Michele Beck, Creative Coach

Michele Beck, Creative Coach

Falling, 2012, video still

“Art is a guarantee of sanity”   -Louise Bourgeois

Your Creativity
Creativity is an expression of life.  It is a form of communication, as important as spoken language, but all too often we are cut off from this part of ourselves. We are encouraged to draw, paint and dance as children, but as adults we are told that these endeavors are secondary to more practical concerns. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Our ability to transform concepts, ideas, stories or life experience into images, objects, sounds and movement is essential to a full and rich expression of our being. If you feel ready to unleash your creativity or are already in a creative process and are looking for support to move through obstacles and go deeper into your investigation, I can help. 

When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time. 
–Cy Twombly

Our Process
I consult with people individually.  During our first session, we will define your unique goals and create a plan.   We will start by looking at where you are in your process. 

•If you are at the start of delving into your creativity,  we will begin by discussing your interests and ideas while exploring what is inspiring you and how you imagine creating your vision.   Using this information, we will then devise a practical plan to get you working.

•If you are currently working on a specific project and need feedback, we will make a critical investigation into your work and consider how the project is or is not working. I will offer  alternative perspectives and act as a mirror that helps you see how to move forward. 

•If you are an artist in transition.  It can be challenging to shift from a set of ideas and images that you have been working for some time.  I can assist you in defining your new interests and exploring how they could now take form. 

Areas of my expertise:

•Exercises to help move through blockages and further define your creative ideas.

•Lists of artists, exhibitions and readings that relate to your interests in order to inspire you and give a broader context to your work.

•Technical help  in:

-Video Production: preproduction, shooing and editing with Final Cut Pro

-Performance Art

-Installation

-Sound: conceptual development and editing

-Sculpture: welding, paper, fabric

Fees
Please contact Michele from pricing.

To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.  -Georigo De Chirico

 About Michele

Michele Beck is a multidisciplinary artist working with single channel video, installation, sound and performance. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including: The ICA in London, Galerie Chez Valentin in Paris, The Bronx Museum, The Queens Museum, PS122, Inport Video-Performance Festival in Estonia, LA Freewaves and the Kassler Dokumentarfilm und Videofest in Kasel, Germany. She is a recipient of grants from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the New York Foundation for the Arts.  She has been granted multiple residencies at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York and recently completed a residency in Cappadocia, Turkey.

Michele completed her Bachelors in Art History at New York University and Masters of Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design. She is part time faculty at the New School and International Center for Photography where she currently teaches the following courses: Digital Video Production, Documentary Production Workshop, Video Portraits and Issues in Digital Culture.  She has been at the New School since 2001 and  at the ICP since 2004. 

Currents, 2010, installation detail

“Michele Beck’s work de-constructs the human psyche to some of its most primitive components and presents broken down forms of language, archaic sounds, emotional experiences, thoughts and psychological processes. The single channel videos, installations and performances function much like poems, choosing the minimum of materials in order to articulate internal spaces where the unconscious has free rein, and where primitive trauma is worked through, re-created and mastered. The result is an artistic work that is frightening, disconcerting, disorienting and a truly visceral eye-opening experience to behold. “
-Joanna Lipper, filmmaker, author, professor Harvard University

You can view Michele’s work and read her writing at:
http://michelebeck.net/
http://michelebeckart.blogspot.com/
http://michele-jorge.blogspot.com/

It’s a process.  Take your time. 

Testimonials

 “Michele is an inspiring, intelligent, attentive and extremely creative teacher.”
Oliver Palan

“Michele is both conceptually and technically insightful.  She brought me the crucial history of the medium I am working with as well as the connections between film, video art, photography and performance art. I think she is a fantastic teacher and my new explorations in video art owe a lot to what I learned from her.”
-Dillion De Walters

“I have learned so much from Michele, and I know that all people yearning to express their creativity will benefit from her for years to come. “
-Annabelle Von Albrecht

“With virtually no previous videography experience (and none at all with programs such as Final Cut Pro), Michele helped me to create a project that was both technically sophisticated and conceptually grounded.  I credit this to Michele’s emphasis on the inter-relation of the technical and conceptual aspects—clarifying, supporting, and simplifying each—which, for example, made learning complicated digital procedures easier and more meaningful. “
-Michael Tyson Murphy