light painting/night photos

final project

these are a few images that help tell a little about my final project.

the final project assignment was this:

15 matted photos with a theme

i juggled with a few ideas for about a week before finally deciding on a completely new idea last thursday. the idea came to me while driving from school to work.  

my final project will tell the tale of two young lovers, caught between the "real" world, along with all its demands, and a world where they are totally free from everything.  

i chose this theme because it is one issue that i am facing in my life right now and it weighs on my heart daily.  my boyfriend and i have been together for five years and lately we have been asking ourselves, what do we really want out of life? and what kind of life do we want to live? who and what do we see as a necessity? we talk of the day we are going to run away and leave everything behind often, but seem to be stopped by this world, its ordinary ways and day-to-day routines.  so my question is why not? why not, live like pirates, gypsies, or outlaws? on the other hand, what is so wrong with living a normal life? 

modern museum of art in fort worth

on wednesday, april 13th, i took my very first trip to an art museum.  vaughn and michael miller took their classes to the fort worth modern museum of art. we ate at the cafe modern and toured the museum afterwards. the modern had a lot of nice pieces. the ladder above was my favorite piece of all.  the ladder had me wanting to to climb it so bad. even though i could see where the top of the ladder ended, i still wondered what was up there and where it was going.  another favorite of mine was "The Ark" by Melissa Miller.  her color choices for the painting were beautiful, i especially liked the deep teals and golden yellows. the visible brush strokes gave a nice texture to the animals fur and made the painting even more pleasurable to look at. sadly, this piece was located no the second floor,where no photography is allowed, so i was unable to get a picture of the painting itself. 

the Ed Ruscha exhibition was nice and i'm glad i had the opportunity to see it, but i must admit i wasn't blown away by his work. i think i feel this way because his work is not something that particularly interests me.

i really enjoyed the day of art and look forward to my next trip :)

student art show

i attended the student art show at texas a&m commerce on tuesday. here is my overall review of the show.

i felt that all the pieces accepted into the art show were very deserving.  there was a good mix of all different kinds of art. the only piece i was not a big fan of was the video piece, it was called "Human Architecture", while i understood the concept and thought it was a creative idea indeed, it just isn't necessarily the type of art that i am interested in.  i was very impressed with the wearable art in the show. there was a white dress that looked like it was crafted from trash bags and coffee filters, which i thought was very interesting because the dress looked very elegant. another wearable art project i liked, was "the roller skating tree". it was a dress, and the skirt of it had lots of leaves attached to it that gave it a nice ruffled look. the shoes were actual rollerblades with tree bark covering the entire skate. the only thing that i thought could have been better with this piece as the presentation.  it would have been really cool if the artist would have made a hanger from tree branches, instead of just using a regular wire hanger. there were many beautiful drawings in the show, my favorite drawing was one of a giant baby screaming.  the artist showed great skill and i really liked that they chose a large scale over a small or normal sized scale.  there was one active art piece that really impressed me, it was titled "For a Slice of my Life, Take Out a Knife." the artist used a knife block and each knife (models of knives, not actual knives) told a story from their life. i thought this was a very personal and interesting piece, nice creativity.  

now to my favs

"Linked" by Robert Turner was one of my overall favorites. this piece caught my eye immediately because as i entered the room i saw two chairs "linked" together and hanging upside down from the ceiling.  one chair was a sea-foam green color and the other was a baby pink color.  each chair had been covered in that popcorn ceiling stuff. the green chair had a light fixture attached to it, the pink had a green air vent cover. they were linked with one of those old light chains that normally attach to the ceiling at one end and the actual light fixture at the other.  in my eye, this piece represented the relationship between a man and a woman. the green acting as the male and the pink as the female. the attached parts were even similar to the male and female genitalia shapes, in some sense.  and the chain that connected the two reminded me of the idea that men and women will always be connected in some way.  i thought this was a very well thought out. way to go robert "ross" turner :)

 "Blue Trailer" by Ginger Cook was another unforgettable piece.  it was a cubism photo of a bright turquoise trailer house in a trailer park with a child's baby doll in the front right corner.  the doll had on a reddish pink color dress.  there was also a nice little pop of color on the turquoise trailer, a bright, very bold red number 5.  i really liked that she used the actual prints of the images she took to make the cubist image instead of digitally doing it in photoshop.  the way she displayed it was very nice too, it was a curved clear frame and this gave the entire image a nice look.  i would buy this piece and hang it in my home. i found myself drawn to it the entire night. this artist also had another photo piece in the show that i really liked, it was called "Man in the Hat." this was an image of an elderly man in a black bucket hat. it was the man's expression, or lack of one, that made it so beautiful. alsdoo the eyes were nice, they told a story of a man that seemed to be recalling a moment from a long time ago. his face made no expression, but his eyes told the story. she did a wonderful job of capturing this moment. jolly good show ginger :)

Joshua Robinson's "Make Me One With...." was pretty groovy. this work consisted seventeen hot dog buns painted or covered in something different. this piece had a nice child-like quality, it made me happy every time i looked at it :) i really liked the fact that each bun was very different from the one next to it.  it's like each bun represented a different type of person in the world.  my favorite bun was the fourth from the left, it was covered in a gold foil and had diamonds in the center of it.  it was pretty snazzy.  i also liked the second one from the right, it was made to look like neapolitan ice cream, which is something i enjoy eating very much.  i can't help but smile every time i look at this work, so thank you joshua robinson :)

the student art show rocked! 

the storyteller

(above photo by me :) i was so close)

on march 25th i got an interesting text from my best pal, danci. she said "hey do you want to be spontaneous and go to the todd snider concert tonight at the granada?" i quickly replied with a "hells yes i do :)" so danci, our good bud chase, and myself made the journey from paris to dallas to witness the "storyteller" in action and it was incredible!!

todd snider is a folk singer with a unique twist, he pretty much just tells awesome stories with music to back it up. he describes himself in one of his songs as a "tree huggin’, peace lovin’, pot smokin’, porn watchin’ lazy ass hippie"but he forgot to mention amazing songwriter.

we got there fairly early, so we scored good standing spots, front and center. 

everyone should definitely give him a listen, but make sure you have your open-mind cap on before you do.  he is very opinionated, but he calls it like he sees it. he isn't afraid to say how he feels, and i admire that.

songs i recommend are below

tension
sideshow blues
play a train song
ballad of the kingsmen
east nashville skyline
money, compliments, publicity
i can't complain
doublewide blues
conservative, christian, right-wing republican, straight, white, american males
ladies and gentlemen
lonely girl
statistician's blues
easy money
the story of the devil's backbone tavern
the devils backbone tavern
i spoke as a child

and there are many, many more

panoramic view

my whip

down by the paris train depot

moo

jesus is the man and the answer

on my way home from work

RIZE UP

How do you define a language?

to me a language is any form of communication, both nonverbal and verbal. in Rize Up they use dancing as their language. one dancer even said it was their way of telling a story.

How do we define art?

ahh, the question that everyone wants an answer to.  well, really anything can be considered art.  one person could consider something as being total crap and another could look at it and think it was a masterpiece.  the dancing in Rize Up was definitely art in my eyes.

How do these people in the video relate to me?

the people in the video relate to me, because like me, they are artists. these dancers are out trying to do what they love and they get persecuted for it by others, but this does not stop them.  they have no limits and believe in themselves and their art.  seeing them strive so hard to get their art out there and make a difference in people's lives inspires me to do the same.