FRIDAY ENTRY

Hearing the news that you're applying to teach here at UCSB, offering three courses: Spectacle Praxes, Beyond the Studio, and Artist as Activism, of all three I would suggest taking Art as Activism. In my opinion I believe that the basis of most art is activism or making art for the purpose of spreading ideologies or ideas about our society. In being an activist, the thought process or paradigm must be shown and in most cases reveals itself through artistic ways. Artists like the creator of Obey and Neckface are both artists that are activists and I believe that an entire quarter dedicated to the study of which would be fascinating and interesting to a wide majority of students. You should definitely do the class on Art as Activism; also you should let me know if you do because I would love to take that class. I think that the number one way the movements and events are spread and globalized is through art and art cause a reaction. With every piece of art, a message can be demonstrated and is easily observable in history; from popularizing presidential candidates to promoting social awareness of any movement, art has been a useful tool in activism and there's enough out there to make a class for sure.

WEDNESDAY FREE FORM

For this weeks free form, I managed to carve this skull from a plaster filled orange juice container.

THURSDAY CRIT

FAVORITE
Tea Party

My favorite personal space piece of this thursday was the project done by Kate in which she had a Tea Party with her doll friends and whoever else wanted to join in on the session. I think that she has a really good sense of humor and I could tell she had a blast eating PBJ's with her make believe friends. I really thought that the placement of her project made it successful as well because of how much foot traffic goes through the area surrounding the bike paths. Although the project was a little early in the morning to pull of a real afternoon tea party, I think the message still got through to the majority. As she was down to have a personal space to let her childhood memories flourish, I truly believe all students who checked out her project related to her story.



LEAST FAVORITE
Angel and Devil
My least favorite project of the day was the one about the Angel and Devil yelling at by passers by the book store. I get the idea they were going for with both sides of the human conscious giving conflicting ideas and wants, I didn't like the outfits they wore, I didn't like the location, and I didn't like at all what they had to say. It seemed to me that they were improvising as they went and had little preparation in making this piece as successful as it could have been.

PERSONAL SPACE REFLECTION

WHO
My original idea was to dress myself up as the grim reaper and enter the UCSB campus with a message to tell as a comic relief to the stress that overcomes the majority of students in the dreadful week ten before finals week. My audience was primarily students, but also teachers, staff members like teacher assistants, and even some parents. As everything in art has a directed audience, people passing me during my piece had no idea what I was doing compared to the people of UCSB that reacted just as I had thought they would.

WHAT
For my piece, I decided to dress up like a zombie or skeleton figure and hold a sign out to by passers talking about the stress of school and what you could do to overcome such stress. As my grim reaper idea was a failure due to wardrobe malfunctions, I truly believe that the outfit I wore in replacement had just what I needed. For the two hours, I dressed in all black in the middle of the tunnel and held a cardboard sign with one message on each side in sharpie. On one side I wrote "IF WEEK TEN HAS YOU DOWN, SCREAM!" and on the other side I wrote "IF YOU FEEL LIKE A ZOMBIE SCREAM!" As most of the students feel the same way as I do, in reaction to the sign more than the majority of by passers let out a scream or yell to let go of some stress.

WHERE
 My personal space was done at the bike tunnel on the Pardall entrance to campus. I choose this spot because  when i first visited the campus, I had never seen such infrastructure in comparison to my boring community college in Los Angeles. I have always been a fan of echos and making a ruckus so when I had the chance to have as many people as I could scream in the tunnel like I do most days when I'm leaving campus, I was stoked. I think that the setting for this project in the tunnel was clever and extremely successful as students and others had no choice but to enter and walk past me to exit

WHEN
The only thing I was upset about was the timing of the project. As myself and many others have early classes, I believe that the campus is most crowded at noon or just before three so I probably didn't get the exposure I would have later in the evening.

WHY
I did this project to relieve stress on campus. If bypassers didn't join in and scream to relieve tensions of studying and graduating, they would come by and laugh or say a comment about how badly they want to scream as a zombie lurking around campus aimlessly to classes. I enjoyed the project and considered it very successful in terms of what I had my mind set on.

PERSONAL SPACE PREP: LEAST FAVORITE

My least favorite place in the world is a place where I'm tortured by the thoughts of bad past experiences or pending school work. Sometimes I'll be at the beach, my house, or another place I totally loved by merely thinking of certain things can make any place on Earth hell for me.

One place that I really don't like is the DMV, department of motor vehicles. The exact location of the DMV is not imprtant since I've been to multiple and they all seem around the same. At the DMV, the lines to wait for the simplest of things is always out the door and torturous. To add to that the DMV has some of the most pathetic, unhappy, depressed people that work there. I would be the same way if I worked there. In addition to the horribly long waiting lines and lame customer service, the temperatures are always higher than usual as the rooms are over crowded and seats filled up. In conclusion I hate any place where I'm stressed out, especially the DMV.

PERSONAL SPACE PREP: FAVORITE SPOT

In preparation for the Personal Space project, my favorite place in the world is extremely hard to pin point. If I had to pick one place I would have to pick a place that involves no stress and no school work pending over my head. One of the worst things that I've experienced in college is that no matter where I am or what I'm doing, the anxiety of school work and high expectations always takes my mind elsewhere. For my personal space that I like most at UCSB is the entrance to the school through the bike path that comes in from Pardall.When I was visiting UCSB one time before I got admitted myself, my favorite spot on campus was the tunnel ways that go into the school. Whether we took bikes or skateboards, the tunnel was always my personal favorite spot. I thought they were so cool because the reminded me back home at the coliseum or in the lax tunnel.
I think I'm going to do my project my these bike paths because its the exit of school. Of all the things that remind me of school work, when I'm coming in through this tunnel I get the most overwhelmed thinking of school, but when I'm leaving its the least spot I think of school rather than the rich culture that awaits me off campus.

FRIDAY FREE WRITE

Original Social Distortion album cover

My rendition as I listened to their music

THURSDAY CRIT: ALTERNATE IDENTITY

FAVORITE
Australian Explorer
My favorite of all the projects presented on Thursday was the piece done of the Australian explorer investigating and taking notes of UCSB students and "wild life." I loved her sense of humor and the alteration of her voice to resemble the late Jeff Irwin. As well as changing her voice, I enjoyed how she changed her clothing style to an Australian native, and the way she sneaked around and got her data of how the ecosystem of our college worked. My favorite part of the piece was when she was exploring the students in their natural habitat in glass contained areas that happened to be the dining halls on the southern side of campus. I liked how she made the eating area look like a zoo, just on account of that area actually being contained if animals were trapped inside.
Anyone could tell that she put a good amount of effort in changing her identity and with her humorous documentation, she became my favorite of the day.


LEAST FAVORITE
christian girl
My least favorite project presented was the piece that was a youtube style monologue in which a girl supposedly changed her identity to a conservative Christian. The number one thing that ruined this clever idea was her documentation of it; as her project was simply a video in which she ranted and raved about how much she dislikes the culture of Santa Barbara while stressing her ideals as a Christian devout, you couldn't really tell if she altered her identity more than five minutes. Also I didn't understand why the background music was techno. If you were going to convince anyone you were a devoted Christian in a video, the use of that genre of music to me is extremely ineffective.

REFLECTION: PERSONAL SPACE AND ALTERNATE IDENTITY

Reflecting critically on the theme of alternate identity and personal space in an age of social networking profiles, digital environments, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace,I believe that all we have in this world are our diverse identities as these identities are the basis of all functionality in our society. Everyone judges a book by itself cover and it is our identities that play the most important role in interacting with others of alternate identities. Whether its the clothes you were, your personality, your demeanor, or your education status, identities are someone as a whole. After completing this project dealing with alternate identity, it is unbelievable how much life changes with a simple twist of identity or flip entirely. All experiences in life are shown through your identity and the alteration of which changes how people think of you and who you are in comparison to others.

Reflecting critically on the theme of personal space in an age of social networking profiles, it is interesting to see how our personal space is invaded in present day technology systems. Websites like Myspace, Facebook, and Craigslist can expose individuals to a much wider spectrum that they think through the internet, in good ways and in negative ways. As for my upcoming personal space project, I want to stay away from the internet and social networkings and interact with people in real life and in real time.

ALTERNATE IDENTITY CRIT

FAVORITE

My favorite alternate persona project that I saw today was the one in which the girl transformed overnight and woke up in Santa Barbara as a mad cowgirl with the toy horse. I love girls that have a good sense of humor and I could tell the artist who did this is naturally funny as can be. I loved the segment where she biked around on her nice fixed gear bike with the horse and made cowgirl calls. To me, I just think that her project was hilarious and was extremely enjoyable to watch. My favorite part of the video presentation is when she is in the grocery store trying to lasso food. If I was in that Albertson's store the time she or anyone did a stunt like that, I'd probably have the same reception as innocent standby's caught in her excerpt. To conclude, I liked the slide show montage of her and the horse at the end and her loving words towards the toy horse and its ending.




LEAST FAVORITE

My least favorite work shown today was the video about obsessive compulsion disorder in Isla Vista, the dorms, and the grocery store. To be completely honest, I have considered myself to have OCD since grade school since I have always been bent on symmetry and am kind of a neat freak. Not so say that I didn't like the piece for its meaning and composition, but to see someone like myself react in an obsessive compulsive ways made me feel extremely anxious and I couldn't wait for the piece to end. 

FINAL AND TA PRESENTATION REFLECTION

In reflection of the final exam, I believe I did pretty well if not excellent. Although I didn't remember all the artists names and art works names, I can say frankly that I learned a lot in this course and the random art pieces we were tested on yesterday are definitely instilled in my mind. I think that the test was fair but I wish that Kip had some way of letting his students access his power point slides. I know many teachers prefer not to do this to keep students more interactive, but in this situation I believe that it would have been truly beneficial to all students if we had access to that copious amount of rich content that might never be seen elsewhere outside his class room. Because of my extensive eye injury, I know for a fact that the last picture presented was not shown in any of the classes I attended and was somewhat bummed out to see a problem on the test I was never exposed to. All and all, in the end I'm grateful for the teacher assistant and professor I got this quarter and am sure the art exposed to me in the last nine weeks will forever be embedded in my mind.

I can honestly say that of all the teacher assistants who went and showed our art after the exam, our section was by far the most funny and the most interactive with our school. As we watched other sections videos about silly inventions, random following videos, and some abstract art, I believe that not only I thought our section was the best, but the class could easily come to a consensus that our flash mobs were a total hit. The funniest thing about our class being the number one funniest and interactive, is that during the actual flash mob I couldn't help myself from feeling a little outrageous. During the filming of all flash mobs, duck duck goose, karate fight, and gun standoff, I thought to myself that this is totally not going to work like we all wished and it could be a failed attempt. To conclude, to hear the entire class go wild as our videos were presented was a pretty cool feeling and I'm glad to be apart of it.

ALTERNATE IDENTITY DOCUMENTATION: DAY TWO

ONE DAY DOWN, ONE MORE TO GO

After one full day of being a masked stranger, I realized I might have to start skateboarding to class rather than biking on account of the lack of peripheral vision, and that being a masked stranger gets a lot more negative attention than you think. So far I've noticed that the more ambiguous someone's alternate identity is, the more the audience is intrigued and responds; I can honestly say that my idea was a success and saw the same reception 48 hours straight.

ALTERNATE IDENTITY DOCUMENTATION: DAY ONE

the alternate identity, day one

waking up sunday with the mask on from the night before

rise and shine, quick shower before a long sunday of studying

quick email check before I head to Davidson

off to the library

barely biking back from the library, time to relax and hang out

so far at the house, no one minds the mask, especially Ryan

always time for puppy kisses before I'm back at the library

back to the library after a quick pit stop at starbucks

pretty stoked to see the guy working at Starbucks wrote "MASKED" for my name after I gave him none

full 24 hours with the mask, only took off it once to brush my teeth

ART SHOW OF THE WEEK

Once again, I attended another art show in which the art was pure music. This last Saturday I attended the free concert at the bum park in which one of my favorite rappers from the San Francisco Bay played, called Zion I. After a few tasty beverages at the house and at a friends I went to the concert with around thirty people and enjoyed the experience very much. As I have always been a huge fan of underground rap out of the state of California, I was extremely excited to witness one of my favorites live and for free none the less. As expected, he closed the concert with my favorite song "Don't Lose Your Head" which was the initiation point for our attempt of getting my friend crowd surfing. All and all in the end I had a blast and feel lucky to be in an environment like that of Santa Barbara as our town is constantly filled with rich culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nowds11mNos

IF I COULD BE ANY ARTIST

If I could be any artist or musician, I would change my identity to that of the early Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath. As I was raised by both my mother and father who are both fans of Rock and Roll, I grew up entirely exposed to this type of music and was obsessed with all things related to Black Sabbath, Cream, and Led Zeppelin. To be honest, I hate the music of my generation and would much rather be the age I am now but in the late sixties and seventies.

A SPONTANEOUS CHANGE OF PLANS

As of Saturday night, I had a few mediocre ideas for what to do for the alternate identity but was uncertain which would have the most reactions from the audience and most symbolic meaning. Around midnight that night, my roommate Ryan Kohn met me at a party with a couple people, but not as his normal identity. Right when Ryan walked through the door with this bizarre mask that resembled something out a Stanley Kubrick movie, my alternate identity project was flipped entirely. For my project, I have been consistently wearing this strange, shiny mask for the last 30 hours and will continue to until I go to bed tonight.

The ideas I had before finding this awesome disguise was to alter my identity to someone else's reality; but with this mask, instead of alternating identities to that of a homeless person or something strange, my hiding behind this mask and continuing my mundane activities, I'm rather stripping my identity empty than creating a new one. So far I have gotten mix reactions as many people think the mask is creepy or symbolic of some psuedo cult fad. So far I have not been able to upload my adventures as the masked man but will have the documentation of it tonight.

IF I COULD BE A VILLAIN

If I was a super hero villain, I would be that one character from X-Men who can change forms. I think that the ability to change your appearance is the ultimate special power since you could be and do anything you wanted.

IF I COULD BE A SUPERHERO

I would be Batman. He has been my favorite super hero since I was in grade school and I have been obsessed with all the movies of the caped crusader. I like most about Batman his lack of powers; although he has every gadget and resource, I like most about Batman his vulnerability. Because Batman is just an average human, he is my favorite. I also like him because he's super rich and has the coolest car in the world.

SEQUENCE NARRATIVE

For my sequence narrative I wanted to make a cartoon that resembles some we watched in class. Rather than doing the average political cartoon I decided to do a rip off on the legendary characters Hobbes, Top Cat,  and last but not least Scooby Doo. The main reason I created this cartoon was to ridicule the argument Kip made about copyrighting issues regarding the artist of Calvin and Hobbes. As much as I enjoyed the materialistic battle, I couldn't resist from doing a little copyrighting myself. I think that a cartoon does lose its soul when exploited for commercial reasons and I wanted to reflect how much a character can change when taken by another artist or used in other ways then its original form.

WEDNESDAY THE 18TH FREEWRITE

 

No clue this pictue won't show up but its an abstract painting of Biggie Smalls

TUESDAY THE 17TH FREE WRITE

Once again I can't figure out what is wrong with my picture load up but for this day of free write I gave me and two buddies think sharpies and drew anything and everything on an antique drawer set a found in the trash. The finished project looks really great and urbanized as graffitti is the main way of artistic expression given.         

LECTURE REVIEW WEEK 8

            For the last and final lecture, I can honestly say that Kip kept up the same amount of enthusiasm, humor, and interesting videos. The video that I thought was most interesting was the art piece done by Teching Shieh and Linda Montano. As I was already aware of Teching Shieh since we examined his one year pieces, I had a jist of what his art was and had an idea ahead of time what the video intaled. I was astonished to hear that Teching and Linda were attached to eachother with an eight foot rope and weren't allowed to touch eachother or leave one another in a room alone. I can not believe they did that considering how much I myself would dislike the piece. To be with someone day and night, week after week for a full year, life as you know changes entirely. As our last project focuses on personal space and our identities, it was extremely interesting to see how these to artist sacrificed their personal spaces to explore eachothers true identities.
           Besides the work of Tehcing and Linda, I was also fascinated with the light graffiti work done by Krystof Wodisczko. I thought it was truly amazing how his work could completely ruin an image of a sculpture of building by simply projecting light in certain places. Along with Krstof, I was shocked by the video about "The Cove" documentary about the dolphins in Japan, as well as the work by Yoko Ono, as I'm a huge Beatles fan.
          In conclusion this last lecture with Kip was a learning experience like one I've never experienced and hope to take the education I've gained in this class with me for the rest of my life.

WEEKLY ART SHOW

For this week, the art show I attended was Extravaganza 2011 at the Harder Stadium on the campus of UCSB. It was a total blast. I have been to many of concerts in my day but I had never been to a concert with such a unique blend of artists and genres. The crew I went with was my one friend Ryan and my other friend Trevor. After I got in successfully, the other two had a little trouble but no doubt, made their way in the concert. The concert was a huge event and had more than two thousand kids attending to see some of the most popular music of our present day. The first band was a laid back reggae rock band called The Expendibles. I love this band and their unique style of blending genres of music together to have the widest audience. The second artist to perform was the rapper Talib Kwali from my hometown, Queens, New York. I have been a fan of his since his first soundtracks with artist Mos Def in the group called Black Star. Not only did I see one of my favorite artists, but at my own school was a trip. The last artist I stayed for was called Rusko, the infamous dubstep techno artist. I am not a huge fan of techno, but his performance was amazing and more loud than any artist I've seen in the past. The reason I attended this event is because of the large scale of the concert, the venue, the price, and the experience. Extravaganza was a huge success in my eyes and I can't wait till next year.

ALTERNATE IDENTITY THOUGHTS

I think that the most significant and thoughtful piece that would receive the most immediate reaction would to be completely bald. In honor of my grandfather and all the people in the world who fight against the horrific battle that accompanies cancer, I wanted to show my appreciation and recognition by doing this.

The only thing I don't want from this project is people to misinterpret my alternate identity in thinking I'm making a mockery of cancer patients, or that I myself am battling the disease. I know a girl in Los Angeles whose mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and she got everyone of her friends and family to go bald with her mom as she went through chemotherapy. By doing this act of changing my physical experience, I believe that people will respond positive when I explain that there is no one patient in particular I'm supporting rather than every patient in the test of time. I also believe that doing this alternate identity with give me a better grasp on my life and what I can do as a healthy, able body.

ALTERED IDENTITY

So far, I've got a couple really strange ideas for my upcoming project on alternate identities.

NO HAIR
My first idea I had to change my identity for 48 hours is to go completely bald. As one of my best friend's mother just got diagnosed with skin cancer, my initial idea was to incorporate this project with a way to support him. With this horrible predicament in mind, my first idea was to shave my head, eyebrows, and arm hair to be supportive of patients diagnosed with cancers and involved in Chemotherapy. This last Saturday, I broke the main rule of my house and passed out with my shoes on, only to wake up to my eyebrows shaved off. To look in the mirror and see how alternative I looked with out that small spot of hair was crazy and shocking. The reaction I get from doing this will be meaningful and I feel as a token of my appreciation for all those who struggle with this sickness.

NO PHONE/ TECHNOLOGY
As our society is completely bent on the internet and technological advances, another idea I had was to completely get rid of all technology for 48 hours. Although this alternative lifestyle is less noticeable, it is much harder to do than simply cutting off hair. Without the use of televisions, computers, phones, and cars, I will be a nomad, living life 'old school.'


NO SHOES OR FOREIGN PRODUCED MATERIALS

One last idea I had that was a little silly was to remove myself from all products of clothing and material wealth that are imported to the United States. As out sourcing and foreign extraction has been a demise for many countries not as wealthy as the US, I thought it would be interesting to get rid of all those things and show our society how truly dependent we are on foreign lands and the labor that is for fitted for our endulgement.

FRIDAY THE 13TH

pun
http://montanamdellinger.blogspot.com/2011/05/pun.html

nexus
http://montanamdellinger.blogspot.com/2011/04/breaking-news.html

act of kindness
http://montanamdellinger.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-confession.html

personal space
http://montanamdellinger.blogspot.com/2011/04/personal-space.html

confession
http://montanamdellinger.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-four-crit-response.html

sequence narrative
http://montanamdellinger.blogspot.com/2011/05/sequence-narrative-proposal.html

PUN

There are so many puns in the world I honestly had a hard time doing this project on account of every pun I know is either extremely stupid or simple. After long hours of thinking hard and deep about what pun I could demonstrate, I went with "My life in a nut shell" in which I literally ate a sunflower seed and wrote "LIFE" in the middle. Some students suggested the pun was the seed of life, but my pun was up for interpretation. Although I didn't get my pun documented in class, it looked extremely similar to this picture below.

FLASH MOB

I had never heard of a flash mob before this class and found the assignment extremely interesting and unique. I had first seen the videos of other flash mobs on youtube, but to actually be involved in one myself was an experience of its own. If I were a student on Thursday, minding my business in the quad or in the U Cen, I would break out in laughter and shock to see roughly thirty you adults standing off in a finger gun fight. Pretty ridiculous. I loved how everyone in the class participated with such enthusiasm and were so stoked to do the flash mob. As I'm somewhat of a shy person, to go out and act like a ninja or someone in a old western shoot off movie, I felt that being apart of this flash mob really brought out my true character.
One thing in particular I found interesting from this flash mob experience is how everyone who wasn't fully down to do it step up ending up fully devoted and participated in the event. In the process, I think that this flash mob really brought out the true characters of students in the class as friends were made and everyone had a good time just being silly with one another.
Similar to the picture below, my experience was a true blast.

FREE WRITE WEEK SEVEN

Once again, I decided to do some art for my free write this week. Unfortunately my roommate has been out all day but once he's home a picture will be up. Enjoy

HOW'S MY OTHER CLASSES?

So far this quarter, my classes besides this have been going well and I can honestly say I've been learning a lot of useful information. Besides taking Art 7A, I'm also enrolled in History 2C and Astronomy 1. While I have my fun, art class on monday afternoon and tuesday and thursday mornings, the rest of my time is filled with learning about our outer space and its workings, as well our planets history since the thirteenth century.

In my Astronomy class today, a girl passed out while in class and was leaning against the wall in the funniest position. As I sat and looked around to see if anyone else was just as bored and sleepy, she began to moan and talk in her sleep. Immediately the class's attention was fully on the sleep talker as was the teachers. For a solid forty five seconds today, I witnessed the funniest thing that has ever happened in Astronomy history despite its reputation for being a tad boring.

Sometimes I think in Astronomy that the information I receive is reality and important, but lacks a connection to me on a personal level. Despite being able to pull out a telescope and check out the world for myself, most the knowledge I know about Astronomy has no significance towards my life. On the other hand is the knowledge I'm gaining in History. With Professor Spickard and his great teacher assistant Jason, I truly believe that the information presented in class and in the text is giving me a better grasp on society and the paradigm shifts of out time.

CARTOON LECTURE

I really enjoyed yesterdays lecture on account of the focus it had on comics and cartoons. One of the most interesting parts of the lecture was his discussion about Calvin and Hobbies, one of my personal favorite cartoons and funnies strips
One aspect of the discussion that had never occurred to me was the viewpoint of the artist on copyrighting and using these characters for marketing purposes. I strongly agree with his arguement that when a cartoon character sells out on to coffee mugs and boxer shorts, its loses its 'soul'. When I was younger I was obsessed with cartoon characters and had every tee shirt and hat to go along with each one. Now that I look back in the past, all I have is the books itself and the newspapers. With close consideration of the artist and his products  message, I love Calvin and Hobbes ten times more.

I thought it was interesting as well that the pissing character you always see on the back of trucks and other cars is actually a rip off and a copyrighting scandal against Calvin and Hobbes. My mother always use to point out how much she hated that sticker and I bet she has no clue either that the image we know and hate is actually hated by alot more people than we thought.

I also really enjoyed the embarrassing photos of Kobe Bryant in the Los Angeles Times in 2010 although I am extremelly bummed the Lakers are done for the season.

ART SHOW OF THE WEEK: YUMMIER & BRAINSICKLEY

For my art show review I went to Gallery 479 to see the graduate students art show. I was surprised at the various mediums that each of them was using. There was so much variation in the style in each of the artists. First I saw the installations in the project space. I saw the work of Tim Brown and Nick. I really enjoyed both of the various installations that these artists put up. Tim's first piece that attracted me was a light in reflectors with a mirror on top of it. Overall, it was a pretty trippy piece. As the lights changed the pattern on the light reflectors varied. Another very interesting piece by Tim was two glass cases that he had set up into the wall. Someone had said that he etched into the glass himself which I found incredible. The detail on the glass was so smooth and complete it was astonishing that he did it by hand. His last piece was two mirrors with incense on top of it. I really didn't understand that piece too well, but it was interesting nonetheless. Nick's work was also the most outlandish work out of all of the pieces that were set up in the graduate student art gallery. All of his works involved plastic wrap that has been altered in various ways. he also acheived a number of different textures by treating them different ways. Overall, it was very interesting work to look at. Also work by flores was visually appealing. His photorealism shot that featured the mad hatter and 5 kids was extremely well done.

PERSONAL SPACE PROPOSALS

As of right now, I have a few general ideas of what I want to do, but no concrete ideas to fully follow through with. Since I love punk metal and the horror pop scene, I wanted to do some kind of photo shoot in which I have skeleton face paint in a dark area. I think that having a dark back ground like a closet, or a coffin, would really show my interest in that kind of art that reflects life and death.

Since I love to skateboard, I was also thinking of doing a project in which I was skateboarding at my favorite spot or at a place in which skateboard history has gone down. As a personal narrative, I could relate to that personal space that others in the class are unaware. One idea in particular I had was to go to a spot that I have gotten hurt and leaving flowers as if it was a spot of a death.

Off the top of my head, another idea I had was to take a self portrait of myself and family at my home in Los Angeles. Not necessarily that this is significant to a particular event or situation, but lately I have had a lot of help and support from my family and I want to take a shot that really captures our closeness.

FREE FORM WEEK SIX

painting of mine in the process of being finished

FLASH MOBB

When I first heard of the idea of the flash mob as we watched random videos in class, the first things to pop in my head were roller discos, food fights, or huge limbo lines.

As most of the people in class wanted to do the flash mob on campus, I had some original plans of my own that detoured from the average. My first idea was to take everyone from our class to the down town skatepark, give everyone a set of roller blades, put everyone in some 80's style clothing, and have a roller disco in the middle of the park. As a skateboarder myself, I hate roller bladers, roller blades, and everything else associated with this counter sub culture sport to skateboarding. With this loath of roller bladders, I thought of this idea because I know it would get the most reaction out of the audience. If I was at the park that day and someone flash mobbed the skatepark, I know the reaction I would have and the reaction my friends would have, complete disgust and laughter. I think that this idea is absolutely genius if we could some how manage to get everyone on roller blades without breaking any bones.

The second idea I had was to have a massive food fight break out in an instant. With everyone's alarms set for a specific time, I think it would be great to have everyone in the class sit in random spots of the quad or cafeteria and break out in an all out food fight. I think this idea would be especially good because I honestly think that people around the mob would get a reaction to fight or flight. I could picture myself there now, hopping up on the table only to be smothered in ketchup or some kind of peanut butter jelly combo. I think that this idea comes with consequences like cleaning up and possibly dangering someone, but that's what its all about.

WEEK SIX MOVIE REVIEW

One movie I've recently scene that i truly appreciate for its artistic merits, score, shooting composition, and style is one of Quentin Tarantino's classics, Jackie Brown. Jackie Brown is a full length feature film by Tarantino that follows his unique style of cinematography that makes most of his movies famous. Like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, or even Reservoir Dogs, the movie Jackie Brown follows the same structure in narrating the story with subtitles of the settings and times, with scenes chopped up out of order. I loved this movie for its score as well. Like all of his films, Tarantino always has the most classic soundtracks and complicated plots that have me on the edge of my seat every time. One thing I really appreciated from an artistic point of view is the pans and zooms he uses in this film. With unbelievably long monologues and panorama shots of the settings in which the story takes place, the cinematography of the film makes it poignant and extremely powerful. As motion picture is doused with A list celebrities like Samuel Jackson, Robert DeNiro, and Pam Grier, anyone with taste would truly enjoy and admire the work presented. Although Jackie Brown is the most recent of his films I've seen, it weighs about the same as his other works that hit home with me. To conclude, one thing I really was stoked about this movie was the setting. The setting for Samuel Jackson's beach house is my hometown, Hermosa Beach. When I was growing up, Tarantino worked at the local block buster in Hermosa down the street from my house; to see him set the movie in his and my hometown makes me feel a little bit closer to this incredible movie director.

WEEK SIX FREE WRITE

As an artist, my favorite medium of art is through simple drawings and illustrations. Here's a product of my boredom and this week's free write. If you can't tell, this is a free hand drawing of the one and only Bob Marley in sharpee pen on the back of a cup of noodles package.

WEEK SIX LECTURE: FAVORITE ARTIST

If you haven't read my last blog entry, you wouldn't already know that I missed lecture on Monday due to unseen circumstances with an injured left eye. With that in mind, I can't really explain who my favorite artist viewed was since I didn't even attend the class. However, regardless that there was some great art and artists in the movie, I have a couple favorites of my own I'd like to shed light on since I believe their work somewhat inspires my own.

One of my all time favorite artists in Neckface. Neckface is a local skateboard legend who got extremely famous doing graffiti in New York in urban spaces. I liked the way that his art was so different and edgy compared to other contemporary artists you've grown found of old time, boring settings for art. Neckface's art is on walls of buildings, taxis, bill boards, and even houses. I love how Neckface demonstrates his art in such away that presents itself as vandalism or illegal but is completely artistic. Neckface recently got picked up by the Baker Boys Distribution company who run multiple skateboard brands that now have Neckface art on them.

Another one my favorite artists that probably wasn't looked over in class is Bansky. He uses the same techniques as Neckface as he takes his art into a more grundgy, urban environment that resembles graffiti art, As I love to spray paint and tag in safe zones that permit artists to paint without consequence, the art of Bansky and Neckface are huge influences in my own art and my vision for future art.

WEEK SIX LECTURE VS EYE

                Unfortunately for me this week, I could not attend the lecture due to conflicting eye doctor appointments. Yes that's right, eye doctor appointments. For those who do not know, I was seriously injured last Saturday night in a fight in our very own, drunken town that is Isla Vista. As some students enjoyed the night by walking around, meeting new people at house parties, others decided to intake as much uppers as they could and start fights with innocent members of society. Not to say I've never gotten in a fight before or even started one, Saturday was  not the night I was hoping it would turn out to be. Rather than inviting a girl home or just staying up with friends reminiscing the night, I spent my night forcing my roommate to drunk drive me to the emergency room only to get a cat scan and stitches in my face. All and all I can say the experience brought about a powerful lesson; some people in this world you can trust with your life, and others you can't turn your head for a split second. At the same time I have people in my life I have to second guess constantly, I now know I got the friends that pertain to the latter.
             As much as I love Kip's lectures and the videos presented in class, my mom from Los Angeles took off work to come pick me up from Santa Barbara to take me to the eye specialist. I am extremely grateful to have a mother so caring to take off work and risk getting in trouble with her boss just to see how her beat up son is. It ends up I won't be losing any eye sight and the blood in my iris is only popped blood vessels. To conclude, this has been one of the worst weekends I've had in awhile and hope my misfortune goes away for just a little.

PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS: WEEK FIVE ART SHOW

One of my favorite types of art is music; whether it's a new song on the internet or a new album that debuts, music is one of the most popular types of art out there. With this in mind I consider Music shows as art shows. Yesterday I attended "Chilla Vista" festival in Isla Vista in which a random assortment of bands played, the final performance being the famous rap duo from Los Angeles, People Under the Stairs. People Under the Stairs are a mix of Jazz, Hip Hop, and a freestyle song singing that do shows all up and down the state of California. It was really awesome to see them play live for the first time, especially for free in my current hometown. Overall the experience was a blast and I was not let down the slightest bit. Sometimes people see their favorite bands for the first time and being disappointed by the live performance; yesterday was not the case. It was especially cool to see how People Under the Stairs performed. As they invited people on stage and called out L.A., they were mostly making up different lyrics as they went along. I was extremely satisfied with the performance in the end as they played my favorite song last, San Francisco Nights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ussmHnQXa0

SEQUENCE NARRATIVE PROPOSAL

As one of my favorite artists is Andy Warhol, my goal is to replicate one of his works like the one of Marylin Monroe. The silk screen to the right is one my favorite pieces by Andy as the color changes change the mood entirely of each frame. My goal would to have my own face in replace of Marylin with the same style of painting and changing colors around. My first idea was to have four picture identical to one another like this one but with different colors.

My second idea was to have the same style of art as this except for each frame have a different photo of myself to shed light on a sequence narrative. To have four different photos with four different color patterns, I believe that my art would have a great effect in conveying a narrative simply through facial expressions or different coloration to give emphasis on emotion. To have on photo bright like the top left, then having a dark one next to it and so one, I believe would make a great piece of art.

Last but not least, I wanted to replicate this piece of art or one like it with my mothers face replacing Marylin's. To give a sequencial narrative of her life, I believe it would be very interesting to replace her photo with various pictures of my mother in different times of her life. To have different color patterns for different phases of her life would give a great narrative of her life as she grew older. No matter what I decide to do for this assignment, I know that a sequencial narrative could be shown through images like that of Andy Warhol's silk screens.

FAVORITE ARTIST; ANDY WARHOL

One of my favorite artists is Andy Warhol. I love Warhol for his colorful, pop art and strange sense of art subjects.
When I was in the third grade I won my first art contest with a replica of Andy's Cambell Soup paintings. I loved that piece by Andy because of its simplicity and bizarre focus on canned soup. Another reason I think Andy Warhol is my favorite artist is because of the scene he was engulfed in and the following he had behind him. As a classical rock and roll enthusiast, I love Velvet Underground and the art they made from Andy's influence. After watching documentaries of Andy Warhol, and the the crazy life style he lived, I can only hope to one day be as famous as Andy Warhol, as well as respected as an artist. No matter what kind of medium of art some one maybe into, Andy Warhol is well known for his unique approach at pop art and the music industry.

After watching the Doors movie, featuring Val Kilmer, I have to say that Andy Warhol is my favorite artist just on account of his stance in the social hierarchy. Andy Warhol was looked up to by some as a revolutionist and even a god. With his strange looks in fashion and art, I have to admit that Andy is one of the all time best artists of my time and will forever go down in history for his various works with the popular media.