Balzer Designs

Art Supplies Used to Restore Art

I went to a conservation event at the Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston (MFA Boston).  Professional conservators were in one of the exhibits sharing how they restore and preserve the art on display. 

Do you see what I see?!

I spy art supplies that I use all the time!  Golden Fluid Acrylics:

Aves Apoxie Sculpt:

And Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics:

I thought it was super duper cool to know that professional conservators are fixing up ancient art with the same supplies I use to create my art!  I chatted with some of the conservators and they said that these supplies were chosen because of their quality, consistency, and ability to be removed if needed.  Those first two reasons -- quality and consistency -- are the reasons I choose these art supplies too!

Thanks for stopping by!

MFA Murals: Jackson Pollock & Katharina Grosse

On Monday night I had the opportunity to see the new exhibit Mural: Jackson Pollock & Katharina Grosse at the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) in Boston.

Grosse was commissioned to create an artwork...

...in response to Pollock's painting (his largest ever at 2o feet long):

It's an interesting pairing.

In many ways they are vastly different pieces.  The Pollock piece is full of brush strokes, where the Grosse piece has the hard lines of the stencils she uses.

Both pieces have tons of color and movement, but Pollock use of black and white makes the colors feel more subdued.

The Grosse piece can be viewed from the front and the back...

It's a different piece from the back (above) because the paint hasn't gone through the fabric everywhere and so there's more white on the back and the shapes are less defined in some areas.

There's still white on the front (below), but it's different.

I really like both pieces and feel the need to go back and study them some more!  The exhibit is open until February 23, 2020, so there is plenty of time!

Thanks for stopping by!

My Experience as an Exhibition Juror

A few months ago I was asked to be the exhibition juror for the members exhibit at the Mosesian Arts Center.  It's a non-juried show.  All members are invited to submit up to 3 pieces of work for the show.  From the submissions, I was to choose 1 Best in Show Winner and 3 Honorable Mentions.

Once the show was hung, I was invited to come by the Mosesian Arts Center and see the work.  I was determined to have a system for making my choices.  Before I walked in, I made a list of criteria for myself.  Work under consideration for a prize must:

• Be well executed.
• Have a point-of-view.
• Make me, the viewer, feel or think or react in some way.
• Be unique in some way.

These aren't the criteria that all judges use, I'm sure. But these are the things I like to see in art.

I made an initial sweep through the exhibit making quick choices about "yes" this fits the criteria or "no" this doesn't.  After my initial sweep, I had a shortlist of 20 artworks I wanted to go back and see again.

I started to think more deeply about the artwork this time through.  I read labels and really considered each of the 20 pieces.  After taking a good hard close up look at my top 20, I narrowed it down to 10 pieces that I really felt met all the criteria.

At this point, I felt overwhelmed.  And so I decided I needed a bit of time.  I took photos of the 10 works under consideration and went home.

The next morning, I decided that I needed a way to more directly compare the artwork.  So I printed all 10 out together onto 2 sheets of paper.  This allowed me to look at them side-by-side.  I picked out my four favorite and decided to sleep on it for one more night.

In the morning, without looking at the artwork, I asked myself, "What artwork are you still thinking about?"  Once I had chosen my top four, I had to choose a Grand Prize Winner from among them. The questions I asked were, "Which of these works shows complete mastery over this person's craft?" and, "Which of these works do I not have any suggestions to give the artist on how to make it just a little bit better?"

And in this way, my choices became clear.  Here I am announcing the prizes at the Exhibition Opening:

All in all, I would say that this was an educational process for me.  I have often been on the other side of the judging process.  Four things I'm taking away:

• Art is subjective (obviously).  I like seeing the hand of the artist.  Another juror might not.
• It's often attractive to go towards creating work that is like what everyone else is making, but standing out is often about standing alone. 
• Titles matter.  Is your artwork about something?  Can the title add meaning to what the viewer is already taking away from the work?
• For me, pretty is not enough.  I need story, emotion...something more substantive than pretty.

Most of all, I think I will be less hurt when I don't make it into an exhibit or win a prize.  Instead I will focus on being the best version of the artist I want to be!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yayoi Kusama: Love is Calling

This past weekend I visited Yayoi Kusama's "Love is Calling" infinity room at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) here in Boston.

In case you're not familiar, Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who has been creating mirrored infinity rooms since the 1960s.  The experience of being in an infinity room is definitely reminiscent of a fun house mirror room -- but with lots of extra visual stimulation.  In "Love is Calling" the extra stimulation comes from polka-dotted plastic stalagmites and stalactites.

In the room, there is a recording of Yayoi Kusama reciting a poem in Japanese.  This is a translation of that poem:

Even with a timed ticket, you have to wait in line for a while...

...and then they open the door to the big white box and it seems like a magical world inside!

I've had the good fortune to visit a few other Kusama installations.

To me, I both love and hate these installations.

I love them because they make me happy.  It's impossible not to smile and feel playful in that kind of funhouse environment.

I hate them because (a) they're just all about "getting the photo" and (b) there's a strict time limit (30-120 seconds, depending on the piece) on how long you can spend in the installation. 

I have literally never seen anyone in a Kusama installation not taking photos -- myself included.  And I understand the time limit -- there's always a wait.  But, can you really experience something meaningful in so brief a period of time?

What do you think?  Have you visited a Yayoi Kusama installation before?

Thanks for stopping by!

Artistic Serendipity

On Friday night, I got an idea -- one of those ideas that's like a gnat that won't stop buzzing in your ear.  Buzz buzz buzz!  I just *had* to drop everything and chase that idea!  I started cutting up fabric and piecing it back together in strips and blocks of all kinds. 

Saturday morning I got out of bed and asked myself, "Should I do the work that I ought to do or should I continue last night's experiments?"  Well, as you can guess, that was a short conversation with myself.  Of course, I wanted to continue cutting and sewing and chasing that darn idea.

I was so pleased with my progress that I snapped a photo of the bits and bobs up on my design wall in my studio before I left the house.

And then I walked into the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) and stumbled into a room of paintings by Helga Roht Poznanski that made me do a double take.

(These watercolor pieces were behind glass, so there are some weird reflections in these photos.)

Magical artistic serendipity, right?  These watercolor paintings are so much of what was buzzing around in my brain.  I feel like I was meant to see this exhibit on this day!  I literally could not stop smiling as I walked through this particular gallery.

Have you ever had a moment of magical artistic serendipity?  It's so exhilarating!

Thanks for stopping by!