An Introduction

To start off, I’d like to write a little about this blog and about myself. Seeing a large quantity of artists and exhibits go undocumented or reviewed and working on researching and writing about Cleveland’s art past, I felt this would be a good place to explore my thoughts and ideas on the work produced in the region. This will serve the purpose of expanding my knowledge while honing my writing skills and analytical interpretations, as well as allowing others to join me on this exploration with me and reference back to it in an art historical context in the future.

Having spent my youth in the arts, I went on to earn a Bachelor’s in Art in Design with a concentration in Graphic Design from LaGrange College in Georgia. This training informed my sensibilities about commercial production and industrial design while training my eye to pick up minute differences in spacing and color tones. Much of my interest in art had for awhile been focused almost solely on aesthetics. Balance and proportion guided my decisions in my personal photography and drawings, my designs for clients as well as my tastes in the art I collected.

Volunteering with and having served on the board of Lakewood is Art for 3 years presented me with an opportunity examine the place art has in an inner-ring suburban community. It was also a good introduction to Cleveland’s contemporary art world after I had returned to Northeast Ohio following graduation. From this experience I have met many artists, artisans, and arts professionals. I was able to develop programing that encouraged collecting local art, participate in projects that brought artists together and assist in bringing awareness to important local works that are in need of restoration and preservation.

From this, I was recommended to write art reviews for the Cleveland Independent. These articles further introduced me to area artists and allowed me to examine their works from a journalistic perspective. All the while, I had been reading about prominent local artists of the twentieth century and collecting locally designed and manufactured objects. My personal research in local art history, having been bit by the writing bug, and having spent time in the auction industry led me to take the next step.

Currently, I am a graduate student in Art History at Kent State University where I have been focusing my studies on Cleveland artists. I have also been volunteering and doing contract work at the Cleveland Artists Foundation. Both of these experiences have further informed my approach to examining art. Through this blog, I hope to enhance my approach to art through different contexts. The majority of posts will be reviews and critiques, and thus include my personal opinion on what I think is strong or weak backed up with reasons why. I will look to what has come before as well as what is happening now. I will write about some artists in order to learn more about their work, others I will write about because I want to share my enthusiasm for what they have or are doing. Several of the current artists I will write about I know personally and consider them friends. Hopefully, through critique, any artist will be able to see where I am coming from and perhaps, if inspired, examine their own work to push it forward.

I plan on writing from a very open and honest view point. As an artist myself who has shown in the area, and a survivor of design class critiques, I understand the word critique can make some cringe or respond in defense. But I also appreciate the value such a process has in assisting the advancement of both the aesthetic and conceptual ideas. Critiques explore the weaknesses along with the strengths, and through the interpretation of the viewer’s eye (in the case of this blog, my eye), the progress of an artist can be documented as primary research for prosperity.

Is this a lofty goal? It sure is, but as a budding local art historian, I have to start somewhere. If nothing else, this blog will be a summary of what I see and am inspired to write about.