Name of Artist: Graciela Bustos
Dates of Artist’s Life: 20/5/51-present
Dates of Artist’s Life: 20/5/51-present
Personal Background.
Graciela Bustos, from Neiva, Colombia, is a multi-disciplined artist that has worked in various mediums such as ceramics, multimedia, fashion, mixed media and photography. She has a BFA from Eastern Michigan University and for more than 30 years she has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and has participated in more than 50 exhibits. She has also studied under such luminaries as Paul Kotula and Tom Phardel at the College for Creative Studies. Her work has been published in Raku Pottery by Robert Pipenbeg, 1991 and in Latin American Women Artists of the United States: The Works of 33 Twentieth-Century Women by Robert Henkes, 1999 and various periodicals.
Fifteen years ago, in addition to her art, she became part of a group called DIALOGUISTAS. They have done collaborations in performances, installations, and site specific work in muliple cities in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and also Zagreb, Croatia.
Fifteen years ago, in addition to her art, she became part of a group called DIALOGUISTAS. They have done collaborations in performances, installations, and site specific work in muliple cities in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and also Zagreb, Croatia.
Style.
Her work involves a lot of light and contrast. She uses only natural light to shine though different kinds of materials. When she is shooting fabric pictures she uses the color of the fabric to produce stark contrast. She uses light to conform the subject. She uses composition and contrast to transform the subject to her liking.
Philosophy.
She is trying to find beauty in common and mundane items. She is not trying to make a political or social statement with her art. Her photographs are meant to invoke question and wonder. She accomplishes this with very abstract photos. She wanted to challenge her self work with the camera and the natural light to make objects become interesting and beautiful.
Influences.
Graciela Bustos is my grandmother so I have been around her for a lot of the time when she is taking photos. I used to watch take photos and question everything she was doing and that has really taught me a lot. She has taught me to wait and think about taking a photo and she has taught me to think about the meaning behind the photo. When I am using Adobe illustrator I like to use large shapes with a lot of depth and background to them.
3 of Her Images
Compare And Contrast
My 1st Image was taken out side during bright day light. The sun was right behind the material and that let the material appear a lot brighter than it really was.
It is similar to "LENA" because both of the images use the sun as a "back light" to make the image brighter. Its still different because of the color composition.
My 2nd image Is a lot closer to the subject and the focus is more blurred than most of Graciela's photos. In my photos I like to have more of a flat composure to my images. this image is similar to some of hers because both of our images have few colors and use the same materials.
My 3rd image has lots of wrinkles and lots of folds this is unlike many of Graciela's photos. most of my photos have not very much in common with each other other than the fact that they use the same subject. The photos are similar to hers because they are meant to tell a story.
It is similar to "LENA" because both of the images use the sun as a "back light" to make the image brighter. Its still different because of the color composition.
My 2nd image Is a lot closer to the subject and the focus is more blurred than most of Graciela's photos. In my photos I like to have more of a flat composure to my images. this image is similar to some of hers because both of our images have few colors and use the same materials.
My 3rd image has lots of wrinkles and lots of folds this is unlike many of Graciela's photos. most of my photos have not very much in common with each other other than the fact that they use the same subject. The photos are similar to hers because they are meant to tell a story.
My images
Image #1: This image is called "ligero" which is Spanish for light. the reason why I called it this was because it was the brightest photo that I took that day. the reasoning for all of the Spanish names was because of my grandma and I was inspired by her very abstract names.
Image #2: This image is called "dominante" which is Spanish for dominant. I called it this because the image is very white and it is a very mono colored image. The white in the image is very dominant because it is in the right in the foreground and the material in the middle-ground is in focus
Image#3: This image is called "Arrugas en el tiempo" meaning "a wrinkle in time" I called it this because the image has a lot of wrinkles. In was the first image I took before I straightened the material for the other shots. the name also brings to mind my favorite I used to read when I was a kid "a Wrinkle in Time"
Sources for her images:
all of them are on the main page of: https://gracielabustos.com/photography-momentum/
all of them are on the main page of: https://gracielabustos.com/photography-momentum/