Influence. Iowa Research Online. University of Iowa. Justin Timothy Schortgen University of Iowa. Theses and Dissertations.

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1 University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2014 Influence Justin Timothy Schortgen University of Iowa Copyright 2014 Justin Timothy Schortgen This thesis is available at Iowa Research Online: Recommended Citation Schortgen, Justin Timothy. "Influence." MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Art Practice Commons

2 INFLUENCE by Justin Timothy Schortgen A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2014 Thesis Supervisor: Assistant Professor Mathew Rude

3 Copyright by JUSTIN TIMOTHY SCHORTGEN 2014 All Rights Reserved

4 Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL MASTER S THESIS This is to certify that the Master s thesis of Justin Timothy Schortgen has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art at the May 2014 graduation. Thesis Committee: Mathew Rude, Thesis Supervisor Isabel Barbuzza Steve McGuire Wallace Tomasini Anthony Castronovo

5 Most importantly to God, and my parents Tim and Paula Schortgen, my brother James Schortgen and his wife Amanda, my love Robin Bullman, and grandmother Lenora Holloway for your endless love, support, and encouragement through out my life. ii

6 When I was a young, I set out to change the world. When I grew older, I perceived that this was too ambitious so I set out to change my state. This, too, I realized as I grew older was too ambitious, so I set out to change my town. When I realized I could not even do this, I tried to change my family. Now as an old man, I know that I should have started by changing myself. If I had started with myself, maybe then I would have succeeded in changing my family, the town, or even the state --- and who knows, maybe even the world. Words of an old Rabbi on his death bed. iii

7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my graduate colleagues: Kevin, Bobby, Billy, Josh, and Jim for their help and support through out my graduate time at the University of Iowa, and especially my advisors, Assistant Professor Mathew Rude, Adjunct Professor Benj Upchurch, Professor Isabel Barbuzza, Assistant Professor Anthony Castronovo, Wallace Tomasini and Professor Steve McGuire for working with me and mentoring me through out my graduate experience. Their guidance and mentorship has really shaped, challenged, and changed my character both as a person and an artist. Also want to thank my old professors and mentors Bill Goodman, Rod Crossman, and Bruce Campbell. I would love to thank Laura Jorgensen graduate secretary, Sheryl Lyle office assistant, Andrew Evens computer consultant, Pat Arkema, department administrator, Sarah Cavaunaugh, administrative assistant, Regan Yoder, Anthony Sutowski, Adam Krueger, and Ben Anzelc, Lab Specialists. Most of all, I would like to thank God, my family, my grandparents, my brother and his wife, Jim Busby, and my beautiful fiancée Robin for their love, support, care, and guidance. iv

8 ABSTRACT In the beginning I vowed to myself that I would go through my M.F.A. and never in my artist statement or my thesis talk about God and what I believe. However, through lots of reflection I am going to talk about my life, art, and practice, which I can not do with out mentioning God. I do this because, as I look back at my life, I realize that every day has an influence on my life. I am continually changing and growing. This is the most important thing and this is where my concept is rooted. Reflections as a boy. As a young boy my parents made sure my brother and I had a lot of opportunities from traveling to being involved with the community in a multitude of things. I remember participating in a lot of community activities, committing and donating a lot of time to the church, sports, 4-H, and school activities and clubs. My whole life I have lived in the same community and the same house, which has lead me to feel extremely invested to the area and community. I worked hard as we raised some life-stock, worked as farm hands, and served as a lifeguard and manger of a pool. At the end of my senior of high school I took my first mission trip. I realized, though baptized, I was needing to be taught what it meant to be a disciple. As I critiqued my life and Christianity I realized the Christian church is not teaching our youth and that void is something I wanted to change. I attended Indiana Wesleyan University striving to be an art educator and was a walk-on athlete for the track and field team as a hammer thrower. Through out this experience I was discipled as a Christian through various friends, professors, and coaches, and furthered my search for a direction and meaning to life and how to live. At v

9 this point in my life I came across opportunities to travel to the east and west coast, Central and South America, Italy, and Haiti. Upon graduation I bought a motorcycle and decided to take a trip in search of the next step, either going to grad school or looking to become a studio artist. My goal was to make it up to Alaska yet my travels ended in Minnesota seeking out wood firings artists and interviewing them. I then went home and was able to spend a few days with my Grandmother before she passed. I then decided to try to go back to graduate school and applied to multiple schools. After that process I proceeded to apply for employment and landed an apprenticeship in Arkansas and learned a lot in that experience. I worked there for about six months and went home, built a kiln, fired it, and tore it down to come to school. vi

10 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES... vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION...1 II. III. MY ART, MY PRACTICE, MY WORLD...2 THE INTEREST WITH IN vii

11 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Untitled Figure 2. Untitled Figure 3. Untitled Figure 4. Untitled....9 Figure 5. Untitled Figure 6. Untitled Figure 7. Life Cycles Series, Untitled Figure 8. Life Cycles Series, Untitled Figure 9. Life Cycles Series, Untitled Figure 10. Life Cycles Series, Untitled Figure 11. Life Cycles Series, Wall Bulb viii

12 1 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION I have enjoyed my interactions and experience through out graduate school. When I entered into school, I had ideas on what I thought graduate school would be, and my experience has leaped past my thoughts. But at the same time I am exiting with far fewer answers and more questions then I thought I would have. My body of work has changed for the better and has given me more of a direction in what to continue to pursue. I am excited for this new step because I am tired of the stress of school. I do know now I am not super human, I am fragile, weak, and even sensitive. I have let my body go (meaning I got fat), and it will be hard finding that similar physic again, but found my experience worth it all. Before I came to graduate school and even throughout, my graduate experience I heard so many people say I wish I could have gave more to my school, or I wish I could go back and utilize the time and facilities better. But now that I am nearing the end and looking back, I feel I took great advantage of my time here at school, I am extremely content with what I have learned and the directions I have explored. Thank you to all who have invested into my life and helped me along with that experience. I am truly grateful, for my life and everything with in it. I have hit times that have not been so great times that I doubted I was good enough for graduate school in the beginning. I fell into the romantic idea of searching for who I am. I knew who I was; I just had to wake up, realize it, believe it, and live it. I believe God has made me and I rest in that. Most of the time.

13 2 CHAPTER II. MY ART, MY PRACTICE, AND MY WORLD My desire to create is because I explore materials and how things interact and react to each other. I am truly influenced by anything at any given point, but through my graduate experience I found most of my interest in art, engineering, science, ecology, technology, and sociology. I am interested in how time can influence these areas of study as well. My work deals with the interaction between various materials like how setting up a semi controlled area for firing my ceramics and the influence of different heavy metals and organic mater to impact my work, or mimicking nature and how we interact and respond to it. I choose art because it can reach to people s experiences in a different way, and is a completely different language. Art is so versatile. There are people that understand the language greater than others but any one from any culture can experience it. Isn t this amazing thing that sends me to be baffled. At the same time, art is not always great; either visually, esthetically, or in its politics. My desire to do art is to explore materials, how they interact, and how things work. I enjoy the solitude in working and reflecting on my life. I love seeing the finished product that my mind imagined and my hands created, and wondering how it all works. My thoughts range from the material s I use, to the way my brain works, and using my hands to create. The idea of collaborating or communicating an abstract idea, and seeing it take shape into life or a reality, blows my mind in comprehending the process that takes place. How two or more people worked together to make something, and how technology is changing the way we think and experience life and understand other things. How the human body works or the music we hear, how we communicate

14 3 vocally and through body language. When I think about this the only response that comes to mind is. WWWHHHAAATTTT? I am in awe and wonder of what is going on around me and I think to myself there has to be a God. I use my practice to meditate and to think only for myself and to go on in the world and practice my philosophies and to practice and try to live by what I believe.

15 4 CHAPTER III. THE INTEREST WITH IN I can always remember being drawn to art because it allowed me to examine and explore in my own way, but I never took it serious enough. I did this because how do you make money being an artist, eventually I would choose to become an artist and would have to confront this question and would turn to other artist to ask how to make it. Half of the interviews would start out, how do you position yourself to make money? They would say, We don t. Pick something else to work in. Or the market isn t like it use to be. What do you do when your about to graduate, spent a lot of time and money only to be told that you should pick something else? Pursue it anyways. I simply did not understand how many opportunities that are available. So I took a step and believed that I could possibly make it as a ceramic artist. In college I was an athlete for track and field, I competed in the hammer throw. It was at this time that my life would really begin to change. Being part of the team, becoming a disciple, and then teaching others what I have learned in both competition and spirituality, has influenced me on who I am today and what I want to do in life. I love the opportunity to talk and discuss beliefs on religion. I do not see my self as only a teacher in clay, but I am someone that is deeply and sincerely interested in people s lives. I want to challenge people to recognize, experience, and be aware of reality. I challenge others to see that life can not always be beautiful and when it is not beautiful to ask, Why? But also finding the oxymoron with in that and how it points back to beauty? I think it does. Why because this is an incomplete life and this is not what life was suppose to look like. That, to me, is why life is not perfect, that is where hardships and other struggles come from. So when things seem broken, dirty, or fragile

16 5 there is still beauty. Though it may not appear for some time, we just have to search for it. We may never recognize it, but it is there and it will appear some day through time and wisdom.

17 Figure 1. Untitled 6

18 Figure 2. Untitled 7

19 Figure 3. Untitled 8

20 Figure 4. Untitled 9

21 Figure 5. Untitled 10

22 Figure 6. Untitled 11

23 Figure 7. Life Cycles Series, Untitled 12

24 Figure 8. Life Cycles Series, Untitled 13

25 Figure 9. Life Cycles Series, Untitled 14

26 Figure 10. Life Cycles Series, Untitled 15

27 Figure 11. Life Cycles Series, Wall Bulb 16