Plaster Casting Without the Beach

I followed the plaster casting video but used a empty planter as my man made Beach. I think being at the beach makes this project a lot more fun and you don't have to worry as much about making a mess. Here are the pictures and how I did it.

First was a trip to home depot to get a bag of sand and a bag of plaster and a bucket to mix the plaster in.
























Next I took a pot for plants and filled it with sand. The planter rather than a bucket is used so you can water the sand down to compact it around your hand and the water then drains out the bottom.

















The next step is to mix the plaster and then poor it into the mold.
















Then comes the waiting game. The time was used to start the blog while it sets allowing a better use of time than frolicking at the beach. Unless of course you have the time to do it, I would recommend going to the beach.

Unfortunately due to weather conditions it is taking an extremely long time to set. Hopefully in the morning It will be ready... but i doubt it. Maybe I bought the wrong stuff to use.

Earth Art Project

Well it turns out this is a poor attempt as my time this weekend was sucked up by work family and A full day of Museum runs. I had planed on doing something more elaborate in an area I have hiked many times but that will have to wait until another day.

I call this piece "Leaf Skeleton" the sticks were gathered in my back yard from a tree that has been dropping them thanks to the wind that has been present all day.

Beall Center for Art + Technology

I attended the Beall Center at UCI. Which I might add is hard to find if you have a GPS that does not like the address and have never been to that campus before. After driving around for a bit I new I was close and asked a parking structure attendant for help. He had no clue what I was talking about. I showed him the directions I found using my phone and he was able to point me in the right direction. The building was about 100 yards away in view from where we were talking. the building is small and has rotating exhibits. The current exhibit was called Eyecode: Works by Golan Levin. This was a fun exhibit to be at. There was about 8 installations and all of them were interactive. My girlfriend and I both agreed we had the most fun there. it is hard to explain all of the creations but I did take a few pictures.

The first one was called Ghost Pole Propagator, you would walk in front of the screen that had stick figures moving around on it. When the sensor saw you your figure would show on the screen and follow your movements. It would record these and after walking around the small exhibit I Saw my figures floating around with all the others in the back ground.


The Second one had a camera that would show your face split into 3 layers and rotated through with other faces it had saved. So your mouth, eyes or forehead would be swapped with others at random to create different faces. After severl minutes of making faces and laughing we moved on.















I decided to take a picture of one other item while there. You could use your finger to write whatever you wanted on this little tablet and it would look as though the screen would freeze from the points where you touched it out until it went white and was ready to be used again.

Bowers Museum of Cultural Art

This afternoon I went to the Bowers Museum. I have been there before but it was a very long time ago. As my girlfriend and I walked through I saw something on the wall that caught my eye. The word Shaman on the wall followed by South America. so we walked down that corridor through the exhibits and I didn't see anything related to it. I decided to take a couple pictures of painting that intrigued me. I enjoy outdoor sceneries and one of these painting seem to be done in its own style. On the way back out I was the reference to South American Shaman. It want much of an exhibit just a picture of South American with a few artifacts on the wall. Not what I was expecting.






The method of brushstrokes used by Conrad Buff in his Ocean Vista painting from the 1920's. His style used fine and well placed strokes of the brush to create a bigger picture that does not look so great up close but splendid from a distance. I took pictures from both views so you could see the difference.















The second picture caught my eye very similar to a place I have been before, on a stream fly fishing while a couple of deer came down to drink water. Interestingly enough I found the same sort of brush strokes in the painting. It was created by Joachim Ferdinand in 1885 called Untitled (redwoods). When I looked closely at the trees you could see the same style that Conrad Buff used in his paintings.

Museum of Latin American Art

I went to MOLAA this morning and walked around a bit before I found something that caught my eye. I guess most of the regular paintings and pictures I find in museums do not stimulate my senses. I find this to be true at every museum I have been to. The odd things are the ones that catch my eye and cause me to stop and observe them for a bit. I am not interested in figuring out what the creator of the piece was thinking but rather just enjoy what was created. There were two pieces I saw that really caught my eye. Both of them I could see from across the room and couldn't wait to get to them, hastily passing the other art pieces before them.

the first one was created by Murta Minujin in 1995 called Solo Una Manera, or Only One Way. I found this name to be the opposite of the art itself. The piece seemed to look different from whatever angle you looked at it. The shadows created by the strands hanging in the foreground moved with the breeze in the museum as well.


The second piece was created by Sara Modiano in 2007 called Inner connection. This piece was created from a picture in wich it was diced and then pulled out from the center. When you stand directly in front of it you can see the picture clearly but as you move to teh side the picture is lost in the blocks.

Long Beach Museum of Art

I went to the LB Museum of Art this morning to see what they had. I was surprised at how small the establishment was and arrived early due to a misread on their website. The cafe opens at 8am the museum didn't open until 10am. Anyways all the Art they had on display was created via video projections or films that had been edited. I enjoyed the walk through a little more than my girlfriend who accompanied me. some of the items were a little to emotional for her but I thought it was very interesting. Almost all of the pieces there utilize editing of sounds and video. Some of them are set in a dark room where you only see the video or projection accompanied by whatever noise the artist rendered. It takes some time for your eyes to adjust, at first you cant even tell if anything else is even in the room. It was a fun experience and I managed to get a couple pictures.




First one was a video created by Nan Hoover in 1981 called Doors. It is two doors that seem to be mirrored and person wearing all black seems to walk back and forth through them. it is separated in the middle and makes you think how they open and close toward and away from each other.


The second one was interesting. It was created by Bjorn Melhus in 1998 and was called Again and Again. Basically it was a himself repeating many of the terms you hear on television over and over as it we have not heard them enough. I enjoyed watching it. It was set up on 8 monitors side by side. the video is run on a 6 min loop.

Albert Bierstadt

1830-1902





















Albert Bierstadt was an artist that enjoyed painting landscapes and utilizing light in order to make his paintings more visually appealing. Sometimes Bierstadt would make subtle changes to the details of the landscape to increase the awe inspiring beauty. The colors were not always true as they were painted in his perception of the scenery.











The use of light is referred to as luminism, which gave the paintings a romantic glowing effect. He would make many trips into the American West during the mid to late 1800s. His paintings were sketched during the many trips and later transferred to large canvas paintings when he returned. The book refers to paintings because of the use of Atmospheric Perspective. The way he is able to use his paint to give a visual effect of depth in the paintings.











Bierstadt followed in the footsteps of the other Artist from The Hudson River School which he was associated with. Some of the artist associated with the school included Thomas Cole, Asher B Durand, Frederic Edwin Church as well as others. The school was not an institution but more a collaboration of painters utilizing the same style of painting to portray the beauty of the natural landscape.












Fredric Edwin Church



















Thomas Cole

















Asher B. Durand



Bierstadt was also considered to be part of the Rocky Mountain School along with Thomas Hill.

Towards the end of his life his paintings were loosing the interest of the public mostly due to the Boston School and Impressionism.

http://www.albertbierstadt.org/

Lecture Review 8

The in class lecture was about how people perceive themselves in different ways. Some people do not see themselves the way others see them. Examples of two people who use an online virtual world to show others how they perceive themselves. One person's image of themselves was drastically different then there real world physical features. The other person perceived themselves slightly different but still maintained the defining physical features. Another example in class what from Avatar, where there is an identity crisis with the main actor between his real world physically disabled state and his "Avatar" that can do all the things he wishes he could do. This brings to question what is our identity, is it how others perceive us or how we perceive ourselves.

Lecture Review 7

During class last week we participated in a drawing exercise. The picture is inverted and cut into sections. Then only one section is shown to the class at a time. It was devised to show you that anyone can draw if you don't think about what you are drawing. Without thinking about what you are drawing and just making lines it seems easy to draw a picture. The problem is that our minds make it harder to draw. We see something that we want to draw but our mind has already made the picture for us and it doesn't allays match what we are looking at.

Lecture Review 6

For class last week we went outdoors and onto the campus. Students were separated into groups and each group had to pick a piece of art. Using tape to mark the spot and also curate the piece that was chosen to the rest of the class. If was interesting to see all the different pieces that people chose. It really brings into perspective how people look at art differently.

My group settled on the structure in front of the bookstore. Where we spent some time admiring it and questioning what it stood for. Ultimately we came up with the pillar symbolizing students life on campus. Throughout our learning process we grow and branch out to what will eventually become our new role in life. The pillar is surrounded by plants, bushes and trees set in a circle. The plants symbolize growth and how students need to be nurtured by the teachers to grow and blossom into something great.

Art Project #1

Although I was unable to participate in this project over the weekend. I have had many experiences in my life not having the luxury of electricity. I have spent countless weekends camping and using fire and lanterns at night to provide light. Spending lots of time outside without the amenities of home or our cities infrastructure. It gives you a sense of realism that you can not get in the comfort of your own home.

I really enjoy spending time away from civilization and seeing how well I can do on my own in nature. Throughout my experiences I spent time trying to start a fire from a couple pieces of wood and some tinder. I went on one 2 day trip without food and was able to catch what we needed to eat. Granted it was a place where we could fish and my friend and I had no problems bringing home dinner. I have built facilities for a group to use while spending threee days on a river canoe trip. I have gone on night hikes without flashlights. I really enjoy getting away from civilization and have always dreamed of some day spending a week or two out in the wild and supplying my own food and shelter. For me spending time without electricity is not that bad. It allows me a lot of time to think about what I want in life and what I need to do to get there. The only problem is that we are a slave to society where you have to make money in order to survive.

Chapter 5 Artist Analysis

We start with Henri Matisse Memory of Oceania and Jackson Pollock Shimmering Substance. Both of these works are comprised of chaos and colors that make you want to see something that may or may not be there. Spending some time looking at Matisse the white reminds of an old ship that has the symbol of something protruding from the front. In this case it seems to be a blue face. I am not sure what exactly he was trying to portray but I am sure that people see different things in this painting. Pollock has the same sort of idea with an array of colors but closer together in what seems to be many small clipping of paper arranged on a pad. The yellow stands out to me as though there is a circular object in the middle of the painting. With the disarray that is going on in both of these painting the artists can attract many different opinions of what is going on depending on who is looking at them.

In comparing Pablo Picasso's Girl Before a Mirror and Titian's Venus with a Mirror. We can see two very different depictions of women admiring themselves in a mirror. Picasso depicts the woman seeing something very different than what is represented in front of the mirror. Where Titian shows Venus seeing herself as the same. Utilizing a Mirror in the painting allows the artist to express his opinion of what is seen in the mirror. Does everyone see the same thing in a mirror or is the reflection different for each person? Each person would have there own opinion of what is seen and how closely it resembles the person in front of that mirror.

Lecture Review 5

In class this week we watched a documentary about graffiti and its evolution in many major cities from around the world. It has been used in many different ways in order for people to express themselves or opinions they have on a subject such as politics. A question was asked to find out how many people thought of graffiti as being a good or bad thing. Surprisingly most people thought it was good. There is always going to be the bad that comes along with the good. The defacing of peoples private property is not appropriate, but that does not limit some people to doing it. What if there were places for people to express themselves on public sites? After all it is an art form, which can bring people together to appreciate or criticize it. As of today it is against the law and people still do it. How is that any different than any other laws that people break on a daily basis? Just to name a few that I see daily, running red lights, utilizing carpool with one person in the car, speeding or not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. Who is to say one crime is more significant than another. I am sure the ones I listed above are broken more often than all the graffiti artists combined.

Chapter 4 Artist Analysis

Fist up we have Georges Seurat A Sunday on La grande Jatte and Chuck Closes' Bill. Both of the artists used a unique method in order to make the picture blend into itself. Seurat utilized many small dots of color which can be seen up close, giving it almost a fuzzy look. But when you move back you can see the whole picture and the dots seem to blend into each other showing a smooth transition between the colors. Close uses a very similar method. Instead of dots he uses a gridded pattern and fills in each grid with his own set of colors. Up close it looks like a child trying to fill in the squares, but as you stand back and look all the colors seem to blend together giving you an image that comes alive.

Next we have Albert Bierstadt, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak and Huang Gongwang dwelling in the Fuchun. Both of these paintings represent two different groups living in two different landscapes. Bierstadt had incorporated a Native American tribe with the beautiful background of the rocky mountains. Showing the tribe going about its business in everyday life. Gongwang's painting is very similar as it depicts a mountainous region with buildings nestled at the base, although no people are in view both pictures imply a peaceful coexistence with nature.

Lecture review 4

In class this week we were introduced to performance art. One artist in particular Marina Abramovic. An artist that utilizes props and her own body to bring out emotions in the audience. Some would say that this is not art but the scenarios she comes up with are defiantly and expression of herself and give people more than a few things to think about when they see or hear about her.

Chapter 3 Artist Analysis

In the first comparison we take a look at Ryoan-ji Temple, Kyoto and Robert Smithson Spiral Jetty. Ryoan-ji created stone and gravel garden in 1480. Where Smithson created a spiral Jetty in 1970. Both artists utilized rocks and other natural resources to create 2 very different themes. The rock garden was created as a place to meditate and has to be continuously maintained. Although there are certain changes over time that cannot be prevented (moss growing on the rocks). On the other side the Spiral jetty was created in order for it to change over time without being maintained. Creating it in Salt Lake the natural elements there are constantly changing the colors and looks of the rocks. For a long period of time the rocks were submerged under water and you could not view them.

The second two artist we will look at is Thomas Cole's, The Oxbow and Wang Jian's, White Clouds over Xiao and Xiang. Both artists are depicting there expression of a real place. Cole depicts a sort of war between two sides. On one side you have a mountain with lots of overgrowth and storm damage trees being depicted with storm clouds rolling over. On the other side you have a prairie that looks to be used by farmers and sunlight is shining on the fields. Seems peaceful compared to the other side and they are separated by a river. Cole painted what he saw. Jian depicts a real place but is his own rendering of that place not a recreation of an image like Cole. Jian's painting makes it almost seem dreamlike the way the mountain stands above the clouds in the background and the land mass in the foreground looks soft, cloud like. The two artists took a different approach as to where you were viewing them from as well. Cole is sitting on the mountain looking out and Jian has you up in the air looking down on the river with the mountain and clouds set straight out from you.

Lecture Review 3

In class last week several of the students had fun making there own videos. I did not partake in the festivities. I do not see the reason why someone would be so interested in putting there face or name all over the internet. I am not the oldest student in the class but older than most. Maybe my age is the reason I do not understand or it could have something to do with the way I was raised...

Also in class we were asked "Who am I and What is Art?" I am not sure I can describe myself in the same light that others see me. I think I am a humble person, I don't gloat when I win and have on occasion let others win without them knowing. I like to pay attention to what is going on around me. I don't strive to be the center of attention instead I prefer to remain unnoticed and out of the spot light. In my opinion Art is the creation of something that can bring out an emotion in another person. For example, if you paint a picture of the Grand Canyon then that painting would be considered Art. Could the Grand Canyon also be considered Art created by nature?

Chapter 2 Artist Analysis

First off we have Andy Warhol's Thirty Are Better than One, illustration. This art was based on Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. There is no doubt that the Mona Lisa is a well known painting that stirs lost of questions in the hearts of those who observe it. Andy's painting will stir up some questions as well. In taking one mans expression of art and then duplicating it many times is his own image he creates his own form of art.

Next there is Kitagawa Utamaro and her piece Hairdressing and Edgar Degas Nude woman having her hair combed. These paintings were created almost 100 years apart but exhibit the same characteristics. There is a woman with her hair being done by another. Utamaro's depiction has both women dressed in tradition clothing for that time, which looks like a robe. While Degas decides to depict the woman sitting nude with her robe lying beneath her.

Lecture Review 2

What is Reality? Does reality have to be something physical that we can touch or can it be a feeling we get when we think about something or someone. In class we watched two movie clips that focused on reality vs dream state. Sometimes when we are dreaming we think that it is real because we do not know we are dreaming. The Matrix was a movie that came out and dove deep into this. If life as we know it was a dream would you want to know the truth? Several years later Inception came out. Another movie based on a dream vs real world situation. People that can invade other peoples minds in order to plant thoughts or steal valuable information. Both movies are very similar in the essence that someone or something else is controlling your thoughts while you are asleep. The movies bring up a lot of questions that will probably not be answered anytime soon?

Chapter 1 Artist Analysis

In this chapter there are several artist and art forms that were covered.

To start I would like to bring up Ernst Haas and the photograph Peeling Paint on Iron Bench, Kyoto, 1981. Haas spent the time to get just the right picture given the time of day, weather, focus and area of the bench made the picture what it is today. Another artist that has done something similar yet different is Jim Hodges. His piece called Every Touch is a compilation of something that can be found in our ever day lives, silk flowers. Taking the time to separate them all and then sewing them back together in his own design to express himself. While both art forms are different both of the artist took something common and overlooked to expressed themselves to everyone else.

The chapter also talks about Juan de Valdes Leal and Audrey Flack. Juan painted a picture called Vanitas in 1660 utilizing a style that was popular for its time. Depicting a number of valuables and impications to greatness, yet at the same time showing how meaningless these things are. Audrey Flack, who was a fan of this type of art, created Wheel of Fortune in 1777-78. This is her own depiction of the that style of art called "vanity". While each depicted items from the era they lived in, the pieces are very similar. Audrey dropped the religious influence from her painting which was common in the 1600's versions of the popular style of painting.

Lecture Review

In last weeks lecture we were introduced to a wide array of art forms that have been developed since the beginning of our planet. Art has changed in a lot of ways throughout the years and there are many different forms of art. Some stick to there own personal style while other art forms utilize the style from another creator to create something that is their own.

The question of "What is Art?" was also asked. Does art have to be defined by something being man made or can art be created by natural occurrences? In my experiences I think that nature can create art on its own without the help of mankind. I would still consider these structures and formation to be art.

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