Blog #31: One last blog before midnight

So it's the last night to enter blogs. I figured I'd come in here and finish just one more before the deadline. Today as I was setting up our display case before class, I began to really realize just how much I've enjoyed this class. Art classes have usually been a bore but this has been the first time I've ever been truly challenged. I've learned so many new ideas or concepts really about art. I definately have a much less-narrow, less snooty opinion about what constitutes as art and for that I'm very grateful.

This class has been so incredibly fun, forcing me to think outside the box more than ever before. I've asked people for their hair, made a condom out of clue and performed all but naked in front of the class (which is a wild crazy college moment I'll share with my kids years from now, I'm sure). Also, I've enjoyed the teacher. I really have. At first I had my misgivings, but I've greatly appreciated her advice, input, criticism, taste, humor, and I'm not just saying that. I've enjoyed most of my teachers this sememster and it bums me a little having to move on. I believe I have someone named Migel for my next art class. Neva hoyd of him. I wonder if he was that tall teacher who helped judge the Soap and SPAM midterms? hmm *Nope, it's someone else*

Anyhoo as soon as I'm done with this project all I'll have to look forward to are 3 more finals: Theatre 101, Art History 102, and Anthropology 101. Ah me. But as far as this project is going, I think we're on top of things. It's more of an atmospheric display as opposed to a formal or forensic one. We's gunna have driftwood, sand and shells. If I could find a stuffed seagull I'd stick it in there too. Alas, no such luck. The case is smaller than I expected so we've limited our number of exhibit pieces. As for my group members, I have absolutely no complaints. They've really done their work and stuck around till I insisted they go home. Their enthusiam has been wonderful.

This whole class experience has been wonderful and I'm sad to see it end. :(

Blog #30: Last required blog...can't think of anything.

Ah...so it's the final required blog and I'm at a loss for words. Ok that's a lie. I'm always full of useless things to say. But it rained today much to my shagrin so the sand I got today was very damp and is going to be a pain to dry.

Today in generally is a hectic day. I have a speech to give in Comm101 about extinction and I have an audition today for BSU's production of Cinderella. Could be interesting. I haven't auditioned for anything in over 8 months. That's actually a very long time for a professional actor. But I no longer am one so HA! But I'm trying not to worry about that and focus on delegating time towards studying for my remaining finals and working on my project. I wrote a suicide note which got me a bit depressed. Also wrote a captain's log the day he was mutinied.

Oh! not MY suicide note! I'm not suicidal. It's for my project. The note is written on the back of a scenic landscape post card. The story is of a sick person who is dying in the hospital plans to kill himself. To choose a quick death instead of a drawn out painful one. He realised he'll never make it to where the postcard pictures and asks that whoever finds his note to please go there for him and love the life they're given.  

....I really can't come up with any interesting topics today. I'm terribly distracted. But despite this being my final required entry. I might try to get at least one more in. I'm sure class tomorrow with present some interesting ideas. Well Cheerio then.

Blog #29: Display project progress report

With less than a week to assemble our displays, you might think that we'd be in a panic. Not yet. Not yet. Today I have several things on my checklist. One being taking a trip down to the river and getting at least three gallons of sand/grit and then drying it. As for my team, I was pleasantly suprised by their creative enthusiam last Thursday. Both had some excellent stories and were very decisive in their opinions as to what they felt worked and what didn't. I LOVE decisive input whether I agree with it or not.

It appears that the other groups are taking a humorous approach to their displays. So, it was decided that all our pieces would have a dignified and somber tone to it. Not to say that they're all depressing. Some of our pieces are rather heartwarming, even cute but the spirit in which their messages were sent adrift is quite serious. The display isn't so much about the message but rather the history put together from the evidence exctracted from the piece. This could be the language the message is written in, the date, the names given, immigration records, the dating of coins, etc. Not all the stories can be complete. Each piece is accompanied by a small plaque that gives any known information and transcriptions of any text that was found, as well as the story that this puts togethers.

For example (a little teaser for you): On a piece of drift wood found in Portugal 1948 is carved "Aleera & Stavros. A love that fills the ocean. 1919" From this, Greek marital records were scanned. An Aleera Athas & Stavros Cali were married on the 30th of November 1922. This date spans the Greco-Turkish war where turkish territories were fighting for independence. Stavros Cali fought in this war. This would suggest that Aleera and Stavros were together before the war, carved this piece of wood together just before Stavros went off to war (which he survived), and were married shortly after his return. They were marred for 68 years and are survived by over 4 generations including 23 great-grandchildren. Family members have verified this.

Artist 20/20: Elizabeth Berrien

Now here's an artist I could really get into! She is a rarity and a master at what she does: wire sculpture. The brilliance of this medium is that is can transcend from almost 2d, to wall art, to 3d sculpture to architecture. Elizabeth Berrien is a relatively unknown artist who is quickly on the rise with commissions for public works for this and the following year.

Berrien's work is unlike anything I've seen before. I mean I've twisted a piece of wire into shapes but never once thought of taking it as a serious artform. Her work is so intricate and ranges so much in size that it's mind boggling trying to comprehend it. And her subject matter knows no limits either. As said before, being a rarity Berrien's was the first known 'wire art' to be commissioned and publically displayed. In 1985 the Louisville International Airport in Kentucky commissioned this Pegasus which is still on display and is the airports official mascot.

Well...typically her work pretains to organic shapes but she's sculpted animals, plants, people, and fantastical creatures. The wire particularly works in her favor. Just like a vine, every twist and curl of her medium looks as though it grew into place. Also, Berrien often takes the qualities of different types of wire into account. Most of her work is made with standard untreated wire. Occassionally though, she'll use a plastic coated wire to add color, or a polished/stainless wire for its reflective qualities when spotted with light.

3d reflective aluminum sculpture



2d wire illustration



More or less the 3-dimensional manifestation of Al Hirschfeld's work, Berrien's pieces appear as though to be composed from one continuous line (and in some cases they are). Some people find her artwork whimsical, as though compose from wind and air. Others find the transparency eerie, likening the wire to veins. Either way, Elizabeth's incredible expertise has earned her the nickname "Godmother of Wire" as it would seem that there's nothing she can't do.



Artist 19/20: Maya Ying Lin

Ok so keeping to my promise and still hot off my feminist/homo...sim art is an artist we covered in art history today. Not only do I think she stands as a testiment to female artists, but she also represents artist of ethnicity. Despite being only a first-generation American, she claims she grew up in a predominately white community and didn't even realize she was "Chinese" until later in life. She also had very little interest in her heritage until her 30's. Without even knowing it, Maya Ying Lin was the stereotype of the smart asian girl at Yale University.

Maya Ying Lin was only 21 when her design for the Vietnam Vetrans Memorial was selected. Being very simplistic, it was meant to represent a wound or gash. There are several elements that often go noticed by visitors. One being that the monument is made from hyperpolish black granted. Because of this, viewers see their reflection behind the names carved on the memorial. Also, the names are not in alphebetical order. When searching for a specific individual, the only clue you are given is the date in which they died. So an individual has to take the time to look at all of the panels just to find the one with the right date. And, once again, the names aren't in alphabetical order so then you have to scan over all the sames on that dated panel to find the one you're looking for. This forces us to realize the number of people lost to this war without skipping over these people's names like a meaningless, ordered combination of letters but as names.

All the designs submitted for consideration were anonymous and presented without names. After her concept was selected and it was discovered that she was of Asian descent, the memorial was met with gross opposition. One veteran said that the color [black] was "the universal color of shame, sorrow, and degradation in all races, all societies worldwide." Many people felt the black granite was not suitable because of its shart contrast to the other D.C. monuments which were traditionally white. Despite one's feelings, Lin reminds us that she is not dictating how we should feel, just that we should feel.

Blog #28: Sexism in the Art World

In art history today, we discussed an issue that I find very very interesting: femanine art and female artists. Apparently there is this sisterhood of artists called the Guerrilla Girls. It's a group of female artists (nobody knows exactly who) but they go around leaving posters meant to address sexism and racism in art, media, politics etc. They pointed out in their statement that in MoMa, 85% of the featured artists were male. And that out of all the nudes featured, only 2% were male.

deemed "homoerotic"

I realized that yes, there is very few popular pieces of the male nude. A female nude is considered art but I honestly can't think of a single male nude that isn't linked to homo/eroticism, relgion or both. Think about it, the most famous male nudes are probably the Davids by Donatello and Michaelangelo. Not only are they religous characters, but both artists are often written off as homosexuals. Even Rodin's Thinker was originally inteded for a sculpted dooryway depicting Dante's Divine Comedy. So it seems that in our culture, any interest in the naked male form is reserved for gay men. Because get this, I'm on a computer in the BSU library, the internet allows me to Google search "female nudes". However, when i tried searching for "male dudes" my searches was blocked, deemed innappropriate. HMMMM !!!

by a male artist (deemed misogynistic)

So I asked my teacher if there were any male artists who are considered feminists. She could only provide me with one name. And when I found an extensive list of "feminist artists" on wikipedia, the only male I could find was Kurt Cobain. I don't honestly don't think this is a matter of there not being any male feminist artists out there. I think there seems to be this agreed notion that you have to be female for your art to ever be taken seriously as feminist. If you haven't noticed yet, my 4 art projects for Art 108 have ALL been linked to the feminine. My first piece was meant to resemble both a cathedral door and a vagina, second piece was a purse, the third was an aborted (female) fetus made from SPAM, and my last one addressed the tension between the sexes.

 by female artist (deemed "edgy")

My classmate Maria, noticed this trend and asked if I thought it might be 'misogynistic', that i was trying to tell women how to think. I can't help but feel that, if I was a girl, that my artwork would be seen as a good thing but since I'm a guy, self-proclaimed feminists will reject it. That I can't have a hand in the message. If a woman makes a sculpture of a vagina...that's pride, but if a man paints a vagina...that's objectifying? I believe that I am the product of being raised in a VERY feminist household, I have a LOT of empathy for women, the empathy I thought they were trying to instill. But if they're not interested in my agreeance with them...well what else can I give them?

Blog #27: CJ Frei....my bizarre muse.

So today I received a compliment that's I've never liked. It usually comes from other artists who see my work and typically is something along the lines of, "You're so good. So much better than mine. I shouldn't even bother/I should just quit" It makes me feel like pooh. While I'm glad to get the compliment and to be i guess admired, if there's one thing I've learned in Art Foundations 108 its that you don't have to be the best drawer/painter to be a great artist. There are multiple ways to express your creativity and if you having a passion for art, NEVER quit.

I'm reminded of boy I used to go to highschool with named CJ Frei. I've mentioned before that I used to frown on classmates who used to "doodle" in class. Well, CJ was one of those doodlers. But in my defense the boy had among the lowest GPAs in the class but now I doubt those two had a significant amount to do with eachother. He was in my artclass and whenever we would be given three weeks to complete an assignment/project, he would get started on it right away. Doodling in class, talking about it, getting the teacher's input....I, I wouldn't even get started until maybe two days before the due date. When we got our grades back, I usually got an A. He would get something around a B. He simply didn't have the technique. I have always been able to draw. Despite never practicing and not drawing anything for MONTHS at a time...it's just a freak ability I have. I used to hold that fact above his head. That even with my minimal effort I would outdo him. (I was a shithead in that regard). But when it came around to thinking about college, he wanted to go into art but his grades were so low that he couldn't get into any art schools. I ended up getting accepted to School of the Art Institute of Chicago which was one of the top three artschools at the time. And I was offered a decent scholarship.

I turned it down. I was so arrogant and fixed in my highschool success that I was afraid of having anyone criticize my artwork. But more than that. I just didn't have the passion. I was incredibly jealous of CJ. He wanted it more than anyone to be successful as an artist. And I didn't help him pursue that dream by ever once giving him a true bit of encouragement. This guilt is a reason I've come back to school to study art. It really is something that I turned my back on and took for utter granted. No more. No more.