Tuesday, October 31, 2006

image essay #9


This is a piece by Brandon Boyd from the band Incubus. Brandon is more of a musician then an artist, but having listened to his music and following Incubus for a while now, I have become very intrigued by not only Brandon’s but also Jose’s art as well. Jose plays drums for Incubus, while Brandon does vocals and plays a little percussion along side of this.

I thought this piece was particularly interesting, because it’s very well balanced and there’s enough going on I find myself staring at it for a rather long time. I was moved by the way he chose to position the arms. And the way he positioned the feet, in that the one is up while the other is balancing the elephant. This simple black and white makes you focus more on the detail then anything else. When looking at the face closely you can notice an Aum or a Hindu symbol for a peaceful state of mind, serenity. I thought this was a clever way to further elaborate the meaning Brandon is trying to get across.

I am inspired by Incubus in so many aspects, not only music, but also art, philosophy, and motivation. I thought it only fair that I give one of his pieces of art some sort of gratitude.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Blog entry #5

1. How has this artist contributed to the field of study which you plan to enter?

He has taken an abnormal idea of the human figure and reality and manifested it on canvas.

2. What achievements or developments makes this person stand out in that field?

His original style of work and bizarre creations make him stand out.

3. What impressed you most about this artist?

His abstractive/realistic smooth style

4. How have they used dominance to organize or structure their work?

Every piece holds a style like another.

5. How do they address the human form?

In a very sway and flexible/stretchy form

6. In what ways have you been influenced after seeing their work?

To not make all of my art work so closely tied to one another and in stead make it seem as if multiple artists have created my work in stead of only me.

7. How does this artist use color? What color schemes or other mechanisms, such as emphasis or temperature, do they employ?

He uses a lot of cool on warm, or vise versa to differentiate the background from the main object(s)

image essay #8


Inka Essenhigh

This piece by Inka Essenhigh caught my attention because I couldn’t help but get the feeling of sheer comfort when looking at it. Inka did an amazing job capturing the feeling he was going for. The way he portrays the main character in lazy sleeping pants laying with pillows everywhere and on top of three mattresses that sink into a mattress or pillow type floor.

Inka was able to create an outstanding feeling of depth by the way he used more detail with larger objects in the foreground and faded the background to white. He was able to carry your eye throughout the piece’s entirety by using the pillows in the foreground that then lead your eyes up to the main object in the middle of the page. Although, the characters that are fanning the main character seems to be out of place. This could be because he was trying to portray some sort of guilty feeling for being such a sloth. Therefore he portrayed the fanners as demon type creatures instead of a more comfortable creature.

All and all I find this piece very inviting, and maybe that’s not necessarily a good thing. Being so comfortable could be a bad thing if you have other things to get accomplished. I would say that Inka’s idea when creating this piece was a little more on the lines of a blissful situation or feeling.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Blog entry #4

ART: 21 PLACE

1. I think we both define and are defined by the places we reside to some extent. Our surroundings take part in molding us so we can cope in such. But we also effect our environment by the way we take to it. A city can be a beautiful place because of all of the markings and mystery through and between its structures. Although a city can be disgusting if we neglect it’s cleanliness, in turn affecting us by making us ill.

2. Sally Mann chose to live outside of any industrialized locations because she found them to be distracting and cruel to nature. In turn she was primitive in a sense. She aloud her children to roam as she once did, in the nude outside where she photoed them as such. She also found beauty in the landscapes she also photoed. Barry Mcgee resided in a city where he practiced graffiti and painted in buildings for money. Growing up in the city, Barry found art in lettering and abnormal characters.

3. I think art can be found through buildings, the writing on buildings and or nature it’s self. I’ve always thought this, the video just elaborated on my prior thoughts.

4. I would say I feel more effected by urban art, such as graffiti, because it involves art as well as adrenaline. I also feel as if more people will be able to see and enjoy the art that sits on building walls like billboards, only without advertisement.

5. I don’t really think I thoroughly understand this question. But I guess if you’re doing something such as graffiti you are probably working on a very large scale. If you are taking photos like Sally Mann you are working on a smaller scale, but with more composition with the sun light on landscapes and such. If you’re working like Richard Shard you are on an extremely large scale because you are illustrating the feeling of space through your work.

6. As a child I was, and probably still am semi-claustrophobic, small places made me feel uncomfortable, such as tight crowds. Therefore large crowds scared me. I liked to be in open areas, suck as on my roof at home or my back deck, I could call that comfortable. When I’m walking through crowds I like to have a hood on so I don’t have to look or talk to people, I call that my safe-haven. Driving in my car was also a place I liked to be to think, with an occasional cigarette and low music of course. I would call that my intellect place, I guess. When I was really young I would go to our local YMCA and play with all of my friends, that’s when I found out I didn’t take to sports very well. So I guess I could call that annoying, because I never really liked to hang out there, I just wanted something to do and be “cool.”

7. I pick my car. The lighting was of an evening light, maybe on a Friday before I was getting drunk and making bad decisions. I liked the feeling of the window down with air calmly blowing through the car. I also would have to mention the sound, because I was either listening to loud obnoxious music, quiet mellow music or nothing at all. It just depended on how I was feeling at that certain point and time.



ART: 21 STORIES

1. I think the most important stories of today aren’t that of known truth, but that of the future, via ideas, beliefs and the outcomes where we are and what we’re doing. Change, because I believe what we’re doing and were we’re going is not good. If I were to pass down a story I would pass down my idea that competition is not health and fucks with peoples heads to much which eventually leads to the harm and death of innocent bystanders. Look at what we’re doing, we’re power hungry and we’re killing people because of it. The story of how it’s too late for salvation. How we’re a massive virus on one of God’s cells and the Idea that life isn’t based on anything but a circle, no species is special or better then another. We’re all a part of a circle, a circle we are cutting in two. It’s drastic, but that’s my story.

2. Some stories hold entertainment… death, gore, drama, etc. Stories as such entertain us because we’re fucked up. Simple, but true. I would elaborate on why I think this way, but I would only be getting off subject and it should be apparent from the first question anyway.

3. They document stories that they find interesting or that hold some sort of compassion to their lives. Stories they feel need to be taught, or told to aware the naive.

4. Growing up I was probably pretty normal to everyone, but that’s only because I molded to people so I had no enemies. I was a jock, a hick, a rocker, a druggy, an artist, a partier, a graffiti artist, a writer, popular, cool, good-looking, trendy, smart… ish, middle class, low class, high class, black, white, green, red, blue, an intellectual, kind, caring, rude, polite, cruel, two-faced, you name it I was or could be it. It’s easy really, all you have to do is agree with people, and do what they do. That was me in a nutshell, although I am starting to mold myself now that I have people I can relate to near and around me in college, I’m even starting to enjoy the company of my parents. But I’m getting off subject. On my own I was very intellectual and probably bi-polar. I wanted love, but I didn’t want a relationship, I wanted sex, but I got too attached and I hated the after math of those situations, so I wasn’t a stud. I was shy to people I didn’t know, I thought about suicide a lot, but that’s only because I was so confused and I wanted to belong everywhere and no where at the same time. I always loved my parents, but I hated their religion, Catholicism. My mom tried to base how she raised us on Catholicism and all it did was make me hate religion. I was… and still am lazy, I use the excuse that being taught something ruins originality, when in actuality I’m starting to realize, it’s just me being lazy. I now hate working, because I’m lazy. Money pisses me off; I don’t think it should exist. I know you need it, but I would rather choose to be broke and mooch off my loving parents and summer income until I’m out of college. Growing up I always thought I was the mature one, when, now that I think about it, I was actually the immature one with an extremely lazy attitude making it hard for me to get anything done, because I would just convince myself my beliefs were against it. Again, now I’m starting to come around and I’m starting to realize life sucks, but I’m not the only one living it and I should stop pitying myself.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

image essay #7


Inka Essenhigh – They came from the sea

I like the simplicity in this painting and the value. This is a painting by Inka Essenhigh which he titled “They Came from the Sea.” I thought this piece to be different from this normal work in that there are no figures of any kind. The piece has a strict grey value scale which does a good job with keeping your attention on the form rather then the color, being that there is no color. The way Inka uses value give the painting a variety of textures and places for your eyes to wonder about. “They Came From the Sea” in assumption probably came after the piece had been made. When looking at the piece I notice that it does look like rocks or something is rising out of a body of water. The extreme value used by Inka with the pure whites and pure blacks help guide the viewers’ eye throughout its entirety. There is also what looks like a bird-type figure in the background, which establishes depth and movement. The lightness of the upper area, to me, portrays a sky while the foggy light grayish area in the right could portray clouds. I believe this is one of his better pieces because it is more unique to his normal style of work.