week 10 art show!

a few weeks ago i saw the rap duo "people under the stairs" in iv at a cool event called "chillivista"!!! was super fun! people under the stairs performed very well and were very entertaining. it's awesome events like these that bring people together to dance, hang out and listen to good music, that i enjoy doing and think perpetuates the happiness in our community. live art, interaction art, feeling art, thinking art, speaking art, hearing art, eating art, licking art, tasting art, everything ART!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrTvhaJ1sME

fri week ten

all of them sound totally cool!!!! seeing as they seem to elaborate/grow from the 7a course, i think they will be awesome beacuse i love doing fun interactive art like this. i would probably choose the art as spectacle one because it would be a mind-challenging, thought provoking but entertaining and fun class. i really hope you get to teach them!!!!!! here's an awesome picture for you to enjoy dessie:

personal space final project

amanda and i did our personal space project on campus as mediators and communicators between the mortal and spiritual realms. we set up a very personal space area, beautiful scarves and shawls covered with stones, crystals, bells, sage, incense, oils, candles and more. in our space we offered to read people's fairy cards and help them understand the message the fairies were telling them. before we would do a reading, we would cleanse the individual's self and personal space with burning sage. then they would shuffle as much as they wanted, however they wanted. then amanda or i would read the top card's meaning and affirmation while they held on to our large polished ball of celanite. after the reading, i would bless the individual with the scent of eucalyptus by putting eucalyptus essential oil in my hands, rubbing them and then grazing over the individual's body with my hands (not touching them) so that it would seal the fairy messages into the person's personal space. sage is like fire and eucalyptus is like water. after this, i invited people to have some of the essential oils blend i made to put on their hands, arms, neck, wherever. i made this blend out of unscented aura glow (an oil) with jasmine, rose, frankincense, and lavender. what was amazing is that all of the messages from the fairies were totally applicable to the people's lives or situations. for example, one cute asian girl (she was foreign and thought we were "sooo cool" and asked for our facebooks and stuff [it's funny cuz she totally thought that we were just being ourselves and like that's how we always were]) was on her way to take 2 finals. the message the fairies gave her was to overcome her problems and rise above these challenges. the affirmation totally spoke to her as well! my friend maddy who spotted me came to have her cards read and it said something about new experiences and location. seeing as how maddy left for Thailand a week later, this card and its affirmation were perfect! another example, johnson had just broken his collar bone and his card was about healing! they all rang true! i think our project was really successful, which was made obvious by the amount of strangers who came and participated in our project. it was truly a great experience, i felt really good physically and mentally during and after. :)

week 10 free form

another year gone by. it want by so fast! i can't believe it. i'm really sad. my dad came by last weekend and took almost everything of mine back home. my room is bare and has a giant pile of clothes in it and looks very sad. i lived here for almost a year, moved in june last year and i remember it very distinctly. everyone in my house rocks, we are such an eclectic group yet we mesh so well. it is really weird that i am leaving and beginning a telling chapter of my life. i'm excited to go to sweden with my family and i'm excited to move to florence next year! but i already miss the love of my life, though i still haven't left

fav/least fav personal space tuesday

my favorite was definitely chelsie's!!!!!!!!! she makes such a good skunk! it was a really funny idea and she totally went above and beyond with it! first of all, her costume was supreme, obvy, and her face paint was awesome too - super legit effort to go all out! and the ass spray, hilarious!!! but i especially liked the character she adapted; how she scurried around and would post on random things or on the ground or next to someone  or the garbage and then would wait there, waving her tail gently and like went all over campus! it was so funny she was great!!!!

my least fav that comes to mind was jenny's rainbow luck craft thing. i dunno it was just lame and i doubt anyone participated in it other than or class. it just wasn't fun, it was super lame

week 9 art show

i'd have to say that the main artshow/artsy thing i've been experiencing this week is the new access i have to the mackey family home videos. i grew up with lauren marie mackey since i was 3 months old. we were cared for by a babysitter from mexico who didn't speak any english. because of this, we grew up speaking spanish as fluently as english, until we were about ten and we have remained best friends for 20 years. she is basically my sister. anyway, her dad recently converted a ton of their family home videos to digital and put them on a movie account website. they are so awesome! although i'm in only a few and not the main star of the footage, it is so cool to see lauren as a little girl and myself as well. there is one video when we are only 2 years old and we are speaking tons of spanish, just going back and forth between spanish and english between each other and mami judy (our babysitter). they continue til we are about ten, at least that's as far as i've watched. there is one video that made me tear up where lauren is holding her baby bro, rod, for the first time when he is only 1 day old (he is now 6'11"  :/   ). first she's reading to him (not really reading but making up stuff that cards and books say) and it turns into a sing-songy reading dialogue thing and then the next take is of her holding him on the couch. she begins by saying his mouth is so little and then continues to name a bunch of other things that are little - it's so cute because she's only like 3 years old herself. and then she says that he likes "you and you" (mom and dad) "and me?" "he likes all of us" or something like that. it is such a sincere, beautiful moment i can't help but cry. adolescence is so innocent, oblivious (in a good way), and bursting with curiosity. i love lauren and rod and her family and i love watching these videos of them and me and other friends when we are in them.

friday free form 5/27/11

so thrilled for the weekend! not to mention the three day weekend!!!! saturday night i am having dinner with my boyfriend, jonny's, parents! i'm super nervous!!!! i met them in december and stayed with them for 2 nights over break before jonny and i drove back down to sb, and that was totally great! i think they really liked me and all, but not i have to follow that up with even more incentives for them to like/still like me!!! especially since both jonny and i got arrested on floatopia...i really hope they don't bring it up but just knowww his mom will...i'm not sure if they view me differently now or what they think, but i sure do feel rather nervous to talk about it if she/they bring it up!!! i don't want them to think i'm a bad influence on jonny or anything!!! other than that, my godbrother is coming for the night on friday which should be fun! he's a jr in highschool so his parents want me to show him around ucsb! it's weird because i hadn't seen him in years until last weekend, i mean i saw him often when i was young, but he is fucking HOTTTT now!!!!! so weird because he's sorta like a cousin, except not, and he's so good looking that i even get a little nervous/weird talking to him!!!! ahhhh!!!!!! anyway, i hope to show him a grand old time. other than that, i just need to prepare for my finals, a.k.a. do all the reading i haven't done in my classes since midterms, and prep. it's nice to have our 7a final waaay out of the way so that i just have to focus on the personal space project for it!

fav/least fav alt. identity presented for thursday

umm my favorite was definitely natalie's observation of ucsb students in their natural habitat. it was super funny! i really liked her accent, her costume, her props, her mannerisms, her vocabulary, her ideas, and her documentation. super funny, super creative, just a good whole hearted laugh!

my least favorite was jenny's. first of all, i think faking a stroke is crossing the line between what is ethical and what isn't. i get that she was taking it seriously and all but i still think it is rude and fucked up. it is also fucked up to have and allow other people, especially strangers or people who actually have had strokes, to assist you and believe and feel sorry for the damage caused by a stroke you actually didn't have. also she talked WAAAAAAAAY too much about really unimportant shit for like 15 minutes and it was just like shut the fuck up!!!!!!!! i lost interest after the first 2 minutes and as i think everyone else did, so next time cut it short and people might actually care.

wed week 9

reflecting on this theme of alternate identity in technological space age that we are in, i would have to say that people are living as different personas left and right. let's start with facebook. i personally detest facebook. i deleted mine at the beginning of winter quarter so, i've been without it for almost 6 months and i feel so much better.  the thing about facebook is that everyone just tries to make themselves look a certain way. key word try - they are not profiling themselves to look exactly like who they are. rather, they are creating an image, an alternate persona basically who they want to be, or who they want others to think they are.  people say that it's about keeping in contact with certain people who you otherwise would have lost track of. this may be true, but i feel as though the people who you really want to stay friends with and the people who really want to stay friends with you, will remain in touch with you no matter what. similar to twitter, posting statuses is just stupid, it's like NO ONE FUCKING CARES about when you shower, brush your teeth, fart, poop, shop, have sex, whatever. you are all just making yourselves look like retards. especially in pictures. pictures where people pose a certain way so that their boobs look big or their ass does or they look buff or whatever. not to mention how annoying it is why you're trying to enjoy a nice dinner or are on a ride or at a party or something and all you see is FLASH FLASH FLASH and hear "FACEBOOK! *CLICK*" "FACEBOOK *CLICK* *FLASH*"!!!!!!!! and i hate being asked to pose in photos and re-takes and more re-takes when people around me are eating or reading or doing something in which they would rather not be disturbed. how do you think someone who you haven't seen in a long time is going to react to you if you look nothing like your pictures?! not well! lastly, i think fbook and twitter can be the foundation for a lot of bullying as well as for making people feel badly about themselves. also, the daily nexus did an article about 'last night's hook up turning into a perverted stalking situation' or something like that...SOOO TRUE.  here's a vid that i think illustrates why people need to give up the nasty habit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UouP8cRYZ8&feature=related

week 9 documentation

<alternate personas>

Agents Veronica Santos and Ellen Sloan:

fav/least fav alt. identity presented for tuesday

my favorite piece presented today was andrea's. although it was like 10 minutes and normally i would not be down to sit through all that without falling asleep, it was HILARIOUS!!!! not to mention it looked like the most fun alternate identity to live out of everyone! just get super fucked up for 48 hours and do tomfoolery rapscallion boyish business!!!

my least favorite would probably be the girlscout one. i like the idea, but it just seemed boring and i mean was she knocking on doors in the two towers for 48 hours straight? or did she go to the dining common and to school dressed like that passing out healthy shit?? who knows...

respond to final exam and TA presentations

in my well-revered opinion, the final sucked. first of all, it's not like i didn't know/recognize the pieces - i knew all of them and information about them as well.  i did not, however, remember the majority of the artists' names. perhaps if kip provided a list of artists the identifications would have been more feasible.  this along with the title of the works.  i don't quite remember, but if we were supposed to include the year too, well then that's just preposterous.  i feel as though knowing the title, artist, and year of all TWELVE of those works would only be plausible if kip put the lecture slides online. if this were the case, i believe there should be no leniency in the grading. but, since it was not the case, i do think the grading should be done fairly easily and as long as the student knew a couple things about the pieces, then they would do well.  my bluebook was also way disorganized, which i apologize for - hopefully you can read all the tiny writing in all of the tiny spaces (it moved so fast that i wrote shit down and then when i went back to elaborate more on each work, there was not enough space to do so cohesively).

as for the presentations, ours definitely kicked artsy-ass!!!! the first one made me want to crawl in a hole and make all the weird noises the soundtrack was making. and the last one was just like eh bleh...same with all those in between. our flash mobs definitely shat on everyone else!

monday week 9 response to final and ta presentations

that final suuucked. i really was not able to prepare other than having the knowledge in my head already - since the slides weren't online or anything it was difficult to study so i just went in with as much as i have learned and although i don't remember all of the titles of the works or the artists' names, i do remember learning about them so i was able to write what i remember....except fo r the last one, i think i missed that lecture :/ so i hope it's not graded that hard because there was no way to study for an A. since we were in our alternate personas, i drew a map of the mission my partner veronica santos and i were embarking on once it we finished.

of the ta presentation, it is so fucking  obvy that OURS KICKED ASSSSS!!!!!!!!! we definitely had the tightest section, capable of the tightest things. our flash mob video is hilarious and i think the rest of the class totally enjoyed it! they were probably jealous they didn't get to be in tues/thurs 9 am section!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i did like the video of some section following and mimicking people walking on campus, that was super funny! they were so good at it! ttfn :)

suday: mission vallejo

counterparts veronica santos and i, ellen sloan, embarking upon mission 5499, requested by Applegation. departure 0600 hours from base camp, scheduled arrival to safe house, 01700 hour. case: largic kenundram. objective: locate and capture alfonso serium, code name laffidatus. guilty for robbing and destroying ATM machines in central and south america. believed to be residing near panama canal where escape route is convenient. important note: has backup, many under-cover assistants who aid in the locating of the machines, robbing of them, destroying of them, and most importantly transporting of the money to a location where it is then divided and utilized to purchase various drugs, primarily cocaine. employ aliases and get close to assisting agents in order to obtain information regarding operations and, more importantly, when and where they are/will taking(e) place. usual backup protocol. attempt to complete mission and have laffidatus in custody approximately 2 weeks after departure date. report to base constantly and consistently.

weekly documentation week 8: flash mobs

so i'm just going to post the video of our class doing flash mobs because i didn't personally take any pics or vids or whatnot, so here she be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ezbsi8kU5Q


video credit: kate sternlicht

kudos: i came up with the library tunnel thing!!!!!!!!!!

if i could be any artist.....

if i could be any artist, any type of artist that is, i'd probably be a collaboration of things. first of all i primarily would be famous, not like in the tabloids exploited and shit, but an extremely well-revered, talented artist. i would love to do acting. that would be supreme. realistically though, i would like to end up being a high-end fashion designer and/or stylist. this would be in addition to artwork i create from home. i love fashion. it is so much fun. i really enjoy putting together and sporting new, unique outfits every single day. there's just something about having cool style and rocking a different appearance on the reg that is fulfilling for me. clothing is wearable art and i am passionate about expressing myself on a daily basis. this expression stems from a variety of things whether it be mood, weather, season, occasion, if i'm in a hurry, if i'm high, and so on so forth. whatever it is, i enjoy coming up with new combinations and methods of combining articles of clothing that keep things interesting. i never wear the same outfit twice, EVER. if it is somewhat the same, it is definitely different in tchotchkes, frippery, jackets, shoes, hats, and other elements.  here a photo of two of my style icons:

week 8 art show: venice beach

so awesome to go to venice beach! my aunt and uncle live in the neighborhood on the canals (suuuuper sick wit-it) in a sweeet crib. every time i visit, i have to go to the beach! it's so entertaining and the whole scene is a giant work of art composed of endless works of art combined! when you start your walk, you are hustled by a whole bunch of dudes who are trying to get you to buy their rap cd demos or video demos (for example, ty crane tried to get me and jonny to buy his basketball highlights dvd ahah. ty crane plays a part in coach carter, he is the enemy on the opposing team...obviously he didn't make it to fame, but i don't know why he's trying to sell his bball "highlights..." who's going to buy that?). but yea, they usually put headphones on u super quick if you haven't learned to dodge them and try to get you to take their cd in which case they say "we take donations" and give you shit/don't let u have the cd if youdon't have any money to "donate". all along the passage  are other artists - painters, beach-artifact sculptors, sand artists, portrait artists, henna tattoo artists, real tattoo artists, body piercers, performance artists, dance artists, hobo artists, psychics, freak show artists, vendors, crafters, fixers, and much much much more. overall it is a grand old time and there are lots of little trinkets and doo-dads you can pick up for a very low cost...all of the vendors are excellent bargainers who try to throw at you as many deals as possible so you spend the whole $20 rather than just 5 of it. haha so much fun! and there's incredible graffiti everywhere!!!! love it!!

super villain!!!!

if i could be any super villain, i would absolutely be bellatrix lestrange from the harry potter series. first of all she is just plain awesome, and helena bonham carter is the best actor out of everyone in all the movies, in my opinion. she is perfect for the role and is the reason why bellatrix is so appealing to me. she is extremely evil, eviler than any other super villain i can think of. she is the one true servant to the dark lord, she will do anything for him, unlike the rest of the deatheaters who when facing life-threatening situations or despicable tasks will back out rather than carry out voldemort's orders. this is why i think she is so supreme - she has no fear, has boundless magic power, is extremely intelligent, diligent and effective in all her tasks and ambitions. she is also a down right BITCH!!!!!! and i love it!!! she is so heartless!!!! and her cackle is supreme! here are some photos yo:

she's so beautiful and hot and fucking BAD ASS!!!!

if you could be any super hero, who would you be and why?

if i could be any super hero, i would be Neely from Baywatch! she is played by Gena Lee Nolin and is absolutely gorgeous! this would be the ideal superhero gig - diving and scuba diving to save people in the ocean and in my spare time running around slow-motion in a red, high-thigh-cut and low-chest cut one-piece swimsuit looking super hot as my goods bounce perfectly up and down and my blonde mane swishes back and forth behind me. also in my spare time, tanning, being sexy, being "bay-watched," not to mention spending all my time at the beach, hooking up with hot, tan, muscular dudes, just being an iconic flaming hot life rescuing super hero, or should i say super-BABE!!!!! she is super dee duper dee fine as fuuuuck...here, take a looksee:

wed free form

right now there is a mosquito eater hangin out in my room with me...i don't feel like opening the door because i want to be in solitude, but i feel bad. i honestly don't know how he/she got in here, unless there is a hole in the screens on the window, because it's not like he/she was here earlier, it just showed up all of a sudden. hmmm peculiar. very very peculiar. i kind of like having it in here, it's a living creature to keep me company and in good spirits. i just don't like it when/if it buzzes in your face - yuuuck! not to mention uncomfortable and surprising!!! here's a pic of my little friend who i shall call mr. wiggle bunny:

  i actually just learned that its proper name is the Crane Fly...hmmm interesting, very very interesting

tues free form 5/17

last weekend i went to la with my boyfriend, jonny, for a job interview he had to do at UCLA. he is applying to be a rec-counselor at a kids' camp called "steve and kate's camp," in the bay area. we stayed the night on friday with my bff lauren marie mackey, who lives in some on-campus housing made for classmen other than freshman. it was super fun except he and i literally got lost for like 3 or 4 hours. what should have been a 2 hour max drive took us about 6 hours. unbelievable. we ended up in longbeach first, then almost got to riverside, and finally got to where we needed to be, which was really late so we didn't get to do anything but watch a couple episodes of the simple life and sleep. we got up suuuper duper early to go eat breakfast at the dining common (YUUUMMMMMY ENDLESS FREEE FOOOOOOOD) which was awesome, and then jonny went to his interview. afterward we went to venice to cruise the beach and say whatup to my aunt cheryl who lives on the canals in an epic, super contemporary, 3 story w/ balcony and roof balcony, multiple stair-cased house. we also got to hear her rehearse for the Topanga music festival she was playing in the next day. that was great. here's venice beach, i got an amazing piece of peacock pyrite which i will also include  a photo of:

 has numerous powers

Response to kips lecture #7

Kip's lecture was tight today. before i get into it, here is a link to an AWESOME FLASH MOB:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxI46nl9pkc


This was cool, we saw La Jetee from 1962 by Chris Marker.  We talked about integrity.

Hans Haacke coolness

http://www.artnet.com/artists/lotdetailpage.aspx?lot_id=AA69981DE42656F2CA5B1D141DEB9BE6

I was really into Duane Michals' work. In particular, the one that starts with lounging, taking some mysterious pill, shrinking, a giant woman sitting on him and then the dude has a boner at the end....classic.

this is blawesome.

mon 5/16 response to lecture

today kip talked about some buildings. he talked about mores which are accepted conventions taht embody the fundamental values of a socio group.  he talked about different personas. some examples he gave or reiterated were tehching hsieh and nikki s. lee. i really like nikki lee's work, here are some photos:

from trailer trash, to stripper, to chola, to ghetto, to prissy rich, to lesbian, to old woman, to skater girl, to everything in between, nikki does it all and does it damn good.

free form

the rest of this year and next year are going to be crazy. june 20, just ten days after my last final, i'm going to sweden, and some time in norway, with my family. my dad's heritage is all of scandinavian descent, primarily swedish, and we practice many traditional swedish practices. we are going to be gone for 20 days . Then, just a little over a month later, i am moving to florence for the entire school year. it's going to be sweet dude! i'm going to take amazing art and fashion classes. lafe's gewwwd. here's a pic of the university i will be attending:

5/10/11

there are a few other classes i am taking in addition to 7a. i am taking anthro 2, intro to cultural anthropology. it's pretty cool, relatively easy, n.b.d. then i'm taking an intro to fem studies class which is iight, not my fav, but it's easy as well. additionally, i am taking a soccer class, which occurs twice a week right after our 7a section, which is why i always look so sporty and have my cleats with mehh cuz i'm BALLIN'. i'm also playing for two IM soccer teams.

wednesday Free Form

here's a really good cover for "I Want You Back" (Jackson 5) by Discovery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLmZ2hLakJ0

i've been suuuper into this song lately. i just blasted it earlier because right now we have these enormous speakers in my house that we borrowed. they're really huge, fancy, propped up on stands, with a sound managing board. it's been awesome blawesome extra awesome on the awesome blawesome to have them! i hope the dude doesn't ask for them back for the rest of the year! here's a pic of me jammin to this song demonstrAtin them speaks earlia 2day:

what i was also doing earlier was figuring out my classes for florence, italy in the fall. my plan is to go to florence for fall and take art and fashion classes and then go to barcelona, spain for the rest of the year to take regular classes. after talking with my mom, however, i'm thinking i should maybe only go to florence for the entire year because everyone says that just when you get to know the place you're studying in, you have to move. also, florence has a fuck ton of art and fashion classes that we do not have here, and i would really like to take as many as possible. some of their art classes include anything from water color and pastel to fresco painting and restoration to mosaics to marble sculpture to digital sketchbooks and on and on and on. they even have an entire category of jewelry making classes, art/building restoration classes, photography, fashion photography, all sorts of fashion and design classes, interior/exterior design classes, and oh so much more. it's also cool because you take field trips to places, such as the costume design museum for one of the fashion classes i'm applying for. anyway. this is awesome blawesome extra awesome on the awesome blawesome.

time sequence narrative shiiit

what I ended up doing for my time sequence thing is different than the ideas i posted, but it has to do with the photos of my disposable camera that i talked about. i tried to get the walgreens people to give me a cd but they messed everything up a bunch so i had to take pics of my photos to post here (but will have them in person in class to show). the original photograph (i mean they're both originals, but the one i took first) was taken last summer one morning before summer school as i was leaving the house. it is a photo of an eaten rose with one solid flower standing high and proud next to a ladder and its adjacent shadow. the photograph is one of my favorite photographs i have ever taken. just earlier this week when i was sitting outside, i noticed that the ladder was positioned next to the rose again, only this time the rose has all its leaves, none eaten at all, and it was in the afternoon. i did my best to retake the photo, but ostensibly it is different from the one last summer in the morning. of course i like that they are different and like the positioning of them together.

the story behind this rose has to do with a girl who lived with us last summer. her name is jessica, sicka as we call her. she and her boyfriend adam were hopelessly in love, true soul mates in fact. the rose was purchased by adam for sicka after they got in their very first fight of their whole relationship. i remember this distinctly. the fight was about gay marriage, which adam was temporarily against, and sicka (who is bisexual) being mad at him for this and not wanting to be married in and under a catholic church while adam, who grew up in the religion, always assumed he would. the next morning i remember well. adam came over with this rose plant in his hand putting his finger against his lips saying "shh" as he snuck in her room and put it by her bed. it was a small rose plant, no blooms yet, in a plastic pot. it was planted by the side of our house a week later.

the poor plant struggled for a long time with the aphids who just tore apart its leaves and none of us thought it would pull through. but the rose persevered, proving us wrong as it shot up a little bloom against the wall and grew into the beautiful flower in the picture, janky leaves and all, charmingly juxtaposed with the ladder and its shadow. and their love continued to grow; sicka left to move in with adam and her sister, amber, took her place in our home.

to this day, every once in a while, a single bloom springs up against the house, always in the same exact spot, always alone. 

too soon is too soon, even for soul mates. adam and sicka's relationship ended about 2 months ago in bewildering heartbreak, unanswered curiosity, and tremendous sorrow. for both. 

sicka moved back to santa cruz, she graduated last year and was working hard and waiting for adam to graduate while she was still here. this rose, however, lives on at my house and is the symbol of a beautiful tragedy. i like to think that the growth of this plant's leaves is a sign of adam and sicka's personal growth apart from one another. 

2 months ago they said they will still marry each other in 5 years. i wonder if they will. and if not, their love survives in the living beauty of this rose bush. 

Respons to kips lecture #6

this was sah-weeet!!!! dude. i LITERALLY TELL EVERYONE I SEE TO COME TO MY ART LECTURE WITH ME BECAUSE YOU WILL BE MIND BLOWN. and still, no one has yet to come despite the fact that the mindblowing has yet to cease!!!! i did not expect to have performances at all! i really enjoyed all of the spoken word student performances. i especially liked the 1st one by chanel, the one by some dude with the glasses, and the one about her "pineapple". it was so powerful to watch these people who are regular, normal kids (you can tell before and after they present) transform into some powerful embodiment of language that completely transcends all that you previously sub-consciously presumed. Beau Sia was cool too. i was not too particularly moved by his pieces but he did warn us that this may be the case and we should have seen him the last like 5 times he performed. spoken word is one of the oldest forms of creative expression (oral tradition), predating the written world and includes everything from monologues to storytelling to performance poetry and all that lies in between. this actually relates to chapter 9 of understanding comics when scott talks about how all media of communication are a by-product of our inability to communicate directly from mind to mind. "media is meant to convert thoughts into forms that can traverse the physical world and be re-converted by one or more senses back into thoughts," spoken word is a prime example of this.

time sequence narrative shiiit

so i'm not sure if this worked or not, but there were supposed to be four videos that were over a period of time of a couple hours that show just how fast how the hours go by, but i'm two or three got deleted and i don't even know if these vids i uploaded will work or not....so fuck it

comics ch 9 reading response

i must say, i am glad to be finished reading this book. it was very entertaining at first and informative overall, but i did get a little annoyed with "scott". i was just bugged by how many times he tried to get deep...then DEEPER....andDEEEPER AND DEEPER AND DEEPER. give it a rest!!! all of his "enlightening" points weren't that enlightening after a short while. and also, the italicizing, bolding, and capitalizing of words really really annoyed me. not only did these elements make it extremely hard to read, they all put the emphasis on the wrong thing!!!! reminds me of this:

FAST FORWARD TO 1 MIN 33 SECONDS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FQESCVkXnU

but the chapter is about communicating ideas between different minds without ever actually being able to convey to those minds exactly what your mind knows and sees. thus, the chapter is called "putting it all together". for example: pen goes to paper, goes to eye, goes to brain. only communication can breach the walls of ignorance that keeps human beings from seeing each other clearly.

art show for week 5

the art show that i attended this week is not your typical art show but it is one that i think exquisitely examples the unison of art and life. i went to a Los Angeles Dodgers v. San Diego Padres game this week with my bff Lauren Mackey. I was really excited to go because not only am I a Nor Cal Dodger fan, but I have never been to a Dodger game, let alone any professional baseball game.  The creation of baseball, known as "America's Past Time" is an art in itself. It is a game built upon the people who make and allow it to exist. I'm not merely speaking of the players, I am referring to the fans, the umpires, the radio reporters, the t.v. reporters, the newspaper reporters, the magazine reporters, the after game show reporters, the pre game show reporters, the vending stand vendors, the mobile vendors in the stands yelling things like "Dodger Dogs!" or "beer!" or "cotton candy!" or "frozen lemonade, chocolate malts!" or "peanuts!", the ticket salesmen, the fan gear sales men, the ticket checkers, the bag inspectors, the stadium builders, the stadium cleaners, the guest singer who sings the National Anthem, the guest singer who sings "God Bless America" before the 7th inning stretch - all of these things an countless more create and preserve America's Past Time. All of these people living and sharing an experience or many experiences together are participating in a historical establishment of the people before them, an establishment that is an art that comes to life by these people who feed it. This art that lives took stronghold upon me the moment I entered the stadium - suddenly I was a part of it all. And I felt like a child.

I think of many things I do in this way. I mean art is life, our lives are art. No one on this earth travels the very same path throughout their time here and everyone creates their own art out of their lives by what the choose to do and not do, the habits they form, the actions they take, the people they choose or allow to enter their creation , their creation of art which is life.

This reality always crosses my mind when I'm driving from LA or Ventura back to SB, for some reason not on the way there though. Pacific Coast Highway and 101 perfectly run alongside the ocean. In some parts the waves even crash up against the highway you are driving on. The mountains to your right or left. This highway is an art that was researched, sketched, constructed into a physical being (sculpture perhaps?), and then and to this day is an interactive piece installed along the coast line, adjacent to a mountain range, that people participate in (re)affirming its existence at all times. It is a living dead piece of art. It is the art of life which is continuous, constant, and everlasting.

Sequence/Narrative Proposals

1) So my 8th grade year was the only year I ever attended a public school - and it was AWESOME. Naturally, seeing as it was my first time ever not having to wear uniforms, I was certain that all of my outfits must be awesome and never repeated. To prevent this, I literally wrote in a notebook every single day my entire outfit - from shoes, pants, socks, skirts, shirts, jackets, dresses, sweatshirts, sweaters, and all clothing items, to earrings, headbands, hats, bracelets, rings, necklaces, anklets, any and all tchotchkes to the way I did my hair and if applicable, any special make up I happened to be wearing that day. As you can see, this is a very long narrative and time-lapse sequence. I really wish I could have my mom send it to me so I could present it in class, but I doubt it would come in time. So, alternate proposals would be to document my outfits from today until tuesday or maybe have her take pics of my old notebook and send them to me.

2) I am a strong anti-technology activist and the cameras these days drive me crazy. I hate all this digital nonsense and photos on the computer nonsense. I like to look at a photograph in my hands and feel it, knowing that this specific photo is of a one time moment that was not shot and recreated/edited over and over again, thus falsifying the memory and documentation of that "moment." This is why for about a year now I have been purchasing disposable cameras. Each camera only contains 27 pictures so every photo taken is a once in a life time opportunity to capture that specific moment, so there are no re-dos or faking a special moment. Since there are so few pictures per camera, you have to choose each "click!" wisely, thus ensuring all of the photos you develop are very special and bring back very specific memories. Also, after I fill a camera, it takes me at least a month to get it developed. When I do, I am reminded of memories over a long period of time, random ones and significant ones that bring me tons of joy when I look at them. Not only do I want to make a book of my memories, I want to use them all for drawing, painting, sculpture, and all mediums inspiration in the future. One proposal would be to spread these photos in a sequence that displays different moments over a long period of time and photograph them - I cannot make the book or paintings, etc. in time.

3) I will write a poem that touches on the last year that I've spent with my boyfriend - a great portion of the time before we were actually together. I want to write a poem that portrays the passage of time in our relationship because in August, I am leaving for 9 months to go abroad. It is really sad and hard for me because we fought to be together for so long and now we are, and are so deeply in love that when I leave, it is going to break both of our hearts. Because when I leave, our relationship will end and end in sorrow and what kills me the most is that we will never know what could have been. Who knows how it will be when I return too? I want to write letters to each other that we can read when we are a part and remember our love together. It goes much further and more in depth but for now this is all I wish to disclose. My proposal is a poem, a special poem.

fav artist

So, there's no way in hell I can possibly write about who my "favorite" artist is, I have no clue and I doubt I ever will! But I am going to write about one artist who I do like, not necessarily more than any other artist, but he came to mind given recent events - Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Last summer I went to the MOMA in San Francisco and got to experience one of his pieces. This piece was one of the stacks of photo posters that you can take. So I took one as did Jonny, now my boyfriend, who I was with. Unfortunately I was only visiting Jonny for 1 day and it was before we were together. At the end of our adventurous day we parted ways for the rest of the summer and I accidentally left my Gonzalez-Torres poster in his car. It's funny because two days before I saw this piece in the museum, I was in Berkley at my bff Taylor Chang's pad and someone in her apartment had two of them hanging on the wall next to one another. I didn't know what they were from or who they were by until I went to the museum a couple days later. I'm sad because I believe Jonny and my posters are gone for good because he left them in his car and he thinks his parents probably tossed them :( I know, really bad. I was just reminded of this on Friday when I visited my other bff, Lauren Mackey, who had the same poster on her wall. It made me sad and bummed that I don't have mine anymore and that I never got to hang it. But this is probably why he came to my mind for doing this blog. Here's a pic of the one I lost, followed by other works he's done:

NEEEEAAAAATTTTOOOOOOO

fr33 f0rm

i hate school. i love it. but i hate it. teachers, t.a.s, classes, the school, everything expects way too much, way too much. say on the first day of school of a quarter i go to all my classes. they've all already assigned at least 100 pages of reading each for that week - so like 400 pages total. well guess what, the books not available yet. or i don't have the money yet. so now, thousands of pages behind in the quarter, am i going to do the reading? probably not. i'm going to try, but there's no way i'll get it done in time for all my classes. fucking ridiculous because now i learn less because you all (teachers,etc.) have given us more. if i had an affordable, decent, practical amount of reading each night for all of my classes, then guess what - i'd do it AND THUS I WOULD LEARN A WHOLE FUCK TON MORE AND I BET EVERYONE ELSE WILL TOO. it's true what they say - less is more. it just sucks because trying to do all the work when you know you'll never succeed in doing all of it keeps you from learning from actual life. if i could, i would go on 3 hikes a week where i would be educating myself the whole time. but guess what, i haven't gone on a hike since fucking fall BECAUSE OF ALL THE FUCKING SHCOOOL FUCKING WORK. IT'S BULLSHIT. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO ACTUALLY LIVE IN SANTA BARBARA IF I CAN'T EVER LEAVE MY DESK?!?!?!?!?! I AM SO SICK AND TIRED OF IT. FUCK FUCK FUCK. THIS IS VERY ANGRY BUT IT IS JUST HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW. LESS IS MORE PEOPLE, LESS IS MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

best/worst confession

In terms of an actual physical piece, I really liked Mary Beth's sculpture. It was really cool, really fun to play with, awesome to look it, just totally sweet all around. I didn't think that her confession was that strong though, simply because I'm certain we all feel that time is passing very fast and we don't know how to slow it down or move with it consistently...at least this is how i feel all the time anyway. i truly think there is not nearly enough time in the day and therefore not enough time in a week, month, year, and a lifetime. there is not enough time in a lifetime. i guess that's the challenge of life - to get as much as you can and as much as you want out of it before your time in this lifetime runs out. sucks. but maybe if you use this as an incentive then you can get more out of lifE? i dunno, cuz then it just feels like you're rushing.
In terms of confession, I really liked the guy who did the lying one...it wasn't like a HUGE confession thing, but it was the truth, and then he allowed us to ask him questions in hopes of receiving the truth. i mainly just like this one because when the truth came out about how he thinks his girlfriend's step sister is hotter, that was awesome and hilarious and so unexpected and just great. it was golden.
my least favorite confession was the letter to god one. maybe because i'm not anywhere near that religious or maybe because i think that that kind of investment in "god" is very old fashioned and outdated because we have so much more knowledge now we don't need a "god" to blame things on or to account for how things occur. gods/religions were made up thousands of years ago to explain natural phenomena, such as the weather, because they couldn't any other way but now we have technology and factual knowledge about these things that doesn't include any sort of super human. also because it just made me uncomfortable that this girl was sobbing about some "god" thing that she's never met or had contact with - how can "god" make you cry and sob and be so emotional when you don't even know god or he know you..people say they know god and have a strong relationship with "god" and shit but i'm like, that's a "relationship with god" in your head, anything you say about your relationship with him is somehting you've made up in your head and convinced yourself of

Respons to kips lecture #5

Kip's lecture was cool, no surprise. He showed us a video by Tony Mendoza called "My Father's Lunch," 1999, which began with a definition of habit and proceeded to be a documentary about his father's addiction to Burger King. The movie was really funny and simple, very unpretentious. This guy's father has been going to the same Burger King for 25 years, every few days, and has gotten the same order every time, except for the medium diet coke in the winter rather than the large diet coke in the summer. It is really funny and I can't wait to show my man this vid cuz i think he'd like it. Then kip talked about personal narrative and the magic of seduction. He gave us this analogy of a donkey-drawn carriage with a passenger who has a pole with a carrot that he/she dangles in front of the donkey. The carrot must be at the perfect distance before the donkey so that it can successfully be pulled. He used this analogy to describe art - if you have a piece, it's important not to put the carrot too close to the audience because you do not want to be too in their face about it, this will result in turning them away. If you're piece does not have enough too it and bores the audience/makes them not really care, then the carrot is too far away. If the carrot is at just the right distance, then the audience will be intrigue and continue to stay intrigued and thus want more. The one part about Kip's lecture that was a bit odd/somewhat irrelevant is when he read that passage from his first book about fucking some fat white chick, or should i say, some fat white chick fucking him....this was a bit t.m.i. and i mean could have been appropriate perhaps in a different context - it was just really random when he busted into this story about some fuck encounter he had many years ago. hahaha still funny though.

Robert Rauschenberg

Soooo...Robert Rauschenberg is awesome! New meaning to collage right thurr. Ostensibly, Rauschenberg compares to the ideologies of Duchamp and Cage, hence he is in this reader. His work travels in all directions, it is all inclusive, yet all exclusive. One of the endless cool things about Rauschenberg is that he does not simply use mediums or allow mediums to use him to create "art," rather it is the act, the duet of the two together that creates art. Rauschenberg believed that in order to create art that resembles daily life, one must use objects of daily life: "I don't want a picture to look like soemthing it isn't, I want it to look like something it is. And I think a picture is more like the real world when it's made out of the real world. Rauschenberg created the "combine". This occurs when he uses objects together always respecting their integrity, 'never altering their appearance to the point where they function merely as formal shapes in the composition and never allowing them to serve merely symbolic ends. The objects and fragments come through relatively intact, with strong overtones of their life in the real world before they embarked upon their present life in art'.

ch. 7 & 8 of "Understanding Comics"

Chapter 7 is about the "six steps" of comics. These steps include: Idea/Purpose, Form, Idiom, Structure, Craft, and Surface. Before the author gets to these steps he gives a few demonstrations as to how art is life and life is art. He first shows us how a group of inactive, bored cave-dwellers is in fact "a thriving art colony!". The cave-woman is drawing lines with a stick and the form of her lines indicates that today she has a stomachache which is why her lines are tight and angular when yesterday she felt fine, thus her lines were curved and open. One cave man is tapping rocks on a giant rock he is leaning against. The smaller rocks tapping on the larger create a rhythmic beat. A boy nearby kicks up dirt and pebbles and pubbels the air with his fist because today he lost a fight to his brother and "now all he can do is dance away his frustration". Lastly, a small girl child sings some weird song composed of non-words. The whole group together is actively living and being and while being and exercising art at the same time. With the six steps the author conveys to us that you can be stuck at step 1 or step 6 or step 2 or any other step between and sometimes it may be good enough to satisfy you, while other times you strive for more, strive to fulfill the next step. Typically people move from step 6, surface, to step 1, idea/purpose. This is because it is easier to create something you like/others would like than to come up with an initial idea and try to create something that you can expand from it. However, as the author points out, this is not the best way at all because it is even harder to get steps 1-5 to relate to step 6 than it is to get steps 2-6 to relate to step 1. ;)
Chapter 8 talks about color in comics and how it derived from commerce and technology and how it changed comics for good. Many different comics styles emerged from the introduction of color as well as different techniques. Even certain characters became associate with specific colors: i.e. super man= red, blue, yellow; hulk= red, green. Overall, the main message is that the black fundamental behind all comics, as is white, and the black line will always exist so it is more important to develop your skill with black and white because if you are good at that, you are a master of color and a master of comics.

ART show for week 4

The art show I am documenting about right now is in the Santa Barbara Art Museum. It is called "A Drawn to Modernism: Selected Gifts from Wright S. Ludington". Having gone to the art museum last week only expecting to see the Charles Garabedian exhibit, you can imagine my surprise when I found myself looking at a Rodin sculpture, a Matisse painting, a Dali drawing, some Edward Munch paintings, Picasso drawings, Derain pieces, Moore, Nash, Sutherland, Lewis, and a great deal more. The exhibition contains European drawings and prints, fragile pieces that have received little exposure in comparison to other works of the period. The prints and drawings are not displayed in chronological order, rather they are installed in a manner that "evoke9s0 the elegant, harmonious way that Ludington displayed his collections in his own home". What I enjoyed most about this exhibition is that it showed the simple things these famous artists created, not the usual pieces that everyone knows about. I feel as though I've now seen a part of Picasso a part of Dali a part of all the artists that no one has ever seen or known before. The exhibition made it clear that all of these artists started somewhere, somewhere simple before they became world famous, just as we as budding artists do. Their drawings, mere sketches, are so subtractive in that they include only the bare minimum of details needed to convey the image. They leave out all the excess, all the stuff we deem as necessary and show us that in fact it's not necessary at all, it's only extra. I applaud the artists of the Modernism period, truly innovative before their time.

anonymous act of kindness or beauty

For my anonymous act of kindness I decided to go to Sweet Alley and fill up 5 bags of candy. Not filllll, but put a good amount of candy in them. I had different themes for each bag, for example one was only chocolate things, one was red things, one was rainbow, one was all jelly beans, and one all blue things. I placed these bags of candy on random peoples' door steps down my street with a note attached that said "anonymous act of kindness, for you. I'm not sure if the people threw them away, thinking there was anthrax in them or something, they were sealed with a twist tie, but I can't say that I would eat a random bag of candy that showed up on our doorstep, sealed or not! Hopefully they took the benefit over the doubt.

My Confession

I am not going to describe my piece here for I do not want it online. I will enclose a few pictures, however.

Cornered.