Krystal’s Blog

For this weeks assignment, we had to change our look completely. Usually for school I try to dress a bit comfy since I am there almost all day. I usually wear a comfy sweater with yoga pants and plain shoes. To switch up my look I decided to wear a nice blouse with jeans and wedges. I went up to a few different people on campus and they all had different answers when I asked what they thought my major and name was. The first person I went up to said my name was Ashley and she thought my major was nursing. The second person I went up to thought my name was Christina and my major was psychology. The third person I asked thought my name was Elisabeth and my major had to do something with law. The last person I asked said my name was Jasmin and I was studying to become a teacher. None of the people I asked guessed my name correctly, however the last person guessed my major had something to do with teaching which was surprising to me because my major was liberal studies but I recently just switched it to speech language pathology. To conclude, I thought it was very interesting to see what people who never seen me before thought my name and major was. I think when you look more put together, people will guess more higher status jobs such as nursing and law. These people know nothing about you and all they see if your face and outfit, so it’s important to dress nicely because looks can be deceiving.

Exhibition Information: Artist: Ana Alvarez, Kelsey Steuernagel, Eli Rodriguez, and Ricardo Corona Exhibition: The Enchanted Borderlands Media: Digital Illustrations Gallery: Merlino Gallery Website: ricardocoronaart.com

About the Artist: Unfortunately, the day I went the whole group was not there. I was only able to gather some information about one of the artist in the group, which is Ricardo Corona. Ricardo Corona is currently a student at Cal State Long Beach And is in the BFA Pre-Producation Program. His goal is to one day create different backgrounds and world for films, tv shows and video games.  He likes to work with many different types of mediums such as watercolor, digitial, graphite, ink, gouache, and acrylics. He enjoys ding different types of landscapes and creating different worlds.

Formal Analysis: Lots of their work contained a variation of color. The art work I liked the most, you can see lots of blues and purples. In some of the other work, you can see brownish and reddish colors as well. In almost all of their art work there seems to be some sort of whimsical creatures. One creature that you can see throughout the art work is a four-legged creature with huge wings. Also, in most of the art work there is a dirt mountain in the background. These digital illustrations contain lots of little details as well. In the art work I liked, you can see the little details they used to create the moons. There was also one digital illustration that was mostly landscape and you can see the little details they used to illustrate the plants. The little details used helps make the illustrations more realistic.

Content Analysis: The group of artists wanted to create a world that contained both western and fantasy aspects. Many of their digital illustrations contained characters and the characters always looked like they were on some sort of quest or adventure. This really helps bring out the western aspect because lots of western movies contain some type of adventure. You can easily see the western world with some fantasy aspects created by the artist.

Synthesis/My Experience: I personally enjoyed looking at the digital illustrations created by the group. They wanted to create a world where western meets fantasy, and I believe they excellently carried their idea out. You can easily tell that the group of artist took a lot of time to create these pieces because each piece contains lots of small details. It was also very cool to see how they created the characters from their imagination and inputted them into their artwork.

1. I chose this idea because I feel very strongly about people littering. There literally trash cans almost every where for people to throw away their garbage properly, but still some people just throw their trash on the ground. So much of our garbage end up in our ocean and then kill or hurt animals because the think its food.
2. What I hope to communicate with my drawing is that people should stop throwing their trash on the ground. By throwing trash on the ground you are endangering an animals life because they mistake it for food. Also by throwing garbage on the ground, people are making our earth look like a dumpster.
3. I think I was pretty successful with my drawing. I think I was able to get my point across about how we are endangering animals lives by littering instead of properly disposing of our garbage.
4. If I were to do this again, something I would do differently would have to maybe add a little bit more detail to my drawing and maybe even some color so its not just all gray and white. Also because my drawing skills are not that great, I think it would of looked much better if I was able to capture a real life photo similar to my drawing.
5. Another idea that I might explore through “shocking art” would have to be climate change. Climate change is something very big that is currently happening in our world, so I think it would be cool to draw or create something about it.

1. I chose to do this story about spending the day at Disneyland because I thought it would be fun and cool to share.

2. Even though I only was able to capture a few photos of our day at Disneyland, I think I did an okay job.

3. Personally I think the first or second image are the best. I really liked the first one because it was a candid photo of me and my little brother walking together before we entered the theme park. I also really liked the second because I liked how pretty Sleeping Beauty’s Castle came out.

4. Yes, I believe that the photo with the Disney characters wasn’t the best photo, however, it helped tell the story of how my little brother and I spent our day at Disneyland.

5. Something I would do differently would have to have been to actually remember to take photos of my brother and I spending the day together. We were in the moment and having fun so remembering to take photos sometimes did not cross our mind. Something else I would of done differently would have to been for me to actually be in all the photos. Even though lots of people are asking for their photos to be taken, I always feel a little weird asking someone to take a photo.

6. This was a cool assignment but no there isn’t another photo story I would like to tell.

I thought this activity was very fun and entertaining. It was a little frustrating when I was drawing my hand and another person’s face because it was more difficult than what I thought it was going to be. I do like to draw sometimes on my free time, but I prefer drawing more flowers than a person’s face. I do believe that if I practiced for hours and hours a day that I will eventually become better at drawing a person’s face or hands. My major is Speech Language Pathology and I do think simple sketching would be a bit useful for my major. I could draw diagrams to show patients the anatomy of their body. I do think drawing can be some sort of language. Sometimes it’s hard for people to express how their feeling with words, but it is easier for them to draw how their feeling. If people are happy they would draw happy things and use bright colors. And if their sad then they can draw sad things and use dark colors to express themselves. 

Exhibition Information: Artist: Chanmealea Huy & Jean Iwohara Exhibition: Glass Eyes Media: Mixed Media Gallery: Gatov Gallery Webiste: chanmealeahuy.com & jeaniwohara.weebly.com Instagram: @chanmealeahuy & @jelly.jean

About the Artist: Jean Iwohara is an Illustration BFA student at Cal State Long Beach. She primarily likes to work with watercolor and gouache. Through her work she wants to create a sense of wonder and fantastical narratives. Chanmealea Huy is an artist and illustrator at Cal State Long Beach. She likes to work with many different media’s such as graphite, painting digitally, and acyclic. Huy says that art is her way to communicate with the environment and the world.

Formal Analysis: Lots of their worked contained faces and bright colors. In the art piece I liked, you can see the different brush strokes used to create the woman’s face in the center of the painting. The painting contains lots of different shapes and lines. There’s some small circles throughout the entire painting. There is also two bigger circles at the right corner of the painting but they aren’t filled like the smaller ones. You can also see some small squares at the left side of the painting Their are many different lines throughout the painting. There are some long lines, short lines, thick lines, and thin lines all over the painting. The painting contains lots of colors but the two colors you see the most are blue and red. The background is a light red color and the shirt of the woman contains lots of red. The color blue can be seen in the outline of the brain and all the different lines that connect to the brain. The painting is a medium sized so you are able to see it up close or even from a farther distance.

Content Analysis: Most of their paintings can relate to the technological advancements we see in the world. Many of the painting also show the emotion of sadness. In my conversation with the artist about one of her paintings, she stated she wanted to show how technology is taking over our world and its people. You can easily see how she tried to convey that in her artwork by how the lines look like wires connecting to the brain and symbolizing how technology is taking over people’s brains.

Synthesis/My Experience: I really enjoyed the artwork from Chanmealea Huy and Jean Iwohara. Their pieces show lots of relatable and interesting ideas. I do think that technology is taking over the human brain because lots of people rely on their phones or laptops to do simple things for them or for looking for simple information. Just walking around campus you can see how everyone’s faces are glued to their phone. I admit I am attached to my phone as well but seeing their artwork really spoke to me about how technology is taking over our brains and that should not be happening because sooner or later we will become “robots”.

2. Our group found a flower sitting on a rock, we did not have enough tape so we used the empty tape roll to frame the flower. Some formal qualities of the flower are that it is this pretty red violet color and it had a bit of a lighter shade towards the inside. Some feelings someone can get is happiness because it something very pretty to look at. However, you can also experience a little sadness. Even though the flower looks pretty and healthy at that moment, we know that it will die soon because it was removed from its stem.

3. Personally, I believe flowers are beautiful and something to admire when walking around so I would consider the flower art of the world. So my art was before we put the frame around it.

4. Yes my art will still be considered art once the frame is removed because the flower is part of nature, and all of nature is art.

5. I think art can reside in the body of an object, but it can also reside in the person who is viewing it. The person who is viewing one object can interpret it as some type of art, but another person can view the object as nothing. It all depends on the perception of the person.

6. Yes art can be something other than an object. As I stated in the previous question, art can be anything, it just depends on the person who is viewing it. Art can be can be an object, a painting, or simply just a piece of nature.

7. I do believe that art can reside in a person’s experience. The person can be shown an object and immediately not believe it is art. He/she can hear someone speak about the history of the object or just hear someone talking about the object in general and explain why they view it as art. Through the experience of someone explaining why an object is art, the person listening can decide can that after the experience if it is or isn’t.

The experience of finger painting was actually very peaceful. It was a bit harder then I expected at first because I did not know how to start. In the beginning I tried not to draw anything specific but it ended up naturally trying to draw a cloud. Then I just decided to dip all my fingers in the paint and get messy. The experience of painting with no subject was frustrating at first but then it became very liberating. Lots of paintings I have seen, seem to be very fancy and contain lots of details, however mine was the complete opposite. I let my fingers do whatever and didn’t care what was the end result. I think it was actually very cool that I did not have any expectations at the end of painting because whenever you draw or painting something you envision how you want it to look at the end and sometimes the end result is nothing close to what you wanted. So by not having any expectations, I was able to enjoy painting and was satisfied with the end result.

1. During the maintenance activity I felt helpful. I felt helpful because I was able to help my school look nicer by cleaning the statue and picking up some trash off the floor.
2. I think Mierle Laderman Ukeles cleaning the steps of an art museum and Richard Serra throwing molten lead against the walls of an art museum are both art. Art is all about being able to express one’s self, which both Ukeles and Serra are doing. However, both art projects are different because of the way they are expressing themselves. One is cleaning and the other is creating something.
3. I think Ukeles cleaning the steps of an art museum is the reason why it was called art. She was expressing herself unlike a janitor who just cleans because it is his or her job.
4. I do no think that the type of medium a person uses is what makes something art. I think what makes something art is the intention of the person performing the action or creating the object. Any way someone expresses themselves is art, it doesn’t matter the type of canvas or medium they use as long as they have the intentions of creating something.
5. Both Ukeles and Jennifer Lopez have not made me think differently about “Women Work”. Women’s work can be considered art if she intended on creating or design something.
6. The celebrity’s star I would clean would have to be Walt Disney because I love anything that is Disney.