(3)Walker

So this is a little of what I have in mind for a part of my project. Since part of my project is to project an image onto the wall. I am still debating about whether to project a scene or just the object. But this is some of the work by artist Kara Walker. She builds her work around that fantasy,cartoon silhouette image, but with somewhat controversial topics. She mostly works with large decals which stick to the wall, or projected images or colors, or both. I really like her work. I am just now starting to notice I have a strange fascination with morbidity and sketchy situations when it comes to art, or maybe just the conceptual side of it. I love how Kara Walker uses only silhouettes to portray such powerful images. One color and no depth says it all.

Etsy

I found these prints on a website called Etsy. Etsy is a website where handmade prints and such are sold. These particular prints I love...just because I guess. They are done by Berkeley Illustrations.Here is the link: etsy.com

Living

Journal Exercise for 2/18/2010

Questions for "Conceptual Art" by Tony Godfry

1)Why is the "viewer" an important element in conceptual art?

The viewer has to have a more active response because the work is not in the traditional form.

2)Why was it so difficult for people to accept the "Fountain" by Duchamp, as art?

Before "Fountain" people were not challenged to question what art was, for up to that point people assumed art would be a painting or a sculpture.

3)What question did Duchamp pose with his "readymades"? Explain with examples.

The basic question Duchamp posed was "What makes a piece of art?". For example "'Could this urinal be an artwork?'". Also Duchamp saw what he did to the piece as art in itself, to make something "art".

4)Why is it difficult to categorize Conceptual art in the context of traditional art? Explain using examples.

It is not defined by a certain medium or style. For example Duchamp's "Fountain" is a readymade, Gonzalez-Torres' billboards with empty beds, and Kosuth's "One and three chairs", which is an readymade along with a photograph of a chair.

5)Choose a quote from the article that you find interesting and explain. Be SURE to site page number.

"Many conceptual works will not fit any clear typology, just as many Conceptual artists resist any restrictive definition of what they do" (Godfrey 10). The artist's resistance to stick to the traditional forms of art is an art form in itself, for it is also a new way of thinking as well as making others think differently about what they are seeing.

Journal Exercise for 2/11/2010

So here are a few of thrown around ideas put into context:

Black plastic combs in a photo frame:

• The color of the combs would be a plain, generic plastic black. The color of the photo frame would be a very ornate gold with a rococo-esque relief design
• The original function of the combs being to comb/fix hair. The original function of the photo frame is to hold photographs, By placing the combs in the photo frame it would alter the meaning of each. When we look at photographs we look at things, at the surface, not the feeling or the story behind the photo; it looks pretty, but what we see may in fact be something posed or fixed up...I don't know too much about this idea since it would contradict my whole love of photographs. I would probably stick with it if I felt differently about the concept.

Dried Elmer's Glue rolled up into a lot of tiny balls

• The color of the glue would be white of course, the shape would be random, maybe the little balls would be all strung together to form squiggles and loops
• The original function of the glue is to stick things together, usually to create one thing. It keeps things in place, yet when wet is very runny. By rolling them up into tiny balls it would slightly alter the meaning of unity by making them all separate little bodies of glue. By forming squiggles and loops it would alter the meaning of steadiness by showing an unsteady pattern

Piñata made out of blue jeans/denim

• The color of the jeans would be blue, obviously. Jeans tend to have a rough, almost industrial texture. Piñatas are usually very brightly colored and covered with tissue paper.
• The original function of blue jeans is clothing, mostly pants. Blue jeans are known in pop culture to be ubber American, like the white picket fence and apple pie. Levi's brand jeans were the first jeans, and they were designed to be worn by mine and industrial workers, which meant they were/are advertised as long last-lasting and durable. By making a piñata with blue jeans it would change the meaning of both because piñatas are a Mexican tradition, not American. Also, they are made to be disposable and broken easily which would contradict the Levi's theory...If i did this one I would be sort of repeating myself with the whole piñata idea, but I think I like this one the best.

Da-Champ

Photograph of Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz posing for the photographer Julian Wasser during the Duchamp retrospective at the Pasadena Museum of Art, 1963----I took this picture of Duchamp's Fountain when I visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this past summer.

Project #2 Ideas

So I've tossed a few ideas around for this next project, but then I stop myself and think Is this cliche? Is it trying to be a joke? Because that is not what I want now is it? Well, no its not actually. I may have made it a little bit harder than it needs to be, but we were told this wouldn't be such an easy project, it being the most conceptual and all. Some ideas I have thought of thus far are: dirt, Elmer's Glue, popcorn kernels, toothpaste(before today's video), broken plates, dish-soap, bars of soap, light bulbs, or combs. I was going to go out and buy a bunch of bars of soap today, but then I thought I may change my mind after making lists of things like we were told to do, so I didn't. So who knows?

500

So, I usually don't like romantic comedies because they all give us false hopes and cheesy predictable endings...except this one.(500) Days of Summer has to be my favorite recent movie. I believe I have seen it about 10 times since I bought it when it was out on dvd about a month ago. The story line is real with a perfect little touch of quirky,not cheese. Of course it has the whole romance theme behind the storyline, but another main idea in the film is life and how unpredictable it can be. We unconsciously expect others to have the same idea about something, even though we know that it isn't true.

(2)Alex Kanevsky

Artist Alex Kanevsky does not like to write a bio with his works because he believes that they would speak for themselves. It was very difficult to find any information about the artist. Every time I would search the name, nothing but sites with photos of his works came up...Even with the lack of information I found, I really liked this guy..well, at least his paintings are pretty awesome. The brushstrokes in this are pretty heavy and broad, and with that I believe that they carry a meaning of tension and chaos. I found these painting quite beautiful actually. I admire those who can paint with precision, but I love the look of slight abstraction in paintings, and these are some of them.

(1)Paco Pomet

Paco Pomet was born in Granada. What he does is base his paintings on old archival photographs and alter them somehow. Giving them a whole new meaning by putting in silly and fantasic elements. His work is implied by the distorting nature of memory...I love old photgraphs, and to restore them in way that gives new meaning is kind of awesome. I love the subtlety in some of his paintings, you really have to look at some of his paintings to see what has possibly changed from the original it was copied from, and once you do you may realize that it is a completely different painting.