Week 14: Installation

Sara Sze's Art of Losing, 2004 is reminiscent of one of my works in terms of layering:

This sculpture is made purely out of cardboard and glued together by hot glue. As you can see I have layered numerous square cardboards together to create a spiral staircase similar to how Sze installation has a staircase-like gesture.

Week 12: Street art and Graffiti

This week's lecture was about Street art and Graffiti. The lecture automatically reminded me of my adventures at the Wynwood District Art walk in Miami. It featured some psychedelic street artwork that I found very entertaining and comical take a look:

Week 11: Art and Life: Organic Design

I really enjoyed looking at the different variety of organic art from different artists ranging from Frank Lloyd Wright, Fritz Haeg, and Samuel Mockbee. Their work really inspired me to pursue a career in architectural design.    

Frank Lloyd Wright, Falling Water (Built in 1934-37)

 I always had a knack for uniquely built structures. Wright's Falling Water design exemplifies this with the layering of concrete vertically and horizontally all the while sitting on top of a waterfall.

Fritz Haeg, Sundown Salon Schoolhouse
Haeg's geosphere dome also falls into this category. The structure is almost reminiscent of the geosphere dome at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fl.

Samuel Mockbee, Glass Chapel

Mockbee's structure is impressive because of his choice in such a delicate material in glass. I can only imagine how his workers were able to construct this building without any broken or chipped glass.

Week 10: Identity and Politics

This week's entry is about Political Culture and Sexual Identity and lecture was very informative but not inspirational for me. However a just around this time a year ago in my Drawing I class at my community college we were fortunate enough to attend the Wynwood District Art walk down in Miami. It was a very inspirational trip. I was able to witness artists work on their pieces live and appreciate their techniques up close. While I was walking around different exhibits I stumbled across these two artworks and I figured that these have somewhat of a close relation to Political culture.


This is an artwork President Obama being held together by wire on the wall and on a make shift stand. Notice that there is a blue clothing outstretched on the ground. This represents his tie and what I found comical about this piece is that this artist is incorporating not only the wall but the ground as being apart of the painting. It make the work seem larger than life-size.








As you see here there is a headless man who is struggling to walk around with his walker while grasping a cordless gas guzzler. This sculpture is discussing the high gas prices that has affected many Americans who are dependent on gasoline. And how it is such a struggle to see the prices at the pump continue to rise.
This has been one of the many hot topics in politics.

Week 8: Artist's Books/Collage

In this week's lecture about Artist's books/collage I found that all the work exhibited in the lecture slides were intriguing. One in particular would be David Hockney's collage piece.

David Hockney's Place Furstenberg, Paris, 1985.
   
What I enjoy about this collage is how Hockney is able to use the grid method to effectively place each panel in an overlapping manner to create a kaleidoscope effect. It brings a different perspective from the original piece.

In the fall of 2010 in my Design Fundamental class I created something similar to a photo collage:

These two artworks required a lot of construction paper and an very sharp X-acto knife. For the first art piece I created a stencil of a spade with card stock on Microsoft Word and traced the cut out spade stencil on the construction paper then I carefully scored the traced spade and glued it on the panel as well as triangles and miniature arrows and rectangles.

The bottom piece required the same technique also I created a stencil of the Miami Heat logo with a card stock paper but I decided to cut out geometric pieces of around the white space where the logo and the team's name appears. It was a very exciting project and it is reminiscent of a photo collage where you have to effectively sort geometric piece around your preferred work space and bring it all together as a whole.

Week 7: Performance Art

This week's discussion about Performance Art proved to be an usual form of art. When I think of Performance art I imagined people dancing and putting on a play for the audience however when I viewed this week's lecture slides I was misled from I what I thought I would be viewing. Apparently Performance art is supposed to evoke discomfort and awkwardness. I felt that way about some the artwork that was displayed...






 
 (First Photo)
 Carolee Schneeman, Interior Scroll

Schneeman's work brought about an awkwardness to me. I find it very unusual that she stuffs a wrapped sheet in her vagina and attempts to string it out of her like a scroll. I didn't find her work hard to look at tough as compared to the next artist below.
(Second Photo)
Orlan, Reincarnation of St. Orlan.

Orlan's work proved to be very uncomfortable from the get go; she records her series of surgeries and is awake during all of this. I think what really made me look away from this piece was the fact there was so much blood being shown here and the look on her face that makes me feel very sorry for her. 

Week 6: Fiber: Materials and Meaning

This lecture is similar to the sculpture slide show with Charles LeDray and Guerra de la Paz artwork. They use fabrics and clothing as their media just like the majority of the these artists in this week's presentation. The feeling I got from this weeks slide was one of a fashion design show event where all of the designers were showing off their works. Just below, I have an image of Guera de la Paz's work Sunt and Ma Ke clothing. They both use found clothing to create their work.

Week 5: Photography

This week's lecture deals with Photography and I was amazed by all of the work that was shown in the slide show. The main theme throughout the lecture is about how light is being used when photographing people or scenery. Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall effectively achieve this process and you can see in their work, Untitled (Ray of Light), 2001 and After 'Invisible Man' by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue respectively. These techniques reminded me of a photo I took in Arizona as my family and I were going to visit the Grand Canyon. On our way there, we stopped to take some pictures of the Hoover Dam and I was able to get a very bright shot of the dam take a look.

Untitled (Ray of Light), 2001
'Invisible Man', 1999-2000

Week 4: Sculpture

This lecture really made me reevaluate how a sculpture can be formed through different kinds of media. I witness art piece that had: clothing, wax, paper plates, steel pins, Styrofoam cups, plastic straws, fishing lines, buttons, tar paper, wood, fabric, and even nail clippings. The common theme with most of these artworks is that they are earth friendly material (excluding plastic). When I was looking at Tara Donovan's Toothpicks I was immediately drawn to how this piece was entirely made from only wooden toothpick and this art work reminded me of one of my 3D sculptures I did last semester called Static Turbine. It was completely made from wood-based materials and I spray painted it with a metallic coat. I hope you like it!

Week 3: Body and Soul

This week discussion is on Body and Soul but also focusing on various issues that are being represented in each of the artists work. Today I want to refer to Lucian Freud's painting, Benefits Supervisor Resting. When I was viewing the painting it automatically reminded of my life drawing class and how we had to draw a nude model and there was a piece that I drew of a plump woman in charcoal and it was my first time drawing a human figure but what was similar between Freud and I was that we both used the same models repeatedly. For me though, it was more of a way to understand how to draw a model in different positions (unfortunately this is the only drawing I have of a nude model) but for Freud, he was interested in how he can learn more from his models in an emotional, physical, and mental sense.

Week 2: Drawing and Painting

These two images represent my experiences in drawing and painting. The first image is an 18" x 24" self-portrait of myself in charcoal. I did this as a summertime project in 2012, just so I can keep my fingers moving and no lose most of the acquired knowledge of how to shade and blend objects or figure without the use of "cartoon lines". I must admit I still have a long ways to go in regards to drawing with charcoal and after viewing the works of Laurie Lipton's charcoal and pencil drawings, it gave me a hint of inspiration in how to use tiny lines as well as velvety tones to render an object effectively. My next piece is an abstract of geometric shapes and I am using complementary colors on each panel and trying to merge them as one unit. I completed this in the Fall of 2010 in my Design Fundamental class at my community college. This was my second time painting (my first was an assignment where I had to design and paint a color wheel) and I am sad to say this was my last time painting. I hope that I can find time to paint and really understand the fundamentals of how to paint efficiently.

Week 1: Pop Art Characteristics

I have been looking through my lecture slides about Modernism and Post Modernism and in particular the Pop Art era. Artists featured in this era are Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Richard Hamilton, and Andy Warhol and each of their work are designed to look glamorous, popular, and mass-produced. I find myself attracted to these characteristics in way that starts up my creativity juices in my brain to emulate some of their work. In fact, an artwork of mine that I completed this past spring comes to mind. It was hand drawn and edited on a computer to further enhance the glamorous look of my work. The image you are about to look at is my ABC project and the main purpose of me showing this photo is to link together how the three topics mentioned above in Pop Art match the what I am trying to achieve.