PART 2

Now you may think I forgot to finish my point yesterday but in reality I thought that was enough boring you with my problems.

Today I’m going to quickly share with you what in my opinion is the most horrifying part of judging your own work.

"Bias: a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation.”

We are biased when it comes to our own work. Now this can be a good or bad thing, just as one can be overly positive or overly negative in life. For me well, I enjoy my work when I’m creating it and for a short time thereafter. My portfolio is currently made up in my opinion of 2 or 3 great pieces and the rest are okay or garbage. The longer it has been since I worked on a piece the more I find wrong with it when I look at it again.

Take my design work or even this website as an example. I’ve redesigned this site 3 times in a year. It’s impossible for me to be finished with anything it always needs something more or less. I can’t seem to look at my work and see an artist’s work all I see is my work. Is this a normal problem for other artists out there or am I the only one who thinks this way. Tell me what you do to get around this, if it’s indeed a problem. I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Cris

Just when you thought you had a professional looking business card to present to clients and possible clients you come across this. Style and good a simple design, I'm jealous. Maybe I should get some like it, haha.

See more on this here and get yourself some here.

Cris

What an interesting day this is turning out to be. As the days, weeks, and months pass the happy day of my new baby’s arrival grows closer and certain things I’ve been trying to ignore are rearing their ugly little heads. First of all I’m trying to get into graduate school and pursue a Masters of Fine Arts to finally get back to making art not that you need a degree to create art but that’s another issue for another day. What does this have to do with my wife being pregnant you ask? They are both due around the same date and lets not even get into the financial implications of a newborn and grad school. Just applying for grad school is a bit scary enough. I have to prepare a letter of intent basically detailing why I want to pursue this degree and of course why they should care. Three letters of reference and let me tell you rounding up past professors who like still like you and remember you isn’t always a piece of cake. These two are actually the easy part (not really). The part that is really driving me to no sleep is the portfolio. I’ve been out of school for 3 years now and in all honesty out of the art scene for that time. I’ve continued to work but not really putting all of my time into it. I haven’t shown my work in 3 years. My work is in my opinion strong enough to get me into grad school but there’s still that knot in the pit of my stomach that worries me. Is my work good enough or was my work good enough.

Am I stuck in a rut or do I still know how to be creative with my work? Do I worry too much? Am I whining too much? That’s probably a YES! Well I think I can do it. The feeling of fear isn’t much different than my first attempt at art school, or my second year performance review.

It’s time to look at my portfolio and pick the best work, what will it be?

Any suggestions?

Canon dropping film! What the heck is going on here? I'm sure this is old news for many of you but this is the first I hear of it. Where have I been you ask, well using solely a digital camera for the last 2 years I guess.

I can understand this decision from a current business point of view, but lets be honest film has not been surpassed yet. While digital is still the easiest and quickest way to produce an image these days for quick printing and amazing quality by comparison film still holds the number 1 spot for quality in my opinion. Reading this makes me wonder what will come of all the darkrooms in universities all over will they be forced to drop film in the not so distant future and only teach digital. I can't even imagine it. The work done in the darkroom was as much part of my pursuing this creative avenue as the shooting. Knowing I'd have to develop the film, print my images in the stinky darkroom all part of the creative process and I love it.

The article doesn't mention the targeting of medium format or large format cameras in this film halt but if anyone knows if they are also included or anything else about the subject please let me know.

All that is left to say here is good ole film I'll miss you and your rich white whites and black blacks.

Cris