Great Day For Ice Cream!

I like my idea for the totem project.  It is going to be a dog collar that looks like a ring.  It's kind of my view on relationships and marriage right now haha.  I love my dog so much cause she's absolutely perfect and wouldn't it be nice if you could transform your dog into a human because I know we would get along so swell!  That's kind of weird, but oh well.  I worked with poplar wood today, but I found it to be too soft.  I'm a little nervous because the collar in my mind doesn't have too many intricate details, but it is quite small so I foresee some problems.  Towards the end of the day I switched to oak.  It is a harder material.  Hopefully it will be better for purposes. 

observation: in children's books, there are often small animals hidden in the pictures such as ladybugs and mice.  These animals have nothing to do with the story line. But today as I was reading stories to the children, they became very excited as they spotted the tiny ladybug on each page.  I doubt they were even paying attention to the story line.  Interesting how they get excited over the smallest things.

Reality Revealed

I so enjoyed the discussion in class today.  You know when you're really young and you think about college in the future, you think about all those wonderful philosophical conversations you'll have and how you're mind will change without you even realizing it?  I feel like today was one of those days.  Reality is so strange was I start thinking about it.  These are my thoughts:

In high school, my friends and I used to discuss how we understood color.  Red has a meaning to me, but it is not necessarily the same as how one of my friends might understand it.  Also, how do we know that when we say "red" we are even talking about the same color?  There is really no way to prove that so do we just have to accept that our belief in what "red" is is the same so that we may move on with the discussion?  But then isn't any point reached in that discussion up for debate as well because its foundation is fundamentally fractured since we have failed to define the term "red?"

When I ponder what my reality is, I think about my dog.  I love her more than anything and I feel that as long as she is with me I will be in my reality.  Some day, she won't be with me, though.  When that day comes will I enter a fantasy world?  I'm sure it will feel like a fantasy world.  But then maybe I'm in a fantasy world now and when she is gone I will wake up and reenter reality without her.  Je ne sais pas.

two can be as bad as one

Another student informed me what I missed on Thursday about the totem project.  I have a few ideas, but I still need to think about it more.

observation:  I watched pigeons on a rooftop today for an hour.  they came and went in groups of two.  At one point there were four in total.  Three were on the story below the rooftop and one was on the rooftop.  I wondered if that one felt lonely or freed because of its momentary isolation.

Limitless Undying Love

Wow it has been four days since I posted something.  Today I remembered that I had not written anything in a while and as I was brainstorming ideas I instantly felt apathetic.  I know the word "prison" is way over the top, but I definitely feel confined knowing that I have to write something.  I believe I heard someone tell me that people typically enjoy activities more when they are not forced to participate in the activity. But then again, there have been many times I did something I normally would not have because someone pushed me, and it was a good thing.  I will try to keep an open mind and try to not feel so trapped by this blog.

I am a little unsure what to do for the Whiteread project.  I don't understand how I can create a sculpture of void space without something to contain it like a bottle.  And I am trying to think of things on a small scale because I figure that will be easier plus I don't want to use a ton of plaster.  I wish this were due on thursday instead of tuesday because there are a couple objects in my house that I think I could do something with, but I don't know how I should approach it.  Hopefully I'll come up with something.

observation:  another crosswalk downtown has 9 white strips. also, 4 people sitting alone in church today; I was not one of them. 

I observed today for the first time this year, many of the leaves have turned yellow.  I am excited for fall.

I want to hold your hand

I really don't know what material to use for my sculpture.  I think I might just do paper.  I started learning the guitar this week so I have been spending all my free time practicing.  My finger tips are sore, that's a good sign.  Still need to find something red, but I will by tomorrow morning! 

While my guitar gently weeps

Another weekend has come and gone!  This was a great one!  So I didn't feel affected by Rachel Whitread's work as I was looking at it, but I think it caught up with me today.  It seems like every building I entered, I would imagine what a solid mold of any room there would look like.  I thought about hallways, the ventilation system, even the inside of the tunnel slide on the playground.  The slide mold would look like a giant worm I bet.  I found it kind of comical.  It kind of made me not take the building so seriously.  It's amazing that today I realized something I have been doing since I've been at WSU.  I subconsciously revere the buildings here simply because they are part of a university!  Though when a building is filled up with plaster or whatever material, they kind of lose their dignity.  They become just as functionless as an old abandoned barn.  I guess you never really know when something in art is going to hit you and suddenly hold value to you.  So unpredictable! I love it.

As for my mold, I have been thinking about what material to use to make a positive of the plaster mold and I am planning on using wax.  The way my sculpture looks makes me feel like it is not yet a cloud, but trying to become one.  It's on its way.  It's pushing really hard to break through and become what it is meant to be.  I want to do it in wax (first, at least) because wax is a very moldable material.  It is super easy to manipulate into becoming any shape one so chooses and its eagerness to form reminds me of my cloud.  Happy Monday!!!

If you ask me to, I will.

These are a couple drawing a sketched lately.  I love dinosaurs. And the other one is a bowling pin with the head of a man.  The man is wearing one of those sad hats women wear at funerals.  I think he is wearing it because he is mourning his own death which will come as soon as the bowling ball hits him.


Another thought on Rachel Whitread:  Her pieces are quite large.  By making lifesize replicas instead on miniatures or something else she provides almost a type of interpreter for the viewer.  With a size that people already understand and accept, the buildings themselves then become more acceptable as well.

Observation:  At least 7 people sitting alone in church today (i couldn't really see the people in front).  I was one of them.

House Party

I looked up Rachel Whiteread's work.  I think she has found a unique and successful way to investigate both space and mankind's relationship with space.  Her piece I liked the most was called Embankment.  She has piled many cardboard boxes to create "buildings," and has created spaces between them acting as roads or sidewalks.  To me, cardboard boxes represent industry, the economy, and "progress" in both of these.  Using these to erect an entire small city speaks a lot about the commercialization of art.  Art was once was a valued and treasured practice.  But now, it is perfectly acceptable to use art to brainwash children into desiring the latest toy, or to end relationships due to one partner overspending on fad items.  I feel like it is a betrayal and a tragedy that I only perpetuate because, once in a while, I too desire things I see on tv (definitely not the snuggie).  Her other sculptures I looked at were all pretty similar in technique. 

observation:  this morning, weather.com said it was going to rain today.  It did not rain all day. 

Title

I passed one of those paper tray drink holders from mcdonalds today on my way to class.  It made me smile.  I keep thinking of cool faces I could do with the paper trays.  I can't remember what I am supposed to be thinking about.  I know it was space, but then you added something to it?  I have the memory of a goldfish.  I heard once that they have 3-minute memories.  That's actually better than mine is.  And they have gills.  I was on the look out for something red today, but I never found anything that spoke my language so the search will continue tomorrow!

Burn much?

The only thoughts I have right now are:  I should have studying more for my psych exam tomorrow and I miss my dog.

observation:  counted the white strips today on a different crosswalk, also 9.  I will count them every time I use a crosswalk and see if they all have 9.  I doubt they would all have 9.

sorry this post is kind of lame.  I really enjoyed today's class!

Balloon Day

Beth's lecture tonight was so great!  I arrived at 5:15 and students were literally lining the hallway outside the room because it was so packed.  I tip-toed around a dozen or so legs and peered around the corner at the back of the classroom.  There was just enough room right there for me to sit criss-cross-apple-sauce, so I did.  I really enjoyed hearing her talk about her oeuvre and her life.  I wish she would have gone more in depth when she mentioned the stories or people that inspired the figures.  I loved the piece she did with the hare hanging off a cup stand.  I found it to be some type of rebellious comedy; it really sticks out in my memory when I think of the pieces she showed.  Overall I just love her work.  It's demented yet innocent.  I am excited to use my mold tomorrow to create a positive!  

observation:  there are 9 white strips on the crosswalk i walked across today

Beth, I hear you callin'

I really loved the artist we saw today, Beth.  I like her ideas and I feel like I can relate to her in some ways.  She mentioned that she has an instinct to immediately categorize people when she first meets them as a defense mechanism.  I find myself doing this quite a bit when I first meet someone.  I don't classify them as some type of animal like she does, but I do group them somehow.  Usually just by where they are from, which is so silly!  It reassures me that she waited four years to go to grad school.  I have been thinking about grad school lately, but it doesn't feel right when I think about going right away.  A few people have told me that if I want to go I should do it fairly quickly after I graduate, within a year or two, because if I wait then I will probably never go.  So I could go to grad school, and I can wait to do it if I so choose.  I find her work very fascinating.  I like how her figures are both extremely literal in the fact that it is a clear form of an animal (that cannot really be disputed),  and figurative because behind each figure is a complex meaning that I would never have been able to figure out without her telling us about the 4 Greek personality types and the organs which accompany each one.  I am looking forward to her lecture tomorrow!  I get off work at 5 so I will be a little late, but I will be there!  I thought it was funny how she just openly told us of her pathological fear that someday she'll have a lecture and no one will show up.  I have fears like that too.

Unexpected Feeling Happy Monday!

I am looking forward to class tomorrow.  Can't wait to move along through this process.  I went to the football game on saturday.  WOW! What a lot of people there were.  Before I got to the game I was thinking about how it would feel to be in the stadium with its vast spaces.  I thought I would feel very small.  However, I was wrong.  Surprisingly, in the mass of thousands of screaming fans, I didn't small at all.  Mentally, I felt much bigger and more important than I normally do.  My voice is so quiet there is virtually no chance of the players hearing me, I still felt the need, the DUTY, to yell as loud as possible because I felt so important among all those fans.  Mob mentality?

First Mold Successful

I made my mold today and it turned out just fine I believe.  It was supposed to be in 2 pieces.  Not surprisingly, one of the pieces broke so I now have a 3 piece mold, which is dandy as well.  I used the red coloring for the second half.  I liked using it, although I don't know how necessary it really was.  The process as a whole was not as scary as I had anticipated it being.  I found it to be relaxing actually.  

Thinking about space today:  Transportation had massively affected how we view the world.  A journey across america 100 years ago was cause for a novel.  Today, a trip across the country is no rarer than apple pie on Thanksgiving.  The distance seems so much smaller to us because of our remarkable resources.  Yet, it is the same. 

Observation:  new art show being put up in the cub gallery.

Space in Space

I was wondering how long it would take me to forget a day.  I lasted almost two weeks.  I looked up the definition of space.  This is my favorite one: 

the unlimited or incalculably great three-dimensional realm or expanse in which all material objects are located and all events occur

 

The word that sticks out in my mind the most from that definition is "unlimited."  The universe is theoretically infinitely long, wide, and deep.  Some astronomers believe it goes on forever, while others believe that there are actually multiple universes.  It is so hard for me to fathom enormous the universe is.  And when I try, all I feel is small.  Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across.  And somehow within that space a tiny blue planet exists.  In the universe space does seem to be unlimited, but here on that tiny blue planet, space is one of the most controversial topics around.  Space for an increasing population, space for natural resources, space for another mouth to feed.  My conclusion: space is relative.

 

observation:  Yesterday I saw two trees side by side that appeared to be identical. 

I feel so much better about my project after today.  I felt like I was in the dark and now a light has been shed upon me and I can see the path.  And I'm almost on it. 

I was thinking about space today as I was walking down Stadium Way.  Modest trees take up about the same amount of space as human beings.  This interests me because I believe the amount of space something takes up dominantly helps determine how we will view it or feel about it.  When I am in the presence of a 400 year old red wood I feel humbled, and I even revere it a bit.  These emotions are felt subconsciously for sure because I know that the tree itself is unaware of its great triumph.  But nevertheless, its majestic branches reaching to the sky and its enormous trunk demand my respect.  I do not feel the same way about the normal sized trees I see as I walk down the sidewalk.  They seem more approachable, innocuous, even banal.  So my conclusion to this is that, in art, size definitely matters.

Observation:  there are three bowls sitting on my desk right now.  Two are dirty, one is unused.  One has a spoon it it.  All three are green.

Good Day

What a good day! I went to all my classes and word, then I cooked myself a yummy dinner.  I observed something about myself today.  When I start tapping a random beat in times of silence, my go-to beat is the cadence drumline from 8th grade band.  What a good beat that was.  The sunset was so beautiful tonight!  There was yellow, pink, and orange and the clouds reminded me of a disney movie. I didn't have a camera with me at the time, though, so I couldn't take a picture.  I am nervous for class tomorrow because I don't know what's going to happen.  I hope my clay sculpture will work.  If it won't, I'll just have to change it.

Hats Off

Observation:  Tonight I was at the rec.  In a line of about 20 ellipticals, every single user was wearing earphones.

Applying artistic elements and principles to fields that reach beyond the basics (drawing, painting, etc...) really interests me.  When I say this I am mostly thinking about clothing designers and cake artists.  I love art.  I love the freedom of the artist to create.  I love the endless possibilities that come to mind when looking at a blank canvas.  I love the idea of using art as a platform to reach an audience, to spread a message to them or to unite them.

So in all honesty I did pay very close attention to the clouds today.  But I was thinking about hats.  One designer in particular.  He is from Ireland and his name is Philip Treacy.  He makes the most amazing hats.  Here are a few of his designs.  I absolutely love how he applies the elements of art to design what he loves.  Though I will probably never see someone walking down the sidewalk nonchalantly wearing one of his hats (they are quite "expressive"), I still find his designs very inspiring.

Sight on Labor Day

I feel so lucky today, I cannot help but smile.  Lucky I have my father's eyes which able me to gaze at the sky for a good part of my day, everyday.  When I look at the sky, I feel inspired, humbled, grateful, mystified, and optimistic.  I feel the same way when I see van gogh's starry night.  It is a wonderful gift that I can see clouds, lightning, shooting stars, rainbows, the sun.  My favorite kinds of clouds are the bright, puffy, white ones that come to be on really sunny days.  They appear against bright blue skies.  And they make me feel like a child again.  Glad to be back in Pullman again!

Clouds

Today I saw the American flag waving in the wind with the blue sky behind it.  The clouds were kind of "spotty."  They looked liked they were spray painted on.  It's amazing to me how many different kinds of clouds there are.  The visible texture of a cloud could be so many different things.  It could be smooth like a stroke of paint; it could be rough like a cow's tongue; or it could be choppy like ocean waves.  Yet every cloud is composed of the same thing.  Reminds me of how appearances are only skin deep.  Genetically speaking, every race is the same. 

Cloud Haiku

Clouds in Ellensburg

Briefly in my eye

Fleeting ripples in the sky

Figures will linger

I love writing Haiku because I am all about word economy.  I had to look up the plural of Haiku on dictionary.com. 

Found Cloud Poem

The sky is so blue today! The only visible clouds are far away on the horizon.  I found this poem online.  I think it articulates the nature of clouds beautifully.  This is the first verse:

The Cloud by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.

Click here to read the full poem

I am going to Ellensburg for the weekend and I am excited to see the clouds there.  In my mind, they will be completely different from the clouds we have in the Palouse.

Just Another Day

There were whispy clouds covering the whole sky today.  They looked like runt clouds, like the little runt pig of the litter that never quite gets big enough to demand respect.  I could easily see the blue sky peaking out behind any cloud in my vision.  I was unable to look at the clouds that surrounded the sun, however, because the sun was too bright.  This was disappointing.  I could not help but wonder if that small secion of the sky, which I could not view contained not whispy, thin clouds, but perhaps the most majestic clouds that ever were.  I will never know, but the sun will.

observation:  16 plastic water bottles lying on the ground in front of a dumpster outside scott & coman.

Sky Smile

In the midst of 4 classes, work, study abroad fair, and an art student union meeting, all which combined took up my life from 8 to 6, a playful friend in the sky tells me, "Don't forget to smile!"

I have looked at clouds hoping to make out a figure dozens of times in my life.  But today was the first day I saw a figure with the negative space created by the clouds, rather than the positive space.

There were 3 ladybugs on the railing I walk by on my way to work.  One was a deep red with no black spots.  It made me nervous.