COLIN JAMES McDONALD

News:

Fall 2010 I am taking a 3 month trip down the Mississippi River on a Pedal powered boat I am in the midst of building.

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Here is a link to a wonderful new publication created and produced by a wonderful Jeff Bowers. He approached me about including some of my work in the compliaiton so I gave him a few photographs I had been looking for an outlet for and that had not previously been seen.

PRISM index is a limited edition, handmade, silk-screened, mixed-media compilation that compiles the various work of a wide spectrum of artists into one place. The goal of this publication is to create a collage of current art/culture scenes from throughout the US and the world. By sustaining an outlet for artistic expression, PRISM index offers its audience an off-kilter style, while expanding the aesthetic horizons of all parties involved. As a network for artists, this project seeks to establish a platform for multi-media sharing through the tactile, aural, and visual experience of print, images, sounds (CD), and movies (DVD) and to extend and elaborate those expressions through its online presence. PRISM index intended to create something that could not be thrown away, skimmed through, replicated, or forgotten.

http://prismindex.com/colinmcdonald.html

www.prismindex.com

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Tom Hubbard, A Photojournalist and Digital Artist Wrote this article on me and the Open House exhibition:

Open House

Colin McDonald respects process. Process as a conscious endeavor. Decisions are based on intuition but he’s aware of intuition mostly in hindsight. Process is about making decisions as you work. It’s the things you come across in working.

“If you like it, go with it or keep it in mind for later,” he said.

Colin is lucky to work in an inspiring, art related day job. He’s a studio assistant in the studio of Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil. He does Photoshop, video work and construction. It’s also an art school ambiance. “They are generous with me about sharing in their process, we have those conversations daily,” Colin says.

Colin musses about his process. Some times, the work must be discarded. It may be tempting to keep digging, but the “hole” is dry. It’s difficult to distinguish real progress with visible progress. There’s a feeling of simply too much to discard. Pushing a weak idea may result in art that is little more than pompous.

Sculpture is Different

Colin’s sculpture technique is different. He said, “With sculpture, you have to feel surprises with your hands. You can’t just sit there and look at it. You’ve got to get your hands dirty. That’s the only way to make it to the next step. You get in there and start messing around.” He enjoys the progress between the concept and the end product.

Pulling and stretching material reveals its limits and potential. The material dictates which avenues to go down. It’s always a struggle to produce effort that looks effortless. "The final product is that, a product. It is not a biography of the effort within." Colin muses, “The normal eye looks for structures. When working, the material makes you decide. It’s always expressive. Otherwise, it’s boring.”

Somewhere in the rental archives of the Columbus Public Library is a record of Colin’s high school fascination with movies. He watched a new movie almost every night. His goal was film or video.

The Language of Film

By viewing so many films, Colin became aware of the dramatic, creative story telling language of film. The filmmaker has an array of techniques: dialogue, angle, editing, visual pace, all these existed before digital animation. “I learned a slew of aesthetic language I now apply to sculpture and video works,” he said.

He remembers a particular technique in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” Hitchcock had the camera dolly (in or out) while zooming the opposite way. The person in the frame stayed the same size but background perspective zoomed. The viewer's disorientated directly reflects that of the main characters.

Other video tricks transfer to still. In a movie, the boss is sitting, but through camera angles is depicted as higher (superior) to the standing subordinate.

Colin seeks to engage the viewer, not disorient, but he tries to incorporate such concepts in sculpture.

Colin does play with these techniques in video. The ladder seems to be leaning against a wall. The camera is on its side and the ladder is lying on the ground. This is revealed when a person enters the scene. It’s playing with expectations, a worthy artistic endeavor. “I try to convert a language that is very specific to video into a sculptural language,” he says.

Explores Domestic Objects

For the OAL show, Colin’s work is mostly sculptural. Colin and Allison feel their work is cohesive aesthetically and conceptually. The work explores domestic and found objects, exploring what they do. They both have large bodies of work, but they tuned into the domestic for this show. "It’s an exploration - trying to renew a sense of discovery in the commonplace."

Colin is happy to have a job that supports him because some of his work is not necessarily sellable, doesn’t have market value. Perhaps market value will come. If this generates a materialistic query, Colin is quick to reply, “Art is what I do. It’s part of my mindset. I don’t know how to NOT be making art - It seems to take its form in different ways.”

Curious

Colin is thinking art all the time. He’s curious, he walks back alleys to see a different view.

He enjoys the invigoration of not knowing the future of his art. He likes coming across ideas to hang on to until later, and then more ideas coming out of those. It’s a continuous creative process.

College was a molding process as each professor introduced new concepts and media. Some ideas “took” others were discarded as he matured and found what was the best fit for him. It’s the process of building a cohesive body of work.

Colin and Allison are both enjoying the collaboration for this show. Collaboration is routine in most careers. It’s not the norm for artists, and certainly not the norm for college classes. Student team efforts are difficult to grade. The slacker may benefit from the heavy contributors and vice versa.

Colin usually has mixed feelings about collaboration. He says, “I like to make my own creative decisions. I’m very independent. I have a hard time even having people help move something of mine. I don’t want people to think they have to help me."

He concludes, “But for some projects, artists - including myself - need collaboration, or the potentially great work could never be realized."

Tom Hubbard 04/2010

Thanks, Tom!!

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April had a ton of things going on. I did a couple artist talks, had a big show (see below),
did my first solo performace piece, taught my first class...

Shows promo poster...

Images from opening of Open House...

Allison and I

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Images from Modern Times performance

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Article in the Columbus Dispatch Newspaper about the Spring Juried show I was in at
Fort Hayes Shot Tower Gallery:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/arts/stories/2010/03/21/strong-showing.html?sid=101

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Article about the Open House show on ColumbusArts.com! :::::

http://www.columbusarts.com/details.php?id=69019&type=e

Event

"Open House" by Allison Buenger and Colin McDonald, curated by Amy Koenig

Presented by Ohio Art League

4/1/2010 - 4/21/2010

The exhibition Open House, on view April 1 - 21 at the Ohio Art League Gallery, welcomes visitors to a setting that is seemingly familiar, yet infinitely strange.

The show presents new work from artists Allison Buenger and Colin McDonald. These friends and graduates from the Ohio State University were brought together by curator Amy Koenig because of aesthetic and conceptual parallels in their work. In sculptural and video installations both artists utilize household objects - constructed and re-purposed - as entry points into a larger dialogue about the implications of domestic life. A mutual interest in the mundane binds the artists' work as a joint examination of habit, habitat, and habitant.

Common objects appear throughout the gallery. From a wall of hand-rolled toilet paper to columns of lamps balancing from floor to ceiling - the unseen becomes apparent and purpose disappears. "I'm really asking a question" states McDonald. "How can the objects and materials of modern society be presented in a way that calls for a renewed sense of discovery and exploration?"

Buenger sees household objects "as an interface between people and where they live." She believes "drawing attention to objects by changing the material composition and drastically eliminating or altering an object's function can illuminate the symbiotic relationship between occupier and space."

Price
$FREE

Order & Box Office Information

Venue
Ohio Art League
1552 North High Street
Columbus, OH 43201
http://www.oal.org

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Month of April 2010 - Ohio Art League Galley, Columbus,OH

Allison Beugner and myself will be showing new work at the
Ohio Art League Gallery in the South Campus Gateway of Columbus, Ohio.

The show is titled Open House and will deal with the ideas of domestic life:

"Open House will welcome viewers to a setting that is seemingly familiar, yet infinitely strange."