Blog Assignment #3: Place

I think that the concept of place could be seen from both points of view: we define a place and that place can also define us. We define a place because we bring to this place how we feel, what our point of view of it is, and our perspective on it. We form views on a place based on how it makes us personally feel. At the same time, a place can define us, BECAUSE of its ability to make us feel, act, and create our artwork a certain way. The ability of a place to affect us in such a way qualifies as its ability to define us in some way.
Richard Serra is influenced by public spaces, where he creates much of his work. His metal sculptures are often the focal points of regular public places. Serra opens the eyes of people who do not see sculptures much and do not know a lot about sculpture and enables them to experience it in everyday places.
Sally Mann lives and works in a place that has a very outdoor and natural setting. This influences her work because she often uses it as the background for her subjects and sometimes things found in nature become her subject. Not only this, but she uses resources such as river water to aid her in creating a certain look she wants for her work.
The place where Margaret Kilgallen and Barry Mcgee found themselves the most was searching for somewhere outdoors in their urban setting to use their skills-on trains and such. This influences their work because it takes on more of a grafitti-like feel,sometimes even when they work in the studio.
I would say that although I enjoy the work of Sally Mann the most, I feel the most connected to Margaret Kilgallen and Barry Mcgee because agree with them that even signs and such, things seemingly not artistic, can be pleasing and attractive, as Margaret showed us at the begining of the video...many things can be considered beautiful, and things that are handmade are especially beautiful because of all the work put into them. Even more so, I can relate to them because I often find myself drawing and painting all over everything...even things that might not be considered right for doing one's artwork on, as they paint on trains. I could see myself creating my work most like them and their processes.
The place that interested me the most when I was young, for some reason, was the railroad tracks down the street. I was fascinated by them and even more by the fact that the woods behind my elementary school ended up at those railroad tracks in some obscure way. A place that scared me was the back room in my basement. You could not pay me to go there alone, because it was always dark and there were centipedes and I was afraid they would come crawling out of every crack in the wall as soon as I entered the room.
Five places from my childhood would be the field across the street, the woods behind my school, the railroad tracks down the street, my basement, and Herriff Road. These were all places my friends and I loved to explore or hang out in when we were little kids. I loved exploring new
places. One word to describe the field across the street would be butterflies, because this was where we chased and caught butterflies. The field does not exist anymore; it is a shame because in its place is one of those fabricated house developments. One word to describe the woods behind the school would be jungle, because we imagined we were trekking through a huge jungle, which it seemed like. One word to describe the railroad tracks would be nightime, because whenever we heard the trains going by at night, we would wake up and my dad would driveus down to watch the train. One word to describe my basement would be scary. I would never go down there alone because I was so scared of it, but during the hot summer days, if we weren't in the pool outside we'd be playing in the basement. Finally, one word to describe Herriff Road would be rural. Herriff Road was a place where we'd walk while the sun was going down. It was a country road and it was just beautiful.
The place I picked to describe was the field across the street that no longer exists. The objects that occupied this place were tall plants, like milkweed and Queen Anne's Lace, weeds and grasses, many many butterflies and caterpillars, and a big old barn that sat on the edge of the road. All of this was odd to have in my neighborhood because my neighborhood was a 1970's development, and this rural field and barn seemed completely out of place. The texture of the Queen Anne's Lace was very delicate but also a bit prickly at the bottom-a bit contradictory. The milkweed was sticky but we often used it to find caterpillars to catch and eventually breed into butterflies. We actually bred hundreds of butterflies in our backyard one summer. The butterflies were delicate as well and obviously we tried not to touch these.These were small objects. The barn was obviously large in comparison. The lighting here was always different, as it was outside but we enjoyed going here mostly during the hot summer days and we'd stay until the sun was going down. I can only remember it as a bright and happy place because that was what it looked like the only times I was there. I went there so much and I miss it. It is a shame that it isn't there anymore and noone else can experience how we felt while we were there.