Blog blocks

Blog blocks must be like art blocks because in both circumstances you never know what to do, well i guess that would be the definition of a block in general whether you are an artist or a writer, and blogs can be categorized under writing. Its a lot like journaling I think which just sucks because I cant keep a journal to save my life, I maybe write two pages consecutively and wont touch it for months, but this is for a grade so gotta do it so im just grasping straws here for something to talk about.

my cartoon work

I'd like to share some of my own cartoon drawings that i have done because it is something that I enjoy drawing and I do very well.

Disney is a great influence for me, I love the style but have yet to get the hang of it

Along with disney I get a lot of inspiration from manga artists and other artists as well, I like drawing people so they are most often the subject of my drawings, I still have a long ways to go I think but I would really like to learn to color my artwork digitally.

Final project

The final project is coming along well, I like working in a group because the stress of getting the project done is eased because you have more than just one person working on it. Our Final project we are displaying an exhibition of potions that all have different uses. We created different names for each potion and what it does if you were to drink it. We even listed ingredients of each potion which was fun to come up with some of them have some pretty gross sounding things in them. We used different shaped bottles and used different colors of water in each. At first in did look boring before we added the 'ingredients' but once it had things like eyeballs, toenails, and worms for example in them they looked really cool. We are displaying the bottles in a cabinet with some added lighting on the inside to illuminate the bottles more. All that is left is type up the title and retype up the labels for the bottles.

Hmmm

I guess I could reflect on the class a bit, I did learn a lot about sculpture art and conceptual art, along with my own art and how to make it better. The topic of conceptual art didn't really peak my interest though I never have really been into that kind of art I prefer for classical art like drawing and painting and classical sculpture, not that i can't appreciate conceptual art for its meanings. I just like the beauty in classic art. That's what I like most about art is finding the beauty in it, Its just plain depressing when every piece of art you look at has some dark and morbid meaning behind it or look about it. Now Im not saying that, that applies to every artist i just notice the trend that a lot of artists take that angle with art, not that there's anything wrong with it, not everything is bright and cheery just like not everything is dark and dreary (and yes i just made a rhyme) Though Im not sure how I did in the class anyway especially with the projects, this kind of sculpture has never been my strong point but it was a good experience.

Old drawings

So I took two art classes in high school, Drawing I and II Junior and Senior year. I enjoyed both classes a lot since drawing is actually my favorite art medium, I didnt get to use a lot of color pencil or other drawing mediums in drawing I, but it had been the first art class I had taken since middle school. Then in drawing 2 I got to use charcoal color pencil and pen in a lot of the projects.

Old projects

So i want to share just a couple of my old sculpture projects from my first college art class 'Beginning sculpture' I had a lot of fun in that class and had some very interesting projects. The first one I ever made was where he gave each of us a cigar box and we got to do whatever we wanted with it, and this is what I did with mine

I had made the skeleton out of clay and had taken the box apart and altered it a bit so that it would stay open, I drilled holes in the edges and burned the incense when I presented it.
Another project we did was a project where we had to create the bust of a famous person using nothing but cardboard, i unfortunately do not have any pictures of this project but I ended up making a card board sculpture of Darth Vader.
The next project we were given two choices we either had to make a pair of shoes for a politician or a suit for a musician, I created a suit and I had picked the musician Kanon Wakashima who is a Japanese cellist and singer, its basically a lolita themed outfit and this is how it turned out

The Final project of that class we got to work with metal and welding and what not, the only criteria we had for this project was it had to be kinetic and I had some trouble coming up with something but I really liked how the metal part of the project turned out, I actually just wanted to make a metal rose for the most part.

The art of crocheting

So I started crocheting about a month ago and I really like it and i learned it pretty quickly (thats probably why I like it) but so far I have made a lot of hats and some flowers and am currently working on a crystal motif scarf and some leg warmers. But my grandma got me a new magazine with a bunch of patterns I cant wait to try out, Im actually going to be making a bag as my after Christmas/ New Years project. but I really want to get to the level where I can make amigurumi, or crocheted stuffed animals and then maybe be able to make my own patterns someday, now that would be really cool. But I would also like to work on making an afghan sometime because it would be a much bigger project.

White  Hat with a Flower

 Blue and Orange Bronco hat

Turquoise popcorn stitch hat

 4 of the 9 crystals motifs for a scarf

its the start of a leg warmer I promise

manga artists

Well I will use this blog to name off some of my favorite manga artists or 'Mangaka' because I happen to like Japanese cartoons that and lack of anything else to blog about.

So my first favorite is Eiichiro Oda,  he is the author of my favorite manga "One Piece" he was born in 1975 and published his first major manga in 1997. He has also done a piece called "Wanted" that was a collection of short stories, then he later made a collaboration manga called "Cross Epoch" with the creator of Dragon Ball Z. Akira Toriyama was his greatest influence and he was also greatly fascinated with pirates when he was young and had based his first manga on pirates. He uses many known pirate names for some of the names of his characters.

Another favorite mangaka of mine is Tite Kubo the creator of the manga and anime Bleach. His real name is Noriaki Kubo "Tite" is a pen name. He was born in 1977, he was also inspired by Akira Toriyama and didnt become serious abotu art until the age of 17. He submitted his first work "Zombie Powder" at the age of 18 but it had been rejected several times until the age of 22 it was finally accepted. His most significant piece "Bleach" was started in 2001 and today it is one of the most popular shonen manga's.

Akira Toriyama was born in 1955 and is the creator of the Dragon Ball series. He was greatly impressed by Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" and Walt Disney's 101 Dalmations, but it is hard to say where he drew his greatest inspiration from.  His very first manga was created in 1977 called "Awawa World" but it was never published. Dragon Ball was published in 1984 and is still one of the most popular manga's today, it has several series that branch off from it. He has written several one shots and written many comics for magazines.

Anime? art or not?

So I see this question a lot and thought I would like to rant about it in my blog. "Is anime really art?" now for those not familiar anime (or manga) it is japanese style cartoons, often characterized with big eyes and even bigger expressions and some great humor. So in short it is a cartoon form but in a completely different style to cartoons of the west. Quite often i run across the controversy where people say anime isn't art...which puzzles me because last time I checked it is a drawing form and drawing is an art form so therefore wouldn't it be art? Seriously if someone can take a Urinal and turn it on its side then put it in a museum with a signature on it and call it art then this cartoon art form IS art. Art in my opinion has many definitions and should not be confined to just one meaning.

Art blahs

So I've said in the very first blog that I want to be an art teacher or at least that is what my degree is going to and what is the current career goal as of the moment. Though quite honestly my dream job would be to become an animator for disney or something, that would be awesome. I love cartoons and I especially love hand drawn ones, while I do like the graphics of computer animated movies and cartoons to me there's a lot more work put into making something hand drawn and bringing it to life and its just my preference. So becoming an animator would be my ultimate goal but I would like to get into graphic design, but I can't keep changing my major so I will just continue to add to my art arsenal as I progress, thought right now the irony is that i am an art major but have been taking about zip art classes seeing as I have all these pre reqs to finish before I can progress further into my degree.... but I am taking more art next semester so that is exciting I can't wait.

Preliminary Body project sketch

same thing as the last project i didnt get around to posting the sketches before hand so im doing it now, I only really have one good sketch of the body project

the head scarf was an afterthought because I liked the way it looked with it but this is the basic idea with the sketch that I was going for in the project anyway, and thats what it ended up looking like for the most part.

Transformation photos

Since I didnt post any pre drawings of my transformation drawings here are the preliminary sketches I had done for it, I went through a lot of thought process of how I wanted to go about this project, first i was just going to do a whole tea set

So there was a lot of sketches of tea pots and cups and spoons and saucers but then I decided I didnt want to do a whole tea set because i wasnt sure how i was going to make the pot so I then moved to a simpler idea of just a cups and saucers

But then I got the idea of making a cake and that became my final decision for how to make this project

 Ta Da! the final sketch!

Mueseum idea pitch: Post Apocolyptic Survival Kit!!

So for my idea I wanted to do a Post Apocolyptic Survival kit as an exhibit. I like the idea of seeing how would people survive after a world disaster such as a nuclear war and half the planet was destroyed and it made living in it impossible. I love movies such as Book of Eli and games like Fall Out 3, Each takes place several years after a great nuclear was so people have been living ruggedly for a long time. Just by watching the movie and playing the game you get to see all the objects that people made use of or the things that became valuable. It really makes you think that you shouldn't take things you have for granted. And I have done research and there are books written on how to survive in a situation like that, I even found a list of items that would be handy to have. Just goes to show you there are people out there who would prepare for the worst. But anyway my idea wasn't picked but that's ok it was still a pretty neat idea.

  Here is a list of things I found in a forum just thought I would share, just as an example.

Lightweight equipment

• Knife -  (cannot be collapsable they break too easy.)
• Fishing string, sinks, floats, and hooks - (use crickets roaches worms and other bugs as bait.) (styrofome makes a good float)
• Unlubricated condoms - These are great to have in order to store water since they are collapsable and very light.
• Flint and Steel - used to start fires

Clothes

• Tough baggy clothes - (Used army clothes work the best)

Optional

• A pistol - to hunt animals, probably dogs and cats if its post apocolyptic.
• sunglasses
• Hardcandy - for energy If you cant find food.

Tips for survival

• If you cant find water do not eat because it will make you thirstier
• Become nocturnal to save water since youll sweat less (this is a must if your traveling in the desert)
• If you find a place with damp sand and your really thirsty dig a hole and wait for the water to drain into the hole and use one of the condoms to put the water in and drink it then or save it for later.
• Drink water sparingly - judge the color of your urine if its dark then you are dehydrated and need something to drink.

Another thing you might consider doing is carrying a large clear trashbag. This is useful because you can throw a ton of grass leaves bush's cactus in there and leave it in the sun for a few hours and the moisture from the plants will evaporate and accumulate in the bag and youll have yourself some drinking water. (poke holes or cut the cactus in half so the water can evaporate easier.)

(website I found this at http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-topic/31/great-survival-kit-for-post-apocolypse-or-desert-travel/116779/ )

Artist #20

Inigo Manglano Ovalle is a Spanish video an installation artist. He was born in Madrid, Spain in 1961, he earned a BA in art and art history and a BA in Latin American and Spanish literature. His sculptures are very sophisticated ans use natural forms such as icebergs and DNA as metaphors for a much deeper meaning dealing with social issues such as immigration, and gun violence. His digital videoing of things like radio signals and weather patterns leads to the in investigation of human interacting and interfering with the natural world. He is very attentive to the intricate nature of ecosystems.

Artist #19

Kimsooja is a Korean installation and video artist. She was born in South Korea in 1957. In her work she transforms everyday like sewing or doing the laundry and makes it 2 or 3 dimensional and it becomes a performance piece. The boundaries between aesthetic transcendent experiences is blurred. The center of her work is often the Bottari or a Korean bed cover, in her work it becomes a philosophical metaphor. She also depicts human condition in her work and brings new perspectives to her viewers and also brings about questions of reality. Her work is known for its vibrant colors and density of imagery she "emphasizes the change metaphysically within an artist-as-performer"

Artist #18

John Feodorov is an artist of Native American and euro American descent and much of his work portrays the differences between the two cultures, and also deal with the stereotypes of how the native Americans are viewed. He uses sculpture and installations in his works. From what he has observed is that Native Americans are viewed as the "living embodiment of spirituality" He has created some works to this cliche by adding humor to it. That is his piece the Totem Teddy series where he added masks and markings to regular teddy bears and also gave them booklets that said the bears meet the spiritual needs of anybody of any age.
“A major theme in my work is the way Native Americans are still being portrayed, stereotyped, and studied in contemporary America. I’ve read that the Navajo Nation is the most-studied group of people on Earth. I don’t know whether to be proud or disgusted.” 

Artist #17

Mark Bradford is an American installation Artist born in 1961 in Los Angeles. He is well known for  taking materials off the street and transforming it into huge wall sized murals, in response to impromptu networks. Using his personal background and from other inner city influences he portrays it in his work. His collages refers to things like the organization of streets, and buildings in the downtown area, or to groups of people, like civil rights movements of the 60's.

Artist #16

Charles Atlas was born in 1958, he is a film maker and video artist. He has created several works for screen, stage, television and museum. He collaborates with choreographers and dancers in his work. He is known to be one of the pioneers of Media Dance. One of his more famous films is "Television Dance Atlas"  it incorporated many different dance styles such as ballet burlesque and figure skating. He was also know for his video installations like "The Hanged One" it inspired symbolism from Tarot and foot fetish culture. The video itself used a variety of techniques such as rotoscopes, motorized mannequins, and theatrical lighting.

Artist # 15

Mark Dion born in 1961, recieved a BFA from the University of Hartford school of art in 1986. He is an installation artist and uses a wide variety of objects in his displays. Dion's work examines ways in which dominant ideologies help us understand history and the natural world. With his work he wants to challenge perception and convention. "The job of the artist is to go against the grain of a dominant culture." Probably his most well known work is the permanent outdoor installation where he and his team of researchers biologists and other helpers excavated a tree and various plant life and installed it in a building in Seattle where people can come and learn about how a forest ecosystem works. Dion likes to question the authoritative role of the scientific voice in a modern society.

Artist # 14

Vija Celmins born in 1938 in Latvia. Immigrated to the US at the age of 10. She earned a BFA from the John Heppens Institute in Indianapolis. Celmins uses a wide variety of mediums in her work such as oil paints, charcoal and print making. Her early works depict renditions of things in nature, they were often copied from a photograph. But in her work there was no point of reference, horizon, or depth to them, she used blacks whites and grays for the colors. Celmins likes to take time on the details in her work and also likes to depict the elegance of imperfection and will spend months on one piece. Her most recent series is a series of spider web paintings. She takes care to show the delicateness and the translucent qualities of the webs. She puts great emphasis on detail.

Artist # 13

Cao Fei is a Chinese artist born in 1978. Her work consists mostly of video installations, costume and depicts the fluidity of a world where cultures have mixed. She explores perception and reality in her work. Using strategies like role play, film making she captures the individuals longings and how they imagine themselves to be. She uses a lot of Chinese elements in her work, she both observes or participates when creating a piece. Fei is greatly fascinated with the second life world. She discerns between reality and dream, and her films create this other world or a utopia.