Micro Project 4

My "spot" on campus is one that always seems to get me thinking. I love walking by this spot because it's a unique part of campus. It's right next to the oval and across from the Union. It also leads to Mirror Lake! It's a lot more peaceful than the oval (usually unless there is construction), and it's a fun little spot. There is shade, lot's of trees, benches, flowers and this wonderful piece of artwork. I love how someone did this piece in the tree. To me it kind of reminds me of an eye and how cool is that! I find so much wonder in it. It is beautiful and gets me thinking. Who did it? Why? When? What was the purpose? It also causes me to use my imagination including the piece and the surroundings. I just love it. It's like a little magical place on campus where, I feel, you can use your imagination to have creative thoughts. A lot of times now a days we don't really go back to kiddish ways, but this is one place on campus I feel comfortable doing that. I just all around love it and the cleverness of it. I picked Wayfarer sunglasses (I believe they are usually called this) for a few reasons. I was on Pinterest and I saw a picture of these. I loved the style of them and realized they were a lot of money, but they still initially attracted me nonetheless. I just like the style of them and I really wanted to play with my idea that this piece in the tree is an eye. By using my personal style and the combination of my imagination I wanted to create life-size glasses. I feel this would make people stop, look and think about the area and the piece itself. It might even make some people laugh. I feel it would draw people in to explore the whole piece including the glasses. Maybe have them touch it or climb on it. Just fun things would come from it. It would be for all ages and might even allow the adults to get to explore their imagination and life in a different way. Then glasses give us a new prospective on things, so I thought it could figuratively cause people to be curious and just think about things/the area a little differently. I would use some sort of metal/plastic/glass to create this. I don't want it to break easily or rust. Also if the lenses could stay pretty much clear that would complete the piece. 

Kaprow Review

I thought this article was very interesting. It was so cool how Kaprow viewed teeth-brushing as a form of art. I loved how he described the process as something he never usually thought about. It is something that has become part of a subconscious act when it was so hard in childhood. I totally agree to this statement. Only few times have I ever really thought about what I was doing. When I even tried brushing my teeth with my left hand, I could barely do it right or fast enough. It really does take time and practice to get this "art form" down. I think that this is an art form. It's cool to see how far things have come with what we describe as art. I love how Kaprow talks about this in his article. I agree with him and now it makes me look at other acts differently. I could definitely take this idea and use it some time in my life. I loved how honest Kaprow seemed to be with saying he doesn't always view things like this as art, but this opened up his eyes to other subconscious acts he does throughout the day. That baffles me how our mind/body connects and can do normal things, with out us really thinking about it.

Micro Project #3

IPOD: I chose my Ipod because I absolutely love music. I think it is such a beautiful form of art, just everything about it. I can't imagine life without music. It's gotten me through times and has made me feel feelings that were indescribable. It can truly speak to the soul, I think and can communicate emotions in such a unique way (even better than words at times!). 
Magic Peace-Maker


MACBOOK: I chose my MacBook because it is something that I use pretty much every day. There are so many things on it that mean a lot to me. Things I've written, it is access to different social medias/devices that I use in everyday life, and it is a source of entertainment. I love all the things you can do with it! It does cost a lot of money, so it would be a good thing to save as well.
Entertainment Source


GUITAR: I picked my guitar because I love it! It is one of my most prized possessions. I love messing around on it and playing music. I love how you can create and express so many things with it. Sometimes it can even bring people together. I named it BAM because it is Black And Magical ;) eh eh. I'm lame haha but also it was a big gift last Christmas from my parents, so that's  really special to me.
Wonderful Creation 


LIGHTS SIGNED CD: I picked my LIGHTS signed CD because it is one of my most prized possessions. I just went to her concert on Monday and it was seriously one of the best nights of my life. Things I never expected happened and I got to meet her-it was just crazy. I definitely didn't deserve it but it was one night I won't ever forget. She is my favorite artist and has definitely had a positive influence on my life. I look up to her a lot and love her music so much. She is always so encouraging and her lyrics never cease to amaze me. She lifts people up and her beats are wonderful. She has a lot of talent as an artist and is just really awesome. This is not my favorite CD of her's but it is a little piece of her and reminds me of a great memory. 
Light


JOURNAL: I picked my journal because it means a lot to me. I write a lot about my life in there and just journal my thoughts sometimes to God. I love this one because I think it is so pretty. It's been cool to see how my life has been when I've been writing in it. Also LIGHTS signed it so that's pretty sweet. It just means so much to me and it will be sweet to look back and see what my life was like compared to what it is when I read it. It will show me how far I've come and grown in life with the Lord. It can also show answered prayed, things I've learned and just where I've grown. This is my favorite journal of all the ones I've had.
Secret Records


ALEX MORGAN SIGNED HAT: I chose my Alex Morgan signed hat because she is my favorite female athlete. I got the experience when I was in Arizona for Nationals to go watch her play a soccer game. At the end of the game she randomly came over to my side and SIGNED MY HAT! It was seriously such an unbelievable moment. I don't understand how that happened, but it will be a memory I won't forget. It was such a good memory in general and the experience I had there was incredible. 
Star Memory


I think all these things do in some way represent my identity/personality. The Ipod shows that I love music and it means a lot to me. You can do so many things with and through music. Music is a big part of my life. I play it, work out to it, dance to it, sing to it. write it, worship with it, listen to it, etc. These are actions I do regularly. I think it can help express emotion and evoke it. It has helped me get through different times in my life as well. The Macbook kind of shows where I spend a good chunk of my time. It shows I am a student and I also use this a entertainment. I play games on here, have social media things, and do school stuff on it. I do get on it almost everyday. That can show and tell people about the time period I'm growing up in. It also shows that some technology items mean a lot to me. My guitar shows that I love music. It shows that I play music and can hint to singing or writing. I love lyrics and that creating music aspect. I do enjoy writing things so trying to figure out music to it is sort of a puzzle. Really it shows that I can express myself differently and love learning new things/challenges. The LIGHTS CD shows something about me. I really look up to this artist and she has definitely shaped my life for the better. She is my favorite artist and one whom I enjoy her music style. I love how she can build things up by adding different instruments, yet still makes sure she can strip it away down to one. She definitely takes a lot of thought in her lyrics and I feel that would be the kind of style I would like to create. It just shows something about me and maybe we have somewhat of the same dress style. My journal shows that I enjoy journaling at times. I guess writing would be better, but to be honest I didn't really realized I "journaled" till about this year. It's funny how that happens. It shows that I love deep thoughts and pondering things. I love taking records and I believe this one, I'm currently working on it, is my best one yet. It holds a lot of personal stuff inside. It's kind of a representation of the human body. I picked the Alex Morgan signed hat because she is my favorite Womens' soccer player. It shows that I love soccer and am an athlete. It also represents how I do enjoy wearing baseball hats. I also think the layout of my piece shows that I am different and unique. I love art and trying to think of things differently than other people. They ring together because they are all a part of me and are connected in my identity.

"Feet in Smoke" Review

     I really enjoyed reading this article. I thought the author's writing style was very compelling. I can't believe this was a true story and he lived. That's definitely a miracle in itself. I was very intrigued by this article and it kept my attention. It's hard to pick out a good thing, or something to take and apply from it, and a bad thing from it. It seemed to be more of a story in which the author was still trying to figure out. My opinion is that I enjoyed reading the article and would maybe take some of the author's writing styles back into my own work.
     Something that I didn't really like from this article was the wording towards the end. When he explained his brother's story of when he died, I didn't really understand. Then towards the end he was trying to make a point and said something that his brother's story seemed to be of the underworld? I just got really confused. That's so freaky and crazy how he mentioned Mark Twain and that was the day that he passed away (well both of them I suppose in this case). It's crazy how many miracles happen out there and fascinating how we don't understand the afterlife. Life is crazy in itself, but what a beautiful thing. That's awesome that brother lived through it and is pretty much back to normal!

My Journey to Class

On my first day of class I was running a little late, as usual. This time it wasn't too much my fault because I didn't plan on it taking that long to get here. I usually try to plan ahead but end up cutting it pretty close..or maybe it's all in my mind that I'm already late, I'm not sure. I just believe I usually end up to class right on time, if you know what I mean. I've only had one class that ever went to the stadium, which was only for an art show. I don't think I time-managed myself very well. I walked everywhere, usually. In fact, I haven't taken a bus or anything this year to get to class (not knowing when they come and a mild winter helps). I was worried I wouldn't be able to find the class and I definitely guessed. I got a little lost, which didn't help and the sign on the door for the class room number wasn't very visible. In my defense that didn't help my problems. Nonetheless, I found my way to the class and took a seat closest to the front. It's actually a blessing it ended up that way. I have trouble paying attention a lot, so being in the front is good for me to not get as distracted. Plus I don't have to worry about not being able to see, thus helps me achieve academic success (in some sense) in class (I'd like to think).

Wexner Review

David Smith


- Currently until April 15, the Wexner Center is showcasing David Smith's Cubes and Anarchy. As a renowned 20th century American sculptor, David seemed to use a lot of household or metal type items in his work. I definitely noticed how he used a lot of geometric shapes and pieces to make each design. In fact it seemed like all of his sculptures/works were mixed up geometric shapes. Two of my favorites from his collection were Saw head and Untitled 1958. Saw head was his first work, as a security guard told me, and it was one that actually made sense to me. The other favorite was a piece that had three vertical stick like things, one horizontal stick like thing across the other three, and a circle that went beneath the first two sticks and in front of the third one. This was oil and board on board and is very hard to describe. I would have shown a picture, but many of his pieces are untitled and I couldn't find one. For this piece I felt like I could maybe uncover what he was trying to convey from it. At least I could take something from the piece and it actually felt like he took time to think about an underlying message. I could be way off or wrong, but I enjoyed it and liked to interpret it. To be honest I didn't really enjoy his work too much. I feel really bad saying it, but I just didn't find his pieces visually stimulating to me and I found them really boring. I hate admitting that because I try to give everything a chance, but I guess it's okay if it's not always my cup of tea. Now if David was actually there and could explain his artwork to me, I think I could have a very different opinion. I want to know why he made certain pieces the way he did and what exactly was his motivation for each one, if there is one. That would help a lot, I think with my current opinion on his artwork.


Sarah Morris


-Sarah Morris's piece in the Wexner Center is called Points on a line. It is actually a 38 or so minute video with beautiful scenes captured in life. The camera(s) she used for this project were phenomenal. I loved how big the screen is too, it was quite unique watching it. To be honest I wasn't quite sure what she was trying to convey. Things kept on changing from one place to another. There were beautiful buildings in different places, sweet scenes of animals and the architecture was amazing. I didn't really understand it though. It was a pretty lengthy video and it was at times hard to keep my attention. I didn't understand the plot and I feel like the music was confusing on what emotion or message to feel. I didn't know what I was suppose to think, thus got pretty easily distracted. It was nice that they switched scenes a lot though. It's amazing how technology these days can cause things to look so clear on a screen. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed with the exhibit at the Wexner Center. I was kind of bummed. I know that these artists are passionate and put so much time and love in to their pieces, but I feel they weren't for me. This is weird of me to say, but I need to be honest. I think I just didn't feel that sense of connection or understanding with their pieces. Sometimes I like to think of art as a game in which you want to figure out what the artist is trying to convey to you, where does this fall in his/her life or what is the artist trying to express through their artwork. It was really hard for me to understand/see that in these exhibits. 

Micro-Assignment 1

1) Asymmetrical Image

2) Symmetrical Image

3) Radial Image

4) Person and Their Surrounding Space

5) Person Up Close

6) An Image fron the Point of view of an Ant

7) An Image from the Point of view of a Bird

8) A Stable Image

9) An Unstable Image

10) Your name on Campus

 

My experience taking the first ten pictures was pretty fun. I loved how much freedom it felt like I had and that I couldn't mess up with whatever I wanted to take. It almost made it hard to choose the ten pictures, because there were a few I liked and the class only got to see ten from me. I suppose I wanted my pictures to be well rounded. Taking these last ten pictures, I felt, was a lot harder. We had restrictions, only a little thank goodness, to what type of pictures to take. I ended up just trying to not let myself worry too much over what type of picture I needed to take and just take pictures of things I loved in different ways. I kept in my mind what some things I needed to look for, but it was nice after a while to just not care and take pictures. Afterward it was a lot harder picking the correct pictures for each guideline. I wasn't as confident in my pictures and worried that they didn't exactly meet the criteria. In the first ten pictures I took, I had so many pictures that I loved. This time it was harder for me to find pictures, feel confident about them, and place them in a category. Something similar between the two was how I just let loose after a while and took pictures of things I wanted to. Also just picking the right pictures was hard both times, but in a different way. My favorite images from this project are the asymmetrical photo, symmetrical photo, the person in surrounding space and I thought the name on campus was kind of unique, but I'm not too impressed with myself. I feel like there were probably others who thought of that. I had a backup picture lined up, but I just used that series. I think I like these pictures the most because I feel like they are visually simulating to the eyes and I really love the way they turned out. Plus just looking at the photos brings back a memory and where those photos were taken. I like the last series because I thought it was a little bit clever.

NippleJesus Review

        First off, I loved the style of this article. I loved how real and vulnerable the author seemed to be, it really got me sucked in. I felt like the author was letting me in on his deeper thoughts and just experiences. It was a very interesting article to read. I loved how the author described his emotions over time from the artwork. How when he first saw it, it was beautiful then when he got closer it made him pissed,etc. I love looking really closely to different artworks and seeing all the details of them. I feel like I would have had a very similar reaction to the author about when he first saw the piece and then when he got closer. Jesus means a lot to me and mind life, so I'm really curious to see what emotions this piece would have evoked in person and over time as with his situation. I think I can take from this that art is complex and not always what you see is everything. There are things to uncover.
      Some things I wasn't very sure of is exactly why the artist, Martha, did the whole piece. I guess she wanted to get a reaction out of it but why Jesus and why nipples? I would love to ask her more questions on this. I didn't really understand her explanation of it all and the video part, but I think I would have had similar feelings as the author did. Also I was just confused if there was more meanings to her piece and what not. I think it would have been great to see in person, but the artist leaves us so many questions. I'm not sure if what she did was the best or right and want to know why she chose those subjects. I do like how it provokes lots of questions and opinions! She's definitely a clever one!

Barrett Review

     This article was like nothing I've really read before. It talked about denotations and connotations we "naturally" have for things. It was big into racism and that what is portrayed in the art world. A famous artist who plays on typical African American stereotypes is that of Michael Ray Charles. He made lots of artwork that would allow the racist viewer to go along with what they naturally believed went together. I thought this article was pretty interesting. When they used art examples to make this point, it was cool to see what usually happend. It does depend on where you live/lived, family values and other environmental factors to what you usually would associate things with. Towards the end it was sweet to see the author have examples of this in many age groups. Those examples would be a fun project/experiment to do in some class. I think this article teaches us to really look into advertisements and artwork to see what the underlying messages are. This article can also spark us to think outside the box for different items we want portrayed in our artwork and what other people might view them as.
    The way the artist was really serious that everyone has a connotation/denotation for everything was kind of scary. Maybe he meant it in that we can come up with them everywhere, not that we are all racist. I feel like OSU plays a lot into stereotypes. I've had to read stuff in many classes or things that really over think/complicate things in my opinion. This reminded me of that. Although it is very interesting to have a different prospective, I feel if we allow ourselves to take this too seriously, we won't get to enjoy the artwork or advertisments. It's good to keep that in the back of your mind, but you also need to live a little.

Walker Review

     This article seemed pretty interesting. It talked about the definition of a big idea. To Walker, "big ideas-broad, important human issues-are characterized by complexity, ambiguity, contradiction, and multiplicity." He also stated that big ideas can engaged students in deeper levels of thinking. Overall I thought the article introduced me to different ways of thinking. It got a little confusing in the middle when it was trying to differentiate between big ideas, themes and subject matter and towards the end (I wasn't sure when I was supposed to stop reading). I loved how it used different examples to convey their point, especially the one with Jennifer Bartlett. This helped me so much with trying to understand what they were saying. They talked about the differences between big ideas, themes and subject matter and relayed them to how we view artwork. I think this article is very helpful for me as I am pursuing an Art Education Major. I think it would be a good thing to take what they said about the definitions of the three and use that not only when I'm teaching, but also viewing artwork. 

      The way the article is structured is really my only concern. I think that mainly has to do with it was taking out of some bigger book. Other than that I thought the style of the author did a really good job at teaching me the content. It took me a few tries and I don't think I completely understand it but it gave me examples to learn off of. I guess if they could some how make it more clear between everything that would be good, but honestly I am content with the article.