ok, so now, almost 2 months later, i finally posted pictures from my MFA thesis show. i also figured getting my artist statement up would be a good idea as well. so here it is:

Reflections
By Christine Rothgeb

My photographs at this stage are primarily of women. I choose to photograph women because there is a closeness I feel with them, knowing that we share at least that common gender trait. These are women with whom I am friends, and have come to realize that we share similar traits and experiences. However, within the beginnings of these feelings of closeness I realize there is a distance that is still between us. We are together, but still isolated from one another. There is a pain, I find, that we cannot truly know one another and I begin to wonder if we can ever fully know ourselves. This pain is evident in many of my photographs, whether it comes from an expression on one of my subject’s faces or whether it is the processes that are used.
To demonstrate the distance between us, there is always something separating the viewer from the subject. All of my pieces start out as a straight forward photograph, and already a separation occurs. The subject of the image is now silenced, unmoving, and trapped within the frame of the photograph. The viewer is real and the photograph is only a representation of a person. I further emphasize the separation by manipulating the image; it is different from photograph to photograph, but there is a layering that occurs. Some of them have various images of the person collapsed together, others have additional textured surfaces that divide.
The presence of the person in the frame, and the veiling that occurs, begins to set up an interesting interaction. There is a sense of wanting to be seen, but also wanting to be hidden at the same time. The lighting plays a profound part in this, as every image is lit using a spotlight method. Theatrically speaking, the person with the spotlight on them is the person to which you are supposed to pay attention. However, there is a feeling of receding into the darkness, as if it is only a fleeting moment. The spotlight also emphasizes the loneliness to which I am alluding. The person in the frame is isolated just as the person on the stage in the spotlight is. They are in the presence of others but they are still alone.

so, i'm basically done... i still feel kind of stressed, but i don't think that's gonna wear off right away. i do have to finish up the semester... still things to do... but the worst part's over.

my committee is really happy with my show, as am i. i will post pictures, hopefully pretty soon. i think there will be one day i will first digitize all the work i've done... then post everything. there is a lot. i've been a little too busy to update here.

i'll be kind of sad to be done teaching... it has been a lot of fun, i got a good group of students this semester.

i'm hoping to work for the school early this summer. the darkroom is being moved, and they need someone to do it. i'm the logical choice, but i will only be able to do it if i get paid. i've already done so much for that darkroom for free.

anyway, that's about all that's going on with me right now. just trying to recover from the past few weeks and finish up.

so it has been forever since i wrote anything in here... so let's update a little.

things are crazy. i really should be getting some sleep, but my mind is racing and i can't make it stop... so maybe writing this will help... then some mind-numbing tv.

my oral defense is coming up in a little over a week... i was really panicked, but thanks to some fellow grads, i'm feeling better. i just need to get on top of things... which i don't feel like i really have been since i got here. i have a bunch of new work, that i doubt will be posted until after my show (which, btw, the reception is april 24th, a friday) after that show goes up, and my committee says "yay, you pass" life will be swell. though i just hope i get to have a show. if i mess up my oral defense, i may not have a show. but let's think positively.

teaching is going well, my students this semester are fun, but a little exhausting. and i'm always really excited to see what they are producing. this group is kind of whiney, but they pull through.

other classes are going fine... i really dig my museum studies class. my teacher seems to like my crazy side-tracked mind. most of the readings are a bit more boring than i thought they would be, so i just try to think of things related, even if only loosely. this week we read about registrars and what they do, and i wrote a blog (which is required for the class) about sandy skogland and how registrars must hate/fear her.

i'm co-curating a photo show on campus... it's a lot of work, but i'm really excited. especially because i hope this builds a little community between the photographers here. there really is a huge lack of that. no one really knows who anyone is. that is one thing i really miss about the Rock... everyone knew everyone. we may not have all liked eachother, but we got along well enough. but i'm also really excited to say that i helped curate a show. how cool is that? like, oh my god! (valley girl doesn't work as well when typed)

also, this has nothing to do with art, but... my sister is pregnant... i'm so excited to be an aunt! that child is going to be spoiled rotten by me and my mom. but due date is in october.

but i guess that is all the main points of my sad, sorry life... hope things are a little less nuts for everyone else!

ok, so i thought i would add a little entry about this movie, "Repo! the genetic opera" i saw the ad for it at the very end of a Saw 17 1/2 or whatev it is at now... and i thought it sounded rediculous, but cody got it, and we watched it, and it is rediculous, but in the most amazing way! i highly recommend it. it is a little on the bloody side at times, but it is a musical and i think it falls under the category of it's so wrong... it's right. it's kind of a mixture between rocky horror picture show, the fifth element and a horror movie where there is a single killer who is a man... not a monster. it's really kind of cheesy, but so good. paris hilton is in it, but she's actually pretty decent in it... though she plays the spoiled, beauty obsessed, daughter who is living off her father's wealth and fame... hmmm... i wonder why she is so good at that... hmmm.... lol if nothing else, her face falls off at one point... worth it.

the soundtrack is pretty awesome too.

soooo, i haven't really been on here too much for quite a while. i was in a art block period... and i haven't pulled out of it yet. but i need to. i have my thesis show in April, and i need it to be good. as it stands now i am showing with a fellow grad student, urmila, and we are doing more of a collaborative show. i'm very excited about that, but i kind of worry about letting her down. she really knows what she's doing, and i usually just feel lost.

recently i put in red safelights to work with the fabric, to help prevent fogging, but i haven;t coated anything, and i really need to get on that. but i need to find someone who will at least be in there with me when i do it. the red lights are so dim, and they totally make the darkroom soooo scary. i'm such a wimp... but that darkroom has been creeping me out so bad lately, even with the amber lights on.

anyway, so much political crap has been going on lately. it's been terribly depressing. especially since they took away the couch in the darkroom. now i have no where to nap... unless i can talk my way into getting a key to where it is being stored. but i used to basically live in the darkroom, but the fridge and microwave are gone too, now i have to walk to my office to eat... it's not far, but it is freakin cold outside... plus it was just soo convenient.

anyway, i'm teaching again this semester, by myself, and it's really pretty cool. we've only had a couple of classes, so i haven't gauged them really well, but a good bunch of them have had a darkroom class before. but it;s pretty cool in general.

i guess that's about it for now though.