Greg Stimac

Greg Stimac's Mowing the Lawn series is a portrait of an American tradition. It's hard to imagine an American house, in an American neighborhood with out grass surrounding it. It's an iconic part of our culture just as much as apple pie and baseball. The images are simple in terms of formal qualities and tone, but unsuspectingly deep in their repetition of concept. Each image is very static yet shows a certain struggle in each individual. Completely frozen in their actions it is possible to examine each persons physical involvement in their work. You start to notice the similarities that carry between each person. Aside from their obvious similar act of mowing it becomes apparent that each person is struggling in someway. No one is enjoying this mundane act that only exists as a 'this has to be done' basis. They appear to be robotically and blindly carrying out this act simply because it is engraved in them as something that they have to do. This is in general how most traditions function, a staple of everyday life yet not something that is often given though as to why it is happening, its just simply tradition.

Idea

It's been brought to my attention by several peers that barriers are a reoccurring theme in my recent work. While I've been conscious of the window type barriers I've never really taken into thought that the images are made up of essentially different ways of blocking off what is visible. The line is mainly responsible for this as it separates and blocks off different sections, creating the tension between different areas. This is subconsciously search for when I shoot. I feel like I do not take the time enough to stop and think why it is that I photograph such strong lines. It's obviously a huge part of my work, people know me for this, when they think of my photography they think of structure.

Barrier is a word that I have never really thought about though in terms of my work. These barriers are so visually strong in my work that often people ask if the images have been photoshoped, if they are a composite of different planes and images.



There's no denying that recently my work has become more and more visually consistent. The barrier has many forms, but is definitely present in every scene. Weather its in the form of a window, a snow drift or a balcony it is always there. I think when it comes down to it I just don't like to give the viewer the full image. The barrier creates a mystery as if something is being held back, it is my way of painting with the photograph. I get to choose what is seen and what remains hidden as the photographer, and more often then not I choose to section off. I think people are starting to notice the barrier because recently the work has dramatically been simplified. It has shifted from the more overloaded window shots the the simpler concentrated work seen above. The barrier is an important part of my work and is something that since my last critique will be much more conscious in how and when I use it.

Show entry: Anderson Gallery

Thursday Idea replacement: Artist lecture, Sanford Biggers

The Bridge is Over (biddybyebye)., 2006

Prayer Rug, 2005

Blossom, 2007

Sanford Biggers is a former VCU professor who currently teaches at Columbia University. Going into the lecture, like most, I had zero knowledge of the artist or his work. Biggers talk started off like most lecturers, with a little bit of background. He started by showing a montage of found footage that he said basically summed up his life and way of thinking. The video was strangely all over the place but in a even stranger way made sense somehow. At first I struggled to see the connections but as the video went on I started to see that there is a bit of method to his madness. It's clear that he has multiple influences from different cultures that have made him and his art what it is today; Asian Buddhism, African tribe culture and American hip hop just to name a few. His diversity in knowledge and perspectives is truly what has made him as successful as he is.

What really took me by surprise was some of the random pieces that he showed us. He started with the montage, then played a video comparing his family videos to a Jewish girls family videos. While these pieces were definitely interesting they were in heavy contrast to some of his physical structure work. To go from showing a video montage to a massive sculpture of a tree with a piano stuck in it was a little disorienting. The scope and technical amazement that these sculptures had seemed so distant form the other pieces that it was hard to tell that they were produced by the same artist. It's always interesting to me to see an artists true physical skill or talent. I feel like every artist has some basic skill that they are able to build their foundation for success upon. Some artist display it more blatant then others, but Biggers chose to let it creep out about halfway into the lecture. It doesn't always have to be something as concrete as detailed physical building like Biggers is, but each artist has to have that technical skill to be able to fall back on, almost like their street credit.

Biggers gave an interesting lecture, he was a little all over the place at times but was very genuine and engaging. Some of his work was subtlety mind blowing and he kept me guessing as to what he would talk about next until the end.

Andrew Borowiec

Belpre, Ohio, 2006

Canal Winchester, Ohio, 2006

Monroe, Ohio, 2006

Andrew Borowiec has the ability to capture something very unique. Not only can you see a county in transition, but a country at a specific point. Making the transition from black and white to full color, Borowiec traveled middle America, mostly the Ohio area, after the 2004 election. What he found was that the landscape itself reflected the people who inhabited it. It's possible to paint an entire portrait of a people with out even having to actually show them. So many 'American experience' photographers tend to focus on the people themselves but few look past them to the to the actual spaces themselves. A similar color pallet and an even use of lighting in his images seem eerily similar throughout each different location. The often subtle imagery seen in the pictures is contrasted with over the top, larger than life objects that play to the inconsistent tendencies of modern American life.

Idea

Earlier this week I went through my entire backup hard drive and searched through the thousands of photos that I have kept from over the years. I tend to be a little neurotic about saving photos, I keep absolutely everything. I 98% of the images I have shot over the some ten odd years I have saved. I've gone through five cameras now and I have folders for each one. I'm not sure why I separate them by camera, it just seemed natural I guess, possibly in the future I could go back and categorize them by color or something. Anyway I was looking through all these photos and I found ones that I really don't even remember taking. Images that I snapped while walking down the street, with friends, wherever. It was actually quite emotional looking through what was basically my life for the last ten years.

As I went through the hordes I grabbed singles that stood out to me for whatever reason and put them in a separate folder on the desktop. Once I was done with this I was really amazed at what I had come up with. I immediately saw similarities throughout the images both formally and conceptually. It's like my mind really has worked in the same way all these years, even if I didn't know it. I started paring like images and it began to read some how logically, just like a book. It blew me away so much that I think I just might have to make it into a book. Pictures taken in completely different location under totally different mind sets somehow came together as one. I like to hope that this is some sort of testament to my photographic eye but hey who knows. I think that this is a seriously beneficial exercise that any photographer who's as insane about keeping photos as I am should go through. Here are just a few: