Sally Mann Lecture Response

I absolutely loved the Sally Mann lecture. It was refreshing to know that such a respected and famous artists is able to remain so humble when talking about herself as an artist. She was not only insightful but also hilarious when talking about her work, why she does certain series, and how she deals with other's reactions to her work.

So many things she said during the lecture stood out to me, not just when talking about her work, but also when giving advice to the audience about how to work as an artist. One of the first things she said was never to put a finished work up until you are 1/3 of the way through a new project so that you are not constantly stopping your work due to criticism. Also she said that she tends to work on multiple projects at one time so that she can deal better with forcing herself to create new work. She says despite all the negative comments she has received, she keeps working due to how stubborn she is.

When asked about how she developed her style she replied "it's really kind of laziness" and that you "have to open yourself up to serendipity." Though she says this, one can easily tell by looking at her work that serendipity is not purely the case. Her work can be described as boundary breaking, emotional, and dark. Her most recent work "Proud Flesh" I found most compelling after she told the audience though this work deals mostly with extreme intimacy, it also is a way for her to deal with aging and how disturbing growing old is to her.

My first question was somewhat answered. An audience member asked her what her reaction was to the child pornography accusations, in which she responded by simply saying "I had no idea those pictures would push so many buttons." She said that unlike many artists you see in the news today, she did not set out to gain recognition through shock value.

My second question was answered as well, since some of the images that were shown during the lecture did have color in them. These images did not seem as successful though as her black and what images. I felt they lacked the soft, flowing qualities that her other images have.