Jolene DuBray: Artist Statement
My role as an artist has evolved into providing the viewer
with information about the world in order to gain perspective on civilization
in America. My work questions patriotism and what it means to be a citizen of
the United States. I call attention to scenarios I believe to be monumental and
challenge the concept of power and control in order to convey a sense of
individual liberty. My work highlights
people who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe is right or are
directly affected by the expansion of power. I express these ideas through
paintings and installations. I also have been making culturally ambiguous
miniature ceramic sculptures which are a celebration of social and cultural
melds, love, and unity. It is important for me to reinforce the idea of love
being the solution to the division prevalent in our culture.
11/29/12 More layers!
11/26/12 I am thankful for the break and making steady progress on my painting. I have been working counter clockwise and I began the last quarter today. I am using linseed oil, which makes the paint dry in about 24 hours, so I have been able to layer colors at a steady pace. If I am relentless, I can do this!
12/4/2012 Below are the final images of the body of work I created this semester. I feel as if through much exploration I have finally found a direction for my work. I will continue down the avenue of identity politics and hybridization. The title of my latest painting is, Flash Mob at the Jefferson Memorial. It is at the gallery waiting to be hung. I can not wait for the show!
11/29/12 More layers!
As for my other project, I had to start over today. My figure broke again because it was too dry, the head snapped right off. However I have had lots of practice and I plan on having them in the kiln this week! For the display I ordered a special metal called Gallium that melts at eighty degrees. I plan on displaying the the figures gathered around a tiny ceramic bowl with the gallium in it all on a heating pad, so that the gallium stays in liquid form. I tested it today, and it works!
11/24/12
11/21/12
11/19/2012
11/13/12 This week disaster has struck! The ceramic figure I was working on dried out too much and has crumbled in my hand after hours of carving! I went ahead and started 3 more in order to get the 5 total finished before the semester ends. I may put these in the show if I can sqeeze them in.
I also finally got the glazes I ordered. Gold and crackle parchment. I have a test waiting to be fired. I will use the on the low relief sculptures I am going to make. I think the final work will include dancing figures.
(After the first fire I applied a second coat)
This weekend I was able to shoot several models for the big painting. I feel alot better about the work coming together. Now I just have to get the images on the surface. I borrowed an old school overhead projector from Russell, and have started arranging the figures on the canvas. I may takes some more photos of myself and maybe my daughter into the painting. I am determined to get the underpainting finished this weekend!
11/06/12 I have an exciting announcement in art making this week. But first I started the 3rd of 5 sculptures for my independent study. I believe I will make this one a female. Now I will let it dry some so it will be easier to carve into.
This week I have dived into my next project with much zeal and enthusiasm. I, however, will need every bit I can muster in order to finish, not to mention successfully execute the project I have committed my life to for the remainder of the month. The project is to complete a 6ft x 4ft history painting in the style of the old masters. First of all, I have built and prepared the canvas.
Sofie inspected it and approved.
The setting of the painting is at the Jefferson Memorial. I have never been there and I have gotten all my reference images off the Internet, not my first choice, but I have to move as quickly as possible. I printed out I high resolution photo on good paper and sketched some studies. I also located the 3 vanishing points.
Then Brought it to the studio and projected the image onto the canvas.
Finally, after doing research on under paintings, I traced sections of the architecture and did a few studies in the actual size they will be on the painting.. I plan on beginning the under painting on sections of the architecture. I will probably knock the coffers out first. I will practice layering the values, and then the colors on the studies before the painting. I have also began sketches on the figures. I wanted to get a model, but I have decided to do as the old masters did sometimes and draw inspiration from older works with a combination of photos from the event I am depicting.
I am pleased I have found a way to combine my love of studying history, and combined it with making my own work. Also putting a contemporary spin on it by depicting a event in recent history that was blown over by the media, for the most part, and immortalizing it by making it the subject of a history painting.
10/29/12 These are my prints from blocktoberfest. The yellow one turned out the best, but the zigzag one looks like Easter eggs, and I don't hate it.
I began tattooing my new guy. He was fire this weekend. I am having a lot of fun with it. He will be the same colors as the other guy. I want to have a small group of them, like a pack.
The black lines that were on my test turned red in the kiln. I ordered some gold and metallic crackle glaze for the next round of testing.
10/24/12 My latest work is an installation dedicated to the soldiers whom have committed suicide in the last year. The average is one every day. I believe this is on account of not only being at war for over 11 years, and multiple tours overseas by soldiers, but the guilt over collateral damage. The cadences chanted by the military during PT is often saturated with disregard for human life whether that life is a child or a person going to church. Also there are also cadences with strong sexual content, sometimes hinting towards rape. When a soldier returns home, the adjustment is often difficult. Many grow dependent on prescription drugs, and many end their own life.
10/19/12
10/16/12 I began carving my board this week. I love my new dremel. I bought collets for it so I have really small engraving attachments and a larger attachment for large areas. I will have to carve out the larger areas with hand tools.
Figure Friday was a pleasant surprise, because we had a nude model. I was brave enough to go for the tattoos this time.
I was inspired by the the Cummer trip. I am always fascinated by the ancient artifacts in museums. I wanted to make some modern hieroglyphs. I also have a willing model at my disposal. (If only I could have her sit still long enough for paintings.) My first attempt was not successful. I could wrap my brain around carving the figure in low relief. So I stepped away a for a few days.
Then it came to me. I needed to carve around the figure so that it rose up. This test was successful.
Also, I my glazed figure is finally complete. I first coated the figure in a matte engobe slip. This is a slip you apply after the figure is fired. Then I chose a glaze called Luscious Copper, and put tiny tattoos all over the figure. I am very happy with how it turned out.
10/09/12 I was out of commission for a few days this week but I managed to make progress on my big block for Blocktoberfest. I went to Home Depot and got a 3/4in 6ft x 4ft MDF board. I was going to do a work based on the 7 secular virtues, but then I woke with an vision of a hawk in my head. I started looking up the symbolism of hawks and found many different interpretations. I decided to go for it. Part of the fun of the critiques was listening to how people interpreted the meaning behind the symbols in my work. It ended up being about what the work meant to them and not what it meant to me, even though I created it. It was like an epiphany. I relate it to studying art history and reading different historians opinions on what they think the work means. So here is what I came up with.
The hawk is carrying a dead lizard. I cannot wait to hear peoples interpretation of the symbolism. I took the board to the Art Building and projected the image onto the board and drew it in with a sharpie and some ink.
Tonight I brought the board home and I will dedicate my life to carving this massive block until October 26th. Below are some images I used for reference.
I am using a crop circle pattern for the background because of its symmetry and mysterious form.
I went by the ceramic studio tonight to photograph the glaze I added to one of my wolf effigies, but it was in the kiln, which is exciting and disappointing because I wanted a photo of before and after the firing. I started some new figure and took a photo of those. They are in the very early stages.
10/02/12 I have more ceramic work but it is at the ceramic studio right now. I also have a few things fired and ready to be glazed. I am very happy with the way they turned out. I am creating a pack of wolf effigies.
Figure Fridays
I painted Bob really big, and now I have to figure (pun intended, haha) out how to finish the painting.
I finally invested in a dremel. I am going to Blocktoberfest with the printmaking I class at FSCJ South campus. I went last year when I was in this class and did a collaboration, but this year I am doing one by myself. It is a large scale block printing event where we use a steam roller instead of a press. I want to do a print on the seven secular virtues, which is a modern adaptation of the seven virtues of Catholicism that were opposite of the seven deadly sins. I read a paper about this by Dale Mcgowen PhD. who is an author of Parenting Beyond Belief. The link to the paper is below.
09/27/12 Fini! i think...
09/25/12 Here is some of the stuff I worked on this week. I have more at the ceramics studio. Photos to come for that soon.
Figure Fridays
I finished my lino-prints on black and white paper.
I added a mosaic-like border to my astrology chart. I started adding symbols to the tiles, but I may paint over it. I am not sure if I like it or not yet.
I bought some new books for research and inspiration.
What is a girl to do with a gallon of blood and 300 toy soldiers?
09/18/12 I have started alot of stuff this week.
Figure Friday was cool, though I was tardy. I would like to finish this somehow. I am not sure how yet.
Made a few artist proofs of my lino-cut print, using the blended ink method.
I have started a few ceramic sculptures inspired by the music video below. I have been concentrating on a howling wolf as I mold the clay. There is no real objective as I start to shape the clay besides the the image in my head of a howling wolf. I mold the wet clay into the basic shape and let it harden until I can carve into it. I also smack the clay with my tools in order to give it a dense feel and rocky texture.
This is a newer one I started last night. The clay is still very wet. The next step is to carve in the big shapes, like those above. Then I will refine them somehow. I am not sure what they will look like when I finish.
I began to paint in the seasons on my medicine wheel. They look OK, but that isn't good enough is it? So I will get a magnifying glass in order to do some crazy details. BTW this is only important in this section of the painting.
On the outer border of the Astrology chart I have decided to add some more symbols. I tested a few Lakota symbols, and I like the idea, but I am going to change the order and the presentation, slightly. Also I am going to mix it up with some symbols from other cultures. I want them to reflect the colors of the sun.
09/12/12 Cool music video that inspires me because of the power in the culture.
09/12/12 I liked the idea of the snake, but I thought it was lacking visually. It had some highlights but was a little flat for me. I took inspiration from illuminated manuscipts, like the Book of Kells, got a tiny paint brush and put several hours of line work into it. Now the "cave paintings" are pushed back into space. I am pleased so far. I will continue to labor over this part of the painting. I want it to be very detailed.
09/10/12 Today I added some of the symbolism to my painting. Around the medicine wheel I painted a snake devouring itself. This is an ancient symbol used in Egypt and Rome known as the ouroboros and it often represents cycles or something that recreates itself. Next I combined the Pisces fish with the Jesus fish. I was stumped on how to recreate the Aquarius water bearer symbol. I decided to modernise it by painting the chemistry symbol for water inside the human mind. The astrological symbols were painted to look like aboriginal cave paintings, or winter counts.
Ouroboros
Jesus fish
Pisces fish
Water molecule
Lascaux Cave Painting
Lakota Winter Count
09/09/2012 I made the sun more fiery because the details I put around before kinda looked like blood, which was not my intent.
9/07/12 Sneek peak at my new lino-cut block!
09/05/12 I decided to paint the background of the chart to look like raw hide or the walls of a cave. I also painted in the medicine wheel and painted details around the sun and refined the black lines around the chart.
09/02/12 The painting I am currently working on focuses on how we perceive time and the future of humanity. I was inspired not only by an astrology chart, but also the Native American medicine wheel. I plan on incorporating more symbolism into the work.
The Astrology chart is one of the major symbols represented in my painting. I modified it so that the sun takes up the entire center of the circle.
This is an example of a Medicine Wheel. They all contain the four colors black, white, red, and yellow. These colors represent the four races of man. This particular wheel also includes the four seasons, which I will also incorporate in my painting.
I started this drawing earlier in the summer. It is a combination of ink wash and graphite. I am experimenting by layering watered down black ink with white ink and pushing the marks around by blowing through a straw. I plan on shading the figure with graphite. I want to trace it and start over on a sheet of hot press watercolor paper.
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