Sandy
Skoglund
Sandy was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1946. Her family moved to southern California when she was a teenager. This was quite different from the east coast; the bright colors of the houses and flowers inspired her. After living in California for a few years, Sandy got a job working at Disneyland. It was there where she realized that fantasy applies to real life, and to people of all ages.
After graduation, Sandy attended Smith College in Northhampton from 1966-1968. Then from 1969-1972 she attended graduate school, studying art at the University of Iowa. During her studies she became fascinated with film, but eventually moved into photography as her main media. She has been a Professor of Art since 1973, and is currently teaching photography and installation art/multi-media at Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Sandy is interested in human behavior in suburban environments. Her experiences growing up in suburbia show through her fantastical installations depicting different realities. Her works question social norms, values, and practices in a surreal world gone seriously awry. She creates displays that everyone can relate too, yet her dream-like tableaux gives the viewer an uneasy feeling. Sandy is known for her large, brightly colored Cibachrome photographs of her installations.
I used Sandy as my main reference artist, while exploring this project. One of my questions asks how these artists portray the differences between fantasy and reality. Sandy approaches her artwork from an outrageous fantasy point of view, adding only humans subjects as a means to connect her installations to real life. Sandy's work seems more playful and fun compared to my other artist, but they all have very similar underlying messages in their art.
Revenge of the Goldfish
Raining
Popcorn
Sandy was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1946. Her family moved to southern California when she was a teenager. This was quite different from the east coast; the bright colors of the houses and flowers inspired her. After living in California for a few years, Sandy got a job working at Disneyland. It was there where she realized that fantasy applies to real life, and to people of all ages.
After graduation, Sandy attended Smith College in Northhampton from 1966-1968. Then from 1969-1972 she attended graduate school, studying art at the University of Iowa. During her studies she became fascinated with film, but eventually moved into photography as her main media. She has been a Professor of Art since 1973, and is currently teaching photography and installation art/multi-media at Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Sandy is interested in human behavior in suburban environments. Her experiences growing up in suburbia show through her fantastical installations depicting different realities. Her works question social norms, values, and practices in a surreal world gone seriously awry. She creates displays that everyone can relate too, yet her dream-like tableaux gives the viewer an uneasy feeling. Sandy is known for her large, brightly colored Cibachrome photographs of her installations.
I used Sandy as my main reference artist, while exploring this project. One of my questions asks how these artists portray the differences between fantasy and reality. Sandy approaches her artwork from an outrageous fantasy point of view, adding only humans subjects as a means to connect her installations to real life. Sandy's work seems more playful and fun compared to my other artist, but they all have very similar underlying messages in their art.
photograph of
installation,
1981
photograph of installation,
2001
Gregory Crewdson
Gregory was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1962. He received his Bachelors of Art degree from SUNY Purchase, New York in 1985. He then went on to receive his Masters in Fine Arts from the Yale School of Art, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Gregory Crewdson is a contemporary photographer, who creates thoughtful sets of disturbing dreamscapes. He concentrates on domestic life and nature through eerie photographs of people in zombie-like states of mind. They resemble something out of a horror/sci-fi movie. Gregory became interested in the human psyche at a young age. His father was a psychoanalyst, and tended to his patience in his office located in the basement of their home. Gregory was never allowed to listen to his father's sessions, but that did not curb his curiosity.
Gregory's earlier works focused more on suburban scenes from a birds eye view. They looked as though a UFO was looking down, watching the odd behaviors of the human species. His use of dramatic lighting creates an awkward tension. Gregory makes photographs that expose the dreams, anxieties, fears, and desires of everyday life.
An important fact to note about Gregory Crewdson's work is his childhood experiences. I think that if his father would not have been a psychoanalyst, he may have not been as interested in the human mind. A large part of artmaking is personal connections to your work. This is essential for my big idea! It is interesting how all of my artists have similar ideas on suburbia, but portray them in different ways. What makes Gregory's photographs eerie? If the people in the pictures were displayed differently, how would that change the mood of the picture? These important details, and specific decisions are all something that an artist must consider.
Untitled
color photograph, 2005
Untitled
digital chromogenic print, 2005
http://www.agallery.com/Pages/photographers/skoglund.html
http://www.sandyskoglund.com/
Walker, S. R. (2001). Teaching Meaning in Artmaking. Worcester, Massachusetts: Davis Publications, Inc.
Walker, S. R. (2001). Teaching Meaning in Artmaking. Worcester, Massachusetts: Davis Publications, Inc.
Gregory Crewdson
Gregory was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1962. He received his Bachelors of Art degree from SUNY Purchase, New York in 1985. He then went on to receive his Masters in Fine Arts from the Yale School of Art, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Gregory Crewdson is a contemporary photographer, who creates thoughtful sets of disturbing dreamscapes. He concentrates on domestic life and nature through eerie photographs of people in zombie-like states of mind. They resemble something out of a horror/sci-fi movie. Gregory became interested in the human psyche at a young age. His father was a psychoanalyst, and tended to his patience in his office located in the basement of their home. Gregory was never allowed to listen to his father's sessions, but that did not curb his curiosity.
Gregory's earlier works focused more on suburban scenes from a birds eye view. They looked as though a UFO was looking down, watching the odd behaviors of the human species. His use of dramatic lighting creates an awkward tension. Gregory makes photographs that expose the dreams, anxieties, fears, and desires of everyday life.
An important fact to note about Gregory Crewdson's work is his childhood experiences. I think that if his father would not have been a psychoanalyst, he may have not been as interested in the human mind. A large part of artmaking is personal connections to your work. This is essential for my big idea! It is interesting how all of my artists have similar ideas on suburbia, but portray them in different ways. What makes Gregory's photographs eerie? If the people in the pictures were displayed differently, how would that change the mood of the picture? These important details, and specific decisions are all something that an artist must consider.
Untitled color photograph, 2005
Untitleddigital chromogenic print, 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
http://www.albrightknox.org/acquisition/acq_2004/Crewdson.html
Allen Spore
Allen is a contemporary artist who grew up in eastern Colorado. In 1968, he served in the Vietnam War as a military photographer. Later, he then received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he currently teaches.
At first glance, Allen's photographs look like ordinary pictures of people. Yet, there is a strange and eerie quality about them. It as if the photographs represent documentation in a museum on an endangered speices...the human species. He slightly manipulates his work by enhancing certain qualities, which makes the subjects resemble cardboard cut-outs. Allen's work displays only white, middle class American families in a leisure world. Every one of his subjects looks content or comfortable, never troubled. In this sense, the viewer feels alienated from the scene all together. Allen's work represents and questions different contradictions of reality versus fantasy.
The main question for Allen's work deals with creating his images in an unnatural way? What makes the suburbia lifestyle unreal? In Allen Spore's photographs I feel as the subjects themselves are what makes the picture strange. His works are different from Sandy Skoglund's and Gregory Crewdson's photographs in the sense that they seem 'normal', and not fantastical. Note the people's posture, facial expressions, and attire. If one studies these pictures for awhile they start to notice these strange qualities, and become alienated from the work. This alienation that the audience feels is an important characteristic in Allen's photographs. The environment of suburbia seems safe and normal, but somehow it starts to slowly transform into this altered world of uncertainty. All the subjects start to blur as one person, and these people are all a part of the larger suburban community.
Father and Son
color photograph, 2000
Tennis Ladies
Allen Spore
Allen is a contemporary artist who grew up in eastern Colorado. In 1968, he served in the Vietnam War as a military photographer. Later, he then received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he currently teaches.
At first glance, Allen's photographs look like ordinary pictures of people. Yet, there is a strange and eerie quality about them. It as if the photographs represent documentation in a museum on an endangered speices...the human species. He slightly manipulates his work by enhancing certain qualities, which makes the subjects resemble cardboard cut-outs. Allen's work displays only white, middle class American families in a leisure world. Every one of his subjects looks content or comfortable, never troubled. In this sense, the viewer feels alienated from the scene all together. Allen's work represents and questions different contradictions of reality versus fantasy.
The main question for Allen's work deals with creating his images in an unnatural way? What makes the suburbia lifestyle unreal? In Allen Spore's photographs I feel as the subjects themselves are what makes the picture strange. His works are different from Sandy Skoglund's and Gregory Crewdson's photographs in the sense that they seem 'normal', and not fantastical. Note the people's posture, facial expressions, and attire. If one studies these pictures for awhile they start to notice these strange qualities, and become alienated from the work. This alienation that the audience feels is an important characteristic in Allen's photographs. The environment of suburbia seems safe and normal, but somehow it starts to slowly transform into this altered world of uncertainty. All the subjects start to blur as one person, and these people are all a part of the larger suburban community.
Father and Soncolor photograph, 2000
Tennis Ladies
color photograph,
2000
http://www.stretcher.org/archives/r_9a/spore_mt.php