thesis | the least untrue / elizabeth cook

Luckily, in one of those art miracles that you read about, I’ve had a total breakthrough and my art is on a new track that pleases and surprises me. Ha. Not.

My art is still a struggle every day. And I work on it every day. I go to the studio with my bagel and my iPad and look around to see what fires my imagination. Is it time to draw the polka-dotted mug (again)? Should I use the rubber rat? Is it a charcoal day, or a pastel day, or a Sharpie day?

A Very Timid Beginning

I look at the enormous roll of paper that winds around my studio (and miraculously hasn’t fallen down) and I am at least satisfied that I have filled it up to the first corner. It is harder to put 27 drawings on one piece of paper than to do 27 different drawings. They have to look right together. Sometimes I want them to complement each other, and sometimes I want them to fight. Sometimes I want to make it pretty, but lots of times I’m aiming for “eeew, gross!”.

Real Snakeskin, Fake Me

I realize that I am drawing several narratives, starting at the far left and moving to the right. Besides the polka-dot mug and its various adventures, there are the small blue people who seem to be reacting in horror. What is their story? There are the self-portraits with snakes and rats. Why do I have snakes and rats coming out of my mouth? If I knew, I wouldn’t have to draw it. I draw to find out.

There is a fairy tale starting, and I’m not sure where it’s going, but I like fairy tales (old, original fairy tales) because they so often combine the charming with the shocking.

Once Upon a Time

I got the very good news on Halloween that my first choice thesis advisor, Stephen Maine, selected me back in the double-blind, three and a half twist process that the office uses to match us up. It was while talking to him that I had the idea about the big paper to begin with, although clearly some subconscious giant origami still lingered.

More Pills, Please

Maybe when I’ve drawn all 30 feet of my paper I should fold it into a graceful paper swan. Now THAT would be a thesis project!

Minseop Yoon

The way I figure it, our first semester in SVA’s MFA Fine Arts program is for getting our feet wet, finding the art supply stores, and convincing ourselves that we haven’t made the biggest mistake of our life.

Patrick Shoemaker

Billy Ogawa

Zaza Acevedo

Mark deWilde

Semester number two is when we start to make art that matters. But we’re still all over the map. We’re juggling subject matter, media, color, meaning, fabrication, and

Jessica Bowman

installation issues. At least. Because making art is the hardest thing we’ve ever done, and now we’re trying to be good at it, while people watch and criticize. And we’re still not sure it isn’t a mistake to spend oh-my-god how much money? in order to leave ourselves less employable than before we started.

Autumn-Grace Dougherty

Which gives the fine arts students only the first semester of their second year to make everything that goes into their MFA thesis

Yae Ly

Denise Hwa-In Yoon

show. Make it. Make it coherent and meaningful. Make it visually and intellectually arresting. And, by the way, how’s that written thesis coming?

Tina Han

The show We Object (curated by Wallace Whitney) which is open at SVA’s Visual Arts Gallery (601 West 26th Street, suite 1502) displays work from half of the class of 2013. The other half will be shown next month. I only give you the timeline so that you will understand the pressure under

Sohee Koo (S. Art K.)

Eric Graham

which this art was created – pressure that doesn’t show in the art itself, which is, by turns, playful, skilled, vibrant, unusual, unsettling, disciplined, undisciplined, unexpected, and arresting.

Bo Kim

Chi Zhang

A thesis show by its nature has no common theme. It is a group of works not created to stand together but forced to share visual and actual space. Sometimes that’s a weakness, but not in We Object.

Pantelis Klonaris

This is art that would work alone, but also works wonderfully in a group show. It argues, creates contrasts, creates synergies, and surprises the viewer. After seeing

So Na Lee

all of the galleries that combine to make up the show, I found myself starting over in the first room to see it all again. It is a feast; not moveable like Paris, but still ephemeral. These artists may never show together again, and this exhibit closes on January 26th.

Cassandra Levine

the least untrue / elizabeth cook

"Of all lies, art is the least untrue." -Gustave Flaubert

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Luckily…

SVA MFA Thesis Show: We Object