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.