m -

You've been gone for two weeks now. 14 days, 336 hours give or take a few. I still don't know what went wrong. One day we were lounging on the couch talking about memories and future plans and the next thing i know, you've vanished. 20 years obliterated by the pain caused by the lack of your presence in my life. Every morning i get up eat my grape nuts, read the paper, watch the news and wait uncomfortably for the post to come. I wait every minute of the day to hear anything from you. All i'm left with is a photograph of us. It's the only reminder i have of your face. Soft, delicate and full of knowledge. I remember the day we took this picture. It was the first time we felt free to be ourselves. We walked around Glenville not giving a fuck if anyone stared at us because we were happy. We were ourselves 100%. free of all inhibitions. I remember how people looked at us especially the uppercrust ladies that belong to the golf club. I thought it was ironic when that man, howard schatz asked us to pose for a picture. It seemed like he was the only person that day, that did not cast judgement. He was more intrigued by who we were as people and what our stories were rather then the small, shallow things. I know that our unorthodox relationship was looked down upon by others, but deep in my heart i know that it was beautiful, true, and honest. I guess that's why i was so shocked when you left me. Was it me? Was it you? You left me with no explanation of your motifs. So here i sit writing you this email. I hope that you will find it among your travels and will return to me one day. Until that moment i will sit with this picture. This picture that holds true to our inner beings. I love you maxine. i will truely hold you close to my heart. You've been a loving incredible mother that i will never be able to replace.

lovingly, b.

The truth is, I miss you. This is more then a photograph; it’s a rare fragment of a moment that completed me. This portrait defines him in my mind. At first glance he looks happy but I know better. As I delve into rough terrain of plunging and rising skin I arrive at two very familiar eyes. Although these eyes belong to this man, they are unmistakably mine. The size, the color, the placement, I can’t kid myself that this man is my father. I took this photo upon meeting this stranger. I flew to a foreign land to meet the man that has been MIA in my life. We did not speak the same language and were completely alienated from each other. This picture stings me. It reminds me of him, and everything I hated and loved about him. His eyes are what get me. They evoke pity and weakness from me and for that I hate him and this picture. His eyes speak of a loneliness that he holds me responsible for. Others viewing this picture might think is a lighthearted photo but I know his eyes to well because they are mine. My eyes, my emotions, me. Our eyes are one in the same.



this is what i'm working on for my essay. I'm pretty sure this is going to be the first paragraph.

Will Taylor my drawing teacher was the first one to point out Robert Longo's work to me. I immediately was very interested by his large size lithographs because of the movement and scale. Longo's work is usually life size or bigger. It towers over the viewer in a gallery setting and that in itself is very potent. The piece "Eric" at Wake Forest is particulairly intriguing. According to my sources online Longo took his friends at his roof and had them move and spin around while throwing objects at them. He then took pictures of them and projected the images on the wall to trace it. He then used lithography to create the final image. The stark contrast of black and white creates a graphic nature to the piece while the scale is pretty intimidating. After researching this piece i decided to create my own life size installation piece. I can't post it on the internet because my model was an actor and asked me not to but i can talk about it. I decided to reference longo in terms of size and having my model actually being forced into a situation (like how longo threw objects at his model i covered mine in honey). Having my model covered in a sticky substance changed how he moved and interacted with himself. I video taped him rubbing the honey around his body and had a very simple set up. I did a slight wardrobe change so that he was also that of a woman. The actor i used was very androgenous so when i dressed him in lingerie he appeared to look like a woman. The message i was trying to get across was that of discomfort from male sexuality. A lot of time in the media we see women exposed and acting sexual. Take that show that has hugh heffners three playboy bunnies in it. they are always half naked engaging in semi sexual content. We flip by and think nothing of it and go on about our day. On the other hand, if a male was to be in barely anything rubbing his body on tv, everyone would become extremely uncomfortable. I tryed to capture this by the actions of my model. I projected it life size and played around with sound to further the mood of discomfort. Taking a note from Longo, i really feel that projecting the body life size helped to create a dramatic effect.

it's campaign time once again...

except on a smaller basis...school wide that is. So usually, i'm not going to lie- i don't give shit about school politics. I mean seriously..who does? Not to be a pessimist, but usually whoever is running is doing it just for popularity and also just for their resume. This election is a little different though. I guess its not the same in my mind because i have a friend running for president. I was approached by my friend Jamar the other day to help him and his running mate Samip make posters for their election. At first i was said i would just to do a friendly thing but after talking to them about their goals i actually because pretty interested. They want to "break the silence" as they say by forging a relationship between the students and staff..bridging the black and white area of the administration and the student body. They also want to get our school interacting with the surrounding institutions. After hearing them speak and hearing their passion to actually make a change i really wanted to hook them up with good signage. I felt that my commonplace would be a good place to discusst his because it made me think about what goes into to creating effective propaganda? So let's discuss signage. As a young visual artist i feel i definitely am effected by really interesting images and text. For example when Bush ran for president i remember really boring signs. Repping the red white and blue font, the signs were straight forward and really reallly boring. The reaction it got out of me was a big fat "he would". Obamas posters on the other hand were i think an example of smart intelligent signage. Let me just state i have no idea if the word signage is even a word but, whether it is or isn't i will continue to use it. Anyway the leading most popular Obama poster was created by the popular street artist Shepard Fairey. This sign was graphic, crisp and catchy. It appealed to the younger generation which was a really unique approach as far as his tactics in running his campaign. This style became so famous that now photo editing websites have generators that transform your photos into obama posters. Tieing that into jamars campaign, originally he wanted to go with an obama type poster. After plugging in his headshots we ultimately came to the decision that this would not be the most effective method of campigning. I say this becasue i feel that obama spoofs have gotten pretty old. There is so much baggage and judgeent and even prejudices that come along with him, (good and bad of course, dont get me wrong i am an Obama supporter) that i felt it was just to much of a risk to model jamar and samips posters after his. We decided to take an alternative approach and do something in their words "artsy". I suggested that painted text on their body rather then computer generated text might be more affective and unique. We decided to write their slogan on their arms and enlist other peoples hands to write out the information. When photographing them i tryed to capture their serious intentions while still fusing it their strong personalities. Working on a small tight time limit , i didn't get to go as elaborate and "artsy" as i wanted but they were very pleased with the outcome. I guess i just really wanted to take this opportunnity to record my experience being involved with some sort of political thing. Even though it was a small time thing, it gave me alot of insight into peoples professions that design things like campaign slogans for a living. If you want to see the fruits of my labor its posted all over campus..yeah..everywhere really. later for now.

This fucking hilarious. If i ever found this i would probably shit my pants. But on a serious note how creepy would it be to find a note like this pinned to your car windshield. I'm going to be straight up and say that i have admired people from a far, i'm pretty sure we all have... but who acts on it like this?....yeah someone thats crazy-thats for sure. So, here's a question..obviously for myself because i am the only one reading this... is this "foundmagazine" an artistic site? are the notes pieces of art... i'm only asking this because honestly- it's assigned in art history class, so it's my duty to find an artistic connection. I hope my few readers aren't judging me at this point. Anyways, ONWARD. The act of finding objects is a very curious thing. Everywhere one goes , one is expsed to thousands of interesting objects and as in this case- crazyyy things. Does taking these things and putting them onto the web act as an catalyst into an artistic exploration? hm, possibly. I really think this breaks down into the age old question of "what is art"? Art, I feel is a very personal thing. i think depending on the person, "actual art" can be considered to be merely based on technique, or in some cases it could be more a broad practice, based on conceptual and pure expression. If art is based on the acts of expressing ones self, then couldn't it be said that posting notes and photos found that contain private snippets be considered an act of expression? I feel like i am not expressing this clearly. Art is a way of expressing ones self and so is writing, thus, if you take personal written notes and post them online, for people to view would that be considered an artistic practice? In my opion...not so much. Not to say that i have a narrow minded view on what art is, i just feel that you need some type of harnessing of technical skills and conceptual ideas. I feel that forgoing all types of technical skills undermines the act of creating. I guess thats my personal opinion. Anyways, all in all i hope i wasn't tooo vague. sorry if i was- sometimes i have a hard time conveying my thoughts.

Modern

Hey there, i have an interesting topic this week. Bare with me as i take you through my mental journey on what defines today. I started off by interviewing to va 1's. let me introduce you...

This is Kat...



Kat is a striking intelligent beauty. She's level headed and makes profound comments on a daily basis.



This is Christian...


Christian is a unique beauty. His personality is tangy yet sweet. His sarcasm and wit defines his reactions to things a lot of the time. He is ridiculously smart in the way he thinks about society and art.


Here are a few questions i asked them


*Me*: What defines today in your eyes?
*Kat*:Hm.....
*Christian*: wow, what a question..
*Me*: yeah.. you're telling me.
*Kat*: I would have to say individualism- everyones unique qualities
*Christian*: Meis- like less technology based... Really like the medias influence on society and its use of technology as a tool.
*Me*: What artist/musician/ film maker etc. helps us see our own time?
*Kat*: OBAMA
*random person*: they're not an artist
*Kat*: in a sense he is. i think obama is a good example of what society is today compared to how it was in previous years.
*Christian*: I think kat's answer is really fucking good
*Me*: hahahaha
*Christian*: so many artists have been inspired by obama, and even in other counties he has inspired so much change
*Kat*: ok shepard fairey
*Christian*: Shut up katherine.



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So that was pretty interesting picking their brains. As far as what defines today i would definitely have to agree with Christian about media influencing our life. Everywhere we look the media changes how we look, dance, act, dress, basically everything. I know the media has influenced me. take dancing.. There is this song called "stanky leg". My roommate first told me about it.. she showed me all the youtube videos of people doing this silly dance. I thought that i could beast that dance so i started showing all my friends what i could do. Media via music and youtube influenced me yet again blinding me at my own stupidity. Someone taped me doing the dance the other day. Thought i would share.

here's how it should be done...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNW7QdM2Kw8

here's me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nthvttZafo


yeah...ok moving on.
So when i think of an artist that reflects my view on todays society in the sense that we are driven by the media and young hollywood, i definitely think of David La'Chapelle. I know, i talk about him a lot. shutup. A little background info on him
he went to NCSA and then went to SVA in new york. In new york he met up with andy warhol and started working closely with him. He does a lot of work with celebrities exaggerating their personalities and elements form their personal life. His style is described by people as "surrealist/ grotesque/ shocking/ ironic" (wikipedia). His work reminds me of perez hilton. perez hilton writes a blog allll about young hollywood and everything that goes down. I feel that this is so typical of our era because we put stars on this pedastool where we want to know everything about them. Lachapelles use of color, lighting and setting is very contemporary in the sense that it's very over the top and vibrant. Here's a piece by him



I find this piece especially intriguing because of the subject matter. I feel that now more then ever the gay/transgender community is very prominent in society. If you flip through tv you can find shows like queer as folk, the l word and rupauls drag race. At our own school it seems that guys take every opportunity thrown at them to dress like females and i myself sometime prefer to wear suspenders, fedoras, and suit jackets. This ambiguity in gender is something that is slowly becoming more and more dominant in our society. In this picture Lachapelle explores this and also exploits it. This picture is clearly very sexual. This sexual tone is consistently evident in his other work. This picture deals with a trans man. The way the body is posed, greased down, lit, and "accessorized" (watermelon) screams shock, lust, and sex. This subject matter is so contemporary and so pure in purpose(theres no question at what he's getting at).
This picture is just one example of how Lachapelle embodies how our culture is evolving into this money/celebrity/sex based society thriving off of cheap thrills.


..well at least in my opinion.

ok, so for my final i went out and interviewed people about jeff koons red balloon flower. check out my footage. pretty interesting.

Ok, so as far as a metaphor goes, i'm not sure howww closely i will touch on that, but i really wanted to talk about this piece, so i am going to try and relate it as much as possible to the assignment. I created this piece out of frustration. I was feeling artistically drained and uninspired at the time. That happens to me a lot it feels, because i never take a break to sit and reflect on other things. i constantly googogogogogog. Anyways, i was in an setting where i felt like all the art i produced and all the art others came up with was meaningless and void of purpose other then a technical exercise. One day my class went to a nature lab to draw dead animals. As i looked at the butterfly i was drawing encased in a glass box, i could relate to the feeling it could of had. Yeah i know, what sort of feelings can a dead butterfly have? or other dead animals in there...? they are dead! well, they weren't to me if that makes sense. They felt constricted within the confines of the dull wooden walls. They were there to serve a purpose of being stared at and meticulously copied. I could relate to that... well not the copied part. The more i drew the dead butterflies and other species the more i felt united with them. Together we were trapped in this stagnant place. When my teacher told us to make a collage with these photos, i knew i had to break from the bubble i felt caged in. While others sat around and chatted about their plans of artsy fartsy collages i racked my brain for something new- something fresh. Something to break away from what i was doing. Break away. that was it. I wanted to take my drawings and unleash them into city school i had grown to detest. I wanted to take something like a boring butterfly drawing and personify it. I wanted to take them and put them in a totally different context then they were use to being seen. I decided to take the drawings and turn them into a living breathing vessel. I went to kinkos and blew up/shrunk and copied hundreds of my drawings. I bought bottles of mod podge and white paint. People that i told were confused as to what i was doing, but i did not want to take the time to explain. I had a plan and nobody would alter my path. I found the perfect model. someone totally comfortable in his skin, well maybe a little too comfortable. I started to rip the pictures and collage them on his body with glue. it took hours to get it just right but when i was done i had created this new living breathing creature. i took paper and graphite and gave it life. i took dead butterflies and insects and gave it a pulse. I unleashed it into the town. I followed this creature around documenting his every move. He was not to talk. He was to live in the moment of being this creation. He was to forget about who he was and think about who i had transformed him into. Peooples reactions were incredible. Smiles, confused looks, anger, giggles. I saw it all. People pulled over to get pictures with my creature. They honked, drove in circles, everything you can imagine. I felt vindicated when it was over. I had broke through my artists block. I created something that gave a collage and boring studies more depth and new life.

An orgasm for the eye. My friend dropped this statement once and i thought of this experience. An experience so visually striking photographs can't do it any justice. A year ago i traveled to the island of sardegnia off of Italy. I did not go for tourist reasons, like to site see or to get a perfect tan. I went for a much deeper / darker reason. To say the least, i was surprised at what my eyes sat foot on when my shaky plan set down on a cold windy winter day. I eyes fell onto a paradise. Something unpolluted and almost completely untouched by modern eyesores. I saw sheep. Sheep with thick coats of fur running through the streets as their bells tinkled in the breeze. The palm trees that surfaced from the ground stood tall with age and good nourishment. They were certainly the farthest thing from the trees i saw in myrtle beach. The architecture. oh god, the architecture. so beautiful. so old. covered in beautiful rich coats of mango and lemon paint. It offset the piercing blue sea that engulfed the island. The sea, was a site. It stretched out for miles and miles, with hitting the coast of kenya. I was told the water was murky for that time because it was winter, but i felt it was the clearest water i had ever seen. The water was translucent exposing the grains for coarse acidic sand underneath. Sea glass scattered the beach catching the sun at perfect moments. It was completely deserted. It was a paradise. How can some people wake up to this every morning? My father does. I wish i did. The water stung as it soaked through my hightop red and orange nike air force ones. The intensity of the temperature was liberating. I felt that i was in a place close to my ideal of heaven. That moment restored my faith in their being untainted beauty left in the world. My biggest fear has been in loosing the beauty of nature. The feeling that i get from being in it, connecting with it, can never be replaced by skyscrapers. The connection i had with that sea went back hundreds of years. Through the sea was connected with my father, which ultimately connected me to my heritage. This connection reminded me of a turner painting. Beautiful and violent in paint strokes, rich in paint, saturation, darkness, and potent meaning.


My soul transcended from my physical body towards the depth of the sea. It intermingled in the abyss of salt, creatures, and stories. My soul found its home, in the confines of this translucent liquid ecstasy.

Turner

The reverberating sound spills and sprawls from powerful and magnificent waves. The sound swallows me up, pulling me down into the colorful depths of the sea. Down, down I go under the thick layer of yellow-green only to resurface by the delicate ship thrashing in the dangerous white peaks. The skies ablaze; radiating fire in every angle. Only someone that has experienced this could know what this was like. I know the old stories of him are true.I want so desperately to escape this horror, but yet I bask in the beauty and intricacy of his soft marks. This scene is crafted delicately, yet with a heavy hand. The sultry use of color captivates me, holding my attention for more than a second, consequently submerging me in the experience. It’s a sensual delight of the senses that dangles me dangerously closely to the edge of addiction. While I want to recreate this, I have neither the knowledge nor the tact to touch this talent. I would rather simply surrender to the dangerous beauty of Turners magnificent creation.

sculpture

Wowwwww. So this is incredible. This is a sculpture by Bernini. When i saw this i was basically in awe. So this is carved out of stone. I've carved stone before and i can't imagine doing anything like this. This is so..realistic and beautiful. The skin looks so fleshy while the hands dig into the skin. The hands evoke to me an emotion of need and urgency. The rolls of flesh that rise up from the fingers create valleys in which the fingers sit deeply in. The veins in the hands are strained popping out of the skin. The light in which this image is show helps to emphasize the cast shadows that the fingers create. I wonder what Bernini was thinking while he was carving this. I know that when i carve i poor myself into what i'm doing. All the emotions and thoughts i have spill out and overflow into the material i'm working with. My greatest sculptural influence is definitely Henry Moore. His design aesthetic captivates me. Henry moores pieces are simple clean and sleak. They have a unique sound that i resinate with. heres and example...

Although this sculpture is a lot different then Bernini's both speak to me. they clench my gut when i look and them, and also snag my breath. They make me want to pick up a chisel and attack a mountain of rock. I don't know how to explain why works of art do this to me, but i do know that work like this inspires me and fills me with the desire to create. When i create i feel whole. I feel like i'm doing what i'm destined to do. I wonder if that's how moore and bernini felt while creating these pieces. I wonder if they where addicted to creating pieces of art of if they merely only produces because they were naturally talented. While i can fantasize that they are like me, i can't even know for sure.

the art of the portrait

Caravaggio's portraits are incredibly captivating. The sense of dramatic lighting is so powerful that one cannot deny how potent the images are. After looking at the pictures i sent up a challenge for myself. My challenge? To create a powerful portrait. I tried various things. Here are my outcomes via photography :



So in these photos i stole what i liked most about Caravaggio's portraits- his use of dramatic chiaroscuro. I did this by taking a lamp and angeling it on the models body in a dark room. In the middle one i used natural lighting taking advantage of the shadows that fell on my models face. I placed around with covering my models faces in all the photographs because that's something that really interests me. While i'm no Caravaggio, i did like learning from him and applying it to my own art.

Pure Perfection?

Ok so what is pure perfection in someone in terms of looks? if i could answer that then, well i would know something rest of the world doesn't know. Take the mona lisa for example. It's one of the most famous paintings of all time. It is said to be a symbol of beauty. On a closer look though you notice the male features mixed within mona lisas face. here's a picture...

upon a closer look you see Da Vinci's face as an underlayer...

Setting aside the fact that most artists paint themselves , sometimes self conciously in their work, is the ultimate beauty a mix of male and female...aka androgy

nous?

Personally i find androgynous people to be gorgeous. here is an example.

so...here's and experiment..what if i took according to the internet the two most beautiful common day people and morph them together...

aka eva mendes and brad pitt

hmm..not so attractive? or maybe just a little bit? So what about having male and female features makes certain people so captivating? Maybe one could relate this to the theory in life that everyone is a little bit bisexual. Many people especially republicans hahaahah,( ok sorry not so funny ) would definitely disagree with me. I personally believe it though. I feel that we are all somewhat attracted to our own gender...hence why people that share female and male traits are so desirable. Androgynous actors are popping up all over the place. Take for example the actress in the show  the L word. aka shane. She is now known internationally as probably one of the most desirable women, not only in the lesbian culture but also to many straight girls. you want to know why? because she has male features. this brings me back to my theory on why the mona lisa is looked at to be a rare unusual beauty..her androgyny. back in the day there probably weren't to many androgynous people in paintings, thus when da vinci painted himself mixed with a female it shed a new light on beauty. it made people stop and look and pay attention because it was something different then what was usually portrayed in paintings. i feel this might be the whole reason why the mona lisa became so popular. the unusual take on a woman.

chaos.
my eye's cant even rest for a single moment in time.
delirious. what am i seeing?
curious little characters everywhere.
where am i?
a land so different and bizarre.
where am i?
my eye's can't even rest for a single moment in time.
clusters of people engaging in bizarre acts.
what am i looking at?
a painting so unusual i am forced to question the artists mental state.
where am i?
oh yeah, a bosh painting.

this painting trips me out. so weird. makes me question if bosh was trippin off something. i know that's sorta a sad thing for me to think. but hey? i'm just being honest. the power of the dense content is something that makes me feel claustophobic when i look at it. yet, i'm engaged by the odd events going on throughout the painting. overall, i like it. i might need to give my eyes a rest after staring at it for a while but hey, it's all good.

Belliniiii

Hello! This is my first entry here at "steezys hot spot". Here's a little background info before i go into my spiel. I'm currently attending the University of the North Carolina School of the Arts. I'm a freshman in the second year of a two year visual arts program. This year i'm taking an art history class and part of a grade is to keep some sort of "commonplace book" about artists and such. I started off with a rinky dinky journal but really didn't feel invested. seeing how i am on the net frequently i figured that maybe a blog would be easier to keep up with. so here i am. i hope my thoughts are minimally interesting. Here's a pic of me so you can get a full idea. i'm the one with the weird face.

So, let's talk about Bellini-not the cocktail, the painter. Bellini was an Italian renaissance painter who said to have revolutionized venetian painting. So when i took a look at Bellini's paintings i saw a ton of Madonna and child paintings. for example
So why did bellini paint so many madonna and child? was it his attention to tradition, his quest to make the perfect painting? did he have a weird infatuation with mother and infant?was being creative even such a big deal back then? being an art student i feel this intense pressure to constantly be not only creative but also conceptual. back in day, was there even such a thing as creativity? that makes me wonder. what would art be like now if there was no pressure to be creative? Take chuck close for example. creates incredible portraits but in all reality they are not incredibly creative. I guess my point would be, is it right for us to criticize artists for not being incredibly creative/conceptual? where do we draw the line between skill and something void in meaning?
Overall while i find both close's and bellini's work visuall stunning, i find them both a little boring and one note after i get over the initial awe of their skill. I prefer conceptually sound art that evokes thought rather then amazing technical work. i suppose it's my own personal preference but i'll leave it at that.