"Ghosts from Diane" wins Best in Show at MAC, among other awards

I am very ecstatic because last Sunday was the very first photography show at the Middletown Arts Center, which recently decided upon a separate show for photography regarding the increase in photographic submissions to the art show in previous years. I won several awards in Black and White and Digital Imaging categories--- Third Place for "Reunion" Second Place for "Heartland," and first place for " Vacilando."


Top: John Castaldo, Myself, and Dennis Mikolay, Bottom: The Digital Imaging Section of the Show


As this was my final youth show at the MAC, I am ultimately honored and bewildered to announce that I have won "Best in Show" for "Ghosts from Diane."

"Ghosts from Diane" is a winner in both the Congressional Art Contest and "Best in Show" for the MAC's First Annual Photo Show.


Even though it is different from the mainstream, I think that the most important part of this win is the fact that I went out and created something completely on my own that had validity and substance in a context for both myself and the audience. (It is still beyond me that this image has gone so far in both an art competition as well as a photo competition. It is really surreal for me toi image that out of over 80 images, "Ghosts" topped the list. I'm also very proud of my other submissions, especially "Vacilando")

I need to thank everyone: my family (extended family always included in that term!) my friends, my teachers, and everyone who attended on Sunday. This award is the absolute end of what I set out to do; I remember going to the show in seventh and eighth grade aiming to win, and, progressively, I managed to top the show. It's very venerating, and also sheds light on the most important aspects of art-making (as said to me by Vince DiMatteo:) Do what you need to do, to hell with everybody else.

I also have to note that, without Diane Arbus (and to my mother, who bought a water damaged copy of "Untitled," igniting interest,) I never would have developed this project. It was her conceptual vision that ignited my current track, and the resonance of her images made me realize the power of photography as both an art form and a way of life.

"Caught Out There"

I took a series of images while spending some down time on a trip in DC last summer, resulting in an array of random passersby and cars. I looked at the images again, and realized I could cohesively merge them, so long as the figures stood in different places in the shot. What resulted was "Caught Out There," a piece about a fleeting fascination with personal interest in the mass-media age.


Click image for full view

My favorite of these photographs was that of the girl with the striped bag---she was the only one observing her surroundings and moving in a way opposite that of the other four figures selected for the image---her face was examining something unseen by other people. I've recently examined ideas about the new millennium: everything seems to have been done, people everywhere bustle from place to place with established business that has almost certainly been executed by some sort of predecessor---yet I find that the world is infinite in its sights and situations, capable of all the unknown to ensue even though we are all so busy and self-important at the same time. I think that her expression was the perfect vehicle for this idea---she is complacent and calm in the presence of a sight that has aroused interest enough for her to look at it, while no one else pays any notice. Singularly, the universe unfolds to each person differently, and I truly believe in a world of mass media and stereotypical portrayals people buy into a mass product as opposed to a very personal and intimate one. It is also important that we, as the viewers, cannot see what she sees: it is hers and belongs to one else, otherwise there would not be such a moment of clarity in the bustle of pedestrians around her.

This was somewhat complicated to manufacture, as the different images didn't correlate perfectly, resulting in the deletion of a lot of the background layers in the overlapping photographs. Originally a black and white assemblage, I thought it was important to highlight a light source through a colored light flare imitating the sun in the late afternoon. The light is very soft and almost sweet in this image, and I think it is effective as a passing moment rather than the heavily constructed environments in "Ghosts." In a lot of ways, "Caught Out There" is a major departure in my work: its a photograph that features a singular view from the same vantage point in a series of related images overlapped, and the subjects are purely coincidental. I make a point to take subjects I know and build both a very universal as well as personal narrative, so that I can be pleased as well as the viewer---but here the people are just as estranged to myself as the artist as they would be to the viewer.

"Caught Out There" will be featured in "Connextion" in June.

"Ghosts" Recognized in Congressional Art Competition

I am very proud to announce that "Ghosts from Diane" has won third place in Congressman Frank Pallone's Congressional Art Competition. Art students from all across New Jersey's Sixth District, ranging from Red Bank Regional to Edison High School. I am very honored to be given such a prestigous award, as I am the first student from my high school to place in the competition. "Ghosts" will be recognized on Saturday, May 10, in a private ceremony at Historic Wilson Hall.

Don't miss the public display of "Ghosts from Diane" at the Middletown Art Center this upcoming Sunday, May 2nd, where it will be on display with four other photographs at the first annual photography show. The show lasts all weekend on both Saturday and Sunday, and the award ceremony is at 2 PM on May 2.
Not only this, but the first print from my upcoming series "We Shall Always Be," entitled "Reunion" will debut at the show, as well as "Shea," a recently published photograph in Photographer's Forum Best of College Photography. I look forward to seeing you there!

"Ghosts" on display in MHSN Spring Art Show

"Ghosts" will be on display in the Middletown High School North Library April 21 through April 24 in the annual Spring Art Show. The opening reception is Thursday evening, April 24, from 7-9 PM. Twelve pieces will constitute my contribution to the exhibit that features art from students from MHSN. See you there!
For a sneak peak:

New Project Frustration

I realize that I am composed of two completely different mindsets---one intuitive and dark, the other light and carefree. But how does one make carefree work that is justified? Happiness is like a word that can be pronounced in any way because people aren't as used to saying the word as they are thinking about it.

"Ghosts" was so apparent and methodical because it consisted of a consistent palette, method, and thesis. I'm having trouble with the new series because I ultimately have no thesis, except that I want to create resonating images that illustrate my idea of preservation, memory, and eternity.

I've worked on two pieces specifically for this series; one a self portrait with parrots, the other an emotive and abstracted take on iconography of John. Where am I going? I feel almost as if I'm all arted out, between assembling a portfolio and finishing the AP thesis. In all honesty, transitions are always the hardest---there was almost a whole year in between the end of production of Protege and the beginning of Ghosts. I feel that I need to chronicle my feelings now because they will never come again---I will never be at this kind of apex as a high school student ever, mainly because that part of my career is quickly ending.

The piece with John has been causing additional frustration because I am trying to work out an iconographic image that is modern and worldly as opposed to solely religous. I guess it's because I myself am very influenced by world culture and assemble my faith from people, not "suggested" deities. I gave it a shot last summer with "Mine Fire," my Art III final, and addressed it again in February through Photoshop. I've had this pristine vision of an angel looking through fire, or abstracted nebula material, but I can never get a satisfying enough visual.

The lastest version with Durer "Habsburg" Print merged in.

The original photo with John

The version that was a more traditional icon. The halo has kanji characters because I wanted to experiment with newsprint in a language other than English. In the end it turned out to be more distracting that interesting---the text isn't even relevant as to what it says.

I've also had mixed reactions to the new piece, as some people like it, while other say elements of it are distracting. I'm personally afraid of falling into the computer art cliche---that anyone with photoshop screwing around can manage to turn out with what they (unprofessionally) claim to be art---and get sneered at by fellow artists. Even though my other work was done on the computer, it's very collage like because elements are pasted together in their own layer as opposed to being merged to other elements. I think that is the defining line between what I want from digital art and what I don't desire.

I'm also really inspired by pop music lately, such as work from Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado---anything with a beat and synths. I listen to a lot of this kind of music right now to get me into a more commercial mindset---I think that this sort of sound is really energetic and lively, both of which I want to convey in my new work.

Return to the Studio/ College Update

I read the other day in a magazine that almost every American with access to a computer creates a blog, and more than half of them are abandoned within one week of creation. Always trying to break the mold I realized I was part of this statistic, and I may as well return to the blog I created--for myself as well as my work. So here I am.

The past few months have been insane. A quick recap:
-Applied to Cooper, MICA, and RISD.
-Rejected from Cooper, accepted to MICA and RISD
-NFAA Lost my artwork via digital glitch on their end.
-Scholastic Art scores are MIA.
- Photograph published in Photographer's Forum, "Best of College [student] Photography"
- Commissioned to create collage mural for the children’s room at the Middletown Public Library
- Won third place in the surprisingly representational favor at the 2008 MAC Youth Art Show (A watercolor landscape from 2006 won)
-Received 50% scholarship from MICA, none from RISD. MICA was in the plans all along, apparently.
-Completed AP Thesis, "Ghosts," a series of fourteen pieces based on the idea that photographs are apparitions of moments. Gains notoriety.

Senior year has been as rewarding as it is hectic. I don't think I would trade anything for what I went through and what I have now, but quite frankly I don't think I could endure the endless paperwork, prompts, as well as physical fatigue. I can't wait for MICA, but the planning and sending is getting me ready for the sleep deprived "real world."

I'm very proud of my series, "Ghosts," which was inspired by the subjects in Arbus' work. When examined, I thought the photographs were thoughtful and introspective of these people, but upon analyzing the dates they were taken, I imagined most of the people to be dead. Certainly I then imagined that I was viewing them as clearly as they once existed physically--and so forth I was being haunted by images of who they were. This lead me to an experiment in photo-imaging that explored ideas about identity, death, and the phenomina behind hauntings.


It was a great way to deal with my own thoughts on death, and made me realize the value of both life and deal as an interconnected cycle. Now that I have completed the so-called "death half," I am embarking on a series about life---naturally a perfect time to give my opinions and development of a new series that I hope to be more publicly relatable than the last.


As far as schooling goes, I've decided on MICA for several reasons: they're giving me a large sum of the tuition, they have an interdisciplinary approach to art making (whereas I have come to understand RISD is rigid and does not) and I know the campus and teachers as well as facilities. I decided on the scholarship factor because for the past three years I have worked like crazy on my body of work, and to attend RISD, a school I wasn't even considering and is not offering me anything based on the caliber of my work and grades---would not do credit to what I have worked for up until this point. It's not even so much that they don't recognize my work, either---it is an honor to just be accepted, but I do not want to spend my college days being worried about $180,000 in debt.

I'm at a really great point right now, and the coming months will yield great advancements in my new project, "We Shall Always Be." People who have seen pieces have described it as being "Commercial...but in a good way." I am looking in a direction that conveys happiness and fluidity; something I feel is absent in much of my work. It is going to be a lot of fun, and in many ways geared more for a wider audience as it will be more about the visuals and softer on the conceptual side.

Also check out my flickr for my work;
http://flickr.com/photos/ncsimko/
as well as my website for updates on my portfolio:
ncsimko.carbonmade.com

Japanese Style on Western Pop Stars

I was randomly looking around on a rare trace of wireless Internet last night, and in my recent interest in Kylie Minogue, I came across a long lost music video that brought together Kylie's vocals, Towa Tei's lounge like dance music, and Stephane Sednaoui's shaky yet stylish direction into a single video. I was amazed by this clip, which is actually centered around an imaginary typeface that is personified by Kylie. The whole concept was killer, as well as the utilization of modern and traditional Japanese elements and the inclusion of Kylie as a westerner. It's called GBI; German Bold Italic, off of Sound Museum



I was recently researching the Geisha tradition and found out that Arthur Golden betrayed a famous geisha's trust by including her in acknowledgements for his bestseller "Memoirs of a Geisha," even though by tradition she is bound to keep client information secret. Not only that, but Golden is a scholar in Japanese art, speaks Mandarin, and has studied abroad in Asia. I suppose he's not stereotyping and inaccurately portraying geisha life as much as I thought he had.

Which brings me to my next video, Nothing really Matters, by Madonna, which features the artist as the misunderstood and rivaling geisha from Golden's novel (mentioned above) Hatsumomo. It's an interesting take on the subject, as it adresses both past and present elements of Japanese style while having a person of European descent showcasing them.