A Meditation on Chairs
The following passage served as my final artist statement for an art class I took during my senior year of college. Despite being a psychology major, I found myself with extra course credits that afforded me the opportunity to take studio art classes.
In Art 101, I had a visiting professor that, despite the cliché, altered my perspective on art-making and pedagogy. The class was a mixed bag, with some students reluctantly filling a requirement and others already identifying as true artists. I fell somewhere in between. I knew that I had an affinity for creative people and endeavors. I had dabbled in different mediums. A professor of one my art history courses suggested that I had a good eye. Nate, my Art 101 professor, was an energetic textile artist who lived on an island not far from campus. His ultimate goal, it seemed, was to let students have fun and reflect on our personal interests in an environment that was encouraging and non-judgmental. I found this to be the kind of environment that fosters the best kind of work. The class was neither stuffy nor pretentious. If you spend a bit more time on a project or idea, you might discover something new. I could continue on Nate’s methods but I won’t for the sake of brevity.
For our final assignment, if I remember correctly, we were instructed to spend some time on developing a larger body of work. You know, the way an artist would. The focus was on the process and intention rather than the final product. This alleviated pressure for the novice (me).
“Chairs have long captured my attention - particularly the stars of the mid-century modern movement. Although, that’s probably where any chair-curious person starts. Hockney said that he loved chairs because they were like people - they have arms and legs, too! Chairs represent rest, ornamentation, productivity. We can watch these purposes change over time and across different art movements.
For my final piece, I wanted to explore the concept of the chair through various mediums, including photography, graphite, charcoal, and silkscreen printmaking. My collection featured two drawings, two prints, and three carefully selected photographs that spotlighted the chair and its significant roles. I began with the prints, and initially struggled with the message I wanted to convey. I toyed with the idea of consumerism in the Warholian tradition and played with the positioning and relationships of the chairs. Ultimately, my pieces conveyed the chair’s representation of change. As I sat down to work on this project, my workspace transformed - friends came and went, and chairs were used to listen, laugh, and learn from one another. A scooted chair to represent focus. A reclined chair to represent a hardy laugh. Through illustration, printing, and photography (not included) of chairs, I aimed to capture how chairs symbolize human movement within spaces: how we adjust chairs to face one another, create distance, and position ourselves in the world. Chairs also came to symbolize broader themes such as movement, time, place, and transience. This theme resonated deeply as my friends and I prepare for graduation, venturing onto to new things. The piece stands as an ode to college and the bittersweet parting of friends. Much like chairs, we will part ways, tucked into new corners of the world. And like chairs, maybe (hopefully) come close together again to share stories, meals, and each other’s company.”
Scan of Initial Sketch
Charcoal
Graphite
Print Process Photos
Silkscreen prints
