Blog 24: Exit Interview

Exit Interview Questions:

1.What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?
- My essential question is "How can an artist best use Mexican Folk art as an inspiration for their piece?" My best answer to this question would have to be "imitating styles and techniques of other artist" because as an artist it is the first step into creating your own work that fully expresses yourself. By imitating the styles and techniques of other artists you begin to experiment with certain styles that you like that fully satisfy you. For example Pedro Linares who created his own style then, Saulo Moreno started imitating the same type of techniques in making the paper mache figures, because Pedro was the original creater of the alebrijes that were extremely popular Saulo started creating his own style. Saulo then named this style the alambroide technique in the paper mache world. He imitated Pedro's work that ultimately influenced and lead him to his own unique style. When I would volunteer at the Latino Art Museum with my mentor I was able to observe the displayed work of artists that depicted the work of famous people, in other words I was able to see how some of the artist were influenced by some of the most memorable artists in history. For example artist that would create a lot of abstract like picasso.
2. What process did you take to arrive to your answer?
-On my 4th interview, my interviewee was able to help me with my answer because he too is an artist. He had personal experience with imitating other peoples work. He too imitated different styles and techniques of other artist in order to find his own then add his own ideas into his work and changing the techniques and the styles that fit with his own idea. He experimented with cubisum, distortion, sculptures, paintings until he was able to create his own style based off of what he had imitated when he was younger. Because he imitated these different styles and techniques of past artists he was enlightened and found his forte in the art world. He built upon the idea of distortion/abstract to create his own art style. He also created different rock sculptures like the Olmec heads from the ancient Olmec civilizations with a different style to it.
3. What problems did you face and how did you resolve them?
-The problems that I faced was finding a mentor that is a folk artist, I had to adjust to learning from just a painter who was did not have any sort of deep roots in folk art. It was difficult because she was only able to help in the painting aspects of art because she was not able to help me make alebrijes, or paper mache sculptures. I resolved this problem by asking more questions and interpreting them in a way that would help me in my senior project regarding folk art. It was difficult to find articles that had the minimum requirement of 700 words, because of this I would go to libraries and find another alternative but that didn't work either. So, I started to research more in depth of a topic that I had some knowledge on.
4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
-My two significant sources would be my 5th interview and the website mexicanfolkartguide.com. In my 4th interview I learned what my possible answers were. Since my interviewee used to create folk art, he was able to add his own experience into the questions and gave examples for each. My 4th interview was also helped my throughout my independent component, he guided me through different steps of creating folk art based off of his own experience. For example when I was creating the sermel type of paper mache he was able to teach me step by step how to make it because he would make trips down to Mexico and  capture videos of actual folk artists creating what I was making. The articles of the history of Mexican Folk art really helped me understand what folk art is in Mexico, it's not only art, but and piece that represents Mexico and their culture. I was able learn about different techniques or art pieces that I had not yet heard about, I also learned more about my culture and how significant it is to me.For example, how much time it actually takes to create a piece and how precious they are. For example the Article on the Sermel workshop. I had no idea they had a name for that or how they were created. This website gave me step by step instructions of how to make the art pieces. This website showed me the origins and history,
5. What is your product and why?
- My product in my senior project was being able to create different art pieces or mediums for my portfolio. When showing your portfolio to art school they ask you to create different mediums, for example, ceramic pieces, paintings etc... I was able to create different types of art in my independent component that I will include into my portfolio. I was also able to gain more skill when creating these different art pieces for example being able to cut out the negatives of a picture to create papel picado. I was also able to be more patient because I got an idea of how much work and time needs to be dedicated for such intricate pieces. For example, my independent component 2 when I created the Pablo. I didn't think he would take so much in creating Pablo, especially just one. My product was also selling my first art piece.