Portfolio Sneak Peek & Dock Project Wrap-Up

Come visit the Arts and Sciences Symposium next week: May 8 from Noon-1:00pm in the Art Center at WSU Tri-Cities to see the 3D dock model for yourself! 

Can't Get Rid of the 80's

So, yes, I did created my website to be a 5-step plan to ridding your life of the 80's. But in all actuality, I have realized that I must like the 80's a little more than I thought.

The one TV show I actually enjoy--Remington Steele--not only is an all-time favorite, but it was in fact aired between 1982 and 1987.

Another instance: I found this sneaker that I am totally in love with only to realize that it is none other than 80's inspired!

Who knew that I loved the 80's?

80's-Themed Web Art

Check out my website!

New Student Art Space at WSU Tri-Cities!

"Empty Spaces" is the first show held spring semester of 2014 in the new student art space at WSU Tri-Cities. What a fun show with so many incredible images! My contributions:

"Beyond the Bluffs"

"From Now On"

"What's Left"

"By the Wayside"

Nature vs. Nurture: Family Creatives

Back in March, I was pleased to be a part of an all-girls group with two stellar classmates: Amanda Young and Alissa Petersen. We teamed up to capture the essence of "nature versus nurture" in video. Now this theme is quite broad, so we narrowed it down to an intervention / small case study of one family, determining whether creativity is born or made.

 
Family Creatives from Amanda Young on Vimeo.

Logo and Web Inspiration: Braid Creative

Beginning our class web project, I searched for inspiration. I wanted to share one finding in particular...
 

This is a site that captures my attention and speaks to my creative soul. I believe their logo works well to communicate their business, and their website coincides beautifully. It is a very clean and well-organized website with a lovely layout. I have included a couple screenshots, but by all means--please take a peek to get a feel for it yourself: braidcreative.com

A New Meaning to Minimalism

Left: Painterly Realism of a Football Player by Kazimir Malevich.
Middle and Right: Recreations by Esther Flatau

I have a love for all people, no matter what size or shape, purely because they are people.  Similarly, I have an appreciation for all art, simply because it is art.  That said, my appreciation does not always extend into an understanding.  Minimalist art, for instance, is an art form that I often do not understand.  Though somehow, through this project, I feel as though I gained a special insight into minimalism and abstraction.  Oddly enough, what made it make sense is my diet—what I eat these days.  Recently I had a run-in with some stomach issues causing me to alter the way I eat by cutting out many of the foods I love.  Without out dairy, or wheat, or eggs (to name a few of the offenders) my options seem so limited.  So minimal.

I chose to recreate the oil painting, Painterly Realism of a Football Player.  This work by Kazimir Malevich is actually a part of the Suprematist movement, focusing on non-objective abstraction.  The significance of my selection may become more apparent upon hearing this title of the original.  I could not produce this project without touching on size, image, and judgment.  Maybe Malevich really wasn’t focused on football players all that much, but I do know that a football player’s size is much different than my own.  What I eat may be related to my size, but not in the way that people may think.  Usually people jokingly make comments about my size, being skinny, or needing to “put meat on my bones.”  Some even venture to mention anorexia.  It seems they don’t realize that being skinny is not my intention.

Cutting foods, some of my favorite foods, was so abstract to me.  When I heard of people who had food allergies or certain sensitivities, I could not even relate because that was not personal to me.  Yet.  Now, it’s not so abstract.  I am finding the beauty in this form of minimalism.  Feeling well again is a beautiful thing to me.  But not everyone will understand that just by looking at what I eat.

The takeaway: Go ahead and appreciate things for what they are.  Appreciate art because it’s art.  Appreciate people because they are people.  But you are not going to understand every painting and why it looks like it does, just as you will never understand every person and why they look like they do from the outside. 

Julio Le Parc

Image source: www.julioleparc.org

I enjoyed reading pieces of Julio La Parc's biography. An Argentina native, Julio La Parc was born into a low-class family, worked odd jobs (bike repair shop, fruit packing shed) as a teen, then went on to art school.  He was in and out of art schools over the next few years.  He went to Paris in the late 1950's.  1959-1960 launched his work with light and layers of Plexiglass, light boxes and color variations.

His piece Continuel Lumiére Contorstion from 1966 is shown on page 20 of Art & Electronic Media.

Check out this video of his work: