wk 9 artist: Don Tinling “Backspace”

Don Tinling’s gallery, “Backspace”, was featured this week at Cal State University Long Beach. Don began working in film production in 1990 and in 1997, decided to pursue a career in digital media because “[he] has a love for photography”. To further his education, in 2010, he began studying at Santa Monica Community College and then transferred to CSULB. 

“Backspace” was dedicated to the idea that “when something is removed it creates a space for something else”. This is a reference to Don’s personal experience with the HIV virus and AIDS. Don was originally diagnosed with HIV in 1989 and by 1996, he had full blown AIDS. As of today, the HIV virus is still present in his blood but fortunately, does not pose as an immediate threat. Don’s gallery features blood vials that represent the timeline of years of Don’s survivorship. The gallery also contains a set of continuous footage that was shot before social media exploded. Don encourages pursuing artists to “talk about what is personal in your life. It will affect more people because they can relate to it”. 

wk 9 classmate interview: Lauren Langer

Lauren Langer is currently a second year student at Cal State University Long Beach. She is majoring in nursing and recreational therapy with the hope to one day be an RN. Lauren lives in Woodier, where she grew up, and drives daily to school. Interestingly enough, Lauren has a fraternal twin. Her hobbies include, riding her bike, playing soft-ball, hanging out with her cousin, and listening to country music. She informed me that her favorite movie is “A Walk to Remember”. 

Lauren’s favorite from of art is photography. She claims that she enjoys it because pictures are able to capture such beautiful sights of scenery like flowers and sunsets. Lauren also enjoys photos of people, especially those of her little cousin. Even though Lauren initially enrolled in this class to fulfill the the GE requirement, she is very glad that she decided to take it. She now is able to appreciate art much more than she did prior to taking ART 110. 

http://lolonicknick.com/

wk 8 project: Plaster casting

For this week’s assignment, we were instructed to try out plaster casting. I had never had any experience with this form of art, so I was extremely unfamiliar with how it was supposed to go. Since the weather was so …

wk 8 artist: James Real

“I was trying to only paint things that I have done as graffiti but that became too time consuming so then I decided to be a painter”, says Cal State University Long Beach graduate-student artist, James Real.  During his time as an undergraduate here at Long Beach, James decided to take his education elsewhere and study abroad in Italy for two semesters. He had originally chosen Italy because he studies anthropology and finds different cultures interesting. Since James is Italian, he was even more interested in the culture there.

The above piece is featured in James’ gallery at CSULB. He had originally wanted to do the piece on an Italian wall but but he never was given the chance, so he decided to do it with an Los Angeles setting instead. The painting features two people, James Real and his “friend [he] had met at a bar near the school [he] was intending in Italy”. He never had the opportunity to get a picture with said friend so this painting is a tribute to him. James also includes a lyric from the Pink Floyd song, “Wish You Were Here” as well as an Italian text. James’ style is contemporary because of his use of 3-D art; yet. still discusses things in a traditional style.

Wk 8 classmate interview: Aaron Jingles

Aaron Jingles is currently a second year student at California State University Long Beach. He commutes daily to school from his home elsewhere in Long Beach. Aaron is a Pre-Film major with an emphasis in screen writing. He, along with another classmate, most recently wrote and filmed a short video for their “corpse project” for ART110. Aaron plans on writing more scripts within the following months and is eager to take more Film classes. His other experience pertaining to film includes the theater arts classes he took during high school.

Aaron is the second oldest out of his five other siblings. He also has one cat and claims to love animals. His other likes and interests include super heroes, video games, and anime. His favorite super hero is Batman and his favorite type of video games are story-based. His favorite colors are red and sky-blue.

http://ajingles19.com/

wk 7: Avatar Interview

For this particular project, we were told to make a Second Life account and visit some of the virtual art galleries. I first began with installing the program on my computer and then went on to make an avatar. Instead of customizing an avatar, I chose one of the pre-made ones. Once in the virtual world, I transported to CSULB. I was initially shocked at how legitimate the virtual world was in retrospect to the real one. I then participated in a group interview with featured artist, Isabella Medici. Isabella had created a virtual gym as a reference to the idea that people would rather sit in front of a screen all day, rather than be physically active. She prefers the virtual world because repetition is a tool that is commonly used; like when designing the gym, she was able to recreate the same treadmill over and over. During the interview, she also addressed educational matters, such as the value of a diploma vs. knowledge.   

wk 7 artist: Alanna Marcelletti “Paneless”

 

“My work is a visual journal of image, text, and found objects that document the people and places I encounter as well as memories of my family and literature I read”. This is a statement from featured artist this week, Alanna Marcelletti. Alanna is twenty-nine years old and works in the library at the elementary school, Carlthorp in Santa Monica. A few years ago, she attended Long Beach State and majored in art. Now, she is back at Long Beach as a student in contemporary practices in painting at the art program and claims she loves it; “you can’t do it if you don’t love it”. 

The gallery, “Paneless”, is comprised of work by Alanna as well as Arezoo Bhartania. Alanna’s part of the gallery took about a month to finish because she worked on all of the pieces simultaneously. She dedicated around sixteen hours of work in her studio a week until the gallery was completed. Alanna says that her overall focus of the gallery is “social pressure on outside society on personal life”. She also wants the theme of expression from a female perspective to be conveyed through her work. This theme alludes to “societal pressure on domestic life as a woman; such as, gender roles, biological clock, and maintaining a family”. 

Alanna says that the overall theme of the piece pictured above is about deterioration and loss. She furthered her explanation by saying, “I think it’s also about the good things of deterioration; even though something falls apart, good things may still happen”. 

http://alannam.pixpasites.com/#/home?i=370

wk 7 Classmate: Briella Matsumoto

Briella Matsumoto is currently a second year student at California State University Long Beach. She is a Civil Engineer Major but is not absolutely sure yet what she plans to do with her degree. She wishes that she can work at a private firm first and then work her way up to working in a public industry. Briella is originally from Sacramento but now currently lives in an apartment near the school. On campus, she is involved in the Christians on Campus Club. In her spare time, Briella also likes running on the beach and exploring new coffee shops with her friends. Her favorite place to go is a local cafe’ called “Viento y Agua”.

Briella does not necessarily consider herself an artist, but identities herself most with photography. She enjoys photography because it is a documentation of life and she thinks most people can find a way to relate to a particular photographs. Finding ways to relate to pieces of artwork is Briella’s favorite aspect of art.

http://briellamatsumoto.com/

Wk 6: Counter-factual Identity

For the counter-factual identity assignment, I decided to dress as something not too peculiar; yet something different from what I would normally wear. I decided to try my best to dress as similarly as I could to the “hippie”/boho chic …

Wk 6 Artist: Catherine Vu “Domain”

This past week, I was given the opportunity to see the art gallery, “Domain”, located on the campus of Cal State Long Beach. The gallery was comprised of art-work made by the artists; Jessica Bardales, Humberto Cayetano, Katsumi Gibo, Mike Lewis, Cisco Mojica, and Catherine Vu.

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to interview Catherine Vu. Upon this interview, I learned that Catherine is currently a Senior at Cal State Long Beach and does not live on campus. She had always wanted to pursue a career in art but says that when she was little, she had a different idea of what art really was. Her theme in the majority of her most recent works has been focusing on the concept that “no specific medium depends on what specific message it carries”. On top of being an artist, Catherine also spends her free-time reading about things that she is interested in. Regarding what Catherine plans to do after graduation, she says that she just “wants to survive”.

Catherine Vu’s pictured above art-piece was inspired by Instagram and the internet in general. She further explained the inspiration for this piece by claiming that “social media has become a reality and seems more real to you than what is actually going on in your real life”.

A quote that Catherine Vu used to explain her contributions to the gallery is featured below:

“Let’s just ahead to the moment of epiphany, in gold light, as the camera pans to where the action is, lakeside and back-lit, and it all falls into frame, close enough to see the blue rings of my eyes as I say something ugly”, as said by Richard Siken in Litany in Which Certain Things are Crossed Out.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/catherine-vu/54/8a0/94a