Comics Response Chapter 9

This week’s Comics reading was really interesting. The Main Point the author makes in chapter 9 is how to understand comics and what the meaning of comics is. He first starts out by explaining that comics comes from the mind, but only a short percentage of our vision is what goes into our drawing. I find this to be true because every time I draw a picture, I first envision of what I want the outcome to be. Then I think about the methods I will apply. When its all done, I look at my drawing and notice that only a small part of my vision is actually on the drawing. I notice I added more or taken out some details. Next he talks about how comics can be open to anyone. All you need is a paper, pen/pencil, and idea, the want to be heard, to learn, and to see. This is really interesting because I do that all the time in my art and so this means that all my art is considered a comic. You need to say something with your art. It needs to tell a unique story. The author talks about how comics past is used to influence the future of comics. Comics can be as simple as cartoons, symbols, languages, or a realistic setting as long as it tells a story. This is cool because simple things can lead to big ideas. I can do a simple drawing and it can end up in a museum. We never know. We need to develop our ideas and thoughts onto a canvas a produce new art. This is why comics will continue to develop as time goes by.

Art Show Week 5

This week I went to an art show by Ilene Segalove. She started off by saying that she was a UCSB student and that she works with radio, video, and audio. I highly admire her because she can do all those things and call them art. She is able to try new things and experiment with them. She told us that she worked for TV and wondered if in a reality show were the actors real or just following a script. When she made that point, I wondered about reality TV too and if the actors where following if script. If they were then it wasn’t reality TV in my perspective. After giving a talk, she showed us a video called The Mom Tapes in which she filmed her family doing random stuff. I think that the point of this video was to show how she interacted with her family and what their thoughts on life were. After the video, she showed us pictures of self portraits. She would show herself with pants and not shirt on and also pictures of her and her family. This pictures showed me that her family played an important role in her life. She showed how much she cared for them and this made me relate to her because my family is very important to me too. She ended the art presentation by showing cartoon drawings she had made. I thought they were amazing and hope she will make more.

Proposals for Narrative/Sequence Project

For our next assignment we are going to do a Narrative/Sequence assignment. We have to write about our proposals that we intend to do. My first proposal is to document about Sequence. I want to document a day in the life of a child care provider. I would go around and see how a child care provider works and what her strategies are for the day. How she does her daily chores and what are the challenges that can come in a single day. I would document that along with thoughts and feelings of the worker.

My Second proposal is to do what I said in my first proposal but compare to a day in which she can be herself and not working. I would go about this project by documenting a day she is working and observing one in which she is relaxing and not working. I will note down what she does and how she goes about in doing her tasks. What does she do and with whom does she spent most time with? How does she dress and act outside the workplace? How has her mood changed and how she feels?

My third proposal is to do what I said above but also include the people around her. What is the environment in which she works. How is that environment different from the one in which she is relaxing?  Also to include her thoughts on her work days and relaxing days. How does she compare the two. To include more personal information like when she started working at this place and how she got started. These are all proposals I would love to do because it gets to teach me about how the regular worker is in the workplace and off day.

Favorite Artist: Leonardo Da Vinci

One of my all time favorite artist is the famous Leonardo Da Vinci. He is famous around the world and his art is spectacular. His work is in prestigious museums. There was a movie called The Da Vinci Code that takes place in Paris. I highly admire Leonardo Da Vinci because he created The Last Supper. The Last Supper is a famous painting in which it portrays the final days of Jesus. I have been familiar to this portrait because I have seen it all my life. Everywhere I went whether it be my aunt’s house or a restaurant, The Last Supper made its presence known. I believe this painting is a part of me and I would definitely have it in my house when I get older. My parents would always tell me the significance of the portrait because I would always ask. It usually tends to be hanging near the dinner table. I would always gaze up at it and think about its meaning. Even today, when I go to my house and see the painting, I think about the life of Jesus and how he sacrificed himself to save us. This portrait means a lot to me.

                                                                                  The Last Supper

 

Mona Lisa

Another famous piece by Leonardo Da Vinci is The Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is an interesting art piece to look at. People have told me that she has a secret and that is why she is smiling. That you need to look carefully into her eyes to see what she is hiding. This piece is mysterious and brings many thoughts to whoever observes the painting. I hope to one day see the actual painting so I could analyze it more thoroughly.  

Free Write

For this free write I would like to talk about my possessions that I find to give me a sense that I am home and around my family. The first item I want to talk about is my brothers’ baseball hat. He bought this hat about 7 months ago and he would always wear it. When we took a family trip to Mexico back in December, he would always wear around the town. I would also wear it a couple of times but he was the one who wore it more. My brother loves to wear hats with his attire. I think its part of who he is. He stopped wearing them about a month ago because of his new hairdo. He told me I could wear it and when I am here at school, I feel like I am with my family. It reminds me of my brother and I wear it how he wears them.

My second piece of personal possessions are some bracelets my little cousin and sister gave me. These bracelets were given to me one Sunday night before coming back to UCSB. I was eating with my family and my cousin was visiting. She and my sister were making bracelets and told me if I wanted one. I said yes and they made me two. One was blue with black and the other is white with black. When they were done they gave them to me and I really liked them.  I put them on and my little sister also gave me a silly band she was wearing. It is blue and I put all three on. After I said my goodbyes and left to UCSB. Every time I feel down and depressed, I look at these bracelets and remember that night and all the words of inspiration my family has told me. I also consider them my good luck charms.

Strong/Weak Art Work Day 3

In today’s section, we had more confession presentations. They were all good and dealt with something personal. My classmates and I observed the confessions and had a class discussion about the project. We tried to guess what the confessions and then the confessors would talk about their project and its meaning. Some were good and some needed some more help. One project that related very much to me is a project that was about getting a letter from a college saying you have been dismissed and how she managed to get back into school without her parents finding out. She started talking about this experience and made me think about my academic situation as well.  I also received a letter from the college of letters and science saying I was subject to Disqualification. When I saw it, I felt like crying and made me think about my parents reaction. What was my family going to think of me? Then I read that I had a chance to get back in if I wrote a letter to the dean. After a month of waiting I got the news that I would be reinstated on probation for fall and I am still on probation. This project made me sentimental and I relived that day when I too got the letter.

                One project that I found weak was one about my classmate being lost while camping with his family. The presentation was cool because of the way it was presented in the dark with noises in the background. I thought it was a weak confession and he could have presented more. I would have gone more personal and dig up some more info about that night. Overall these confessions were great because they relate something very personal to the confessor.

Response to Lecture Week 5

Todays lecture was based on Personal Narrative. The professor started off lecture by telling us about what makes a personal narrative. He gives off some terms for us to write down  about how it is based on the real and how it must include details. He showed us various video clips. One of my favorite ones was about this guy and his dad and how his dad ate at the same restaurant for about 25 years. This documentary was funny because there was humor engraved in this clip. Another clip was about the professors family in Christmas time. He showed how they interacted with one another and made the whole video from a toy camera. This was incredible because he was able to put this video together using a toy and make a great piece of art. He also showed us a video that explained the meaning of the Snap. It was really cool to learn about that because I have seen it before in tv shows and movies. He also showed us works from Sally Mann and her style to photograph her kids nude and call them art. Many people complained but she called it art. Overall this lecture taught me more about the meaning of Self Narrative.

Work Progress ..COnfession

This week’s art project was to do a confession project. We were allowed to do either a performance or do an object to present to the class. I thought about my project hard and then finally came up with my confession. I was going to do a poster in which I am centered in the middle and problems surrounding me. I went to the store to buy necessary items like glue, markers, poster board, and other items. I would also like to thank my mom for letting me bring some of her items. I began drawing the pictures and posting them to the poster board. The center was a drawing of me in my car singing. Around me are the stresses of my life like school, and other events within it. Also I drew people’s reactions to me singing in my car. Most of them were like “that’s weird” which I agree because I have actually said that to someone who was also singing in the car by himself. When I presented it to the class, we talked it over a bit.  My classmates liked it and their opinions really matter to me. After discussing my work, I told the class that my confession was that I love to sing in the car because it relieves me from the stresses of everyday life. When I am in my car, I completely forget about papers and tests. I can just let loose and enjoy the music. People’s comments were true about how the outside drawing represent pressures and that the way I designed it showed that Im still a kid inside, and I am. This project was a chance to tell my classmates something personal about me.

Reading Response: Robert Rauschenberg

This week’s reading response is based on the artist named Robert Rauschenberg. His art was mainly focused his own thoughts and what came into mind. Most of society considered his art to be ugly and pointless because it made no sense. People would ask him why his interest are ugly and he would respond by asking them to give the real meaning of the word “ugly”. In my opinion, I think he did a great job in telling her to define ugly because I don’t consider art work to be ugly. Although some people had negative comments about his art work, others found it to be wonderful and excellent pieces of work. It was interesting that Robert Rauschenberg found his art skills when he was in the navy. He drew pictures of his companions. There he discovered he had a talent for art. After, he would travel to Europe and New York to promote his art work.  He would use only black and white colors so that the colors won’t overlook the other. When he became successful, he joined an art club in which fellow artist would discuss the works of others and evaluate. The Dante art pieces were the art works that brought him fame and got him noticed by famous artists.

Overall this reading showed me that no matter what people say about a work you made, always have positive feelings about your work and don’t let those comments bring you down. I like how he would travel around to promote and show his work. this shows just how dedicated he is to art. I would love to one day see one of his drawings because they seem so interesting and I would like to comment on them. For sure I wouldn’t call them ugly and I want to see why people did call them such thing. I really enjoyed reading this piece because it showed me how dedicated a person can be to something they love.

Art Show Week 4

The art show I attended this week was to see the artist Enrique Martinez Celaya. His art pieces are featured in many museums and he writes and lectures on the subject of art. Apart from being an artist, he is a trained scientist. He mentioned that he abandoned physics for art and that his parents were not happy about this. This made me think about the parents. Why were they disappointed about him being an artist? If this were my son, I would have encouraged him to pursue his dream and to be happy because that’s what matters. He showed us pictures of some of the art work he has done. This work included sculptures and drawings. Enrique Martinez Celaya told us about the time he cut his hand while working on a sculpture. The injury was severe and stitches were needed to fix the problem. Even with the accident, he continued to do art work as usual. This showed me and the rest of the audience that this is a strong and dedicated man because anyone would have quit and said that this is not for me, but not him. His art work was interesting and from viewing his pieces, I saw no resemblance of physics. Overall the art show was interesting and it ended with the audience asking a series of questions.

Comics Response chs 7 and 8

The main point the author makes in Chapter 7 was to show how art is embedded within us and what it takes to make great comics. The author begins by talking about how we create art when we least expect it. He gives various examples and one that I related to was writing with a stick in the sand. I always tend to do this and I thought it was pointless. Until I read this chapter my pointless drawings where a piece of art. Next he talks about the introduction of the six steps to creating good art. It starts with Idea and ends with Surface. We have all used this process because before creating art we have to think about our design. Then we structure it and make adjustments to it. Then before completing it, we scratch out all mismarks and then give out a masterpiece. Next he talked about the stories of people who were excited about creating comics. Some were named as great artist while others had their dreams crushed by a professional. Most of them didn’t give up and continued with their studies of comics. This part showed me to not give up on my dreams and that I need to practice if I’m told I’m not good. You just got to dust yourself off and keep going. Overall this chapter was great in teaching us about how art exists in places we least expect it.

The main point of chapter 8 is to show the importance of colors in comics. The author begins with telling us about how the first colors of comics were red, blue, and green because these can create a lot of colors when mixed together. I see how this could have worked because whenever I work with the kids, I always mix together colors by accident and they create a brand new one. The he mentions how color made an impact to comics. When color first came out in comics, the sales and cost of comic books went up.  I can see how this is true because even today, color printing is more the just normal black and white but it is still more amazing to look at. The Author then mentions how colors bring out a new aspect in viewing comics. it shows more depth and mood. Overall this chapter showed me how color made its impact in comic books and how it can show mood and depth of a picture.

Random Act of Kindness

A random act of kindness was when I volunteered to pay for the hotel on our trip to Disneyland. It was a month before our family trip to Disneyland. My family was looking at hotels to reserve and I knew that they do so much for us. I told my parents not to worry as I would make the reservation and pay for the hotel. They were so happy and I went searching. I wanted to surprise them and get a room that was different than others that we have stayed before. We usually stay in the normal two bed room. I wanted to make this trip special and different. I got us a kids room which had the parent’s bedroom and a kid’s room with bunk bed and sofa. When I revealed the room, my family got excited especially my little sister.  I told them this was going to be the best Disneyland trip ever. When we arrived at the hotel, we went inside our room and it was amazing. There was a lot of space and it had a microwave with fridge. When I opened the curtains, the view was phenomenal! Since we were on the top floor, we could have seen all of California Adventures and part of Anaheim. My family was very happy and so was I. This was a memorable trip and I will forever remember it. This was my act of kindness. J

Strong/Weak Art Work Day 2

Today in my art class, we did presentations again for confessions. Everybody’s presentation was amazing and reflected something about themselves. Today’s confessions were more deeply personal and made us feel emotional. One confession that I really liked was about a slideshow which showed pictures of our classmate’s grandmother. These photos were shown with a sound that symbolized a heartbeat and at the end of a show the sound became a loud noise that continued for about 5 seconds. Our classmate looked away and put on a blindfold to not see the slideshow. We all talked about it and we had a classmate cry because it reminded her of her grandmother. Her confession was that she was mad at her parents for giving her the news of her grandmother passing away five days later. I really liked this confession because it reminded me of my grandmother and how much it hurt me and my family when she passed away. I remembered all those wonderful times we had together and how she would always kiss me when I went to visit her at my uncle’s house. She was always in the bests of moods. Now I remember her because I have her favorite chair in my room back home. This was an amazing presentation because it was deeply personal which is what this assignment was about.

Now the next presentation was good but I thought it was rather weak in some ways. The presentation was about his experiences at Coachella and this being his first concert. I thought it was rather funny and so too did the rest of the class. He made us laugh and we all remembered our first concert experiences. I thought it was weak because he didn’t show or reveal something deeply personal which I thought was the whole point of the assignment. What I would have changed was maybe to choose another confession that was very personal. Overall they were all amazing and good.

Free Write

In today’s Free Write, I would like to talk about ways in which I view design to be art. I love to watch wrestling and always as part of the entrance of the superstars, there is a big screen and lights that come on during the show. I always admire the people who make this happen because it takes great artistic experience and creativity to come up with such design. Also at the begging of the show,  the fireworks go off and the fans begin to get excited because this signals the start of a great night. I had always admired this from the TV’s point of view but when me and my brother got to go to one of these events, it was completely amazing to see all those lights and the stage overlooking the audience. I sat at my seat and just stared across the arena to admire what a great way the workers had designed the arena. The stage was incredible and I thought to myself, where do they come up with these ideas? Then I knew it was their artistic minds working in creating such spectacle. The fireworks were loud and the lights were so bright. The music played as the superstars entered the ring and I would get up and cheer and boo. Most people were doing the same thing. When the show was over, I stayed like 5 minutes after just to glance back at the arena one last time. I told myself that I would love to one day work as an artistic designer who puts these shows together. I hope to one day return so I can once again admire and see what new surprises I get.  

       This is me just before entering the Staples Center of the big show!! :)

Strong/Weak Art Work

Today in my art class, we did our confessions projects. We didn’t get through all of them but the ones that were presented were absolutely amazing. There was some that were really personal and others that confessed to still hold a grudge. One work that really touched me deeply was a project done about a confession of rape. The project was that all classmates received a cup in which only 4 of about 30 had a substance. This substance was portraying some kind of drug. Our classmate told us about the time she was rapped after she had a drink with a stranger at a concert. For her to tell us that story made us think about the way this is happening in society today. She explained to us how she was positive that she was rapped. At that moment, I thought she was the bravest and strongest girl I have met because this was a huge and personal confession. We all talked about her project and made comments. This presentation showed me how these things can happen to anybody whether it is at a party or a concert, we must all pay attention to what is given to us and who is giving it to us.

A presentation that I thought was weak was done by our classmate  and his confession was that when he was young, another boy picked up a metal truck and threw it at his face and hates him for that even to this day. I thought it was rather weak because all he brought as a prop was a small shirt. We all liked it but in my opinion he could have done more. He could have done a drawing or brought in a picture of them. That is what I would have done. Overall the project was good and successful but I would change those things.

Response to Lecture Week 4

Today’s lecture was mainly focused on Mapping. The professor started out by talking about how maps allow us to see where we want to go. He described many forms of mapping that included mapping of beauty, power, fashion and many more. In this lecture, I got to learn the meaning of mapping. I thought it was just a map to look at places, but now I learned that mapping has to do with searching for the real meaning of whatever is presented. He showed us an artist that did odd pictures of maps and called them art. I looked at the maps and they were completely wrong. I tried to figure out why she did these maps in this certain way. The Professor also showed us pictures of advertisements that did show the product and we had to guess what they were selling. Most of the time, these advertisements were far off from what we thought the item being sold was. At the end of the lecture, he showed us a video of twin girls who had a different language and that no one understood them. I was surprised and didn’t even know this could happen. Overall the lecture taught me the real meaning of mapping.

Art Documentation Week 3

This week’s work in progress has to do with our confession projects. In class this week, we got together in groups and discussed our ideas regarding our project. We had good ideas and gave feedback on others ideas. My confession is that I like to sing in the car regardless of what others think of me because being in my car is like being in my own little world. I love to sing because all my worries of tests and deadlines go away and I don’t care what people think of me when I start jamming out to my favorite songs. They look at me weird and laugh because I have actually seen some looks and they weren’t good let me tell you that. They think their looks affect me but the don’t. So for my project, I was thinking of doing a poster of me driving and singing and all my problems on the outside. I want to buy a paper, markers, pencils and a presentation board so I can make it perfect. On the middle im planning on drawing me in my car and on the outside draw peoples reactions and some problems I have. I will put it all on the presentation board and present it to the class.

Art Show Week 3

The art show that I attended this week was to a presentation of the artist Marko Peljhan. His art is mainly focused on the environmental aspects of life. In the presentation, he told us that he is involved in technological developments. He has worked in creating the Makrolab Project with some of his collegues. Along with being involved in the Makrolab Project, he works with the Polar Project. Now the Polar Project is really cool because it is a big cube in which a person can go in a feel like they are inside the network. The purpose of this project was to make the person feel the space of networks and what it looks like. Entering this cube was like being in another world. Now this seems to fascinate me because I would love to step inside this box and feel like I’m in another dimension. Along with all this work, he is also a Professor at UCSB. Marko Peljhan is an interesting artist because he doesn’t draw like many artists, instead he builds things and calls them art. This to me is perfectly fine because I define art as everything we do. His accomplishments have been astonishing and this is why he gets invited to art shows in Europe.

John Cage Reading

This weeks reading response is on John Cage. John Cage artistic views were mainly focused on music. He was a composer and writer who loved to experience new types of music. His unique music got him recognized all over the world. He was born in California and was a smart student. John Cage went to Europe at a young age to pursue his studies. There he would find what his calling in life was. He would return back and work odd jobs and at the same time study music with a great music artist. Although many of his works and performances were not appreciated by the audience, he would not give up and produce more music.                                                                                                                                                    After reading this piece, I really admire and respect John Cage for his hard work and determination to be the best. I like his way to thinking and how he would never give up even when the audience laughed at him and booed him. If it were me I would have tried some other occupation, but he didn’t. The public would call him a joke and he would ignore it because he knew he had talent. I like how he not only focused on music but on theater also. Again the audience would reject this but he didn’t give up. John Cage is one of the most talented and strongest artist I have ever known. His message really shows me that if I want something in life, that I shouldn’t give up on it regardless on what others think about it. What’s important is how I feel and that is something I have always been told, because in  the end , it’s my profession and my life and no one can stop it.

Comics Response chs 5 and 6

In chapter five, I felt that the main idea the author was trying to make was to show us how emotions are portrayed in comics. The author first starts out talking about how lines and drawing can express emotion. A single line can tell you the feeling whether it is happy or sad. I have seen this before and I always think that a line going up and down seems like an adrenaline rush feeling because it is falling down.  Also a curvy line seems like an exciting feeling because it looks like a roller coaster ride. The author also talks about how we can automatically guess what certain same symbols mean when they are located in different environments. An example would be of the wavy lines that portray smoke or a smell. Even though both are the same, we can tell them apart. He also mentions how backgrounds can set the emotion. Every time I look at pictures, I always pay attention to the background to see what the mood is and in most cases, it can tell me the emotion just by looking at the background. For example, a bright, colorful background indicates happiness, while a dark and gloomy one indicates fear, sadness, and depression. The author talks about the invention of word bubbles and how they have transformed over time. Word bubbles can tell you what is happening in the picture without taking much space.          In chapter six, the main point was to show us how words and pictures play an important role in comics. The author begins by talking about how words and pictures were seen a different ideas in the early times. This is easily understood because I remember from history class that most ancient artifacts were drawings with no words on there and we had to figure out what was happening in the pictures. The author mentioned how it was later figure that both words and pictures needed to be part of the same comic of drawing. This is because people were getting confused when trying to figure out what a drawing was actually saying. It needed to say what it represented. I find this to be true because there are some drawings where im completely lost and I some books too where I need a drawing so I can get a clear drawing in my mind. The author also talks about different word/picture categories and how the most commonly used one is Inter-Dependent which is that both words and pictures say the same thing. Overall this chapter showed us that we need words to show us what the picture is trying to say or else we are going to be confused and vise versa.

Scary Moment :O

Of the most scariest moments of my life was when my dog was about to lose his life. This began when my family and I were doing the chores we always do on the afternoons. I was doing the dishes and my dad was mopping. My dog “coco” was out in the backyard running around like usual. So my dad went to open the backdoor and we forgot the front door was opened. So my dog went running through the backdoor, into the house and out the front door. I saw him pass by me and I went screaming after him saying “coco come back”. Me and my dad were running after him was his speed was much faster. He crossed one block and at the end of the other one, he crossed the street and a car crashed into him. The car just left and coco was in the middle of the street. We ran up to him and took him quickly to the vet. Good thing the vet is just around the corner. We took him in and the vet took him to the back. After hours of waiting the vet came back with good news. He said coco was going to be just fine. We had to leave him there for a couple of days for observation. When he returned home, we were all so happy he was safe and sound. Although we were happy, the scare was never going to go away. My eyes teared up when I saw him in the middle of the street. This was the scariest moment of my life.

Most Happiest Moment

My happiest moment of my life would have to be when my sister was born. I remember the days leading up to her birth, I was anxious to meet her. I would sit next to my mom and talk to her belly. I would feel her moving around. When the day came, my dad took us with my cousin because we couldn’t go to the hospital yet. Me and my brother spent the night at my cousin’s and my dad came for us the next morning. He had on the biggest smile I’ve ever seen before. I told him if he could take us now and he said yes. When we arrived at the hospital, I went straight for my moms room. As I opened the door, I saw other relatives there and I turned to my mom and she was holding our little angel. I went up to her and saw her for the first time. I was so happy I couldn’t stop smiling. I would touch her hands and tell her how much I love her. I would tell her what we would do later in the future, like play in the park and go bike riding. Now she is in elementary school and she still gives me the same joy as when I saw her for the first time. She always agrees with me and calls me to see when Im coming home. I tell her the date and she sets up things to do like play with her the wii. I love her so much and every time I get stressed or worried, I think of her and my family as well. They are the reason im here. I love my sister and my family equally and that was my happiest moment.

Proudest Moment after creating a piece of art

My proudest moment after creating a piece of art would have to be when I made a portrait of a celebrity I was looking at. One day I get home from school and I got to my desk. I started reading my magazine and noticed one of my favorite celebrities of a popular band. I took out a paper and as I was about to start drawing him my phone rings and its my cousin. I talked to her and I started to draw him as well. I was multitasking. I started of with the head and them moved down. After I hung up the phone, I realized that my drawing was coming out really good. I started to put in detail and draw some more features. I left the eyes for the end because I knew that was the hardest and most complicated thing to draw. I drew them slowly and gently and they came out good. In the end I help up my drawing and compared it to the picture and they almost looked the same. I got real happy at my skills and I wondered what would happen if her were to ever see this. I thought this drawing would be complicated but in the end I proved myself wrong and I created a perfect art piece.

Most Embarrassing Moment: Class Disruption

One of the most embarrassing moments happened to me when I was in high school. In the days leading up to my moment, I had been sick and had a stuffy nose. I would take tissues with me all the time just in case I needed them. So the day of the moment came and I was sitting in class. The students and I were listening to the teacher give her lecture. I was sitting in my desk and I felt I had a bad stuffy nose. I didn’t want to blow my nose because I thought it was embarrassing so I just told myself I would wait until lunch and go to the bathroom and do it there. Finally I felt a sneeze coming and I sneezed and I felt boogies coming down. I just thought to myself “ Oh Sh*t!!!!!!!!”. When I felt it I quickly put my hand over my nose and ran out the door not even telling the teacher. When I came back my friend asked me what happened and so I told him. His reaction was “eeww” and I don’t blame him because that would have been my same reaction if some else had done it. Nobody else asked me anything but I knew some people saw me and I just felt awkward the whole day. Despite having my tissues in my backpack, I didn’t think and just ran to the bathroom to wipe my nose. That I what I consider to be my most embarrassing moment of all time.

Response to Lecture: Week 3

I feel that the theme of today’s Art Lecture was the way a person is portrayed in the media. The Professor began lecture with demonstration how African American men are portrayed as fighters and criminals in movies. He showed how most of them show up with guns in the poster. I knew I have seen this before but never figured out they were portrayed this way. This brought up questions to my mind. Questions like “ why did African American men show up this way in action movies?” The Professor also talked about an artist named Robert Mapplethorpe who took photographs of men and other people and told us how society viewed his artwork. I thought he was an amazing photographer by how the pictures were taken and I viewed his artwork as clever. The Professor then talked about advertisements and how most of them were confusing. From seeing the ads, I couldn’t figure out what they were selling because the product was too small to see or not even featured in the advertisement. I also saw most ads had models who were in perfect shape and again brought up questions. He ended the lecture by showing a film that featured a man who took photos for one year when he punched in for work. my response to this video was that it was awesome to see how he grew over the period of one year. Overall the lecture opened my eyes to how people are presented in the media. I used to just look at it, but after today I feel like I am going to observe the ads more closely to see what is actually being  presented as the product.

Confessions Assigment

One of the confessions that I would like to execute would be that I love to listen to the Jonas Brothers or any type of Disney Music. This is hard for me because people don’t know this about me only my family and this would be a big confession. I would this project by expressing in a way how I love listening to this artists as well as many other Disney artist. I still don’t know how im going to express that and in what way.

Another confession of mine is that I love to sing in the car. Many people think its weird and when people look at me, they give me weird look. I don’t mind it because when I’m jamming out in my car, I start singing to whatever is on the radio. I do this because no one can hear me and judge my voice. I know people make comments about me but the truth is that I don’t care. To express this as an experiment, I would show why I love to sing in the car and other ways I still haven’t thought about.

My last confession is that I love to watch Spanish soap operas. This is a hard to say to my peers because mostly when people think about who watches them, they mostly say women. That is another comment I don’t care about either. I love to watch them because they provide me with some good entertainment. I would recommend more people to start watching them because they have amazing storylines and are fun to watch them. I don’t know how I would do this project but I like how we get to discuss it with our groups to think about plans and how to make these possible.

Comics Response: Chs 3 and 4

The main point the author makes in chapter 3 was to help us understand the meaning of scene changes in comics. The scenes in comics help us see what is happening in the story. The author also talks about how our mind can figure out a particular situation even when it is still. We can figure out what is missing or what comes next. We make a picture come alive in our mind. This is very true because when I see a missing piece of some sort of shape, I can easily see what the shape would be or what comes next after a movie like the credits. Most comic artists use the method of Action to Action in their work. This means that they show pure action and little talking. Mostly this method is used with superhero comics books where most of the time they are saving lives and fighting crime. The author also talks about how a big story and be cut down to a smaller one and still have the same message. This is true because in most stories, some of the information is useless and not connected with the main message. Overall this chapter gave me a better understanding of scenes change and their meaning.                                            The main point of Chapter 4 is to show us how time is embedded within a comic and what it tells us about the story. The author talks about how size and space between panels tell time. If the panel is long then we know the time within that panels is long too. The space also tells us the amount of time passed. If the space is long, then quite some time has passed between the two scenes. This is amazing because I never knew this about the scenes within a comic. The author also mentions how we can see the past and future in a single page of comics. This is true because if we stopped reading in the middle and look back, we see the past, and if we see to the end, we see the future. He also mentions how motion got put in to comics by a series of lines. This section reminds me of my photo class back in high school were our teacher showed us to make motion appear in a photograph. He showed us his techniques and we had to go out and put them to the test. I had successful photographs. Overall this chapter was fascinating because it showed me how time is shown in comics.

My work document: Week 2

This week’s art work was to alter and everyday action to a different environment. When the assignment was given out, me and my TA brainstormed about possible solutions. Then we got it. My experiment was that I would take the experience of having a home dinner at a fast food restaurant. I went to Kmart and bought a dinner plate, a fork, and a cup and took them to Jack in the Box. When I got my order I out my food on my plate and put my drink in my cup. It looked like I was having a fancy dinner at a fast food place. The people who were also eating at Jack in the Box looked at me in a funny way and were laughing and giggling. Why were they laughing? It turns out that society has its rules and manners on how to eat at a fast food restaurant. You must eat with your hands, use not utensils, and be messy. I was doing the exact opposite. I must admit that I felt weird eating like this but I just wanted to see what peoples reactions were. They were exactly what I had imagined they were. From this experiment, I got an understanding at what the proper rules are for eating at a fast food restaurant.

Art Show: Week 2

The art show that I attended this week was located at Pollock Theater. The artist that came was Dr. Patricia MacCormack. She currently works at Anglia University in the UK. Her work mainly focuses on expressing lesbian and gay work. The first pieces of work that she presented were about the idea of Mucosal Monsters. This topic was really interesting because she talked about how society has their view on a monster and what it must look like. She showed various photos of monsters and some from videos. She talked about a movie in which a girl made love to a monster. This shows that the girl didn’t care about what is on the outside, but that the true feelings are what matter. Dr. Patricia MacCormack went on to show more slides about monsters. When the art show came to a conclusion, questions were asked. One that stood out to me was that if she made art work of her own. She said yes and also mentioned that she has book which indicates she is also a writer. From this art show, I learned about how society has their views on monsters and what they must look like in order to fall under that category.

Reading Response: Marcel Duchamp

This weeks reading was based on the famous artist Marcel Dumchamp. Marcel Duchamp grew up in Europe and later came to the United States to promote his artwork. From the reading, I realized that most of his work was about the Modern Era.Marcel Dumchamp’s work came from within him and he didn’t care what people thought about it. One piece that brought anger to many people was a painting he made about a naked lady walking down some stairs. To me, I thought the visitors were taking it too far to get mad. I wouldn’t have been mad for such amazing art work.  I really admire the way Marcel Duchamp’s art work was all original and that he never copied anyone else’s ideas. This reading also disappointed me because I read that Marcel Duchamp gave up art for chess. This brought up a lot of questions like “was he happy being an artist?” and “why chess?”. Also the way he made a second identity to hide from problems he had. This made me think that he couldn’t stand up for himself and had to hide from the rest of society.                                                                                                                  Marcel Duchamp was a successful artist and his work is featured in many museums. Even though he had personal problems like having two wives, he still came out on top and didn’t let criticism slow him down. This is why I admire the work of Marcel Duchamp.

Non-Art Object as Art

A non-art object that I see as art is my ipod touch. I see this as a work of art because it was created to fascinate the world and how people see it. When society first became aware of the ipod, they were amazed by what some little object can do. I also think of it as art because whenever someone looks at a sculpture or painting, they evaluate it and study it to get its full meaning and that is what I do with my ipod. I study it to see which new features it has. For me the ipod is a great piece of art because it was meant to be enjoyed by everyone out there.                                                                                                        The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings of all time. I like how she is very suspicious looking. Whenever people talk about this painting, they always mention her smile. Society has always debated what she was smiling about. For me, I believe she has a secret to hide and that you can see that secret in her eyes. Like great art, The Mona Lisa is a fascinating piece because it just has to many mysteries and brings up a lot of questions. I would love to one day see the actual painting to I can study it more clearly. I believe both of these pieces are considered art.

Dinner Plate Introduced in Fast Food Restaurant

My experiment was to alter the everyday home dinner to a fast food restaurant. The everyday home dinner is composed of a dinner plate with a spoon/fork and a cup. At a fast food restaurant, everybody eats with their hands and there are no formal plates. My experiment was to take the home dinner experience to the fast food place. I bought some a plate with fork and cup and went to Jack in the Box to eat. When I got my order I placed all my food on my plate and drink on my cup. It looked really weird because everyone around me was eating with their hands and drinking from a straw. My understanding of a fast food restaurant is a place where you can eat informally and use no utensils. The people around me would just look at me in a weird way and giggle behind my back. This helped me understand better that Jack in the Box was meant as a fast food place where if you eat with a dinner plate and cup, the rest of the people within  that environment are going to make comments about what I’m doing an maybe laugh and giggle because I look silly.

Los Angeles: No Traffic!!

The city of Los Angeles is famous for being a movie city with having Hollywood right next to it. It is known for it celebrities roaming the streets and the amazing venues. Los Angeles has a lot of things to do like going to a game at the Staples Center or going to the Santa Monica pier or visiting Venice Beach. It also has amazing sights and structures to admire.The most famous reason why people come visit Los Angeles is because there is never traffic in the city. The traffic free city has attracted people and tourist to come visit and live. The empty roads make it easier to travel and get to work. Residents in the Los Angeles area say it is the most calm city and the freeways make it easier to get to places. They say that they are never late to appointments and that driving is fun when there is no traffic to get stuck in.When making a drive down to L.A., the freeway was hardly busy and it made it easier to get across town. Also seeing the amazing sites like the Capitol Records Building or the Hollywood Sign is a lot easier without having a big semi truck getting in the way of your view like it happens in other cities. The traffic free freeways and streets has led Los Angeles to have very little pollution in the area. Little Pollution means healthier lives. Tourists coming to the city say they are impressed by how freely they can move around the city without having  to get stop due to traffic jams. The most calmest hours to drive in Los Angeles is from 5pm to 8pm. There is almost no cars on the freeway at this time. Los Angeles is known for a lot of famous structures but the most important is no Traffic.

The theme of “Truth and Fiction” is something we see all the time in the Media. Truth has to do with the true events being portrayed in the media. An example could be from the newspaper or a TV documentary. The Fiction part is when the truth is not stated and the ideas presented are false. This could be like in a movie or a TV show. An example would be when my school newspaper published a paper on April Fools day that had pure false and weird stories. In Politics, the truth is always spoken. Leaders, Congress People, News Anchors must always present the true facts or else they can have serious consequences. Fiction is not always seen in politics unless they make a mistake and apologize for it later on. In Sports, this theme of truth and fiction can be seen. The truth can be in soccer and other sports were nothing is planned and the game is fair. Some people may disagree and say that some sports are fake and that everything is staged and planned. I agree with those people because I know some are just for entertainment. We need to take this theme really serious some we don’t get fooled when something is fiction or truth.

Response to Lecture

I feel that the theme of today Art Lecture was based on Self. The Professor began lecture with naming so features that go along with each person and how they can be used to identify someone. This portion was really interesting because he mentioned how images and profiles can say about ones personality. I totally agree because when people look at me on my facebook page, the pictures I post can really say a lot about my personality. They can say I have a great attitude and I like attending concerts. the Professor then moved on to talk about Famous Artists. He spoke about Albert Chong. From what I got out of the art pieces shown, it looked like Albert Chong’s pieces related to nature because he would use different plants and shells in his artwork. Another Artists presented was Anne Nogle. Anne Nogle’s art work was really amazing because she showed that she isn’t afraid to show what she looks like. She doesn’t hide her face or body. I like it how most of her art work is based on self portraits and shows every detail of her body.  The Professor went on to name more artists that had their own unique way of expressing themselves. The Professor ended lecture with showing videos about artists and how they express themselves about another one’s success. Overall this lecture introduced me to new artists and how they use their characteristics to make a good art piece.

Themes for Project

In future projects of my art class, we will need to brainstorm about ideas used in the projects. The ideas were Confessions, Sequence/Narratives, Alternative  Personas, and Personal Space. Confession means that you tell your most personal secrets to someone. A project relating to Confession would be to draw or create a personal secret of yours. One of my confessions would be that I like to listen to Disney Music. So the project could be  drawing of me listening to Disney Music. The next theme is Sequence/Narrative. This means that we have to think about a project relating to videos, music, or books. I really love listening to music so my project can be relating to music. If we were to pick a music them, I would choose pop rock or Spanish pop. If we were to pick artists, I would have to choose from Katy Perry, Big Time Rush, Jonas Brothers, Cristian Castro and many more. The next one is Alternative Personas. Alternative Personas has to do with being a different person. A different person means having a different personality. It would be like an investigator going undercover as a chef. This means the cop has an Alternative Persona as a chef. If I were to pick an alternative persona it would be as a pop rock artist. The last theme is Personal Space. Personal Space is having your own space around you. A project about personal space would be to show how personal space is important. To show this project, the theme can be showed as a presentation. All these themes can be showed in an art project.

Art Document:My Work

My art work this week was based on Puns. Puns are objects that when put together create a word. I had to think long and hard for my pun. I had a few but I just figured they weren’t as creative enough. So finally I had one. My Pun was a beanie. The way I went to putting this together was by printing out the picture of a bee and putting in next to my knee. The result would be Bee + Knee=beanie. We had to present this puns in my art class. There was a lot of interesting and funny ones. When it came to my pun, the rest of my classmates thought it was Bee’s Knees , but my intention was a beanie. I still give them credit because Bee’s Knees could also be it. This project really helped me understand Puns and how they are used. From now on, I am going to take simple objects and show them to my friends and family so that they could also know what a Pun is.

In class, our TA gave us another art project. We had to work with props. I brought a glove as my prop. We got into groups of five and used our five props to make a commercial. Our TA was playing the role of the customer. Our first props included a helmet, glove, a flash light, and a Christmas decoration stick. We thought of our commercial and it was about men having their own manly carrying case. The helmet was like the bag and the rest of the items were put into it. Then we had to switch groups. Our new props included sunglasses, a long stick, a hairclip, a weird headpiece with zig-zags at the top. Our commercial was about trapping people. I played the role of the trapped person. The headpiece was like the trap and the stick was used to poke you painfully and the clip was a travel size. The commercial was successful and our classmates loved it.

BEE + KNEE=BEANIE
 

Art Show

The Art Show that I attended this week was of a presentation of an artist named Eric Beltz.  Eric Beltz currently works at UCSB as a lecturer. His artwork is in many art museums and showcases. When Eric Beltz first arrived in Santa Barbara, he was interested in the local and unique plants that only grow in the area of Santa Barbara. He would go to the sides of roads and take pictures of the weeds growing on the side of the road. He would also go take pictures of plants and trees that grew next to homes and in the field. He would also take his pen and paper and head out to draw these amazing plants. He also draws on his ideas and beliefs of others. one amazing drawing he made was of this man sitting under a tree with an eagle looking down. The idea of this story is that if you sit under this tree. You will get sick and the eagle will take your soul. In the Art Show, Eric Beltz also demonstrated more of his artwork that has made it to art museums. He talks about what inspired him to do these paintings. He mostly draws on his ideas and interprets them in the form of a drawing. At the end of the show questions were asked. One question made was about what were his methods of drawing. He said that first he visualizes his drawing and then he makes a drawing. The he erases like 3 time before going over it again for the final time. This presentation was so amazing because it showed his awesome artwork. If you want to know more about Eric Beltz, check out his webpage.  http://ericbeltz.com/

Response to Chapters 1 and 2

When reading chapter 1 of the Comics textbook, I found that the main point that author makes is the meaning of comics and how objects can have comics embedded within them. The author defines the definition of comics and shows how people think about them. My definition of comics is those colorful books that featured superheroes like Batman, Spiderman, and X-men. When reading the text I knew I was wrong with my definition because I went on to read about famous Comic Artists and their definition of Comics. I was also surprised because I saw that comics appear in objects I didn’t know had comics like a film or ancient drawings. The film is just separate pictures that make a movie while the ancient drawings are pictures that tell a story to the viewer. What I got from this was that the author tells us that simple things can be comics as long as they tell a story. Overall this chapter was really interesting because it helped me better define a comic.

In Chapter 2, the main idea was that our mind can see objects and easily compare them to ideas we know. One thing that I found interesting was the idea that we can see ourselves in a cartoon. This is true because I do that all the time I see a cartoon. I try to picture myself as one of the characters and this is why our society prefers cartoons because they have fewer features to focus on. The author also talks about how our mind can see simple shapes and automatically turn them into a figure. I am always seeing figures with simple shapes all around me. Another thing the author talks about is how you only need a writer and artists to make a comic and how famous artists used icons in their artwork. Overall this chapter was filled with good information about how comics our mind and comics.

Response to Intro Reader

The intro of the reader is also an introduction to the five artists mentioned in the book. It introduces the artists definition of the term “art” and what their workings are. It mentions that Merce Cunningham was a dancer and choreographer and that most of his art work was based on dance because it was what he experienced most of the time. The intro talks about where the artists came from and what motivates them to be what they are. I find the intro useful because I have a sense of what each artist specialty is. Now when I go to read about Merce Cunningham, I know that I am about to read about music and dance. The intro helped me look ahead into the book and now what I am expecting to find in each of these artists stories. The intro also talks about where the artist decided to sell most of their art work and why.  It also talks about a famous art piece created by Marcel Duchamp and its significance. The introduction made me think about these artist and how they use their ideas to make art. The intro also provided me with information about other ideas used in art and in the projects of these artists.