#surreal fidelity dance team

[abstract-oasis]

Art Nouveau Woodblock Prints vs Contemporary Digital Art Prints

Art nouveau thrived from 1890-1910 and is considered to be the “bridge between Victorian clutter and Modernism.” (Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. 6th Edition. Pg 212) At the time “art nouveau” was coined in Paris, the style was considered the ‘new art.” Art nouveau's most identifiable features were it’s free-flowing lines, subjective color, floral motifs, and it’s rejection from traditional art forms. Artists of the time primarily created books, posters, and advertisements; producing beautiful artworks which drew inspiration from gothic arts, Victorian paintings, nature, fantasy, and Japanese woodblock printing. Artists of the time primarily used the woodblock printing method for sharing their new art with the world. Many countries had distinctive styles within the umbrella of art nouveau, but an international new style emerged with technological advances in printing presses, and the market for art for middle and working class people increased. There was a demand for art depicting everyday people, activities, and scenarios, rather than images of unrelatable people and places. Women enjoying life’s pleasures such as drinking and dancing were a huge subject matter for posters. Additionally, some books of the time had illustrations so scandalous they were outlawed in England. Oftentimes artists gained notoriety due to the controversy of their artworks.

“Woodblock prints were a careful collaboration between publisher, artist, block cutter, and printer. The publisher financed the production of a print and coordinated the work of the other three partners. The artist supplied a separate drawing for each color. These were pasted onto woodblocks and the negative or white areas were cut away, destroying the original drawing in the process. After all the blocks for a print were cut, printing began.” (Pg.209) This extensive planning and tedious work that went into some illustrations for printing show the skill of the team at the presses. Mistakes could easily be made while carving the woodblock that could compromise the integrity of the original art, so highly skilled etchers were sought out. Aubrey Beardsley was briefly a renowned artist during the art nouveau period and found a solution by using the “photo engraving process to transfer his artworks from paper to woodblock press, retaining complete fidelity to the original art,” unlike hand carved woodblock illustrations. (Pg. 219)

Besides the team of hands required to produce prints during the art nouveau period, other contingencies posed issues in the woodblock printing process. Inks had to be applied expertly and quickly during printing which posed another problem at times. Only limited colors were available in the past, and only so many could be used per design for fear of colors bleeding and muddling the details. The printing process required a lot of time and manpower to complete, and a plethora of expensive materials were wasted in the trial and error process, unlike today, where we have unlimited digital tools at our fingertips with thousands of colors available to us.

The art and process of making art today is much more efficient, cost effective, and convenient. Contemporary art has many focuses, styles, and mediums thriving. One of my personal favorite styles is digitally created psychedelic art, which draws inspiration from multiple religions, spiritual beliefs, psychedelic experiences, flowers, animals, the nude body and music.

Throughout psychedelic graphic art there is use of repeating or kaleidoscope patterns, sacred geometry, surreal imagery, with vivid and contrasting colors. Oftentimes there’s a sense of a journey, the unknown, or out-of-body experiences. Art of today focuses more heavily on storytelling, entertaining and creating an ambiance or statement in a room, versus depicting the day to day life of the public. A lot of contemporary art can be described as hyperrealistic, as the line between a painting or a photograph is hard to identify at times. Artists of today have the ability to bend reality within photographs, sometimes without detection. Digital art mediums such as Surface Pro’s and IPads are easy to transport and make art easily accessible, in places traditional mediums would be too messy.

Android Jones is a digital artist who is extremely accomplished in our contemporary times, from his fantasy dreamscape artworks to his own graphic design programmed called Microdose VR, which operates conveniently on surface drawing pads. In his artistic process he is able to single handedly make artworks that would have in past times required a team to make. The burden of mistakes, spacing, and wrong colors is removed from the creative process as digital paintings can be erased, redrawn, skewed, recolored, and resized endless times- all without wasting paper or inks. Creating digital art allows for quick, easy, high quality printing. In fact, you can have your artwork printed in as little as an hour as of currently, and there are self service options which would allow you to create prints, from start to finish completely autonomously. Producing a print was a feat in the 1890s-1910 which could easily take months.

I must conclude that contemporary digital art is better versus art nouveau woodblock printing for the fact that supplies are not wasted in the process of making digital art, the process of making prints requires only yourself and the person running the printer, every color and brush imaginable is available in digital art programs, and finally, contemporary art is what I have grown up around, what I can deeply relate to, and what inspired me to start painting myself. There’s nothing I love more than making paintings and I owe that appreciation to the artists whose exhibitions I stood in awe of before at the Smithisonian.

[in--movement]

Dancer Profile: Charles Joseph Zepeda

Interviewed by Mary Whitman

1. Name

Charles Joseph Zepeda (B-Boy Marvelous)

2. Age

19

3. Hometown/Current location

San Diego, CA

4. When and how did you begin dancing?

7th Grade at Rancho Del Rey Middle School in Chula Vista, CA

5. What dance teams or projects have you been a part of?

 Teams/ Crews I have been/ am a part of include: Urban Pandas Crew (discontinued), Cloud Walkers Crew [CWC] (current), Surreal Fidelity Dance Team (alumni), Full Effect Show Choir (alumni), Stateside Breaks [of San Diego State University] (current)

6. What are you currently working on now?

I am currently not working on anything special. I just attempt at being the “cypher king” for breaking jams I go to just to establish not only my name, but my crew’s name, Stateside Breaks.

7. What is the importance of a majority of SoCal dancers being Asian?

I believe there is no importance to a majority of Southern California’s dancers being predominantly Asian. There is too much value put on ethnicity that one may lose sight of what it is truly valuable; that being skill, passion, character, and will.

8. What do you think is the relationship between hip hop and the Asian American community?

In terms of the relationship established within the Asian-American community and hip-hop, I believe that within the community Asians believe they have a strong relationship to hip-hop culture, but other ethnicities not involved in Asian-American hip-hop fail to recognize the contribution made by Asian-Americans. “Samurai Champloo” was a great example of Japanese culture blending with hip-hop culture. Anime and hip-hop established by legend Nujabes brought life to old Asian-American culture, including The Way of the Ronin (Samurai). Unfortunately things such as this are unrecognized. Society sticks with stereotypes like “Asians can dance” or “White people can’t dance” which leads to misconceptions. Hip-hop and Asian-American culture may never establish a firm relationship that is universally recognized until ignorance has ceased.

9. What does it mean to be an Asian American dancer?

To be an Asian-American dancer means to spread awareness that hip-hop and Asians do have prominent role in the culture. This however creates a label that draws attention away from my capabilities and character. I do not want to be labeled as an Asian-American dancer, but rather a dancer who happens to be Asian-American.

10. Who are your Asian American dance inspirations?

Inspirations for dance I have include:

 Allan Twiford {Cypher City Kings [CCK]/  Stateside Breaks} He had first inspired me to start dancing when I was in 7th Grade and he was in 8th. I saw him battle someone and I told myself I wanted to do that.

Daniel Campos (B-Boy Cloud) {Skill Methodz Crew} I have always appreciated Cloud’s style as well as speed, which is a skill I crave when I break.

Quest Crew (Season 3 Winners of America’s Best Dance Crew) The work of Quest Crew had inspired me to go further when I was highly active in the b-boy community within my community.

Stateside Breaks (San Diego State University breaking crew) My crew always inspires me to improve with every battle and performance. I cannot be where I am today without their love and support.