This past week, I had the opportunity to view the gallery, “Effusion” composed of the works from the Drawing and Painting BFA program here at California State University Long Beach. I had the chance to interview one of these artists, … Continue reading
Maddie Ballew is currently a first-year student at California State University Long Beach. She lives in on-campus housing Parkside because she is not originally from the area. Maddie is from the same area I am which is the Fresno area. … Continue reading
This week, Khara Cloutier’s art collection, “Fabricating Identity” was featured at Cal State Long Beach. Khara is from Austin, Texas and originally went to Texas State to get her BFA. After receiving her BFA, she lived in Los Angeles for ten years and then decided to go back to school. She is now currently attending Cal State Long Beach in order to get her MFA. She chose to attend Long Beach for her master’s because it is a very good college of the arts for the price.
Khara’s designs are “inspired by the man-made landscapes that surround (her) and (she) applies those patterns to the landscape of the body”. She wants to emphasize that her work is not art, but merely graphic design. Khara wanted to use fashion in order to convey certain messages because it is a universally known way to express one’s identity.
“This body of work is a look at memory and the moments that define one’s experiences”
This week at California State University Long Beach, Ron Pagenkopp’s gallery, “Retrospection”, was featured. For this collection, Ronald focused on “memories and people of his past that have been important to him because he wanted the work to be personal”. He spent nearly fifteen hours on each of the pieces that comprise the gallery. Each piece required such a great length of time because Ron wanted the pieces to symbolize the great details and fragments that make up a memory. For the pieces, Ron used a grid scale in order to emphasize the essence how an individual values time.
Ron Pagenkopp’s artwork is an implication on how individuals view and collect their memories. According to Ron, his artwork was made to “create representations and impressions that define a broader course of movement and change”.
For my P12 assignment, I worked with fellow classmate Jacob Kline on a project. First, we agreed that we wanted to do something involving photography since we both enjoy it. We then decided to give each other a specific word that we thought represented a stereotypical thing that the opposite sex would enjoy. For instance, I gave Jacob the word “skateboarding” and he gave me the word “flowers”. From there, I walked around the campus and took pictures of the flowers I thought would most adequately represent the word “flowers”.
This was the first picture taken that I thought would represent the word “flowers”. The only edit I did for this one was a subtle VSCO filter that merely changed the hue of the picture, allowing the flowers to become much more vibrant.
I did not make any edits for this photo because I thought that there did not need to be any. There were already enough vibrant colors in the original photo to make it stand out.
For this picture, I used another VSCO filter to make the actual rose stand out in contrast to the bushes behind it. In doing so, the bee in the center of the picture became much more visible. I think this picture is an accurate depiction of still-life in nature.
For the “my choice” assignment for week eleven, I decided that I wanted to do something that would be practical. Since I will be living in an apartment next year, I need to start finding or making home decor. I … Continue reading
For this activity, I had the opportunity to go to Venice Beach. This was my first time going to Venice Beach so I was at first shocked by the culture. When we arrived at the actual graffiti walls, I was instantly hit with the fumes put off by the vast amount of spray painting that was occurring around me. The artists that were working on their pieces were working intently in order to create the image that they wanted.
For this assignment, we were instructed to spray paint on one the walls. Since I was intimidated by the graffiti artists, I chose to spray paint my name very small in one of the corners. It was a really cool concept that by painting my name on the wall, I was leaving my mark.
Audra Graziano’s gallery, “Off-line” was featured this past week in the Cal State Long Beach art galleries .Audra originally worked in New York for ten years and then moved to California. She began started painting scenic backgrounds for commercials, Fox Sports, and reality shows. After awhile, Audra decided to attend grad school here at Long Beach. For the purpose of this gallery, Audra composed the pieces by starting with very tense common paint as the ground layer and then kept adding glazed layers until the pieces were complete.
The thesis for Audra’s exhibition can be split into two different parts: an analysis of the wiring communication systems (our phone usage) and how much of what we actually intend to communicate is transmitted via said phone wires. Audra’s main focus was on the fact that we operate these forms of communication without consciously thinking, like the function of our human bodies. According to Audra, we do not become aware of these habitual functions until something goes wrong. Audra claims that, “these paintings have evolved from an abstract relationship with technological transmission to an embodied metaphor for visual communication”.
For this week’s activity, we were instructed to write our names in bubble letters. This was done in order to prepare us for the graffiti that we would be seeing on the graffiti walls at Venice Beach for the following … Continue reading
Emma Madsen 