do you like to be called the black Picasso?

"not really, it's alright but

demeaning"

Basquiat:

made in Brooklyn, New York

poet

grafitti artist

painter

"I cross out words so you can see them, the fact that they are so obscured makes you want to see them more"

I like his work, and it's annoying.

Watching that documentary about him in class made me wonder why everyone loved his work so much, what is it about his work, that has that street grafitti style, so 'high art'?

It's annoying because I like his work too, I'm just like everybody else and I don't know why.

He got so rich so fast, for art that doesn't even necessarily look miraculous, but for some odd reason, we all like it.

Once I figure it out I'll let you know.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri,
made in france.
street photographer.
photo journalist.
painter.
"to take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart..."

home sweet home

trying to relax even though i know i still have homework to do
as per usual, sitting at the bar, listening to spanish radio, smelling the mamas cooking

glad to be home...

really needed this

i wanna do homework, but then again....

http://www.moredesignplease.com/

http://weheartit.com/

wehearit is more distracting than tumblr. wehearit is as if flickr and tumblr had a baby, no joke, you'll see when you click it.

i should probably plan my schedule for summer and fall now.....

25 miles

Jeanne Claude & Christo.

Running Fence, 1972

Learned about this, in a sense community art, yesterday in my art lecture. Just like the community of Sonoma and Marin County I was resilient, but after realizing that the work wasn't just about putting up an 18 foot high nylon fence, but about getting people to work together I opened up a bit more. My favorite part about this fence was not just how it got people to together, but how it moved, swayed, and folded in the ocean. It was just absolutely beautiful.

Christo

Wrapped Coast, 1968

And this. Wow. Didn't discover this till after a little research, but man is it beautiful. The way the white fabric takes on the shape, form, and texture of the rocks, while still holding it's own surface is incredible. And the way it discolors from the earth's everyday practice.

Last semester I was really hesitant to some contemporary art, especially contemporary installations. Sometimes I feel like they're not really art, but now I have acquired a taste for it. they can be so innovative.

As I read on my photo teacher's tumblr:

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see"

I think that's what I've learned these installations do.

It's not about Christo flying into Sonoma from New York trying to make some contemporary art in a small rural farm area for his own sake, it's about giving Sonoma and Marin county something beautiful to look at, and ponder about; the way the fence curves through the miles of empty fields, the way it sways with the wind, the way it folds and moves with the tide...

a common goal to work for.

.I think they saw something they've never seen before.

ty·pog·ra·phy

Thanks Kyle for introducing us to welovetypography.com

it's B5, yeah

Discovered A Take Away Show the end of my junior year, forgotten about it for a bit, came back, can't do homework anymore.

Want to be recorded by them someday, new dream, new 'to do' on my bucket list.

how it began:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R781LDKOVJE&feature=relmfu

so obsessed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Swa9CYgRk

watched on repeat for 2 hours over winter break:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkwxxJE3zcY

i don't want to be the only singer in my band:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1tbX_NJn98&feature=related

-LL

One of my most favorite artist: Lykke Li

Marcus Palmqvist photographs her often: (bottom two pictures) The top two photos are also his work, first is titled Yellow Silhouette and the second Hair.

Browsed his work and I really like it. Here's a video of Lykke Li he helped out with too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFlRkKmTT-A

My dream job: be a photographer for muscians/music artists, maybe be a photographer for a record label?......

God that'd be incredible. I've pondered doing photography for movies, I think that'd be sick, not the steadiest job but that'd be awesome. The set up is already there, I just have to photograph the story, which would be hella fun.

But music above all, my dream job...

day and night

Weird, I don't know if I can believe it, but then again, that Laguna picture does have night lights in the background, but who knows these days, with so much editing possible...

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7395732436243931875

http://gizmodo.com/#!5742383/175-photos-of-day-taken-at-night

My favorite one pictured here. Done by Craig Copelin. I really like that he kept the shutter open, the shot is of his friends catchin up to him on a hike holding lamps, which is how the light streak is created. Craig quotes that he shot this with a Nikkor lense, D3 on a tripod, at F8 for 30 seconds, at f2.8, with 14-24 mm flim.

I really want to try this, hopefully it works with my Fujica on a B setting haha.

reALIze

Muhammad Ali:

Artist Michael Kalish did an art installation of boxer Muhammad Ali using 1,300 punching bags and aluminum and steel. The stainless steel Michael used takes up 5 miles. It took Michael 5 months to build this structure. It will show on March 25 to the public, at the Nokia Plaza in Los Angeles.

jose gonzalez

Happy Birthday Bekki my rekki.
Heartbeats: Jose Gonzalez

/one night to be confused
one night to speed up truth
we had a promise made
four hands and then away/

/both under influence
we had a divine scent
to know what to say
mind is a razor blade/

/to call for hands of above
to lean on
wouldn't be good enough
for me, no/

/one night of magic rush
the start, a simple tough
one night to push and scream
and then relief/

/ten days of perfect tunes
the colors red and blue
we had a promise made
we were in love/

/to call for hands of above
to lean on
wouldn't be good enough
for me, no/

/to call for hands of above
to lean on
wouldn't be good enough/

/and you
you knoew the hand of the devil
and you
kept us awake with wolf's teeth
sharing different heartbeats in one night/

/to call for hands of above
to lean on
wouldn't be good enough
for me, no/

/to call for hands of above
to lean on
wouldn't be good enough/


second time i've done this
heard the lyrics wrong but what i thought i heard was a beautiful line and i end up liking my version better.
he says "sharing different heartbeats in one night"
i thought it was "sharing different heartbeats in one life"

it's exactly like the time I thought Mariah Carey was saying "but if i knew everything i'd never fail" when she was really saying "but i thought i knew everything i never felt"

oh wellsiez.

post.

private moon

Leonid Tishkov and Boris Bendikov: Russian photographers, 2005

leave the house before you find something worth staying in for

After watching Style Wars in my Art 101 class, I feel invigorated to do graffiti art before I die. So it is now on my to do list of things I'd like to accomplish before I die. I've made only one decision about the graffiti art I want to do: that it will be on the ground. That's as much as I am ever going to say. I can tell you why but that's it. One of my best friends from home, no matter where she is, has always sent me pictures and picture texts of graffiti art on the ground she sees, and I the same to her. It's something I've always kept close to my heart, something I've always kept between me and her. The thought of me in a sense crossing her path, though we are apart half the year, is nice. To know I've seen where she's taken a step in the world is something I keep close to me. It makes me feel like we're never apart.

I want whatever graffiti art I decide to do to be a reminder. A reminder of the small things that keep people close together in heart if they can't be together geographically.

Here's to graffiti art and Banksy, for making art that we can cross paths with and that teaches us about our ideals, choices, lives, and the world.

glee glee glee gle-ason

My high school photo teacher is basically one of the biggest factors of truly chiseling me into a photographer, and I think it's because he let me do what I want. He geared my path for a tad bit, but left the creativity and exploration of perspective through a lens to me. He set me free artistically speaking, to the point where I had to create my own voice completely through photography. I accidentely made myself a flickr last summer, and until recently sent my photo teacher the link, which than lead me to catching up on his paintings, and to my surprise, his tumblr. I've seen a handful of his paintings, but some were new. These are some of my favorites, old and new. And here's my flickr for shits and giggles if you're ever bored.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wecutthelegsoffofourpants

I think what Gleason helped with was making me feel okay with weird, or cookoo, or wild and absurd, hence his theme of sharp items like knives in his paintings. Most of what I like to capture are the small things in life and observations made about the world and people, but when it came to projects I needed or wanted to set up, I felt okay with doing something absurd. The projects always helped me interpret what he assigned differently and shoot it in my perspective.

Here is his website for those of you interested in browsing:

http://www.markgleason.net/

It's funny because when I go back to visit him, he talks about how he'd rather teach painting than photography. Nonetheless, his ability to let students literally do whatever the hell they want, was what was helpful, and is the kind of teaching style I'd want and wanted to do if I decide to teach photography.

Busy Bee

This blog thing gets hard somtimes. The fact that I had to blog was constantly over my head, it's not that I'm purposefully leaving it to the last minute, I honestly just didn't. Have. Time. This Sunday is weird, and I've discovered it's beacause it's quiet. Everyone is out watching the superbowl. It's nice to have the room to myself right now though, not have everyone here. When you live in the dorms it's hard to get a chance to breathe alone.

I've been meaning to blog about this since my last blog. But I've recently had two epiphany's both related to my major. This isn't EXACTLY about art I guess, but I haven't shared it with anyone and typing it out even if it's only for me to read still makes me feel like I'm sharing it and voicing it.

Epiphany 1:

My great aunt passed away just before finals this past semester. After my art history final I booked it to her funeral service, but made it only in time for the reception after. Regardless of the short time I was there compared to the rest of my family, it was incredible seeing everyone again, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. By the entrance of the room were poster boards covered with past and present pictures of my great aunt. Old polaroids of her and friends. A black and white photo of her when she was just around 20 years old. Aged photos of her with cousins in Mexico. It was so incredible, just staring at all the photos, sitting with my sister and one of my aunts, talking about who was who, learning more about the family tree, connecting everybody to each other, figuring out how so and so was my aunt and how so and so was my cousin, believe me, when you have a big family it gets hard to keep up. There was one photo though that stood out more than any others I felt.

It sat framed in front of me, at a little alter with more photos of her and flowers. It was of my great aunt and all her kids when they were between 20 and 30 years old. Every single person in the photo was captured in midst of laughter, it was the quintenssence of a Kodak moment. It was as if someone in the photo or the photographer said something funny and everyone began to crack up just as the shutter enclosed that moment forever on a negative.

I couldn't stop staring at the photo. I sat with a fixed gaze on it, and a light somber smile in my eyes. I looked into that picture and saw a happy moment from the past exist today within a frame. It was then that I realized, "photography was the right choice". I came into college wanting to study music, but as great as my passion for music is, it wasn't the same within a system. I couldn't make music competitively, I couldn't make it to be perfect. I make it to vent, express, share, and have fun. I changed my major to photography because it was something I could still love while learning the technical.

Epiphany 2:

Last weekend I drove up home with my sister to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday. All of winter break I spent time going through albums filled with old photos from when my parents were young and we were still little tykes in shirts and a diaper. My sister and I put together an album through shutterfly with old and new photos, mostly old though. To our surprise the album arrived early, just in time for us to wrap it and give it to my mamas when we arrived. My mom loves photos as much as I do. She's always been into putting albums together, taking too many photos, and posing with everyone to have a records of when we were all together.

With a glass of milk and red velvet cake, my mom opened her gift. She couldn't stop smiling while flipping through the pages. You know, that small grin you get on your face, when something just lights your heart, and your eyes are what make the bigger smile? She was so happy with the gift she looked through it a second time, and a third time. The second time we watched as she flipped through it again, and when my sister asked, "Do you like it?" My mom, engaged in the book, replied yes and held back tears.

And that was my second epiphany. Not only did her happiness make the trip so worth while, but seeing my mamas tear up from looking through old pictures of her siblings, parents, kids, and friends, made me again realize why I chose photography and why I love it.

I've discovered this. There are millions of reasons to why I love photos, but with these epiphany's in mind, it's the history. To be able to keep a record of past cherished moments, is what makes photography so beautiful for me. To be able to look back at those cherished moments, places, and people, is something I love being a part of.

I promise the next blog with have something more directly related to art[work] and class. But here's this blog for now.

eyes wide open naked as we came

So I stayed up late like Mau said. Not as late as I can, just till 1am, but nonetheless, still late. I've been wanting to paint my backpack since high school, but I didn't want to just paint anything, I was waiting for something that felt natural. A lot of my art is inspired by music, after all music was and still is my first "art". It's how I express small ideas and notions I see in the world, people, and myself, and a way in which I like to get people to listen to those small things.

Iron and Wine, incase you didn't know, is by far one of the most musically and poetically talented artists I know. Samuel Beam's whispery harmonies and light finger picking intrigue me in a way where I have to listen closely, as if I'm sitting by him while he's jammin' in a dim lit room sitting on a couch, and I'm listening to every lyric like it's a secret. Our Endless Numbered Days is an album you must listen to. I have my favorites on that album, but believe me, that alone took years to figure out. Every song is so crafted and so chiseled, it's impeccably beauitful. Iron and Wine is not for everyone, I know the mellow folk can be depressing sometimes, believe me, but Samuel Beam makes you listen so closely to every word, every chord, as if he's whispering it in your ear. If I wanted to be tatted up, the poetry in that entire album would be all over my freakin' body, but I like leaving some purity to this latte skin of mine. If you have yet to hear his music, listen to Naked As We Came and Love and Some Versus. In my head I'm really telling you to listen to everything he's ever written, including his cover of Postal Service's "Such Great Heights", but I'll leave that choice up to you.

I couldn't be more happy with my finally painted backpack. It just feels so right. A toast, to Samuel Beam, who is literally at the moment performing at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, but I'm not there. My friend says I think about fate too much, but here I'am coincidentally writing about my love for Iron and Wine whilst he plays a show 30 minutes away. If I'm such a fan how come I'm not there right now? As per use, I waited much too long to get tickets, thinking Santa would graciously wrap them in an envelope, but if the stars have it aligned, I will hear Sam sing "eyes wide open, naked as we came" in person, and till that day, I have his vinyls and cd's.

Numero Uno

First trial post. Fingers crossed. Corn is in everything.