what I learned in class today was;

I shall not doubt myself again..for the rest of the month at least.

I now know what to look for in designing a spread for an artist. I did a flyer for my museum studies class, and had no idea how to go about it. I went the academic path and found out the way I originally did it, might have been more pleasing. The images below are the different pitch flyers. The very first one on the top is the actual blog just in flyer form. "academic" if you will. The other two are more aesthetically pleasing.

Whatevs, that's the point of school, to learn from your happy accidents.

i believe everyday is a good day when you paint.

give it a little touch, a little push. make love to the canvas;

My younger brother showed me this video the other day. I was feeling sluggish and upset and he brought up this video. Now, I have seen the "Garden of your Mind" Mister Rogers remix ( I have a soft spot for Mister Rogers. Childhood Hero and whatnot), but Bob Ross? How can you not watch this and not feel happy..besides it being an auto tune remix, but nonetheless.

I think anyone who had a childhood consisting of PBS television shows had a really good childhood.Not everyone thinks that Bob Ross is the man, but I remember sitting in front of the tv with my parents, rolling my eyes to this weird, white guy with an awkward afro..until we watched him unravel this landscape from these simple strokes and stuff. Jaw dropped and mind blown. I would call this my first exposure to the art world and inspiration to deciding my career route would definitely go towards art. That was my mind set. Doesn't matter what I do. 

first feature: kara walker;

kara walker;

Big, bold shapes, that's what catches my eye majority of the time. It's either that I cannot see very well, or that I find curves and narrative story pieces the best kinds of representational art out there.

Kara Walker's silhouette work attracted me immediately. Form wise, it is exactly what I find attractive in the art world. BOLD.

It was also different from what I usually see in museums and galleries. Sculpture, paintings, photographs. I did not know how to define what category her work would be under. She does do drawings and paintings, but the silhouette work is what really caught my attention. 

They bring back an art form I have only seen in movies and once as a kid growing up. The only time I have seen silhouette work being done was at a small little shop at Disneyland where my parents decided to get our silhouettes done. We each sat down, sitting only momentarily, as these quaint old ladies swiftly and skillfully snip away at a piece of black paper as they chat. The end result being in the profiles of our faces.

Silhouette of my parents (above)

 Walker takes that experience that I had it to the next level. She has these large scale, black  full bodied cut outs, presumably of not actual models, along walls, some having projected backgrounds to add some depths and an appropriate setting and pull your eyes across the room. Walker uses racial caricatures, picaninny, to accentuate characteristics of African Americans.

Although they are "mere" silhouettes, they do depict very powerful messages that bridge unfinished folklore in Antebellum South with issues of race, violence, and identity and gender issues primarily in African American women.

Some of the images are very graphic, if not most. There's a push and pull with each of the images displayed, whether showing the graphic scene of a rape of a small girl by a white man, or the "revenge." Walker does have a sense of humor though, you do see an exchange of power between character images, but what you see to be funny, you kind of feel shameful for laughing at.

"Most pieces have to do with the exchanges of power, attempts to steal power away from others"

have you found what you were looking for?

Here I was, sitting at the computer for the longest time trying to jump out of my comfort zone and find some new artist I've never even heard of, but had to like obviously, and present it.

A Search for a Subject: ( a tangent you have permission to skip, but just a dip into my brain)

Let me tell you, the process was not easy. I liked Nano Lopez for a while, for his usage of organic and industrial looking textures on animals and figures, but after looking at bronze animals and figures for a while, they all seemed to blend together. I felt like I was not getting enough out of it all. Every artist I was clicking on while browsing, nobody was really catching my eye. I tend to gravitate towards bold works and bold colors, lines and curves, like Keith Haring rather than photorealism and "pretty color" landscapes, though some are intriguing. 

Every piece's message kept bringing me back to what Cathy Liu's overall theme of her works are: DO THEY MAKE YOU FEEL HAPPY? Cheesy, I know, but really though. I was really bored of looking at the same crap. 

Then she came along. Like a breath of fresh air..

kara walker;

CATHY LIU

cathy liu 

I met this amazing artist last Thursday in my museum studies class whom we are going to show in November. She's the type of artist that really hit close to home with her organic abstract art pieces. They just really make you feel good. They don't really have a message that she's trying to push out except the  one message: "How does it make you feel?"and have it interpreted by the viewer--you.

The form of her pieces with pure color, elegant curves and lines are shown in very pure and simplistic ways. She told us that she already visualizes colors in her head and puts them down on canvas. They usually resemble biological organisms, plants, or whatever you desire them to look like. It makes you think about growth, development, fetuses, water droplets. 

  

She talked about how they emphasize a kind of "push and pull" or as she put it, "tension and balance." They relax her. That's the thing that made me think. Whenever I try to draw or paint, I only do it when I really feel happy and it comes out great or when I'm really upset, which 99% of the time I end up hating the piece.

Cathy Liu also gives small rocks or pieces of driftwood to friends with little words or a small design on them as trades, which I thought was great. Fix the pipes under my sink, thanks so much, here's a token of my sincerest gratitude. It's like a portable art piece that looks really good and makes you feel good. I wouldn't mind having a cute rock in my pocket, it's a nice conversation starter.

I also liked how she doesn't want them to be commercialized, as they are very personal to her. She has received comments to having her artwork becoming posters to be sold at Target or be hung in college dorms and textiles.  Her heart goes into every piece. I know every artist feels that way. I know I do.

go ahead, make my day;

Okay, not everyone loved Clint Eastwood at the RNC when he seemed like a senile old actor talking to an empty chair as if it was Obama, but some of his views are on point to what I believe..some, not all.

I appreciate the things he did for the small city of Carmel when he was mayor from 1986-88 and getting in touch with his community to fix things up with the city's administration and the endless runaround with zoning laws and red tape. When running for mayor, he stayed local and community based, did not do national press or interviews on the subject matter, and also did not use revenue from his side acting, while he was doing his campaign, for his campaign, just plain od' bumper stickers and buttons  He stayed local and tightly involved with his community and earned a normal mayor salary of $200/month when he won. Did you guys even know he was mayor of Carmel? :]

He's a liberatarian--"sort of socially, leave everyone alone, but believe in fiscal responsibility, and the government staying out of your life"

Something I appreciate. We need to figure out how to smartly invest our month, and leave everyone alone..probably when I like his view on gay marriage. It's none of the government's business to say who can and cannot marry or tell them who to marry.

Not trying to be political here, I just agree with some of his views. Let me know hwo to feel about Clint Eastwood. :]

The Daylight Project;

As any normal young adult-lady, I have a favorite band and we know what that's like..fan crazed, thinks they are a know it all and shit like that. I was reading a tweet from Maroon 5 talking about this new project of theirs for their newest video for their third single 'Daylight.'

It's so much more than a fan video compilation. There's a call to action to do certain things, to show what you're all about. It reminds me of what this blog is about--representing the real me.

the daylight project;

As I was reading up on the different options, I was trying hard to figure out something creative to do, but it hit me when I was listening to the lyrics and reading them, being analytical..its either that I can't help myself by strive for the best I can be, I'm trying to impress the world with something completely fabricated, or something else I have tapped yet. It's a constant struggle.

Yeah, it might sound completely naive and childish, but it's something that holds myself back from actually unleashing anything I can be satisfied with.
So who am I? I can't tell you that. I tend to live on the fly and let things happen as they come. I'm not gonna bullshit my life and show you something I'm not about. My secret is that I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm proud of it.

"Life is simple, it's people who make it complicated"

reducing the carbon footprint little by little

It impresses me that our school cares about being ecofriendly..maybe I should turn a leaf or two..one step at a time.

murmur gallery favorites

Vicki Gunter,

one of the featured artists in this gallery, I enjoyed a lot. A lot of her work seemed to tell stories or reminded her and her audience about the different losses we have in life. Some of the works have a poem next to it. She wrote the poems first, and then made the piece. This one in particular caught my eye..

Loss # 6

Wildlands ...by a thread

Vicki Gunter - 2011

Clay @ ^6 & 018, silk, thread, crystal

(above picture is looking at the piece from below, get it?)

                            the wildlands hanging by a thread.

                                                          I think I can see my car from here.

Looking at it straight on as a whole.

It reminds me of a tiny piece I did in my ceramics class when I was in high school. I'll take a picture of it when I get home later today.

peas and carrots,

arleen d.

i heard a murmur from across oakland;

On Friday Night, I visited Oakland for the first time(not including the time I drove there to cool down, but that's a different story) for the Oakland Art Murmur for my museum studies class. It was an interesting experience and totally not what I expected.

Joking around on the BART.

We saw some "gallery buses" that had some small works inside and with live bands crammed in the same buses, but I was too chicken to go in. HAHA.

Big thanks to Claire for guiding us around the city :D

the birth of a new blogger.

my first post!
hey everyone, thanks for taking the time out to check out my blog.

I'm a little new at this, so bear with me.
Tomorrow, or Sunday, I'll share my experiences with you about my first time to the Oakland Art Murmur.

peas & carrots,
arleen d.