The Academy Blog

THE TA LIFE

Posted on March 4, 2014

By Megan Ewert (MFA 2013)

I knew I wanted to be a teacher the first time I walked out of critiques in my Painting I class in undergrad. Fairly shattered by the less than stellar feedback, I remember asking my painting teacher, “Am I just not cut out for this?”

To which she replied, “There are all kinds of artists.”

There are also all sorts of teachers, whose outlook on art is shaped by their education and experiences.  I decided that I wanted to be a teacher capable of offering my students a variety of ideas and perspectives about contemporary art theory and practice.  During my undergrad years at Kansas City Art concept was king and my studies focused on the expansion of the idea of painting often through interdisciplinary means.  When it was time to choose a graduate school, I chose the Academy knowing it would be drastically different than my undergraduate education and I wanted to be a part of a community of artists that valued not only a figurative tradition, but also its community of painters.

During my time at the Academy, I was determined to gain teaching experience.  I started out as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for Continuing Education (CE) classes assisting in beginner courses.  At the beginner level, I was able to offer practical demonstrations, give feedback on the CE student’s work while observing the instructor’s teaching techniques. After graduation, I decided to continue to pursue teaching and gain more experience by becoming a Teaching Assistant in the MFA Program. I signed up for a variety of courses ranging from studio to seminar classes, expanding my repertoire of subjects I would become qualified to teach.


 
I  wanted to go above and beyond what was expected of me. I set out to build relationships with students and extend my participation outside of class.  I set up one-on-one meetings, edited research and thesis paper drafts and gave personal studio critiques. For each course, I committed an additional four hours a week to further interact with students and create resources for their benefit.  One of these projects included the creation of an online image data base: ART and CULTURE: Images (Art and Culture I: IMAGES and Art and Culture II: IMAGES). To help expand students’ knowledge of artists, both historical and contemporary, I compiled every artist’s name mentioned during each class and uploaded images. This database is an art historical resource that also helps students discover new artists to reference in their studio practice.

As a side project to a class I am currently TA-ing, I am developing an online community that would act as a resource and forum for information regarding studio/group critiques (http://critique-critic.tumblr.com/). CRITIQUE-CRITIC (CC) will be a resource for information about different approaches to art criticism while examining institutional art critiques. This website will not only be a compilation of different perspectives but a place to post student work—in progress or otherwise—to get feedback from other students in programs nationwide. As a direct outcome of this project, I hope to create a platform that showcases emerging artists and writers. 

To date, my work as a TA has allowed me to work with several amazing artists including John Cichowski, Bonnie DeWitt, Catherine Howe, John Jacobsmeyer, and Jean-Pierre Roy. Being a Teaching Assistant has not only helped me improve my ability to demonstrate and communicate the knowledge I acquired at the Academy, but also to create connections with current students, faculty, and alumni outside of the classroom. It has allowed me to pursue my goal of becoming a teacher while also allowing me to give back to the Academy community post graduation. 

##

Interested in becoming a TA at the Academy?  Please contact Katie Hemmer in the Academic Office khemmer@nyaa.edu.

To learn more about Megan Ewert visit her website www.megan-ewert.com

Franklyn Project – The First Generation

Posted on February 25, 2014

The New York Academy of Art is proud to be the first home of the Franklyn Project – “a collective born in the 80’s and raised at the Academy.”  From their inaugural exhibition we’ve heard them say: “Our artistic pursuits have placed us unwillingly within the Warhol canon, tasking us with the impossibility of outrunning or rising above His relentless shadow. We wander nevertheless, surveying this Aesthetic Hell rich with the relics left in His multidisciplinary wake.” With a moment to spare in their busy lives, we grabbed their attention and caught up on what’s happened this year for the Franklyn Project and where they are headed.

How did the Franklyn Project begin? Evolve?
The genesis of the Franklyn Project began toward the end of our first year at the New York Academy of Art and into the summer of 2013. We were so overwhelmed with all the information we had gained that we really needed a way to unwind, let it sink in, and not think too much. It started with a few people in the basement just wanting to have fun with painting again, with no stress. We have a shared respect for each other’s work so we decided to paint a painting in 30 minutes on the same panel at the same time. Every ten minutes we would switch spots and finish each other’s areas. People started to crowd around to see the process unfold. 
Next, we did portraits of each other on separate canvases, switching every 15 minutes till we decided they were done. It started to turn into a battle, pushing areas in one pass to find out the next turn it was taken in a different direction. They don’t always turn out, but we all have a shared trust. From that point, we liked some of the things we were seeing, so we decided to bring in more people.  This time we had four people in one studio, four blank canvases on each wall. We rotated every 15 minutes, this was also when we introduced Warhol as our subject matter. It was a beautiful thing to see unravel. 
Since the work wasn’t part of anyone’s personal body of work, it freed us up to experiment and try things that we may never have been interested in pursuing in our own work. The first project, “Portraits of Our Father”, sat somewhere between just having fun with each other, feeling out what it’s like to paint with a lot of other people on the same painting, and trying to make a more poignant artistic statement, (probably a little more of the former two). Now, however, the real possibilities of a collective have begun to manifest themselves in our collective consciousness and we’re working to streamline a vision and take on projects with a little more organization and gusto. The process is ever evolving but the intent stays true.


What is the collective’s goal/mission? What do you hope to accomplish?

We like to make great art. We appreciate old masters and will bring back painting. The goal is always to make good work. But in this case, a lot of how that comes to be is by actually having a lot more fun than we might usually have in our own work (separate from the Franklyn Project). Maybe the short term goal is to make a lot of work, show it, and see where it leads. Nothing too fancy just yet.

Tell us about your process for the collective work.  How has the process evolved from when you first started?
At first the process was kind of haphazard; Setting up some easels cracking a couple of beers and just going from hand to brush. We were experimenting and not sure where this was going. Once we started bringing in more people we had to organize more and set up times to meet up and paint. Now we all meet in one room, usually once a week on a Friday, there’s food, drink and music and a lot of painting. We readdress paintings started before that need work or we start new ones. It’s pretty fun at this point because we know each other’s strong points and assign works to certain people to make the piece work. We still paint on the same painting at the same time or switch off or do whatever we want, that’s what’s great about it.

Your show at Bleeker Street Arts Club (BSAC) garnered a great deal of attention.  Why is that? What sets you apart?
Well, there’s always something to be said for novelty, haha. But, really it’s a level of real conviction. Even with our love of humor and play, there is a real seriousness and ambition that is fueling whatever we’re up to.
What sets us apart besides the fact that we all paint on the same paintings, is the variety that can come out of these shows. You put some of the best up and coming artists from all over the world with different backgrounds and styles into one room and somehow they can not only agree on pieces but thoroughly enjoy what is being produced. What is being made surprises us every time we do it. 

Now that the show at BSAC is over, what’s next? Tell us what’s to come for your collective.

We can’t say really, just that we have every intention to make more work and continue to show it. We are still meeting every Friday night as long as we are all still together in NYC and as long as we are still enjoying it.


Where can we find you working? Do you work together in a single studio? What’s the password?

You can find us working in our studios. At times we get together as a group to discuss the work. We often paint together as a group. These meetings are lively and social. They always include food, drink, and music. Of course the goal is to make work, but these meetings also help us stay connected and reinforce our sense of community. The locations and times of these meetings are always changing. There is no password.


Are the Franklyn Project members also pursuing individual careers outside of the collective?
Yes of course. I think it is impossible for Franklyn Project members to collectively agree to an absolute about art, and it would be rather boring if we did. What’s great about having multiple practices is the flexibility to entertain ideas that inform both sides. 

Do your parents and families know you are the Franklyn Project?
Yes, my mom is very proud of us although I don’t think she even know I am an artist. haha

The first and second rule of FIGHT CLUB is: ‘You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.”  Is this the case with the Franklyn Project?  Why is anonymity important to you?  How do you intend to keep it guarded?

Funny you should ask, because the first rule of Franklyn Project is don’t talk about Fight Club. The Second rule is you must drink while you paint.  The Third rule is have fun. Anonymity is important because it’s all about the group effort and not the individual, I know people kind of know who’s in it but it’s not shouted from the roof tops. We are all pursing our own artistic paths and we don’t want the project to define us individually.

There definitely is a little bit of fight club mentality amongst members of the group, and rightfully so if we want to keep a certain degree of anonymity. The anonymity allows us to be more creatively free and test ideas that maybe we wouldn’t try in our own work. It relieves a certain level of pressure that is usually part of the job description in being an artist and that in turn lets us focus more on creating. As far as guarding it, right now we’re resting on a lot of trust.

Will there be generations of the Franklyn Project, like the members of the Bruce High Quality Foundation?

Will there be subsequent generations? Time will tell. Right now though, the first generation is still just getting started.


Finish this sentence:  
In 2014, the Franklyn Project will not only ________, but will also _________.
Hmm…You said it best…In 2014, the Franklyn Project will not only, but will also!
Franklyn Project egg – Fabergé The Big Egg Hunt (on view Spring 2014)

##

Join us for MFA OPEN STUDIOS on Friday, April 25, 6-9pm to get to know our artists and their work better.  Curious to see more Academy student work from the MFA 2014 and MFA 2015 classes before then, check out the Student Work Online Gallery.

Mid-Year Critiques

Posted on February 20, 2014

By Zoë Sua Kay (MFA 2014)

It might be said that one of the frustrating things about mid year critiques is that as soon as they’re over, the school closes because Christmas around the corner. But what about all that advice you’ve just been given?


Suddenly, despite having been absolutely exhausted from the final push in the studio leading up to it, you’re re-energized – you’ve got to go and fix that thing you’ve just been told is the collapsing point of that painting. But alas, you’re being shuffled out, slightly relieved, slightly ecstatic, slightly like you’ve just survived you first foray through the tumble dryer. 

PBS 3
Regardless of whether your own critique went well, or whether it was a disaster, it’s probably a good thing that no one really remembers in the immediate aftermath what had been said.   A few salient comments stick in your mind but really, when you’re under the spot light in front of one hundred-or-so of your peers, adrenalin kicks in and part of you snaps in to survivor mode.  On critique day, all the work you’ve done thus far – the desperate search for meaningful content and that entirely original stroke of genius that makes your artistic “voice” more Pavarotti than the guy at the 14th street subway who for years never quite managed to figure out the lyrics to The Beatles song he keeps singing – all that exertion is finally, and in one fell swoop of the 15 minutes you’re assigned, either deemed worthwhile or, heaven forbid, a fundamental “mismanagement” of time.

PBS 1
Although I had only witnessed a couple of the mid-year critiques the previous year, I had heard the horror stories.   In the days leading up to critiques for my fellow class of 2014, compatriots were divided between fear of imminent apocalyptic disaster and a Joan of Arc-esque sense of martyred stoicism.  You try to tell yourself it doesn’t matter that much, that you’ve done what can.   By the time you you’re hanging your work, you are falling apart at the seams because you’re suddenly overcome with grief at the lackluster body of work you’ve produced.  However, when my name was finally called and the formal introduction made, something unexpected happened.  I found myself switching into the role of a host.   As I gave my little blurb about what my work was about, it felt as though I was welcoming them into the party that I guess is my art making.  And then it was all a blur.

I remember Wade Schuman likening one painting to a billboard (thanks, Wade) but it was all mixed between more positive comments and other criticisms.  So much is said in so little time and between so many “jurors” that it’s difficult to keep track of it all. In hindsight, it’s difficult to get into a meaty debate over certain points you’d have liked to expand on. The comments that are made by our professors are incredibly astute yet abridged versions of a full criticism you want explore. It’s actually rather an unbelievable exposé of their intellect and ability to get to the meat of the matter within a few minutes. This, however is the only drawback. If such insightful issues can be raised in such a short time, imagine what could be discussed if we had each had an hour of their time..or an entire day?? I think I can safely say that all my classmates were left hungry for more. Alas, we must take pity on our faculty members, and applaud what, for them, must have been a long and grueling two days.

All in all, the experience for us students was a good one.  And I didn’t even feel the urge to cry.  At the end, when people gave their congrats and shook my hand, and exhaled with a somewhat shaky sense of relief, thinking, ‘it’s all over…for now’. All in all the experience for us students was a good one. And I didn’t even feel the urge to cry. Especially at the end when people gave their congratulations and shook your hand, and you exhaled with a somewhat shaky sense of relief, thinking, “it’s all over…for now”. 

My only grievance, as a young female artist, is the lack of female presence on the panel. Catherine Howe did a fantastic job of holding the flag for us and there were a few more women artists in the mix the following day, but in all honesty, my heart did sink a bit when in the morning I noticed the male to female ratio. 
Now though, after the dust has settled and I’ve had time to obsess over the transcripts of my critique, I feel armed and ready for the turbulence of the final semester. The time has come to jump back into attack mode and prove to Wade that my paintings are not fated to be billboards, thank you very much.  Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a good billboard.
 
On behalf of the students I’d like to thank the faculty for their time and effort, it really is an honor to be offered so much of it. Thanks to Holly for providing us all with transcripts and ultimately minimizing post-blur amnesia. I’d also like to thank the first years that made it in to show their support. And well-bloody-done fellow second years! 

##

To learn more about Zoë and her work visit: www.zsuakay.com

 

Interested to experience critiques for yourself?  Find past critiques on Academy’s Vimeo channel.

“The Big Picture” According to Casey Read (MFA 2014)

Posted on February 12, 2014


In New York City, I have discovered an overwhelming wealth of information regarding sensory overload. Touching, smelling, tasting, hearing, and seeing everything, like a trip to the grocery store. Touching subway poles, smelling the car exhaust, tasting the worldly cuisines, and watching the masses pass and shove their way through to the next event of the day. But I have not experienced, in my short time here, anything like the opening of The Big Picture.

 
Mark Tansey, Coastline Measure 1987
Mark Tansey, Duet, 2004          

On the night of the opening, I hardly looked at the art. The floor was filled with people stretching to look at the works and chat amongst themselves. A slight social anxiety crept over a few of the current students at the New York Academy of Art, me included. There are only seven pieces in The Big Picture, which made the gallery appear smaller than usual and with all the people inside the hallway, there was no way to fully experience each piece. This isn’t to say that the night was made worse, the crowd filled the air with an excitement I had never seen at the school and I felt pleased to know that each time someone passed through our doors, another face lit up with a sense of awe. After painting class yesterday, I ventured downstairs to realize the privilege of viewing the artwork one-on-one. Once I experienced the show on my own, there was no comparison to seeing it with human heads blocking the view. It sounds silly, but I felt a near spiritual involvement with the work, as though I had meditated and had a conversation with each at the same time. I had been painting from life the entire day, moving at a range of distances from my 36 inches x 42 inches canvas to gain a better understanding of how it looked from up close and far away. I especially noticed this with the work by Mark Tansey. I approached his work until I was sitting an arm’s length away and realized that the entire illusion of space and depth in his painting, Coastline Measure, were created by nothing more than scribbles. My interest increased as I got up and walked backwards from the scribbles. I felt like a child again – a smile grew on my face, “It’s like magic”!  Not only did I feel childlike as a result of Tansey’s “magic trick” with mark-making, but also due to the fact that I was physically about a third of the size of his 87 inches x 122 inches piece. 

 
Jenny Saville, Bleach, 2008          
Though I had not been particularly interested in the work of Jenny Saville, I certainly am now. The digital images of her work flatten and simplify the massive brushstrokes that add a voluminous appearance to the paint itself.  Each layer added to the face in the painting made me recall my interest in anatomy; Saville allows the viewer to see through skin, bruises, blood, all the way down to the deepest parts of the person depicted. For the first time, I saw and understood that the eyes were smooth and glassy and are windows inside rather than meshing with the rest of the flesh.
Eric Fischl, Krefeld Project: Living Room, Scene 1, 2002
Eric Fishl, Corrida In Ronda # 4, 2008

Eric Fischl is actually one of the reasons I came to study at the Academy- I had never heard of the school until I e-mailed him for a project interview in undergraduate school and he replied.  He even told me about the Academy after he asked me to send him pictures of my work.  Eric changed the way I think about painting. As a drawing concentration in undergrad, painting meant I had dabbled in abstract acrylic painting since high school and then took two classes in college. It was intimidating- it meant color and wet stuff and, basically, making a lot of terrible art. I did and still do make terrible paintings, but the difference is that researching artists, their work, and how they make it helped me make some good ones too. Fischl was one of the first painters I really looked into and I was surprised to discover that his process involved photography and even mismatching figures from separate photos and shoving them in together. Not only that, but he also based much of his early work on unnerving suburban unrest which I completely related to growing up in Southern California. Seeing his work for the first time in the flesh is something personal and special to me.

Now we get to Vincent Desiderio: Father, husband, and considered (by me) to be one of the most prolific painters in these contemporary times. Of all the paintings in The Big Picture, his is the largest, entitled Quixote. Comprised of three parts (that I initially did not come close to understanding), it tortures the viewer with a heart-shaped object (perhaps a piano) falling amongst the clouds, a silhouette of a bicycle, and a slaughtered animal (a pig, I believe). To me, it almost seems like he is trying to play a game with me like “hey, make a word out of these three images” or “what do these things have in common” or even “I have seen these images on a daily basis, have you?”  I find myself struggling to make an answer for these metaphoric images, but maybe that is the point. There are obscurities in life that we, as people, were never meant to find an answer to.  The novel A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind in which the smartest computer in the universe is asked “the ultimate question to life, the universe, and everything” and comes up with the answer “42”. Either that, or I need to do more research on this brilliant guy.

Vincent Desiderio, Quixote, 2008
 
Neo Rauch Hausmeister, 2002

Neo Rauch is a weirdo. I mean this in the most loving way. Hausmeister appears like an old billboard from the 1950’s on homeschooling. His voyeuristic approach to the home setting offers the viewer a strange look at a family in an unbalanced situation. Plates are stacked off to the right of the scene, held together by colorful goo that is repeated in the geology poster that the woman in the painting gestures towards, her gaze down at the boy (who has his back turned to the viewer). It seems as though everything in the scene is failing; the woman appears to be teaching, but the boy is busy taking a bottle of something out of a mini fridge. Only, it might not be a refrigerator at all and an odd, deformed statue of a unicorn type creature stands atop the “refrigerator.” The man in the room looks grim, yet indifferent to the situation. Neo Rauch composes places that, at first glance, seem ordinary or even dull. But looking further, the scene can create a realm for the viewer in which there is no sense and only a dark humor to drown in. In order to enter into the world of this piece, you will have to see it for yourself.


I encourage anyone who has   To me, the collection is a surprising commentary on the digital age, the negatives and positives of the iconic power of the photograph handed to human kind on a massive scale, like fire given to man. The exploration of paint expressed in The Big Picture creates a face of hope, dismay, and unpredictability for the traditional artists in this age of the powerful pictures.

##

The Big Picture is currently on view at the Wilkinson Gallery at the New York Academy of Art located at 111 Franklin Street between West Broadway & Church through March 2nd.  Be sure to visit the exhibition during the gallery hours of 2:00-8:00pm daily except Wednesdays and holidays.  Admission is free.  For more information on The Big Picture please visit its exhibitions page on the Academy’s website.



Artist-in-Residence at Giverny 2014

Posted on February 10, 2014

giverny_nyaa_banner

During the summer of 2013 Jessica Benjamin (MFA 2014), Adam Cross (MFA 2014), Alonsa Guevara (MFA 2014), Shannon Kenny (MFA 2013), Daniela Kovacic Muzio (MFA 2013), William Logan (MFA 2014), Kerry Thompson (MFA 2014) and Steve Vollo (MFA 2014) participated in a two-week Artist-in-Residence Program at the Terra Foundation for American Art-Europe.

The foundation is located in the village of Giverny, France, next to Monet’s house and gardens.

The Academy’s Giverny Residency Program is made possible by the New York Academy Travel Fund, the Villore Foundation.

 

2014 Westminster Kennel Club Artwork Competition

Posted on February 7, 2014

duke_chris_wkc_2014

The Westminster Kennel Club Artwork Competition is a skills contest in which entrants submit artwork for use and inclusion in the promotional materials for the Westminster Kennel Club 138th Annual Dog Show. Coordinated by the New York Academy of Art and the Westminster Kennel Club the competition is open to Academy MFA students and alumni, and current continuing education students.
The 2014 Winner and Finalist works represented the Academy in our gallery booth at the 138th Annual Dog Show.
Congratulations to competition winner Chris Duke (MFA 2003), and finalists Brittany A. Fields (MFA 2013), Theresa Kasun (MFA 1992), Meredith Lachin (MFA 2011), Katherine McGough (CE), and Courtney Murphy (MFA 2008).

THOUGHTS BEFORE THE FIRING RANGE

Posted on February 4, 2014


Uttering the words “mid-year critique” in early December to a second-year student is likely to induce an excited and petrified reaction simultaneously.  Can you imagine the courage it takes for a student to stand in front of an audience of their peers with their work as a backdrop explaining their intent and point of view to a group of esteemed faculty and visiting critics including Alex Kanevsky in under a minutes or less?  Sprinkle in the Dean of Academic Affairs, Peter Drake, Academy President David Kratz and you have quite the all-star squad ready to not only challenge and question the student’s techniques but the success of their outcome. Staying present during this fifteen minute critique is no small feat, especially with the camera rolling and recording every word.  However, beyond the fear and vulnerability lies inspiration that creates the space to expand and grow.

In this blog post, Adam Cross (MFA 2014) shares his experience:


From the moment I stood to present my art pieces, I began to feel a sense of relief.  Soon this public review of my work would be over, and at least now it had finally begun. All of the hard work, preparation, and anticipation for this event – the Mid-Year Critique at the New York Academy of Art – was under way.

 As silence began to fill the room, I was given the floor to introduce my work, and suddenly became fully aware of the fact that I now had the attention of the entire audience.   As I let this realization sink in, I skimmed the assembly I faced.  The first row of the all-star crowd staring back at me represented my critics – esteemed and admired professionals of the contemporary art world who were among my favorite living artists.   Beyond that sat my colleagues, an equally talented and inspirational group of artists, possessing sharp minds and skillful hands.  My fellow classmates were also capable of sophisticated critical feedback – evidenced by numerous faculty and peer discussions of each other’s works throughout the semester – but were resigned to remain silent this time, as they were not permitted comment during the Mid-Year Critiques.

Looking out, I pondered what an honor it is to be counted among these peers with this unique chance to receive comments from such a talented and accomplished panel of reviewers.  Once I introduced my work, and was able to say mostly what I had intended, it was now my turn to listen. Having talked with alumni of their experience “before the firing range,” I was told the experience was for most people like a “black out” and would be “over before you realize it.”  However, for me, it was just the opposite.  I felt as if I was wide awake for my own surgery, but rather unlike being under the knife, it was relatively painless.  Although difficult at times to remain quiet, I knew from past personal experiences that being defensive would be selfish, senseless and only rob me of valuable expert feedback.  What my critics offered was their fair, insightful and, sincere reactions that I feel so fortunate to have received.  As difficult as the truth was to hear, the honesty they provided will help to shape me as an artist, enabling me to create the best work I am capable of producing, and I know this was their goal.


To learn more about Adam and his work visit: www.adamcrossartwork.com

Interested to experience mid-year critiques for yourself?  Find past critiques on Academy’s Vimeo channel.

The Big Picture

Posted on January 28, 2014

big_webgraphic3

THE BIG PICTURE
Desiderio, Fischl, Rauch, Saville, Tansey

There are artists who are comfortable contributing to the art world by making their work and hoping that it finds a place in art history, and then there are the artists who make the big picture. It is these artists who seize the moment by making a statement through their work that is at once grand in scale, conceptually ambitious and specific to their era. Not satisfied waiting for their moment to arrive, big picture artists insist that what they have to say deserves an outsized scale and the world’s attention.

Desiderio, Fischl, Rauch, Saville, and Tansey are among the most compelling figurative artists working today. They work on both large and small scale paintings, but their best work and the work that we will be most likely to remember is wrought on a large scale. It is on this scale that they demand the audience’s attention and challenge contemporary art making, and on this scale that they become a part of the big picture of art history itself.

Curated by Peter Drake and organized by Elizabeth Hobson. Generous support provided by Cadogan Tate Fine Art.

For further information please contact Elizabeth Hobson: 212.842.5966 / ehobson@nyaa.edu

 

 

 

The Science of Art and the Art of Science

Posted on January 20, 2014


Have you ever been faced with making a “now-or-never” decision that would forever change your life’s course?  When there is a fork in the road, trusting your intuition is the bravest courses of action you can take.  No one knows this better than Henry Jabbour (MFA 2015) former scientist turned painter.  Last month, he sat down with us to share a bit about his decision and journey down the road less travelled.

Henry Jabbour’s life was a crossroads.  Having reached an inflexion point in his research career, Henry found himself having to make a choice: a drastic decision to either continue trail blazing the path of his twenty-year career as a scientist or pursue a neophyte path as an artist.


Prior to 2011, Henry was content with his work as a scientist. He was at the top of his field as a senior scientist, program leader and honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh.  With his own lab and two decades of research under his belt, Henry‘s world was all things female reproductive health, including the establishment of pregnancy on a molecular level, pre-term labor and its consequences on babies.  With such a valuable research portfolio, Henry was offered the highest honor as a scientist – a Chair at the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh.

Until this point, Henry’s passion for the arts was confined to the evening classes and weekend workshops he dabbled in at the Leith School of Art.  He was, however, becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of time he had to explore his artistic vision.  And his passion was becoming too loud to ignore.


Henry weighed the high cost of freedom to pursue life as a full time artist.  Ultimately, that meant Henry had to decline the University’s offer bringing his career-long research to a screeching and abrupt halt. The decision was “painful” but one he knew he had to make.  It was either going to be now or never.  And the time was now.  His decision was also inspired by a Goethe quote from a friend shared with him at the time: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
In 2011, he decided to study art full time for two years at the Leith School of Art with mostly cheers from his family and fellow colleagues.


The World is Small
Henry took courses at Leith School of Art taught by Academy alumnus Kenneth Le Riche (MFA 2002).  Immediately, Henry sought solace in Le Riche’s mentorship and shared his goals of receiving an MFA in painting where he could gain “traditional skills with a contemporary approach.”  It was Le Riche who encouraged Henry to apply to the Academy despite limited experience in art, and helped Henry ready his portfolio and artist’s statement for the application process.
Once Henry received word that he was accepted to the Academy, he knew he had made the right decision.  His family and friends were also by now in full support of his passion.  
During his career as a scientist, Henry had travelled extensively in the USA, attending conferences and spending sabbatical at Harvard University in Boston.  Despite unfamiliarity with the city, on arriving in New York, Henry felt “completely blessed” and an immediate sense of calm once in Tribeca.


Outsiders Paradise
Henry is no stranger to the feelings of being an outsider.  Originally from Lebanon, Henry received his PhD from The University of Sydney and subsequently settled in the United Kingdom, moving to Scotland in 1995.  Interested in the fragility of the human emotions and experiences, Henry’s work explores “the figure and its sense of belonging to, or alienation from, its environment.  There is a sense of nostalgia and a life-long quest.” Reflecting his own journey, Henry explained “there is a duality, a sense of belonging in my work.  I feel Scotland is my home but I don’t quite belong there.  Lebanon is where I feel I belong culturally but it is no longer home. In both places I’m not entirely at ease, my sense of belonging is marginal at best.” 


Art of Science, Science of Art
In terms of his career transition, Henry pulls from his past experiences as a scientist and finds a lot of similarities between the two practices.  “The art of science, science of art is fueled by intuition and your work is a direct response.  It’s all out and unwavering.”  Henry adds “There is a commitment, dedication, to create, think laterally, hit the wall and go thru it in both science and art.  When you hit the wall you have to figure it out.  I have the training as a scientist which comes along with a stubbornness and commitment to long hours that also is required for artists.” 


Henry’s commitment to his artistic practice is rooted in an unwavering determination. Henry reflects “I’ve made the decision to rebuild my life spending time far from my family and loved ones back in Scotland.”  Yet simultaneously “it has been a humbling and freeing experience.”  In his first semester, Henry has already “expanded beyond measure” and has been inspired by his fellow peers.  Now clear and more determined than ever, he knows this is only the beginning and to take things day by day.  “I’m interested in growing as an artist,” he says “I’m on a life long journey.”  And the Academy is thrilled to guide him along the way.

##

Follow Henry Jabbour (MFA 2015) and other members of the Class of 2015 by clicking the label “First Year Experience” or see their work on the Academy’s online artwork gallery. 


If you have any questions for Henry, please leave them in the comments section of the blog.

Looking at the Inside – Class of 2015 Interviews (part one)

Posted on January 2, 2014

Recovering from first semester finals – I think everyone agrees, it was very intense! Right?!.. [Laugh]… However Christmas is a perfect time to reflect on the past three months and meditated upon how much was done in our first semester.  An uphill battle for students and faculty – excuse the phrase – a double ‘high-five’ is well deserved.
For the First Years the past semester felt like a ‘boot-camp,’ reviewing and pushing our technical skills to the limit, creating work that was both contemporary in discourse, while based on traditional skills. Deliberately challenged not only by practical knowledge but also through the capacity to improve our artistic instincts. While watching the Second Years’ exciting progress towards their mid-year critiques. The quality of work created was amazing.  Closely admired, meticulously and carefully analyzed by all the faculty and students.
As promised, I interviewed some of the Academy’s Class of 2015 to share their oeuvre and the interesting background that each of them come from.  I’ve had the pleasure to get to know, share ambitions and mutual passions with each this fall at the Academy. 
I asked them a few simple questions: 
What inspires your work? And who are you inspired by?

Manizales, Caldas. Colombia
Pontificial Javeriana University
Being an artist for me means to able to communicate through something as simple as representation and interpretation of an image. The process to get to representation is not simple at all, and I’m never pleased with the result. My process includes a method of gratuitous development, which allows the brush to meet the canvas and freely let the image search for itself. Most of the time a Phenomenological approach is present, which express a feeling of the material used and the observed object, letting it be felt.
I prefer to let the brush do its work. Seeking for expressiveness the hand guides the brush through aggressive and passive movements conducted by the artist hand. It excites me to observe a symphony on the surface, made by rough materials such as paint and canvas. My painting is about letting it “Be a Painting,” relationships between marks, tones, planes and form.
If I think about a painting it would be “Harbor of Trieste” by Egon Schiele. One can observe how much excitement he had with shapes and harmony presented in the work.  Joaquin Sorolla is someone who’s oeuvre I always recall, I’m fascinated by his intent of expressing so much with minimal mark-making

Work by Esteban Ocampo Giraldo (MFA 2015)


Work by Esteban Ocampo Giraldo (MFA 2015)
West Bloomfield, Detroit, Michigan
The College for Creative Studies
Wayne State University
Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art
I like the idea of taking something shallow or superficial and cramming it together with the opposite.  I try to create paintings in a way that embodies that idea.  Typically I paint portraits of people by layering strokes of paint upon paint in a way that reveals all layers of the process.  I think of each stroke as a cut or a scar.  To me each stroke of paint is like a memory that contains both physical and emotional content.  When viewed from a distance the paintings look more like an illusion of a person’s superficial appearance.  When viewed from close up the paintings lose their superficial, illusionistic quality and become abstracted into layers of lines and colors that I label as being that person’s non-physical content, or all the things that make us who we are minus the superficial, physical crap.
A friend recently introduced me to Tomory Dodge.  I like the trajectory of his body of work. There isn’t one piece I necessarily like more than another. I like how I can look at his pieces and see how his previous ideas have influenced his recent ideas.

Work by Eric Pedersen (MFA 2015)

Work by Eric Pedersen (MFA 2015)
Rochester, New York
Maryland Institute College of Art
I paint because I feel compelled to. I am interested in the transient nature of the experience of life, and I make images as a means of contemplating where I am in my life, in a physical and metaphysical regard. My work operates as a relic of a felt experience. My oeuvre, broadly speaking, deals with complicated relationships, ideas of isolation, abandonment, and the illusion of time. I am interested in people, spaces and objects as individuals, each possessing a unique presence and aura. I seek to capture the psychic qualities of the figure, or a space; and I find that spaces that are defined by detritus and decay possess a stillness that is most conducive to capturing the sensation.
My work would probably fall within the genre of perceptual, or representational painting. I am interested in the tradition of interpreting the plastic world as a conduit to address my conceptual concerns. Abandoned spaces, in particular, serve as a muse for me, because I think they are a form of contemporary memento mori, and also because I find the energy of the void quite interesting. My work tends to be de-saturated, or operates within a predominantly tonal framework. I use color selectively because I find in doing so the work visually changes volume – loud moments of color, in contrast to the quiet of a cooler monochromatic pallet. 
The painting I think about most often is The Dinner, by Antonio Lopez Garcia. I find his decision to elongate the head of the human form on the right quite surprising. The visual variety of moments of collaged photos peppered throughout the painting creates an interesting dialog between the highly rendered trompe l’oeil. Pentimenti are visible through the more translucent chapters of the painting, which offer insight into the artist’s process of continually reworking the form to find a greater truth about observation.

Work by Ryan Schroeder (MFA 2015)

Work by Ryan Schroeder (MFA 2015)
Bronx, New York
Long Island University, BFA, Digital Art
Most of my work is autobiographical. I’m inspired by my friends, family and everyday life of growing up in New York/Dominican Republic culture. I intend to recreate intimate moments of my life captured by camera.  Merely using photography and paint as transcendental conduit. This process allows me to relieve the moment in a purging process of transformation. My methodology consists of the belief that the artist and her life are integrated.
Some of my process is composed of shoot, print, paste, paint, scan, paint and repeat until the primary mechanic image is lost. Sometimes, replacing the traditional canvas, there is a necessity to incorporate found objects to carry the picture. Through this process I am examining/exploring/re-creating my past and present. Using photo as an object to create art that exemplify transformation. Past and present experiences take on a new physical form.
Recalling the first painting that ever inspired me to create art was Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. I remember being seeing it for the first time at MoMA, going home and replicating it as best as I could. I remember standing in front of the painting for almost an hour and staring at the whimsicalities of every stroke on the canvas.  Anselm Kiefer is another painter who paints in a similar way.
Work by Jehdy Ann Vargas (MFA 2015)

##
Camila Rocha (MFA 2015) will be blogging here throughout the year about her first year at the Academy and moving to New York City.  Check the label “First Year Experience” or “Camila Rocha” for more posts about her first year at the Academy. 

If you have any questions for Camila, please leave them in the comments section of the blog.

All images are courtesy of each artist.