ferrarichamlern

[ferrarichamlern]

Art & My Life

Starting my second year at CSULB, I came in with the mindset of stress and anxiety. I came in as a mechanical engineering major and was deadset on doing it for the rest of my life. As the semester progressed I was quickly reminded that engineering is not for everyone. I struggled with my classes a lot and was, to keep it blunt, not having a good time. I thought about it for a while and it was not because it was necessarily hard, which the classes were, but it was mainly because of my interest in my classes and overall the field was dead. I did pretty well in my first year generally speaking but that was when I was still interested in it and had some fun with it. I still had the passion and the dream. Me, now, really getting into what mechanical engineering is I realized a lot. I had been thinking about switching my major for a while but only thought it was the easy way out and how my family wanted me to become an engineer because of the money and stability. I ended up becoming a design major and have not looked back since. Surprisingly, this class played a big part in my final decision to switch to design. The ideas about art as well as the activities really ignited my passion to learn and create. 

To begin with, the seven ideas about art all were interesting to me to hear about, however, there were a select few that really intrigued me. The first being the power of abstraction. I have always heard the term thrown around throughout my life but did not truly understand the concept until this class. I am a visual and hands-on learner, so when hearing the lecture in class about abstraction I learned a lot and the idea definitely piqued my interest but I could not brag true understanding until I was able to do the activity. The abstract painting activity really opened my eyes to the whole concept of abstraction and it changed the way I thought about art and aspects of our lives. Abstraction, while seemingly having no focus or central theme, is itself the theme. In other words, having no idea can be an idea which is how I interpreted it. In addition, I really vibed with this idea because of how unique and free it is. It is not reliant on or bounded by anything but yourself. Your own mind and feelings. When doing the painting activity I truly felt like I was expressing myself and it ended up being somewhat therapeutic for me. I was able to forget about all my problems and kind of put myself on the paper. I was free of thought and just let the brush and my feelings take over. 

Another idea about art I was intrigued by was the concept that cameras are one of the greatest storytellers. I had just gotten into photography over the summer so when this was introduced I was eager to listen in on what was being said and shown in class. There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words and that really resonated with me. For example, the photo we saw of the child in the factory. It was much more than what was depicted. It showed the greed of men, the power of money, the struggles of the poor, the hardships of life back in those times, and the cruelty put upon children. The picture did not just send shockwaves throughout America but pushed actual change in our perspective of what was just, which resulted in tangible reform in child labor laws. In a more casual sense, it is one thing to talk about a specific event but seeing a photo from that event would tell you more about the experience than words would. Again tying back to the idea of understanding, a person would know about what you say but they would better understand if they saw a picture of what you were talking about in my opinion. With that in mind, this class truly taught me how good cameras are at telling stories.

In tandem with the ideas introduced in the lecture, the activities that tied to those lessons became a significant part of how I view the world and myself. As mentioned before I really took home the idea of abstraction through its accompanying activity. In addition, the zine activity helped me realize a little bit about myself. I cope better with a lot of the things I have to deal with in my life when I have an outlet. This is true whether its a person I can just talk to about my issues or relieving stress by drawing and painting.

In short, art has changed my life. I changed my major and my interpretation of what I am going to do with the rest of my life through art. I have become a better version of myself through understanding myself better which would not have happened without my efforts in art. Through this class, I was able to appreciate art and as a result, appreciate life from a different perspective.

[ferrarichamlern]

D7 - Remix Culture

The freedom of the internet is a real blessing when you consider how censored and limited it is around the world. Americans and others in countries similar to ours get to do virtually whatever you want whether that be voicing your opinions on a political candidate or the performance of a professional sports team. Likewise with this freedom comes risks and in turn fear. What you say and do on the internet has real consequences even if it may not seem tangible at first. Say you make a rude comment on someone's appearance on the internet and it gets out and the person you're commenting about sees it. More than likely you and that person have a problem and that may not result in a confrontation in real life which may or may not end in your favor. In another sense, people like to have fun on the internet and make jokes. That is when the meme was born, which is most of the time a funny image depicting a relatable joke or struggle. People have been enjoying memes since the internet began as time progressed people began becoming more and more creative. People taking two things and putting them together to make a funny image is fairly common however it is rare they are getting consent to even use said images. As a result, they are at risk of getting sued and going to jail which is where the fear comes in.

Copyright as of now is such a controversial subject. Sometimes it works as it's intended so people do not plagiarize but other times it conflicts with fair use policies. I think overall it needs to be modified especially when it comes to youtube or social media. If you were to record a video of you dancing and you use a song from an artist technically it is that artist’s property as well and they can take action against you. I do not know specifically how to change it since I am not that well versed in the laws regarding copyright but it needs to be changed so that people who do things like those dance videos can fairly use the song without having their whole account shutdown and their following dead in the water.

I chose to use images as my license because of my enjoyment of the aforementioned art of memes. Whenever I am stressed and cannot do anything productive I look to scroll on twitter for five to ten minutes just looking at the memes on my timeline to make me laugh and put myself in a better mood. In that sense, I wanted to emulate the joy I get from memes by showcasing my own. Here we have an amalgamation of the rapper Future and a painting of Jesus Christ. Future is notoriously known for making some questionable decisions and being rude to people he does not deem good enough for him. So as a form of satire on his drama, people would refer to him on the internet as our lord and savior Future whenever there is a female that does scandalous things or is just generally not a good person since all his drama revolves around women. Thus this depiction of our Lord and Savior Future was created.

My experience making this was phenomenal. I had such a great time and it took me a while because I could not stop bursting out laughing. Choosing the right painting of Jesus Christ while also seeing which headshot of Future to use was prime entertainment for me and it came out way better than I had hoped. I was so proud of my masterpiece is sent it to all my friends. I just found a headshot of Future and this painting of Jesus Christ off google and used snapchat to make a sticker of Futures head and placed it over Jesus Christ’s face and this beautiful creation was born. It was very simple and the way a lot of people create memes such as this one I recommend anyone who wants to do something similar to use this method.

[ferrarichamlern]

D7 - Artist Galleries

Artist: Andrea Rascol

Exhibition: Prologue

Media: Acrylic and Oil Pastel

Gallery: CSULB School of Arts, Max L. Garlic Gallery West

Website: none

Instagram: @andreasimone.art

Andrea Rascol is a painter with a passion for oil pastels and acrylics. Her main inspiration comes from her love of television and similar typed of media. She likes to focus on the relationship between what we consume through movies and television shows and the reality we live in. She uses her art to escape reality and emulate the type of power media like television have through their ability to transport you to another world from anywhere on earth you are. In addition to television, she pulls her inspiration to what she deals with in her everyday life and the environment around her.

To begin with, her work uses a nice variety of materials. She uses a combination of acrylic and oil pastels which meld seamlessly together to form her paintings. On top of a variety of materials, her work has an amazing amount of color. The purple and red in the above painting really caught my attention and the combination of green and orange especially was cool. Perhaps the most underrated of her techniques is her change of texture throughout all her works. Mainly prevalent in the first and third paintings shown, the added element of texture made me enjoy her work way more. It is one thing to paint a picture but when it has more substance and pops off the canvas it can really make an impact on the viewer.

Going back to her emphasis on television and various media, her work is a direct reflection on her theme of what we see versus what is the reality. For example, the third piece is split into four sections each with its own part of the animal. In these sections, they are designed with different colors and materials such as wooden hands and paper legs. This can be interpreted to show the contrast between what we think and what is real. You would think that the animal would be more defined and be the same color while made proportional and with the same materials but it is not. It is four different combinations in parts of the animal that come together to form said animal which sort of symbolize how different aspects of our lives like what we see every day and what we see on television and other media come together to form what we think and how we view our lives. 

My experience with this gallery was full of wonder. I have a similar love for movies and television so her exhibit really resonated with me. Her pieces were really cool in my opinion especially the space painting and the animal sculpture. I was immediately brought in by the bright colors and the contrast of rough and smooth textures. Red is my favorite color and she used that a lot in this gallery which I enjoyed. On top of being aesthetically pleasing, I was interested in her theme of what we deem as reality. It is a thought-provoking question and her pieces really got me thinking.

[ferrarichamlern]

D5 - Architecture and Planning

For this activity, I decided to not get rid of the actual wedge but the wall that contains the bench area right before where the stop for the shuttle is. The granite wall with posters on it serves no other purpose than looks. I personally think it just stands out from everything else around it which is why I wanted to get rid of it. In addition, I made the columns put up behind the Go Beach sign into an arch. I also decided to do away with the other bench in front now that the area is not enclosed and kept a redesigned one. Other than these couple of changes, the surrounding structures I would want to keep the way they are because they go well with what I have envisioned.

To begin with, all my changes made this spot of campus much less claustrophobic. The foot traffic will go by much smoother with a bigger walkway and more paths to make it into campus. I modified the columns just because I think it looks nicer and that way it signifies better that there is a walkway there and an entrance to the USU and rest of the school on top of the peak of the archway leading the actual path up to the USU and upper campus. I also modified one of the benches that used to sit in the area before the shuttle stop. I gave it a backrest to make it more comfortable and put it in the same general area but slightly shifted to the right because that space is still going to be used as a waiting area and a comfortable bench will make the experience that much better.

There are only a couple trade-offs I can see with my design which would be that it might look plain. With the granite wall, there was a change in scenery and a contrast with the white columns despite my distaste for it. My design eliminates that and makes that area more cohesive. In addition, I would probably use different colored materials or paint to remedy the simpleness. Secondly, the bench might seem to be awkwardly placed at first glance. There is nothing around the bench to make it feel like it is a part of the area which I chose to do so that there would be a more open feeling in that space since it was so tight and claustrophobic before. I wanted the area to feel more welcoming and not like a black hole sucking the life out of people at times.

I believe a year from its unveiling and for years to come people would appreciate the change. Everything I have changed about the wedge was to enhance the college experience. I paid attention to the little things that people notice as well as the subconscious thoughts and feelings you get from looking and walking through the area. People would tell the underclassmen how they used to have to squeeze through that area every time they walked through and how now they can just go through without having to wait or deal with the awkward moment when two people let each other go and neither one can take initiative and walk through so they continue to step the same way causing all sorts of traffic around them perpetually making the situation worse.

[ferrarichamlern]

D5 - Art Galleries

Artist: Christine Nguyen

Exhibition: Emergence of the Kelp Deer, 2007

Media: Painting

Gallery: University Art Museum

Website: None

Instagram: None

Christine Nguyen achieved her BFA from California State University Long Beach and continued on to get her MFA from the University of California Irvine. Her main style of work is illustrating nature but with a twist. She has a keen interest in microbiology and macrobiology and so incorporates these two subjects together into a unique, bright piece. She pulls most of her inspiration from 19th-century scientists such as Ernst Haeckel, John Muir, and Anna Atkins to name a few.

Across her work, we can observe her affinity for color and line variation. She chooses the brighter colors and thicker lines to highlight the main sections of the paintings while utilizing darker colors and little to no line variation at all for the background. Going back to line variation, Christine uses it here to expertly create a sense of depth and texture throughout her art. For example with the piece below, the blue, what I assume are, plants have a feeling of fluidity while simultaneously seeming rough and thick whereas the red, which I also assume are, plants seem very soft and delicate. Speaking of colors, she uses a huge variety of colors that really catches your eye. Despite the variation and large amount the piece never seems random or out of place. The combination of purples, oranges, and blues has a cohesion that is amazing to look at and just makes you want to analyze her work further. 

As mentioned before, she takes huge inspiration from the likes of microbiologists and cosmologists and these themes are extraordinarily prevalent in her work. Her work can mostly be interpreted as deep-sea wildlife while also having an element of the cosmos and space. With the last image depicted below, we can observe how what seems to be like jellyfish floating around the sea at first glance but as you analyze further you notice the bright dots of light and the warm colors not necessarily found in the deep oceans of the earth but are especially renowned in space. With the painting below, it mostly seems like a similar deal with just aquatic plantlife sitting at the bottom of the deep ocean. However, when you dive deeper into the painting you notice that the background is a little too green and lush to be the ocean floor we know. While the piece we talked about earlier had a hit of space with it, this one has a hint of wildlife we would find on the Earth’s surface. She painted vibrant, out-of-this-world plantlife living in a what seems to be a dense forest or jungle which is a callback to her love of biology as a whole tying together marine biology and a little bit of silvology in there. 

My experience with this gallery was one of wonder. I really enjoyed the brightly colored paintings that both popped out at you and simultaneously pulled you in. It was interesting to see two different subjects mashed-up into a beautiful piece especially ones as interesting as cosmology and biology. Growing up I was very into space and stars and galaxies so viewing these one-of-a-kind works of art reignited the imaginative child in me which was a nice feeling. I am also a huge fan of science fiction so the piece below really stuck out to me since it reminded me of the movie Avatar which is one of my favorites.

[ferrarichamlern]

D4 - Student Choice

With this piece I wanted to illustrate what I feel is the sad reality of most college students. I personally know a lot of people that suffer from this state of mind and have been through this myself as well. School should be a place of learning and college especially should be where you discover yourself and figure out at least an idea of what your passions are and what you might want to do for the rest of your life. Instead what a lot of people found were grades getting dangled in front of our faces and GPAs dictating our futures which only serve to limit our opportunities to learn and experience different paths to take which defeats the entire purpose of this school's existence.

 I chose to use an illustration as my media because I am not really well versed in other methods like computer casting. This is what I felt the most comfortable with and had the most flexibility in with what I wanted to create. I did not know what I wanted to draw when I chose this topic but once I started drawing it came to me in a similar process the abstraction activity had. I feel like I am able to do whatever I want with a drawing and I would be able to produce something that did not look that bad since I believe I am a decent artist.

I believe I was successful in my message. I had a hard time deciding what to symbolize for the idea of fun, happiness, and passion so I just decided to spell all the concepts out across the board. It shows deliberately what goes on in the head of a college student and the facial expression not showing very much emotion is in hopes of representing how whenever people ask “How are you doing,” most people just say “I’m doing good,” or “I’m fine,” which is not the reality of the situation at all. The idea of fun, passion, and happiness float around the mind but just out of reach because of how easy it is to get a sense of that and feel temporary spurts of those things. Happiness, for example, like when you see a loved one and hang out for a couple hours then you don’t see them for a long while and it goes away. That’s what I wanted to represent with those words and I feel like I did a pretty good job showing my points.

I had a good experience making this because I felt that I related to a lot of what was going on if not everything. I've been there plenty of times so it felt nice to witness those feelings and emotions take physical form. I like drawing, especially when I'm expressing what I’m feeling so this experience was one of my more favored activities especially with the added creative freedom we were given.

This activity for me was speaking up a little bit about a subject people, for some reason, still shy away from. Mental health is a serious thing and should be given more attention. I wanted to highlight the things people go through every day and even though it may not seem like it, I can bet everyone has gone through this at least once. Some people are just better at hiding or dealing with it than others.

[ferrarichamlern]

D4 - Artist Galleries

Artist: Yichih Wang

Exhibition: Senior show, In-between

Media: Metal, crochet, printmaking

Gallery: Marilyn Werby Gallery

Website: none

IG: yichih_w

Yichih Wang is a Taiwanese- American artist born and raised in Taiwan. She enjoys painting and making prints among other types of crafts. She didn’t come over to the states until the time she completed high school and wanted to get a higher education. Wang began her education at a community college where she started off painting and drawing. It was not until she went to Long Beach state that she found her love of metalwork and she hasn’t looked back since. She is currently working to get her BFA in metalworking at our very own California State University Long Beach and is a senior at thirty-one years old. She is very proud of her heritage and cherishes her child and that is reflected a lot in the pieces she creates.

Wang’s work, on the surface level, is simple. When you first look at it it’s just a couple pieces of metal strung together or bowls with various items sometimes in them. On the other hand, when you view past the surface level you really get to appreciate the intricacies of her art. They are much more than a piece of metal and wood randomly arranged together. In her work “Your Own Reason to Bloom” every aspect of that piece has a purpose and like a machine, cannot function without all its pieces. If you were to remove one of the strings of metal the entire thing would collapse and the piece would be entirely different than what it was meant to be. In addition to this, some of her work seems like they are up to the viewer's interpretation. Going back to “Your Own Reason to Bloom”, it has no real shape or theme that ties to its title. To the average viewer, it is just an amalgamation of metal. Wang’s choice of abstraction works in her favor since that piece creates a conversation and a debate on how to interpret the piece. No piece of metal is identical to another. Each piece has its own unique combination of color, size, and length which come together to form her piece. The same concept can be argued about the work above as well. Each of the three pieces of metal has a different way it is contorted and a varying level of size and darkness of color. Speaking of color, her work across all her pieces has an element of color between them. They all have a foundational color like black, silver, or brown that ties the rest of the reds, greens, and blues together. The beauty of this exhibit is definitely in the details. 

Her art at first glance seems really bland and void of substance. It was not until I got to speak with the artist that the true image of her work was unveiled. She spoke about how intricate all the metalwork is and how every little detail was a style choice. Her work is a reflection of how she grew up and her culture. The bowls, for example, borrow inspiration from her childhood. Growing up, she loved to eat food and enjoy it with her family since that was the time everyone was together and in a good mood. The colors and materials used tie directly back to what she experienced as a child. She wanted to bring back those pleasant memories by restoring things that reminded her of her younger days.

My experience with this exhibit was one of surprise and intrigue. I was surprised at how much detail, time, and effort could be put into pieces that seemed very simple and dull initially. I also could connect with her passion for her culture since we are both Asian. Once I was told of her background and her inspiration for her exhibit I immediately enjoyed and appreciated her works more. I was intrigued at all the details that were fit into her work since they’re all relatively small. Overall my experience was pleasant and I came out of it reminded of how I should never judge a book by its cover.

[ferrarichamlern]

D3 - Speech Action

I chose this medium because I feel like this is the best way I could fully encapsulate my message. With a drawing on a piece of paper, I could throw everything I want the audience to see at them all at once. I think I was successful in presenting my message of how pollution is affecting our planet. 

As you can see we have a factory drawn in an art style found in old school animation. It is soft and round with a huge smile on it representing how big companies may seem friendly but their actions prove otherwise. I chose to keep it at the center of the illustration because of how prominent these factories are at the center of our everyday lives. For instance, your favorite lotion company could also be the leading producer of plastic bottles in the world which ends up polluting the environment around us. In addition, the factory is where the rest of the image hails from. Around the factory is a polluted body of water with no life in it except glass bottles and tired among other various trash. On the other side, we have a desolate land with shriveled up, dead plants showing how in the long term this pollution affects the entire ecosystem of the region. Finally, there is the constant smog flowing out of the factory and off the page darkening the sky, polluting the air we breathe, and further damaging the delicate balance of life on Earth. Everything alive on earth shares the same air and atmosphere so destroying it is detrimental to everyone. 

If I were to do this again I would most likely depict a different medium but emphasize the same message. Pollution is a serious issue that needs to be taken more seriously than it is. I would want to perhaps show how something as small as littering can lead to long term, irreversible effects on our planet such as dead animals and discolored skies. On the topic of color, I would also add much more color further showing the realities of this issue with the added detail. I might also choose a more realistic art style to force a serious tone in hopes of getting my point further across.

[ferrarichamlern]

D3 - Art Galleries

Chris Suarez is an undergrad at California State University working towards a fine arts degree in ceramics. He is from Long Beach and enjoys making pieces reflecting the diverse community of people and the difference in heritage the city contains. 

Chris has a very unique method of combining styles in his pieces. For instance, in the piece above he goes from straight and symmetrical in some areas then crooked and asymmetrical in others. In addition, he adds a nice variety of materials and textures in his work. In some sections, he will utilize metal work and rust while in others he showcases ceramics and the unique rough properties it can possess. He also uses very little color but what little color he has he contrasts it with everything else in the piece which is just enough to distinguish different sections of his work. For instance, in the first piece on the circular part, he contrasts the green with the orange to form a nice combination which as a whole contrast with the other circular section colored white and black. Another example would be the last piece with a varying degree of color in the sculpture. It goes from a nice lie rusted over silver to a darker metal and so on to the top.

As you can see from his exhibit, Suarez takes huge inspiration from the different cultures he interacts with living in Long Beach. His work directly expresses the differences in our cultures and puts it together into a single piece. He wants to express how we may all come from different places and look different but we are all a part of a single unit. He enjoys seeing these differences and wants to spread his appreciation to others so they could see what he sees and maybe share his appreciation.

I personally was all for this exhibit. I am also a Long Beach native so I enjoyed seeing what was essentially a showcase of the diversity of my city. I reflected back on my life here and could see how we are all influenced by what is around us. I saw how the combination of cultures of Long Beach influenced him and thought back on how it influenced me. Being here all my life and having been around essentially the entire city, it was interesting seeing his sculptures and being intrigued at how we might have seen the exact same things he used for his inspiration to make this exhibit.

[ferrarichamlern]

D2 - Zine

For the Zine activity, I did not feel really comfortable doing it about my identity so I decided to do it about one of the days I had this week. This day was eventful and full of just bad things that happened to me so as a way to vent out my frustrations, I designed this zine. Surprisingly it did help and I did not feel as bad for myself after I finished the assignment. I was satisfied with my work at the time but looking back at it I wish I had more time to put color into it and maybe add a little more background detail and more detail all around into my pages such as coloring in shadows and light reflections. If I were to do this again I would do what I mentioned before and add more detail into my zine pages as well as color. In addition to that if I were to do this again I would most likely do it on a TV or movie series I like such as Star Wars or Game of Thrones.

[ferrarichamlern]

D1 - Finger Painting

For our finger painting activity, I decided to use colors I rarely use. I don’t really like these colors because they are dark and depressing however this project is about abstract painting so I decided to try them out. Originally I just threw paint onto the poster paper and went at it but as I started to paint more I became more inspired and more structured. I discovered that this is my new favorite method to express my creativity. It is the pure embodiment of expression. There are no thoughts or things holding you back from just painting. It is only you and the canvas and the paint in harmony with one another. The only thing deciding what I painted was if I felt like it or not. I wanted something smooth and fluid but then transitioned to straight and solid when I handled other colors and sections of my canvas. This piece definitely presents what I was feeling and my emotions at the time as well as a little bit about myself. Sometimes I can be smooth and cool while other times I am rigid and close myself off from everyone. I really enjoyed this activity and will highly consider doing something similar to it on my free time.

[ferrarichamlern]

EC - Feedback

1. The format of the class was interesting because I have never had a class formatted like this before but it was a welcome change. It was easy to follow and I knew what the schedule was for the class for the most part which I really enjoyed and was super helpful for managing my time with my other classes.

2. Making an art gallery and presenting it was actually very fun for me because over this past year I have really gotten into photography and my group's gallery was based in photography. In addition, through being fairly well versed in presentations, the actual presentation was not too nerve-wracking for me.

3. To be completely honest I overall did not like the SOA Art Galleries. I enjoyed some of the art and talking to the artists however doing it more or less every week got really old really quickly for me. I got less interested as the weeks went on and although I still went it felt like work more than an art experience to learn from and explore. 

4. I surprisingly enjoyed the weekly art activities. I discovered new things that I liked and it was fun that every week it was different. I was really into the activities since they all had a purpose. Whether it was exploring how to voice a political opinion or new ways to express creativity there was a purpose and did not seem like senseless work with no point.

5. The 7 ideas about art are actually my favorite part of the class. I felt like I was actually learning things and discovering new ways to think about how we express ourselves in the 21st century. I would have never considered mashups art unless convinced otherwise in this class and that new perspective is going to stick with me for a while.

6. I did not like the Tumblr aspect of this class purely because of how foreign it was to me. It got easier as the class went on but there are still things now that I do not understand how to do. It was really easy to forget to post things since I am always on beachboard or WebAssign but I rarely thought about Tumblr since I am subconsciously thinking about it as social media and not the tool my class uses for my grade. 

7. Using Wix without any prior knowledge of web design was really difficult. For a lot of my time on it, my group was kind of fumbling around on how to make our website and looking it up on the internet was somewhat hard since the directions are very general when there are so many options thrown at you. There were so many buttons I did not know what did what unless I tried out every single one which got tedious and discouraged me to work on the website at times.

8. I really liked the website instead of beachboard despite what I said about Tumblr. All the info was available to me in a new, fresh, asthetically-pleasing manner. It did not feel like work to open it up. I opened it up and actually wanted to see what was posted rather than not wanting to go all through beachboard and end up having to ask a classmate or emailing the professor.

9. Having no tests made me appreciate the class more. I wanted to go more for the learning and fun aspect rather than because I had to or I would be left behind. The class is set up so participation is not completely mandatory but since the explanation for all the homework is during class and the index cards are for participation you sort of are encouraged to which I know 99% of students at CSULB would take over exams that only stress people out on what they can remember and forget soon after.

10.  I do not believe it was the dialogue you had or the length of the lecture. I believe the problem lied with the students. The students in the class do not really care about the subject matter and therefore did not feel intrigued to participate. If it is not for that reason I know it had to be because a lot of us were tired since the class was later on in the day when people start to get lazy. Some of the points of discussion that were brought up were thought-provoking but because of the combination I mentioned, participation was rare. Another factor was that it was a lecture hall. I know there are people too scared or shy to voice their opinions in that environment. Perhaps if it were a smaller class and people got to know each other more there would be more participation. This exact thought-process was used in my public speaking class and there was always participation and no fear to talk in front of each other despite it being a class people struggle with and being at night. 

11. My suggestions for the class are to space out the galleries to every other week so you can try to prolong interest and participation. In addition instead of Tumblr, use a beachboard but only to collect assignments. This way students can see their grades explicitly while also using a system they are familiar with and even get alerts as to when dropboxes are closing which would be deadlines and make it even more convenient for students to do assignments because as time progressed I saw that people got tired of navigating Tumblr and quality of work sometimes dipped. The website was fantastic and I would not change anything about that. I always knew what was going and I could plan my days around it which helped a lot on top of the fact that the website itself is really nice to engage with. You were always available for your office hours and it was in a pretty cool place relatively speaking. I liked that the option to email you was also very available because I know sometimes it is daunting for students to directly talk to their professors. Class time was used effectively but since the timing was later in the day I could tell people were tired so perhaps if it was earlier the experience would be improved. I would also suggest you do a tutorial of some sorts or linking tips or help videos for Wix if you continue to use it in the future for the art gallery assignment instead of throwing students into the water and seeing if they can swim which it seemed like. Secondly throwing what seemed to be like four assignments at people towards the end of the class threw a lot of people off and a lot of students panicked and got stressed out since finals is just around the corner. I would suggest introducing the EC earlier in their semester by at least two weeks especially the Museum exploration one and if not, extend the deadline of it. Overall this was a great class and I would recommend it to everyone that needs it. It is engaging, interesting, and fun with a great professor that actually cares about students and the learning experience.

[ferrarichamlern]

D2 - Artist Galleries

Artist: Eva Grello

Website: https://www.evagrello.com/blog

Eva Grello is a graduate student here at California State University Long Beach and is from Ontario, California. She is here working on her MFA right now, focusing on illustration and animation and is currently in the School of Art’s Illustration/ Animation program. Her favorite things to illustrate and or animate are animals which she likes to pair with complex textiles and patterns.

Her art is very interesting, to say the least. Her pieces are really crowded and cluttered and feature a variety of unusual things including anthropomorphic animals. They’re a lot to take in initially but very eye-catching. They all have a childish and cartoony art style which makes it visually appealing. The colors are a nice mix of bright and dark but at a more faded type of hue. In combination with her illustrations she also showcased a stop-motion project of hers called “Babyface”. The nature of stop motion might be a little unsettling to first-time viewers but the childish music is very soothing in a sense and helps you digest the content of the video.

I believe her art is an expression of her view of an ideal society. Despite the unorganized nature of her work, there is a lot of detail present. Everything has a purpose and meaning behind it even though it may seem random. These pieces are meant to display unity for one. There are all different types of animals which seems like its meant to be placeholders for us. They are all getting along together and enjoying themselves without prejudice or bias.

[ferrarichamlern]

D1 - Artist Galleries

Artist: Jillian Thompson

Exhibition: Ode to Sisterhood

Gallery: LBSU School of Art

Media: Sculpture / Painting / Metalwork / Printmaking

Email: jmariemetal@gmail.com

Instagram: jillian_thompson

Jillian Thompson is a multi-disciplined artist and current graduate student at California State University Long Beach. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, She has earned a Master of Fine Arts or MFA degree in Jewelry and Metalsmithing and spends most of her time working on her exhibition, Ode to Sisterhood. Aside from this ongoing project, she designs jewelry and makes sets for models to use on photoshoots that you can view on her Instagram.

The work in her exhibition, Ode to sisterhood at first glance may look like it has a common theme but in reality, it does. Thompson’s work expresses her desire to show off her culture and her passions. All of her pieces are a culmination of different art styles and materials. In one piece, spray paint is displayed around an arrangement of skateboards each with their own designs that are, together, pieces depicting African American culture. In another piece, there are sections of braided colored hair including blonde and brown which is meant to celebrate women and show solidarity with the braided hair connected to each other.

When asking questions to Thompson, we were able to learn a little bit about her background and her exhibition. For instance, She is 28 years old from Detroit, Michigan. Despite the amazing quality of her work, she only started doing her own around two years ago. Ode to sisterhood, according to her, was meant to showcase her culture, heritage, and passion for women’s empowerment. I was curious about her piece with all the braided hair and we found out that they were all worn by her friends and family and repurposed for the exhibition. Finally, her favorite pieces of art are pieces presenting urban cities because it reminds her of her youth.

My experience with this exhibit was actually surprising. I came into it thinking it would be sort of pretentious and I would not be able to connect or figure out what was going on with each piece. However, I appreciated the effort and passion behind each and every little detail. The different materials, which in of themselves must have taken a while to get just how Thompson wanted, meticulously arranged in an aesthetically pleasing as well as thought-provoking manner was the standout for me. Usually, when people think of art they think of paintings or sculptures but these were in my opinion on a different level. Her pieces combine woods, metals, fabrics, and even the unconventional use of spray paint just to name a few. My personal favorite piece was the spray-painted Rastafarian skateboards. I enjoyed how all the skateboards were sections of other African American artworks and went with each other but were separated by other skateboards with their own sections of other pieces of art. Everything just culminated very well with each other and the colors really made this section of the exhibition stand out from the rest.

[ferrarichamlern]

D1 - Plaster Casting

Believe it or not that is a hand and not a foot