Project 4 #3

So I think that I have finally come up wit ha collection to present to the class today. I want to make around 50 paper figures that can be displayed in a vitrine. I want to make these so that I can comment on what a precious resource paper is, and how we do not use it as such.
I want all of the figures to be made of recycled paper or handmade paper to go with this connotation of having the sustainability of the paper. The figures can include animals, boxes, or anything else made of paper. I think that it will be a really cool project that will call people's attention to this issue of sustainibilyity.
Before break I was able to see The Streetcar Named Desire, a play by Tennessee Williams. It was about a woman, Blanche Dubios, who was fired from her job for having sexual relations with a student, and her story of how she is slowly diagnosed by her sisters husband as being mentally insane, and how she is sent off to a mental institute. I thought that the story was really good, and was one of my favorite plays that I've seen all semester. I think that this could translate into my art in a way because of the fact that I have had family member who have been diagnosed as insane. So I will see where that takes me, and maybe I will make something that I never would have thought of without seeing this play.
Class should be fun today. I'm really excited to hear everyone's ideas and be a part in deciding what we will make in our final project. I think that this project will be really interesting and should be a lot of fun to work on with my other class mates.

Museum resaerch project

So for my display/exhibit, I decided to go to Macy's and draw that huge dress made of bags on the manikin. The display was over 9 feet tall and was made of 200+ Macy's paper bags.
This is an actual photo of the display and it definitely commands your attention as soon as you walk in the door. She is HUGE! The display was about the gift of giving and how every purchase made from Macy's they would give money to some sort of charity, so all of the bags are gift bags.
I think that the information being portrayed in this display is extremely clear and that it is arranged well. You are captivated by how large and beautiful the dress is, and the plaque that accompanies it is small enough to read at a short glance, yet it conveys the message that the company wants to portray the the public.

My rendition of the  dress.

I think it is nice that the exhibit can be looked at up close and you can even touch it if you dare. I think that this was not something that was meant to just be looked at, but experienced as well. There were even some store representatives there to help the customers that had questions about the exhibit. I think that Macy's does one of the best jobs of making displays that are beautiful and high fashion, such as this dress, however they relate to the people who shop there quite well.
I also thought that the grouping made a lot of sense as it was arrange, in fact, it was one of the better displays that I have seen this holiday season. There was a definite flow around the enormous figure, and no one stopped to question what was going on. There was a sense of importance that the figure conveyed, which I thought was one of the best parts of the display.
The beneficiary was the Make A Wish foundation that Macy's works so closely with. We were privileged to know this information, as I don't think that the installation would have made as much as an impact on the viewer if that information was not there.

Francoise Duresse

Francoise Duresse is a Jamaican- Haitian artist that deals mainly with printmaking and making collages. Her work is very interesting because it has a lot to do with the racial tensions that she herself has had to deal with during her own life.  these include accepting ridicule from her grandmother up to this very day for being too dark and not looking white enough for her liking, even though she herself is black. Also it deals with some of the racial profiling that she has see throughout the world, like the black lunch counters of the 50s and the black seats on the buses in that time also.
It was very interesting to listen to her talk about the work that she has developed because she likes to put herself in the pieces as a caricature, Queen Nappy. She sees this character as a strong, independent woman that lives in a world that does not have racial tensions or anything like that. I think that this is a really big step in the art world today because, even though racial profiling is not as prevalent in our society, it is still there, and still a problem.

I think that her pieces are really nice due to the fact that they also capture her heritage in them as well. I appreciate that she used her grandmothers drawings in many of her new works, and it trying to interpret what the drawings are, even after her grandmother is dead. I think that that is a really sweet gesture and in a whole, continues the narration of her grandmother even in the afterlife.
Many of her works give off the appearance of creepy I think because many of them have a lot of things that repeat over and over again, and I just don't like looking at those sorts of things. It makes me uncomfortable. Which I guess is good considering her intention for the pieces. I think that they truly make others think about what is good and what is bad in this world because of the different colors, all similar to a paper bag. This is because she found an old tradition of measuring people by the color of their skin, which is not new to us, but it a new way that I have never heard of. This was by comparing them to a paper bag. If they were lighter, they could go where they wanted to go. If they were darker, they were considered to black to be in the social eye, and if they matched the bag, they were treated the same as the white people.  It think that this is a horrible, yet true thing that has happened in our world,and it is unfortunate that we judge people by the amount of melanin in their
 skin.

I think that it is very brave of her to do this experiment because it is more of a social experiment then it is a artistic one. It really makes the viewer uncomfortable when they look at it, especially after knowing the behind story of all of the pieces. I think that in a whole this is a really beautiful piece because it carries its own connotations of right and wrong, and it tells the story of history from a different view than what we are used to. The images are disturbing enough to make a person want to change, as well as make them think about other stories other than their own. I think that she is a very groundbreaking artist because she has now opened the door, even wider, to art that comments on how or society works, and why many things are wrong, but they are the things the people think we need to make the world go around.

Andy Goldsworthy

"I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole."-Andy Goldsworthy 

Andy Goldsworthy was born on July 2, 1956 in Cheshire, England. He was home schooled until the age of 13 when he went to work on a farm as a laborer. He says that this job was one of his favorites early in life because he liked the repetitive work of the tasks that he was expected to preform. Her now equates that with his process when he makes sculpture. He is a formally trained artist; he attended Bradford Art College in England from 1974-1975 and then transferred to Lancaster Art College in 1975, where he finished out his degree in sculpture in 1978. He married Judith Gregson in 1982, they had four children before they split up. Now he lives with his partner, Tina Fisle, and Art Historian, in their Yorkshire apartment that they have owned since 1990.

After college he started developing his portfolio quite heavily by creating ephemeral works that hinged on the collaboration with nature. He had an endless supply of materials because of this, his past works have included materials such as: snow, ice, leaves, rock, clay, bark, stones, feathers, pettels, and twigs. He says that because of the ephemeral nature of his works he must record them with color photography since the real artwork is the natural decaying process that happens within his work as it gets older. 

Goldsworthy always works within the space that he finds his materials. He says that he does not want to disrupt that natural environment or ecosystem, so he never tries to go more than a mile outside of where he found his material that he wants to work with. Also, he has made himself promise that he will not change a location of one of his projects because of the weather or other threatening things. He does this because he does not want to make a mark on the environment, that is not what his work is about. His work is about finding the connection with the environment and helping others understand the nature around them a little bit better.  One thing that Goldsworthy is especially good at is capturing the life and blood of nature, the movement, the change, and the growth. He really like cataloging how things change and why they do so. This has led to one of the newest types of art, said to be created by Goldsworthy himself, Rock Balancing.  He himself does not take entire credit for the development of this genre, but instead credits nature, since that is where he ultimately gets his inspiration.

I like his work, personally because it really captivates the nature of nature itself. I like how he works purely with biodegradable materials and leaves them in their environment, to be destroyed by nature, he very thing that created it. I think that this is one of the most beautiful and, unfortunately, lost art of being an artist. The most inspiring and I guess surprising thing that I learned about him was that he catalogs all of his works as the decompose. I think that this is really beautiful because the real artwork in nature is not only how things grow, but how the Earth composts them and reuses them to make something even better and more grand.

Anne Geddes

Anne Geddes was born in Queensland, Australia on September 13, 1956. She grew up on a huge cattle farm in Northern Queensland and is the 3rd of four daughters. During her childhood she was a true tomboy; she and her sisters enjoyed swimming the the overflow of the stream near their house during the spring, riding horses, and herding cattle on long drives for the family ranch. She was not necessarily interested in photography as a child, until one day it became clear to her while talking to her mother one day in their family garden. She says that her mother thought that she was just playing, however she knew that she wanted to photography nature as well as people. From that day forward she studied National Geographic and Life pictures, she says that she was fascinated by the way that the photographers capture the moments in time that can never be repeated.
At the young age of 17 she took a job for a tourist hotel chain in New Zealand. She decided that since this was the first time that she had ever been out of the country, she would document everything with her camera. It is her that she learned to appreciate different textures and the different natural light

that is present in nature. Along with all of the extraordinary things that she got to experience, this immense traveling brought her to Hong Kong, where she met her husband, Kel Geddes. They were married in Hong Kong in 1983.
She and Kel stayed in Hong Kong long enough for Anne to start her own portraiture business. She started out photographing her friends and their children on location at their home, gardens, or local parks. She took one day a week to just go out and take pictures purely for her own enjoyment. She learned to love nature even more than she already did, as well as learning how light bounced off of different surfaces.
In 1984 Kel and Anne returned to Sydney so that Kel could continue his career in public broadcasting. It was a very exciting time in their life seeing as how Anne delivered their first daughter there. Anne, then obsessed with her new little girl, decided to start photographing her little girl for fun. She developed many good shots as well as an expert eye for detail. One of these pictures was made into the families first Christmas card; leading Anne to want to develop more cards, so she started her own small card business.

 In 1986 she and Kel moved again, this time to Melborne. She was very fortunate due to the fact that the house that they moved into had an old garage in the back that she reclaimed as her photography studio. the family stayed there for less then a year before moving to Auckland, New Zealand. There she started seriously focusing on child photography. She stated out using her own children, by then she had two young daughters, but then added others children and her business boomed from then on. She published her first calender in 1988.
In 1992 Kel quit the broadcasting business to become Anne's business partner. He helped her build her business into a huge empire. They started this by launching a very successful line of cards, then moving to calenders, then books.

She is very influenced by nature, in particular flower buds and pupa. She loves to experiment with her art form still, and will continue, she says, till the day she dies. She says that the pictures are not taken to make money, she photographs because it is soothing to her.
Her photography really influenced me because I want to become a portrait photographer, however I love nature. She has made a balance between the two that is very beautiful to me. She is a true inspiration to the photography world, and will continue to make new way for herself and other photographers.

Project 4 #2

So I think that I may have come up with an idea for my project. I think that I will go with a Kara Walker approach and make silhouettes in my pictures and make them in a way that pertain to my life. I think that this could be really interesting because I really like photography and making silhouettes with this art form. I think that some possible ideas for these silhouettes would be horses, basketball and volleyball players, as well as other sorts of animals that I love. I think that this could be really cool when we work in a group as well because then it could be like an exploration of what is important to each of the people in our group.
I think that the installment I would like to make would have 3-5 people for an ideal size and have 3 photo's each. Each one of these pictures would examine different aspects of the persons life and would be complete with an explanation of what your life would be like with out that thing and how it is different with that thing. I think that this could be really interesting and could be in fact really influential if done on a bigger scale.
I am becoming more comfortable with this project because of the fact that I have thought about it long and hard and have done my research, so it is becoming easier as I go on with the project. I think that this will be a really fun project for the class, and it will be interesting to see what everyone does.
Ideally my project would have to do with a persons history, but it is not necessary. I think that many of the people in our class will like this project because many of them have experience with a camera. I think that it would be really fun to work with others and develop their skills if they aren't familiar with a camera or the process it take to make silhouettes in pictures.
I really hope that my project gets picked because I think that it will be displayed well in the space that is provided, and I think that it would interest a lot of people, and could catch a lot of people's eye.

Anna Skibska

Anna Skibska was born in Poland and her family migrated to the United States when she was in the 3rd grade. Her family has a strong hold in the art world in Poland. Her grandfather is an art professor at one of the most renowned at schools in Poland. Also he family has had a history of storytelling, in which she says influences her artwork in a great deal.
Her sculptures are huge, over 10 ft. high, globular blown glass balls. They resemble a skeleton of sorts, such as the underside of a leaf or a spiderweb. They are extremely strong, since they are built in this way that is only found in nature. Each one of these huge globes can withstand up to 1,000 lbs. of pressure applied on them.

The objects, as mentioned before, are used in her family tradition of story telling. Each one of these globes are a metaphor, each piece of these balls have a specific story to them. Each of the pieces are very sentimental to her, and each hold a difference place in her heart. Along with this, they hold the delicate balance between nature, including the precious and the bold. They also encompasses the essence and problematic nature that the light that is shown on the pieces has. These pieces ten to capture the light in a way that gives the impression of a non-existent solidity.
Her pieces are made with a tiny blow torch and tweezers. they are made of colored or clear glass. Once heated, they are pulled into tiny strands, about an inch or two long, and then welded together into larger ball.

 I really like these pieces, I think that they are really cool! They are so intricate and they look so very fragile! I really like the lines that the pieces employ and how they looks so light, yet they weight around 300 lbs. I also like how she plays around with different shapes and sizes to keep things interesting. She is really a visionary for the art of glass blowing as well as sculpting in general. She is really amazing due to the fact that she has come up with many techniques that now almost every glass blower uses when they want to make tiny, intricate strand of glass. She has really re-invented the glass blowing world, and they will never forget what she has done for artists now, and to come.
She says that many of her pieces relate to many of the domestic peoples of Poland and the immigrants that have come to America because they tell a story of a journey, and a path. She really loves her pieces to be heart-felt by her viewers, but in addition, she likes them to be questioned and analyzed so that their meaning can really show through.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker, born on November 26,1969 in Stockton, California, is a very talented and controversial artist. She has been encouraged to make art since she was young, seeing as her father is an artist and her mother was an administrator, but was always inspired by her family and eventually learned to develop her own identity as an artist. She completed her BFA degree in printmaking and painting at the Atlanta College of Art in 1991 and her MFA in 1994 from the Rhode Island School of Art.
Her art today has progressed from these two simple things into a style that is entirely her own. She now mainly works with butcher paper and chalk, in specifically black paper. Her art mainly explores the racial and gender tensions in America today, specifically in the Antebellum South. Her work also tries to complete the folklore that is so prevalent in the South today by solidifying some of the major details that flow though out many of the stories.
Her work has also had an amazing effect on the African American women who see her work. These works tend to raise identity issues for the women who view it because Walker tends to make the

women figure in the pieces rather soft and malleable, so she can be pushed around and can be used rather easily. They completely tear down what American women  have worked so hard to gain and preserve. Many of the images have been taken from the textbooks that many American children use today, however they have been highly cartoonized. They are very childlike and fantastical, however the images carry a strikingly nightmarish identity.
Her art has been heavily influenced by Andy Warhol's Pop Art of the 1960s. The silhouettes are really striking due to the fact of how realistic they are as well as the images that they portray. Her installations take up an entire room with black butcher paper that have been cut to match her personal drawing of the past events that have happened. These events include the lynching of a black man, the raping of a black slave, and the stabbing of a black woman. The images are grotesque and startling when first seen, but they are very reminiscent of the life that many people before our time have lived.

 I think that her work is really quite stunning because they are just such beautiful drawing, and they bring such a wonderful presence to the piece, yet they reveal a deeper, darker nature that America has been put through. They are really quite sweet figures, however they have a dark and mysterious past. I think that it is really cool how history influences her art because a lot of history also influences my art. I love how she studies and memorizes history and the religion of people to make some really stunning pieces. As an artist, she really influences me, however as a person she really makes an influence on our society, and one that people may not even know exist.

Tim Hawkinson v. Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare and Tim Hawkinson have very different styles when it comes to their views on the body. Shonibare tends to go for the more literalistic representation of the body, while Hawkinson likes the more imaginative representation of the body. Tim Hawkinson really likes to imagine his own body in different or more ideal ways and then recreate his image in sculpture. Yinka Shonibare likes to comment on race and culture through his works by using bright fabric that looks,as he puts it, has been Africanized. He really likes to recreate famous paintings with headless dummies and also makes himself the center of his paintings. He specializes in painting, sculpture, photography, film, and performance, where as Tim Hawkinson specializes in mainly sculpture. Hawkinson is fascinated with music and notation as well and makes extremely complex sculptural systems. He pays extreme attention to detail and is also obsessed with life, death, and the passage of time.
I think that both of these artists are great, however I tend to prefer Tim Hawkinson's work over Yinka Shonibare because of the fact that it is more conceptual in nature and makes people think more about what the artist is trying to say rather than what the art necessarily shows in his work. I really like the way that the artists contrast to each other, however they are extremely similar in the nature of their artwork. I think that it is great how they differ in materials, but they are very similar in the messages that they want their artwork to present to the viewers.

Project 4-Like a museum

So, first off, let me say that when I first heard the name of this assignment I thought of that song on the commercial for State Farm Insurance, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." So yea, just had to point that out. Onto the assignment. We watched a video in class about the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which I thought was really interesting, and may eve go there during Christmas Break while I'm home in California. I thought that this place was super cool because of the fact that they aren't like normal museums. They don't collect just things from one era, or one artist, or one culture. They just collect things that they think are cool, unusual, or strange. this also includes them making their own items such as a world that  has been cut in half to and looks like a brain has been put inside, to comment on how the world is its own sort of brain. Also, on of their most famous things is a pit of some sort of fruit that has been caved to have a Flemish landscape in which is seated a bearded man wearing a biretta, a long tunic of classical character, and thick-soled shoes; he is seated with a viol held between his knees while he tunes one of the strings. In the distance are representations of animals, including a lion, a bear, an elephant ridden by a monkey, a boar, a dog, a donkey, a stag, a camel, a horse, a bull, a bird, a goat a lynx, and a group of rabbits: the latter under a branch on which sit an owl, another bird and a squirrel; and on the back is the Crucifixion of Christ. It is only 13mm x 11mm big, and is displayed in a large glass vitrine.
I think that this piece is simply exquisite and it has really a lovely story on it, and it quite amazing to look at!
Anyways, this has to do with our upcoming project because the assignment is to create something that deals with the aspects of collecting or museum practices. We can make up a completely fictional story that would go with our piece, to say that they are relics of some sort or left overs of a great catastrophe. I think that this project is going to be really cool because of the fact that we get to work in groups to create the piece, however, each of us has to come up with an idea. Then the class will vote on which ones they think would be the most interesting or the best to create. Then we will be assigned groups and create the installation. They will be displayed in the vitrines in our building, but could be places somewhere else.
I need an idea, however. I collect lots of things, however they are very important to me, so I don't want to necessarily use them for this project. I was going to collect fruit pits, because I think that they are really interesting. But right now I just need an idea, and hopefully it will be good.

Project 3 Critique

So we had critique on our hair lips on Tuesday of last week, and I think it went really well. I had one of our classmates help me display them while we walked around the room looking at others projects. I wanted them to be displayed on a person, so this was perfect. They were super gross to wear, and very uncomfortable, but I think that they implied a great message! My favorite part of the whole experience was when I was in fact being critiqued. Everyone thought that they were really gross, and some even became squeamish just by looking at me wearing them. I really liked all of the comments I got about them, that they were gross, and how they looked uncomfortable, and how no one would ever want to even think about kissing anyone with hairy lips. So I thought the outcome was really good.
My favorite project was the one that my friend, Cara did. She covered an entire dress with nutrition labels that were cut into little shell like shapes and then made a modern flapper dress patter on the material. I Really liked how the form looked on the manican that she displayed it on because the way that she had altered the dress, by making it have a low cut neckline, really emphasized that it was meant to be worn by someone who wanted to look good, but had problems with self esteem. This really spoke to me on a personal level as well seeing as how I am dealt with self esteem levels since childhood. I really thougtht that this captured everything that people who count calories, watch what they eat very meticulously, and stress over their body size. I think that the message was very clear and relevant to many of the girls and boys of out generation. The need to be thin is almost so prevalent in our society that people will do anything to look like the people in the magazines, even though those photos have been air brushed and touched up millions of times before they are released to the general public.
I think that the only thing that could have made this piece better is the fact that the whole dress was not finished. I think that because this project was so time consuming that she mearly forgot that the back needed some sort of decoration on the back or some sort of pattern, not necessarily done exactly like the front. Also, I think that the dress should have been tighter on the manican, to emphasize the real way a person might wear a dress like this, especially if they are watching their weight. People would want to show off every little curve if they are proud of what they have accomplished or how they look, and this dress did not do that.
My least favorite project was one that hung on the wall and showed the ideal human species. I think that this project would have been much better if it was worn in the class because the picture didn't really do the outfit justice. The pictures looked extremely romantic, which is great and all, but it wasn't right for this project. I think that if she really wanted to take pictures of this outfit, that would have been fine if the pictures came from a more questioning and lab like quality. It would have been neat to see the pictures in a way that examined every inch of this new "specimen" and cataloged everything that was different from us as the "supreme species". I think that it also would have been nice if she would have worn the project into class and then had us even take pictures of it, like it was a rarity, and we all wanted our own souvenirs. All in all the class did a really good job with this project I think. It was really har d coming up with an idea, but after I got rolling with one, it was fairly easy, and I was suprised.

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz was born in Connecticut in 1949. She is the thried of six children and has always grown up loving photography. She attended San Francisco Art Institute where she majored in writing and drawing. She really became interested in art during her high school career.
She has had a multitude of job, but her most prevalent employer has been The Rolling Stones Magazine. Here she photographs artist and their lives in their daily habitat. She also has taken many photographs of famous movies and fashion weeks. She has three children, one who is 10 and a pair of twins who are 6. She also had a romantic relationship wit ha writer who died in 2004.
I really like her work because it inspires my own. She is mainly a personal photographer, and only shoots portraits, however, she has been getting into macro photography more and more. Possibly my favorite photoshoot that she has photographed is the one the she did of the movie Marie Antoinette. I really like this shoot because of the simple fact that she did her research on how the queen liked to pose and how she liked to be painted. I really like the eye that she has for photography because it is so unique and different that it sets her apart from all other photographers out there.

I think that one of the most significant photoshoots that she has done lately is the one with Miley Cyrus. I think that this was an extraordinary photoshoot because of the fact that it showed her vulnerability and perspective innocence. I really enjoyed how everyone got all uptight about her being so “revealed”.  I really liked the lines in this photograph and I think that she was very beautiful!

 I think that she has been very influential in the world of photography because of the fact that she has gone places that other artists dare not to go. She has taken risks with her photography because of the simple fact that she loves to make people think about her subjects in a different way than the normal photography. I love the way that she takes risks and doesn’t apologize when people don’t like it. She really loves her art for the sake of her art.

I Am Boey

Chemming Boey is a unique artist in the fact that his materials that he chooses to work with are very unusual.  Boey chooses to work with two simple things, a Sharpie fine tip marker and a par of Styrofoam cups. The story of how he came to use this material is very interesting also. Unlike many artist that try out different mediums from the start, Boey always knew that he had an urge to draw. He always knew that that was what he wanted to do for a living and even went as far as going to  school to get a drawing degree and become an animation artist for Pixar.
One day while he was at a coffee shop he had an urge to draw, but one problem existed: he had no paper, but he had a pen. He tried to draw on a napkin and paper plates, but the napkin tore and the paper plates were not satisfactory for his tastes. Then a waitress carried by a few Styrofoam cups and Chemming asked her if he could have a few. Once he got his cups he began drawing on them with the pen that he always had at hand. He says today that he had forgot how smooth and intricately the ink flows over the Styrofoam surface. He said that it reminded him "why he drew, to feel the connection with the surface and put your feelings down on the paper", or Styrofoam in this case.


His mistake cups are the ones that he uses to drink out of.
He tries not to waste anything.

Chemming has switched from using pen now a days, however. He is now majorly endorsed by Sharpie, however that is not the reason why he mainly uses them. He says that he really likes the lines the the permanent marker makes and that, because of the fact that they are permanent, means that they will never fade or dissinigrate. He only uses a fine tip Sharpie marker, and only in black. It is kind of his signature, as he coins it.

He says that his favorite thing about his artwork is the fact that it opens the world to other artist to use unusual canvas'. "You must have tried drawing with fries and ketchup, right? Why can't that be serious art?" Boey's main problem with modern artwork today is the fact that not as many things are considered art as he think should be. It is really amazing to me how much he loves what he does, and doesn't care what others say about his artwork.

Amazingly Boey never gets tired of drawing on cups. He had made over 1,500 cups and goes through 1 Sharpie pen every two days, if you would like to donate any, he'd greatly appreciate it. He says that his favorite designs are the ones that are more personal to him, as would any artists favorite be. He really likes all of the ones with waves, which is why so many of them have waves in them. His favorite influence in drawing these waves is a Japanese artist named Hokusai. Boey tried to think about how he draws his waves when he draws his.

The longest that he has ever spent on a cup is 3 months. He says that he makes tons of drafts of the cups, so the ones that we see are the ones that have passed his maticulus inspection. He says that sometimes he gets extremly nervous about drawing different things or poses because one wrong line can ruin the entire compisition. The hardest thing that he has to deal with, other than the nerves, is the fact that the cups are extremly electroamgnetic, therefore it makes it easy for them to attract ittybitty haris, that when they attach to the tip of the Sharpie, do extreme danmage to the pieces. One small fine line can turn into a large bold line is a place that it was not needed.

I think that his artwork is a complete inspiration for me. I really like how he has reached out into the unordinary wit hhis cups and made them in a fashion that they speak to more than one artist. They speak to the weird and unusual and the unconventional, as well as the avid drawer and the collecting artist I really like how inspired he is by just the basic life around him. He really makes me just want to draw something unusual or on a weird surface. I really like his imagination and the way that he presents himself to other astists. Humble.

Project #3 #2

So I finally figured out what I was going to do for my project. While talking to Erin, I mentioned my photography and how I like to bring textures that we use everyday to life. She thought that maybe I could use this as inspiration for my work. After thinking about it for awhile I came to the conclusion that I really had no idea how to do that. So after continuing to think, and draw, and research, I still had nothing. I thought about possibly putting textures that are one place on the body on a place that they shouldn't be, but I didn't know if that would work, or meet the requirements well enough.
So I went back to class, again with no idea. When talking with Erin for what seemed like the 5 billionth time, I mention making something like hairy lips, but not knowing if that would be suffice to meet the requirements. She said it would, and actually was really excited by it. Then I was faced with another problem, why in the world was I going to make this? What did it mean to me? I talked to Erin some more about this problem and she said something that really got me. Why cant this piece just be made because it is disgusting?
I thought about that some more while I tried to gather my supplies in a hurriedly fashion. I got the basics that I was going to use for the main structure of the lips/mustaches, but was having problems coming up with hair. I went to a few parlors and they told me that it was out of their policies to give people customers hair, even if they are an art major. Who knew? So I tried to looking into using hair extensions, but those are hella expensive! So I kinda gave up on myself for a bit. However, the next day I decided to call around to a few more places to get some hair. I finally found one! So I got my hair.
The overall project did not take me but a few hours to make, once I got past the grossness of using some complete strangers hair. In the end I think that they looks really good, and they are completely disguising! I am going to attach them to beads to be worn as an adornment. As a sort of jewelery. I hope that this project will be more successful than my last ones, I really want to do well.
We have critique tomorrow, so I guess we'll see how it goes. Hopefully well! I'm always excited for critique before it happens, just not so much during it.

Project #3

So we got our new project a few weeks ago and I haven't posted anything because I had no idea what the heck I was gonna do. So I took some time to think about what I was wanting to say with this project and I really wanted to make a statement. I researched many different artists that I thought may give me an idea, such as Kiki Smith, Ann Hamilton, Nick Cave, and Ana Mendieta. While researching one artist in particular, Ana Mendieta, I realized that I had actually seen her work once when I was younger, and before I ever got into art. I thought that her work was really weird when I first saw it, and was kind of disturbed by it at first. However, when I looked at it this time I thought that she did a really good job of taking the body and changing it in a way that almost made an individual unrecognizable.
This inspired me because I wanted to make a statement, and what better way to do it then to make something that we all have a see everyday and morph it into something that is different, however still possesses the same things. I thought about this for awhile and still came up with nothing. In fact I got to the point where I dreaded going to class because I didn't have an idea, while the rest of the class was working away on their projects. All of which I wished I could have stolen because they all looked so good! I was kind of beginning to become somewhat depressed because I needed to find a project. I was literally straining my mind think of something. I even asked my friends and even my mom, who hates making everything artsy, if they had any ideas. Nothing was coming.
So I decided to go back to the drawing board. I need to come up with something that would be good, but in bare minimum meet the requirements for this project. I researched even more artist and I just couldn't come up with anything. So I talked to Erin and I told her about how I liked taking photos of textures and up close things like that. She suggested that I take that and make these textures bigger so that the viewer can experience them. So I thought about that over the weekend and had no idea how to even attempt that. I drew many of my pictures in the round and tried to think of ways to make these textures, but once again failed to come up with anything.
I then thought maybe I could do something like Rachel Whiteread and take the cast of the negative space around something. I thought about pouring plaster into shoes and then putting things on the plaster that you wouldn't want in your shoes. Like hair, nails, and spiders. So I thought about that for awhile and mulled it over in my head, and finally thought that it was kind of a cop out because I wasn't really changing the body in any way.
So I guess I'll just think about it for awhile longer. The project is due next tuesday, so hopefully I can come up with something.