fashion advertisement assignment. In the project I had to sketch four designs, I’m not the best at drawing so she collaborated with me and gave me great ideas. My art teacher and I had a strong relationship; we both are aspiring fashion designers which that is what made us compatible. She motivated me to put my all in my work and never give up on myself and keep moving forward. Now, I’m in college and ready to show a more advanced crowd my designs. Here at Columbia College there’s a showcase called Manifest that I would love to be in. There are many talented aspiring designers at Columbia College Chicago that I would love to work with. I would love to collaborate with a male to put on a fashion show for Manifest. The reason I’d love to work with a male is because I only design clothing for women and by working with a male we can collaborate and work on designs for the sexes.
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