Longboard-making

The entire year, I've been looking forward to this project because longboarding is my favorite hobby and I'm fascinated by how they work. It began with a stencil. Thomas and I sketched half of a board on a piece of cardboard, and spent a couple days improving the design and making revisions. After that, we cut out a couple of shapes. Obviously these shapes were a little rough, so we made the proper measurements to correct this. After that, we spent hours of our free periods wielding Dremels and sandpaper, smoothing the corners. After the smoothing, I created a custom board press out of wood scraps in order to bend my board, making it more shapely and flexible, in addition to creating a better tail. After a night in the board press, I decided that my board was ready for a sealant (in this case, I used shellac.) Next, I will apply another layer of shellac as a stain and sealant, and I will conclude the day by finishing the board with a polyurethane waterproofing spray. Between the shellac and the polyurethane, I may add some sort of design under the board. After the polyurethane is thoroughly applied, I will drill holes for the trucks, and attach the riser pads, trucks, bearings and wheels. After THAT, I'll put grip tape on top of the board, and it will finally be ready to ride.

CLAYPLASTERCLAYPLASTER

My work definitely incorporated the three aspects of the clay assignments. The leaf imprints turned out decent. I experimented for a while with different techniques for getting the imprint in, and questioned what I wanted it to look like. The overall product was a strip of clay layered with leaf prints, that I guess I was happy with. My animal was a wolf. I began with a pig, but as I sculpted, it began to look more and more like a wolf. I decided to roll with it. A challenge for that was that the clay was still wet, and the wolf couldn't stand. I countered this adversity by placing a rock in front of the wolf, as if it were putting its front legs up and howling at the moon. My last clay project was the most challenging. The bowl, which Mr. Ingenthron commented on as "looking like an ashtray," took me roughly two days. I began trying to make a large bowl on the pottery wheel, but pieces kept coming off with each mistake I made. I realized that the technique I was using on the wheel was not successful, so I sought advice. Learning a new technique from Mr. I, I was able to make a smooth, small bowl. The next step, decoration, was slightly easier. I imprinted a few pottery tools into designs on the bowl, including a checkerboard pattern at the bottom of the bowl that I think turned out very well.
As far as new clay project ideas go, I like the ones we are working with, but I'm certainly not opposed to thinking up new solutions for what to make out of plaster. I like the idea of chiseled plaster sculptures, like Sydney suggested. From blocks of plaster, we could make whatever we wanted. Right now, I think it would be cool to shape the plaster into a sphere with the rasp, then add cool designs. We could also make small plaster trinkets. I think that a sword or a thimble would be really cool and challenging.

paper

Making paper was a fairly simple process, but got a little complicated. My first sheet came out well, but was a little thick, so i trimmed it and rolled it out with a rolling pin. The next sheet of paper I was supposed to make didn't go nearly as well. The person before me broke the blender for pulping the paper, so I wasn't able to start until the very end of class. By the time I had my pulp, class was just about over, so I rushed through and got an awful piece of paper the next day. I decided that rather than making three pieces of paper, I was going to create something out of the paper that I had already made. THe result was the picture you see above, and I believe that it turned out pretty well.

PLASTER PALS!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?

Basically, Plaster Pals are the safest, easiest, and most crowd-pleasing plaster creation that we can make. Plaster hands would be just as "unuseful" (it's art, it doesn't have to be useful!) and since it's more time consuming and unfamiliar, we could come out with a less-than-favorable product to present. With Plaster Pals, we could make as many as we wanted until the ones which were perfect were ready to be presented. Also, plaster casts and masks are dangerous to make (i.e. plaster casts, if too tight, can store fat globules, which when released, can travel to the heart and stop it; plaster masks can BURN YOUR FACE OFF...) Considering our inexperience with plaster, it's best that we stick to something easy that we can really perfect.

Sketch + Sculpture

My sketch looks pretty similar to my sculpture. The lines in both are very precise. A main difference is that my sculpture has color, whereas my sketch is in black and white. Also, the sculpture is actually a better representation of the actual sculpture, as it gives depth which a sketch cannot. The sketch is also much thinner.

In addition, there are a few small details with which I took artistic liberties. Slices in the cardboard make for non-sharp angles, a feature which, in my opinion, adds character to the sculpture. The skis are more separated in the sculpture, as it is a replica of the original. I also left out a plaque as the bottom, which is too small to read. Overall, I think that the sketch was not necessarily helpful in my creation of the sculpture, as I looked at it, maybe, once before making it.

Independent Project

Symbolic Portrait

Symbolic portrait of John Coltrane

Artist Statement

Most people say that being an artist requires patience with your work. In my case, it's the exact opposite. At the beginning of the year, before Ms. Roberts knew me as an artist, she wanted to me to plan out my work beforehand. As we got further into the year, she decided to let my work flow and have me reflect on it afterwards. I dislike both. I feel that real passionate artwork can't be planned because a lack of spontaneity makes art bland. I can't reflect afterwards because it just makes me over-think my work and waste time when I could be making more art. I can't be restrained by mundane tasks when I make art, because the work that those tasks revolve around will turn out to be the same thing: mundane. I love making art when I can make it real. Since I rarely to never think about my artwork, whether or not it is good is determined solely by whether I am passionate about the work I am making. My favorite medium to work with is permanent marker, because whatever is marked is irreversible. This forces me to work with any mistakes I've made if I want to preserve what I've already taken the time to create.

Process Reflection #2

This week, I've finished my final project. I called it SHAPES: A Collective Piece of Artwork by Joe Chafkin. It turned out pretty well. My three main pictures were glued up with a title piece. Next week, I just have to get my blog more up to date, then I will be done with all of my work.

ART:21 TRANSFORMATION

Paul McCarthy is an artist who creates installation and video projects. His early work was very minimal in the sense that he would tape himself using his surroundings (for instance, the architecture of the room) and create something obscure. Other videos of his include him spinning around in circles, taping his face, and covering it in butter. He used personas, like masks and costumes, and I'm not really sure why. His videos are dark, strange, disturbing, provocative. Mr. McCarthy's videos are also sometimes funny, darkly of course. As I continue watching these videos, they get weirder and weirder, plunging into the depths of sheer nonsense and obscurity. I don't like this.

Yinka Shonibare is a video artist who "always enjoyed using beauty and seduction as a way of engaging the world." His first video attempts to blur boundaries between two races, and seems as if it is a testament against racism, or even racial identification. His work with headless mannequins was supposed to parody the French revolution, as aristocracy had their heads chopped off by guillotines. His grandfather was a Nigerian chief. His father was a lawyer, so he grew up wealthy and was not discriminated against. Because of this, when he was young he did not understand the hierarchy of race. Small details which seem irrelevant, such as clothing on fabric patterns, tell a story. I like Mr. Shonibare's work because it is interesting and provocative without being dark and twisted like Paul McCarthy's art.

Process Reflection #1

This week has been productive for me. I wrapped up all of my projects, and started my independent project: shapes. Basically, I draw a shape and form a work of art around numerous amounts of the same shape. I got a couple pieces done, then tried to do something but ended up screwing around with a party hat, listened to music, came back, and made something unrelated. I have no process. I have no plan moving forward. I will make art.

ART:21 SPIRITUALITY

Ann Hamilton believes in a strong connection between the line of sewing and the line of writing, the unifying theme being art. She thinks that each thread of cloth together making a piece is a powerful social metaphor. The relation between the written line, sewn line, and drawn line are about the fundamental act of making. Words are a material like anything else. Her work is broad, ranging from balls of text, to toothpick covered suits, to installation projects. She talks about installation as "animating space." I like her work. It's well thought out, and a little weird.

John Feodorov creates spiritual altars creating "kitsch-objects". He notes how in modern culture, animals have become "Disney-fied" whereas totem animals used to be powerful and command respect. He combines totems using toys, various religions, and sawdust to represent ashes to create some of the strangest, most bewildering artwork I've ever seen in one presentation. His art incorporates and exploits ambiguity and contradiction found in society. His particular interest in Navajo culture and religion stems from Navajo roots, combined with Jehova's Witness Christianity. These completely opposed cultures definitely took part in making his work the way it is. His other work, such as the teddybears with masks, also focus on Navajo tradition and obstruction in modern culture. I like it, but it's a little too weird for me.

Project Planning

During my independent project, I want to create something interesting and entertaining (obviously.) My plan is to have no plan. I will take the same causality that I use in my sketchbook and turn it into something more finished.

Sketchbook Archeology

At times, the sketchbook felt live a privilege. At others, it felt like a chore. Looking through, I see I used a lot of graphite, charcoal, and paint marker. There was a time where I experimented with realism, and another where I experimented with cartoonism. Countless times I mixed both. Some abstract pictures are stories of my life, stories of other people's lives. I feel that the ability to experiment with various artistic elements in my sketchbook has been very beneficial to me as an artist, because it gave me a chance to recognize what I am most comfortable with and what elements I enjoy using.
Things that appear multiple times:

• Dice
• Numbers
• Eyes
• Smeared charcoal simulating wind
• Drips
• Circles
• Trees
• Mushroom clouds/explosions
• Cubes
• Text

Initial Reflection

Art Principles has been great for the past 2 terms. My strength has been overall creativity... getting frustrated with a project, then finding hidden inspiration. I began Art Principles not liking art, thinking it was just another class. I have found a creative outlet in this class, and though big projects were sometimes frustrating, they have been overall rewarding. I'm not sure which art I will be taking next term... probably not clay, because clay is a challenge for me that I don't really enjoy. As cliche as it sounds, after this class I try to see art in everything, which will be useful for broadening my creative spectrums later in life.

ART:21

I liked the way Raymond Pettibon uses writing in his work to verbalize art and communicate humor, drama, anger, jubilance, and sadness.  His work requires two arts: writing and drawing. His work ranges all over, because he has a very broad artistic spectrum. His work is varied, but always meaningful. I can relate to his type of art, as it requires an ever-changing, all-encompassing creative mind.

Elenor Antin work always tells a story. She defines what she does as, "inventing histories." The abstraction of her work with cutouts both confuses and intrigues me. There has to be a lot of thought that goes into her work, as the complexity is planned. She continues to talk about re-inventing herself as someone else, in alter-egos.

Clay Project

For my clay project, I have chosen to do a representation of myself. I chose this because I know myself better than anyone else. To represent myself, I have chosen to use a lion. A lion fits me well because it captures bravery, fierceness, and boldness (for instance, "heart of a lion"). These are three very important elements of my personality. Rather than putting a lion in an environment that was out of the ordinary, I am choosing to put it in a position it wouldn't normally be in. By making the lion standing on two legs, winking, and making one of those finger gun symbols with its paw, I am trying to obviously convey my sense of humor and love fun.

Symbolic Portrait

For my symbolic portrait, I have decided to use John Coltrane. He is a fantastic jazz saxophonist, but I wanted to know more about him, and create what I think his mind would be like. Religious influence took a huge part in his music, and he was actually dubbed a saint by the African Orthodox Church. This sort of inspiration, I think, has many tangible attributes. This would be excellent if I were using objects in a picture to make a representation of him. Other interesting thing which could be covered in this portrait would be his death at 40, and his use of heroin. The complexity of this genius's life would make for a great portrait basis.

Hamlett Dobbins

This was my favorite piece of Hamlett Dobbins' work. It is still somewhat obscure, as are many of his paintings, while keeping an element of neatness. I think that the meticulously drawn numerals provide a degree of deep contrast which adds a lot to the painting. The piece leaves the viewer wondering what significance the number 4 has to the artist, and gives leeway for personal interpretation. A question I would like to ask Hamlett Dobbins would regard his artistic process, and what inspires him to create such abstract work.

When I asked Hamlett about his process, he told me that he likes to find a significant moment to him in his life, and either take a picture or recreate it with found objects. This is a base for a painting he would do about said moment.