Milton Graser/Stimulatté

So on thursday I headed out to see the Milton Graser film in Hollywood. Good thing I embarked on this adventure with Pauleen, Freddy, Eisen, and Issac. Traffic in LA, what can be said that hasn't been before? Either way we get to the event only to hear from Jessica that somehow and someway the people in charge misplaced the DVD. What? Anyway after that we all decided to head to the stimulatte meeting in Silverlake. It was nice to sit around and chat for a while with a good mocha. I good way to end the night.

Sir Ken Robinson

SIR Ken Robinson's speech that was shown on Wednesday was very thought provoking for me. There were times that did seem like he dragged a joke too long(not that I know the feeling........>_>) . SIR Ken went on to say that most people are not doing what they love. Most are just getting by through life. The reason for this can be seen in the way we get educated. Now this subject resonated with me quite a bit seeing as I am a product of the LAUSD school system(possibly the worse school system in the country). My high school had a 50% drop out rate at the time I graduated. Most of my pals did not walk the stage. Yet as I was in high school I saw that the both sides were at fault. the kids did not want to learn and the schools did not want to teach. This is what is at fault for people not reaching their potential. I was one of those. I went through ALL of HS not knowing what I was going to do. No one motivated me, no one pushed me, and no one cared. It was only until I was in community college that I was finally able to discover what I wanted and not what I had to do to survive. It is all about finding your passion and following through it. Yet as I look back I can see that I had a fault in it as well. I graduated with the most minimal effort as possible. Now years have past and I have tried to change for the better. It's unfortunate that there are kids that will go through what I experienced but with informing ourselves now can we change the future.

dark

shiny

dull

Chh-chh-chh-changeeeeesssss

Monday was all about giving new meanings to familiar objects and images. Images like a tomato or a tree can have a different meaning or be looked at from another perspective just from one word. Given that, to do the assignment was not that easy. I suppose that with some items the feeling ad perceptions are so universal that it's hard to look at something differently. Such like a apple will give the same feelings and definition but to feel different is not so easy. the assignment really promotes thinking outside the box. It just seems that I will need some practice.

aggravating: causing or making a situation worse

charming: pleasing delightful.

energetic

Dreams by Akira Kurasawa

So on Wednesday in class we viewed the film Dreams. This film was made by acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurasawa and is said to be based on a series of dreams that he had in his lifetime. All 8 segments are really imagery based more than dialogue. This lets beautiful and stunning art to speak words for themselves. This film had some of the most amazing shots that I have ever seen. Segments such as The Peach Orchid and Sunshine Through the Rain seemed to deal with childhood and the consequences of one's actions. Since these dealt with childhood there was a more magical and innocent take to nature. This differs to the other segments like The Weeping Demon and Mt Fuji on Fire were more of nature in a darker light. These two segments can be seen as ann example of how humanity can perverse nature and the dire consequences we can have on the world around us. Both segments show the result of mankind's flirtation with nuclear power and the disaster it brings. The image of the exploding Mt Fuji harkens back to old Godzilla films in my mind and was one of my favorites in the film. Though possibly my favorite segment of the film would be the one titled Crows. In this a man steps in the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and actually meets the legendary painter played by famous director Martin Scorsese. The man gets to walk through some of Van Gogh's work and to see these works come to life on the screen is worth the price of admission alone.

awe-inspiring

amazing

innocent

Mapping the mind

So on Monday we put a cretive prosees called mind mapping to work. Mind mapping as turns is really a visual form of brain storming. It is a tool that helps one explore and see ALL possibilities in any idea one has. In class what we saw a slideshow of different peoples mind mapps and the different approches they had with do the activity. What I saw was that there was really no wrong way of designing the map. It's really only limited to how one wants to be. The whole point is to go beyond one's limits. In a personal sense this helps me because I often put too many limits on myself and it is time to break them.

For my mind map my topic was on something that has been on my mid for a while now. It was in the summer that decided to go into shoe design. The reason being is that well it was random. Super random. It really spawned from the mindset that i want to be known as a creator. It doesn't matter in what field it is or what medium it is, I want to create. hence why i do graphic design, sculpture, painting and right now some ceramics. I create. I live. It's that simple. So with shoes it's the same thing. i can get real picky with what shoes I buy so I told myself that I should just stop wasting time and just do it myself. DO IT YOURSELF. Words to live by. Now with the mind map I finally really put in perspective and saw the possibilities for this venture. When I started I just did it. I just dove in with no plan and just started. That's all well and good but realistically you got to have a plan. Even though I could of do the map better, in other words drawn it better, I was still happy with the result.

faithful

thankful

hopeful

PS: Hit me me up for shoes. You know you need to walk.

First day.

As yes the first day of Art 220. I like most did not know what to expect going in. I did formulate some ideas as to what was going to happen but none were too concrete. I thought that the format would a purely group discussion, akin to group caucuses. My other idea was that it maybe just a lot of exercises to be done over the 10 weeks. In the end the class seem that it will encompass all these things and more. All of which is exciting in it self.

We'll see where this journey leads to next.

Adjectives:

odd

strange

unnatural

weird

puzzling

zany

Time Cop sucked.

So on Wednesday the class took a more philosophical feel. To be honest this took me off guard. I would expect this from the modern art, painting, sculpture, or even written expression class. Yet I forgot that art in all its medias touch upon philosophy. I must admit that I did like the topics that came up.

One topic that was discussed was time. Now in the western world time is this construct that flows in a linear fashion. Other cultures see time in an almost cyclical way. Morning, day, night, repeat. Yet it is mostly us in the western world that has such a high value of time. Everything and everyone is in such a hurry. Run, run, running all time to beat the clock. It's like time itself is an enemy one that can never be conquered. So we all run faster. It's very much reminiscent of the film Koyaanisqatsi. This film had a segment in which showed the manic and rapid movement that people and cars do. This is highlighted by the scenes of cars captured and edited to look like rapid lights ala 2001 Space Oddyssey. Now the question remains. What are we racing towards? Are we racing to accomplish things before we die? Are we running from fear of death or are we racing towards it?

By the way, Time Cop did suck.