Public Facing Art Podcast [audio discussion of "914 Vol. III" (A)]
Subject
Description
Publisher
UNC Greensboro University Libraries
Date
2019
Contributor
Rights
All rights reserved
Relation
Click to explore other items related to the present record:
S006 [Sculpture Interpretation]
C006-A [Audio Interpretation]
C006-B [Musical Interpretation]
S006 [Sculpture Interpretation]
C006-A [Audio Interpretation]
C006-B [Musical Interpretation]
Language
English
Type
Identifier
D006-A
Transcription
Joanna Haboon (00:16):
Hello listeners. My name is Joanna Haboon, and I'll be introducing you to this podcast. I am an arts administration and studio arts student at UNCG. And my team created this podcast to interview one of the artists collaborating with the Industries of the Blind. The product itself converses around the idea that the visual arts is visually privileged. Those who are visually impaired can experience a painting like others who can see us. Thus, an employee from the Industries of the Blind worked with a UNCG art student and professor Mariam's painting class. Each of the six students did their own interview to follow the story of the employee and how they dealt with being visually impaired. They created a painting that will be presented as a printed banner and hung on the side of the building along West Gate City Boulevard. In addition, audio, like this podcast will be utilized to enforce the experience of the other senses.
Joanna Haboon (01:09):
You will also hear in the podcast that there is talk about making a metal-casted sculpture from UNCG's 3D art department. The artists we interviewed was Bethany Scruggs who worked with an employee named Kelly. The series of art drafts Bethany created to represent Kelly is a combination of dark shapes with warm colors from the middle of the piece. The colors are contained by the profile of the person, Kelly, and contrast the silhouetted skyline of Greensboro in the background. The color palette is full of bright yellows, oranges and pinks that draw the attention of the viewer. One may say it's reminiscent of a sunset or sunrise. The painting itself does not contain an immense amount of detail. Instead, it emphasizes, the larger shapes and contrast of the brightness. Through the layers of silhouettes, from the background to the colorful profile, Kelly, the viewer is able to deconstruct the painting. The painting gives off a feeling of intimacy and can be interpreted in many ways. And I invite our viewers to do the same when they see the final piece. Now the meat of the podcast can start. As the introduction comes to an end, please enjoy Bethany talking about her work.
Camrynn Coale (02:28):
Hello everyone. This is a public facing art podcast. I'm Cameron, I'm an art administration student at UNCG and I am a senior.
Mary Hannah Shinn (02:39):
Hi, I'm Mary Hannah. I am an art history major with a history minor, and I am a senior at UNCG.
Bethany Scruggs (02:48):
Hi, I'm Bethany. I am a studio art fourth year student at UNCG with a not so defined concentration in painting.
Camrynn Coale (03:04):
So we wanted to talk about the art piece first a little bit. So one of the questions I had was what themes are represented in the art. What's it trying to say?
Bethany Scruggs (03:14):
Um, I guess the, the lady I was working with Kelly, she really, um, she had, uh, a drive for travel. And so I really want him to encapture that in the piece. And, um, she liked really warm climate. Some of her favorite places to visit were like California and the Bahamas. She said she'd been to the Bahamas a couple of times. And so I really just wanted to like, make you feel warmth if that makes sense through the piece. And also feel like you got to escape Greensboro for a little bit.
Mary Hannah Shinn (03:46):
That's great. Alrighty. Um, why did you choose architectural structures? Like the silhouette of the buildings and the breaks to be in the back of the art piece?
Bethany Scruggs (03:55):
Um, Kelly also as much as she said, she loved to travel. She also loves coming back to Greensboro and like re-centering herself and settling down for a bit. Um, in one of our conversations, she said something that was like really cool. She said, home moves at a slower pace. And I thought that was really neat. And I wanted to capture that in the best way that I could,
Camrynn Coale (04:17):
I can definitely see how those all combined. Um, and so we were also interested in the process, um, you know, as a sighted person, having to make a visual art piece for blind people, like, what was that process like for you? How did you approach it?
Bethany Scruggs (04:36):
It was really tough at first. Um, Kelly can see most things. She's not able to see things that are super far away, so she's not legally allowed to drive. She can't see like road signs if they're far away, but like when she was in school, she, any of her tests that she was given had to be like enlarged to like a 20 point font so that she could read it. Um, but she can see most things. She can see color and light. And so for her, I wanted to make it very colorful. She's a very colorful person herself. And she said, um, her favorite color is pink and she loves bright and vivid colors. And that's why I wanted to include that in the sunset, but I also didn't want to make it very representational, like very, um, true to life. I didn't want it to be as a landscape of a beach where you can see every detail in the sand or the Palm trees, because they're not going to be able to see that. I wanted to give you the feeling of a sunset rather than depicting it perfectly.
Mary Hannah Shinn (05:41):
Yeah, definitely. What concepts and details in the piece did you discard during the process? Like I know they had the three options and they kind of combine the first and second. Was there like anything else like you did prior to creating those three kind of ideas or how'd you about that?
Bethany Scruggs (05:58):
So I'd say we worked on this project for probably about three months and the final, like idea of a silhouette hadn't shown up until about a couple of weeks before it was due. Um, everything that I was working on beforehand was completely all over the place. Uh, I had, she was really into gambling and so I had some, uh, like depictions of that, but then it felt a little too risky what was going on in her place of work. Um, and so I had a bunch of different ideas at first, but slowly, just like once I got to the idea of a silhouette, I just couldn't leave it. And so everything sorta started to revolve around that.
Camrynn Coale (06:45):
So after all this, you finished the project, it's all done... Looking back on it. What was the most difficult part of the project?
Bethany Scruggs (06:56):
I'd say, coming to terms with the fact that this banner is going to be seen by like everybody in Greensboro, like having conversations with Kelly was super fascinating. I learned some incredible things. Like I had no idea that you can get discounted rates on like a plane tickets and train tickets if you're visually impaired and even like movie tickets. Cause they don't expect blind people to be going to movies. Um, and so that, like that part was easy, creating the painting once I had the ideas was easy, but just knowing that everyone was going to see this and trying to put some of my anxiety to the side, I'd say that was the hardest part.
Camrynn Coale (07:41):
Yeah. It's definitely a lot of pressure. I can see that. Yeah.
Mary Hannah Shinn (07:44):
I have another question it's not on here, but I can still ask it. What made you choose the medium you were using? Cause you use, you use oil paint...
Bethany Scruggs (07:52):
[Interjecting] Acrylic.
Mary Hannah Shinn (07:52):
Acrylic. Okay. What made you do that? Was it just preference?
Bethany Scruggs (07:56):
I actually, I prefer to paint an oil most of the time, but because my ideas were changing every couple of minutes, I wanted something that was going to dry fairly quickly and something that was going to be able to be worked with fairly quickly, especially because, um, with the silhouetting, everything had to be done in layers. So first I did the background of like the grout between the bricks. Then I painted the bricks over it. Then I painted the background behind the city silhouette and then I painted the city silhouette over that. And then I painted the sunset and painted the border around the sunset over that. So everything had to be dry. And so oils just wouldn't have worked practically in this piece.
Mary Hannah Shinn (08:36):
That makes a lot of sense.
Camrynn Coale (08:37):
Um, and another question, we have so many questions for you, um, after doing this project, is there one thing that you want listeners to know? Like if anything, about this project, they to know this, what would it be?
Bethany Scruggs (08:58):
Um, I'd say everyone has a life that you, you don't realize that meeting people that like their life goes much like beyond anything that you could, I don't know if I'm making any sense. Um, like Kelly was talking not just about being blind, but like she enjoys going out with her kids and eating at all the different restaurants. A lot of our conversations had to do with like, what's the best place to eat in Greensboro. And so knowing that she's not just like a blind person, that doesn't define her, I think that that's something important to take away. And Kelly also wanted to exp... Uh, express that in our conversations. She wanted everyone to realize that like life as a blind person is just life. You still love like hobbies and interests and you're not like a charity case, you know?
Camrynn Coale (09:53):
Hmm. Yeah. I've heard that from a lot of the other artists. They're always saying, you know, this isn't supposed to be something, I, gosh, I don't even know what I'm saying. It's not supposed to be fantastic or moving. We're just all people. And they just realize that
Bethany Scruggs (10:14):
They, they work with their lives in a different way than we do. But that doesn't mean that they are to be pitied.
Mary Hannah Shinn (10:22):
And did you get to talk to any of the other people who work there or was it just strictly just with Kelly?
Bethany Scruggs (10:28):
I really only got to talk with Kelly, which is a bummer. I wanted to talk to Afiya. If you guys heard any about her, she was the, um, she had the Louisiana paintings. She was like, when we were all in groups talking and breaking ourselves up into pairings, she was just very fun. I wanted to get to know her a little bit, but we didn't quite have the time.
Mary Hannah Shinn (10:48):
Yeah. Cause I know, um, I was with Adam Carlin when he first kind of announced it because I was working at GPS and I know they talked about like, well, isn't it a little weird to just have a painting, but like, how do you feel about the incorporation of like the, what is it the metal casting? Like, do you know how they're doing that? Like how are they making it 3D since technically your pieces gonna be flat...
Bethany Scruggs (11:11):
We've met with the 3D sculptors and I'm still slightly confused because Mariam seems to be under the impression that it's going to be a literal, like translation of our piece into metal casting. But I think the way, what is Dane, is that his name? Um, I think the way he wants to structure the project is to like have the same themes or ideas and based off the same conversations that we had, but for the artists to like have their own interpretations of the metal casting. So I, I don't exactly know if...
Mary Hannah Shinn (11:45):
It's the same but different
Bethany Scruggs (11:46):
Yeah. The same concepts, but different outcomes.
Mary Hannah Shinn (11:49):
Yeah. Because I know that always comes out as like, well, why are you guys banners? If these people are visually impaired, but like you said, Kelly can still see light and colors. So she would probably be able to see, especially on the building, she would be able to see the color. Has she seen your design?
Bethany Scruggs (12:05):
Uh, yeah. When we were presenting all three of the pieces, everybody was in the room. So all six of our partners, all six of us, the artists, uh, Richard who had organized the whole thing and all of the professors
Camrynn Coale (12:19):
And for the listeners, Mariam is your teacher.
Bethany Scruggs (12:22):
Yes. Yes. My painting instructor.
Camrynn Coale (12:23):
Yeah. Um, that was actually something I asked Adam when I met him, was whose sort of idea was it to do a visual banner for Industries of the Blind? Like that seems counterintuitive, but he said that it was actually the Industries of the Blind's idea. They wanted it to be more inviting
Bethany Scruggs (12:50):
That's. All Richard had wanted, was banners on the side. Um, and a lot of the professors, Adam included, they wanted to, they, they thought paintings and banners were going to be a little too limited and not be able to reach the people that these pieces were for because some of them won't be able to see anything, you know,
Mary Hannah Shinn (13:10):
Going off that. So like if someone was going up to that audio box, like, how would you want your piece described? Like if someone had never seen it, like, how would you describe what you're looking at?
Bethany Scruggs (13:21):
Um, I think I would definitely want the focus to be on the feeling of the piece, uh, the warmth of the sunset, as well as the feeling of home that the Greensboro silhouette gives, because I don't know about everyone else, but as soon as I see that building with the screen on the front of it, that's when I feel like I'm home.
Mary Hannah Shinn (13:39):
Yeah, definitely. That's great. That's great. So I guess what was the most rewarding part of the experience? I know you kind of talked about the difficult part, but like what was the most rewarding experience out of everything you've had to do with this? Whether it be the painting or just working with Kelly,
Bethany Scruggs (13:56):
I'd say the most rewarding part was definitely at the end of giving the presentations. Um, Richard had stood up and thanked all of us for working on it and described how much fun they had had, uh, working with us on this project. And then Kelly actually came up to me and thanked me personally for my pieces and gave me a hug. And I thought that was just like very sweet. I almost cried.
Mary Hannah Shinn (14:22):
And um, I know they said that these are going to be kind of like they're going to be switched out every year, I believe. And what is like your hopes for that? Like where do you want to see it go in the future? Cause especially now it's just a prototype and we're kind of just figuring things out.
Bethany Scruggs (14:36):
Yeah. I would definitely like to see, um, how more people just interact with the stories of... And coming up with the ideas of how to like work with a point of view that you're not used to, because if you can't see, how do you make work visual, 3D, or visual flat work for someone who can't see anything flat. Um, and so I would like, I would just like to see more of how that's incorporated, like, uh, Joey's painting. Um, his partner was actually fully blind, the only fully blind person we were talking to. And one of... His painting ended up being the best one, in my opinion, like one of the most visually interesting. And so I'd like to see how those come about in the future years.
Camrynn Coale (15:29):
Yeah. And going off of that, like how has this changed your artistic process and are you wanting to continue doing work like this in the future?
Bethany Scruggs (15:40):
I think I definitely would want to, um, one of the things I am most interested in my personal work is like the addition of texture into a painting and how just how thick and crazy you can get a painting to be, whether you, uh, apply it with a palette knife or I've seen some artists put it in like a piping bag that you would use for icing on a cupcake and pipe icing onto their painting. And it just, I love 3D elements to a traditionally 2D medium. And so I think that works really well hand in hand with, um, the Industries of the Blind and being able to make work for visually impaired people.
Camrynn Coale (16:23):
Yep. That's awesome.
Mary Hannah Shinn (16:23):
Would you want to continue doing kind of like this almost social practice type work, like whether it be working with more people from Industries with the Blind, but just kind of doing community outreach work and doing these kind of interview process work, et cetera, inspired by other people and their stories or even your personal own stories?
Bethany Scruggs (16:41):
I think eventually, I think right now that... This project, um, caused a lot of stress while it was very fun. It was a lot of sleepless nights. And so, uh, I would definitely want to in the future maybe with, without a great attached to it so that it's not a pressure of being a public work and also a huge part of my final grade.
Camrynn Coale (17:07):
[inaudible] hopefully graduating soon so you can do work without it being graded.
Bethany Scruggs (17:13):
Yeah.
Mary Hannah Shinn (17:14):
All right. Thank you, Bethany, for talking to us and being able to kind of talk about your experience working on this project. We really appreciate it and we hope that we get to see this project go on in the future. And again, I'm Mary Hannah,
Camrynn Coale (17:26):
I'm Cameron
Bethany Scruggs (17:28):
And I'm Bethany. And thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
Joanna Haboon (17:38):
As the entire podcast officially comes to an end. I would also like to thank Bethany for talking to us. She's a great artist and I can't wait to see what's next. She also did a great job while talking about her work with us. So that was very helpful. Additionally, the team that I worked with was phenomenal and I was happy to be able to make this podcast with them. We did screw up a few times in recording, if you guys like to hear it, itll be at the very end of our podcast. Thank you to all of our professors that made this happen, including Mariam and Dr. Scalissi. We also have Adam Carlin at GPS to thank and the Industries of the Blind as well. And most of all, thank you for all of those who are listening. And I hope this project will be successful in that. Bethany will have your support from our wonderful listeners.
Joanna Haboon (18:32):
Each student did their own interview to follow the story of an employee and how they dealt with being visually impaired. They then created a painting that was presented and printed on a bearer. That was okay. Get [inaudible]!
Joanna Haboon (18:54):
How much time do you want to factor in for the description?
Camrynn Coale (18:58):
I mean, even if we go over here, we can cut stuff out. Like we can cut out the crap with me talking.
Mary Hannah Shinn (19:05):
Yeah. We put in like the parts that would be in the light...
Joanna Haboon (19:15):
An employee from the industries of the blind, worth it with, no, I did it again, that sucks! Agh!
Joanna Haboon (19:32):
You were just, we interviewed was Bethany's Scruggs who worked with an employee named Kelly. The series of art drafts. Bethany created to represent Kelly is a combination of dark shapes with warm colors from the middle. The color has contained a profile.
Siri (19:47):
Just a moment. Okay. I found this on the web for created to represent Kelly's combination of dark sheets with the colors, check it out.
Hello listeners. My name is Joanna Haboon, and I'll be introducing you to this podcast. I am an arts administration and studio arts student at UNCG. And my team created this podcast to interview one of the artists collaborating with the Industries of the Blind. The product itself converses around the idea that the visual arts is visually privileged. Those who are visually impaired can experience a painting like others who can see us. Thus, an employee from the Industries of the Blind worked with a UNCG art student and professor Mariam's painting class. Each of the six students did their own interview to follow the story of the employee and how they dealt with being visually impaired. They created a painting that will be presented as a printed banner and hung on the side of the building along West Gate City Boulevard. In addition, audio, like this podcast will be utilized to enforce the experience of the other senses.
Joanna Haboon (01:09):
You will also hear in the podcast that there is talk about making a metal-casted sculpture from UNCG's 3D art department. The artists we interviewed was Bethany Scruggs who worked with an employee named Kelly. The series of art drafts Bethany created to represent Kelly is a combination of dark shapes with warm colors from the middle of the piece. The colors are contained by the profile of the person, Kelly, and contrast the silhouetted skyline of Greensboro in the background. The color palette is full of bright yellows, oranges and pinks that draw the attention of the viewer. One may say it's reminiscent of a sunset or sunrise. The painting itself does not contain an immense amount of detail. Instead, it emphasizes, the larger shapes and contrast of the brightness. Through the layers of silhouettes, from the background to the colorful profile, Kelly, the viewer is able to deconstruct the painting. The painting gives off a feeling of intimacy and can be interpreted in many ways. And I invite our viewers to do the same when they see the final piece. Now the meat of the podcast can start. As the introduction comes to an end, please enjoy Bethany talking about her work.
Camrynn Coale (02:28):
Hello everyone. This is a public facing art podcast. I'm Cameron, I'm an art administration student at UNCG and I am a senior.
Mary Hannah Shinn (02:39):
Hi, I'm Mary Hannah. I am an art history major with a history minor, and I am a senior at UNCG.
Bethany Scruggs (02:48):
Hi, I'm Bethany. I am a studio art fourth year student at UNCG with a not so defined concentration in painting.
Camrynn Coale (03:04):
So we wanted to talk about the art piece first a little bit. So one of the questions I had was what themes are represented in the art. What's it trying to say?
Bethany Scruggs (03:14):
Um, I guess the, the lady I was working with Kelly, she really, um, she had, uh, a drive for travel. And so I really want him to encapture that in the piece. And, um, she liked really warm climate. Some of her favorite places to visit were like California and the Bahamas. She said she'd been to the Bahamas a couple of times. And so I really just wanted to like, make you feel warmth if that makes sense through the piece. And also feel like you got to escape Greensboro for a little bit.
Mary Hannah Shinn (03:46):
That's great. Alrighty. Um, why did you choose architectural structures? Like the silhouette of the buildings and the breaks to be in the back of the art piece?
Bethany Scruggs (03:55):
Um, Kelly also as much as she said, she loved to travel. She also loves coming back to Greensboro and like re-centering herself and settling down for a bit. Um, in one of our conversations, she said something that was like really cool. She said, home moves at a slower pace. And I thought that was really neat. And I wanted to capture that in the best way that I could,
Camrynn Coale (04:17):
I can definitely see how those all combined. Um, and so we were also interested in the process, um, you know, as a sighted person, having to make a visual art piece for blind people, like, what was that process like for you? How did you approach it?
Bethany Scruggs (04:36):
It was really tough at first. Um, Kelly can see most things. She's not able to see things that are super far away, so she's not legally allowed to drive. She can't see like road signs if they're far away, but like when she was in school, she, any of her tests that she was given had to be like enlarged to like a 20 point font so that she could read it. Um, but she can see most things. She can see color and light. And so for her, I wanted to make it very colorful. She's a very colorful person herself. And she said, um, her favorite color is pink and she loves bright and vivid colors. And that's why I wanted to include that in the sunset, but I also didn't want to make it very representational, like very, um, true to life. I didn't want it to be as a landscape of a beach where you can see every detail in the sand or the Palm trees, because they're not going to be able to see that. I wanted to give you the feeling of a sunset rather than depicting it perfectly.
Mary Hannah Shinn (05:41):
Yeah, definitely. What concepts and details in the piece did you discard during the process? Like I know they had the three options and they kind of combine the first and second. Was there like anything else like you did prior to creating those three kind of ideas or how'd you about that?
Bethany Scruggs (05:58):
So I'd say we worked on this project for probably about three months and the final, like idea of a silhouette hadn't shown up until about a couple of weeks before it was due. Um, everything that I was working on beforehand was completely all over the place. Uh, I had, she was really into gambling and so I had some, uh, like depictions of that, but then it felt a little too risky what was going on in her place of work. Um, and so I had a bunch of different ideas at first, but slowly, just like once I got to the idea of a silhouette, I just couldn't leave it. And so everything sorta started to revolve around that.
Camrynn Coale (06:45):
So after all this, you finished the project, it's all done... Looking back on it. What was the most difficult part of the project?
Bethany Scruggs (06:56):
I'd say, coming to terms with the fact that this banner is going to be seen by like everybody in Greensboro, like having conversations with Kelly was super fascinating. I learned some incredible things. Like I had no idea that you can get discounted rates on like a plane tickets and train tickets if you're visually impaired and even like movie tickets. Cause they don't expect blind people to be going to movies. Um, and so that, like that part was easy, creating the painting once I had the ideas was easy, but just knowing that everyone was going to see this and trying to put some of my anxiety to the side, I'd say that was the hardest part.
Camrynn Coale (07:41):
Yeah. It's definitely a lot of pressure. I can see that. Yeah.
Mary Hannah Shinn (07:44):
I have another question it's not on here, but I can still ask it. What made you choose the medium you were using? Cause you use, you use oil paint...
Bethany Scruggs (07:52):
[Interjecting] Acrylic.
Mary Hannah Shinn (07:52):
Acrylic. Okay. What made you do that? Was it just preference?
Bethany Scruggs (07:56):
I actually, I prefer to paint an oil most of the time, but because my ideas were changing every couple of minutes, I wanted something that was going to dry fairly quickly and something that was going to be able to be worked with fairly quickly, especially because, um, with the silhouetting, everything had to be done in layers. So first I did the background of like the grout between the bricks. Then I painted the bricks over it. Then I painted the background behind the city silhouette and then I painted the city silhouette over that. And then I painted the sunset and painted the border around the sunset over that. So everything had to be dry. And so oils just wouldn't have worked practically in this piece.
Mary Hannah Shinn (08:36):
That makes a lot of sense.
Camrynn Coale (08:37):
Um, and another question, we have so many questions for you, um, after doing this project, is there one thing that you want listeners to know? Like if anything, about this project, they to know this, what would it be?
Bethany Scruggs (08:58):
Um, I'd say everyone has a life that you, you don't realize that meeting people that like their life goes much like beyond anything that you could, I don't know if I'm making any sense. Um, like Kelly was talking not just about being blind, but like she enjoys going out with her kids and eating at all the different restaurants. A lot of our conversations had to do with like, what's the best place to eat in Greensboro. And so knowing that she's not just like a blind person, that doesn't define her, I think that that's something important to take away. And Kelly also wanted to exp... Uh, express that in our conversations. She wanted everyone to realize that like life as a blind person is just life. You still love like hobbies and interests and you're not like a charity case, you know?
Camrynn Coale (09:53):
Hmm. Yeah. I've heard that from a lot of the other artists. They're always saying, you know, this isn't supposed to be something, I, gosh, I don't even know what I'm saying. It's not supposed to be fantastic or moving. We're just all people. And they just realize that
Bethany Scruggs (10:14):
They, they work with their lives in a different way than we do. But that doesn't mean that they are to be pitied.
Mary Hannah Shinn (10:22):
And did you get to talk to any of the other people who work there or was it just strictly just with Kelly?
Bethany Scruggs (10:28):
I really only got to talk with Kelly, which is a bummer. I wanted to talk to Afiya. If you guys heard any about her, she was the, um, she had the Louisiana paintings. She was like, when we were all in groups talking and breaking ourselves up into pairings, she was just very fun. I wanted to get to know her a little bit, but we didn't quite have the time.
Mary Hannah Shinn (10:48):
Yeah. Cause I know, um, I was with Adam Carlin when he first kind of announced it because I was working at GPS and I know they talked about like, well, isn't it a little weird to just have a painting, but like, how do you feel about the incorporation of like the, what is it the metal casting? Like, do you know how they're doing that? Like how are they making it 3D since technically your pieces gonna be flat...
Bethany Scruggs (11:11):
We've met with the 3D sculptors and I'm still slightly confused because Mariam seems to be under the impression that it's going to be a literal, like translation of our piece into metal casting. But I think the way, what is Dane, is that his name? Um, I think the way he wants to structure the project is to like have the same themes or ideas and based off the same conversations that we had, but for the artists to like have their own interpretations of the metal casting. So I, I don't exactly know if...
Mary Hannah Shinn (11:45):
It's the same but different
Bethany Scruggs (11:46):
Yeah. The same concepts, but different outcomes.
Mary Hannah Shinn (11:49):
Yeah. Because I know that always comes out as like, well, why are you guys banners? If these people are visually impaired, but like you said, Kelly can still see light and colors. So she would probably be able to see, especially on the building, she would be able to see the color. Has she seen your design?
Bethany Scruggs (12:05):
Uh, yeah. When we were presenting all three of the pieces, everybody was in the room. So all six of our partners, all six of us, the artists, uh, Richard who had organized the whole thing and all of the professors
Camrynn Coale (12:19):
And for the listeners, Mariam is your teacher.
Bethany Scruggs (12:22):
Yes. Yes. My painting instructor.
Camrynn Coale (12:23):
Yeah. Um, that was actually something I asked Adam when I met him, was whose sort of idea was it to do a visual banner for Industries of the Blind? Like that seems counterintuitive, but he said that it was actually the Industries of the Blind's idea. They wanted it to be more inviting
Bethany Scruggs (12:50):
That's. All Richard had wanted, was banners on the side. Um, and a lot of the professors, Adam included, they wanted to, they, they thought paintings and banners were going to be a little too limited and not be able to reach the people that these pieces were for because some of them won't be able to see anything, you know,
Mary Hannah Shinn (13:10):
Going off that. So like if someone was going up to that audio box, like, how would you want your piece described? Like if someone had never seen it, like, how would you describe what you're looking at?
Bethany Scruggs (13:21):
Um, I think I would definitely want the focus to be on the feeling of the piece, uh, the warmth of the sunset, as well as the feeling of home that the Greensboro silhouette gives, because I don't know about everyone else, but as soon as I see that building with the screen on the front of it, that's when I feel like I'm home.
Mary Hannah Shinn (13:39):
Yeah, definitely. That's great. That's great. So I guess what was the most rewarding part of the experience? I know you kind of talked about the difficult part, but like what was the most rewarding experience out of everything you've had to do with this? Whether it be the painting or just working with Kelly,
Bethany Scruggs (13:56):
I'd say the most rewarding part was definitely at the end of giving the presentations. Um, Richard had stood up and thanked all of us for working on it and described how much fun they had had, uh, working with us on this project. And then Kelly actually came up to me and thanked me personally for my pieces and gave me a hug. And I thought that was just like very sweet. I almost cried.
Mary Hannah Shinn (14:22):
And um, I know they said that these are going to be kind of like they're going to be switched out every year, I believe. And what is like your hopes for that? Like where do you want to see it go in the future? Cause especially now it's just a prototype and we're kind of just figuring things out.
Bethany Scruggs (14:36):
Yeah. I would definitely like to see, um, how more people just interact with the stories of... And coming up with the ideas of how to like work with a point of view that you're not used to, because if you can't see, how do you make work visual, 3D, or visual flat work for someone who can't see anything flat. Um, and so I would like, I would just like to see more of how that's incorporated, like, uh, Joey's painting. Um, his partner was actually fully blind, the only fully blind person we were talking to. And one of... His painting ended up being the best one, in my opinion, like one of the most visually interesting. And so I'd like to see how those come about in the future years.
Camrynn Coale (15:29):
Yeah. And going off of that, like how has this changed your artistic process and are you wanting to continue doing work like this in the future?
Bethany Scruggs (15:40):
I think I definitely would want to, um, one of the things I am most interested in my personal work is like the addition of texture into a painting and how just how thick and crazy you can get a painting to be, whether you, uh, apply it with a palette knife or I've seen some artists put it in like a piping bag that you would use for icing on a cupcake and pipe icing onto their painting. And it just, I love 3D elements to a traditionally 2D medium. And so I think that works really well hand in hand with, um, the Industries of the Blind and being able to make work for visually impaired people.
Camrynn Coale (16:23):
Yep. That's awesome.
Mary Hannah Shinn (16:23):
Would you want to continue doing kind of like this almost social practice type work, like whether it be working with more people from Industries with the Blind, but just kind of doing community outreach work and doing these kind of interview process work, et cetera, inspired by other people and their stories or even your personal own stories?
Bethany Scruggs (16:41):
I think eventually, I think right now that... This project, um, caused a lot of stress while it was very fun. It was a lot of sleepless nights. And so, uh, I would definitely want to in the future maybe with, without a great attached to it so that it's not a pressure of being a public work and also a huge part of my final grade.
Camrynn Coale (17:07):
[inaudible] hopefully graduating soon so you can do work without it being graded.
Bethany Scruggs (17:13):
Yeah.
Mary Hannah Shinn (17:14):
All right. Thank you, Bethany, for talking to us and being able to kind of talk about your experience working on this project. We really appreciate it and we hope that we get to see this project go on in the future. And again, I'm Mary Hannah,
Camrynn Coale (17:26):
I'm Cameron
Bethany Scruggs (17:28):
And I'm Bethany. And thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
Joanna Haboon (17:38):
As the entire podcast officially comes to an end. I would also like to thank Bethany for talking to us. She's a great artist and I can't wait to see what's next. She also did a great job while talking about her work with us. So that was very helpful. Additionally, the team that I worked with was phenomenal and I was happy to be able to make this podcast with them. We did screw up a few times in recording, if you guys like to hear it, itll be at the very end of our podcast. Thank you to all of our professors that made this happen, including Mariam and Dr. Scalissi. We also have Adam Carlin at GPS to thank and the Industries of the Blind as well. And most of all, thank you for all of those who are listening. And I hope this project will be successful in that. Bethany will have your support from our wonderful listeners.
Joanna Haboon (18:32):
Each student did their own interview to follow the story of an employee and how they dealt with being visually impaired. They then created a painting that was presented and printed on a bearer. That was okay. Get [inaudible]!
Joanna Haboon (18:54):
How much time do you want to factor in for the description?
Camrynn Coale (18:58):
I mean, even if we go over here, we can cut stuff out. Like we can cut out the crap with me talking.
Mary Hannah Shinn (19:05):
Yeah. We put in like the parts that would be in the light...
Joanna Haboon (19:15):
An employee from the industries of the blind, worth it with, no, I did it again, that sucks! Agh!
Joanna Haboon (19:32):
You were just, we interviewed was Bethany's Scruggs who worked with an employee named Kelly. The series of art drafts. Bethany created to represent Kelly is a combination of dark shapes with warm colors from the middle. The color has contained a profile.
Siri (19:47):
Just a moment. Okay. I found this on the web for created to represent Kelly's combination of dark sheets with the colors, check it out.
Original Format
recorded group interview and audio description of artwork
Duration
0:20:09
Compression
29.97 frames/s
3604 kbits/s
Collection
Citation
Coale, Camrynn, Haboon, Joanna, and Shinn, Mary Hannah, “Public Facing Art Podcast [audio discussion of "914 Vol. III" (A)],” accessed May 11, 2024, https://uncglibraries.com/publicart/items/show/12.