My last Art 100 class posting

I may continue, but for now, this is my last posting for this class.
I can say without doubt that I enjoyed this classes text and in class lectures.
I enjoyed almost every single artist presentation, with just one or two exceptions.
I am grateful to Glenn for putting his students interests first, taking heat with the establishment to try and open minds and hearts and allow for free expression and unity. I will truly miss Glenn's movie clips, fresh ideals and ideas, and his suggestions, rather than strong opinions that condemn.

I loved the inspiration here that led me to finding art and doing art.

What is art? For me, it is anything that challenges and introduces a new way of looking at the world and at myself. Whether it is balanced, beautiful, ugly or varied...it is all good and worthy of taking at least one look, one minute of my time.
Art makes me wonder what will be around the next corner, and that makes life more worthwhile and exciting.

Thanks Glenn and my fellow, soon-to-be ex-classmates, for your hard work and effort.

Timeline Project

This may sound and look lame, but I could not think of any type of original timeline project, so I took a walk to think about it. As I was walking, I noticed a tree that was definitely growing up crooked. My image of a tree has always been straight up and down, but as I walked further, one tree after another in a one block radius were growing up crooked, or at least one stump of two was growing up crooked while the other was straight. Anyway, I took the following photos in one walk composed of maybe 15 minutes, or approx. a picture per minute.

Museum Project

I visited the Long Beach Museum of Art this past Saturday, and I did not expect to see the entire museum full of video installations. Unfortunately, I only had my camera phone video which really doesn't do all that well with video, so I can not show you the amazing things that I experienced. I sat in dark rooms and walked past walls full of video screens and enjoyed some very bizarre stuff, but some moving stuff as well. The one that most got to me was a 25 min. video (probably the longest one currently being exhibited) in a small dark room entitled "Kiyoke's Situation". Kiyoke is shown to be struggling with wanting to be an artist and dealing with the voices and faces in her mind of her overly conservative parents who are so steeped in their old fashioned culture and opinions of what 'should' Kiyoke be doing as a traditional Japanese wife and mother, and how she should live her life. A lot of emotional abuse from both parents and husband and how critical they all are of her. She is shown trying to speak her mind and just getting more and more depressed and going crazy until at the end, the viewer see's a bottle explode, and Kiyoke taking her own life. It is a very emotional video, and not for minors. Like all art, video is a very powerful art form when used in creative ways, and out of all that I had seen at the museum, Kiyoke's Situation, 1989, is by far the most moving one there. The whole museum and everything now there can be seen in one to one half hour. It was a beautiful day, and it really is a great location to take in some art and see the ocean and all the activity that goes on there on the weekend. I highly recommend you take your student I.D. and for six dollars, enjoy the scenery. Thursday nights are free.

Tues 11/29/2011 Lecture on Pattern and Variation

Pattern, Pattern, Variation, Pattern,…

I suppose this in class look at our preferences at life, music, classes, friendships and partnerships helps us students think about what we like in art as well. I think variety is the spice of life, and although I prefer pattern over variation, I would choose differently after giving it more thought…I would probably choose variation more often with classes, now that I have experienced this class. Glenn keeps it varied and throws out a lot of different things to think about. My experiences have been very varied since starting this class, being exposed to different artists and types of art. I have seen a lot of art in galleries and plan to see a museum today. Life has a lot to offer, and I appreciate the open mindedness that evolves in Glenn’s classroom. I guess I would now want more variation in my classes than I previously thought, and I don’t think I will probably experience anything like Glenn again, unless I return to one of his classes. Thank you Glenn!