The Falls, 2012 Oil and mixed-media on panel and wall 36" X 24", Ali Miller

Ali Miller has a certain kind of aesthetic I was immediately drawn to, her mixed media work especially. I think her work is distinguishable and original, focusing heavily on the surreal and fantasy. I love this piece that I have listed here “The Falls” as it blends medias and breaks the traditional way a painting would be viewed. Experimentation is key in art in my opinion. We should constantly be seeking new ways to project our message to the world as artists.

"Sidore (Mark II) / Heather > LOLITA"  Amber Hawk Swanson, December 10-15, 2013.

After researching Amber I began to understand what her work represented. On this surface I wasn’t quite getting it and to be frank, wasn’t really enjoying it. Amber is more about the performance and one needs to understand that you cant take one aspect of her projects and analyze it. In these particular piece from the picture above, it was a 6-day, 70-hour live streamed performance in which she dismantled two donated RealDolls combining their bodies to build Lolita, “the oldest killer whale in captivity,” named for the protagonist of Nabokov's 1955 novel—to an audience of 47,000 online.

“Discovered Missing” Kris Graves, 2013.

It’s always inspiring to see Purchase alumni come back and tell their story. I feel like Kris was very real with us, sharing his issues as an artist as well as the successes. As someone who spends a decent amount of time taking photos it was interesting to see the different jobs he was able to obtain, he talked about traveling a lot which peaked my interest as well. Making art and traveling sounds like a solid deal to me, two things I really want to keep up in my life. His Iceland photos were stunning and his journey around Iceland’s only navigable highway gave great insight on the country itself and his process. After seeing all of his photos from different jobs it was reassuring that there will always be jobs for artists and that networking is crucial.

s/o Danny for being really handsome and a generous grader! swipe up to follow him!

mmmmm yes, the smell of garbage

can we get 10,000,000,000 likes on this bad boy?

hot trash continued

is this....art?

some hot trash from dmd1

Design is my passion #smashthatlikebutton

This large steel and copper sculpture at Storm King really captured my eye. Its sheer size is one thing to stand in aw over, but its fullness was unlike anything else that I saw there. For the most part the larger works were more linear, with big flatter beams that made up the construction. The Three Legged Buddha grabs your attention from the moment you see it from a distance. At first I honestly thought it was some kind of whale, it made a really interesting shape from a distance as well. Wish I got to touch :( 

Risograph Poster, Kelsey Elder, 2015-16.

Typography, I feel is often unappreciated or under utilized as a stand alone design element. This isn’t quite the case in this work, with boxes and dotted lines and the occasional symbol. But just letting the black and white type be the main expression, rather than using color, really displays how much personality a typeface can have on a page. This is particularly interesting as a graphic design major because this is what we’re doing now as students; taking type and dissecting its form, then using it as design. It really goes to show how little you need as a designer to make a large impact with your work.

Eric Gottesman, If I Could See Your Face I Would Not Need Food (1999-2004)

Eric Gottesman went to Ethiopia at a time when he didn’t even consider himself a photographer. He spent the first six months of his extended stay not taking pictures, but learning about the lives of those around him. It was the late 90′s  moving into the early 2000′s when he worked on this series. It regarded a group of individuals with AIDS/HIV. Due to the stigma surrounding the disease Eric experienced a lot of rejection and when a picture was allowed, they didn’t want to show their face. I think what Eric was stepping out of the boundaries in this series. Everyone has these preconceived notions about what African culture is like based on the media that has come from it. It is seen as this starving country yet Eric was able to find unique individuals with inspiring stories.

Rob Swainston, Who Owns the Sky? (2014)