Follow up to the Radio Flyer

I said I'd follow up when I designed the flyer for the radio station's summer orientation so here it is:

 I drew out the basic sketch but received much appreciated help on editing the image in photoshop. I tried to learn as much as I could this time to help me with future ads. I am extremely happy with the way it turned out :D Now I just have to choose the right color paper to print it on.

Response to Michael's Personal Space Project

When I first started watching Michael's videos, I am pretty sure I was just confused as the people he was interviewing. Unfortunately I waited a few minutes to read the disclaimer that "all of the arguments were scripted" haha. However, once I understood the concept of his project, then I thought it was quite hilarious. I am very interested about how this idea came about, because I would have never thought of it myself. It seems simple enough but the fact that it is essentially a project within a project makes it very interesting.

I enjoyed watching all of Michael's videos this quarter because they were all edited and executed very well, this one included. I thought that it was the perfect choice to always have one of the two of them off camera so that it was just an expressionless, interrupting, voice coming from the background. Because of this, I was able to put myself in Michael's position as the simple task of interviewing someone became more and more difficult.

It is funny how people reacted to the awkwardness of a couple fighting. The first guy seemed the most uncomfortable, while another guy enjoyed talking about subjects other than art, and the last girl took all of it as a joke. My feelings changed throughout the course of the interviews as well. At first, I felt really frustrated because I wanted to know what the interviewees were going to talk about. But then the longer I watched, the more comedic it became. I ended up be less interested in the questions and more so in the reactions of everyone involved. I wasn't so much frustrated any more as I was ready to fight back with an equally sarcastic comment.

All and all I thought that this was a great personal space project. It really felt like Michael focused on the term "personal space" in relation to a public atmosphere. I could relate to the situation as I am sure that many other people could but it was nice to observe it from an outside perspective. In the end, Michael as well as everyone else involved really showed what art is, and it no longer mattered that they could not physically answer the question in words.

Art Show: Vladimir Kush Gallery

A few weeks ago when I went home for the weekend, I visited one of my favorite artist's (Vladimir Kush) galleries in Laguna Beach. I discovered his art about a year ago and have been somewhat obsessed with it ever since. He is a surrealist painter and sculptor, and most of his works consist of presenting the real world in a fantastical and imaginative way. Unfortunately the pictures are not on my camera and I don't think that I can retrieve them on time, but these are some of the paintings I saw while there.

I am most attracted to his work because of the bright colors he uses as well as the way he manipulates everyday objects and makes viewers see them in a different way. For example, the leaf piece below entitled Construction Upstairs, seems so simple at first even in terms of color choice and the amount of negative space. However, the way he uses the leaf, portraying it as a ladder to heaven (which is revealed from the title) transforms it into something much more complicated and beautiful. I attempted to imitate Kush's style on my sequence and narrative project when reinterpreting "Humpty Dumpty." I admire how he blends the real and unreal worlds in a way that still sends a message of universality.

 So far i have only visited his gallery in Laguna Beach but I know that he has one in Hawaii as well. If I am lucky enough to go there, then I will be sure to document more of his work. Although the space was small in this gallery, it held a lot of paintings. In the very back there was a smaller attached room that was showing a video of all of Kush's work so far. We sat and watched for awhile until the gallery was closing. It was basically a slide show but the fading transitions mimicking the style of his art. Hopefully when I go back home soon for the summer, I will have the chance to spend more time in the gallery. I am taking a drawing class next year so I plan on utilizing some of Kush's techniques within my own art.

7A's Projects

Oh man, I can't believe we are done with this class! It went way too fast :( but here are all of the links for my assignments this quarter.

We started the quarter with our Pun Assignment-http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/04/work-progress.html
That one was very fun. I remember having a bunch of ideas for it. I think that everybody ended up just having fun with it. It was a great way to start off the quarter becuase it was not too intense and allowed for ultimate creativity.

Daily Nexus- http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/04/your-highness-world-premiere-brings.html
When I first started this exercise I thought that I would not be able to think of anything to write about. Then I realized that it was not that serious of an exercise. That is why I chose to write about the "Your Highness" world premiere that our school had just hosted. I was very happy to see that we had successfully invaded the nexus when I saw the article on our class in the next paper. It made me see how one simple act could really affect a wider audience, which was afterall the point we were making about truth and fiction in the media.

Public Space Activity- http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/04/brushing-my-teeth-in-public.html. I had a hard time figuring out what to do for this assignment, just as I am now figuring out what to do for the bigger assignment. Although I felt my action was successful, not many onlookers seemed all too interested. That is why for the bigger assignment I plan on making it more interactive with the public.

Act of Kindness- http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/04/acts-of-kindness.html
Although I did not have documentation in the form of photos or videos for the exercise, I still felt like it worked out. There was just one week where I gave the last two pens I had away to people who wanted to borrow them. Luckily while we were playing duck-duck-goose on Thursday I found a pen in the bike loop. I feel like this is karma returning the favor.

Confession- http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/04/progressconfession-project.html
I decided to take a more interactive and light-hearted approach to this assignment. I was glad that my confession was not too serious because it made it a little different than the majority of the class. I am no longer afraid of popping balloons (at least when i do the popping) so double success!

Sequence/Narrative- http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/05/humpty-dumpty.html
I feel like this was the first project that I got to apply my artistic aesthetic to. I had fun manipulating the photos to give them a more surreal feel. They turned out better than I had hoped and I was really happy with the end product.

Alternate Identity- http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/05/alternate-persona.html
Let me just say that this video pauses on a very attractive still of me ;) Anywhooo, I decided to become somewhat of an explorer for my alternate persona project after an inspiring visit to the zoo. I probably had the most fun with this project because I was shameless as I walked around campus fully dressed up and observed students with high-tech binoculars from only a few feet away. I think that this was a very good exercise to overcome my initial shyness regarding this class.

Personal Space- http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/06/documentation-personal-space-project.html
I just finished the video on this one and I am very glad how it turned out. This assignment turned into more of a learning experience and was probably the most interactive one out of all of them. The public response was very enthusiastic and kind, which I thought was reflected in their wishes (love was the runner-up). It was the perfect ending to the class :)

Documentation: Personal Space Project

 

As you learned from my video, I decided to transform the fountain on campus into a wishing well. I always thought that the whole concept of a wishing well was pretty funny and pointless. People put their whole fate into the simple act of tossing a coin into a fountain of water. Although this is a trivial tradition, for some reason I still like to participate in such acts myself.

I wanted to find a way to know what people were really wishing for, but I knew that if I just asked them, most would shy away. So I developed a system of color-coding the pennies into various categories which most wishes seem to fall under: Love, Happiness, Mean Thoughts, School/Work, Wealth/Material Gain, and Health. I started out with an equal number of pennies in each category so that I could count them at the end to come up with some statistical data. At first, people were somewhat confused, but I told them they could choose more than one penny from each category and make a wish however they normally would (although this probably distorted some of the data).

I found the overall response to my project to be very optimistic. Most people enjoyed making a wish and I even talked with some women who were happy that this empty fountain was actually being utilized. I found it funny that people would often ask "how do I make the wish" when figuring out how to throw the penny in the fountain. Some chose to turn around and throw it backwards and one guy (who came back twice to wish again) closed his eyes and stood there for a good twenty seconds before tossing the coin in. I am glad that the people who partook in my project had fun and felt uplifted by the experience. I think in a way it reminded them of childhood, and though this may sound cheesy, like they could still hope for even the most impossible wishes to come true. In the end, i even made a few wishes myself :)

Reflection on Initial Fears of the Class

My initial fears :http://natsart7ajournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/tuesday-concernsfears-regarding-class.html

So in a nutshell, my initial concerns about the class consisted of time management (or lack there of) and my shyness. After reading this entry now I still consider these two things to be hurdles that I must overcome, but they definitely did not hold me back in this class.  After our first project, the Confession project, I think that our entire class felt close to one another. Most of the confessions were really serious but everybody offered respectful and helpful critiques. We started to all really have fun together and create assignments as a class. For example, our flash mob exercise required everyone's participation. I did not feel pressured at all although I might have considered some of the things were doing to be a little embarrassing. It did not matter though, everything we did was so much fun! I felt comfortable enough to speak out in class as much as possible. In fact I probably spoke out the most in this class, more than any other class I have before. I am very happy about that. I think it is easier in art classes to be outspoken because it is required if we want proper feedback.

The other thing I was concerned about was time management. Although I am crunched for time as I currently write this, I think that I managed my time a lot better during this quarter. It helped that our projects were more spaced out. I think that having two longer sections within the week definitely helped this. Also I liked how not everything counted as a full-fledged project. I think it was a good idea to have a percentage of projects, assignments, and exercises so that I could plan about how much time I would focus on each thing.

Desiree's Proposed Courses

Well, all three of the courses sound awesome but if Desiree is hired (and I hope she is) then I would definitely like to take "Art as Activist." This course sounds the most similar to Art and Life. I am interested in how we would create projects to "stimulate community interest." This description reminds me of our personal space and alternate identity projects. At first I was nervous about performing work publicly but after doing these two projects, I feel like these are the most exciting. If I took this course, I would be excited about stenciling because I have tried to do stencil work in the past. I think it would be fun if a few of the lectures were centered around street art. I learned a little about street art while in ART 1A last quarter and it was really interesting. We could do projects with spray paint and even create our own stencils. We may not be able to spray them onto a public space because that is still illegal, but maybe we could make a mural. That would be a way to engage the community as well as the entire class. I think that the other courses sound just as enticing. I really hope that Desiree gets the chance to teach these courses at UCSB! I would be so happy to take one :) 

Personal Space Proyecto: The Facts

Today I executed my personal space project. My idea was to transform the normally mundane and useless fountain by the on-campus art museum into a wishing well. I color-coded pennies using tape and sharpies in order to somewhat document what people really wish for. As people passed through I asked them if they would like to make a wish into the fountain. I had six categories: health, wealth, school/work, love, mean thoughts, and happiness. I told everyone that they may choose as many wishes as they like, and throw their penny however they wanted.

I actually received more interaction than I had anticipated. I was nervous about the location at first, but more people pass through the art museum courtyard than I thought.  I would say out of everybody I asked, participation was at about 65% which isn't too bad. People would automatically look at my project because I used bright colors, and so they were already curious. Most people who said no either were "going to class or work" or didn't have time for some other reason. The other half of people who said no, just did not want to participate. The people that did participate usually commented that this was "fun" or "cute" and were very glad to make wishes. About four or five people really took time making their wishes, and held onto the coin for at least 30 seconds before tossing it in. I found that almost everybody was more inclined to participate once they saw someone else doing it. I had a nice discussion with a few ladies who were glad that the fountain was being used in a unique way, and they wanted me to keep the pennies in there because they added so much color to it.

I was very happy with the public response to my project. I was glad to see that most people enjoyed making wishes and hope that it improved the rest of their day. People are willing to participate if you just ask them. Now I plan on counting the pennies that were thrown in so that I can graph what people wish for the most. So the project had a dual function: the fountain was put to use and created a work of art in itself and the colors/categories provide research on what people think is important. It is funny how the fate of very important issues such as happiness or love can be left up to tossing a coin into an empty fountain. I think it is a nice juxtaposition.

New Project

In the next few days I need to come up with a flyer to promote the KJUC summer orientation on campus. KJUC is the AM radio station for the school, and works as preliminary training for anyone wanting to join KCSB. I have a lot of ideas for very little time to actually execute them. in the past, the productions coordinator simply altered an image from the web but since drawing is my medium, I really would like to create an original design.

Obviously the images floating around in my head right now are those of summer and kep parts of the radio station. i want the ad to have the same relaxed, warm, and fun environment that both summer and the radio station possess. I was thinking about drawing an old school boombox and perhaps weaving flowers into it. The same could go for headphones. I also was looking up images and found one like the mic we use in the station. I thought if I used this image in the same perspective (from straight on) then maybe I could use another image such as this one above, to incorporate sunbeams coming from behind the mic. These pictures are not the best example because I do not want the ad to look too cliche or amateur. Although I received an email yesterday actually from the KJUC Manager telling me that someone had already designed an ad that i could use, I really want to do it myself. It is, after all, my job. This is the first design that I will be creating for the station as Productions Coordinator so I really want it to represent what I plan on putting forth the whole year. I just wish finals could be over so I could devote more time to this! Once it is done, then I will post it :)