Wk15- Artist Interview- Hyeri Kim

I am so happy to have my last week’s post about Hyeri Kim’s jewelry exhibition because the last jewelry exhibit was by far one of my favorites, so I was extremely excited to see more amazing jewelry pieces. Hyeri has such a craft for making jewelry and I loved the intricate designs and materials used to make each piece. Hyeri certainly has an eye for design, and since the exhibit was a resemblance of a wedding, the dress she designed and pieces to go with it were simply amazing. My favorite part of the dress was the tiny pieces of gold sheeting inside of the fabric of the sleeves. The dress was simply divine and I love that she chose a nice shade of green and pearls to accentuate the design of the dress. I also like that she used some diamonds to accent the medal plate of the necklace, giving the overall pearl necklace a very 1920s, Great Gatsby charm to it. I wish I got to take one of the jewelry pieces home with me, especially the diamond ring, which was probably my favorite piece from the whole exhibit because of its elegance and meaning of purity, symbolizing a whole new beginning with marriage. I can only imagine what other pieces Hyeri has to offer and hope she makes it in the jewelry business one day. I would defiantly buy one of her pieces! (:

Artist Tag: hyerikim

Wk 15- Student Interview- Salina Chavez

For my final week of student interviews, I ended my semester by meeting one of the most influential interviewees I have met this semester, Salina Chavez. Salina is a third year who is currently studying in Child Development, with a minor in Recreation. Upon meeting Salina, I could tell almost immediately that she was a serious student with high ambitions. One thing that I have learned as a freshman at CSULB, is the dedication that students have towards their academics and life long career goals, something you never really got to see too often in a high school setting. Salina dedicates her time as an assistant director at the YMCA in Long Beach helping children ranging from Kindergarten to 2nd grade with homework as well as engaging them in recreational activities in between. While she’s not involved at school or the YMCA, Salina enjoys hanging out with her family and friends, and engaging in any type of sports since she is a fan of all types of sports. Something that was quite interesting to learn about Salina was that she has 7 tattoos. I asked for her to explain the level of pain she went through while getting the tattoos. (Ouch!) To my dismay, the one that hurt the least was the small tattoo on behind her ear, the one that hurt the most was a small paw tattoo she had on hand between her thumb and index finger. I couldn’t have been happier to have interviewed Salina and I wish her the best in her upcoming studies and her goal to become the head director at the YMCA. Good luck Salina! (:

Tag: salinachavez2110.com

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Wk 13- Student Interview- Marlene Gonzalez

This week I interviewed Marlene Gonzalez, a third year with a major in child development. I think Marlene is by far my favorite interviewee because she was so nice and we got to talking and getting to know each other. Marlene and I shared a lot in common including are interest in American Top 40 radio, Bruno Mars being one of our favorite singers, and are love for Italian food. Yum! Before coming to CSULB, Marlene was on a swim team. Since one of my favorite things to do is travel, I asked Marlene if she and her family do any traveling and was surprised to learn that every summer she and her family enjoy traveling to Mexico, visiting the Caribbean and Cancun. Sharing some of my travel experiences, I was happy to know that ore of her dream vacations in to Greece. When I visited Greece I absolutely loved it so I recommended some fun things to do and some of the site seeing she should do when she gets the opportunity to go there. Marlene also shared that she has an appreciation for jazz music since her boyfriend and her dad enjoy listening to it. Marlene has so many interesting passions, one of them being to travel to Greece and parts of Africa and learn more about these countries and how they differentiate from the other. Marlene was a pleasure to interview and I hope to one day see in her blogs some of her experiences traveling and meeting new people. I wish nothing but the best for her and hope she accomplishes all her goals.

Interview Tag: gonmarlene.wordpress.com

Wk13- Artist Interview- Brittnee Forline

Observing Brittnee Forine’s collection of hand crafted jewelry, I couldn’t help but be amazed my the craftsmanship being them and the incredible detail in each piece. Almost immediately, I could sense that Brittnee had been influenced by cinematic jewelry that you might see in films such as The Lord of the Rings. My favorite piece from her collection was the crown. I loved that it wasn’t oversized and had such a nice color too it, it reminded me of medieval times. The necklaces were also very intricate and detailed and displayed character that distinguished one piece from the other. I also loved the little cup with the Tiffany blue tinge and the gold plating around it. This was also right up there with my favorite pieces from the show as it showed such beauty and simplicity, using color brilliantly to speak for the piece as a whole. I then go to the display that displayed a bracelet that displayed Brittnee’s influence of The Lord of the Rings, using a map of Mordor as the template and basis for design for the bracelet. I absolutely loved everything about Brittnee’s Finifugal show, it was fresh, new, and innovative, and I enjoyed every part of it.

Artist Tag: Brittnee Forline

Wk12- Student Interview- Alonzo Urita

This week, I got the great pleasure of meeting Alonzo Urita in my Art 110 class. Alonzo was super sweet and was gracious enough to help me conduct an interview since everyone seemed to be partnered up. To mix the interview up a little, I found some interesting and fun questions to ask that required some out of the box thinking than average questions. To ease into the more out of the box questions, I first learned that Alonzo is currently a freshman student who is currently a mechanical engineering major. Alonzo also has 4 siblings, a brother and three sisters and commutes to school daily from Southgate. I then began asking the new questions I had acquired and first asked if he could try any job for a day what would it be. Alonzo replied with being a film producer with came to a great surprise since I am a film major. I asked why he would choose this job and he responded by saying that he had an interest in film and graphic design, something I found to be very cool! I also asked if he could have a movie made about his life, who would he want to play himself and he responded with Jake T Austin, a very fitting choice since not only is Jake T Austin an amazing actor, he also looks a lot like Alonzo! (: Active in many clubs and school sports in high school, Alonzo is incredibly involved in academics as well as extracurricular activities. It was truly a pleasure to meet Alonzo and I got to learn a lot about him. I will defiantly use these questions in future interviews, they make each interview different, mixing up the process and adding a little more fun and flare to each answer.

Artist Tag: alonzourita.com

Wk12- Artist Interview- Angie Samblotte & Lacy McCune

Angie Samblotte and Lacy McCune’s Taking My Time in the Paradigm art show is one of the most interesting and innovative galleries I have seen at the CSULB art galleries by far. I enjoyed every piece and thought they offered a unique personality. My favorite of the gallery was the Engrained installation which consisted of 19 slices of basswood that contained a burning and acrylic drawing on each slice. i found this piece to be one of the drawing points of the gallery as one might not think to make a load of bread into an art piece using wood and burning techniques. Although I’m not entirely sure what the engraved drawings represent, they were truly amazing and very unique in design. It’s nice to see artists use a skill that not many know, this begin the craft of woodwork and burning. I also liked the double entendre that Angie and Lacy utilized to name their piece, the “grain” representing the grain used in bread as well as the grain that was used to engrave each slice. Personally, I love when artists have “odd” pieces in their gallery because it distinguishes their art from others, making these types of pieces more memorable and special to the viewer. I wish I had a large budget because I would have loved to purchase this piece because it immediately stood out to me and I absolutely loved the idea behind it.

Artist Tag: dutzi-gallery

Wk11-Activity-My Choice (Resin)

This week I chose to challenge myself and use resin as a medium of art. However, learning how to use Resin wasn’t as easy as I and anticipated. Since my dad is a part time artist, I thought it would be a great opportunity for both of us to learn how to make resin models. Our initial goal was to make a giant gummy bear with clay skeletal anatomy inside and submerge it into the colored resin mixture. Resin surprisingly has a lot to do with chemicals and is one of those art projects that is an exact science. We learned very quickly what to do and what not to do when making the resin mixture! We first started with the front of the gummy bear mold by placing the skeleton pieces into the mold and then filling the mold with the resin solution. Resin models take about 12 hours to fully cure and be able to remove. Subsequently, the first resin model didn’t come out as planned and we were a bit disappointed with our results. However, my dad and I recovered and went back to the drawing board to see what we could do with what we had. Carefully removing the pieces, we used the backside of the gummy bear mold and placed the skeletal pieces inside. So instead of a full gummy bear, we used the remaining clay pieces and turned it into a Day of the Dead looking gummy bear, exposing the skeletal pieces. Our initial idea may have not tuned out as expected, but overall it was an interesting learning experience since the art of resin was new to both of us. Overall, I thought our project ended up looking cool, and a bit different than your average cute gummy bear. Dressing it up with a few sugar skulls and some marigolds, I think this piece offers something new, different, and a bit interesting.

Wk11- Student Interview-

For Week 11, I was able to make new friends with Melanie Colli, a third year who is currently pursing a degree in screenwriting. As a film major, you can imagine my excitement meeting someone in my major! I was eager to know Melanie wanted to pursue a career in film and was intrigued to know that she found her path in screenwriting by writing short stories and reading popular anime and manga books. Melanie’s career passion is to write and create story lines and further develop video games, such as a Disney game. After exchanging interests in film we also shared our interests in other fields such as drawing and why we both appreciated and participated in art projects. Melanie also shares an interest in Korean music, Japanese music, and Punk Rock music; as a fan of all genres of music, I can appreciate Melanie’s eccentric taste in music! Overall, it was a pleasure to meet Melanie and I hope to see her name on the big screen when she pursues a career in screenwriting! (:

Interview Tag: melaniecolli.com

Wk11- Artist Interview- Wesley Hicks

Observing Welsley Hick’s several art pieces, I couldn’t be more intrigues by the shape, color, and detail of each piece. None of the pieces were the same as they all seemingly displayed a different trait. My favorite of the art pieces was the 4 square pieces that had different 3 dimensional parts that studded each clay square, reminding me of little pins that studded clothing. I also loved the piece that looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics.  I love Egyptian history so seeing these pieces was really cool. I think each piece has its own character that allowed any audience to interpret what it meant and what it was. Wesley has a certain character to his work that reminds me of science fiction movies. If Wesley ever gets the chance, I think he should pursue a career in set design, his ability to interpret shapes into art pieces is amazing and would be quite useful in a science fiction design.

Artist Tag: WesleyHicks

 

Wk10- Activity – Photography (Landscape with a Corpse)

This week’s activity was super fun and I loved that it was the topic of photography again. I absolutely love photography and love playing around with color, shape, and design. At first I was going to do a generic “death” scene but I figured if this week’s theme was photography, I should take advantage of it. Since this week was Halloween I was inspired to do a theme using simple but effective costuming and design. With the help of my roommate and some props, I was able to create a beautiful scene using the theme of Disney Princesses. Playing on the deaths of the famous Disney Princesses, I recreated the scenes in a much more modern setting, using costuming and locations to set the tone. Since my roommate had a really pretty blue dress, I asked if she would help me with my project while I took the pictures myself. Living in a dorm, Im a little limited to resources but I made due with what I had and it actually turned out really well! I chose to do a Snow White and Cinderella theme. Using an apple and a really pretty flour planter, I had my roommate Deana position herself like she was draped over a well that can be seen in the Snow White movie. With the dew studded grass and vibrant blue color of her dress, I think the shots came out amazing and really pretty. Overall, I am extremely happy with how this photo shoot came out and actually hope to further develop my Disney theme. Below are three shots from the Snow White scene.