5-YEAR PLAN

In 5 years:
1. To have my MFA
2. Travel
3. To have Gallery shows on my resume
4. To have my first Solo Show
5. Sky Dive
6. Explore a Cave
7. To be strong in the Lord
8. Have a teaching job

In 2 years:
1. To be in Graduate School
2. Travel to Europe again
3. Keeping my eyes peeled for opportunities over seas
4. Working a good career oriented job
5. Decide where want to go next
6. Get studio visits
7. Network
8. Get others interested in my work
-Galleries
-Collectors
-Artists
-Companies
9. Have a nice Big GRANT or ART PRIZE!!
10. To be financially independent from my mother, COMPLETELY!!!!!

In 1 year:
1. Be accepted into a Grad School program that I feel good about
-Have teaching assistantship, while in Graduate School
2. Working a good career oriented job
3. Free lance/ Self advertise
4. Have some teaching experience
5. Feel good about where I have chosen to live for a while, where there is a decent job market
6. Join a new church
7. Move far away from Titusville and Sarasota, away from Florida (most likely, depends)
8. Learn German
9. Apply for Grants

In 6 months (September):
1. Have a new body of work done that I feel good about showing
-Make a short film with actors (inspired from Thomas’s dream)
-Find actors
2. Take time off to morn and spend more time with Family
3. Volunteer
4. Go out on a Missionary trip
-Chose a child overseas to sponsor and send money to every month
5. Take more time to be alone with God
6. Road trip to see America
7. Visit Europe
8. Research More Artists and the Kind of work I’m doing
9. Read 5 books
10. Apply to Graduate Schools
11. Applications to Gallery shows, Juried Shows, Jobs, Residencies, Grants
-Decide where to move to, depends on the applications
-Set up for job interviews
-Work with Career Services
- Identify good opportunities (college art association, art deadlines list, art calendar, etc.)
12. Start paying off some loans
-Make money
13. Build up my Resume
-Getting more teaching experience/ assistantship for Precollege
14. Help my mother sell the house
-Garage sales
15. Decide What to do with all Dad’s stuff
-Make a quilt of from all of his blue jeans
-Fix/ take care of truck
16. Organize my life!
-Journals
-Emailing system/ address book
-Make sure I own a Mac Laptop
-My contacts/ networks
17. Have my Website up
18. Update my blog regularly
19. Make new business cards
20. Make Separate Portfolio packets for different Applications
-Illustration/ Design Job Portfolio Packet
-Graduate School Packet/ Fine Arts/ Gallery Packet
-Film/ Digital Media Packet for Gallery or job
21. Watch a ton of movies/ research and learn about the history of film
22. Set up a good system for Self Advertisement
23. Gather recommendations for applications
-Email those who will recommend you, (make sure you give them enough time)
24. Start to learn how to speak German

By graduation:
1.) Finalize 2 new pieces for April 30th the, Fine Art Senior Thesis Show
-Hook up micro servo to the Mikaela Puppet
-Make light fixture for the print/ painting, “Metaphysical Closure, Where is God?”
-Fine details on the installation, “The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Parallel Awes”
2.) Set up my new Sallie Mae Account
3.) Send out Invitations
4.) Graduation Packets
5.) Drop off artwork at the Made-By Gallery, Sarasota
6.) Pack/ Organize studio and house
7.) Financial Aid
8.) Volunteer
9.) Finish writings for Strengths and Differences
10.) Try to set up any possible interviews and turn in portfolio

RESUME

Education:
• 2006-2009-Ringling College of Art & Design, Major: Fine Arts, senior, pursuing BFA
• 2006- Space Coast Jr./Sr. High School, Port St. John, Florida, Diploma received, 3.67GPA

Collaborative/ Two Artists Exhibition:
* 2010 -“The Voyage of Infinite Parallels”, Crossley Gallery, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
* 2008 -“Implacable Creature”, Crossley Gallery, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida

Group Exhibitions:
* 2010 -Senior Fine Art Thesis Show, Crossley Gallery and Smith Gallery, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
-Best Of Ringling Student Juried Show, Smith Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
-Drag & Drop, Keating 2, Ringling College, Sarasota, Florida
• 2009 -Cosmix II, South Florida Museum & Bishop Planetarium, Bradenton, Florida
-Painting III, Installation Space, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
-We Off Her Clothes Sure., We Off Her Trans Sentence, New York Independent Studio Exchange Program, Brooklyn, New York
-Best of Ringling Student Juried Show, Crossley Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
• 2008 -Cosmix, South Florida Museum & Bishop Planetarium, Bradenton, Florida
-Realia, Big E’s Coffee House, Sarasota, Florida
-Best of Ringling Student Juried Show, Crossley Gallery, Sarasota, Florida

Awards and Honors:
* 2010 -Materials Award & Faculty Award, Ringling College of Art, Sarasota, Florida
• 2009 -Ringling Trustee Scholar Fine Arts Student Nominee, Sarasota, Florida
-Yale/Norfork Summer Art Program Nominee, Sarasota, Florida
-New York Independent Studio Exchange Program located in Brooklyn, NY
• 2008 -Woman Contemporary Artists Scholarship Award, Sarasota, Florida
-Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award nominee
• 2006 -Grand Prize; 24th District Congressional Art Competition, which includes a trip to Washington D.C. for an award ceremony with other national Congressional art competition recipients, and the displaying of the Artwork in Washington D.C. for a complete year.
-Melbourne Art Festival Scholarship Award, Melbourne, Florida
-Best of Show and Third place (Sculpture) Awards in the same age category; The Henagar Strawbridge Art League Student Juried Art Show, Melbourne, Florida
-First place and second place; Brevard Museum of Art and Science Student Art Competition, Melbourne, Florida

Commissions & Public Art/Volunteer Work of Years 2001 through 2006:
• Murals -Volunteer: Port St. John Public Library, Retirement Home and First Baptist Church of Port St. John, Cocoa, Florida
-Jackson Middle School and Space Coast Jr./Sr. High School, Titusville & Cocoa, Florida
-Businesses: The Pediatrician’s Office and Surf Shop of Port St. John, Cocoa, Florida
-4 Private Homes located in Cocoa and one in Merritt Island, Florida
• Numerous commissions of -Portraiture, Landscape and other paintings and drawings
-Graphic Design: T-Shirts, Business Cards and Logo Designs
-Clay and Wood Sculpture Pieces
-2 Book Covers

Related Experiences:
• Attended the Ringling’s pre-college perspective program in July 2005, receiving the Outstanding Student award in Photography & Digital Imaging and outstanding performance awards in Modular Portrait and 2-D Design, Color and Digital Processes.
• Taught art lessons to children and adults. (2005-2006)
• Assistantship teaching Figure, Painting, Illustration and Drawing for Summer Teen Studios at Ringling College. (Summer 2009)
• Assistantship teaching Pre-College at Ringling College of Art. (Summer 2010)
• Worked for the Selby Gallery located at Ringling College of Art, Sarasota, Florida for 2 ½ years.
• Worked for the Smith Gallery located at Ringling College of Art, Sarasota, Florida for ½ year.

Mikaela Raquel Williams ARTIST STATEMENT 2010

I’m interested in creating elusive sci-fi environments and narrative images dealing with metaphysical issues such as the nature of existence, parallelism, god, space, time and identity. I’m making staged photographs, sculptural props for the photographs, performances, video work, painting and drawings. The photo documents from my site-specific installations and performances stand alone as artworks. My work is heavily influenced by surrealism, metaphysics, science-fiction cinema and mixed media. Another influence is the NASA Space Shuttle Program in Titusville, Florida, where my mother still works today.
Self-portraiture is used as a filter to investigate these ideas. The image of myself stands in for the human-race and its relationship to technology, both past and future. In this humanist context I often will emphasize the hand-made object in opposition to the machine-made, high-tech object. Colorful yarn, cut paper, children’s toys and the use of computer programs adds to the charm of an eerie atmosphere that pretends to be futuristic.
The action of projection along with the hand-made object illuminates a strange dialogue about pseudoscience, futuristic imagery, craft and a certain level of camp, the kind associated with old, low budget sci-fi fantasy flicks. For example, when I made a faux Mac laptop out of paper that appeared to be the source of a real projection, I reminded my viewer that art is a simulation of life, both high and low.

IM PAINTING A LAMB IN OUTER SPACE!!!!!, DONT ASK, EXPLAIN LATER


-I'm also finishing up the Mikaela Puppet
I need to order a new micro servo for the moving eyes. Dont have the cash so will have to wait, moving them manually for now.

chose a painter, and write about what you think that artist is doing that makes her/his work relevant today

OLIVER LUTZ

I hate this question. I think the question itself can sometimes be irrelevant. Oliver Lutz is a contemporary artist because he's making art now! This question only becomes relevant when you see someone making paintings like Mondrian or something. The influence of an artist established in a particular art movement is then undeniable. That artist making Mondrian paintings is in the wrong century! Oliver Lutz'z influences of art are the late 1800s until now. All re-interpreted into what he thinks is good art and what is special. Pretty much all contemporary work does that. It wont be till like 50 years from now we can look back and truly understand the contemporary movement of what artists were making in the 2000s. Why try to pinpoint it with a label or a trend? Isn't that one of the beautiful calculations of Contemporary art, its everything.
So to make it plain and simple: I don't know what Oliver Lutz is doing, but I understand what he's interested in and where he's coming from. I attended an artist talk by him and had a studio visit from him. I know after making a beautiful painting he will completely obliterate it with black paint. The audience is only able to view the painting underneath the black through special cameras. I feel like he's responding to our surveillance of culture. I know he's interested in many other things, his performances are really interesting too.

Photo Links:
http://www.artlies.org/_issues/59/reviews/sa.judson.lutz2.jpg
http://arttattler.com/Images/Europe/Belgium/Ghent/SMAK/Beyond%20the%20Picturesque/lutz.jpg

Main Website About the Artist:
http://www.oliverlutz.com/bio.htm

Gallery Links:
http://ps1.org/studio-visit/artist/oliver-lutz


-sorry about all the copy paste links, i couldnt get the links to work on my blog

what i'm working on:

I having no problems right now, everything is going according to plan with the mikaela puppet.

I dont want to post photos. I like it to be a surprise...hahaha.

I'm sewing and glueing the skin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEW PIECE

TITLE: "Subconscience Dimensions Of Staging Space Other"

ORALS

1. What did you learn about your work and yourself during orals?

I learned a lot! I realized for my orals i put the wrong work up, so my thesis might have seemed all over the place. I want my thesis to be not straight forward, but a little more focused as far as content goes only. My work can be very elusive, more than i thought. The self portraits that other people are doing of me are a side project, not part of my thesis. What i learned about myself---i need to be more myself during public speaking i got too nervous and uptight and i'm not like that at all. I know now what my thesis is more than ever and i know what i'm truely interested in as far as what to make next.

2. What questions do you wish you had been asked that none of the faculty asked you?

I felt like i was talking more about the contemporary context of my work rather than the work itself which was annoying. At times i felt like it got kind of crit-ticky rather than just an oral.
I wish the questions were harder and worded more thoughtfully, i felt like the questions were so standard and so they were irritating.

Questions that pertain more to how my work works or does or its interworkings:
a.) What is the relationship of the materials you chose for each piece in relation to the next piece?
b.) What is the relationship of the materials you've chosen to your subject matter?
c.) What about psuedoscience interests you?
d.) How and Why do you talk about the future in your work when you use materials like rainbow yarn and cut paper?
e.) Can you elaborate more on the role of the self portrait in your work?
f.) What is the emotional content in your work if there is any?

3. What do you think is your strongest idea right now?

Making work that deals with metaphysical issues through a science fiction point of view
Staged Photography and making props is a good idea

4. What is the strongest part of your process or technique?

Strongest part in my technique is the technical know how to construct hand made objects and to do it well. I work with paper and crafty material very well. The strongest part in my process is that i consider all the possible options to carry out an idea/visual image. Strongest Parts in my work overall- visually innovative and engaging

5. What are the weak spots in your work right now?

Clarity

6. How do you intend to address those weak spots?

Focus! Weed out Side projects! Concertrate only on certain types of spaces, symbols and images!

7. What needs to be edited or transformed and how will you do it?

I dont want to answer this question in words, still figuring that out as i go along with each new project.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS:

A. What aspects of Irwin's working process, life path, or thinking did you relate to and why? B. What useful advice, tips, ideas did you gain from the video?

A.) Honestly I don't relate to Irwin's work at all!!!!!!! And i don't want to!!!!! Cant believe he painted those line paintings for two years!!!!!!! 5 months is more than enough time surely to reach his goal in those paintings and to learn and edit them!! I related to and liked how he questioned every thing and became very curious about his work towards the end of the video/ his newer work. His use of color became much better. Life path is pretty ideal, he never stopped making work and got famous, unfortunately cant say that i relate to the famous part, but the never stop making work part is relatable because we're both artists.

B.) Editing, made me think about how i go about editing in my own work and what needs to be done.


MY FEEDBACK ON THE TOP 10 LISTS AND STUDIO WORK OF TWO CLASSMATES-
1.)TINE
2.)SARAH

TINE
*Influenced by & What I See in Tine!!!!!!!
-Hipster Trends
-Pop Culture
-The pop cultures depicted in fashion and popular magazines
-What's Cool?
-Traditional means and movements of painting
-Illustration
-Interest in Figure Anatomy
-Realism
-Dreamy Colors
-Body Image
-Concentration on analyzing, dissection and critique of the human figure
-Characters
-graphic shape
-paint
-mark making
-texture
-Fantasy
-Sensual
-Sexy People
-Idealism
-Anime


*Comments
-superficial beauty is a good word
-why not try to seek the same abstract atmosphere you speak of in your paintings for your drawings?
-Artists I think you might like or are relevant to you: John Currin (the way he talks about idealism, and magazine culture) (not so much the pornographic paintings, but the other ones), James Jean, http://www.fredericksfreisergallery.com/artists/smith/index.html (Zak Smith)


SARAH
*Influenced by & What I See in SARAH!!!!!!!
-First thing that comes to mind, which is the most vital, when I look into Sarah's mind i think of beauty that is manifesting itself all around us. Simple. Interesting. Good.
-Capture
-Moments
-Color
-Figurative
-Simple
-Playful
-orbs
-Cute, but dark
-Expression/ Expressive
-Breath
-Body and Mind
-Psychology
-Photography
-Clever
-Vibrating/ quivering figures



I like to think Sarah thinks these things to herself when she's painting or making a movie:
-What is beautiful made out of?
-What is manifestation really?
-What happens when the spaces in between that we cant see, but feel are made physical?
-What's in a word any ways?


*Comments
-"an anonymous presence manifests from our physical bodies, changing my visual perception. This is the feeling that I paint."--that's a beautiful thing
-Sometimes i think Sarah has adopted some futurist (Futurism) theories and philosophies and reinterpreted them for herself
-I thought it was very smart on how you documented your thesis paintings
-"we bled like the rarest peacocks..."

-Sarah is Recherch'e

hey i'm making a movie!!!!!!! video piece.....no its a movie...video?

It will go in the Dome!!!!!!!!! In South Florida Museum

-Research: NASA and Space Shuttle Launches
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6205307759540051625&ei=xa1oS-rFOYnIrAKWjsiBCg&q=aerial+views+of+space+shuttle+launching&hl=en&client=firefox-a#docid=3494797394811201452




-What i'm working on: Special Effects/ Props for the Video, Script and Storyboard!

ARTIST STATEMENT

I’m interested in creating elusive sci-fi environments that address metaphysical issues and questions such as, the nature of being, god, space, time, identity, nature of minds in relation to parallelism and the correlation between opposites. My work is heavily influenced by contemporary surrealism, theatre, robotics, metaphysics and science fiction cinema. Being that my parents has always worked for NASA at the Space Shuttle Program in Titusville Florida has been an integral part of my narrative based installations and portraits.  I use my own image as a stand in for the human race in the portraits.

The portrait pieces represent the relationship between technology and humans taken from a metaphysical point of view. The action of projection in the portraits and installations signify mysticism, creation and light. In my mixed media sculptures and installations I am attracted to the contrast of the hand made object in a high tech reality because it creates spectacle and charm. It also illuminates a strange dialogue about pseudoscience, futuristic imagery, craft and a certain level of camp, (the kind associated with old, low budget sci-fi fantasy flicks). For example, when I visually experimented with faux versus real life representation; making a faux Mac laptop out of paper makes it about the hand made object in a high tech reality. Also, the process of duplicating life only enhances the discussion layers of parallelism and projection in this particular context.

I take direct inspiration from the camera lens and projectors for my pieces. I use science textbook illustrations and diagrams of the universe and gravitational lensing diagrams openly as references.  I’m specifically interested in the kind of technology that helps us understand the vastness of outer space. Using colorful yarn, cut paper, children’s toys and programs by Apple Computer, such as Photobooth, adds charm to an eerie atmosphere that pretends to be futuristic and/or sci-fi. In my new work I will continue to conceptualize my viewpoint on the elusive fabrics of being in space-time.

TOP 10 INFLUENTIAL SCI FI FANTASY, DREAM SPACE INDIVIDUALS OF 2009

NOT IN ANY PARTICULAR ORDER

-Joan Jonas is really cool too, forgot about her

1.) Stanley Kubrick
 http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/
http://books.google.com/books?id=fU78LdDClHUC&dq=STANLEY+KUBRICK&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=uzDbKdAdm5&sig=I1XR4wqXq4aLQTVZSeBKqS05ymA&hl=en&ei=QDBVS5O9BYOVtge6_6StDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=19&ved=0CFAQ6AEwEg#v=onepage&q=&f=false

2.) David Lynch
http://www.davidlynch.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0

3.) George Lucas
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000184/

4.) John Carpenter
http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0000118/

5.) Stephen Hawkins
http://www.hawking.org.uk/

6.) Albert Einstein
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates//1921/einstein-bio.html

7.) Matthew Barney
http://video.pbs.org/video/1237601764#
http://www.gladstonegallery.com/barney.asp?id=1470
http://www.artrage.com.au/img/content/Matthew-Barney-C-3.gif
http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_11A.html

8.) Pipilotti Rist
http://www.pipilottirist.net/

9.) Cindy Sherman
http://www.cindysherman.com/
http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml

10.) David Altmejd
http://www.andrearosengallery.com/artists/david-altmejd/

RESEARCH-

-Gravitational Lens(ing)
-Metaphysics
-Black hole diagrams
-New technology humans are using to understand space/time
-Diagrams of Universes
-Religion
-What the universe is made of
-How light works
-Folk Art
-Computer Advancement
-Parallel Universes
-Parallelism
-Pschology
-Artists who work with similar subject matter
-Cinema and the camera lens and everything that goes with it! and its relation to everything!  Language, how we see our own existence....how we understand, cinema in relation to light and effect on human mind
-Sci Fi movies old and new

IN THE WORKS: Drawings/ Paintings of a Performance Piece that will take place HOPEFULLY!

THE GIST:

The basic plan is to build an animatronic version of myself.  Just the head...for now.  Moving eyes controlled by micro controllers and the plan is that the puppet head will be an extension of my body.  Some outside take on puppetry....From this performance with the "mikaela puppet" ,ill call it for now,  hopefully some beautiful staged photos, digital paintings/ composites and drawings will follow after.  I want to leave it open.  Nothing is set in concrete.  My first step is to...well...I got to make the puppet head first.
Problems:  Materials that i need (Micro Controller)  is out of my budget.  So i have some technical issues with the piece that i will have to solve.  Using traditional manual puppetry mechanisms ?

There is also talk of a video collaboration with Jen Nugent and another with Jenny Vu.  I dont want to talk about it.  Something primitive.  Explain later.

25 THINGS ABOUT THE ART OF MIKAELA RAQUEL

 Metaphysics vs. Pseudoscience

 Space/ Time

 NASA

 Science- Fiction

Meaning Of Life/ Pondering Existence

Hand-made/ Low tech reality vs. High tech reality

Our Relationship with Technology

Parallelism in Opposites

Dream Space

Humor

Emotional Otherness

Submission

Hostility

God

Rainbow/ light

Identity

Self Portrait

Elusive Environments

Spectacle/ Awe

Mixed Media

Paper Installation

Projection/ Projector

Video/ Performance

Funnel