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.