Volumetric Cubes

This past weekend I went to the Rike Center with my friend and looked at the senior gallery. I was amazed with all of the talent that I saw within one gallery. Every piece of art that was in the gallery had a certain personal trade mark connected to the artists. My favorite piece was the portrait of a man named Erin, and it was titled “Self Portrait”. It was created on the wall of the gallery out of charcoal, pencil, and pen. It was only in black and white and the numbers that were on the man were used in red pen. The numbers represented the artist’s birth date, which was his own way of adding his own personal style to his portrait. Another one of my favorite pieces of art was not in the senior art gallery. It was in the 3D room. My friend, Brooke Skyllingstad, created a volumetric cube that was 12x12 inches and painted in black, red, and blue.
I don’t really know why the professor made the class make volumetric cubes as an assignment but the point was to learn about how volume works in art. Each cube had different elements to them. Some had circles and stairs, others had bridges and doors. In my opinion, I thought each cube was different and none of them looked the same.
The process of making the volumetric cube was pretty long. At first they started off by making a rough draft cube. By designing the cube they had to use a program on their laptops and make sure the sizes of the rough draft cubes were proportional to the cubes they made on their computers. Then for their final cubes, they had to make a cube that was a complete 12x12 version.
The amount of work and devotion that was put into the process of making these cubes made was really time consuming. Since the cubes were made completely out of cardboard, the students had to work extra hard in order to make the elements of the volumetric cue turn into circles. From watching Brooke throughout the process of making this cube, I learned that the process of making 3D art isn’t as easy. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to complete one project. From looking at Brooke’s cube as well as other people’s volumetric cubes, it is amazing to see how people can put in so much effort to make great pieces of art.

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Phyllis Chen

Last Thursday I was able to attend Phyllis Chen’s piano concert. I have been to many concert recitals like this before but I thought this one was very different compared to the others. Phyllis Chen did not just switch from one piano to another. She switched from a grand piano, one that we see every day, to a toy piano. I had never seen a toy piano until the concert and I was amazed with how different the toy piano is compared to a regular piano. The toy piano has a lighter tone and no deep noise to it at all. The regular piano has a deeper tone and more seriousness to it. I thought the whole feeling to Phyllis Chen’s concert was exciting for the most part. She introduced some new elements to the piano compared to the regular sounds that we usually hear.

The first song Phyllis played was very fast pace and loud. She shocked the audience right away as she played the toy piano so quickly and loudly. She really showed the power of the piano right away. I also liked the different ranges that she was showing on the toy piano. It could go from high to low but still maintained its toy-like ways. In her next performance she played the regular piano. If she started off with the regular piano, then I would have thought of her performance as something that I had seen before. It would have been nothing new. Since Phyllis started off with the toy piano, she showed her unique style right away.

In her second performance, Phyllis played with mixing bowls and the piano. I don’t know how she came up with the idea of playing both the bowls and the piano but I thought it was really different. I didn’t really understand why she chose to do that but I thought it was entertaining. The bowls gave off a serious tone and when she played the toy piano with the bowls, the tone lightened. In her second song, the bowls sounded like a church bell that was calling for the ceremony to begin and the piano gave off the sound of feet or steps. I thought it was really cool with how she incorporated both the bowls and toy piano to work together to make great music.

My favorite performance was the piece where Phyllis played the toy piano and a beat from the computer. The song was fast paced and sounded electronic and fun. She played the piano in tune with the computer. Another piece that I liked was a piece that she played from another pianist. She held a competition a couple of years ago and a student showed the power of the toy piano in this piece. The song originally started off slow but then it escalated into a much deeper and more powerful sound. It ranged from slow to fast paces and from loud to quiet sounds. I was amazed with how much a toy piano could actually do.

I thought Phyllis Chen’s overall performance was an exciting one. She really shows true talent on both the regular piano and the toy piano. I would definitely go to another one of her performances.

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A State of Mind

This week I attended the Friday Night Film series for the first time. I thought it would be a fun experience going with my friends and watching a movie that I had never heard of before. The movie I watched was A State of Mind. This was a documentary about two young gymnasts who were preparing for the Korean Mass Games. The movie was different than what I expected but I did enjoy parts of it.
I had never heard of the Korean Mass Games before this documentary but after watching it, I realized the Korean Mass Games relate to the Olympic pre show before the actual games started. The documentary was based around communism and the training of the gymnasts. The main two girls of the documentary were two young gymnasts who were the best gymnasts in training. The first gymnast, Song Yun Kim, talked about how she takes great pride in training hard in order to perform for the General. Training for these games take up to a year and sometimes even longer. The second gymnast, Hyon Sun Pak, is younger than Song Yun Kim and she helps train the other gymnasts.
As I watched the documentary I was interested in how the documentary was focused. There were two main focuses: Communism and gymnastics. The Koreans who were interviewed in the documentary were against America’s involvement in Iraq and they all stated how they wish the U.S. would stay out of their way. They take great pride in their General and in communism. It is amazing how we, Americans, think our country is the greatest and take pride in all of our rights and freedoms yet the Koreans take pride in their communist ways. They prefer their ways of living to ours. I never considered the thoughts of the other people who would think of the American involvement in their political affairs as a bad thing.
When the documentary focused on the actual training for the gymnastics routines, I was amazed with how different their version of gymnastics is to the U.S. version. They didn’t do anything dealing with vaults or balance beams, but they focused more on the dance version of gymnastics. When they show the mass games, I was amazed with how all the hard work they put into training paid off. Each costume and color symbolized something dealing with the history of Korea. They used objects and dance moves to show off the beauty of gymnastics. I loved the documentary and the artistry shown in it. It was a great documentary and I would definitely watch it again.

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Joselyn Art Museum

This weekend I was lucky enough to go back home for the weekend and visit the Joselyn Art Museum. I love going to this museum because all throughout Senior year I was able to teach art classes there after school. Visiting the Joselyn Art Museum this time was the first time that I was able to actually walk around and enjoy the scenery.

The most interesting piece that I saw when I was walking around was "The Eye" by Cassandra J. O' Hollaran. This particular artist was my art teacher. I was very shocked to see her art piece because I saw her make it throughout my Sophomore year of high school. I never asked what the meaning was behind the art piece, but the explanation next to it gave the meaning to all of her work.

"The Eye" as she calls it represents the eyes of the lonely. When you look closely at the picture you can see the reflection through a mirror. The eye looked like the eye of a girl and the reflection showed only herself in the mirror. Clearly she looked sad because the eye showed tears but I wasn't really sure what Cassandra was truly trying to show the people. I'm not sure if she was trying to portray every little girl who cries or if it's just one person in particular but I thought of it as representing girls with low self asteem issues. Since the girl was looking at herself in the mirror through the reflection, it looked as if she was maybe criticizing herself. Unfortunately, I was unable to take a picture for my blog since there are no pictures allowed at the museum, but I think Cassandra’s piece is truly amazing. I feel that even though the title of the painting is just called “The Eye” , it has a lot of meaning behind it. When you first look at the picture, the only thing you see is the eye. The more you look at it you see the reflection. Then it’s almost as if you feel what the character in the painting is feeling. The painting of the eye itself was really cool. It looked like a realistic eye, made out of acrylics. I think Cassandra’s style in art is pretty cool since it is like no other piece I have ever seen by her. I also think “The Eye” is different from her many other pieces. She usually just paints pictures of her family members or other fun themes but this one takes a serious tone. There is almost no sense of humor in it like she usually has.
All in all I would say her art piece was truly unique. Cassandra captures more than just one main object but she captures two main subjects through one. You have to look at the first object, the eye, to see the second object, the girl in the mirror. This art piece is by far my favorite piece and if I could, I would show it to everyone so they could see how amazing of an artist Cassandra is.

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Halloween Decorations

This past weekend every hall in each building was decorated for Halloween. I went through different buildings to see what everyone had done to decorate and I was very impressed with everyone’s ideas. The first floor of Founders Hall was probably the best. I would never think of them as artistic but they pulled through by making a haunted house in their hallway. They made a cave and they completely turned off the lights in the hallway. The first thought I had when I first saw it was that it was a really cool idea. They made a cave out of limited resources and created the best hallway for the decoration contest. Aside from the cool decorations, they made a complete maze out of their hallways. Like I said before, they had limited resources to use but they still managed to make a maze within the cave. When the lights were on, I thought the cave looked even cooler. Everything seemed perfectly symmetrical and the maze was truly confusing. I never would have thought of the boys being able to put together the best decorated hallway.
My second favorite decorated hallway was the girls’ floor. I thought their ideas were cute because they had put up blue paper on all of the lights to make the inside look like a night scene. They also made their own little bats out of brown paper and they hung off the ceiling. A lot of the girls on the floor are artists and I thought their ideas were great. They also hung up red pieces of paper that hung off the walls and they also created some sort of a maze throughout the hallway. When the kids came to the halls, they were very excited about the mazes.
All of the decorations that I saw made me think of how everyone came together to create cool haunted hallways for the little kids who were coming to trick or treat. I don’t know who won the hallways decoration contest but I thought all of the ideas were pretty cool. Everyone worked together to make the scariest hallways they could create. Some people were actual artists and others were just there to help but I thought it was amazing how people contributed and put together all of their artistic skills. I don’t think I would be able to help in the hallway decorating contest just because I am not very artistic when it comes to little resources and Halloween decorations. But all in all, the weekend turned out successful for the little kids and I loved the decorations.

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OREGON DISTRICT

This weekend I went to the Oregon District for the first time and experienced the true art side of Dayton that I had never experienced before. The University of Dayton itself shows a great appreciation for the arts through many programs and events that happen during the weekends and on Art Street. When I left campus with a group of friends, I realized how artistic Dayton itself is.
Before I left campus, I went to the Battle of the Bands concert and was amazed with how many people here are involved in bands here. Some people sang by themselves and others were in actual bands. I voted for Bridgette Egan because she performed at the first Thursday Night Live and I really enjoyed her music.
We weren’t able to leave for the Oregon District until around 7 at night but when we arrived, I was amazed by my surroundings. There were little shops everywhere and each shop had different things that I had never seen before. There were cute little restaurants and then there were the stores that sold different artistic things. The main reason why we went to the Oregon District was because the group of friends I went with planned to get tattoos and I wanted to tag along to watch the artists. When we arrived at the tattoo parlor I was immediately amazed with the different drawings that each artist had on the walls. They had cartoons posted around the walls as well as different art and tattoo designs all over the place. When you first see the place, you think it’s kind of freaky because it’s dark inside and the pictures that are on the walls are far from what you would usually see every day.
Before the girls got their tattoos they would tell their artists what they wanted and draw out as a sketch what the girls wanted. I found it cool that all of the artists could just come up with the coolest designs right away and even make the designs look cooler than they had before. One man was drawing a music set completely free hand without anything to look at and I thought his designs were really cool. Being at the tattoo parlor made me realize how some of the most talented artists are actually tattoo artists. The way they make up cool designs and make them their own makes their jobs really cool and it kind of gives you a respect for the artists themselves. Each person that gets a tattoo by these artists is showing the artist’s true talent in a way. It’s almost as if the customers are walking advertisements in my opinion because they are showing true art done by someone.
After going to the tattoo parlor we went to a German restaurant and I thought the food there was amazing. Again, this made me realize how artistic Dayton is as a city. The food was completely different and the arrangement of the place was unique. In one room separate from the rest of the restaurant, there was a bar and in the other rooms there was the actual restaurant. There are many places that have set ups the same way as the German restaurant does but this place showed different art pieces in the other rooms.
I would definitely say that I enjoyed my experience at the Oregon District. Even when we were on our way to the restaurant we were able to see people, randomly playing music and dancing on the side walk. It was almost as if none of the people knew each other but they gathered around the music and danced and had a great time. They were even able to gather a crowd to watch them. My experience at the Oregon District was a truly amazing one. Yes, it was nice getting off campus but it was even better experiencing something that that I have never experienced before. I would definitely go back to the Oregon District for another artistic experience.

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Steinway L1037

Yesterday, I went to Sears Hall to watch Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037. I wasn’t really excited to see the movie because the subject of it didn’t seem all that interesting to me. In my opinion, watching a movie about the making of a piano sounded awfully boring. I always found the piano as an amazing instrument but I never really thought about how a piano was actually made.
This movie showed the artistry in making a piano and showed how every person who is involved with the production of the Steinway L1037 is a true artist. The movie showed everything from choosing the perfect wood at a lumber yard to stringing the chords and creating the perfect tunes. Like I said before, every person who was involved in making this piano is a true artist. Most of them you would never think of as artists. They just looked like carpenters or construction workers but throughout the document, they showed how important they all were during the production of the Steinway. I found it interesting how 5 or 6 men worked for hours just to shape the wood so it could form the shape of the piano and then would leave it in a conditioning room for a couple of weeks so it could settle and cool. When each worker was interviewed, they seemed to take great pride in what they were doing. The worker who caught my attention most was the one who put the strings together on the pianos. He told a story about how he was at a concert one time and he heard the piano. He told the people that he made that piano and they said his name was nowhere on the piano. He simply said he could hear his tuning and he knew it was his. I found his story to be interesting as well as many others.
The pianists themselves were interviewed and I found their stories interesting as well. One of the pianists, Harry Connick Jr., said a piano relates to a painting. His analogy of a piano relating to a painting made me realize how the production of a piano truly is like making a piece of amazing art. A lot of hard work goes into it and in comparison to a painting, you can actually play the piano as many times as you would like. The other famous pianists felt the same way. A majority of them said the piano almost speaks to them and that is how they know that the piano is for them. Every piano made is very unique. I thought they all sound the same but after watching the documentary, I found that every piano supplies different sounds and tones. Some are deeper and some play softer keys. Some of the pianists preferred the pianos that played deep sounds and made powerful sounds. Others preferred the ones that offered a calming tone. The way each pianist explained the piano made me think of how different each piano is. It is almost as if no one piano is similar in keys. They all play different tones and give off different powerful sounds.
The wood workers, stringers, tuners, and painters all contributed to the making of the Steinway L1037. The wood workers made sure the pieces were perfectly shaped and used their own talent to make the best shaped piano. The stringers made sure the piano was stringed well and made the perfect sounds. The tuners made sure everything was in synch and the painters made the piano look exquisite. Every one of those workers made what I believe is to be a truly beautiful piano.
Before I watched the movie, I thought making pianos was just a job for people. After I watched it, I realized people truly love what they are doing when they make the pianos. They take great pride in what they have created and consider themselves as true artists.

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Caricatures

During Family Weekend I was worried that I would not be able to find something artistic to write about for my blog. Lucky enough, while walking around downtown Newport, I saw a man doing caricature drawings of customers. I was unable to get a drawing myself because there were other people who wanted to get their caricatures drawn and I prefer watching rather than sitting and being stared at.
My first impression of the artist was not a flattering one. He was poorly dressed and at the corner of a building drawing people who paid for his drawings. Then after a while I realized that artists come from all different areas. The greatest artists don’t always come from the best art school. They could simply be found on the side of the street. I have had many caricatures drawn for myself but this artist, named Jocko, had a truly amazing talent. He included great details that I would never consider including in a caricature that I was drawing. For example, he drew almost all of the details of the Hawaiian style t-shirt that the man was wearing. Usually artists would just do quick and simple drawings for the details of a caricature. I could tell he was putting a lot of effort in his drawing. He obviously wanted to give the couple their money’s worth.
I didn’t stay long to watch the Jocko draw everyone who was waiting but I did stay to watch him draw the couple and little kids. When Jocko was drawing the two pictures, I noticed the shift in attitude and style of drawing. For the couple, they were more patient and willing to sit there and wait for their drawing to be finished. Jocko’s style was more of an elegant caricature that showed more detail and the scenery behind the couple.
When Jocko started drawing the picture of the children, his style and attitude changed drastically. The children were more impatient with their drawing. They constantly stood up and walked over to see what was being draw and they kept kicking their legs. The style of this photo did not have more elegance but it had a playful feeling to it. The children obviously contributed to the playful tone of the drawing but the details that were drawn also contributed to this town. He made the heads way bigger for the children than he did for the previous couple. The scenery of the drawing was not of the river like it was for the previous couple, but it was of toys and a castle. It looked almost as if it was a drawing of Disneyland.
Jocko’s style really makes him a unique artist. He knows how to flatter different kinds of people and has a great sense of detail in all of his caricature drawings. I would have never thought that Newport was an artistic place but he shows that art can be found anywhere. The greatest artists are anywhere and everywhere.

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Isomatic and DJ Chi Chi

Tonight, at Thursday Night Live, I heard what I believe to be the greatest mix of music that I have heard in a long time. From beginning to end there was a wide range of entertainment and different styles that had me zoned in throughout all of the performances. At the beginning of the concert, David a.k.a Toes performed his set of music. He was very entertaining and I loved his music. He played different ranges of artists from John Mayer to Death Cab for Cutie. He was more of a contemporary artist who liked to put a twist to the lyrics of the covers he was singing. My favorite song that David sang was a song that he wrote himself. I don’t remember the name of the song but it had a real effect on me. His friend was in a car accident and had entered a coma for a couple of weeks. During the time of his a coma period, David wrote the song reflecting his memories of his crash.
In my opinion, David showed his greatest artistic skills during his performance. He put his own twist to the lyrics and he also showed how great of a guitarist he was. I have heard many guitarists before but I think David is truly a great guitarist. All of the performances during Thursday Night Live made me think of how each of the artists are truly artistic. All of the performers turned modern songs into something of their own and made the mixed songs truly unique.
Another great performance was from Rachael. She lives on my floor and she is majoring in Music Therapy. She performed the song “Hallelujah” with her own little twist to it. I personally love that song and believe it has a great message to it. It’s a long song and to make it a more beautiful song she added her own personal style to it by adding a couple of extra verses. I listen to the song a lot and know the lyrics by heart but by the way she added her own verse with her own style she truly made the song more beautiful than it initially was. The verse she added was about her own personal mistakes and how she relies on God to get her through her situations. The fact that Rachael didn’t sing the song by herself and that she sang it in a duet made the tone of the song even more calm and soothing.
I think the collaboration between Isomatic and DJ Chi Chi was a very entertaining performance. Isomatic and Chi chi showed their musical talent right at the beginning. I didn’t know that Chi Chi makes his own beats and I didn’t know that Dave Zup, Isomatic, could rap. It was a great collaboration and they both were able to show their talents separately as well as together in collaboration. My favorite song that they performed together is called “Power Freestyle”. I found the lyrics entertaining because Isomatic talks about the power he has as a person and how he can achieve what he sets his mind to. Not only the lyrics but the beat of the music is something that I have never heard before. Usually from the hip hop music you hear today the beat doesn’t seem very exciting because it’s predictable. The different beats and mixes that Isomatic has in his songs really make the song unique and artistic. Another great performance by Isomatic and Chi Chi was the remix of the song “Baby” by Justin Beiber. He kept the beat of the song but made his own lyrics to the song.
All in all, I think all of the performers from the Writing and Arts LLC did a great job. They each brought different styles to the table and showed their own musical talent. From alternative to Christian to rap, there were great performances with great styles. Each artist showed their own style by incorporating their own lyrics and showing the audience what they had to offer.

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Thurday Night Live!!!

On Thursday night my roommate and I were walking toward Art Street. This of course was going to be the first time that we would have ever attended the Thursday Night Live event but I was excited to hear live music from the musically gifted students of UD. When we arrived to the Art Street café I was surprised to see how many people were in the room. All of the chairs and tables were taken up and people were left standing in the back. I walked in, in the middle of the performer’s song, and automatically wondered what I was getting myself into. The first line I had heard from the singer was “Apples and bananas” and in my opinion I believed it was the weirdest song I had ever heard. After that song she decided to play some Taylor Swift and other Folk-like songs.
I was not a big fan of the girl but that was just my personal preferences. I thought the music she played was very different and sometimes harder to understand but other people’s reactions were a lot different than mine. Even though I personally didn’t like her choice of music many others did. After a while, during her performance, I was thinking about the talent and how this all contributes to the artistry of Art Street. Even though the music was totally different than I personally preferred, the singer changed the song into a way that made the song her own. I find it interesting how she could turn a simple pop song into something slower and more folk. To me, she was showing that she liked the current songs that are on the radio, but in a way she made them her own version by changing the tune of the song. Something simple as changing the tune of the song partly changed the meaning of the lyrics as well.
The singer turned the song “Apples and Bananas” from a happy and fast-paced song to a serious tone. I wasn’t really sure if she was trying to make a point to that song or if she just changed the tune because she liked it, but she used her own artistic ability and made it something of her own. Even when she played the Taylor Swift songs it seemed as if she changed the tone from a pop theme to a serious tone and for the first time it seemed as if I actually understood the lyrics for the first time.
After the girl’s performance a boy from a band went up next and it was so loud and hard to understand that I had to leave. I left for a while until it was easier to understand what was being played. In my opinion the previous singer was more talented lyric wise but he was still a good enough performer to show his talent and express himself through music.
I would consider my first Thursday Night Live experience as very different but exciting at the same time. I find it cool how students from Dayton spend their Thursday nights playing the music they’ve been working on and how students gather together to listen to the talent.

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The Meaning Behind the Abstract

Today I took a walk around campus and tried to look for something that I could write about for my blog. I could have simply wrote about the beauty of the flowers or the nice weather that we seemed to have for the day compared to the previous days, but nothing seemed to catch my eye and made me decide to write about it. Of course there were plenty of things to write about but I guess I was just being picky. It wasn’t until I got back to my residence hall when I figured out what I would write about.

The second floor of Founders Hall has plenty of paintings. I think anyone who had seen the paintings before would say that they were painted in an abstract style. When you look at the paintings for the first time, you have no clue what to think of them. Even when you look at them for the second time, you have no clue what to think of them. In my opinion, the paintings seemed to have a lot of meanings that I could not quite understand. Even though the paintings were so complex, it was almost as if I couldn’t turn away from them. They truly make a person curious as to what the message is behind the paintings.

I took a closer look at what I was observing. I noticed the ranges of color and the usage of newspaper and words. The entire time that I was staring at the paintings I kept asking myself, “What am I looking at?” Was the artist trying to convey a certain message to the observer? Are we, the observers, supposed to make up our own message? Is there even a true message behind these paintings?

In the center of each painting there are words written in black and red. Around the words are collages of different newspaper pieces painted over in either red or green. The middle piece has a poem written by Langston Hughes called “A Dream Deferred”. Each piece contains words by the poem written in black and red. What is this supposed to mean?

http://www.cswnet.com/~menamc/langston.htm (Link to “A Dream Deferred”)

Now I’m not exactly the best at decoding the messages behind poems but the furthest I can go with what the painter might be trying to tell the observer is that dreams and words can go away. They can be hidden. The painter’s words are painted over in different colors. You can still read the words but they’re not as visible as they could be. The newspapers are painted over and the poem is painted over. People sometimes overlook the messages within the written works and in the case with the paintings and the poem “A Dream Deferred,” the poem represents any sort of written work and the painting over the poem represents the overlooking of the messages behind the written works.

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