Paste your essay in here..Biogrpahy:
Shayna Leib:
When and where is she born.Shayna Leib is a glass artist. She did a Bachelors of Art degree in Philosophy at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. During this she also studied Russian literature, glassblowing and classical piano. She was then offered a PhD in Philosophy in New York, however she instead chose to do a Masters of Fine Arts where in glass and metal and she graduated from doing this with her Masters of Fine Arts in 2003. Once she graduated Leib worked at Pearsons Design Studios in Maine where she worked as a metal fabricator. Her job was to try and reproduce the designs by Ronald Haynes Pearson. In 2004, she then returned to California and taught drawing and sculpture at the California Polytechnic State University, the same place where she took her initial degree. In 2005 Leib moved to the University of Madison-Wisconsin to teach glass.
When Leib started producing her own sculptures, she used music as a sense of components, all of the notes on the piano would create a piece as a whole, while in art all of the individual components make a greater sculpture when all used together. Leib chose to focus her art on portraying the slow build up of movement, something which she also used when playing the piano. Leib works in many different mediums, these include glass, ceramic, metal, stone, photography and fabric. Her main medium that she uses is glass. This is because it captures best what she is trying to portray (which is the movement) and glass allows her to do this and to make her sculptures quite minimalistic.
Leib grew up on the coast of California and therefore was very near to the sea, and this shows in her work. In 2009 she became a diver in order to do under water photography. This then meant that a lot of her work would be sculpture forms which would be inspired by the photographs that she had taken under the sea. When Leib described her work, she stated: “The things I find beautiful have always been fractal in nature. I am intrigued by multitudes of tiny little parts- blades of grass all bending in the wind to the same rhythm. As you pan out you have waves of form. Zoom in and you see each individual blade of grass moving to the flow of the wind.”
shaynaleib.com/
Kate MccGwire
Date and whereKate MccGwire was born in 1964. MccGwire is a British sculpture who works mostly in feathers and producing large installations. MccGwire aims to experiment with both beauty and disgust. One of the ways she has shows this is by using pigeon feathers to create a piece which was beautiful by using feathers of an animal which would not usually be seen as an object of beauty, she described her piece as “rats with wings”. MccGwire was inspired by Lucian Freud as she was captivated by the way he would use a common and familiar thing to make the viewer feel fear or somehow uncomfortable by something which is often seen as homely. She aims to portray the truth behind the objects and get viewers to see the common objects in a different light. MccGwire was brought up in Norfolk on the Norfolk Broads which is why she has such an interest with the birds and why these are such a large part in her work. She uses only natural materials to try and portray opposites from what one would expect the sculptures to show. MccGwire graduated from the Royal College or Art in 2004 and since then her sculptures have been shown in the Saatchi Gallery in London, Museum of Art and Design in New York and the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_MccGwire
http://katemccgwire.com
Introduction:
Shayna Leib uses mostly glass, she uses non-natural materials to produce natural looking sculptures. She is inspired by fractal shapes and patterns which is a very prominent theme in her artwork. The sculptor, Kate MccGwire uses feathers, a natural material to create her work. When looking at MccGwire’s pieces it is obvious that fractals shapes are created by the repetition of the feathers, which are identical in size and shape.
I chose these two artists as I felt that both artists have similarities to my own work. The aspect of natural forms in both artists is something which I felt had a very strong link to my own work. The use of materials including glass and feathers is something which I have also experimented with. Using lots of different components coming together to make a whole piece is also something that I have used a lot in my own pieces.
Both Leib and MccGwire have a striking resemblance especially with the key theme of natural forms. Leib uses a topic of “wind and water”, which she was inspired to do after becoming a diver to get more detailed photos from under the water. MccGwire uses the feathers to make smooth and flowing forms, which can be interpreted by the viewer in many different ways and to play on the fact that the pieces have a darker and deeper meaning. Both artists have been inspired by other artists and also by how they were brought up and their own experiences from when they were younger. This is something I have tried to do in my own work by using my own photos to inspire my making and sculpture. I was inspired by the scale and the way that MccGwire uses installation in her work with some of her installations filling up a whole room. MccGwire includes different parts of the buildings into her work, often buildings which are abandoned and therefore seen as creepy, this is one way which she portrays a darker meaning in her work to make the viewer feel uncomfortable about her work. An example of this would be her piece “Retch”, this piece shows her work coming out of the wall of a building and for me when I look at it gives me a sense of worry which is something that MccGwire tries to do with her pieces.
Comparison:
Brancusi sculpture Naciciss
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0ahUKEwjsssSv9vXXAhUMuhQKHTGdCgMQFghCMAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.artnet.com%2Fartists%2Fconstantin-brancusi%2Fnarcissus-a4y96ET5Dv_RDyjJzEtzQA2&usg=AOvVaw3A-EJsc1gHH5osUV_D84Qm
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&ved=0ahUKEwjsssSv9vXXAhUMuhQKHTGdCgMQFghMMAo&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mutualart.com%2FArtwork%2Fnarcissus-fountain%2FD53A2CEB0314FA81&usg=AOvVaw3NiuoybaDEO17-9-51kavv
I am going to compare MccGwires pieces “conundrum” and “narcis”. The first think that strikes me about these two pieces are the names. The word narcis being very similar to narcissism, the definition of narcissism is “extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one's own talents and a craving for admiration, as characterizing a personality type.” MccGwire is inspired by her choice of materials due to her fascination of cultural associations. She explained how “the dove is the symbol of peace, purity and fertility. But it’s exactly the same species as a pigeon – which everyone regards as being dirty, foul, a pest.” Therefore, the choice of name for her piece “narcis” is significant and relates a lot to what MccGwire is trying to prove or portray in her pieces. The “craving for admiration” could be linked to the stereotypes that different birds of the same species (e.g. the pigeon and the dove) face. Although this link is between birds it does also make the viewer think about stereotypes that people face in every day life.
Her other piece I will be comparing is called “conundrum”. The definition for conundrum is “a confusing and difficult problem or question”. This links strongly back to MccGwire’s points about the Dove and the Pigeon and the question of why these very similar birds and perceived so differently.
Narcis is one of her “dome” works. MccGwire thinks hard about where to place her pieces and on what scale to have them with some of them covering entire rooms. Narcis is made of Mallard feathers. I find the way in which it is placed very interesting, although the feathered sculpture itself looks rather bright and beautiful, the way it is presented and what it is placed in puts a different view on the piece. It is placed in an antique dome which is tight around the sculpture. The claw-like stand which is holding the piece also gives it more of an eerie feeling. These two together gives it a sense of being trapped which could be seen as a metaphor for the stereotypes not changing. The shape itself of the piece is a smooth flowing form, it is simple but allows the viewer to interpret what MccGwire is trying to portray in many different ways.
COMPARE
http://www.artnews.com/2013/08/19/kate-mccgwire-lets-get-feathering/
http://katemccgwire.com/dome-works#/narcis-2012/
Comparison:
Kate MccGwires piece “Spill” and Shayna Leib’s piece “Laminar” have both similarities and differences. The colours are quite similar, the deep blues and green seem somewhat eerie to the viewer and really exaggerate the smooth forms created by both the artists. It is interesting how both artists choose to set out their work. Leib chooses 4 separate frames which seem to come together as a whole, this is similar to the designs of both artist sculptures where many separate pieces come together to make a whole. The names of the artist’s work are also significant. Leibs piece “Laminar” means “(of a flow) taking place along constant streamlines, without turbulence.” This shows how the piece is supposed to give the idea of being flowing and streamlined. MccGwires piece “Spill” gives the viewer the thought of something gently flowing over the edge of something. Both of the piece’s names are supposed to exenterate the fact that the pieces are smooth and flowing forms.
Conclusion:
Looking at both Leib and MccGwires pieces encouraged me to think further into my own creations, materials, forms and meanings. While attempting to make a piece out of feather it really put into perspective the difficulty and skill needed to make a piece as intricate as MccGwires. I was inspired to then explore further into repeating fractal shapes and components. This then allowed me to create larger, more impressive shapes by using many smaller shapes to create a large piece. The use of natural forms and the shapes created is something which links strongly to my work and Kate MccGwires use of natural materials to make sculptures also encouraged me to use a wider range of materials including exploratory work with feather.