Anderson Gallery

Last Wednesday I went with my intermediate photo class to the Anderson Gallery to look at the student show. Some of the stuff chosen for the show was pretty bogus but some of it was really good. I really enjoyed a lot of the film entries. I preferred the ones that were more humorous and light hearted, than the ones that were so serious. I also liked these two photographs that were photomontages. One was of a nude male and the other a nude female, and they were both pressed up against glass when the photographs were taken. The pictures remind me of David Hockney, with his photomontages and some of Jenny Saville's paintings where she painted people who were pressed up against glass, showing distortion. 

First Fridays March 6th and April 3rd

When I went to the first Fridays on March 6th I wasn't very impressed with any of the art that was up, and even less impressed on April 3rd since almost all the exhibits were the same. On March 6th, the works I enjoyed the best were oil paintings by Brooke Olivares. Her paintings were of scenes of people doing ordinary things, but I like the quick brushstrokes that she uses and that you can see every brushstroke she has made. Her work has a touch of impressionistic style to it which I like. On April 3rd I enjoyed the 360 Panoramic photographs by James O. Phelps. Some of his photos look as though they could be normal panoramic shots at first glance, but the looking closer you can see that something is a little off and that they are actually 360 shots. I also like how his photographs are sepia toned, which I think works well with his subject matter, especially for his photographs of civil war battlefields. 

Artist Resume

Raney Quirk
quirkln@vcu.edu

Education:
2008-Present BFA Photography (in progress) Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
2007-2008 BFA Studio Art James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
2007 Monticello High School, Albemarle County, VA
2003 Jackson P. Burley Middle School, Albemarle Country, VA
2000 Stone Robinson Elementary School, Albemarle Country VA

Group Exhibitions:
2007 Selected High School Work Exhibit, Fashion Square Mall, Charlottesville, VA
2006 Scottsville Photography Show, Scottsville, VA
Scottsville Coffee, Scottsville, VA
Top Student Show, County Office Building, Charlottesville, VA
Selected High School Work Exhibit, Fashion Square Mall, Charlottesville, VA
2005 Selected High School Work Exhibit, Fashion Square Mall, Charlottesville, VA

Performances:
2003 "Macbeth" Jackson P. Burley Middle School
" This is a Test" Jackson P. Burley Middle School
" Murder Mystery" Jackson P. Burley Middle School
2002 "As You Like It" Jackson P. Burley Middle School
2000 "This is a Test" Stone Robinson Elementary School
1999 "Harriet Tubman" Stone Robinson Elementary School

Awards:
2007 Piedmont Council of the Arts Rising Start Award, Charlottesville, VA
Excellence in Photography Award, Monticello High School
2006 Second Place, Scottsville Photography Show, Scottsville, VA
Excellence in Ceramics Award, Monticello High School

Organizations:
2008 Kappa Pi Art Fraternity, James Madison University
2007 National Art Honor Society, Monticello High School

Artist Statement on current project

The project I am currently working on is influenced by the paintings of Francis Bacon. My final work will be a series of 12 images trying to recreate the same painterly gestures and nightmarish/frightening mood of Francis Bacon paintings. I'm shooting the photographs with film and printing them in the darkroom. Each photograph contains one individual being shot under dramatic lighting, while in motion. Then in the darkroom, I overlap two different negatives, that don't match up, to make the image more fearful, then paint the developer onto the photo paper to give it a painterly quality. Im experimenting with techniques such as motion, lighting, and the darkroom process, to create photographs that are not pretty, but dark and disturbing.