Weaving Project

This was our last quick project in the class and some people had a hard time with it. I did not have a hard time with it but I did think it was a little boring. But I think what I ended up with was really cool and seeing the different ways that people were weaving just gave me more ideas as to what I could do next time. Not a lot of people realized how much time and focus is involved in weaving something even as small as 5 inches let alone a number of feet or yards. For mine I used a styrofoam plate and weaved string around it and then added a little bit of garbage bag and tin foil. The final product is cool and it could have turned out way worse.

Gallery Day

So, I went into the galleries here at WSU and found some really interesting and well done artworks. I loved everything in gallery two. Seriously I do not think there was one piece that I said I would not want in my own place. Especially the smoking banana guy in the corner. The piece I photographed though was a work by a student. It was a cylindrical cone like shape made of wood and then burned down the middle and around to give it a really cool look with the black blending into the natural colors of the wood grain. It is strange that I find myself wanting a burnt piece of wood in my living room but it would look badass anywhere. Also, in the other gallery there were some really great glass work. The one I photographed had a mountain environment outlined in glass on more glass. Glass on glass on glass. It was fun. Also I had time to head into the main gallery and it never ceases to amaze. I tried to snag a pic of the art that was in there but the people who work there are like hawks. They see everything.

Photography Artist

For this artist research I have chosen the artist named Shimon Attie. When I started looking into his works and what he was all about I had a strange feeling about his work. It is very awkward to me and seems a little depressed. I like some of the pictures though. And non of them are bad pictures, its just that I am not intrigued by a lot of them like other people would be. He definately has his own style and way of looking at things and putting them together. There's not a lot that I have to say about Shimon Attie's work other than that it seems like you would either hate it or love it. In my own opinion, I would say that I am right in the middle. Take a look for yourself!

Match Box

This project was freaking awesome. I thought that this was going to be boring and annoying but it ended up being really fun and challenging. The ideas I had came to me after an action packed weekend here in Pullman. I kept thinking about the matches not as a way of creating fire but each match as an individual person. Then I thought of what I might be able to do with a vision as such. So, I chose to recreate a couple of the events that occurred that weekend. With my match boxes  I made two different situations. One is of two pairs of people(matches) playing beer pong against each other. The second is of a handful of people(matches) playing soccer with each other. After this project was over I even went out and got more match boxes just to mess around with because I enjoyed it so much.

Short Project

This was the day long project where you had to bring in your own idea of darkness or pain. I chose to sort of mix them together into one idea that overall I think has a pretty big impact. Anyone that has had experience with alcohol abuse knows that it can consume you and everything around you. It simply pulls you into its darkness and causes pain to you and those around you such as family and friends. This idea was last minute as I was talking on the phone to one of my friends about his rehab I realized that his problem could be represented as a darkness and a pain. I used a Jack Daniels bottle and for the substance on the inside I used a torn up garbage bag because it was black and reminded me of darkness. So, think about it like this. The darkness inside alcohol is released when you decide and when consumed causes everyone pain.

Marble Run!

So, this is our marble run. It took some time to build, minus the time it took to even come up with ideas on how to make it last and where to go with it. The process leading up to the final product was full of small issues and things just not wanting to stay how they were the day before. We had trouble at first because we had so much momentum but no where to go with it and in the end we ending up with a lot of tunnels and enclosed space because our marble would be going so fast that it would pop out anywhere possible. We used a lot of duck tape and cardboard throughout the entire thing as you can see. We also used tacks and some other resources that we had found around the building or at our own places. I had fun with this project, I just wish that we had a better selection of materials to use but I think it turned out pretty well with all the problems it was throwing at us. I think that it would be really sweet to have an entire class marble run that extends throughout the whole building into different rooms.

Fiber and Craft Artist

This time I just Jim Drain to talk about. I had to go through a couple of artists to actually find one that I enjoyed. After about 4 or 5 artists that I just could not handle I finally came across the awesome and super bright and colorful works of Mr. Drain. At first I did not know that the material he was using was yarn! Usually I do not think that artwork that uses yarn or string is really that cool unless it blows my mind but Jim Drain does something unique with this material that I have not seen before. He creates crazy elaborate environments and situations while using great lengths of yarn to do so. I also really enjoy his works because they are not something that you look down at and then walk by. No. These things are freaking big and with all the changing colors throughout the whole thing there is not a way in the world to ignore it. Jim Drain is an artist, there is no doubt, but some people do not see him as such. Instead, they view him as a designer with innovative and new ideas for fashion. This is not the case. Even though he may make a sweater, you can see his personal artistic take on the idea each work tells a great story.

2nd Sculpture/Mixed Media/Installation Artist

Wang Du was the second artist from this list that I chose to look at. I am really happy that I typed his name into google because his artwork is so interesting and really cool. He does many different things with three-dimensional pieces that are painted as well. He is a Chinese artist but has had exhibitions all around the United States and all around the world. He does individual and group works and all have their own look and personality. He has a very cool way of making certain things in his pieces stand out be it with various sizes or colors there is always something that catches your eye. He also has a way of sort of chopping up his art works and separating the pieces from each other to give them an entirely different look and feel. Wang Du really enjoys creating proportions that stray form the norm. Like in the photo below the cannons and the hand of the man are all much bigger than the rest of the object and some things are distorted in different ways also. I truly enjoy looking at his works and believe that in person they would have even more of an amazing effect. Having a Wang Du gallery here in Pullman would be great.  

Works On Paper Artist

So, for this artist research I picked Leonardo Da Vinci to talk about. Ok, so this guy right here is one crazy dude. He did an unheard of amount of things from drawing to painting to inventing. First of all, his drawings and paintings were out of this world precise and perfect. There was always such an enormous amount of detail put into each work that you can actually see the undying focus and love that Da Vinci had for art and creation. His works are known around the world and Im pretty sure that most everybody knows about this guy. I mean, the Da Vinci Code had been out for a little while and some has his artwork and other creations. Da Vinci's talent was endless and I think it would have been spectacular to see him in his creative process and see him put things together. Even though his time was long ago, we still see remnants of him and his work to this day. With guys like this, I never understand just where and how they begin to think about certain ideas and then continue to elaborate on them entirely. Someone has to be passing these kinds of people ideas somehow because it seems a little impossible. But, the world needs people like Leonardo Da Vinci because without them we would have a very different present and future. 

 

Halo 4

So, back in the day I was a sponsored gamer on Halo 2. It's weird to think about but it did happen and I was pretty good. The thing is, that I haven't been able to play any other halos after that one because I just haven't really found them that entertaining after I stopped my sponsors. Also, Call of Duty came out. But, the new one was designed and developed by different companies than all the others. Microsoft was surprisingly behind this awesome continuation of the biggest series seller ever beside CoD. It is a strange but beautiful mix of the original Halo and the CoD that we see today with the custom classes and customizable armor takes the experience to another level. If only every game had a destructible environment, then I think no one would be able to get away from their gaming systems and television. The campaign on this one is pretty insane too. There were a couple of surprises that caught me off guard but I cannot talk about them or else it will be a spoiler alert. Oh well, if you've got a gaming system will the ability to play Halo 4, I suggest buying it and playing it immediately.

Thanksgiving

So, this year for Thanksgiving, for the first time, I found myself spending the holiday here in Pullman instead of at home with my family. I think a lot of people were having to do this because of the timing for Apple Cup. WHICH WE WON! Go Cougs! Since we won and I was here to see it, some of the disappointment of not being able to return home was gone. What really got me sad was the home cooked meal from my mom and grandma that I guarantee was life changing. Although my girlfriend  did an amazing job with cooking everything for us here and I haven't had a meal like that in some time. Honestly I could eat like that on a daily basis I could die the happiest 500 lb man that you've every seen. The brown sugar and cinnamon and apple butter pumpkin pie was for sure the best part though. With a little dab of vanilla ice cream, you've got a full stomach and some heavy eye lids. All in all, I can say that even though I missed being with my family on this holiday, I made a pretty epic memory with my coug family here in Pullman. Go Cougs!

Sculpture/Mixed Media/Installation Artist

For this artist research I chose to look at a man named Damien Hirst. He was the first person that I gave interest to and after reviewing numerous works of his I can say that I am a fan. He has a really calm and cool feeling to his artwork while at the same time being very colorful and playful. It seems as though he is a huge fan of butterflies too, although I do not know why and it seems a little strange. Dots also look to be one of his specialties. I think the coolest installations that he does are ones which are inside the glass cases. One of them has a huge shark that I found to be quite interesting because if you were to stand directly in front of it, the shark would look to be actually swimming at you with its mouth wide open and ready to bite. I'm glad that I came across this artist due to his innovative ideas and his simplistic view on most things because I can relate. It's people like Damien Hirst that make me mad that I can't simply get rich and famous from putting different colored dots in rows on paper. Hopefully though, we can meet on day.

3D Animation Creation

This is one of my favorite things I have ever made from scratch. I made this in the Maya 2013 3d animation program and it only took a handful of class periods to make. It is a screenshot of a UFO flying toward the space needle which is covered in the WSU cougar logo. The needle was the most difficult task in this process and it turned out perfectly along with everything else. The UFO has a cool glow effect to it which gives it an alien feel that I really like. This was a really cool project and I actually did some editing to this photo in Photoshop and made the background buildings blurry to give the picture some depth and to make the Space Needle and the UFO pop to anyone who views it. I'm pretty proud of this one and hope you enjoy.

More SPA

Sooooooooo, this is another one of my creations. I don't know how I feel about it because it didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted but its still pretty cool I guess. This one is for sure the biggest spray paint art that I have done so far but hopefully it will be one of my smaller ones in the near future. I plan on making huge works, not the size of an entire wall or anything, but I want them big so I can create and entire solar system. I think that'd be insanely cool to do although it would take a crap ton of spray paint and more time and patience. I wanted to experiment a little bit with this piece by making the blue lines across the planet and using dark blue and red for the stars. Blue and red stars as you can tell are very difficult to see when they are dried so next time it will probably be yellow and white. I am open to any suggestions about what to make or any ideas so please don't be afraid to share them with me.

Chicken Wire Project

Unfortunately, this was a bad picture but you can still see my finished penguin with his awesome top hat on. This project was the most entertaining so far for me because it was very hands on and seeing the final product makes you proud of what you have done. Hands were cut, blood was shed, but it was all worth it to see this little guy completed. There were some rough and difficult moments during the paper mache process with the newspaper falling off and section not staying flat but I made it through. The part I like the most is how the paint turned out. I must say this is a damn good looking penguin and his hat just gives him more personality than I could have imagined.

Clay Project

I have this picture on my phone so I took a photo of my phone with my laptop to post so that's why the quality is a little poor, but this project was actually really fun. I enjoyed working with the clay and molding everything with my hands. Working with clay, I think, let's you have no restrictions and you have a lot more control over how every part of the clay model will look. For mine, my first idea was an xbox 360 controller because at one time I was a professional gamer along with a number of close friends sponsored by Virgin Mobile. After the controller was done, I created a penguin character simply out of fun and actually ended up using that for the chicken wire project. I was surprised to find myself wanting to chose the penguin in the end although I believe that it was the correct choice and I am pleased with the final outcome.

Cool Photoshop Gallery Site

Worth1000

Well, today I just thought I would share a cool photoshop website that a lot of people have heard about before but none the less hear it is, Worth1000. The galleries are extremely cool and there are a ton of them so feel free to take your time and look thoroughly because some of these you simply cannot miss out on. This website definitely shows the amazing talent of some professional and some not professional photo editors and full on creators. I've worked with photoshop on numerous occasions creating posters and other things for years and can say that your creative potential is sky high on photoshop. It has a lot to offer if your willing to sit down and just get creative. So, take a look and hopefully you find it as entertaining as I do.

Performance Artist

For this Research Artist, I chose the only name that seemed familiar to me which was Yoko Ono. I recognized the name on the list of artists and once I looked her up I realized why I had a double take with the name. She was John Lennon's wife! I also thought it was awesome that she had done collaborations with artists like John Cage, who is also on the list! She had a pretty extensive career and I think she's a pretty badass person. I had no clue that she was so talented and had so many other occupations such as an author, activist and artist. I am pretty sure that most people have an idea of what your talking about when you say Yoko Ono.

Great 3D Animation video site

Short of the Week

This link takes you to one of the greatest places to find 3D animation short film creations. The first one is actually really funny and I was laughing for a while after watching a lot of these videos. Everyone enjoys them and once you start it gets pretty damn difficult to stop. I could probably spend days on end going through everything on this site. Theres not just 3d animation videos though, there are articles to read along with playlists to enjoy and much more. I just posted this because it is directly related to my 3D animation class that I am taking right now and I go here for inspiration when I find myself running out of ideas for a good short. Enjoy the fun and explore the possibilities.

Photography Artist

This one was difficult for me to chose. I had to go through about 5 or 6 different photographers to get to one that was actually very interesting to me and I ended up at Gilbert & George. Now, these guys are pretty awesome. Being born in the mid 40's, I don't know if it was the 70's era that helped these two guys to come up with their crazy creations or what but they have got some weird stuff going on. And although it is weird and odd, it ends up being a lot of fun to look at at explore more of. I looked at a lot of their work and nowadays, I think they would be very popular once again with the upcoming generations. I even know some friends that would love some of Gilbert & George pieces. There is a lot of bright, vivid color along with the mixing of different images and sizes that overall create a very unique and mysterious look.

WSU Drawing

I created this for one of the WSU ASME drawing contests here and I like how it ended up looking. Since it was the mechanical engineering department, I really wanted it to have a mechanical feel so I made it seem like you were looking through the flesh of the cougar and underneath is a robotic like interior with gears and what not. It turned out pretty cool I believe and the crimson highlights make it pop. With this only taking a couple hours, I enjoyed this project. 

Painting Artist

For this Artist Research, it was really easy because I only looked up one artist and it was the best choice I probably could have made. I chose the artist, Heidi Trempanier and the moment I saw her style and some of her artwork I wanted some in my own place so badly. It is almost as if she is the daughter of Jackson Pollock with her style being a more organized collection of splatter like lines and swirls. It is some of the coolest types of painting that I have seen in a while. After seeing her stuff, I would really enjoy meeting her and seeing her create in person just to see the intensity and flow of her at work. She is now for sure one of my favorite artists.

Spray Paint Art

Here is some of my own spray paint art. Just a few planets and some highlights. It is actually easier than people think when they see the final outcome. It is so much fun, but unfortunately the natural elements of the outdoors makes it difficult at this time to continue spraying right now although there will be more to come. Im attempting and experimenting with a lot of different techniques and styles right now but hopefully I can get it down and make some cool stuff.

Fiber/Craft Artist

For this Artist Research I chose Rob Conger. There was not a whole lot of background at all about this guy so the only thing I can judge him by are his art creations and by the looks of them, he must be have great attention to detail and more than likely is a perfectionist. He was the second artist that I looked at from the list and the last because he can do some crazy things with rugs and thread like materials. The pictures posted show his attention to detail and both look as though they are simply pictures. At least, that's what I thought when I first glanced. All of his works look very sharp and I actually don't understand how someone can create such realistic portrayals of humans and portraits. I must say that Rob Conger has a real talent and his work has been shown at many different locations. After looking at his rugs I can say that questions arise. For one, how the hell can someone have that much patience. It is crazy. Also, I am finding myself wondering how long each piece takes him. Other than that, this guy knows how to make a cool rug.

ART

I have been noticing a lot of great art being put up around the FA Museum and some in particular that are above and beyond cool to me. The works can be found to the left of the main staircase as you walk into the building, in the glass case and on the hallway wall. The pictures are hand drawn in pen on a long horizontal or vertical piece of paper and each one has so much personality and excitement, there's almost no way to look in any other direction. The coolest part of these works is that the pen creations have main points from where they start or engulf and in the end these little pieces are one with the entire piece. It's awesome. My personal favorite is on the very left hand side along the wall in the hallway to the left of the stairs. It has planets and intricate designs that led me to stand there in front of it for longer than I had expected to be there. There is another one with the Seattle skyline on it that I connected with and enjoyed immensely. I think that everyone should look at these before they're gone because personally I have never seen anything like it before and it inspires me greatly to stay creative and perhaps make one myself.

A Different Kind Of Modeling

The picture below, is of my current project in my DTC class and consists of 3d modeling on the Maya program. Modeling is only the first step of a very long process though on the journey towards a completed 3d animation. But, it is also one of the most important. In this scene, as you can probably tell, there is an alien invasion happening in Seattle particularly at the Space Needle. I really enjoy using northwestern references in my projects and this scene, to me, is looking pretty damn awesome. This is a picture of purely modeling with no rendering or textures at all. Soon there will be even more buildings and this will be completely colored and textured to the fullest extent.

Howard Sparber

Howard Sparber is awesome. His classic designs and drawings are perfect representations of the type of artwork and comic style drawing that was occurring during the 40s and 50s. I had no idea what to expect as I was entering gallery 2 although I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. His wood figures that he built and hand painted reminded me of watching The Flinstones on television as a kid. I enjoyed the way it took me back to those days when there were no worries. I love his work and his simplistic yet detailed style intrigued me. Hopefully, everyone went and saw this.

interesting Sculpting App

This picture is of one of the apps on my IPad. It is called 123D Sculpt and it is a sculpting app that allows for so much to be done to so many different things. There are many amazing starting samples such as a standard jet, dog, human body, or a human head. There are also many different things that one could do to these objects such as budge, pinch and almost anything you would need to do while sculpting. This app is great not only because of the potential with everything you can do but also due to the simple fact that it's free! So, anyone that wants to get into the world of sculpting outside of class should download this app if possible. It is awesome. 

Constant Conversations

This song is by Passion Pit. They have a very unique sound that seems to capture the essence of electric pop and in the end converts you into being a fan. I listened to this song multiple times the other day when I was working on my project. Enjoy!

For my Artist Research, I chose the artist Adrian Arleo. After only seeing one of her masterpieces, I could not get myself to look away. She tends to cross boundaries between human and animalistic styles and almost every one of her pieces seems to transform right in front of your eyes. She has a very unique style and charisma with each work of art. Her work screams at you to look at it and after continuing my research on her I hope very much that I will one day be able to see her and her creations first hand. That would an experience.