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Alexandre Early

Section G

Project #4: Unbeknown to Alternate Existentiality

The name of the man I interviewed was Aaron Tomte. While walking downtown, I spotted him sitting in an outdoor seating area reading something on his phone. Something about him drew me to him and so I decided to ask him if I could interview him. As I began to ask a few of my questions, he started noticing a pattern of topics regarding self-awareness and existence. I asked him if he was okay with me asking him these kinds of questions, to which he responded that it was fine. He proceeded to say that he enjoyed entertaining those kinds of thoughts. As we finished up the interview, I engaged in some more small chat, thanked him for his time, and left and went back home. Upon reflection of his answers, I found him to be a very philosophical man with somewhat different views and interesting opinions regarding life itself in comparison to what I might find in today’s society. He had an oddly scientific approach in his answer to my first question and it didn’t feel that his paradigm from beginning to end was consistent, though it was interesting to see his mental state shift from actual to hypothetical frame of minds. I enjoyed his sarcastic answers to some of my questions, some of which he asked to answer it over again, and others that I decided to keep to show his initial reaction. Some of my questions, which revolved around the persona’s psyche, were usually answered stemming from the event in which his boyfriend broke up with him. He seemed to be very emotional about the ordeal and it influenced some of his answers. I could tell that he was a very emotional man and was in tune with his feelings. He was also very artistic. When I approached him about the topics of music and art, he gave a compact answer formidably summarizing what the two meant for him specifically while generalizing it up for how others might perceive it.This man seemed very self-aware about his flaws and desires as a human being. I found that specifically to be kind of refreshing, as I feel like not many others would know exactly what about them needs to be worked on or what they can change to become better people. All in all, Aaron was a very interesting young man. Most of his answers were those that I was not exactly expecting. However, I was very happy to have had interviewed him and that he took a more open and grander approach at answering my questions made me crave more of the nonconforming hypotheses of the greatest inquiries of human life.

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Platonic

For some reason, my picture isn't loading, but I shall trudge on. (My piece was the one of two profiles facing each other and one had naked ladies for brains.) Julia Nicole Aviles I interviewed someone really invest in thought and valued thinking in people. But after the interview, he was very forward with me (multiple times, after refusals). I asked him what he was in the interview and he said "human." Nowadays, we put so much work into being separate from nature and animals; we are greater because we have this higher level of thinking, but cave men were human too and all they wanted was to survive.

[think-invent-g-j]

Platonic

For some reason, my picture isn't loading, but I shall trudge on. (My piece was the one of two profiles facing each other and one had naked ladies for brains.) Julia Nicole Aviles I interviewed someone really invest in thought and valued thinking in people. But after the interview, he was very forward with me (multiple times, after refusals). I asked him what he was in the interview and he said "human." Nowadays, we put so much work into being separate from nature and animals; we are greater because we have this higher level of thinking, but cave men were human too and all they wanted was to survive.

[think-invent-g-j]

Tatiana Kravtsova 

Section G 

Project 4 "Enigma"

This is a portrait of a girl I met in Vegas. During my interview I tried to ask  the most random questions in order to find out about the different sides of her. I thought I began to understand what kind of person she is, however, as I got to know her a little better during the night I realized that she is a completely different person. I was stunned that I was completely wrong about her, since I believe that I am good at reading people. The form of the portrait resembles a sketch, which represents the fact that I do not know too much about her. The shading on the face depicts the fact the I began to get to know her and "fill in the blanks". I tried to capture her face on the way back from Vegas. She was very quiet and mysterious. I did not understand whether she was at peace or regretful of her actions in Vegas. 

     The white background on the second piece represents her as a white canvas, since I knew nothing about her when I met her. The red origami represents her heart, it is coming out of a black background, which represents the darkness that I was shocked to find out and failed to see during the interview.  

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Alexandra Moskow

Section G

Project 4 - "The Long, Breezy Unpredictable"

Stirring cool and collected with a wisdom of millennia dancing upon her shoulders,

she yields answers in conscious clippings, pruning words of her mind.

On the threshold of her third decade she learns that bodies are the instruments we are armed with and blessed to parade around:

She has always had the vessel, though just now learning to take hold of responsibility for its trajectory.

Robin greets presence with every breathe.

Robin: zealous for knowledge and its spread.

Robin, knows transience.

When she expanded her waxing wings, up and flew to Scotland to settle into dark green sweater weather, she found that displacement leads to quaking tear ducts,

breaking fragility into fertility into water

like her body has always been ready to.

She follows through on time’s promise of change, accepts the uprooting of permanence.

Since she time-zone traveled through space and blind-eye blind spots, embracing the unknown like the clutch of a familiar body-

Her stopwatch has stopped watching the clock so closely.

No countdown fuse buried in the weight of a watchful eye, nothing wasted,

no thing wasted...

Robin, takes the time to breathe.

Tranquility slips into her maiden hair

like silvery strands of wisdom she has acquired from her tinsel tasseled travels

across seas. on planes. over planes of acceptance.

Over heaping plates of affirmation for the human race she claims:

“There are legitimately evil people in this world, but all the goodness outweighs that”.

The weight of that is sacred -

“what we have right now is too damn good”, and paradise is too far in the future.

She is aware of herself as a shape shifter-

a future undecided, unmeditated;

an epitaph with an etching undecided:

a quote from a book she has yet to embed herself in.

Scripture, coming true.

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Portrait of a Stranger

Alex Chacon - Project 4

Section G

I did my project by doing a portrait of the person I interviewed in inkwash, overlayed on a background of text.  The texts were all from writings that were significant to my interviewee, such as writings from a book, song lyrics, and poems

[think-invent-g-j]

THE SCAREDY CAT

"Before I knew it my face disappeared during the night. 

Genna Banzuela, Project 4 

Interview with a girl on skype who liked cats and wanted people to know she was afraid 

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Rion An

Section G

Project #4

For my project, I interviewed a very interesting 70 year old lady who was extremely passionate about gardening. Her life revolved around her plants which she called her children due to the fact that her daughter and grandchildren moved to Japan. It seemed as if gardening was a way to relieve her stress and because she spent so much time gardening, she was always thinking about the flowers in her garden. This was seen through her answers to the interview questions. Somehow all the answers would lead back to gardening. However, she also explained how religious she was. When she was not gardening, she read the bible, pray, go to small group studies, and attend church on Sundays. It seemed as if going to Church was an escape from gardening. What was also interesting to hear was how she is not scared of dying because she has basically lived her life. Thus, I wanted to exemplify her life in a frame which symbolizes her body. The upper frame has pressed dark red/magenta flower petals that represents her brain. The pressed lavenders are her thoughts that are constantly traveling in her brain, hence the fact that she is always thinking about her plants. In addition, the fact that various flowers are flowing out of her brain shows that her thoughts travel out of her brain. In addition, they show how she always talks about them and her hands have a natural gift of gardening and producing life. The lower frame that is hanging from the upper frame has a elaborate gold border which has a religious vibe and represents her religious life. The inside of the second frame is filled with dirt which symbolizes that Christianity is where her morals and beliefs are founded on. Also, her plants would not be able to flourish and grow without the dirt as the foundation. The lower frame is meant to sway side to side much like a grandfather clock which shows that her time is passing. In addition, the crack in the frame represents that she is a fragile and frail women. 

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Stephanie Poo

Section G

Identity Crisis

This is a drypoint print of the stranger I interviewed most prominent personalities from which she draws inspiration for her acting.

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Reach for the stars Sofia Bundy Section J This piece is about a stranger I interviewed who is very in her own world. She still has a very attractive personality and draws people to her.

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Alejandra Banos

Section G

Project # 4

"Pink Cabinet"

For this last project, I interviewed a really interesting young 19 year old guy who was visiting a friend in the Santa Cruz area. As I interviewed him, he became really comfortable talking about his interests in life, and his future goals. I asked him a variety of 30 questions, from simple to more complex to gain a better understanding of who he is. As for the process of making this piece, I used a white cabinet that I have, and painted the whole cabinet pink to portray his deep interest in the color pink. When interviewing him, he expressed that he really likes pink because it defies the gender stereotypes of society. My reason behind choosing a cabinet was mostly due to his comment about being a shy person due to being sheltered while he was growing up. In addition to being shy and keeping parts of himself closed in around crowds, he emphasized that one of his biggest habits is thinking a lot and reading when he has free time in his hands. I then used this cabinet's front mirror to embody this idea of self-reflection and deep thinking as one stares into their reflection. When I asked him about his hobbies and other interests, he said he has a great joy in singing and music, and that if all goes well he wishes to pursue his goals within that field. He then mentioned one of his favorite hobbies is collecting spiders, jars, and buttons. This then inspired me to fill the inside of the cabinet with hand-made spiders that I made, and different types of jars that I could get a hold of. Overall, he was a great person to interview and I really enjoyed his honest personality and unique interests. 

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"Discarded Humans"

Lauren Wolcott

Section J

Project 4

For this project, I interviewed a homeless man named Stephen. I decided that I wanted to capture how homeless men, women and children appear to be the discarded fragments in society. I chose to make my sculptures out of hair to show how hair is lost and forgot about and I placed these sculptures of grimly locations in down town Santa Cruz.

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"Stay High"

Luis E Contreras

Benjamin F. Porter College,

University of California, Santa Cruz

Art 10B, Section G

After randomly meeting tony and getting to know him, I found it very interesting to know that we have more things in common than I expected. As college students, we like to stay high in the chill Santa Cruz environment, however, our biggest fears keep us grounded to reality.

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Kelly Conlin

Section G

Project #4

"Crossroads"

I interviewed a Monterey Bay Aquarium employee. She was in the process of applying to Law School but she was still bubbly and daydreams. She is at the crossroads in her life, caught between the reality of growing up and staying a kid.

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Yesenia Lopez

section J

Stranger project

"The Rod Redford"

The man I interviewed was a 60 something soon to be retire-ee. He discussed many things but he showed a genuine appreciation and aw for a certain character genre in old western movies. He told me his favorite film was one titled "Jeremiah Johnson" because of the "mountain men" depicted in it and their ability to withstand the brute force of nature and all that prevailed form it. I asked Rod if that was a profession (had it been the time and age and like 80 years ago) that he would have enjoyed, and he said no. But looking back at the interview, because he is at a significant change in his life, asking that sort of question might have brought up feelings of remorse for what could have been. I decided to incorporate details from the poster of the movie he suggested and make it as if it was him that starred as the acclaimed Mountain Man he had always looked up to. To the left of Rod is his home city of San Francisco where he was raised and to the right are the mountain Ranges. He is facing towards the mountain ranges as if saying "hasta la vista" to his city life in exchange for that of the natural world. Inscribed on the painting in white ink reads "His City. His Peace. His Sweet Shades. Retiring June 12th 2014". Also, His last name is not Redford, in fact I have no idea what it could be but since Robert Redford was the director and acted out as a mountain man, I acquired his last name for Rod as well. 

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Thomas Jacobsen

Section G

Project #4: Portrait

Untitled

I used watercolor to create this portrait of Haru who I interviewed that expressed her great fondness towards circles, particularly of a circle-clicking rhythm game called, "Osu!" With most of her time being spent of the computer, the thought of a cage was conjured as it locks someone from the outside and the world beyond their comfort zone.The computer is a window towards beauty and the contents of the Internet, but it's only a window and is a limitation to seeing the rest of the world. She mentioned that her mother  wanted to take up smoking again and in exchange she would get this or that. Some exchanges were more notable than others, and alcohol at an early age was one of them. However, upon realizing her reliance on alcohol, she stopped. The cage is also a form of escapism much like the Bacardi and Coca-Cola as she used them to block out the hurtful world.

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Sofia Bundy, Sergio Hernandez Lezama, Matt Testo Section J Public art project "Have You Scene It?" New York City metropolitan The purpose of this art piece is to provoke city people to consider taking a weekend off to connect with nature. The structure is a large steel box with projection screens. Projectors on the inside will project images of nature onto the screens. The central system is powered by solar panels located on top. Visitors to the site will be enriched with scenes of nature. The piece also has a feedback box, allowing visitors to give feedback on what they think of the work, what images they would like to see, and how this piece has inspired them.