Wk 13 Artist Interview: Ronald Pagenkopp “Retrospection”

“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”.

 

 

Wk 4 Artist: Natali Guerra Pineda “Viva!”

 

Natali Guerra Pineda arrived in the United States in 2008 and since then, she has been working diligently to complete her gallery, “Viva!”. The gallery includes many different materials like glass, in which she melts it down to a powder and uses it to shape the piece, copper, metals, and pen ink for her pictures. There are so many different used materials because Natali claims that she “likes to try and use everything she can” in her pieces, “if she can try anything new, [she] will do it”. Even though this is Natali’s first gallery, it definitely is not going to be her last.

Natali’s inspiration is drawn from life in general, hence the gallery’s name, “Viva!”. She is inspired by the human body, perfectionism, nature and the unknown. She believes that “time is ticking so love your life”. 

The piece pictured above was an assignment Natali was instructed to do that somehow depicted death around the world. She embraced the assignment and created a piece using sequences that showed an individual “who loses a child due to hunger”. This piece related to the overall theme to the gallery because death is ironically an aspect of life. 

Natali’s artwork was very fascinating because she used so many different forms of art in order to showcase her overall theme of embracing life.