Landscape with a corpse

The activity this week was to create our own landscape with a corpse photo. I don’t generally think about how I will die when my time comes, but I do have fears about it. I chose to do my photo as though I “died” from an accidental fall down the stairs.

The purpose of the setting was to display an idea of an accidental death. I have many fears of dying under unexpected circumstances, so I wanted to capture that. It is strange to think of your own death, but seeing the artwork like this really makes you ponder.

AH Week 8

This week we discussed art in the 20th Century. I think that although this time frame is the most familiar to me, the material was confusing. One thing my group and I focused on was the feature and ground concept. Most of us were confused. We discussed it quite a bit and decided that the best way to describe it is this:

The feature is the creation itself, while the ground is the means for completion.

What this means is that there are many things involved with making a finish product, like time or money, that can be considered the grounds. Whatever comes out as the finished product, what people see, is the feature. For example: when visiting a nice restaurant, you get a delicious meal. In this case, the meal (the food, presentation, atmosphere) is the feature. The waiter’s time and effort because part of the ground. Not only that, but the chef’s time and effort as well become part of the ground. In this case, the efforts are being compensated by a monetary value. This value also becomes part of the grounds. Ultimately, the grounds is what is needed to produce something, and the feature is the something that we all know and recognize.

A snapshot of my discussion with Andrew, Shamir, Li-ren, and Emilie.

AOTW Week 8

Marina Abramovic

Here is a piece done by Marina Abramovic (courtesy of Google).

Marina puts an interesting thought into our minds about limits. What are limits? Who sets our limits? can our limits be entirely overcome? I like to think of limits as an external source. I believe that while yes, sometimes we force limits on ourselves, I don’t think the limit was completely created from our own imagination. Rather, I think that limits come from outside (other than ourselves) forces and can eventually evolve into something much larger. Limits placed by others can create a sort of doubt in our own selves and thus create a limit. It is not that we place limits, but more so they are placed upon us.

When discussing this very same issue with my fellow classmates, it seems that there is some disagreement on my point of view. Others thought that limits are strictly an internal thing, and that everyone controls their own limits. Basing my opinion off of prior experience, I can say I really disagree.

Overall, I think that Marina Abramovic had a very forward way of thinking. She was so confident in her work that to her, she was limitless. I can honestly say that is very difficult to ignore all external resources…so props to her! Her work is very moving.

A snapshot of the discussion of limits with Emilie, Li-Ren, Shamir, and Andrew.

 

INSTAGRAM!

As a product of my times, I absolutely love snapping a photo to share on Instagram. On Wednesday, July 2, 2014, my Art 11 class and I created our very own Insta feed. By using our hashtag, we created a huge collection of how we lived that day. The photos ranged from vacationing in Cancun, lying in bed, dream cars on the freeway, and of course…FOOD! Surprisingly, while all the photos were unique, there were some similarities. We all encounter certain things in our day considering many of us participate in similar things, like working or doing summer school classes. I like to think of the collage as a whole as the piece of art we created together. If we look at the individual pictures, it is obvious who the specific artist is. Looking at the whole work as one, I think its safe to say that we were the artist; Art 110 Summer 2014 would be the main creative mind behind the photo collection. (I have to admit, its pretty cool being a part of something like this!)

A little piece of the collage that was created by Art 110 Summer 2014. (CSULB) PS. Thats me in the middle on the far right!

If you would like to see all the photos associated with our collaboration, go to Instagram and enter #art110sum14 or click here for the web version (login information may be required).

AH Week 6

This week I had a lovely discussion with Sadie, Glenn, and partially Amanda. You can see their beautiful faces in the picture below:

Glenn is the large photo. Then Amanda, Sadie, and me! (From left to right.)

With them, I discussed Romantic art, and Realism art, and even touched a bit on some of Monet’s early works. The class video had a painting of Monet’s that was too abstract for some at the time. Sadie and I both enjoyed the painting of a Sunset over the water. She mentioned that she thought it looked a lot like the reflection off of the water, rather than just the scenery a lone. I really liked that, because I felt like the painting didn’t have to be so literal. Looking at it, I couldn’t see a horizon that ships were resting on. What I could see was my OWN interpretation of the sunset. To me, that is much more beautiful for something like that.

When we discussed realism, we all pleasantly agreed on liking realistic artwork. The realism was a nice change because (surprise, surprise) it seemed more realistic. You can create a connection to a work of art much easier if you can quickly understand the emotion behind it. In the painting below, it is easy for us as an audience to recognize the struggle and hard work these men are going through. That emotion connection is a huge part of what art is all about!

The Stone Breakers by Gustave Courbet

AOTW Nikki S. Lee

Nikki S. Lee is a different kind of artist. While she is considered a photographer, she appears in many of her photos rather than being the one that takes the actual photo. In our group discussion, we discussed that even being in the picture allows Nikki to express her art. She poses the photos and perfects the lighting then joins in to be photographed. Her main work that the class video, as well as our discussion group talked about was her work with cultural groups. Her form of art was more of a social experiment. She would embody different cultures and be accepted completely to the point where in her photographs, she appeared to be a member of each different culture. Some of the things she did were of cultures such as Latina groups, or a Punk group.

Nikki S. Lee in her Punk edition in Projects

I personally found her work fascinating. I find it hard to imagine myself having the kind of bravery she did to just completely take on a new persona and enter a group of individuals that a a culture that is vastly different from my own. I would fear that I would not be accepted. I think her bravery truly paid off on this art collection. I also think it is important to recognize her as an artist. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, the artist is not just the person holding the paintbrush, or in this case snapping the photo. Instead the artist is the entity behind the creativity and artistic thought.

 

AOTW week 5

I (and Amanda) found this weeks artist of the week post a bit confusing. However, we did really think it was important to bring up the point about artist vs. executer. Who is the artist when the creativity comes from the person in the piece of art? I think the photographer is not necessarily the artist credited when the model is the one who had the artistic creativity. Overall, I thought the videos made me think quite a bit about art and I really enjoyed it.

Our convo:

Me and Amanda:

AH week5

The art history video was about the renaissance period. I liked seeing all the connections to the original David statue A LOT. Unfortunately, due to circumstances we could not avoid, Amanda and myself missed our group hangout. Luckily, we were ably to find time to chat a little bit about the videos. We both liked the Ecstasy statue. We agreed the statue was more angelic and we did not find it sexual at all.

I also really enjoyed the David look-a-like statue as well because I have seen many of them in person. It was enjoyable to hear the history behind everything. We also loved the clicker questions. If you ask me…I think Bernini had the more manly David, so I would probably choose to date him.

Graffiti Greatness!

Last week I went to Venice Beach to paint my own creation on the Art walls there. (Don’t worry, it was totally legal.) I went after watching a bit of the Germany v. Ghana World Cup game. I decided, since it was my first time with spray paint and a “graffiti” style artwork, to paint just my initials. All of the people I encountered seemed very helpful and they even let me borrow their different style tips. Overall, I thought it was a great experience and I will definitely do it again!!

Also, I got a chance to meet Glenn in person…it was great! 🙂 if you want to see pictures of that, you should visit his page here.

AH Week 4

I love the stained glass! And the cathedrals! The stuff from this time is something that I find to be particularly beautiful. The intricate details of the gothic structures are just so mesmerizing! I could stare at those marvelous buildings all day! My group and I unfortunately did not make video chat happen. Due to devices, internet access and who knows what else we were forced to just stick with types chat. But, in our typed chat we all discussed something about the video we loved…the gothic/gothic comparison! We loved the flipped necklace paired with the large archways. That’s definitely something that kept us interested. Thanks again, Glenn!

The struggle was real.

The connection was also quite real.