Richland Community College
Students
Syllabi
Spring 2008 Course Schedule
Assignments
Written Responses
Photo Lab Schedule
Resources
David Erlanson Gallery

	Kassandra Swearingen I am at Richland Community College to complete some classes before transferring to Illinois State University to get a B. S. in Teacher Education for the art department. My main emphasize is photography, mainly abstract or in natural enivornment figures and landscape. I am currently in photography 2 and digital photography.
Artist's Statement I started taking pictures when I was a child. My first camera used 110 film and I mainly used it on vacations, mainly landscape scenes like the sun rising over the ocean or of house along the beach. Then I got a little point-and-shoot digital camera and start taking pictures of everyday scenes from animals to friends and family. Then I started taking art classes at college and learned about the different styles and techniques throughout the ages and really began to show an interest in photography as my main media. I’m inspired by mysticism, nature, and spirituality. The world is full of energy and spirits, and I try to translate this onto film. The older styles of photography mixed with the mystic figures and nature are representative in my art. I think the cooler tones for the nature scenes really bring out the sense of newness. Also, warmer tones are great for the figural prints. I feel that the beauty of nature and the figures are best felt with the energy they hold, and I translate those energies into prints with the aids a filters to bring out different contrast. I tend to prefer moderate to high contrast with some middle tones in my prints. I’ve recently started on digital photography, so hopefully I can start to add vivid colors to my prints. Some of the artists who have influenced me are Mariko Mori. Mori’s fashion costuming and make-up to make fantasy worlds come to life influence me to do the same with nature and mystic figures. Mori would dress in costumes and become different personas and create new stories. Mori’s Kumano is a beautiful piece that combines spirituality with nature. I’m also influenced by Carleton E. Watkins and his landscape scenes. Watkins makes his nature prints seem transcendent, and I love for people to view nature as such. Some of he scenes have human presence in them and that is what I try to show with bridges, signs, buildings, and benches in parks or wooded areas. My aspirations as an artist is to show the world in a spiritual way; in both beauty and cruelty. My future goal is to complete my own, personal version of the major arcane. I plan on showing the mystical side of the world with my figure dressing as the 22 different scenes. I’m going to use both digital and film with this project.
Inspirational Contemporary Artists Mariko Mori Mariko Mori is a video and photographic artist who uses both Eastern and Western inspirations in her art. Her work has a familiar feeling of Cindy Sherman in that they both use themselves as models and dress in characters to become different characters and acting different scenes. Mori, however has more of a techno, anime, fantasy style with her narratives. She’s known for blending Eastern mythology with Western culture styles; and seeing how she has studios in both Japan and America, she has a sense of both cultures. Mori’s pieces lead the viewer through a journey into fantasy (Miko no Inori) and into a higher state of mind (The Dream Temple). The use of costumes and imagery show a mixture of different cultures and spiritual paths. I love the intensity of her work and the feelings portrayed in her eyes. The symbolism in her work uses the hidden double meanings that are found in the Japanese language in culture. As with most artist that I find inspirational, Mori uses multiple media for her art work. One of the most popular pieces Miko no Inori was originally a performance piece but the still images and video have become very popular. The use of color and surrounds(an airport) are used to give a sense of transcendental religious beliefs in that people can communicate with other spiritual realms with the aid of a shaman. This piece has combined the environment with art and that is hard because the place must be chosen carefully such in this case where the buildings beams met up and make a sort of opening or frame for her to do her performance. Jill Greenberg Jill Greenberg is known for her manipulation of her photographs. She’s done work for advertising, entertainment, portraiture, and other series. A common theme is her ability to manipulate the image. One of her more controversy series was End Times, in which she gave children suckers and then took it away and snapped the picture as the child started to cry. The series was suppose to show her feelings toward the Bush administration and Christian Fundamentalism; however, many people had issues deciding if it was art or cruelty toward children and thus there were complaints when this series was shown. I thought it was amusing how far an artist would go to get the image; it shows a level of professionalism. I love how she has different subject matter, but same style. They all have a plasticity about them. A lot of the images are portrait shots but with the added manipulation adds a level of surrealism that makes the figures appear to be wax sculptures. Some of her images, specially the animal ones, are kind of disturbing because the eyes seem so huge and fake, like the animal has been stuffed and is now stuck on someone’s wall. The human images are also in a sense disturbing because the skin is so shiny or the face contorted in a way that doesn’t seem real. I think it is this disturbing features which make her images interesting because the face, specially the eyes, are what draws the viewers attention in portraiture style photographs. Sarah Chokyi Bauer Sarah Chokyi Bauer does work in performance, video, photography, and installation. I find her work to be inspiring because she uses different media together and has spiritual and profound meanings to her work. I also find it interesting how the work differs and yet remains the same when she collaborates with other artists. Her project, which she collaborated with Robin Assner, Acts of Hope and Futility has good use of imagery. The feelings of futility really come through in the images. I like the idea of using the human figure and making it into objects instead of an obvious figure. The tonal values are very consistent throughout the photographs and I love the use of the white powder to make the figures seem like they are decaying or break through the outer skin kind of feeling. Some of her other projects such as Above is Below and praying project reflects her Tibetan Buddhism spiritual path, which I find inspiring because I also like to incorporate spiritual symbols and ideals in my art work. These projects can be viewed up close or from afar, dawn to dusk lighting and still be visually pleasing to the eye. I like the idea that so much thought went into what colors would go well together and at different time periods of the day and the grids that allow for close up or far way viewing. It shows that her art and spiritual path are both important to her and that she is trying to portray that to the audience.