Naomi+Minkoff

=**Naomi Minkoff**= I have taken Painting and Visual thinking, Figure Drawing and Hand Built Ceramics at GWU. A ceramic sculpture I made was featured in the Spring Gallery 102 exhibition last year. I also took multiple fashion illustration and construction classes in high school at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia and at Parsons Paris in Paris, France. I constantly change my hair color and recently cut off 10 inches this past summer (as you can see in the picture). I enjoy many types of art from paintings, to illustrations, sculptures and installations. Historically, my favorite period of art is Impressionism. Some of my favorites are Van Gohg, Monet, Cassat, and Renior. I also enjoy more current artists like Linn Meyers, Chuck Close, Byron Kim and Ai Weiwei.
 * Major:** English
 * Minor(s):** Creative Writing and Fine Arts
 * Experience with art:**
 * Something interesting:**
 * Artistic interests:**

I have been a big fan of Ai Weiwei since I first saw his work in the “According to What?” exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in fall of 2012. I particularly loved his wooden sculptures, so I thought he would serve as the perfect inspiration for this assignment. //Moon Chest// was my favorite piece from the exhibit because it was very experiential and nothing like any modern sculpture I had seen before. The chests were functional pieces of furniture that were carved with circular opening so that they no longer serve a practical purpose. When you walk through them, each one displays the full cycle of the moon. Light and shadow constantly switch places depending on the viewer’s perspective. There were seven displayed in the Hirshhorn museum though there are 81 in the entire series. The pieces are constructed in the traditional Chinese fashion with no extra joining materials. It is an interactive experience with the space because one must walk through the chests and look through the holes at different angles to gain the full experience. This exhibition highlighted the importance of nature through the use of manmade objects. Another piece in the Hirshhorn exhibition that I loved was //Grapes//, a circular formation of stools that were attached in a seemingly effortless way. This piece is so interesting because one stool stands on the ground in the expected way of a stool on 3 legs and then, out from this stool, others multiply around it circling in on themselves. The art instillation took objects that already existed and repurposed them in an interesting and unexpected way. The title //Grapes// suggests a very natural origin of the shape and patterning of stools. Ai Weiwei has a great balance between natural and crafty influences. The traditions of Chinese craftsmanship great influence his modern pieces and give an authenticity to them that is very impressive. No wood is added to the stools to attach them. The pegs from one are liked to the pegs from another to support the weight of the structure and build up the form. The piece looks sturdy but also like the stools are balancing on top of each other and could topple over at any moment. This play’s with the observer’s expectations and defies them. The last piece that struck me was another circular piece made out of geometric shapes titled //Divina Proportione//. It looks like 5-sided and 6-sided picture frames that build off of each other to form a 10-sided shape resembling a circle. The form is not actually round because the pieces of wood are all straight but the way they are joined together gives the appearance of a curved shape. I think that the title of this work is very telling. Ai Weiwei seems very focused on balance and symmetry here to create a shape that is both unexpected and pleasing to the eye. Again, the wooden pieces themselves and the way they are put together support the sculpture on their own without any additional construction materials. I love the simplicity of this piece because it seems natural and yet was clearly very thoughtfully crafted.
 * Wood sculpture project inspiration:** Ai Weiwei

Although I have been drawing and painting since I was young, I have just recently began to create 3 dimensional art. Last semester, I took a hand built ceramics class but, until our sculpture class this semester, I had only every worked 3 dimensionally with clay. Gaining experience with wood, found materials and casting molds has definitely changed my perception of structure and the creative process. While looking at the sculptures in the Hirshhorn museum, I was thinking about the design that went into the pieces and the processes by which they were made. I looked at the distribution of weight and how counter balancing played with the eye creating unexpected interest. I also thought a lot about proportion and scale not only from the standpoint of a viewer but with the scrutiny of an artist. I was really interested in why I found something interesting to look at or what the artist must have been thinking when he or she oriented their work in a certain way.
 * Hirshhorn Museum Trip:**
 * How has making sculptures changed the way I look at art?**

This trip definitely inspired by own creative process and got me thinking about what I find aesthetically pleasing and intellectually stimulating. Expanding my artistic knowledge allows me to put new artistic experiences in the context of other works I have seen or created. This allows me to make connections between artistic principles, the use of multiple media and various methods of installation. The largest way that creating sculptures has changed the way I look at art is in getting me thinking about how I can take the aspects of experienced artworks that I find intriguing and utilize them with my unique creative style.