I have never really kept very many journals throughout my life. It seems that every time I try I start out really strong and write everyday, but after a while I forget about it or simply lose interest. To me, my sketchbook is my journal. The sketchbook I had in grade 12 of high school was full of preliminary sketches, ideas, websites, names, artists, smaller artworks, quotes and even reminders of things I needed to do for homework. This sketchbook showed me just how useful journals can be, and even though I'm not a very journal-oriented person, I still believe they have their uses for other people.
Journals have been around for a very long time, in the form of diaries, notebooks, and maps could even be seen as a journal of sorts. It is one of very few traditions that has not died down or burnt out since the age of technology. Everyone still finds them useful, and most electronic devices even have note taking programs or apps already built in. The human mind is only useful for remembering to a certain point, and if journals had never been invented, most of history's important details would have been lost or forgotten. Especially when people were on long expeditions overseas, and came across discoveries of different races and species, and even land that had never been seen before. All of this was written down in journals and even painted or drawn by artists.
Most people have begun to forget the importanceof journals, like me, and rely on technology (pictures and video) to remember everything for us.
What would happen if all of those things were destroyed? It is much easier to simply delete files on a computer than destroy every single documented historical event that has been written in a journal.
I think I will stick to using my sketchbook as a journal, though, it suits me better.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Generous Act
Ok, so I decided to spend the entire day last Thursday cleaning up the entire house for my mom while she was at work. Unfotunately, for some reason, this silly blog site takes years to upload my video, so I'll just describe what I did and maybe try later to upload the vid.
So, I figured that th person who would appreaciate something the most is my mom, and since I didn't have any ideas for something to do outside with strangers I just stuck to something in my house.
I swept the entire house (since it's all hardwood/tile) and I cleaned out the litterbox (ew). Then I sprayed dwn the entire bathroom and cleaned the sink, toilet and bathtub, very throuroughly. Next i took the garbage and recycling out and picked up the mail, and got the christmas decorations out from our oh so nicely organized storage closet (NOT!) which took longer than it needed to haha. Then I decorated the house so it was nice and christmas-y. I also emtpied and loaded the dishwasher, cleaned the counters in the kitchen and made,served and cleaned up after dinner that night.
It was really funny because my mom and our roomate Greg were so happy that I had this project since it was Greg's turn to clean the litterbox and my mom always does that stuff like everyday (she's a clean freak).
So yah, I will try and upload the video somehow asap.
So, I figured that th person who would appreaciate something the most is my mom, and since I didn't have any ideas for something to do outside with strangers I just stuck to something in my house.
I swept the entire house (since it's all hardwood/tile) and I cleaned out the litterbox (ew). Then I sprayed dwn the entire bathroom and cleaned the sink, toilet and bathtub, very throuroughly. Next i took the garbage and recycling out and picked up the mail, and got the christmas decorations out from our oh so nicely organized storage closet (NOT!) which took longer than it needed to haha. Then I decorated the house so it was nice and christmas-y. I also emtpied and loaded the dishwasher, cleaned the counters in the kitchen and made,served and cleaned up after dinner that night.
It was really funny because my mom and our roomate Greg were so happy that I had this project since it was Greg's turn to clean the litterbox and my mom always does that stuff like everyday (she's a clean freak).
So yah, I will try and upload the video somehow asap.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Towards my art manifesto....
So, when asked to do an overall summary of the first couple of projects, I couldn't come up with much, really. So it took me a while to actually get it done, hence the big gap in time from my last post to this one.
When I first came to creative processes, i knew something was a bit off. We dont do the same work as the other CP classes, and that seemed a little strange to me. When I think of the words "The Creative Process", I think of sketches and plans and process work that an artist goes through in order to create. So when we started doing performance art, I didn't really get it, and I cant really say that I'm making any sense of it even now when the term is almost over. I just hope that we won't be behind when it comes to knowledge needed for the next years of school. Not only that, but I suck at performing/doing presentations in front of other people, and I'm afraid that because this class is all performance stuff I'll get a worse mark than if I was in another CP class. And in order to get into my major I need good marks! But anyways, I'm straying from the summary.
I'm not sure exactly how long I can make this, but I'll try.
When asked to think about what we believe to be ugly or beautiful, I think a lot of people had a hard time grasping the concept. Some of us wanted to not look too shallow and chose objects that had a 'meaning' behind them to back up why they were ugly or beautiful, not just from visual esthetics or appearance being unappealing or appealing. Others simply chose things that are physically beautiful or ugly, which is the direction I think I would have gone if I had done the project. Unfortunately I was sick, but moving on! In essence, I believe that the people who made up reasons other than physical unattractiveness/attractiveness were just fooling themselves into believing something that they didn't. If you were to ask anybody to pick an ugly object and a beautiful one and they had no idea they were being marked for a class in art, they would have just picked something visually pleasing and non-pleasing. Simple, clear, concise and relatable. No need for tricky back stories or 'deep' meaning. To be honest, I was even thinking about picking something that had a 'deep' meaning to me personally instead of just the visual aspects, but I coudln't think of anything! Probably why I'm not going into fine art as a major, since I hate all this bull crap about all your art having to have some sort of meaning behind it, or some sort of message to tell the audience. Whatever happened to creating art for the sake of creating art? Creating something beautiful simply because you felt that you wanted to paint it? Not having to spend years in the process of making sure your gallery show makes no sense to anyone unless they read the fine print? A blank canvas, being called a work of art because it has a moral? How can a blank canvas have a moral? I may seem strongly opiniated, but I just believe that artists have almost gotten lazy now. With all the new technology surfacing we have forgotten what it's like to just paint a realist protrait or landscape. Now we feel forced to assimilate to this new 'style' of art, abstract and such, in order to just make end's meet. But anyways, back to CP class before I rant anymore.
In the end, I didn't really like the beautiful/ugly objects performances. I didn't understan the overall concept and why it was relevant to our studies in foundation year. I really don't understand what most ofthis class has to do with foundation studies but, o well, seems like I'm stuck in this class until a pass it!
When I first came to creative processes, i knew something was a bit off. We dont do the same work as the other CP classes, and that seemed a little strange to me. When I think of the words "The Creative Process", I think of sketches and plans and process work that an artist goes through in order to create. So when we started doing performance art, I didn't really get it, and I cant really say that I'm making any sense of it even now when the term is almost over. I just hope that we won't be behind when it comes to knowledge needed for the next years of school. Not only that, but I suck at performing/doing presentations in front of other people, and I'm afraid that because this class is all performance stuff I'll get a worse mark than if I was in another CP class. And in order to get into my major I need good marks! But anyways, I'm straying from the summary.
I'm not sure exactly how long I can make this, but I'll try.
When asked to think about what we believe to be ugly or beautiful, I think a lot of people had a hard time grasping the concept. Some of us wanted to not look too shallow and chose objects that had a 'meaning' behind them to back up why they were ugly or beautiful, not just from visual esthetics or appearance being unappealing or appealing. Others simply chose things that are physically beautiful or ugly, which is the direction I think I would have gone if I had done the project. Unfortunately I was sick, but moving on! In essence, I believe that the people who made up reasons other than physical unattractiveness/attractiveness were just fooling themselves into believing something that they didn't. If you were to ask anybody to pick an ugly object and a beautiful one and they had no idea they were being marked for a class in art, they would have just picked something visually pleasing and non-pleasing. Simple, clear, concise and relatable. No need for tricky back stories or 'deep' meaning. To be honest, I was even thinking about picking something that had a 'deep' meaning to me personally instead of just the visual aspects, but I coudln't think of anything! Probably why I'm not going into fine art as a major, since I hate all this bull crap about all your art having to have some sort of meaning behind it, or some sort of message to tell the audience. Whatever happened to creating art for the sake of creating art? Creating something beautiful simply because you felt that you wanted to paint it? Not having to spend years in the process of making sure your gallery show makes no sense to anyone unless they read the fine print? A blank canvas, being called a work of art because it has a moral? How can a blank canvas have a moral? I may seem strongly opiniated, but I just believe that artists have almost gotten lazy now. With all the new technology surfacing we have forgotten what it's like to just paint a realist protrait or landscape. Now we feel forced to assimilate to this new 'style' of art, abstract and such, in order to just make end's meet. But anyways, back to CP class before I rant anymore.
In the end, I didn't really like the beautiful/ugly objects performances. I didn't understan the overall concept and why it was relevant to our studies in foundation year. I really don't understand what most ofthis class has to do with foundation studies but, o well, seems like I'm stuck in this class until a pass it!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Multiple Objects Performances
These are 4 videos I took of the second performance project in my Creative Processes class. We had to gather up multiples of one object and do a partnered performance/action with them. These performances turned out a lot different than the solo performances, and I think most of them were better because the partners had eachother to feed off of and work with to come up with great ideas of what to use and what action to do. I especially liked Sheena and Leah's performance, although there could have been a little more preparation and better teamwork. Overall, though, their performance was very ambient and interesting, with the use of candles and ink on paper to create a "shadow art" kind of feel. I think I might just be extra attracted to the ones that turn off the lights, it makes all other senses become heightened so the experience is more interesting.
Ugly and Beautiful Object Performances
These are four videos I took of my Creative Processes class performing their "beautiful/ugly" object actions. Some were more obvious than others what the message was that they were trying to get across, and a lot of them were very meaningful and had a deep background meaning or theme to them. Some of them just plain old sounded or looked cool. One that I really enjoyed was Elsa's performance with the bubble wrap. Because the lights were off the sound of the bubbles popping was amplified, and in unison with the flash of the camera's made it seem like you were caught in a thunderstorm.
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