Trick or Treat!

Right now, I am sitting behind the glass of my living room door, waiting for two kittens and a princess to approach. It's all so cute, I've decided that...

1) Halloween costumes get to be on the inspiration list this week. It seems irrelevant, I know, but let me remind everyone how obsessed I am with dress up performance. I love the variety that kids (and their parents, and corporate money-grabbers) come up with. A favorite from the last five minutes: a homemade cardboard "paper doll."

*candyhandingout break*

Okay so I know that kids are not graceful, but after this last tiny Superman, I am starting to get concerned with the lit candles inside of my Jack o'lantern.

2) Pumpkin Carving has also been a seasonally-appropriate inspiration this week. In fact, a pumpkin gathered from Yarnik's farm inspired a small stop-motion project on Saturday. Also, it made yummy seeds.

*candyhandingout break*

As for an artist this week, I'm going to go with...

3) Chris Stevens. Though, strictly speaking, he is not an "artist," Stevens grows world-record breaking pumpkins. You can't tell me that the process of growing a 1,810.5 pound fruit is not an art. Also: art made with giant pumpkins (maybe Stevens'?) surfaced on the Google doodle today. Consider this post-project inspiration.

Gotta go tend to the ghouls knocking at the door now - Happy Halloween!

pics with post

left- pyramid head

Halloween:)

1. snow- I love snow, except when I have to go places of course. The things I have seen created from snow are always interesting. Snow men have really come a long way. Paper snow flakes are also fantastic, especially the really delicate/intricate cut outs.

2. pumpkin carving- with it being Halloween, more pictures of pumpkins popped up. Its crazy something as simple as a pumpkin can be transformed so drastically. Its too bad pumpkins don't have much of a shelf life.

3. Costumes- this one ties into my own personal work somewhat. Watching everyone wonder around in their costumes is great. I am always amazed at how creative people get with making their outfits. Last year someone was wearing a "Pyramid Head" costume (character from Silent Hill), it freaked me out so much I would not go near that person the entire night.

Apologies for slacking..

1. Omar Ortiz - It's pretty irrelevant to what I've been working on, but the guy is flatout phenomenal. He's a painter based out of Mexico (I believe), and he does large-scale hyper-surreal type paintings. He is just one of those artists that just kind of gets me jacked up to improve my craft.

2. Old star/sea maps - There's something about the borderline fantasy aspect of them that is just interesting to me. They're kind of a reminder that the knowledge we've gained since then hasn't always been around, and on top of that, the world as we view it could become as archaic as those maps are now.

3. Tattoo art - It is most likely me being in the Halloween spirit, but themes in tattoos such as Dia de Los Muertos motifs and the old school tattoo art has been somewhat inspiring lately. I'd like to say that there's a deeper reason, but honestly, I've just enjoyed the aesthetics of it lately.

snow, videos, alyssa monks.

1. Snow! This is my first inspiration because the first snowfall of the year always brings a beautiful feeling inside me. It brings warm feelings of family love and closeness. It brings reminders that my birthday and Christmas are almost here. These feelings connect to the bugs and family photos I am exploring right now and trigger me to want to dig deeper and find the best way to portray them.

2. Videos! I had forgotten how much I loved video! When I was a senior in high school I would carry around my camera and use the video on it to shoot 30 second clips of my life. I carried it everywhere with me and filmed everything. I created a movie using some of them. I have been inspired again after being forced to do these stop-animation films. I'm not sure how long this inspiration will last but right now I am very excited about it!

3. Alyssa Monks http://alyssamonks.com/portshow.asp?portfolioid={9C2EB4DA-44B9-4297-99EA-360A00216893} is my artist for this week because of her ability to create realism and abstraction together. I am really drawn to her older work because of the experimentation with the angles she takes her photographs from. There are many sexual innuendos in her work too, which draws me to them as well.

Bowling alleys, elementary school, and Kathe Kollwitz

1. Bowling Alleys!

Once again the Elk's lodge forces its influence upon my life. I spend more hours a week there than in class, so it's no wonder I have this annoying obsession. So there is a bowling alley in the basement. Six lanes, post WWII automatic pin setter machines, oh and you have to keep score by hand. The bowling alley is my own personal bar. I practically run it. No one likes to work down there or even go into the place as it's in the basement and I think it scares people. But I love it. The day I saw the alleys at the Elk's I vowed to make them mine. And here I am. Working in the bowling alley has given me a bizarre set of absolutely useless skills as far as the real world is concerned. I know how to oil the lanes by hand, clean the lanes, perform general maintenance on the machines and fix most minor break downs. All this out of necessity. The machines are old. They are like my six finicky children. Like the printing presses, they must be loved and caressed just right so that they perform as they should.

Anyway, there are plenty of visually interesting things about the alleys: the way they move, the sounds they make, the simple operations all working together in these complicated machines.

Oh, and although I can fix an AMF automatic pinsetter manufactured nearly half a century ago, I can barely bowl over 100. Priorities I guess.

2. Elementary School

Recently I have been completing my EDUC 242 classroom observations at Horace Mann elementary school. It is less than a block from my apartment and is so super fun. Although I hate waking up in the morning to go to school, I have not had a bad day at school yet. Elementary students are totally hilarious. They are always excited and ready to go. It really goes to show you that no matter how many college classes you take, the real learning happens when you are standing in front of the classroom. There are so many layers to teaching which all need to work together in order to be effective. Anyway, elementary school is great because you can act totally silly and the kids don't care. They love you for being silly and excited, and they pick up on your excitement. Although I am sick and tired of jumping through the flaming hoops of the education dept here at IUP, I have never been more excited to have my own classroom and my own gaggle of children to educate. Really, it's gonna be worth all the crap (at least I think so).

3. Kathe Kollwitz

Did someone already use her for the blog? Did I? Eh, I can't remember. Kathe Kollwitz is one of my total fav's. I love the emotion and darkness in her prints, drawings and sculpture. The moodiness is as striking as the contrast of dark and light. Her work depicts a strong social consciousness, focusing mainly on mother/child, rebellion, death, and injustice. Her beliefs were so radical for the time that her home was bombed in WWII. Additionally relevant to the tone of her work, Kollwitz lost her son in WWI and her grandson in WWII. Not surprisingly, these traumas contributed to her political consciousness and the darkness of her work. All in all Kollwitz is one fine example of a strong, socially conscious woman making her voice known in the art world.

Childhood cartoons

I forgot that as a child I used to watch massive amounts of cartoons. The realization came to me as I was looking through some of these illustrations online. I was immediately overjoyed at the discovery, and it triggered a memory of my childhood addictions.

I was initially raised with Looney Tunes, I have a memory of waiting until 8PM certain nights of the week to watch it. I had a tendency to gravitate toward the stranger cartoons, even at a young age. I could go through the entire list, but it would be a partial waste of time in my opinion. So I'll go through some of the highlights.

At some point in my childhood I watched a ton of Ren and Stimpy. It surprises me as an adult to see certain episodes of this show, as I often marvel at how they managed to get some of the content on television at that time (what was that, fifteen, maybe 20 years ago?). I found the detailed stills hilarious. I was engrossed and horrified at the strangeness of the scenarios the two characters found themselves in (ex: "Marooned" was a good one, I felt like I was suffocating as I watched it). Many of these cartoons shaped what I consider the darker side of my sense of humor. And my vivid, mostly unhealthy, imagination probably stems from this. Unfortunately, the episodes got so gross that I eventually found myself nauseas as I was watching them. Kudos on pushing the envelope, though.

In my teenage years I moved and stumbled upon Cartoon Network. Granted, this was eleven years ago, so the cartoons were a bit different. But I found a great deal of joy from shows such as Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. There are probably others, but none come to mind right now.

That being said, here are the visual inspirations for me in a nutshell. Ren and Stimpy and Courage the Cowardly Dog's uses of background. I am influenced indefinitely by the character development of Courage the Cowardly Dog, and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (specifically the imaginative side of the different characters and their personalities). The flatness of The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory is turning into a definite influence in terms of screen printing.

And while I'm on the subject of screen printing, here's a few more links:

Scott Benson: who I've mentioned before. I have this print specifically hanging in my home.

Papertrail Prints

..probably a few others, which I will post as I find. Oh, and another interesting link on Iso50's website:

Design, design, design. The St. Vincent poster is my favorite. Beautiful.

To Judge or Not to Judge

1. I believe the object of a noose is a metaphor for judgement. I want to use the idea of a noose to involve the viewer in my art. The viewer gets to decide if the object placed within the noose is guilty of not guilty. For my purposes I will use objects I believe need to be re-judged. I believe advertisements can be unnecessary, and therefore, there needs to be more censoring. I have lately been hanging objects such as Wendy's cups to decide if their packaging advertisements are unnecessary. An overkill. We know when we go to Wendy's we are buying their product, so why do they need to advertise to their own customers? You be the judge.

2. Lately the subject of art being to literal has come up in my classes. I have been really thinking about how to make sure my work is not too literal. Therefore, in my hanging drawings, I only draw the rope on the paper because this object is supposed to be the first thing the viewer sees and tries to understand. Then, using embossing, I will imprint the object into the rope that is meant to be judged. Because the object is not drawn on the paper, it allows the string to have more purpose than the advertisements on the objects. I believe this is a way to degrade the advertisements on the packaging in a very, un-literal way. The ads on the objects are practically invisible, and therefore call for a judgement of their purpose. And the point of these works is to judge if the advertisements are guilty or not guilty of being overkill for the customers.

3. Scale. I have made the judgement drawings/embossing very small. Smaller than the normal size of the objects. This is another way to degrade the objects. They are not large and so they are not easily seen. And the point of advertisements is to get your attention. I would like to pair these judgement drawings with drawings/embossing of objects that I believe fulfill their purpose without overexposing us to advertisements. These would have the objects drawn on a large scale because I am encouraging objects to fulfill their purpose. I may emboss a pedestal under the objects. I have not decided yet. It may be too literal.

Paper, paper and more paper!

Don't worry guys, it's just the title of this particular post. I'm not trying to use that as my three influences.

1. Papermaking

So this big piece I'm working on is finally starting to take shape, still in parts but I'm getting a sense of it now. The papermaking process, especially in the scale and amount that I'm doing takes some time, but I think it's gonna be cool. I love making it because the process is so simple and clean, but to do it well and get it to work, you've got to pay attention to what's happening to each sheet you make. I just dyed a big bunch of pulp in tea this week and it came out a sweet color. I also love it because there is no adhesive, the recycled paper becomes pulp and is then pressed together in a new arrangement. The fibers kind of fuse to themselves. If anyone's intersted, maybe I could do a demo for class. Let me know!

2. The Buddhist Monks at IUP!

Buddhism is still influencing my work, but it's becoming less literal. I think this is a good thing because it gives me more to work with.

I went today and yesterday to see the sand mandala that they are working on in the HUB and it's awesome. Definitely check it out if you had a chance. While I was watching them, I was thinking about how my work is beginning to show references to Catholicism and Buddhism, particularly the aforementioned piece. It's cool because I am Catholic, but there are fundamental aspect of Buddhism specifically that I feel more attached to. Ah, identity issues.

3. Reflection on life and death

Sounds so serious, but this was a big part of my life this week, and it has become not an influence for my work, but rather an influence to the way I view my practice.

As was mentioned in an earlier post, it does become easy to take ourselves and our work maybe too seriously. It makes sense why it happens...we spend so much time putting ourselves into this that we want it to be taken seriously. But maybe we lose some of our ability to make good work when we are so focused on making it good. I know I constantly try to fight that off.

STOP MOTION ANIMATIONS- just to loo at :)

http://http://www.thedesignwork.com/18-stop-motion-animation-video-ideas/

...

1)Surprises. yesterday i sat on a bedroom floor,my brothers old room.i reached on the ground to pick something up,it was a maggot. Horrors!I noticed i was surrounded by maggots, hundreds of them crawling in the carpet.

2)otto dix, i enjoy all his work,but i like the drawings and prints the best, i like black and white art. I seen a goodbit of his prints he made during the war whenever there was the german expressionist show at moma.

3)These ants on my floor in my apartment. They've collected all the little round sugar sweeties leftover from the cupcakes lastweek,and carried them all into one pile. now i bet if i strategically laid out the sweeties and crumbs,colors cordinated i could film them and have some sort of video.

1. Adam Hurst. This multi-talented musician is a new discovery for me. Literally, I found him five minutes ago. Ah, the joys of the interweb! Yes... So anyway, this man is amazing. He can bring forth SO many emotions with his work.. I want to play a cello. Or violin. Or bass. NO. Viola. I want to play a viola. Yes. This will happen.

I'm also inspired by Bach and Beethoven. I study to that kind of music (though apparently physics wants me to fail, whether I use study tactics or not... -_-)

2. Go outside tomorrow during the day. Breathe in. Smell that? Smell that stench of dead, rotting vegetation? That, right there. I don't think I need to say anything else, aside from Fall is upon us, and in full swing. Yum.

3. Edgar Degas, and his beautiful dancers. I have a poster of one of his paintings on my wall. Some people had pop stars with gelled-back hair on their walls at 13- I had Degas, Van Gogh, and Monet. Still love Monet and Degas- Van Gogh has been set aside for different things.

This post is later than my usual posts, whoops!

Banksy, Burning paintings, and food dye.

Banksy, the British grafetti artist. His work is snarky, and it makes me smile.

Burning paintings. Ivan's demo was this morning about the effects you can get by burning paintings, and I've been experiementing with that lately. I'm pretty pumped about it, and want to explore that more.

Food dye. I've been working with food dye again recently. Its similiar to paint by definition, but it doesnt come in the colors that paint does, and when it mixes with hydrogen peroxide, the dyes seperate and make new colors (did you ever do that experiment in 3rd grade where you draw with black sharpie and stick the paper in the hydrogen peroxide and the ink seperates into the blue, green and purple that are in the black ink?). I've been painting with it, spraying it, painting over it, spraying over it. It's been nifty.

Also, I really miss life drawing.

boobs. breasts. titties.

1. boobs. breasts. titties.       another shout out to katie ott who inspired an amazing painting/mixed media to be made this weekend. the beautiful marks you made in your tit prints reminded me of my paintings and while collaborating i found a new inspiration that has given me so much enthusiasm and excitement for a new direction for my paintings!

2. coldplay.      i love coldplay. i have loved them from the beginning and i am so fucking excited for the new cd tomorrow. coldplay is another band that i jam to while creating. their lyrics are like poetry and their music is so beautiful and inspirational i dance and sing my heart out to them.

3. harry ally. http://harryally.com/        this guy is so talented! he creates these beautiful atmospheres and scenes that are so emotional!! i always wish i could create emotion with application of my paint and the choice of my pallet. i guess i do but not at all like this guy! so fucking beautiful!

Grab Bag

This week is random. I’ll just start with a shout-out to Madame Katie Ott, who deserves credit for turning me on to the “tit-prints” of…

1) Brigid Berlin. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Google it. That’s all. On a totally different note…

2) Kente cloth (nwentoma) is a brightly-colored, geometric strip-cloth that is hand-woven by the Akan and Ewe people of Ghana. It is created with natural fibers by master weavers who use geometric designs, abstract symbols, and bright colors. I am particularly inspired by the idea of weaving words into the cloth, since many of the weavers themselves are illiterate. The irony of using these particular abstract symbols – the same symbols that we often overlook as simply a means to information – is an interesting concept. Speaking of abstractish things…

3) Piet Mondrain was a 20^thc Dutch painter who developed a non-representational painting style he called “Neo-Plasticism.” The paintings that he is most well-known for consist of a white ground upon which a black grid and blocks of primary colors were added. Mondrain was interested in pursuing the spiritual aspect of painting:

“ I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness. Nature (or, that which I see) inspires me, puts me, as with any painter, in an emotional state so that an urge comes about to make something, but I want to come as close as possible to the truth and abstract everything from that, until I reach the foundation (still just an external foundation!) of things… I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true.”

Neat.

Where's the Beef?.....and Advertisements?

1. A recent interest in my paintings, or at least, what seems to be developing in my paintings is a classic still life look. I have heard recently that it is rare to see traditional still life paintings. I plan to create a still life in my next painting that idealizes the typical fast food meal but void of all advertisements on the paper product packaging. Every fast food joint uses their packaging as free advertising, and it would be very unusual to see this in a very usual, traditional type of painting. I like the irony. I would enjoy placing other objects in the painting that would have symbolism, much like traditional still life's.

2. I am interested in degrading the ideas of advertising on packaging products. I am currently working on a collage of paper packaging products from many fast food chains to make a layout for screen printing. I would like to print over them, which would belittle them, but I would like to print something on them that would bring them back to the status of paper. Possibly screen printing a large paper bag over top of the collage. Or a tree....or even the roots of a tree. For the root of all these paper products are trees. So, there is a play off the origin of paper in general.

3. Toilet paper! (again) (note the coloring of the words "toilet paper")I plan to make a full roll of toilet paper out of a collage of fast food packaging. What better way to degrade the ridiculousness of advertising over kill, but to wipe my ass with it. I guess Duchamp could also be an influence for this project, but I think the majority of art today can be rooted back to Duchamp.

I am not an artist.

I have this friend that I really respect and admire. He's a filmmaker and does graphic and web design. For the past few years, he's had enough freelance work to live well. He won a grammy or an emmy (I get the two confused) for some work he did for PBS Chicago. He's so intelligent that when we talk, I feel like my words turn to dust in my mouth. I feel like an ignorant child. Apparently he doesn't view me that way, because he's still my friend. He's on a list of three or four people I go to when I want to hear the truth in all of its gut wrenching glory. The hard thing about David's truth is you can't really argue with it. He's too smart.

I think I've made it fairly obvious to most of my classmates how much I dislike IUP. I have never encountered an art program that is so engrossed in concept that it ignores craft. The anger and irritation for me is not directed at the students, but rather, those who decide that this program should be this way. To the students, it's a major disservice, because in the real world it's ridiculously difficult to get people to care about your work when you're good. It's even harder when the craft is absent.

And of course, you would say in response to that, "Being famous is more about the people you know," to which I would agree. And this why I am not an artist.

David brought me face to face with some harsh realities last night dealing with the art world. Particularly, fine art. He told me he doesn't think I have what it takes to be a "fine artist" for a few reasons:

1. I am not good at lying. I won't write an eight page paper about why my work is relevant, mainly because I don't think it is. I just create. I won't stop if I'm not in school, or teaching, or in the art world. It's as simple as that.
2. I don't want to play the games the instructors would have me play in the world of fine art, therefore, I won't be able to play the games in the real world.
3. I want to make pretty things and teach people how to make pretty things. Maybe I should go into graphic design instead.

Ouch.

In addition to that, he asked me a few questions:

1. Why is art important?
2. Why do you make it?

To which I said, "I don't think it's important. I make it because I can't stop." To my dismay, that answer only fueled more brutal honesty. David's argument is that art as it stands in history is about adding some form of beauty to the world that doesn't need to involve human suffering (that tangent on the end of the sentence could be ten blog posts, so I'm not going into it). He claims that modern art, because it has lost a sense of beauty and purpose, tries to make itself relevant by clinging to humanitarian issues. Craft is lost in the process.

The night ended in me having a total meltdown while my boyfriend sat there and said, "Lena, I went through all of this too. It's okay. Don't give up." But knowing these things.. I am contemplating changing my major. And changing schools.

I'm questioning whether the long drive to Indiana is worth the stress. I'm questioning whether I would survive in any MFA program. I was planning to apply for the BFA this fall, but now I don't know. What am I doing? I would rather invest the time into learning some kind of skill set (so I should switch my thinking-I am a craft person-not an artist) while I'm in school than learning how to write about my work. If I wanted to do that, I'd be an English major.

Friends, influences, always. And this guy:

Anders Zorn. I have been coveting a $90 book on Amazon of his work for some time. One day I'll justify buying it. Until then, there's always the interweb.

more influences

1. Music

I've been working on this piece with old hymn books, so I've been thinking about music more conceptually. I really love music and I realized that, like so many other interests that I have, music is in this in-between place...in between absent and present. It's has a true presence, but there is nothing physical/tangible about it music and singing itself. The body, instruments and sheet music make it come together so we can recognize it, but it's truly ephemeral. This ties into the concept of the piece I'm working with.

2. Robert Gober

For my artist, Robert Gober deals with the banal. He is most well-known for her meticulously made pewter drains placed in galleries and otherwise. It's very dry, and not always terribly interesting to look at, but he works with the psychology of the viewer in a smart way. For example, he knows that is audience will be limited, but that's okay because he wants to reward those that investigate.

3. Water

I love water. Sounds silly, but it's really true! It's a motif that pops up in my own life: I am from Pgh, the city of the three rivers, when I was in Florence, I happened to live right next to the Arno (the main river) and I spent a lot of time sitting by it and walking along it, I'm Catholic and the water is an important symbol and has a role in church rituals, and finally, the most significant, I've been a swimmer almost my entire life. I started getting lessons when I was three, then joined school, summer and my club teams from when I was eleven until I stopped team swimming when I was a sophomore in undergrad (can you guess why?)

Artisically, I am drawn to processes that involve water like stone litho and papermaking. I also realized that I reference water a lot in my own work. Although I still swim laps, I really miss being on swim teams and coaching. Perhaps my intuition is trying to fill that void.

Check this out.

Nothing like beautiful drawings to make you want to draw.

This is a good place to look into if you find yourself loving more traditional forms of art. I've always wanted to take some classes. One day...

Also, a friend of a friend is showing some work at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Her work is interesting, might stop by to see it this weekend. Her name is Natalie Settles.

Shahzia Sikander

She's from a different culture, her interests are similar to mine, she has used specific elements to her culture in her work. Unrealistic composition and mixture of realistic and unrelastic forms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5yKaj3kGrQ

THE special rhythm of "Right Down The Line" by Gerry Rafferty makes me want to dance while i'm painting. Whenever I am able to do that, my paintings always have a stroger sense of flow and balance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nRmfivlUj0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=v9onZpQix_w

Marjane Satrapi is an artist from Iran who studied art in France. She created the very simple, powerful black and white animated film, Persepolis, to express big changes in her life and her experiences living in a new culture. She also depicted very clearly thirty years of transformation. I relate to this film because I am also trying to interact with the differences between the culture of my country, and my new environment.

10/17

I believe my inspirations for research this week are old wallpaper patterns, antique books, and Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas". I know this seems like a random assortment. I want to incorporate the old wallpaper patterns into upcoming print work. As for the books, I like the ones that are thick with the ornate spines. I am going to try carving into them or making "pop ups" for an upcoming sculpture project. Finally, at this time of year I can't help but think about the film, "The Nightmare Before Christmas", especially since we are trying out stop motion. It makes you appreciate how long it took them to make 30 seconds, let alone an entire film!

to the best fucking dog...

i lost one of the best things that has ever happened to me thus far, my dog...since nothing seems to be inspiring me right now i think i'll tell you about her. 10 years ago on a snowy december night my parents got their sons a beautiful, energetic companion...fuck she was soo bad at first chewed everything, ran over everything, jumped, barked, cried.... but soon she settled in as one of us, and reflected everything we were about, she was free spirited and loving, and she brought out something in us that was sooo true and honest...she showed us warmth and love that was more pure than any friend could offer, and she was always a terror to the chickens we owned...4 days ago she was diagnosed with cancer, her tail quit wagging and she said goodbye, it was the only time my family ever saw her that way, as one last hoorah of sorts she wagged her tail at my dad...they put her down today at 6...this is to my little miss ill never forget all those things you have done for me i hope wherever you are that fucking whip of a tail always wags, i know it will, also ill leave your blanket on my bed....i love you lacie....

a video to show the power of one animal...please watch it!!

On the hunt for the elusive contact paper...

Sandra Cinto. She's working with line, often white line on top of a blue background. It reminds me a lot of the cosmos, or about water. If I had ever gotten around to doing it successfully, one of my intricate line drawings on a transparency with the cyanotype would have a lot in common with her work.

Will Lemon. On his website, his art is seperated into the categories of Blockprint, Drawings and Tapestries. I came across his work in a magazine 5 or 6 years ago, and a tapestry of his called Snakeskin Battleship has been the desktop of my computer since around that time. Something about that piece in particular really spoke to me.

I'm so excited, because today I started drawing my lines with differing amounts of spaces between them, and started making new line shapes. I had dyed a bunch of watercolor paper with hydrogen peroxide and food dye and then cut my line shapes out, but now I'm really not sure what to do with them. Also, because the watercolor paper is so heavy, I was beginnning to worry that I couldn't attatch them with shine colle. Anyway, I had printed my wood block onto contact paper and never used it for anything, it was just hanging out in the painty room in my apartment. When I stuck it over the drawings I did with the lines earlier today, you can see both layers at the same time with I think looks really nifty. Also, I could use the contact paper as a sticker over the watercolor cutouts that I have to held securely attatch them over drawings. I know that its not the same as shine colle, but I feel they are philosophically related techniques as they are uniting two layers to each other to make a whole, and I'm very excited about it.

Except I can't find contact paper anywhere. Tonight I ran out to Walmart, Staples, Michaels, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Martins and Giant Eagle and no one sells it. I was told that I should refer to it as "Shelf Liner" and that its a dying paper that people don't have a use for anymore. Anyone have any other ideas on where I might find some?

Cross-curricular Connections

So last week I mentioned a little bit about how this semester’s art history classes are an inspiration to me. Last post, it was African art. This post, it is 19^th/20^th c European art, which includes such details as…

1. Impressionistic colors. The 19^thc artistic movement comprised of Parisian-based artists known as Impressionism is characterized by visible brush strokes and changing light. In order to achieve the effect of shimmering light, artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas applied strokes of bold color side by side without mixing them. This creates an illusion wherein the optical mixing occurs in the eye of the viewer, which is really awesome. Additionally, black was typically avoided in favor of using complementary colors to create the illusion of shadowy light. The effects and illusions created with these optical techniques are inspiring because of the emotional effects that they create. A similar emotional color pallet is employed by the artists of the subsequent …

2. Expressionism movement, which originated in 20^thc Germany. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had a great influence over the artists of the movement, who sought to express subjects emotionally, rather than how they existed in reality. This intense need to express emotion came from the political and social stress that society was experiencing in the Post-WWII era. Bold, clashing colors added to a sense of anxiety and unrest that society was feeling at the time. One artist of the era,…

3. Wassily Kandinsky, also acted as a shaman-type figure who was interested in turning the emotional aspects of expressionism towards a more spiritual movement. In Brenda’s class, we were required to read “Concerning the Spiritual in Art” this week. It was incredibly eye-opening. Here, Kandinsky speaks about the superiority of internal truths as opposed to external form. He draws connections between modern artists and “the Primitives.” Instead of “art for art’s sake,” he believes that the artist should take advantage of art as a channel for spiritual relationships. Art can simply imitate life, or create the impression of life, or just be pleasant to look at, but Kandinsky believes that it also holds the incredible power to activate a spiritual connection that our society has been repressing since the dawn of commercial consumerism.

Keeping it academic,

Ali

1. sex. sex inspires me to create. curves, skin, heavy breathing, the uniting of two souls, the trust, the beauty. these things, and many more, are all so amazing and inspirational. maybe sex, itself, is art but it certainly inspires me to want to capture intense emotions and try to keep them or express them through art.

2. tattoos. last night i saw joe's new tattoo and i always look at the tattoos he has on his arms and other people who have tattoos. it's very interesting to wonder if these people are like me, creating their own tattoos and artwork to place on their body, or they are placing other peoples work or images on their own body. either way, the choices of placement, color, size are all variables that come into play and it is inspiring when  someone gets a  tattoo that is an all over good composition on the skin.

3. elisabeth condon. her work is inspiring to me because she creates these imaginary landscapes that remind me of my paintings that i'm doing right now. she's dealing a lot with the composition rather then figures. i like to look at her pallet and identify the colors that are working so well together. she is definitely an inspiration for me and my paintings.
http://www.elisabethcondon.com/images/paintings

Night Shift; Coffee; My Dad

I’ve mentioned before that I decorate cakes at a bakery. It’s generally best not to sell customers stale cakes, which requires that bakers and decorators at the bakery work odd hours so that people can pick up their cake orders at 6 a.m. Normal work days are fairly routine and during standard work hours, but weekends and holidays are a different story. I started this job when I was 17 and blissfully unaware of the difficulties of working night shift. I have come to find that it is extremely difficult to work straight through the night and even harder to wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. to start working. I’m being a little melodramatic because I don’t’ have to do this all the time like some people, but it really isn’t fun. My friends and I at work have noticed a cycle after having worked for a few hours with irregular sleep: First you get loopy, then you get quiet, then your face gets hot and your head feels light, and finally you get grumpy (or hysterical if you’re having a bad day). We think the cycle is funny (once the blood rushes to your head you know you’re about ready to call it quits), but I think the only reason we say it’s funny is so we don’t lose our sanity. Why do we subject ourselves to unpleasant monotony?

Thinking about work has me thinking about coffee, which definitely influences me considering I can’t function if I haven’t had coffee in the morning. I’m not sure if it’s in my head that I need it or if I actually do. I drink coffee when I need a little jolt of energy, but I also drink coffee in the evening to relax. This is strange to me because if I actually do need coffee for energy, then why can I drink it in the evening when I’m winding down? I also think the associations I make with coffee are dissimilarly funny. When I think of coffee I think of groggily waking up or being dead tired at work, but I also think of just having eaten Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner with my family, which is a much more pleasant association.

For this week, I’m going to consider my dad an artist, which is something he probably hasn’t heard before. He doesn’t make fine art, but I can’t think of anything that he can’t build. I’m extremely jealous of his ability to understand structure. I wish this understanding came as naturally to me as it does to him, because it would greatly benefit a lot of my work (and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a few less phone calls from me asking how to put something together or what materials I’ll need).

You Can't Stop This Motion

I thought I would talk a little bit about the influences for my stop motion animation movie the 6 credit students had to make.

1. I have always loved this company in Japan called Muji. The word in Japanese means "without a name". And that is exactly what their products inspire. Most of their products are to help organize home and work spaces in the most simple and functional way possible, without all the bells and whistles. Their products are mostly white, void of color or writing. They focus completely on pure function without putting a brand logo on the objects. To me, this company is very innovative because they keep their products pure. It's refreshing. Therefore, in my video I have a McDonalds cup melt down into a ball of clay and then it builds it's self up into a label-less drink cut. After all, that's it's original functional purpose, not to be an advertisement for the restaurant chains.

http://www.muji.us/

2. ummm...my freshman sculpture class? It influences me in a more indirect way I guess. It convinced me to go the extra mile and sculpt something recognizable, than just having a ball of clay roll around on a table. And while I did not have any sculpting tools, I did my best with what I could find.

3. My internship at Philips Respironics as a Marketing/Communication intern. I was part of the entire re-branding of the company. We had to remake all of the brochures for the respiratory products to replace the look of the old brochures. The company taught me about all the minuscule details they put into everything to make their brand uniform to the last detail. A Brand becomes an identity. So, by taking away their identity from an object such as the cup, it reveals it's original purpose.

Popcorn, Pretentious Artists, and Titties!

1. Popcorn.

Let's take a trip back to the Elk's lodge. I work there. Did you know? It's been triggering quite a few ideas for me this year and here is one more. Popcorn. Everyday we make a bunch of popcorn that no one really ever eats. At the end of the night we throw all the uneaten popcorn away. There is almost always enough popcorn left over to fill at least two plastic grocery bags to the bursting point. I will make something with this corn. In a week I could have a garbage can full. In a month I might be able to fill a closet. So popcorn. Discarded. Wasted. Every single day. Seven days a week. Sometimes an older man comes in and takes the leftovers for the birds. But he is the only one who wants to re-purpose it... until now!

2. Every artist who reminds me who I do not want to be. (aka excessively pretentious artists)

What is it with artists? Why do we exhibit narcissism, act pretentious, and generally roll around like we da best? ...because we are? Throughout art history the self portrait has shown us a high interest in the self among visual artists. I have done so many self portraits to date I'm tired of drawing my face. Self portraits aren't really the point. Acting pretentious is the point. We all do it at some time or another. I think it varies in the intensity and overall effect from person to person. Why do some artists internally decided they are significantly better than everyone else? Is it a defense mechanism? We create. We are sensitive. I have never seen such self consciousness paired with such attitude. We all want to be the best. We all want work that sticks out. We all want to put on our swag.

Ultimately we are a community. There is no reason for such ill will and nasty comments. Saturday I went to the Sculpture X conference in Ohio. There was a 'round table' discussion. Ya know, just a place to share opinions and gain new points of view. But it never really ends up that nice nice nice. Someone gets upset. Raises their voice. Acts a fool. The end. Sometimes it's okay to keep the snarky comments to yourself. One individual at this discussion rubbed me deliberately the wrong way. Maybe I offended him. I thought we were just mulling around some opinions about 'selling out.' He vehemently disagreed. Too abrasive. I left.

Why do we do this to ourselves and each other?

Can't we all just get along?

It is encounters with artists like the one at the conference who remind me of the person I do not want to become. It is hard as artists to balance our emotions. But ultimately we are in this together, and against each other. But alone our powers are much less significant than they are as a cohesive community.

3. Titties!

I used to get ArtNews. I think my subscription expired. Maybe I'll get on that. Anyway, in a recent edition there was a little blurb about some girl Andy Warhol knew. She made a 'tit print' on someone's piece. That's what the ArtNews said, "tit print." You know how sometimes you look at art and say, "I could do that." Well, I said that. I'm doing that.

On my cyanotype I added a tit print. The process is actually super hilarious. You can imagine how that goes down. I have this giant canvas I want to fill with 'tit prints'. Aside from the slightly outrageous fact that it is a print of one's breast, the 'tit print' actually has some visually interesting things going on. So we'll see what happens. This semester is the semester of art purging.

Everything. All the time.

From logic to feeling..

I've mentioned that October is a difficult month for me. During student-in-progress-critiques I talked about having a hard time with how temporary our experience here on earth is by calling it "the problem of life." I do, I have a problem with it, which I am just beginning to realize. Because of this, more and more of my artwork this semester has been based around the words, "light, darkness, dust." A progression of our short time spent here. An observation of the terrible, horrible things we can do to one another as human beings. The pain and strangeness of loss. The capacity to endure life, only to have it at some point end.

Cheerful, right?

So, since octubre is an uncomfortable and sad month for me, I am going to post some quotes from different pieces of poetry and writing that I found myself reading over and over again.

The first is a book in the Bible. The book of Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew word that is used for "vanity" in the beginning of the text can be translated as "meaningless." For whatever reasons, translators chose vanity-maybe because it's easier to say. It helps to have a little bit of background in Hebrew culture to understand the context in which this book is written. I'll let you guys do the research, should you choose to. The writer essentially says, "I have tried everything 'under the sun' and it all means nothing. It turns to dust. It's temporary." In many ways I find myself comforted as I read through it, and in many ways still struggling. As I'm learning more and more Hebrew, I'm finding how amazingly beautiful their literature is. There are things we miss out on in translation (not always necessary things, the important information is there), such as the play on words the Hebrew language uses in their poetry. But since I am only in Biblical Hebrew 1, my knowledge is limited and that's all I can offer so far.

The second is a poem a friend gave to me when I was going through some really dark stuff. I will say that I never experienced a time when so much hope was absent-I'll let the words speak for themselves. This is from T.S. Eliot's Quartet No. 2:

O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark, The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant, The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters, The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers, Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees, Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark, And dark the Sun and Moon, and the Almanach de Gotha And the Stock Exchange Gazette, the Directory of Directors, And cold the sense and lost the motive of action. And we all go with them, into the silent funeral, Nobody's funeral, for there is no one to bury. I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre, The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness, And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away— Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about; Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing— I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning. The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry, The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony Of death and birth. The Quartet in it's entirety is fantastic. I'd suggest reading it all. The last is a Japanese peasant song which I mentioned a few blogs back, but I wanted to post the words of the song. Don't worry, it's much shorter. It's the reason for the umbrella on my arm: Kasa No Hone (The Umbrella's Bones) (Translation from the Japanese) The ribs of the umbrella Have fallen apart; The paper is also torn, But with bamboo Tied together. Do not throw it away. Though I Also am torn, Don't forsake me.

you are...a snowball

http://blog.art21.org/2011/10/13/praxis-makes-perfect-end-troducing/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Art21_Facebook

Inward- to be inspired by yourself.

As far as influences and inspirations go, I haven't thought a whole lot about them this week- with critiques coming up, I've been thinking more about getting things done on time, and efficiently. My work is starting to develop in different ways (for example, I'm figuring out methods to create realism in my paintings, which is very exciting, and new ways to create mixed media works that are both successful and purposeful), and that alone is an inspiration. I suppose it's probably pompous to say that I'm influenced by myself, but I am. I'm not sorry if that makes me sound like an asshole- I'm confident in my abilities now, which is something I never experience before. Scary and wonderful, all at once! I'm also driven by the work around me- I see a lot of great things happening in the work my peers are making, and I also see a lot of work that isn't so great. There's a lot of work I simply don't like, but whether or not my aesthetic tastes prefer that spice is irrelevant- it keeps me going. Don't like what I see around me? Create something I do like.

I'm also very excited about a lot of things going on in my life- I'm currently working with a woman in Smicksburg to create a gallery/studio space for myself- she and her husband are renovating an older home, so that the downstairs is a gallery/coffee bar, and the upstairs is a shared studio space- they want me to be their painter, meaning a constant rotation of work!! How much does this cost me? Absolutely nothing. I can also continue this artistic relationship while I'm in graduate school, and even after, which is a wonderful feeling. It makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere in the vast sea of the Art World- galleriiieeees.

A conversation I had with Liz today also influenced me- we were talking about critiques, and how saying things that are relevant to the work (and not hiding your true thoughts) are beneficial to the person hearing them- also, defending your work is important. She put it like this, "those (her art) are my babies." While I agree with this statement, I also would like to build on it- no only do we spend time loving and caring for the work we're making, we're also making it with intent to impress. I feel that that comes in two different forms- I can be impressed positively AND negatively. I once read a quote that said something about how in order for someone to love your work, someone has to hate it. If someone hates what I've created and wants to rip it to pieces, I know I've done something to evoke emotion. That's what I want. You're pissed? Thank you, I've done my job as an artist. Unfortunately, some art is just plain bad. I make bad art sometimes, we all do it. Ryan Roth told our class over the summer that you can paint ten paintings, and maybe only one of them will actually be good, or great. Maybe they'll all suck.

I think a lot of students get so wrapped up in what they're creating that they lose sight of the main goal- to create good work. The work, in time, can just... become bad.

The moral of this story? Critique well and with good intentions; but never hold back when you feel something must be said. Defend your work- you worked hard to get it where it is, and those are your babies! Always find good opportunities, like galleries. Even if you don't get in, it's always 100% worth it to get your name out there. Someone may remember you later.

Make art! We're all here because we share a common love for making beautiful things.

influences

-Cynicism,skepticism,and just a general distrust. Dont take the flu shots, dont eat the loupe,or anything from mexico,dont shake hands with people you dont know. wear gloves in NYC. is gluten really that bad,pobably not.Yes Obama is from merica but is he even human,i once heard he was a cactus. By the way i was drugged on friday against my will. The computers will stop.A church group once chased me with pitchforks and torches.My mother forgot to give my frog water for a whole week. Keep a respirator mask in your bag at all times when you go in the city.

-I like 16th c european drawings and prints. Specifically ones that have death with a time peice, the mouth of hell,torture or violence,ship of fools related imagery, fish, devil or strange critters. Some names would be , lucas cranach, martin schongauer, albrecht durer, daniel hopfer, erhard schoen, peiter van der heyden, peiter bruegel.

-unfortunately, deadlines. Im not sure if its that i work well under stress, but i always make myself work under stress. I do procrastinate.

Meeting in class on Thursday!

That's right, tomorrow. In class, at some point. For those who are definitely in or interested, we'll be talking about Print Club and what exactly we want it to look like. We're choosing to talk about it class because that's when mostly everyone will be there.

Yes! I will make a general gathering announcement before we start. It should be brief.

i n f l u e n c e s

1.  Marco Zamora
He compiles objects and figures from an urban landscape and setting together in one composition. The color is usually limited in black and white with small flecks of color. I think they are really smart and well composed. He's the ish basically. Check him out! He does anything from painting to drawing to prints to installation to sculpture.
http://www.marcozamora.com/index_painting.html

2. My brother and his baby momma
I went home to Baltimore for the weekend. My brother, age 25, still lives at my parents' house with one of his baby mommas and his two kids. Unfortunately, he's barely home, and when he is, he's a ruckus. Ruckus meaning loud, profane and inappropriate. So, this weekend I had the pleasure of rescuing my nephew from having to listen to his dad and replacement mom screaming the worst language at each other. Really, if I hadn't been there, he would have had to listen to them argue.... So ridiculous. My 5 yr old nephew asks me 'Can I go with you' and I quickly responded yes! And we didn't come back for the rest of the day. Poor kid was walking around the house with his fingers in his ears... Really bro, really? The situation is so bad for my nephew and 8 mo old niece... I feel so bad they have to be around people like that, too bad those people are their parents... Sometimes I wonder how many other kids have to be exposed to crap like that and worse...

3. On a lighter note... class critique
Ms. Emily gave me a great suggestion for my prints! I am super excited and have jumped on the idea and started getting it ready for my cyanotype! So pumped for this project... I'll give you a few hints... webcam, totems, child, pattern.... I hope you're confused!

TITLE for YOUR SHOW!

come on guys...give us some ideas!

Just One Video

This week I will only be posting this video. If you were in Patricia's video class you may have already seen it on that blog. It combines printmaking (block prints) and video. Although this video was made by a team of people, it's always nice to see what other people are doing with mixed media. The video is a bit long (15 minutes) and a little intense. Lots of innuendo and other not so subtle sexual references. It is not raunchy or in ill taste, but rather poignant. Either way, enjoy! I think you can figure out the main underlying theme yourselves. Oh, and the embedded video only lets you watch the first five minutes. You might want to follow the 'ring of fire' link below the video to see the whole thing in its entirety.


Watch Ring of Fire - Andreas Hykade in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Well this week i need to post about 8 years worth of posts i missed....so to start 1) im currently listening to one of my fav. bands..EMMURE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eeXXlwAMUg&feature=related soo good, puts me in a much needed moooood!!
2) I have been in and out of my own mind of sorts, back to some tattoo business, i love em and the things people create blow my mind so here is some tattoo art

 3) so more bike stuff, the usual, as far as i can see haha i basically always post at least one video of them

4)Matthew ritchie is basically one of my favorites he is because he basically describes abstract to me in a way that few others do, he says that anything man made cant be, because its just that....man made. he makes sculpture/ installation merge with 2d almost seamlessly, incredible really, i had the honor of seeing his work in person, and being in the middle of it is both overwhelming and beautiful...matthew ritchie

Masquerade

This weekend, I was socially obligated to attend a pre-wedding shower. These events have always struck me as an odd type of ritual steeped in awkward and served with light fare (cold chicken salad). Fortunately, no one at this shower had heard of the tradition of gathering bows shed from the gift packaging and tying them into a bouquet for the bride to hold at the rehearsal dinner. Ergo: salvation from “Bridal Bingo” and a craft project to stick my head into.

I forgot that crafting is fun.

Upon this revelation, I began a search for an old...

1) Mask from Steve’s class. During freshman year, I was apparently still having fun in art. In an attempt to rekindle my love for creativity, I brought the mask out of my closet and was a little surprised to see how well-made and DISTINCTLY CHICKEN-LIKE the head was. I immediately donned the mask and went outside to greet my neighbors. Because my neighbors are chickens, they were nonplussed. My mom, however, was pretty surprised when I jumped out of her closet wearing only the mask and the grass skirt from my years as a hula student. Success.

Honestly, the whole ordeal reminded me a lot of the…

2) African Masks that we are learning about in Dr. Mambo’s art history class this semester. The amazing amount of spiritual energy and religious significance that can be contained within these abstract masks is truly different from any other art form. The way that some African tribes use their bodies as spiritual channels and performance art is truly awesome. And terrifying. The Bwa, for example, use highly-abstracted flat masks called nwantantay that are danced at certain festivals. The power of the masks must be controlled, even when they are being worn, so dancers must cover their bodies with cam wood, clothing, or raffia skirts to prevent evil possession.

3) Pinky Loo is a Malaysian artist who performs incredible art pieces in the traditional Bai Lian (hundred faces) illusionary performance. This technique is meant for performance during a traditional opera, and can be very similar to pieces performed hundreds of years ago in China. Loo, however, has developed a new technique that uses the carefully guarded secrets of her trade to play off of more modern tastes. For example, UV light is used to create an eerie glow in one of her performances. The masks themselves are beautiful works of art, but her dancing gives them a unique sense of life and beauty. And terror.

That's all.

“Things”; People; People watching

I recently ran in to a few acquaintances from high school that I haven’t seen in some time. While we were talking, one of the people mentioned that art was always my “thing”. This was something that I commonly heard growing up, and I always went along with it. Being involved in the art department over the last few years has caused me to disassociate art from being anyone’s thing simply because so many people identify themselves with the subject (certainly more here than in the environment I grew up in). This isn’t a bad thing. I still love making art and it’s a part of who I am; it’s not mine though. This makes me wonder if there is any person who can actually claim that something they do or associate themselves with is uniquely their own.

People in general greatly influence me: my thoughts; beliefs; actions; etc. People, even complete strangers (especially in some cases), are always doing things to change the way I feel about others. For instance, my naïve opinion of others until recently was that people are generally good and will in most cases respect others and their belongings. However, someone stole my bike over the weekend, which has taken my views in a more pessimistic direction regarding individuals in society. Because people so easily influence my beliefs through their actions, I’m hoping that something else will happen in the near future to influence my opinion once again.

Moving away from my “I hate people” rant… There is something about people that I will always love. People watching. One of my favorite things to do is to sit and just watch people. I have come to find different variations of people watching. The one that I feel is the most interesting is searching for “regulars”. During my freshman year my friends and I picked out a select few people who we called regulars. They were people who were on the same general schedule as us as far as visits to the cafeteria were concerned. We would sit in the cafeteria and scan the area for our regulars (who we felt the need to give funny names to). I always found it interesting that we never planned to see these people, but somehow we almost always ended up in the same place at the same time. I feel this example fits well with my current interests in repetition and occupying time.

bloggy blog

I think I may have mentioned Jay Ryan before but I'm not too positive. I absolutely love his posters. The color schemes he uses are fantastic and the creatures he sketches are usually humorous and vibrant. His work makes me want to advance my silkscreen skills.
As much as it is frowned about in the art world, I still like Norman Rockwell. He was able to capture a wide range of emotion in his work. People were able to identify with what he painted, from Thanksgiving to losing a tooth. I've thought about dabbling in this type of depiction and cataloging. I'm interested in the rapid changes of time from then to now, a life with computers and cell phones, particularly college life.
And my final inspiration for now is the leaves themselves. This is my favorite season. The colors are wonderful, especially in the evening when the sun is just right.

inf

1. Ann Hamilton

I believe I mentioned her in a previous post, but she definitely deserves her own time in the spotlight. Installation artist Ann Hamilton creates environments that evoke associations with the body and time. Although for my printmaking I haven't done installations, my work is starting to seep into an interest in time again (something that I was heavily into in last fall's Sculpture class). Plus, the Sculpture class (myself included) is going to a conference Saturday where she will be the keynote speaker. Super excited.

2. My mom

I've talked a bit about the importance of my mom in my art before, however I feel like I need to make some work specifically about her again. I got an idea this weekend for a printmaking piece that doesn't involve print processes, but it can relate to it in other ways-- the material are old printed hymn books, an emphasis on paper will be in the work, and of course, repetition. Martyna I guess hasn't worked it out of me completely!

3. Documenting time

The cyanotype process has got me interested in yet another theme from my past. Documenting time was a large component of my First Year Review, and I guess, as much as we all change, interests never fully go away. This piece involves drawing with allowing the solution to be developed by the natural sunlight of the moment, thus making it a record of time and place. I've done some sample pieces, so we'll see how the real thing comes out.

stuffs

Band first. Pianos Become the Teeth is absolutely one of my favorite bands. There is not a time when i go through their albums and feel like that was enough i can move on to other bands now. They are full of raw emotion and have such interesting additions to there songs. One song just has this sort of strange dialogue that comes in and out a couple times and the song plays in between. I really consider them artists in their endeavors. The song in the link is long, listen to the beginning and skip around if you don't wanna hear it all. I understand.

Now artist. Yoshitaka Amano has been a favorite and inspirational artist since i was pretty young. I feel it's pretty obvious when you see his work. He does the nice promotional artwork for the final fantasy games and some other stuff. Not all of it's gold but he has like a bajillion pieces and works in drawing and print. His site is real bad there also and for whatever reason it doesn't have really any of his truly awesome work, his book has the good stuff. I really love his work feels a little oldschool japanese print style and theres also some zen art in there as well. But i relate to his style in a lot of ways in that his is very illustrative. I like to think mine is far less illustrative but i keep getting told otherwise.

Finally on a related note and inspiring in it's own way, i don't like being told my work is very illustrative. Illustration comes off with this connotation of inferiority that really pisses me. I know it's not really an insult when someone says that to me but i've just heard it so much lately that i feel when somebody wants to point it out to me it's like a special reason or something. i dont know that's mostly an angry rant. Really i suppose what i'm trying to say is i want to be viewed as an artist for real, regardless of whether it's illustrative or not. I just dont always feel that way right now.

BEF

1. OLD PHOTOGRAPHS. My mom is a historian and has many old photographs. I've seen these photographs my whole life and I am finally realizing the beauty and significance of them. My grandmother gave me some photos of my father and his siblings a couple months ago. After her death, I  am now realizing that these photographs are the memories I have of her. I don't want anything else, I'd rather have photos that I can play with with all these printmaking techniques! It seems to be helping me and inspiring me. It's pretty awesome.

2. SPONTANEITY. A lot of my work is spontaneous and that is because it pumps me up and gets me excited. I start with a very basic idea of what I want but when I begin to create it's the spontaneous things that really trigger and inspire me to continue. I love being somewhere and seeing colors that really catch my eye and run to the studio, put my music on loud, run around and create.

3. NICOLA LOPEZ. http://nicolalopez.com/. Nicolas work is based on experiential landscapes of "todays society". I first found out about her over the summer but I looked at her website and was amazed to see that she is also a print maker! Her installations are what caught my eye over the summer, thought. They look like explosions on walls! She talks about her work describing it as a "map" which always inspires me. I love maps.

Research!!!!

My three influences this week are all from researching!!

My first inspiration is a fantastic little sight that gives all these facts about toilet paper and some statistics on it's consumption. And because I am very interested in consumer culture, and lately I have been stamping facts onto toilet paper/paper towels in the buildings public bathrooms, it is imperative that I find interesting and alarming facts about the amount of paper products we use. And I find it appropriate because we all use A LOT of paper in this class. I have been interested in public art for a long time. Mostly art that informs and sometimes shocks random viewers. I have been taking pictures of the stamped toilet paper and paper towels to document my work. So far it has been a lot of fun and interesting to see the reactions! Here is the t.p. facts website :

http://encyclopedia.toiletpaperworld.com/surveys-stories/toilet-paper-statistics



My second and third inspirations from research are:
http://www.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_100/145_eating_well.html
and
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352041/The-gay-chicken-row-Chick-Fil-As-anti-gay-stance-sparks-protest-loyal-customers-turn-chain.html

The first link has some shocking studies about fast food chains. One study showed that many children recognized the McDonalds arches before they recognized their own name! That's insane! I took some of these facts and stamped them onto the fast food bags I am creating in the class. And other facts on the sight were useful too.

The second link has disturbing information about the Chick-fil-a corporation that I wasn't aware of (case in point...RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT!!!). I was not aware that Chick-fil-a was a very christian corporation. They were protested because of their choice to back organizations who protest gay marriage. Not only that, but they have been sued many times because of employment discrimination. In fact, an employee who was Muslim was fired because he would not pray to Jesus at a training meeting. I'm pretty disgusted. Therefore, I am going to make sure to use these facts when I recreate Chick-fil-a "to go" bags. There is so much corruption within the fast food industry.