2 Lists

Object: Glue Stick
List One: Describe item formally...               
1. Oblong.                                                   
2. Cylinder.                                                  
3. Around 3 inches tall.                      
4. Half an inch in diameter.                            
5. Cap is removable.                                    
6. Made of plastic.
7. Weight = .26 oz.
8. Smooth texture because of outer sticker,
until you get to the handle and then ridged to
have ability to grip it.
9. It has a pink, yellow, and orange outer label.
10. Has black writing that advertises what the object is.

List Two: Words that describe its original meaning
1. To hold things together.
2. Keep photos in a memory book.
3. Make crafts made of paper.
4. Adhesive.
5. Permanent.

Object Two: Sharpie
List One:                                                                
1. Oblong.                                                              
2. Cylinder.                                                             
3. Removable yellow cap.
4. Around 5 inches long.
5. Black writing on tube.
6. Has a lapel claps to keep it in a pocket or something.
7. Made of plastic.
8. Smooth in texture, excluding where the object had been
cut out of the plastic form.
9. Light weight.

List Two:
1.Writing on things that need permanent writing.
2. Used on misc. art project that should be permanent.
3. Smear resistant.
4. Water resistant ink, that won't fade.
5. Non-toxic ink.

Object Three: Hole Punch
List One:
1. Molded for use in a persons hand.
2. Purple handle.
3. Punch at the top, so when you squeeze it will punch a hole
in your paper or whatever you are working on.
4. Rivet in the middle to keep it from falling apart.
5. A catcher on the opposite side of from the punch, to catch
all of the holes.
6. Spring loaded inside to make a clean punch.

List two:
1. To punch holes in different materials.
2. May be used in an office or an art studio.
3. Can be used to bang things into place.
4. Can be used to help bind books.
5.Very useful in making tags for various objects.

Object Four: IPod
List One:
1. Square.
2. Silver.
3. Has a glass screen.
4. Its body is made of metal and brushed metal for the faceplate.
5. Has a white wheel for selecting the songs.
6. Hand held, light weight.
7. Apple logo on back and mirrored metal.
8. Around 2 1/2 inches tall.

List Two:
1. Listen to music on the go.
2. Play games.
3. Keep your life organized.
4. Can be used as a mirror.
5. Keep photos organized.

Object Five: Perfume Bottle
List One:
1. Heart Shaped.
2. Has a crown for the lid.
3. Liquid inside is a light pinkish purple color.
4. About 5 inches tall.
5. Semi- heavy.
6. Made of glass.
7. Has purple writing on it.
8. The crown contains pink jewels.
9. Has a sort of angular feel to the bottle, not a perfect heart.

List Two:
1. Spray to mask smells.
2. Can be used to seduce.
3. Spray to smell good all day.
4. Can be sprayed on cards or something given to a loved one.
5. The crowns can be used as rings.

John Dillienger

This weekend I saw the movie Public Enemies. It was a very interesting movie that I have been wanting to see for quite a long time. It stars Johnny Depp as the famous bank robber of the 1930s John Dillinger and  Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd. The movie was based during Dillinger's last few moths of bank robbery and of life. He was wanted by the FBI, which had only been around a few short months, for robbing multiple banks in the Chicago area and murdering one of the police men. It is alleged that he stole over $300,000 from multiple banks around the Midwest.
The movie, although wrong on many of the historical dates and events, depicts Dillinger as an open character, not living afraid of police, but rather living in a way that suggests that he was better than the police force. He fell in love with Evelyn "Billie" Frechette in the early 30s.

This would lead to her imprisonment later for harboring criminals because she lent her house to John and his "posse" of bank robbers.
I think that this movie is extremely artistic in the way director, Michael Mann, shot it. It has a lot of interesting shots that draw the viewer in, and also he does a great job of capturing the mood of the 1930s. It is amazing how he captures the depression and the sadness that was the moral of the American people at this time. I like the fact that he takes time to unveil the story of who John Dillinger was. The movie was long, but it kept you involved. The cinematography was amazing in the way some of the scenes were shot. I think that currently it is hard to find a good movie that has a good story line and is still interesting. I think that with America's lowering standards of what a "good" movie consists of, this one rises above the usual standards and is truly a good movie.
This week in my Hum 150 class we also made journals from scratch. It was a really fun experience. We learned to how to bind our own pages just like old book companies and publishers would have and make a spine and hard covers to protect the book. I chose a gray fabric that has little swirls all over it and some sparkles. I really liked the idea of making my own journal because it reminded me of The Boy that Harnessed the Wind because we were building something functional out of thinks that could have just been thrown out. It made me feel like an engineer! it was really fun! I think that my journal looks really good, I made a book mark for it and decorated it with some blue ribbon. It looks really pretty.

Critique

This week in art we were critiqued on out previous work. I think it went well for our first time. There were a lot of interesting pieces there made by some of the other students in the class. There was one that was almost as tall as a person and it had bamboo for the armature and wire mesh for the skin and was held together with hemp string. It was really cool the way the lines moved in the piece. The hemp pulled the bamboo back so the piece stood with only its own tension. It had a lot of asymmetrical values that made the piece flow really well. Another piece had human hair and pie tins. It was interesting how the pie tins and hair acted around each other and how they complimented each other, strangely. My favorite piece was one that resembled and old camera lens of a bellow folding camera. It had the armature made of wood and the skin was on slides sitting

inside the armature. It was very interesting to look inside the form because of the way the skin was layered on the sides it made the hole look curvy even though it was straight. As the piece moved around it changed form and in the end was very interesting to watch. It was very unique in the way that the light reflected off of it and the shapes changed as it moved when it was suspended.
My critique went well also I think. A lot of people liked the story behind the piece once I explained it. There was a lot of good feedback on the piece about how I could make it better and how I could present it differently. They liked the different skins of newspaper and gold foil and how they were in stark contrast to each other. I think that, even though it was a  suspenseful experience standing up there waiting for people to say something about my piece and not quite knowing whether or not it would be good or bad, it was good for me as an artist because it helped me to know what critiques are like and what they maybe like in the future. It also helped when I reminded myself that everyone is a critique, no matter who you meet; and as long as you as the artist and creator like your piece then it really doesn't matter who else agrees with you, because your art will affect someone, sometime.

This week I also learned about some really cool figures in my art history class that I really liked. We are beginning to study Greece and Crete.
There was this one, which is named Winged Victory. I have actually seen this sculpture in the Louvre, which is maybe why it stuck out in my memory to much. I think that this is one of my favorite sculptures because it leads to mystery because  the viewer wonders where the head went, if it was carved without a head, or if something tragic happened to it when it lost its head. The viewer wonders about the story behind this sculpture, which is why I find it so intriguing.  I also think that this is one of the most beautiful and elegant sculptures ever crated. It just has this quality of fluid movement that is very aesthetically pleasing to my eyes. I really like this sculpture because it also carries the qualities of a Greek goddess in which the Greek were so obsessed with. I think that it could be a god that is depicted in human form and figure. I really just fell in love with this larger than life figure. Its was just so very beautiful that every time I saw it that day I could not help myself but to stop and stare at its beauty.

Other Pictures

My other three drawings in addition to the ones in the post earlier about my project.

Oedipus

In my drama class we are reading Oedipus the King, by Sophocles. It is quite the interesting story, and piece of artwork in its self. Sophocles was a very religious man, but it does not come out in this piece of work. The story begins with Oedipus, King of Thebes, in disarray because his country is in disaster because of a plague. He sends off Creon, his brother in law to Delphi to talk with Apollo's messenger about what they can do to save Thebes. Creon returns with a riddle that, once figured out, reveals that Oedipus is sleeping with his mother, murdered his father, and the reason that Thebes is in the state that it is in. He is in a state of disbelief at first, so he calls in one of the former kings shepherds that knows of the story of his existence and death. The shepherd indeed revels that he has killed his father, is married to his mother, Jocasta, and is the murderer that must be punished to bring Thebes back from the "dead". Jocasta, after hearing this news, hangs herself because she can not deal with the grief. Oedipus gouges out his eyes after he finds her, because he knows that this is all his fault. Creon takes over as king and banishes Oedipus to the mountain, per his request.
What I thought was interesting in this play was the imagery that Sophocles portrays. He is very descriptive about the characters through the chorus. I liked that as the play played out, I could see it in my mind, as a form of art. It was vivid, nothing to be mistaken or misplaced. I enjoined being swept away in this artistic, yet horrible story about how one cannot ignore the truth or it will terminate you in the end.

project 1 #2

So I am working on my project, so far it is going really well. I think that the piece is going to be really cool. I haven't come up with a name for it though, which could be bad, considering how we have to have one soon. I was thinking of calling it the Ball and Chain, but I'm not sure if that is the right name yet. Being a "professional" artist is kinda hard. For class, we have to write an artist statement, that I have no idea what to write about my piece.
The assignment wasn't hard, once I drew around for a bit I came up with some ideas that I thought would be cool to make. It was kinda hard coming up with things to draw at first, but as I went on, it got easier. Some of my preliminary ideas were something like these....

I thought that the heart one was kind cool, but then I didn't know where I would attach my skin, as the assignment ruled necessary. The other one, which I have no idea what to call it, would have been cool, but it seemed a bit complex for what the assignment called for. So after 5 or 6 drawings that we were assigned to do for class, I basically had nothing that I felt would make a good project.

I came up with my current project while listening to our teacher lecture. I was taking notes in my sketchbook and doodling at the same time and this arose from my artistic adventure....
I thought that this would be a good project because it has a very strong backbone, or armature, and the circles also act as a sort of armature. In addition, the shading on the circles would be the sort of skin, made of paper, or nylon, or something like that.
I was kinda excited once I figured out what I would make, now a whole other adventure began. Figuring out what to make it out of.
Our teacher suggested wire, but I wanted to be original and not use it at first. After thinking about my project for days on end, I came to the conclusion that wire would probably be most conducive for the work that I want to do on this project. I got a hold of some galvanized electric fence wire, and although it is tough, and hurts my hands, it worked well for my armature. It hurt my hands at first, but I quickly learned to move with the wire, instead of being cut by it almost every time I try to do something with it.

Finished drawing with ideas of what to make the components out of.

While making the project, my first task was to create the backbone in which every thing would be attached to. To make that, my first idea was to tape the wires in the middle together and bend them all at once so they would all look similar, and then wrap them with another piece of wire to keep them together. Turn out that 15 or so pieces of wire are much stronger than I am. So onto another idea, bending each individual wire. this took about a half an hour to make them all relatively the same, however, I am glad I did it this way. It gives the piece more of a modernistic feel I think. Once I got them all bent, I tied them all together with a smaller gauged wire. It looks really cool I think. I like the way it turned out.
The next party was making the circles. I wasn't sure how to do this to make the circles perfectly round. I was going to bend them around things, but everything I used moved, making it impossible to get a good shape from them, so I went with hand bending them. It turned out that hand bending them worked a lot better, and looked better in the end.

So here it is, without the skin put on it yet. Its as far as I've gotten...

1st project

This week we were assigned our first project. The requirement/restrictions: we had to make an armature, out or something that was pliable, and cover it with some sort of skin. After drawing, a lot, and thinking, none stop, I came out with that I think I want to make. It is a sort of wave figure made of tie wire that has been bound together to make the central structure. This will symbolize the "time line" of a persons life. Off of it, circles will be attached, all of different sizes, to represent the events that happen in life that you cannot control. On these circles will be paper, with burnt edges, to represent you, trying to hide these events from the public view. It should be an interesting piece, I'm excited to start making it.

This week I also went to the Boise Art Museum and looked at Wanxin Zhang: A Ten Year Survey. It was quite interesting. The artist makes these larger than life figures that represent Chinese history combined with modern day life. He said that he's taken his inspiration from the hundreds of terra cotta solders found in China. As you can see in the picture to the right, the "soldier" of you will, has traditional dress for theses terra cotta soldiers that were found, but he has a modern twist. He is carrying an ensemble with a tie, wire rimmed glasses, and a suit jacket. Wanxin also says he tries to make everyone of his sculptures different. Giving them all facial features unique to the one that he is making, and hair that is also their own accomplishes this. What I thought was interesting was the fact that yes, they do represent human figures, but they have short, stout legs, large hands, and arms. He has truly interpreted the human figure.  I liked how he took artistic liberty, even if sometimes it didn't work as well as others, it made the art very interesting.


I also went to the Twin Falls County Fair. This fair has always been close to my heart for a very specific reason, the photography building. I love the way they have the art displayed, and the level of photographers displayed there are exceptional. It seems as though they seek out the best of that year, and ask them to display in the building. This truly evokes a feeling for the viewer. Truly an experience that I love going to every time I can. I could literally spend hours in there just looking at other photographers work, admiring the good and picking up tips for myself, since I am a photographer first and foremost. I was very blessed to see this year, since I think it was one of the best years they have ever had.