Poem #3- To Theresa

Insomniac, when sleep does come it doesn't comfort you.
Dreams become nightmares, afraid to face the day.
Afraid to face the day that became the nightmare.
Change came, the crushing feeling of it all.
Can't breathe, thinking what life will be like from here on out.
The idea of losing the thing that keeps you tethered to the world
Just became a reality.
Loose, crazy, broken child you become.
Broken wings, falling to darkness below.
Cries when thinking of you.
The One and Only You.
Friend, Soul Friend.
We will help each other through today and tomorrow.
All the light leaves, but wait a while.
There will be more tomorrow.

Poem #2- Untitled

She left her shell behind her.

She ran away from the eyes.

Very loud thoughts, very few words.

Driven to change, scared for herself.

Peaceful smile, sad walk, strong thoughts.

Poem #1-What Lies Beneath

I feel like the things I want to say lay thick inside my head, weighing, waiting for the surface to reveal itself.

I want my mind to be at peace and to feel weightless.

The truth hides behind the curtain, waiting for its introduction.

It will keep waiting until I find the mic or the courage to say what's on my mind.

The truth is not a lie, but it's hidden and disguised making it almost not-existent.

The Lie puts on a mask calling itself the truth, putting layer after layer to cover up the devil's seed of a lie.

Everyone believes the lie, admiring its face, while the Truth sneaks away slipping into a dark corner

Waiting yet again for its turn to be on stage.

Art Exploration Reflections

Poem #1
I wanted to create something using the media- graphite, ink, or watercolor- but I decided to write a series of poems instead because I haven't dabbled in poetry since high school. I was thinking that the ideas behind my poems should be about interpretation and how some things you have to infer on your own. This refers to a lot of works of art- you have to make your own interpretation sometimes-that in itself becomes personal to you, these hidden meanings. I wanted it to be a raw poem so I took advantage of the emotions I was feeling at the time I was feeling this down in the dumps. It goes well with the overall theme of my blog, especially the title.

Poem #2
I also wrote another haiku (not really) type poem that just describes empowerment and weakness mixed together. This just puts your strengths and weaknesses all on your sleeve. This of course shows what you feel  growing up, trying to figure things out. I wanted people to know that sometimes fewer words spoken are stronger than a story told. There is also symbolism involved in it because I was going through some things this semester that made me change my direction and outlook on my future.

Poem #3
This one is dedicated to my roommate Theresa, who was suffering along with me at losing our co-worker, Larry, last Monday. At the loss of this kind man, she thought of all the people she lost and I was doing the same, thinking of my grandma. I felt like last week I was emotionless because of the fact that I couldn't interpret what happened. This poem talks about loss and every day after-your mind changes-the way you register things change.

Journal Entry #2- RiP: A Remix Manifesto

This film is about copyrights and remixing music and how music companies own the rights to songs. An artist,  Girl Talk, uses hundreds of notes from artists and makes "mash ups". According to the maker of this film they build ideas: Culture always builds on the past;  The Past always tries to control the Future; Our Future is becoming less free; To build free societies you must limit the control of the past. They talk about intellectual property. They show artists like Metallica that do not want people to remix their songs and the artist(s) not get money out of it. I felt that before watching this film, people should not remix songs or download music, but after it I can see the creative expression that Girl Talk creates from just notes/seconds of songs.

News Item #6- "How Many Light Bulbs Does It Take to Discolor a van Gogh?" by Stephanie Strasnick

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/03/how-many-light-bulbs-does-it-take-to-discolor-a-van-gogh/

Conservators at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam were concerned with the darkening of bright yellow colors on Van Gogh's paintings.So they enlisted the help of scientist at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. There were online reports that the exposure of LED lighting caused the darkening but it was actually the aging of the chrome yellow pigment. Koen Janssens, lead researcher at Antwerp, said it was because the brighter chrome yellow pigment had higher traces of sulfur which them more susceptible to chemical reactions. With this information, the conservators can decide what to do with the kind of lighting they should have in the museum. I thought that this article was interesting because of the detective-slash-scientific work they did to try to figure out why the bright yellows were darkening. It just gives museums more precaution on lighting and that these little things are good to know to conserve the work of art.

News Item #5- "Claes Oldenburg: Hold the Pickle?" by Bill Clarke

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/08/restoring-oldenburg-burge/

Bill Clarke discusses the opening of "Claes Oldenburg: The Street and in the Store" show at Museum of Modern Art in New York. One of the famous works, Floor Burger, 1962, is being restored because the paint on the sculpture is being chipped off. Art Gallery of Ontario conservator Sherry Phillips is working on the restoration of paint as well as the foam and ice cream cartons the burger was stuffed with. They saw pictures of the burger back in the 60's to help fix the inflation of it. There are urban legends behind the pickle that Oldenburg is amused by. I thought that it was amusing the amount of care the team is taking to make it to its original quality. I felt that this Burger represented consumption in America and it was ironic to me that they were trying their best to conserve it, as if they were trying to protect consumption.

News Item #4- "Catching up with Mr. Time" by Harry J. Weil

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/09/catching-up-with-time-mag-top-portraitist/

In this article, Weil talks about Boris Chaliapin, an artist for Time magazine in the 1960's where his realistic style was known. He was called "Mr. Time" because of his covers on the magazine and his style stayed the same throughout different movements. Weil also gave a little information on his Russian background as well as his studies in art in Russia and Paris. He was an important part of America because he painted people who influenced America during that period. The preferred use of photographs at the end of his career instead of original art changed the magazine and had less work from Chaliapin. I thought his work was so good because of the realism he portrayed in his work and the people were seen everywhere in America at the time so Time magazine did well in hiring him to do work for them.

News Item #3- "Garry Winogrand: Rolls of a Lifetime" by Hilarie M. Sheets

http://www.artnews.com/2013/03/27/garry-winogrand-retrospective/

In this article, Sheets talks about the photographer Garry Winogrand, who even after death is referred as the "central photographer of his generation". He would take pictures of the crowded streets of New York in 1960's and show the life of America. After his death from cancer at the age of 56, he left behind unprocessed work. His friend, Leo Rubinfien, is editing his mentor's work which is 6,600 rolls that haven't been viewed. Rubinfien talks about Winogrand's creative process and how he wants to edit them the way he would have done them had he still been alive. I thought that this was very respectful and it shows the love he had for his friend and his respects to his works. John Szarkowski, photography curator at Museum of Modern Art says that during his final years Winogrand works was weak which Rubinfien defends it by saying the mix of beauty and ugliness is complex.

News Item #2- "The Exhibitions That Changed Art History" by Barbara Pollack

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/17/exhibitions-that-changed-art-history/

In this article, Pollack discusses Bruce Altshuler, author of Biennials and Beyond: Exhibitions that Made Art History: 1962-2002, and history of exhibitions that Altshuler deemed the top 25 most influential exhibitions. He was interested in how an art show could symbolize a significant movement in the art world. This book had more documentations than his previous book because as technology bettered so did methods on preserving. I thought it was interesting that he had to pick ones that were showing different movements and I know that if I were in his position it would be difficult to pick only 25 of them. From his experience as a director at the New York University's museum-studies program, I believe that he would know what he was doing. His book also covers movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America which were good to include because it shows variety and different influence that helped change the art world.

News Item #1- "The Woman Behind Michelangelo's Cleopatra" by William E. Wallace

http://www.artnews.com/2013/04/10/behind-michelangelos-cleopatra/

This article discusses a "hideous drawing" that Michelangelo, where the woman has buck teeth, gaping mouth, cross-eyed, possibly could have drawn it centuries ago. It is later revealed that the back of it has a beautifully drawn Cleopatra with a snake encircling her neck which is why they accepted it in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Michelangelo gave it to his new friend and admirer, Tommaso de' Cavalieri, in 1532. Many connoisseurs rejected this work because it was too hideous to be his work and thought it to be Cavalieri's work. They explained that back then, the student would draw something and Michelangelo would show his pupil what it should like. I liked that Michelangelo did it the opposite of what people were doing, in this way he showed ugliness in good light by having it on the recto side. The historians believe that M.A. might have gotten inspiration for the Cleopatra from all the places Cavalieri and him went together. I thought it was good that they showed the possibilities of influences during that period.

Image #6- "Zebra" by Robert Doesburg

I found this on Pinterest via saatchionline.com. I chose this piece because of the different shapes Doesburg creates with his brush stroke and his use of color clashing to make it a very together piece. I liked that the piece is created in  half-red, half-blue colors then combines them in the face of the zebra. The use of lines horizontal to vertical stripes makes this pattern feel to the piece. I also thought that the background along with one of the layers of the zebra does not have the lined brush strokes because the contrast helps with the idea of pattern which shows some abstract art influence. Doesburg's other oil paintings play with color a lot, they also have a mystical quality to them that this piece has. It could be part of what the artist was influenced from in the Netherlands and was trying to portray in this work.

Image #5- "Twilight I" by Anna Bocek

I found this on Pinterest yet again. I was interesting in this oil painting because of the expressions that she portrayed in the piece as well as the different blues and grays in it. I like the way Bocek keeps her brush strokes block-looking into the background as well as the making of the woman, it makes her piece more put-together. Closer to the woman's face, there are thinner strokes that make the bottom curls more prominent. Anna Bocek's other works show this prominent brush strokes technique. I think coming from Poland, she uses her techniques in a 'posing' kind of way which shows the fashion of the culture.

Image #4- "Windswept" by Linzi Lynn

I found this piece on Pinterest. I chose it because it kind of reminded me of fire-the way it has different colors as well as the use of the lights in piece. Lynn's use of color to shows her skills in value, how she is able to transfer all the colors and make it look realistic in where she puts her colors. Her other works also have a bright color scheme to them. I believe that she has that background because of the place she works and/or resides- Los Angeles, California. You can tell by the variety in colors that she puts her culture into her works.

Image #3- "Color Pencil Portrait" by Uriolus (Oriol Arumi)

Again, I found this piece on Pinterest. I chose this piece because I thought it was so detailed and I was amazed at the fact that the media was color pencil. I thought about how it was not a piece that would usually stick out because it was just a portrait of a man. It doesn't have paint splattered everywhere or abstract meanings. It is a work of art because of the detail, the time spent on the colors and lines to make this as realistic as possible. It reminded me of the readings and film we watched about what made a piece valuable.

Image #2-"Ambition" by Eddie Colla

http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/550x/9a/7a/01/9a7a014c4d7869e573f0d37976b2cb23.jpg

I found this on Pinterest once again. Like how I do with all the things on my Pinterst boards, I just use all my previous tastes to put new art that I like out there for people to view. Using some of my tastes like print making and graffiti art, I chose it because it is simple (in the graffiti kind of way, not saying it isn't lesser form of art) and difficult to make as well. I was very interested in it because it resonates well with what we haved discussed in class about aesthetics. The artist also shows a woman as the graffiti artist which is different than what I have seen before.When I looked up more work by Eddie Colla, Colla discusses the concept of graffiti art. Colla states that the difference between he does and what advertisers do is that advertisers pay to influence the environment without the audience's consent and he doesn't. I found that this related to our readings about art collectors and the film RIp we watched about downloading music. It raises the questions: Who has the rights to artistic freedom? Why do we give control to society All of which are expressed in the quotes and in the use of a female artist.

Journal Entry #1

My first thought, more like my first instinct, when watching their village was to help them. I felt that they had suffered so much in the past and are still suffering. I felt as though the tourist were invaders when I know that they felt like they were helping them by giving them a dollar or two to have them pose for them. This culture is not used to being a part of high technology and our culture over-uses it. We take pictures to capture memories as well film to capture moments as if it was our last day. I probably would have taken pictures as well but, I hope, at least I would have tried to learn the language, help if I had the money for it, and learn other things about the culture.I think that the tourists could have gone about the filming and taking pictures with more grace but as a culture we don't think about the fact that other cultures are not used to being a "show". Expanding more on tourists, when the woman was complaining about the tourists not buying anything knowing that they all had money, I know what that feels like. I could read from her expression that she was mad because the tourists felt like they were better than them. There was some obvious ethnocentrism in the way the tourists tried to lower the price on the things they did get. They thought because there was a language barrier that they could get away with cheap prices. When one of the village leaders was discussing the invaders from the past, it reminded me of the tourists now. There is still a power struggle among these people. I think that they felt so exposed which gave the tourists an upper hand. Imagine someone coming into your house, in your room taking pictures and filming you. There would be confusion, irritation, and anger at the invasion of privacy.  According to one of the villagers, what choice do they have? They need the money to buy things to live from so they continue to be a sight-seeing attraction to more "civilized" tourists that want to see the world.

"Portrait"

http://media-cache-ec7.pinterest.com/550/f6/9e/e1/f69ee1596859626a5b10328f5847a246.jpg

"Portrait" by Jekaterina Razina
Oil Painting
Riga, Latvia


I found this painting on Pinterest when I browsing through the site. I thought it was about a woman who represent a culture that uses flowers to help express the beauty of women. It could be that the woman is looking at the light which is expressed in the light paints used to show the dimension in facial expressions. The painter's purpose could have been to represent the culture of the country it comes from the details on the woman. This was painted by a person who is from Latvia which is a country which is south from Finland. This is significant because it could be an example of what comes from Latvia. I chose this piece because it was different from what I saw in other pieces that are more known in the United States. In the US, it could have been a sketch for a tattoo instead of a painting. It reminds me of tattoo art and I appreciate body art that is detailed in its design like this painting is.