Art Show Review

I did not really see any art shows that were going on or around UCSB this week. There are definitely a lot going on this upcoming week. I plan to go to the MFA Exhibition Yummier/Brainsickly, also the Achromatic Variations exhibit also looks interesting. Thank you Trela for flooding my inbox literally everyday with announcements of this stuff. A lot of the artists have been my TA's so it is always interesting to see what they're working on and how that relates to what they show in section. I would however like to share an experience that I thought was beautiful and that I thoroughly enjoyed anyways. It may not have been art made by man but it was art in nature and it was beautiful.

My family came to visit and I went with my mom, dad, brother and sister to the Ellwood and Coronado butterfly reserves and hiking trails. I walked with my family and we saw butterflies, enjoyed the nature hike and headed to the beach. I explored tide pools with my brother and sister and interacted with the wildlife like we did when we would go to the beach when we were all much younger. We saw whales migrating.up the coast. It was so beautiful and peaceful being out in nature. It was weird not always hearing techno blasting from somewhere or being in a rush to do homework. I just had a great time and bonded with my family and explored the landscape that has inspired many artists. How could one not classify that as art in itself?

Sequence Project

I

I am really inspired by Maplethorpe's flower photos. I like the simplicity and the beauty of the way he photographs them. I would love to photograph flowers in this style but I'd like to tell a story of beauty fading. I want it to be more narrative than his photos. His photos are very sexualized and representational. I like the representational aspect of it, but I want my flowers to be telling something more than shoving sex in someone's face. I like this idea a lot. My only concerns with it are the execution and being to closely inspired by his work that my own voice doesn't come through enough. I really like this idea and I really want my work to represent me even if I am complimenting another artist by implementing their style.

For my alternate persona project, I honestly am not sure what I am going to do. I wanted to be a hippie because I love nature and care about the environment and I think it would be interesting to do only things that were good for the environment for one day from what I wear to what I eat. I think this could be super hard and expensive though, but maybe not. I also could do something like where I would be complacent towards everything that someone asks me to do or say for a day. That might be an interesting experience. 

Comics Chapter 9. The End.

The last chapter of the comics book wrapped it all up. It stated that comics are sequential art and use all the elements that were discussed in the book to get their message across. It kind of paid tribute to comics as an art form comparable to film and other story telling methods. It was a good book. I liked the philosophy and history references in it. It really made me think about art in a more intellectual sense. I think it highlighted some personal reactions and processes that go on while viewing art that people don't even realize. I think so much of the way we view art and the conclusions that they make about it are on a subconscious level but by bringing the elements that form those views to light we as artists can manipulate them to our intentions while creating art. It is power that we have when we create art, we can form peoples views on our art and use our art to make them contemplate things in life that we want to be examined. It is kinda a sort of propaganda, but used in a good way. We can form people's minds to see things in a different light for a moment, or we can just show them something aesthetically appealing that shows off our skill. As artists the things discussed in this book can be very useful.

Sequence/Narrative Proposals

1. I would love to do something with black and white film photography. I love the style of the classic nature photographers like Ansel Adams, Robert Maplethorpe, and Carleton Watkins. I like that the process of black and white photography is a long involved one if you are developing by hand. I would love to do my work and go to a photo lab and process my work by hand. That process in itself is amazing and I love it, but of course you cannot document it. No light could be allowed to take photos in a dark room and it would be destructive.

2. I would like to illustrate a story, like a popular movie or something in my own way. Zombieland would be fun to do this with. I could change the graphics to fit my style more, Alice in wonderland would be cliche but as always, fun to put your own creative spin on a crazy landscape. I could also illustrate a story as dictated to me by one of my friends. I could have a lot of fun with that.

3. I could document a day in my own life or in the life of someone else. The idea of capturing someone's daily routine is fascinating to me. We all are curious about each other's experiences. That's why facebook is so popular, I think it would be interesting to document everything that someone does for one day in the most naturalistic way that I could because they already know they're on camera all the time. Often times all the things we want to show others are moments of fun, parties and when we're ready for it, but it'd be cool to document real life

Favorite Artist

I can't choose a favorite artist because there are so many amazing ones in so many fields that I have been exposed to. I think my favorite from Art 1C which I took in the fall is Jane Callister. I absolutely love the whimsical colorful abstract landscapes that she creates. I heard her speak about her work and you can tell that she has so much fun making it. One of the things that I love about her work is that it doesn't have any hidden meaning. It is just pure aesthetics and color composition that she goes for. The graphic quality of the work is so beautiful and  I can appreciate how modern and simple it is. Art as a process should be fun and through her paintings, Jane has a lot of fun. Each piece is so original and cannot be duplicated completely even by the artist. The uniqueness  of each landscape makes it more personal. If there was one art style that I would like to mimic, it would be hers. I love using color, mixing custom colors and exploring how beautiful different combinations of color are. I would love to do some work like this. Possibly for the next project.

Freeform

Sometimes you think that you know the way that things work in life, but you never really know.

I stumbled upon this montage of photos today of cheetahs letting a baby antelope go. I love to watch nature shows and tv series and I have never seen anything like this. I know its kind of a small thing but it just goes to show you that you can always be pleasantly surprised by things that go on in the world. This reminds me of our assignment last week that was to perform a random act of kindness and or beauty. These photos are the cheetahs doing exactly that. Who knows why they thought better of eating the antelope and who knows why they played with and showed affection to it. From an anthropological sense, it doesn't align with any logic, but from an art sense, there are always beautiful  and strange things out there in the world.

  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9gJCpa/www.mfa.org/chihuly-music

I found this video and pictures of this gallery by Chihuly. His art is so beautiful and organic, it reminds me of an alien planet. I wish I could go see this gallery but it is in Boston. This art is so beautiful because it revitalizes an old art form of blowing glass and transforms the products into something amazing. The gallery looks out of this world.

Confessions Critique

I thought that today had a lot of very thoughtful confessions pieces. I'm sure the extra time that they had put more pressure of the individuals. I really thought that they all were good today. I don't think there was a weak one actually. So I'm going to talk about my 3 favorites.

I thought Jenny's piece was very symbolic and well put together. I liked the performance aspect of it when she unraveled the tennis racket from the basket. Every piece of the whole had so much symbolism and deep meaning. I could definitely relate to how she feels. It is such a big deal to have a father be your father and have a personal relationship with them. I could tell that this was hard for her to talk about. It was a very moving piece and full of elements that strengthened her story. I hope that her relationship heals in the future.

I thought that Ashley's piece was so heartfelt and unique. Everyone talked about themselves or people in their lives, She went ahead and talked about her spirituality. Her renewal of her faith was a beautiful thing to hear about. I saw how emotional she was about it. I knew that it would be very hard to come out to her family and friends after she had obviously expressed beliefs otherwise. I was moved by her letter and her performance. It was a very bold confession to do and I liked the ambiguity of it initially. It was so effective. I know she dug deep and took a chance and that is the most admirable thing that you can do in this kind of a project because bearing your soul makes the best art.

There was a lot of great craftsmanship to be seen today, The stained glass piece was very good. It was such an interesting confession to hear that he struggled with religion and didn't know what to say to his two kids. It was unique to hear a confession from a parent as we had been hearing them from people about their parents this whole time.

The confession projects today were very strong. It was definitely a good class.