The Broad

The Broad was my favorite place I visited for this extra credit assignment. My friend and I showed around the time it opened and had to wait in line for about 15 minutes which was shorter than I expected because my roommate warned me that she once had to stand in line for 2 hours. The picture of the cat was my favorite piece of art in the museum, because I liked how the cat was in black and white and the text and lines were outlined in red which made it pop more. I went with a friend and we really enjoyed looking at the big dining table set. There were some art pieces there that I didn’t really enjoy which were some that just looked like a child scribbled on them, but for the most part the art was very interesting to look at.

Grand Central Market

After my friend and I visited the Broad we got hungry and decided to have lunch at the Grand Central Market. I had never been there before and I was imagining that it would resemble the Pikes Place in Washington, but it was nothing like that. There were a lot of food options and my friend and I were overwhelmed, and it took us a while to decide what we were going to eat. We walked around the whole market to see all the food they had to offer before deciding to get pizza. We both ordered a margherita pizza from Olio and found a table to eat it at inside the crowded market.

Biddy Mason Memorial Park

After we got lunch we decided to visit the Biddy Mason Memorial which was just a few minutes away. When trying to find the memorial we got a little lost because it was kind of hidden between a few buildings. I found it interesting to read about everything she did, because before I had never even heard of her. She was similar to Dred Scott, who we discussed in class, in that she petitioned for her freedom. It was interesting to find out all of the things that she managed to do as not only an African American but also a woman in the 1800’s.

The Bradbury Building

After we visited the Biddy Mason Memorial we walked to the Bradbury building. When we walked into the Bradbury building my friend and I were unsure of what the building was currently being used for. We asked one of the people working there, and they said it was an office building which was kind of surprising to me, because it would be a pretty cool office building to work in. I really liked the architecture of the building and thought the stairs and glass roof were really cool. The elevators were also really cool, and I found it interesting that they employed people to just operate the elevators. I wish I was able to explore the inside of the building more than just the lobby because of how cool I found the architecture.

Disney-Cardiff-Miller

The last place we visited was the Walt Disney Concert Hall. I really enjoyed the look of the building on the outside, but the inside was a little less exciting for me. My friend and I took the Cardiff-Miller tour of the building, and the tour was not what I expected. I found it more entertaining then a normal tour, because it allowed you to visit parts of the building that I probably would never have visited. I also found the cat person named Schroda that appeared during parts of the tour very interesting even though I thought the cat was a little scary to look at. I did not realize how big the inside of the building was as well as how many weird nooks it had, but the tour helped bring those to my attention.

I usually wear a random comfy shirt with jeans and sneakers. The only variety in my usual outfits are my shirts really as I always wear jeans and white sneakers. The shirts I wear are usually pretty monotone and if there is color its usually a dull or dark color. In this activity I wanted to branch out from what I usually wear and am comfortable in. I decided to wear a dress with a jacket and some platform sandals. The dress itself was out of my comfort zone, because I always wear jeans and it was also green which was neither dull nor dark in color. I almost always wear my black fuzzy jacket but instead chose to wear my tan corduroy jacket. I also wore platform sandals which I never wear because I like to be comfortable and wear sneakers all the time.

Even though I was initially uncomfortable wearing this outfit I got a lot of compliments from my roommates on it when they saw me. They immediately said something to me about my outfit when they saw me, because it was unlike me to wear such a thing and be so dressed up. They said I looked more girly than I normally look and when I asked what major they thought I looked like they weren’t able to give me a direct answer They are not used to seeing me as dressed up, and even encouraged me to wear more outfits like this instead of my usual jeans, shirt, and white sneakers. In conclusion I really liked this activity because it allowed me to branch out from what I would usually wear. I think I might start incorporating elements of the new outfit into my everyday clothing, like wearing more color and maybe not wearing jeans and sneakers every day.

I chose to do air pollution as my shock art, because I feel that it is often looked over. Especially since we go to school in Long Beach which is a city, and city’s produce a lot of air pollution. Often time in cities you can’t see the stars at night which I’ve noticed since moving out here and this is due to air pollution.

I hoped to communicate that even something as small at not seeing stars at night is a sign of pollution. When people usually think of pollution they think of the ocean and how polluted it is because the pollution in the ocean is more obvious. I wanted to draw attention to the impact that air pollution not only has on our environment with something as small as not being able to see stars at night, but also the impact that it has on our health and our environment.

I was lucky enough that the night I chose to photograph did not have any stars, which helped prove that air pollution is real and blocks the view of the stars. I am unsure if my point would immediately come across to someone that is just viewing the picture, because something as small as not being able to see the stars at night might go by unnoticed to some. I think the shock of it is that something as small as seeing the stars is being taken away from us because of air pollution. I think I was successful in getting my point across but in a subtle way.

I would maybe draw a picture next time instead of taking one if I were to do this again. I think the picture I took was shocking enough to get my point across, but if I were to draw a picture, I would be able to make it even more shocking and dramatic. The only reason I did not draw a picture was because I wanted to show that I could just go outside in the middle of any night and prove that air pollution exists. I also chose to take a picture over drawing one, because I am not the best artist.

It took me a while to decide what idea I was going to explore as shocking. I feel that there are plenty of shocking things that are happening in the world around us that it was difficult to decide on just one to do, and it was even hard to think of one. I would maybe try to expand on the idea of pollution more if I were to go more into shocking art.

Artist: Ricardo Corona

Exhibition: The Enchanted Borderlands

Media: Digital Paintings

Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Merlino Gallery

Website: ricardocoronaart.com

Instagram: ricardocoronaart

Ricardo Corona is currently an undergraduate student in the School of Arts Preproduction program and is studying to get his BFA. His interests include architecture, landscapes, and map making. He is a visual developer and illustrator who likes to explore and create things that express a sense of adventure.

The work he created were digital paintings that ranged from medium to small. In one of his works called “Lavender Haze” he used the colors blue and purple to construct a night sky and white for the moon and stars, and the people/creatures were black and made to look like silhouettes. The blend in the sky from blue to purple is smooth and the silhouettes of the characters makes the sky pop even more. In another work of his called “The Confrontation”, he used bright colors to construct a creature that stands out from the desert background. The creature is made up of yellow, blue, green, and pink while the background is mostly pink, white, and grey.

The exhibit was very interesting to look at as it combined both the wild west and fantasy. They chose to combine both the wild west and fantasy, because they believed that the combination was rarely seen. They took inspiration from the desert which is seen in the background of the art pieces. They also took inspiration from and artist by the name of Mark Maggiori. When creating the characters, they took inspiration from video games. His goal was to evoke a sense of adventure in the audience that was viewing his art. Corona stated that the show itself was an adventure for him and he wanted to convey that in his art.

I definitely grasped onto the idea of adventure when viewing the exhibit. When looking at the art the idea of adventure really came through which is what the artist wanted. Corona said that the experience of the show itself was an adventure, and I believe anything can be an adventure especially when it’s your first time doing something. The experience of me going to view his art was an adventure in itself, which was a big concept in his art.

I chose to do this story because the story itself was small and personal. My story documented a friend and I’s road trip down to San Diego this weekend. The story was personal to me because it showed something that a friend and I did. It was also a small story because it was just my friend and me.

I think I did pretty well at capturing everything that went on during the road trip. The trip itself was not very long and I decided to photograph the important parts. The pictures themselves are not the best, but they show what I want them too.

I think all the pictures are kind of equal and they all look sort of the same. My friend is featured in almost all the pictures with just a couple not featuring a person. My favorite is probably the picture where we stopped for bagels, because it reminds me of how good the bagels were.

I don’t really think any of my images are great, but they all help contribute to the story. One that I’m not very fond of is the picture of us getting on the freeway. I just think that the picture is kind of boring, because it does not feature anyone in the picture, but it does help to add to the story so I left it in.

Next time I would try to capture better pictures. The pictures that I captured do not have a lot of variety, because we were driving in a car to San Diego the whole time. So next time I would try to have more variety in my pictures that still add to the story.

It was a little difficult for me to pick a photo story to tell. If my friend and I didn’t make a trip to San Diego this weekend it would have been a lot harder for me to decide on a story to tell. With that in mind I don’t have another story I would want to tell, because I can not think of another one.

Going into this assignment I thought I would enjoy it, but it ended up really stressing me out. I usually don’t love to draw, but every once in a while I like to. I thought this assignment wouldn’t be too bad. I really struggled with the people drawing, because I’m really not good at drawing people and it frustrated me that I wasn’t able to make it look good because I’m a perfectionist. I probably will not try this again because the experience made me too frustrated.

I think that if I put the time in and practiced drawing more I would get better, because even when I was drawing a person I redid it four times and it got slightly better each time. I think that if you put time and effort into something that you could eventually get better.

My major is business marketing and I think that a sketch could be useful in my major. Marketing involves creativity and art, and a sketch could be useful in my major.

I think drawing could be a language, because you can express a lot of feelings through a drawing. I feel like some drawings can express things that words normally could not express, because sometimes things and feelings can’t be expressed in words.

Artist: Jean Iwohara

Exhibition: Glass Eyes

Media: Acrylic, Wood Panels, Oils, Sculptures, Polymer, Clay, Felt

Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Dr. Maxine Merlino Gallery

Jean Iwohara is currently a undergraduate student in the School of Arts illustration program and is studying to get a BFA. her interests include painting and creating art that incorporates bright colors. She aims to create art that makes people feel something when they look at it. Her goal is to not only make her art look physically appealing but also evoke emotion in the people who view her art

Iwohara’s work included a lot of bright colors and pastels. She incorporated texture in her felt sculpture of a dog, and the colors used were pastel pink and purple. She also had a sculpture of a girls that had a lot of texture in the hair and in the legs, where the legs were made out of chain. Some of her art was painted on wood panels and on clipboards which added something different than just being painted on a canvas. She incorporated a lot of clean lines in her work but also included paint like splatters that still somehow looked clean cut. Her work made me feel a little uneasy, because she did not include eyes in the people she painted which reminded me of the movie Coraline where the characters had buttons for eyes. The reason this made me feel uneasy is because the movie used to scare me as a kid and the paintings reminded me of that movie.

When I went to go interview and artist I chose to interview the one who’s exhibit and artwork interested me the most. Her artwork not only caught my attention with the bright colors she used but also with how different it was from the art that I am used to viewing. She aimed to evoke a feeling of anxiety with her work, and it left me feeling anxious and uneasy.

Her exhibition was about trying to portray the feeling of anxiety. I believe she achieved this because when I was viewing her work it made me feel uneasy and anxious. The glass eyes of the people she painted and the odd angles that the people were bent at allowed me to feel anxious and uneasy when viewing her work. She tried to focus on creating work that portrayed both internal and external forces that created anxiety. When creating her work she aims to both not only wow herself with the work she produces but also to allow people to look at her work and feel the emotion that she was feeling when creating it.

The art my group decided to frame was part of a tree with vines growing over it. The object is large and has a lot of texture. You can feel the texture of the vines and leaves along with the roughness of the bark. The tree itself was pretty monochrome with a grey trunk, but the vines added a pop of color with the brown and bright green. The art piece is not just a flat piece of work because the texture of the tree trunk and the texture of the vines adds something to it as well. The art piece itself evokes emotion as the vines are crawling up the tree. I would say its disturbing and uncomfortable to look at because of the vines that are crawling up the tree. I feel like this represents the corruption of life where the tree represents life and the vines crawling and slowly taking over the tree represent life being corrupted.

My art was not art before I put a frame around it. I would not consider it art without the frame because I would not stop and contemplate vines growing on a tree while walking to my class. Without the frame I would not stop and look at vines on a tree because I’ve seen vines on a tree before and nothing about it screamed art to me. I feel like myself and other people would overlook vines growing on a tree and would not consider it art in the everyday life because people see trees all the time.

Once the frame is taken away from the art I don’t think other people would consider it art anymore, but I would. I don’t think other people would consider it art anymore, because unless they saw it with the frame previously they would just think it was a tree with vines growing on it and would not take the time to contemplate if it was art or not. I would still think it was art without the frame because with the frame on I took the time to really think about why it should be considered art and that thought process would not go away once the frame is removed.

I do not think art lies in the body of the object. If someones intention was to create art then it is art, and that is dependent on the intention of the artist. If someone made something that was not intended to be art then it would not be art, and if someone made something with the intention of it being art then it would be considered art. Things are also considered art when it evokes an emotion or reaction from someone, and if someone does not have a reaction to a supposed art piece than it would not be considered art to them.

I think that there are lots of things that I would consider art that are not objects. One of them is dance, where people create different dances that are designed to evoke different emotions. Another form of art is music, and that could be playing an instrument or even singing. Art could also be writing and poetry. All of these different things are considered art to me and none of them are objects but they all evoke different emotions and reactions from people.

I believe art resides in the experience of the viewer. Different things evoke different emotions and reactions and people view them as art. Art is something that makes you feel a certain way toward, and it does not only reside in the object but in the person themselves. People take time to view and analyze different things that they would consider art and that does not mean that everyone else also considers that thing art as well. Just like I took time to analyze the tree with vines and considered it art, other people might not give it the time of day and would just consider it a tree and go on with their day.

I actually really enjoyed finger painting, it was really relaxing and I liked not having to use a brush. I put on some music and just started painting, I liked being able to do whatever I wanted to with the paint. I also liked being able to pick any color I wanted to, and even tried to incorporate a color I’m not usually drawn to which was blue.

It was a little more difficult than I expected, because I did not like how some of the colors mixed in certain areas. I also tried to create some texture but that was also more difficult than I thought it would be. I also tried to challenge myself and work with a color I don’t usually like, which was blue so it was more difficult for me to try and incorporate it into the painting.

I really enjoyed not having to paint with a subject. I liked having no controls over what I painted and it made it more fun for me. It was liberating and inspiring to be able to paint with no controls and to just paint what I felt in the moment. I also did not have the stress of trying to make it look perfect, because I’m normally a perfectionist when it comes to trying to create something with a subject, but this allowed me to be free with my creativity.

My painting differs to other paintings, because mine expresses how I feel and does not have a subject painted on it. Other paintings whether abstract or not, do not convey the certain emotions I felt while creating my painting, because I was the artist behind it. Other paintings convey the emotions and feelings behind the artists who painted them which are different than mine. This also is different to other paintings, because while other paintings I have seen aimed to create something ,I had nothing in mind while I created mine.

While performing maintenance art which included cleaning the statue “NOW” and also picking up trash around the USU, I felt a little uncomfortable because it was in the middle of campus. Although, I was a little uncomfortable at first it felt nice to help clean up the statue that was covered in dirt and to help clean up the campus.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Richard Serra both aimed to create art in both of their performances. Mierle Laderman Ukeles took a different approach to art than Richard Serra and chose to do “womens work” and clean the steps of an art museum. Richard Serra followed a different route and flung molten lead against the walls of the museum. I feel like both could be considered art because their intention was to create art.

I believe that Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ performance at the art museum was art because the intention of the performance was it to be art. Art could be anything as long as you intend for it to be art. If her performing “womens work” had the intention to be art then I would agree that it is art. If she was simply hired as a janitor it would not be considered art because she did not intend to create art she simply was just doing a job. It would only be considered art if she intended it to be so.

If someone intends something to be art then it is art. If the performance or object in question evokes some type of response or feeling from someone then it is art. If paintings are displayed in art museums and are intended to be art then they are art. If a painting in a house evokes some sort emotion from someone then it is art. If someone painting a house considers his work art then who am I to tell them if its art or not, if they intend for it to be art then it is art.

I’ve never really thought of “womens work” being considered art until now, and after discussing Mierle Laderman Ukeles I would consider it art if they had the intention to make it art. But I would not consider it art if the intention of it being art was not there. If I was just cleaning my house I would not consider that to be art. I’m simply just performing a chore and have no intention of it being art.

I found it interesting that people would get down on their hands and knees to clean a star of a celebrity that they do not even know. I personally do not think I would get down on my hands and knees to clean anyones star. I’ve been trying to think of someones star I would clean and no one immediately comes to mind, and if I can’t think of anyone to clean I don’t think I should just get down on my hands and knees to clean someones star who I don’t immediately think of.