N:<\/strong> Erin has a good solid practice right now and is discovering things and building on that. I\u2019m more of the outsider who sometimes reflects, digs a little bit and just reads the work. It\u2019s an equal relationship in terms of discussing work and reading it, making suggestions. With Erin, sometimes it feels like we are peers, not like a student and teacher. I\u2019m engaging with Erin as another artist, where you follow their threads. I\u2019m curious to hear what inspires her. We talked about genre horror movies and her interest in that. It\u2019s a very equal dialogue in the end.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

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Erin, how have these dialogues\/exchanges affected your process and thinking regarding your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/p>\n
E:<\/strong> You can get stuck in your head too much when you are doing something, so I think it\u2019s always helpful to have somebody from the outside come in with another perspective. Nils offers suggestions on what I might do, or path I might take that I may not have thought about before. Nils has also suggested I look at artists that maybe I haven\u2019t taken a hard look at in a while. And of course, looking at other artists\u2019 work helps you in your process. It helps you think about ideas and how to formulate them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
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E:<\/strong> I\u2019m making these little sculptures and it\u2019s my first real big foray into that medium. I\u2019ve been thinking about them as being just these pieces that I am going to photograph to put in the virtual residency exhibition and Nils suggested thinking more about their interaction with the environment. Where, and how, do I want them to exist in a space?<\/p>\n
The piece I am working on now is a culmination of thinking and marinating on these ideas we talked about at our second meeting. I am thinking about how I can push that into the future and my thesis show. What do I want to present and how do I want to present it? Those ideas have been very fruitful \u2013 they keep popping up and I keep working on them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
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N:<\/strong> I would add, I do think the first big shift really came from Erin herself with the shift from making two-dimensional work into three-dimensional. It was her task for the winter residency. That\u2019s what she wanted to do this semester and I totally supported it. As Erin said, now there is something more installational going on here, and there is a place for her two dimensional work to come back into the new body of work. Other components will eventually be part of this work.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure we will continue that dialogue for the next two months, and especially when we get closer to the residency. Making art is a fragile practice and I think the student should take the lead. It\u2019s a very sensitive, transitional kind of time and we all know in the end a semester is very little time, and as artists we don\u2019t think in terms of semesters.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
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E:<\/strong> Absolutely. It\u2019s not like this semester is over and I\u2019m starting on something new. It\u2019s a culmination. I view my career at VCFA as a culmination and so my thesis show will be the high point of everything I have learned and taken and experienced and brought forth. And absolutely a beginning.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
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N:<\/strong> I do sense a beginning. You are very energized, you jumped onto something and it seems like things are really happening. This will continue into the final semester and beyond. And there are going to be some difficulties again or you\u2019ll make another big turn. But it feels like Erin is making a big turn right now and I\u2019m not thinking that I initiated that. She initiated that herself at some point earlier this year when she made up her mind to jump into this three-dimensional world. That for me is also a lot of fun you know, seeing the excitement.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
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How have you been challenged this semester?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/p>\n
E:<\/strong> I\u2019m working in a medium I am not very familiar with. I\u2019ve always stuck with 2D work. Learning how to think three dimensionally in a piece, how to construct it, how to work with the material, and deciding what material I wanted to work with, are all challenging. But that\u2019s part of the excitement too, because it\u2019s brand new. It\u2019s a brand new relationship where I\u2019m figuring things out. I\u2019m working on it. It\u2019s like being with a new person for the first time. You are learning everything about them and how exciting is that?!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
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How has the VCFA Student \u2013 Artist-Mentor model informed the way you approach your process?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/p>\n
E:<\/strong> I have been very fortunate in that all my Artist-Mentors have been fantastic people. And they all come from a variety of disciplines. When I first started, I was doing these giant charcoal drawings and my first Artist-Mentor, Cynthia Atwood, who is a sculptor, brought a different perspective to my drawings. My next Artist-Mentor was Amy Jenkins, a photographer, who brought in a different<\/em> perspective. For me that was always interesting and refreshing to get a variety of different opinions and ideas.<\/p>\n
All of my relationships with my Artist-Mentors have been hugely influential. They supported me in trying new things and to not be afraid that this new thing isn\u2019t working, but to try, to play, and have fun, while also producing good work. It\u2019s like I\u2019m having a friend come over and they\u2019re looking at my work, giving me suggestions and ideas. They are interested in what I am trying to convey and how I am reading my work.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s a wonderful structure. I have had just a great time and I\u2019ve been exposed to so many ideas about making art and what art means. I may not have gotten this if I was in a more traditional program.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
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What advice would you give a new student who is thinking about selecting an Artist-Mentor?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/p>\n
E:<\/strong> It\u2019s a very close relationship and it should be a collaborative one and not an adversarial one. You want to make sure you are working with someone who understands your strengths and weaknesses and not be put off by that. I would also say don\u2019t look at what medium they are working in, look at their actual work. All of my Artist-Mentors and I had very similar ideas about what we wanted to convey although we were working in different mediums. It\u2019s less about the medium and more about the ideas. You shouldn\u2019t be afraid to switch mediums if your ideas would be better served in a different medium.<\/p>\n
For new students, I would definitely look at Artist-Mentors who are Alumnx of the program because they know what you have to go through. They know the process, which is very different from more traditional programs. It\u2019s also helpful in that they would understand the Visual Culture piece of the program. Knowing that, sometimes, you are going to be heavily into research and writing and your work isn\u2019t always going to be studio work.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>Best Authentic Sneakers<\/a> | nike fashion<\/a><\/span>