Perception

In my class this week we are having a discussion on perception of the artwork/piece and how viewers react to work. Here is my contribution:

I think my imagery grabs peoples attention within the first few moments they see it, however I keep getting people questioning whether or not it is art. I have not shown many people my thesis work, so these comments came mostly in response to my NYC @ night stuff. The last 4 months or so of last year and the first month and a half of this year I had my work up on a pretty regular basis here in New Rochelle, in Chelsea in Manhattan, and Harlem. I think people look at me, and then question whether or not it is art. I do not dress crazy, I am no longer all pierced up, I am always nice and gracious when I meet people, but I find dialogue about my work to be tedious. I often feel socially awkward and hate public speaking.. I am learning to get over that, but somewhere I am not being artsy enough or something. The reasons I shoot are wrapped around the notions of death, global warming, apocalypse, cruelty of time, beauty of now, questions of reality, science and philosophy, and scary world news stories etc etc. I often feel odd engaging people in this level of conversation. I am socially uncomfortable sharing that side of myself in public. So I think people think I am just shooting pretty colors.
I took an anthropology course here at AAU, and I remember an essay where a woman recounted the friendly empty American social interactions. We are polite on the surface, but the meanings of our words and the meanings of our interactions mean 2 different things. We say hello, how are you? We don't really want to know, and it is hard for me at art openings to become the person who answers truthfully.
So in saying this perception is everything. It starts with whatever the viewer sees first. Artist, building art is housed in, wall composition, and then the piece itself. Everyone is different and so what happens when one is alone with the piece is personal to them. I think so many people have come to understand the art world as exclusionary and do not understand once they choose to engage in it their vote counts too. The idea of the sensitive viewer is a device used to make others feel that because they do not appreciate a piece it is not the piece it is them. Yes it is true that a piece I do not like today I may like tomorrow, but it is also true I may never like the piece.

Also here is last weeks thesis image:

My Thesis Work this semester

Ok so here goes my second post...

I am working on my thesis for my MFA in photography and thought that it might be of interest to some exactly what the process is when one is working on their thesis. Today my final was due for my directed study class. It consisted of having to hand in a professional artist resume, a concise artist statement (I have a hard time with concise anything), and 10 images that I felt were the best that I created this semester. I created about 17 six panel pieces this semester. So anyway here is without further ado some images from the final 10, with my artistic statement as well as my artist resume. Hope these can be of help to any aspiring or emerging artists out there as to what is expected of you. I will let you know what grade I receive on this work when the grades come in, in a few days.






Artistic Statement:

The visual subject matter of my thesis is the suburbs where I grew up and now currently reside. The meaning of the work, however, is still something I am struggling to define. I have come to a point where I see that my thesis is more about how the suburbs of Westchester NY are this familiar place of comfort for me, which I am no longer finding comfortable.

Growing up, the American dream for me was a reality, and for various reasons personal and impersonal this reality no longer exists as it did for me just a few years ago. The comfort-induced state of ignorant bliss I grew up with is now replaced with the thoughts of someone who is rejecting this culture of consumption the way an organ recipient might reject a new heart. I need it, it is of me and vital to my survival, but my very DNA does not agree with the foreign body and wants to do away with it.



My thesis imagery is about the fracturing of my youth before my very eyes. I am torn between my foundations vs. my current beliefs. Torn by the knowledge that places like this, the American suburb, are one of the main reasons for so many of the worlds problems. We are alive in precarious times, and having witnessed the last decade on TV, I am no longer able to sit back and consume. Reality TV, new clothes, and technology no longer pacify me. I am realizing time is a precious commodity and the large majority of the free time that the American dream has provided its people has been wasted, and that is what I think is one of the direct causes of what we are seeing today.




My 6 panel pieces are quite literally the environments of my personal experiences within my own American dream. My pieces are 360 degrees of these fleeting moments in these all encompassing environments captured, as much as I can capture anything, and then torn at a few seams and laid out flat before me to put back together again.


Art Resume

Joy Malone
Fine Art Photographer
914.879.5265 • JoyMPhoto@gmail.com • www.JoyMalone.com


Education
2010 – MFA in Photography from Academy of the Arts University, San Francisco CA
2005 – BA in Philosophy from St. John’s University, Jamaica NY


Selected Solo Exhibitions
2010:
• Billies Black Restaurant Harlem NY - Current night work (Jan 29 - Feb 28)


Selected Group Exhibitions
2009:
• New Century Artists, Inc. New York NY – “NRAA in NYC” (Nov 3 - 14)
• Avalon Apartment Complex New Rochelle NY – “New Rochelle Home Tour” (Oct 21 – Dec 10)
• New Rochelle Library New Rochelle NY – “94th Annual Open Juried Exhibition” (Sep 12 - Oct 24)
• Gallery 542 New Rochelle NY – “Urban Magic” (Sep 12 -?)
• New Rochelle Library New Rochelle NY – “Jules Bauer Award Show” (Mar 27 - ?)

2008:
• New Rochelle Library New Rochelle NY – “93rd Annual Open Juried Exhibition” (Sep 20 - Oct 18)
• New Rochelle Library New Rochelle NY – “Jules Bauer Award Show”

2005:
• New Rochelle Library New Rochelle NY – “90th Annual Open Juried Exhibition” (Sep 17 - Oct 15)

2004:
• St. John’s University Jamaica NY – Student Show (Apr – May)
• The Jean Monet Fiap Paris France – “Documenting Paris” (Aug 24 - ?)


Work History
6/09 – 8/09 Mount Vernon Family YMCA Day Camp Mount Vernon, NY
Seasonal Photography Instructor (Summer Camp)
• Taught children to shoot and develop B&W film
• Taught children to print images using the wet darkroom
• Organized exhibition of their prints in a show for their parents

6/01 – 8/07 Girl Scouts of Westchester Putnam Pleasantville, NY
Seasonal Photography Instructor (Summer Camp)
• Built and developed a darkroom and photography program
• Taught the children to shoot and develop B&W film
• Taught children to print images using the wet darkroom
• Organized exhibition of their prints in a show for their parents


10/05 – 4/06 Foxton’s West Long Branch, NJ
Protographer
• Blueprinted homes for sale
• Shot interior shots and exterior shots for the website and home brochures

8/05 – 10/05 Davis Studio Mamaroneck, NY
School Photographer
• Shot portraits of children and teenagers
• Set up and maintained lighting equipment

10/03 – 4/05 Ritz Camera Scarsdale, NY
Key Lab Tech/Sales Associate
• Printed Photo orders in 1 hour or less
• Performed intermediate level maintenance on the film and photo processors
• Kept the stores books and sales records


Awards/Honors
2009:
• 2nd Place in the Photography Category “94th Annual Open Juried Exhibition”
• NY State Assembly Certificate of Merit for “Urban Magic” group show
• Certificate of Recognition for documenting the Mount Vernon Family YMCA’s Playground build
• Honorable Mention in “Photographer Forum’s 29th Annual Spring Photography Contest
• Best in Show & 1st Place in Photography Category “Jules Bauer Award Show”

2008:
• 1st Place in Photography Category “93rd Annual Open Juried Exhibition”
• Honorable Mention “Jules Bauer Award Show”

2004:
• Ritz Camera Award for Lab Excellence
• Honorable Mention in the “2004 North American Amateur Photography Competition”


Published Works
2009:
• “Best of Photography 2009” image included is 42nd Street from NYC at Night series


Memberships
• New Rochelle Art Association from 2008 - present