Week 12: Artist Interview – Katherine Cox

When I was at the art gallery I was very interested in the ceramics done by Katherine Cox. At first when I walked into the Dutzi Gallery I was like “Wow it looks like jade,” her ceramic works looks very beautiful, the carvings that are on the ceramics are perfect and they all have a unique pattern that made each other stand out. I thought it was very beautiful and it captured my attention right when I first saw it. Cox said that the use of of ceramic vessels and enclosed forms as sites for creating and displaying stories and imagery. Mainly she is interested in how the vessels that once functioned within the parameters of longstanding pottery traditions might deliver narrative imagery, motifs, and emblems. The forms are used to create a dialogue with the ideas of domestic within a home and how these ideas affect people. I really like the idea of how she focuses on how the ideas would affect the people since others opinion would help us to strive to do better. She stated that these are a reflection of how societal pressures contribute to an individual’s mindset, patterns and decorative elements suggest a presence of femininity. The images used come from her personal history with narratives that have been repeated through human history and she hopes to create a dialogue between people to change the narrative to be something different. She said that her choice of imagery came through a variety of experiences including how she grew up in Michigan and living in Southern California. She wants her work to drawn the viewers into the natural elements of the piece and relate to the various human experiences that they encounter. I really enjoy looking at the work that Cox done, they were very beautiful and very meaningful.

Week 9: Artist Interview – Tiffany Le

I enjoy going to the art gallery every Thursday, I think it is a great experience that allows the students to broaden their knowledge about what kind of art is out there. Like for me whenever I use to think of art I always think about paint, color and drawings but there is a lot of different kind of art. And it also changed my perspective about how art was created. Just like when I saw this artwork, it was able to capture my attention right away because I was able to relate to it and around my house I have a lot of similar artwork like these hanging on my walls. Tiffany said that she is fascinated by mythology, history, and folktales, I also share the same fascination with her. Mythology and folktales always catches my attention and raises my interests about it. But for her these fascination surface in her depiction of animals and curvilinear line work. Tiffany stated that the art piece reflects upon her travels and observation of her study abroad trip to China with depiction of fish and the changes in their swimming patterns. I really like this painting and how the fish looks like it swims together in unity, it is kind of like the fishes we have in the garden at our school. After I saw her painting at in the gallery, I wasn’t very interested in the other art work, although they are still very nice.