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Jessica Libor

~ Studio Journal

Jessica Libor

Tag Archives: art school

Beginning a new painting: Magical Creatures

12 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by Jessica Libor in art, In My Studio, Inspiration, Shop

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advice for artists, art, art expert, art school, artist, beautiful, beautiful art, beautiful paintings of women, classical realism, contemporary art, contemporary female artists, contemporary realism, creative, creativity, drawing, emerging artist, emerging artists, female artist, how to be an artist, how to paint like the masters, inspiration, inspiration for artists, jessica libor, MFA, pafa, painter, painting, pennsylvania academy of the fine arts, social entrepreneurship

It’s always the first day that it goes the quickest. After that, it is all about refining the details. Here is a unicorn painting inspired by my visit to the Met Cloisters and seeing “The Hunt of the Unicorn”. Click the video to see the time lapse!

You could spend forever on a painting, but it’s all about the quality and focus of the time you spend on it. Blocking out all other distractions and focusing all your mind and skill on the painting is like a meditation practice. I am always surprised by how much more quickly and better quality work comes out of a painting session when I’m in this state! I read a book once that described this state as “flow.” Perhaps it deserves a post of its own!

This painting I’m currently working on, “Magical Creatures,” is not completed, so be on the lookout for another post about the finished painting.

In the meantime, my recent painting after Fragonard, ” The Chase,” is completed, with a limited edition print run available in my shop. The prints turned out beautifully…every little brushstroke is captured in detail, and each one is on acid free archival quality paper that is velvety and smooth. Hand signed by me! To grab yours, click here.

The fairy tale story behind “The Chase”

04 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by Jessica Libor in art, In My Studio, Inspiration, Uncategorized

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art school, classical painting, contemporary realism, fairy tale, female painter, feminist, fragonard, jessica libor, jessica libor art, jessica libor artist, marie antoniette, master copy, modern fairy tale, pennsylvania academy of the fine arts, rewritten fairy tale, rococo, rococo art, rococo painting, strong female lead, writing fairy tales

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Once upon a time, in a faraway land full of enchantment, there lived a beautiful princess named Cornelia.  Cornelia was the heir to the throne of her kingdom, but she did not think much of it as she was used to her life in the palace and enjoyed the fine clothing, beautiful fountains and pleasant companions at the palace.  She had never been outside the palace gates.  When Cornelia came of age, her parents began to introduce her to all the eligible princes of the neighboring kingdoms.  They came with gold and jewels and beautiful gifts to win her heart.  She danced with each one, but was troubled because her heart was unmoved.  She sought solace in the beautiful palace garden, where she would walk the grounds with her ladies in waiting, and admire the beautiful flowers.  One day they came across a poor gardener tending to the weeds.  “Hello gardener,” said Princess Cornelia.  “What a beautiful garden you have made the kingdom.”  The gardener was young and handsome and polite, and responded, “Thank you, Princess.”  As the days went on, Cornelia grew more distressed as she had to choose among princes.  She started visiting the garden every day, to talk with the gardener, who did not pressure her to make decisions the way the princes did.  From him she learned the plight of the poor in the outside kingdoms, the simple skills of gardening, and the joy of companionship.  She petitioned to open up the garden to the people of her land, for them to enjoy its beauty.  One day she said to him, “I fear I cannot choose a prince because I do not want to lose your friendship.”  The gardener did not say anything, and the princess was distraught.  The next day, she was to meet the last prince, and make her choice.  When he was introduced, he stood tall and in fine clothes, but held a simple flower as a gift for her.  Princess Cornelia gasped as she recognized him.  It was her gardener!  “Forgive me Princess,” he said.  “I am Prince Louis, from a neighboring kingdom.  I wanted not only a good alliance, but also love, so I hid my true identity so that we could see what friendship we could have.  I am and will always be, your humble servant.”

I hope you enjoyed this little fairy tale I created to tell the story of what I imagine is happening within this painting!  To order the original painting or the print, visit here.

Copyright story and image Jessica Libor 2018.

An artist should never avert their gaze

04 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by Jessica Libor in art, Inspiration, Journeys

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art, art school, artist, artist bios, artist interview, artwork, beautiful art, city, contemporary art, creative, creativity, culture, design, getaway, halloween, Installation Art, jessica libor, Master of Fine Arts, moma, new york, New York City, NYC, pennsylvania academy of the fine arts, weekend

View from the Moma, photo by Jessica Libor

View from the Moma, photo by Jessica Libor

This weekend I spent an entertaining, delightful and educational weekend in New York City. The entertaining part was from spending Halloween there with some friends, and getting to see first hand all the revelry the city had to offer. What struck me most was how almost every person we saw was dressed up in some interesting costume, had painted their face in an artistic way, or was at least wearing an eye catching hat. My favorite costume was two people dressed in white, who had a cloud-like hat on their heads, glowing with blueish white lights. From the cloud-like hat ribbons of white streamed down, also lit up at intervals with the sparkling blue-white lights. At first I was confused. Were they clouds? Angels? Ghosts? But as the pair moved down the sidewalk and the ribbons gently swayed backwards, I got it. They were jellyfish.

While in town, I stopped into the Modern Museum of Art to see what was there. Going through the galleries, I stopped at what was interesting to me. I don’t know about you, but when I go to a museum, I feel guilty if I don’ t stop, look at, and read everything. But under time constraints, I let go of that guilt and just stopped at the pieces that struck me. I tried to disassociate myself from being an artist and trying to learn something–to be a person just enjoying the art.

Looking at Jacob's Ladder.  Photo courtesy of John Warner.

Looking at Jacob’s Ladder. Photo courtesy of John Warner.

I liked Jacob’s Ladder by Helen Frankenthaler, an American artist who lived from 1928 to 2011. The label said, “Although it shares a name with the Biblical tale of Jacob’s dream ascent toward heaven, and with an ancient Egyptian toy, Frankenthaler insisted this work had no preplanned illustrational intention: “The picture developed (bit by bit while I was working on it) into shapes symbolic of an exuberant figure and ladder: therefore “Jacob’s Ladder.” Working in New York in the 1950s, Frankenthaler painted large-scale unprimed canvases on the floor to explore new ways of handling distinctively thind paint. The artist said she borrowed from Jackson Pollock her “concern with line, fluid line, calligraphy, and…experiments with line not as line but as shape.”

My favorite piece was a huge installation/sculpture by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang called “Borrowing Your Enemy’s Arrows. It was made in 1998 and had to be over 20 feet long, and was suspended from the ceiling high above you. It immediately had a magical, transportative effect on me when I saw it–the whimsical nature of a flying boat, and the feathery aspect of all the flocked arrows stuck into it, immediately had a “wow!” effect and also made me curious what it was all about.

The wow factor.  Photo by Jessica Libor.

The wow factor. Photo by Jessica Libor.

The story behind the piece made me even more fascinated. The label said, “The work of Cai Guo-Qiang often merges cultural and political concerns of both the East and West. This fishing boat, excavated from his hometown of Quanzhou and flying the Chinese flag, is pierced with thousands of arrows. The title refers to a legendary episode from the third century in which a resourceful Chinese general had to replenish a depleted store of arrows. According to the tale, the general tricked the enemy by saying across the Yangtze river through the thick mist of early dawn with a surrogate army made of straw, while his soldiers remained behind yelling and beating on drums. Mistaking the pandemonium for a surprise attack, the opponents showered the decoys with volleys of arrows, which the general then appropriated, returning triumphantly with a freshly captured store of weapons. This work suggests the enduring importance of cunning and strategy, not only in the distant past, but also in the present, as geopolitical power dynamics seem to be in constant flux.”

The piece, even though it was about war, politics and cunning, was still magical and beautiful. It reminds me of a quote I read recently by Lera Auerbach in her book Excess of Being, “An artist should never avert his gaze. Look at it. However awful it may be, it’s life, real life in all its majestic and gory glory. What do you see? What do you see? Now, give it form.”

Another view.  Photo by Jessica Libor.

Another view. Photo by Jessica Libor.

I came back refreshed and excited to work on my own art again, with lots of new ideas. That’s what travel is all about, I think–getting outside the normal routine of your life and seeing new things, people, and places, so when you return you see your own home and life with fresh eyes and appreciation.

Waterfall park...photo courtesy of Elizabeth Mier.

Waterfall park…photo courtesy of Elizabeth Mier.

Art adventure in New York

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by Jessica Libor in Inspiration, Journeys, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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art, art school, art schools, artist, beautiful art, beauty, creative, drawing, inspiration, nyaa, pafa, painting, schools, tribeca

Tribeca

Tribeca

Last week I took a bus up to NYC and visited a good friend of mine who also graduated from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.  His name is Arc Manoro Niles (awesome name) and his work is pretty great as well!  He’s graduating from the New York Academy of Art and was kind enough to give me a complete tour around the place.  It’s good to travel around to different cities and see what other artists are up to.  I feel that it keeps you sharp and challenged in your own studio practice.  We visited three floors chock full of art, met lots of students, and walked around the lovely Tribeca neighborhood where the school is located.

Jessica Libor and Arc Manoro Niles in his studio at NYAA

Jessica Libor and Arc Manoro Niles in his studio at NYAA

I came back wanting to paint!  Sometimes it’s good to step away for a while to give yourself creative space, to think, ponder what you’re making your art about, and think about what you’re doing.  So when you go back into the studio, you come back with more focus, more excitement, and clarity.

Seen from the street

Seen from the street

A particularly funny yet technically good painting  I saw there called “Justin Bieber has feelings too”.  I liked the pink glitter frame, what can I say?

Justin Beiber has feelings too, oil on panel

Justin Bieber has feelings too, oil on panel

While in NY I stopped by the Arcadia Contemporary exhibition of women’s work.  My favorite artist there was Alessandra Peters.  Check out her use of charcoal drawing and gold leaf.  It’s extraordinary.

Work by Alessandra Peters

Work by Alessandra Peters

Thanks for sharing in my adventure, and don’t forget to sign up at the top of the page for more posts!

Creatively,

Jessica

The Fourth Wall Panel Review: A public art critique

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Jessica Libor in Uncategorized

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art critic, art expert, art school, art students, artist, beautiful art, crispin sartwell, fourth wall, how to be an artist, jessica libor, MFA, pafa, painters, pennsylvania academy of the fine arts, philadelphia artists, school, six names of beauty

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On Tuesday, March 11, 2014, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts presented its sixth annual Fourth Wall Panel Review.  The literature accompanying the event describe it thus:

“[The Fourth Wall is] A unique event designed to shed light on the review process employed within the contemporary art world.  This panel brings together a curator, artist and author to consider work submitted by MFA Thesis students in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Graduate Program.  The afternoon will conclude with the selection of three students whose work the panel believes demonstrates the most professional promise.  Join us as we try to collapse the wall between artists and the procedures that determine their opportunities.”

For students in the program, this was optional to participate in, but we were strongly encouraged to submit our work to be reviewed.  Many of the MFA2 students did indeed participate, which is no small feat of bravery.  As artists it is common to feel that your soul is being exposed when your artwork is shown, and the vulnerability of having your work not only shown on a large screen in front of hundreds of people, but also critically discussed by strangers to be heard by everyone, truly takes courage.  I know that some of the figurative artists in the program chose not to participate because they knew their work would not be what the judges would favor.  For me, I was more curious than anything else.  My recent work seems to divide people between favor and dislike, so I was curious to hear what the art critics had to say.

The critics were as follows:

Alex Baker, director of Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia.  Previously, he was senior curator of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) from 2008 to 2012.  Formerly Curator of the Contemporary Art at the Pafa and Associate Curator at the ICA (Philadelphia), he has organized many exhibitions of note.

Josephine Halvorson is a painter who lives and works in western Massachusetts.  Her work has been exhibited internationally and she is represented by Sikkman Jenkins & Co. (New York) and Peter Freeman Inc. (Paris).  She is the recipient of several grants including the Fullbright Fellowship and the Tiffany Foundation Award.  Halvorson is a critic in the MFA painting department at Yale.

Crispin Sartwell teaches in the art and philosophy departments at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.  Sartwell is the author of a number of books on aesthetics and art, including The Six Names of Beauty.  His work is featured in a number of prominent publications, as well.

The afternoon started with a packed house, with numbers dwindling as the hours went by.  The first round, the critics went through every one of the 35 student’s work, talking about the strengths and weaknesses of it, and what they liked or disliked.  By the end of the first round, I had a pretty good idea of who the final five would be based on the comments and aesthetic leanings revealed by the critics.  It seemed that Alex Baker was the most postmodern leaning, with Crispin Sartwell arguing more conservatively, with Josephine Halvorson a balance between the two but leaning more postmodern.  All three were extremely articulate in letting the student body know why they were making the decisions they did as they cut the artists out round by round.  I found the whole process  terribly interesting.  It was a very weird vibe…knowing who made the work, but listening to strangers talk about it whereas you know the makers as your friends, and know the back stories to each piece.  IMG_4628

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The event was clinical and competitive by its very nature.  I was glad that I participated, however, because I gained valuable insight into how my work is understood by different people.  I’ve come to the realization that some will love your work, some will not, and that’s ok.  Do we really want to make work that pleases everyone?  The work you make is valid because it’s your expression.  And the truer you are to who you are artistically and aesthetically, the more satisfied you’ll be with your work–and the more fun you’ll have.  And if you believe in your work and what you’re doing, people will see your conviction, and your audience will come naturally.

Many of the students felt that this 4th wall was much more helpful than other years.  Part of that was the fact that David Dempewolf, a resident seminar critic at Pafa, was monitoring and keeping the critics on track.

At the end of the afternoon, the winners were announced: Katie Petrillo, Tiffany Tate, and Mary McCann.  An all-female cast!  The work was an eclectic mix.  Katie’s work is a mixed media mind-bending mix of optical illusions manipulating depth of field through tromp l’oeil and sculpture within clear shadowboxes, inspired by her own unique sight experiences.  Tiffany’s work is photography, transforming the ordinary and mundane sights of life into meditative, beautiful moments.  Mary’s work is an imaginative mix of sculpture inspired by stories and tales, and contrasting ink drawings that look like universes unto themselves.  Congratulations to these talented and hardworking ladies that I am honored to call my classmates!

Left to right, Katie, Tiffany, Mary

Left to right, Katie, Tiffany, Mary

Really, though, the work that was displayed at the 4th wall this year was all spectacular.  The work was solid and well thought out, with each person’s body of work a unique and multifaceted gem.  Each one of these artists who participated is really a winner in my book, because I see each of you with true professional promise.  Cheers!

Feel free to share this post if you found it helpful and educational.  Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my blog if you’d like to be notified with each new post!

Five ways to take advantage of your last days in art school

11 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by Jessica Libor in How To, In My Studio, Inspiration, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Uncategorized

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art school, art students, art studio, artist, jessica libor, MFA degree, pennsylvania academy of the fine arts

MFA Reviews, photo courtesy of Michael Manley

MFA Reviews, photo courtesy of Michael Manley

 

This is the time of the year for all of us in the second year of our Master of Fine Arts are feeling the crunch.  I find myself wishing I had more time than the month and a half left of school to do all the projects, paintings, drawings, videos and installations still left unexecuted in my mind.  But will the inspiration ever stop?  I hope not.   I have to remind myself that when I leave this community of fabulous artists in my MFA, my career as an artist doesn’t end, it BEGINS.

So here is some advice I’m giving to myself  and to my classmates in these last two months before the final show, final review, and graduation:

1.  Focus on creating solid relationships with professors you click with.  Plan on keeping in touch with them, and do that.  Write thank you notes to those who have particularly helped you.

2.  Solidify your friendships with your classmates.  They are now your colleagues and allies, not your competition.  Historically, it’s when artists stick together, help each other and have each other’s back that great things happen.

3.  Utilize the services that the school offers.  While you’re a student, you can check out the library, have the option of using a room to build an installation, borrow equipment, and hire models at a half rate.  If there’s a big, awesome project that the school’s facilities can help with, do it now while they are available to you.

4.  Get all the input you can.  It’s helpful to get lots of voices about your work, so that you can see it from many different angles.  Not that you’ll take everyone’s advice, but different perspectives help stimulate creativity.  While in art school, you have well respected artists who have been around the block in your studio who can help guide you around mistakes they may have made in their own career.  So take advantage of all the critics you can to get them in your studio, while it’s their job to give you helpful critiques.

5.  WORK.  Make the best work you can, in the least amount of time you can, to realize the vision in your mind.

Last but not least, enjoy the community and camaraderie, and be proud of what you’re about to finish.  You’re about to graduate…congratulations!  That’s a big deal.  And who knows, maybe you’ll be the next art star.

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