Walker

Last Wednesday the life drawing class went to the Walker Art Center and the Bell Natural Science Museum. Going to the Walker is always great, its definitely the best art museum in the Cities, even if the one at MCAD is much bigger. The Walker always does a good job of switching out there exhibits, keeping everything fresh. As part of that there was a excellent exhibit by Haegue Yang. In particular the lager installation called Yearning Melancholy Red stood out.

The installation had great presence, that is to say it engaged the viewers senses. Even from a distance I heard the drums banging and the people talking in refracted sounds that reached out, made you want to get to the heart of it. The spiraled, inward turning shape twists your head and body around, forcing the viewer against the panes of venetian blinds, mirrors and lights. The many mirrored surfaces work to good effect, especially when seen through the spaces between the venetian blinds. This invokes a sort of voyeuristic vantage point, even though in many cases what your looking into is back at the very thing your looking out of, your own perspective in a out of body form. The red in the title is a bit reserved, the installation isn't really that much about the title, its more formal than that emotive excess. Still the piece is quite good, an engaging experience for the viewer.

Reflections

Sometimes its hard to know what the right way of doing things is. After having taken several different drawing classes I have found there is not one approach to drawing, but many. Perhaps the most obvious or popular is straight up observational drawing. You look at something and try to replicate it on your paper. Most people begin drawing like this, based off of what they see. There is also more scientific, constructivist way. You draw things that you think of and begin forming these objects with shapes, working up to more refined forms. This includes the prez tech style of drawing based on perspective theory. It also includes the sort of drawings you'd see in those drawing books they give to kids. You know the sort of "how to draw dinosaurs in 5 simple stages."

These are the two basic forms of drawing, from which others come from. For instance life drawing is a bit of a combination of these two schools. You are observing the live figure, but you come to the subject from a standpoint of knowledge, like scientific drawing. Its an interesting, variant approach, one that has made me think of drawing in new and exciting ways.

update

A few things I wanted to touch on:

You should all check out one of the freshest, most unique and most professional webcomics out there: Dan Goldmans Red Light Properties

I'll be doing stuff like this in the years to come. Sure distributing free weakly web comic's isn't exactly a route to fame and fortune, but it does reach the audience in a fast and powerful way to reach a wide audience.

I've been listening to the early drops of Damian Marley and Nasir Jones forthcoming collaboration in tight rotation. The two first worked together on Welcome to Jamrock's Road to Zion. That's a classic track and from what I've heard of the album there will be many more classic tunes coming from the duo. The both have plenty to prove, with Damian living in the shadow of his Fathers success and Nas living in the shadow of his own prior success. This seems to drive them to make better music, defying any perceived limitations on their musical potential.

I'll be posting or linking some new art soon. Nothing too special, but interesting none the less.

Horse Conches and other things

Happy Valentines everyone. Here's hoping you are with loved ones and not huddled in an alley boiling heroin in a spoon like I am.

Regardless, I did some research on my shell for Life Drawing, and here is the documentation of that. My shell is a nutmeg to light tan colored Horse Conch Shell, or Pleuroploca Gigantea in unintelligible, alien languages. It is the state shell of Florida, which isn't nearly as intresting as the fact that states actually have "official" sea shells. I wonder what the state sea shell of Nevada is? Anyway, they can get up to 24 inches long. They feature a long Siphonal canal. Me and my shell

The shells are found in the shallows and can have up to 10 whoris (ridges on the spiraled top). My shell has six whoris, with knobs on its ridges (which are also called shoulders). They are orange colored when their younger, and get lighter when older, like the desaturated Salmon or tan that mine is. The heavy spiral shell is quite distinct and the detail is great. It really is no wonder why it works for our drawing studies, its completely covered with cross contoured ridges.

Its cold and snowing now, even though the sun was shinning bright when I got up. I'm listening to the dubstep/grime/drum/bass/breakbeat/disco/loungy/minimal/dark tech-beats of Breakage, Curses! and Search & Destroy. More information on this and other things forthcoming....

Coffee, and other things

Here's a picture I made while drinking bag wine, which is delicious. I highly recommend drinking it in mass quantity while listening to wonky dubstep like Joker, Chase & Status, Flying Lotus or Darkstar. I may include this character in an upcoming effort.


I just realized even I don't have my blog bookmarked. As suave and internet savvy as I want to be, I really need to step up my game.

Anyway, I have begun to sort some things out, make plans, plot my future in different ways.

Anyway, I'm going to be working on some larger scale comic. The working title is Hell Hole. Actually that will probably be the final name, so nobody take that name. I'll be sure to post some art when I get it.

Still hitting the life drawing hard. Working those lines and such.
Working those cross contour lines and really, really, looking at naked women. Honestly, i don't know how art students make it.

But seriously, being an art student is the hardest work a college student can do. I know many students and professors personally who will swear by this. You don't become an artist because its easy or it makes you money. Often its hard, stressful and scary. You toil away, chronically unappreciated and misunderstood. There are many down sides to it, but you become an artist because you have to, because you feel things that intense. Because you have get some things of your chest. This is why I draw, write, create, drink, live. Its all a necessity, you'd do it even if you were all alone, the only person left. You do it because it has meaning it stands for something. Its important. This is the link between the fragments of reality the past the acid test, that stands the course of time. They speak to the human condition. Art, religion, writing, poetry, music all these things matter for precisely these reasons. This is why I look at the different company I keep as different but equal. This is why I view myself as one person rather then the many people I've been. Because there is not many things or moments or fragments there is one that is many.

Sorry for the exsistential rant, but this is what I think about and what I think people should blog about. Namaste to everyone from the revival meeting junkies to the pretentious hipster hacks (myself included).

Febuarys First

I described the above lines as unrepentant, frantic, paranoid and obsessive. How would you describe them?



Allready we've done plenty of homework for lifedrawing. The top three pictures are studies of a live model. The one directly above is a study of my sea shell. If I'm not allready sick of it, I will be soon.

So I've been working on that, thinking about what a want to do, comics wise. Other than that, i saw Sam Mendes latest picture, the criminally ingored and underated Away We Go. It was a fun film and cinematically gorgeuos, in the vain of Mendes other, better recognized work, such as American Beauty and Road to Perdition. Up next for Mendes will be the latest Bond intallment, and it should be good.