Artist - Alejandro Martinez--Pena

An artist I stumbled on that inspired me is Alejandro Martinez-Pena. His paintings are not pictorial but are very abstract and colorful. His work inspires me to loosen up with my painting and to try and not be so literal and realistic. I was able to relate this to my website project because I was intrigued with the texture and feel of each piece. It reminded me of the grungy, yet colorful backgrounds I have been choosing for my page backgrounds. Most of the backgrounds I've used have been close-up images of rust, paint, water drops, etc.

The website link for this artist is: http://www.martinez-pena.com/page1.htm

http://www.martinez-pena.com/page1.htm

Art Walk Experience - Artist Jacqueline Shaw

On Sunday I attended the Art Walk in Little Italy and was just overwhelmed with the diversity of art and design everywhere. There was so much to look at and so much to take in and it was far better than reviewing art online. One of the artist that caught my attention was Jacqueline Shaw. She is from Mexico and her work is amazing. I find myself being drawn to the style and it appears to me to be somewhat of a grunge painting style and I enjoy it very much.

After viewing her work at the show I came home to check out some of her other works online.
http://www.jacquelineshaw.blogspot.com/

Her work has some surrealism in it but I love the use of various layers of images that are combined to create a mood or perhaps tell a story.

Her work makes me want to pull out my easel and brushes! This summer I will be attending CSU Summer Arts in Fresno and I look forward to painting.

Hearts of Stone

Holy Cow! I attended an artist talk this evening through the Arts & Lectures Series and I was so impressed with the artist's work as well as her talk that I had to go to her website and learn more. The artist, d.goth, paints beautiful pieces of work by painting on broken stones. She either finds naturally broken stones or she breaks them herself but then looks at them to see what she can see within the breaks. They are somewhat of a fresco type painting but are so incredibly beautiful. She has inspired me to try this medium but I was also able to really relate to her artist experience in that she uses art as a therapy and she shares that the art comes out of her. The style also reminded me of the grunge style that I am applying to to the website I am designing for this class. The style is not a clean, "corporate" style but it has a sense of "grunge" appeal. The unplanned and unexpected is what makes the art so beautiful.

Ms. Goth gave her talk and then had everyone join in and paint indivual pieces of abstract art that she will later construct into one large community heart for the "Race for Life" event. Ms. Goth is a poet as well. I encourage you to check out her work. She is a local artist who also gives workshops.

http://www.dgoth.net/

We also discussed the upcoming Art Walk in Little Italy so I plan to attend that as well.
http://www.artwalkonthebay.org/

Grunge Resources

I went searching for backgrounds to use for my webpage and discovered a whole new world of grunge textures and fonts.  I was excited to see that I could upload the fonts to my computer and use them for not only my webpage design for this class but also for other projects I work on.  I'm always drawn to the juxitposition of the grunge look mixed in with a feminine style.

This search also inspired me with my love for photography. I absolutely love to shoot images and can't get enough of it but this search inspired me to start looking at and shooting textures I see.  I didn't realize how absolutely beautiful a rusty pipe could be or a street light pole that has paint chipping away.  This past weekend my husband was redoing some plumbing in our kitchen I zeroed in on the texture, color and beauty of some water drops in our sink that had rust particles mixed in with it.  My husband thought I was nuts when I wanted to pull out my camera.

By reviewing this artwork on the web it has encouraged me to look differently at materials in my everyday life. I'm now starting to see the artistic side of them.

I am also attracted to grunge fonts.  They seem to catch my attention more because they are edgy and realistic looking.  Commercial type fonts often bore me and in some cases can be less effective in communicating their message.

Some of the sites I found helpful are:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/29/grunge-style-in-modern-web-design/

http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/50-most-extreme-free-grunge-fonts

David Carson Web Video Review

In researching information for my graphic design paper I stumbled on a video talk by David Carson. I was so impressed with his talk and his explanations about his style that chose to blog about it. In doing this research I am not only learning about the history of graphic design, learning about particular graphic designers but I am also learning and finally defining who I am as a graphic artist and what appeals to me. I am discovering that I like "dirty typography", that I dislike the commercial, clean corporate look even though it is often called for, and that I like the type of graphic art that is messy yet communciates reality and the true message that is to be conveyed. David Carson showed examples of garage doors that say "no parking" but points out how one of them is more effective than the other. He shows magazine spreads from TIME Magazine that clearly cross boundaries and lose their objectives. He shows spreads that on one side depicts a horrific image of New York on Sept. 11 while the opposite side of the spread depicts a happy, inappropriate image. The line I most respected that Carson says is, "it would have been better to just have a blank page" on the opposite side of the image. It would have been more effective.

To view this awesome video to to: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_carson_on_design.html

A&L Event - Monday, 2/16

We had a wonderful Arts & Lectures event on campus called Ain't I A Woman! last week and it was both entertaining and educational. I was impressed by the the singer/actor named Taylore who dramatically portrayed various African-American women in our history. As she spoke, sang or acted, a core ensemble consisting of a cello player, pianist and percussionist played jazz music in the background. It was uplifting, emotional and very inspirational. The Core Ensemble received a standing ovation from a full house of students and community members. I was pleased to be a part of coordinating this wonderful performance but mostly pleased that I was able to sit in the audience and enjoy it!

Arts & Lectures - Latina Dance Project

Last night I attended our first A&L event of the semester and it was a great way to start off. Four Latina women were our guests and they did a great job of not only educating us but also entertaining an audience of about 140 people. They sang, performed, danced, and spoke about their work. Videos where shared and at the end of the performance we had a Q&A period followed by students getting on stage and learning some of the group's dance moves. Great audience participation and great questions were asked.

The basis for performers art is women in the latina culture and how they seek empowerment. The work was inspired by a cultural myth and then taken to depths that provoke thought and hopefully better understanding. The women wore outragious costumes, rapped music and spoke about topics from plastic surgery to human sacrifice.

Very moving and worthwhile performance and a great teaser for the big performance at MiraCosta on Friday night.