Inspired by Artpace resident artist presentations and my sensitivity to caffeine, I stayed up until 3 this morning—a huge deal for me—planning new projects. Recent ideas have been building up in the form of notes on scrap paper, napkins, and newfound computer productivity applications. I finally decided to dedicate a large, uninterrupted portion of time to letting all those ideas develop into sketches, color palette collages, and expanded written concepts—and I owe a lot of that motivation to Artpace.
Last night at the Community Potluck, Artpace’s Spring 2013 International Artists-in-Residence talked about their work leading up to this current residency. Tala Madani’s playful line paintings, J. Parker Valentine’s found materials, and Adam Putnam’s architectural forms and projected shapes truly influenced my own project plans: loose but saturated lines, material experimentation, and then geometric structures and expanses of color relationships. One point Putnam made struck me as particularly relevant to my own current artistic stage: that sometimes your best ideas occur when you are young, and you spend the rest of your career progressing and expanding and deepening those same ideas. Exciting, because in a way I felt artistically legitimized; what I am doing right now does matter and is not just a giant, idealistic mess. Also terrifying, for the same reason.
Another group of individuals resounded in my recent contemplations—the You[th]Pace team, Artpace’s Teen Council. I felt a renewed sense of community by hearing these contributions from the engaged teenage personalities sitting around the table, formulating ideas for an exhibition. Their concepts unfolded and then knotted and then untangled, on and on, gathering nuance and beauty. Their ideas grew to encompass themes such as daily joy, lost objects, bridging gaps in the art world hierarchy, individuality, citywide communion, and it even connected to the current Hudson (Show)Room exhibition, Transitios, which is about exchange and local culture. Communities of artists thrill me, and here I saw a genuine, creative community in action. Being young and in the arts is brave. Expressing abstract ideas or any image constructed in your mind is brave. Trying to pull all people together and give them an experience with art is brave.
Being at Artpace has already illuminated my perspective on the mood of contemporary art and the articulation of its meaning. I have never had many artist mentors or a sense of the reality of existing in the art world. Personally, I hope to fulfill some of my art obsession here, and I hope to offer whatever experience I have to You[th]Pace. Maybe being obsessed is at the core of all this: getting deeper into constant listening, into the addiction of handcrafting, into the depth of inspiration synthesis.
ABOUT TAYLER MILLER
Artpace Education Intern, Spring 2013
Tayler Miller is a sophomore at Trinity University majoring in Art and Art History, concentrating in drawing and painting. One of her dream jobs is to be an artist or explorer, perhaps working in New Mexico in a community art center or at a printing press.
Image credits: (Top) Tayler Miller in the Hudson (Show)Room. Photo by Lenzy Mora, You[th]Pace councilmember (Above) You[th]Pace explores the Transitios exhibition. Photo by Lenzy Mora, You[thPace councilmember
