Instead of lecture today...I was hanging birdhouses!!

Today, my 3D final was due so I had to skip lecture in order to hang it up in time for class. We had to do a site-specific piece somewhere on Temple's campus. I drew my inspiration from an artist named James Jaxxa, who works with tree art. One of his famous pieces is about really obnoxious colored apples that he added onto a tree. I decided to re-create this same idea but by using birdhouses. I created some myself in the woodshop but I collected other birdhouses I found around my house. I chose a tree outside the architecture building to fit in with the specificity of the various types of birdhouse designs I incorporated into this piece. I painted the birdhouses bright blue, aqua, and pink so they would really catch people's attention as they walked by, just like James Jaxxa's work does. This installation really caught the attention of the architecture students, one of which even asked if it was a squirrel trap. At least it produced a reaction, even if it was not was I was looking for. I'm just glad to say that I am done with woodshop because it was not my favorite class by far, although I was pretty happy with how this specific piece turned out.

2nd to Last Lecture!

The lecture today was again done by two people, the first whose name was Phillip. He started out by denouncing some theories Mark Shetabi had the week before about there being no progress in painting (I agree with Phillip on this). He also talked about the various different ways of teaching art, and how the Bauhaus exhibition in New York influenced numerous artistic creations and movements. My favorite piece he showed us was a basic chess set which included blocks for the pieces. On top of the blocks were diagonals and shapes which give a clue to how that piece could move. I thought it was very clever and clearly demonstrates the idea that form follows function. The next speaker, Jess, was actually my sculpture teacher at one of Tyler's Pre-College Summer Workshops! She has always had a great enthusiasm for art and she showed that zeal today too. Jess showed us images of art projects that incorporate both the old and new campus of Tyler, such as the cylindrical bulletin board with a microphone on top and a giant megaphone at the wall of the old campus. I enjoyed the image of the marching band at the ribbon cutting ceremony, which included only Tyler students.

REWORKED warning label!

I decided to re-do my warning label that accompanied the room design we did in the beginning of the semester. In this new image I left out some text but kept the texture of the art materials. I wanted to show people what I usually look like before and after entering my room, which is where I do almost all of my artwork. I also kept the same color scheme, which represents the colors found in my room. I think this piece is better in terms of using images to make a statement instead of relying mainly on text, which is what I based my last warning sign on.

Grit/Beauty project

For this assignment we had to create an image in Photoshop showing both the gritty and beautiful parts of Philadelphia. We had to choose textures from the classroom account on Picasa and incorporate them into our design as well. I wanted to show a contrast of things found right on Temple's campus - so I started with an image I took of an empty cigarette box, which i made to look grimy and worn out by using the paintbrush tool. I then added leaves and flowers to represent the more beautiful part of the city. I altered the hues, saturation, brightness, and contrast levels of the different photos. I also used the transparency tool in overlaying different textures for the ground. I added textures (like yarn and tissue paper!) to the leaves and sticks in the top right hand corner to make them appear more life-like and interesting. I think I was pretty successful in terms of the project outlines. I'm not sure if this is a piece I would necessarily like to show but I am overall happy with the way it came out.

4/13 Lecture: MARK SHETABI

The lecture today featured painting teacher Mark Shetabi, who is actually my current drawing teacher. He gave a brief history of painting while showing a slideshow of various paintings throughout the ages. Mark discussed his notion that painting produces no progress and that it thrives on skepticism. He also believes photography plays an intimate role in painting. Photographs open up a new way of thinking about time that other art forms are incapable of doing. He showed us a book of space paintings that he thought were pretty "crappy" but they looked really good to me. I am unsure if he just has extremely high standards or was not sure what he was looking at. Nevertheless, Mark finished by talking about ideas meeting reality in the realm of a painting. It was interesting to hear him speak especially since he is one of my professors this semester. He is very knowledgeable about art matters and specifically painting, his obvious specialty. Following Mark, there was a presentation that lasted for about 10 minutes. It included two men, one that was scraping a violin stick against a rock and another that was grasping chains and hitting a symbol. It was quite an odd performance and most of the freshman left wondering what we all just witnessed.

More Gouache Painting...

We have been continuing gouache painting in drawing class and I have started to take a liking to it. This is a study I did of a vintage asian doll my sister has. I was interested in the vibrant red of her dress and the smooth texture of her hair. While I am not a fan of figure drawing, I did not mind working on this portrait. I wanted to capture the asian personality yet retain the doll quality of the subject. I think I was pretty successful in rendering her, although I am considering going back in and working with some of the red hues in the dress to make the form more believable.

Printmaking Day!

This week in computers we did something totally new and unlike I had ever done before. We silkscreened prints that we created in Illustrator the week before onto different types of paper. I made an image of the Statue of Liberty which I took apart and changed to have a more appealing quality. I was so interested in the process of silkscreen printmaking especially since I am taking it as an elective next year. It was so much fun and very different from our usual computer class. I especially liked how each image is created perfectly on the printed source. The first print I did was of the magenta color on a blue tissue paper that had a spotted pattern to it. I was able to get a purple color also where the magenta interacted with the blue. The next two I printed on vintage war posters. I thought this theme would be appropriate since I was using a deconstructed image of the Statue of Liberty. I absolutely loved the range of colors I received from printing, especially on the black poster, on which I was able to get a light orange, red orange, and green. On the magenta print on top I was able to get a purple from the pink laying on top of the blue. Overall this was an awesome learning experience about a type of art I was always interested in but never had the opportunity to explore.