PHOTO ESSAY – 2D STUDIO

— 2D Studio —

All that Ai Weiwei’s website’s biography page says about him is that he is an artist born in 1957 who now resides in Beijing. This is quite an understatement for such a potent artist.

I saw this piece that he did and thought it was so cool; it’s a triptych of him dropping a Han Dynasty Urn. The middle panel is haunting to me – it’s as if someone is holding the urn directly above the ground, a ghost or invisible being. Or maybe that’s what my mind is hoping; imagining as a mechanism to combat the fact that he truly did destroy a Han Dynasty Urn in the creation of this piece. This kid in one of my classes was explaining that Han Dynasty Urns are historically salient in the fact that the Han Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history.

 

He also has a running project within these sunflower seeds. They are all created by hand and out of porcelain; the seed is representative of the people of China, since there are many but they always face towards the sun, as if looking towards a brighter future, a brighter day.

 

I especially enjoy the comedic nature of his Coca Cola Urns.

I feel like it creates an important dialogue about the influence of Western Culture on, quite frankly, everything, and the consumerism that follows (or goes hand-in-hand) with that influence.

 

In terms of Ai Weiwei’s NYC installations, I think that the pushback from the Washington Square Park piece is selfish and whitewashed. Some man on the board committee for the park claims that the sculpture “politicized” the arch, though the arch was erected in political likeness in the first place. It’s representative of George Washington’s inauguration; one of this country’s founding fathers, therefore one of the men who is responsible for the way it (the country) is now. I know that’s a cynical outlook on the entire thing, but I tried to put what I was saying in the simplest terms.

I think Ai Weiwei is an amazing artist and activist and I can’t wait to see what ways he furthers his ideas and how they are conceptualized.

THE METAL SKIRT – 3D STUDIO

— 3D Studio, Integrative Studio 1, Year 2 —

I wanted to make a skirt out of metal, kind of like chain maille armor. This is representative of the fact that there is so much policing of the woman’s body occurring in today’s society. Is it frowned upon to have an opinion about your own body; concerning your own health and your own personal decisions. The maille will act as an extension of the body, an activation caused by the newfound politicalness of the vagina.

 

some of the planning/ideas around the skirt:

ARTWORK RESPONSE 1 – SIGN & SYSTEM SEMINAR

— Core Seminar 1: Sign & System, Year 2 —

ARTWORK RESPONSE 1

KARA WALKER @ SIKKEMA JENKINS & Co.

Upon arrival, one is greeted with a graffiti-esquie disclaimer outside of the gallery. It reads:

Sikkema Jenkins and Co. is Compelled to present
The most Astounding and Important Painting show of the fall Art Show viewing season!

Collectors of Fine Art will Flock to see the latest Kara Walker offerings, and what is she offering but the Finest Selection of artworks by an African-American Living Woman Artist this side of the Mississippi. Modest collectors will find her prices reasonable, those of a heartier disposition will recognize Bargains! Scholars will study and debate the Historical Value and Intellectual Merits of Miss Walker’s Diversionary Tactics. Art Historians will wonder whether the work represents a Departure or a Continuum. Students of Color will eye her work suspiciously and exercise their free right to Culturally Annihilate her on social media. Parents will cover the eyes of innocent children. School Teachers will reexamine their art history curricula. Prestigious Academic Societies will withdraw their support, former husbands and former lovers will recoil in abject terror. Critics will shake their heads in bemused silence. Gallery Directors will wring their hands at the sight of throngs of the gallery-curious flooding the pavement outside. The Final President of the United States will visibly wince. Empires will fall, although which ones, only time will tell.

Once inside, the minimal gallery walls have been transformed to a political and racial sketchbook, depicting the dreams and nightmares reflective of history belonging to a black woman. It is for this exact reason that this exhibition especially resonated with me; I could see myself, my family, and my reality throughout the spans of white, black and beige papers Walker chose to showcase. One mesmerizing black image dawns a message between the sporadic strokes of sable paint, that reads “YOU HATE ALL BLACK PEOPLE AS MUCH AS YOU HATE YOURSELF.” The POTUS appears in some of the pieces as well, along with what seems to be a number of other politicians. The paintings interested me because I felt I bore the same emotion as they were created in.

One grey piece in particular depicted a number of black women (and some black men) committing what seems to be the lynching of various white men. The obvious irony of the scene, paved with the blatant anger transcribed by the sketchy nature of the painting are what initially drew my eye into it. Once you begin to delve deeper into the image, you recognize the bodies of voluptuous black women wielding weapons and battling white men. One pale body sporting a

corset and extravagant 18th century costume is rendered puncturing the chest of a dark, nude, curvy body; something that signals to me the death of confidence in natural African beauty upon the arrival of eurocentric standards. Most of the black bodies drawn in the piece are naked or wearing solely underwear like panties and a bra, which further resolves the animalistic nature of the race-fueled war scene. Babies with dolls and torture tools are amongst other objects in this contradictory interpretation of America’s history.

PROJECT 2: VISUALIZING NARRATIVE – 2D STUDIO

— Uncategorized —

This is the post pertaining to the narrative and the expansion of it. Each iteration is different and further pushes the story to a point of resolution.

With this narrative I want to tell a story about (my relationship) I guess and the conceptualization of it. There is a common theme amongst all of my artwork which is my muse: my boyfriend (cliche, I know). It feels more natural to create artwork concerning something that you are so enamored by; someone you talk to everyday, someone you think about as often as you blink your eyes. Over time, Juan and I have definitely become closer and we’re learning each other more and more everyday. The whole thing feels very beautiful and fairytale-like, though some parts of it may not be. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, so I would say the feeling is quite foreign but at the same time, he makes me feel the way I felt when I was extremely young and without stress so it’s familiar in a sense.

1. NARRATIVE PT. 1

One day, I went to his house. Outside it was very cold, but near him I felt warm. We walked into his neighborhood and he said hi to everyone, as he usually does. He said “hola” to the people of hispanic background, also not out of the ordinary. I looked at him a lot and smiled and covered my face because I felt so silly in his presence; so unable to contain myself, so innocent, so fresh and free and happy. He was silent the whole time we walked and my thoughts were overlapping each other. I always had trouble wrapping my mind around the being that was him; the way he moved and spoke and was. All of him was amazing.

He had this swagger about him. He gave off this vibe; this aura that he did not care what you said about him. You could tell that he had been through some hardships and that those very hardships shaped his soul. He spoke about these few times.

Everything in his room had changed since the last time I was there. The walls and bed spread and newly bought couch were all blue. It was still that of some sort of urban monk though, with books scattered across the window sill and dresser. Along with those books were remnants of marijuana, hats and notebooks full of lyrics and poems and stories, perhaps even diary entries. We had on blue too. Me with a blue fuzzy sweater which he said reminded him of cookie monster and him with a dark blue tee shirt.

We minimally spoke. He mentioned the fact that he had to design a couple of websites for his program and that he was way behind. I knew he would finish them that night, though. He could do anything.

There was a fire inside of him. It burned and burned and you could hear it when he talked about things he felt passionately about, like quantum physics or spirit science or the universe or the stars and moon or music. “Music is the shit,” he would say while working on a webpage. Then he’d turn up the volume and rap along with the lyrics as though he lived the same life as J Cole himself.

He was a mystery. Sometimes he would take me and hold me or shift my body around his so we fit together like a puzzle or clay. He listened to my heart and tapped his fingers on my skin. It felt as if we were one.

One time he told me he loved me, but I think I always knew. He would try to describe me and end up having the same look on his face that he had while he talked about music. He told me I was beautiful all the time and made sure I felt the same way. I never wanted to leave.

 

2. (NARRATIVE REVISITED)

It was freezing. We had decided that we would meet at the hotel him and his friends were staying at, near the World Trade Center; a mentor of mine was also visiting the city at the time. I had on a black shearling coat that was cropped, and ended just where the waist of my blue jeans began. My hair was out in a large afro, the moisture in it turned to ice as I tromped through the snow-ridden streets.

I stood in the lobby of the hotel, looking around for a tall skinny boy with dreads tinted by an iridescent purple color. Suddenly, the elevator doors opened and he started out of them. For a second I lost my breathe, then caught it again and remembered that I’m not supposed to like him. He came towards me, I smiled, we embraced then went back into the elevator and up to the room they were staying in.

It was a mess; but I expected no less from a group of young boys staying in the city for the weekend. There were clothes everywhere, a small makeshift studio on the desk to the far right corner, and the strong looming scent of marijuana. The other boys left and him and I remained.

First, he put on Rick & Morty. We sat for a while and I took it all in, realizing that it was one of his favorite shows and laughing along with it to him. I couldn’t help but fall in love with him during that short time; he was beautiful. His mind, his entire being, everything about him seemed to be pulling me closer and closer until finally I couldn’t take it anymore and I leaned in for a kiss. And I swear that kiss was the sweetest one I had encountered since my first one, and I swear it wasn’t on my account that it happened because he grabbed my arm and drew me in just as I was about to fall into it. And after we joked and laughed and left the hotel room, deciding that we would go get some pizza and travel all the way to Jersey to meet with my best friend Randell and play video games.

It was even colder than it had been before I entered the hotel and the sky became a wide abyss. I had forgotten about meeting with my mentor, forgotten about any homework that was due, any prior engagements; anything. I had forgotten it all and the only thing I thought of was him. And he was next to me, and we moved through the city as one attempting to keep ourselves warm against the winter wind smacking us in the face as we moved. The trip to Jersey felt like a trek across a tundra, and we continued to cling to each other for warmth. Though it were the first time we had ever hangout with each other, it felt like I knew him for ages…

LARGE SCALE DRAWING – 2D STUDIO

— 2D Studio, Year 2 —

I started by collecting images of Juan and I; images that I enjoy, images that are important to me, etc. and compiling them onto the paper in plain pencil. Once I had finished with the images, I began to add objects that were symbolic to me as well. To finish it all off, I painted with green ink in the crevices of the drawings – this signifies the time I drew on him with the same exact ink.

 

PROJECT 1: CONCEPTUALIZATION – 2D STUDIO

— 2D Studio, Year 2 —

I was confused when we first began the sketchbook project. I didn’t know whether I wanted to make it about the city or my feelings towards the city, then I realized I didn’t want to make it about either. Instead I decided to pinpoint exactly what I am constantly thinking about while maneuvering through the city, while tromping the streets with Lauryn Hill blaring through my headphones, while riding the trains and walking through alleyways. Even through all of the putrid scents and dogshit-embellished sidewalks, the bodega cats asleep on the bread I say wassup to, the chicken cutlets and essentias I get from the bodega cats (or at least that’s who I imagine I’m giving my money to) I am still thinking about one thing. Or maybe…just one. 

 

I began to write short poems throughout my days, here is a list of a few of them:

APPLE PIE

and today

i took a step out into the world only to find that it was awaiting my arrival since the prior night.

the sun bathed me

the city consumed me

and the sky lay open awaiting my next move.

“are you ready to fly yet?” it seemed to ask

but alas, i had homework to finish.

THUNDER

the night droned on forever and i swear i had nobody to go to jouvert with but finally…FINALLY plans fell into my life; precisely as i had expected. a mayoral candidate, his two best friends, a model and an estranged artist self proclaimed as YUNG NAZ went to the festival and came back beaten, bruised and dawning paint. the music, the vibes, the oil and powder – the amalgamation that stems from a love for CULTURE and CARIBBEAN – i felt it. i felt it in my toes and my fingertips and the button of my nose. and i plan to feel it again and again every chance i get, or my last name isn’t JEAN.

FUSCHIA BUTTERFLIES

as i tromp through the streets at night

i cant help but feel like there is something more I’m supposed to be doing at the moment.

its late, the hood is quiet, dudes hanging on the corner smoking and drinking and yelling with so much love you think you’re about to hear gunshots but it settles instead into laughter.

after all, hatred is born out of love anyways.

OCEAN BED

few people actually remind me of you

sometimes it’ll be a random being i come in contact and suddenly build an almost impenetrable connection with; until whatever fantasy relationship we had sustained in the moment of its conception was broken by prior engagements or lack of preparation.

there isn’t anything that has to remind me of you, though, because you’re on my mind virtually at any given moment.

you’re on my mind constantly.

IS THERE A PROBLEM?

I wonder why people stare at me.

Is it because I’m ugly? Is it because I’m cute?

Is it my outfit or my hair or my makeup; maybe the shoes I’m wearing. The confusion that stems from the fact that I don’t fit into one of the brainstormed categories of societal normalcies. And why, additionally, do those very people choose to look away once we get too close or they notice that I notice them noticing me with a gaze? Why do they instead ignore me and avoid my eyes – do they know the truth they see? The pain they hold? The ideas that lay dormant behind them?

…i wonder why people stare at me.

SOMETIMES

Sometimes, I think that I’m not the same

Sometimes, I know that I’m not

Sometimes, I just roam with no domain

Sometimes, I’m docked

Well

Meanwhile, you’ve been running through my mind

Meanwhile, the tears start running next

Ooh, Child, love aint got to be this way

Ooh Child, let’s stop…

The love didn’t go anywhere but its grown so much so that I can’t bear it. It fucking hurts me when I wake up and I cant just see you and hear you and feel you. I can’t believe that you really became my best friend and then I moved away. This is like an early 2000s rom-com and I’m really not here for it.

I forgot that these responses were supposed to be open ended…some of mine are extremely specific. The boy’s name is Juan.

OUT GETTING RIBS

do you ever stop to think why the new york city streets smell the way they do?

if you think about it, so much craziness is constantly happening in new york city; there are so many different types of people here, from all different types of places; we barely even have anywhere to put our trash. you know how in the movie wall-e, all of earth is just trash? and thats why they create the gigantic spaceship in the first place, to escape from earth, but it really doesn’t do anything. that wouldn’t help. i feel like we were given this one planet and we just trash it and don’t give a fuck and it makes me so sad and i never want to take anything for granted like that ever again. humans are so selfish and im almost ashamed to be a part of the human race.

 

I started to collage images into my sketchbook, while starting my smaller sketchbook from The Sketchbook Project. I took pictures of things that inspired me, and implemented those images throughout both sketchbooks as well.

I had gone with my class to a bunch of different art galleries to look at specific artworks meant to inspire us with our assignments in that class. Helio Oiticica’s exhibition interested me the most, as it was just a series of interactions in a bunch of rooms across the top floor of the museum. There was a room where you had to take off your shoes and walk across sand, stick your feet in water, play pool, sit in a hammock and listen to Jimi Hendrix, file your nails while laying on a mat–it was just so cool and so interesting and so tender. It made me feel like I was growing up alongside Helio.

 

These are from our class where we had a substitute (I forget her name) and recalled the entire process of whatever we had undergone before arriving at class. That was cool because you don’t often think about that process; it is habitual, you don’t have to think about it. In fact, thinking about it is so abnormal you almost forget certain parts of it.

These are just a couple of sketches and drawings I did that inspired what eventually went into the sketchbook. This is how most of my sketches look.

Here are a few pictures of some of the sketchbook pages. The sketchbook will remain a work-in-progress forever.

ROLAND BARTHES – DEATH OF THE AUTHOR SS SEMINAR

— Core Seminar 1: Sign & System, Year 2 —

STUDIO ASSIGNMENT 1 – SIGN & SYSTEM

— Core Seminar 1: Sign & System, Year 2 —

Recently, a lot of what I perceive to be signs have presented themselves to me in very palpable means. Just the other day, a number of signs were proffered in close proximities of time to each other. Here is a list recounting the occurrences:

— woke up on time

— got to class early

— ate healthy breakfast and lunch

— responsibly decided to do laundry

— facetimed with my best friend (who is in Colorado)

— found $10 on my way to the Laundromat

— met an Art Director at the Laundromat

— was offered her information, a tour of her agency and possible internship

— got free meal from my favorite Thai restaurant upon my arrival home

So it was honestly just an amazing day. Throughout the duration of those final hours before I went to sleep, I couldn’t help but think why is someone out there blessing me this much? I mean I know I deserve it but…I didn’t know the Universe agreed with me. I’m going to create a piece that incorporates this emotion through visual images; a piece that conveys these signs and their meanings to me. I dig the idea of a painting being merely a reference to a certain space in time (reality), while photography is a record of it (Sontag). I will draw symbols of each occurrence from that day and these will become the signs, additionally implementing color blocking, overlapping collage and possibly photography to accompany them. This will allow the viewer to interpret each symbol on their own terms (create their own reality about the image) while having a reference to my actual reality (the photographs i may incorporate); this, I believe, will ultimately allow for an interesting dialogue to ensue in the mind of the observer. Not so long ago, someone told me that in their opinion, art that has the ability to convey an emotion so strongly without explicitly expressing it is captivating, so you could say I drew inspiration from that conversation as well. Among the numerous media involved, I may also integrate paint.

ASSIGNMENT 1 – 3D CORE STUDIO

— Uncategorized —

RECONSTRUCTING TIMES SQUARE – DRAWING/IMAGING

— Drawing+Imaging, Year 1 —

When I went to the MoMA, the pieces that interested me most were concerned with creating space out of flat looking shapes. Those are the ones I found myself looking at for longer periods of time, and I think that is because though they were so simple, it seemed as though real thought had been put into their compositions.

Two pieces I particularly remembered from my visit were The Studio by Pablo Picasso and [Composition-40-2011] by Shirana Shahbazi. Both were able to convey a sense of space while remaining extremely flat images, and both explore different shape and color combinations.

 

The photos I took of Times Square that I found the most interest in were photos that displayed vast walls/billboards. What I think is cool about Times Square is the fact that it is composed of a bunch of bright walls and posters that would otherwise be blank.

 

To help me better understand perspective, I attempted to create some perspective drawings – first from 1 point, then from 2.

 

Finally, I was able to create an image that is the complete opposite of Times Square: Blank walls like canvases and calm, bland colors.