Wk 15-Classmate Conversation-John Stouras

For this last classmate conversation, I had the pleasure of meeting John Stouras. John is currently a freshman here at Long Beach State and he’s planning on majoring in Film. He’s originally from Santa Cruz but is now living in Long Beach. When asking him what he likes to do in his free time, he said he likes to play sports, such as basketball and football.His favorite basketball team is the Golden State Warriors and his favorite hockey team is the San Jose Sharks. An interesting fact about John is that he used to work at Apple! Overall, it was great getting to know John and I hope to see him around next semester.

John Stouras-https://greekishblog.wordpress.com

Wk 15-Artist Conversation-Nancy Young

Artist: Nancy Young

Exhibition: As The Crow Flies

Media: Printmaking

Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Dutzi Gallery

Website: N/A

yInstagram: N/A

About the Artist

For this week’s artist conversation, I had the pleasure of speaking with Nancy Young. Nancy will be graduating this upcoming semester with a BFA in printmaking here at Long Beach State. She is originally from Costa Mesa, and commutes to Long Beach to come to school. As of right now, she is still unsure as to where she wants to go for her Masters once she graduates, but is extremely intrigued by different types of printmaking. When asking her what she likes to do besides art, she responded by saying she really enjoys music, and she plans to get a herd of dogs one day.

Formal Analysis

For myself, when looking at Nancy’s work, it is simple but very detailed in many aspects. She uses a lot of different techniques that many people don’t see artwork done usually and that’s what I liked most about it. The media she used was printmaking and all the different types of printmaking there is, for example, intaglio, relief, lithography, serigraphy, and mono print. The line work on the majority of her pieces are quite jagged and abrupt.

Content Analysis

When talking to Nancy she made it clear that almost all of the work in the show was new pieces that she made exclusively for the show and they weren’t previous pieces from past semesters. She did this so that her show would have a cohesive aspect to it. The main theme throughout her exhibit is that it deals with how far each crow is from Long Beach.

My Experience

I really enjoyed speaking to Nancy because she was an open book. She was very eager to tell you all about her work and it was easy to tell that she absolutely loves what she does, and that was very inspiring to see. I loved how she started this show from scratch and didn’t take the easy way out  by putting old pieces into it.

Wk 14-Sketching in the Garden

For this week’s art experience, our class to a mini field trip to the Japanese Gardens and were asked to draw 6 photos and take 6 photos. For myself, sitting in the garden was extremely peaceful itself but having to draw really make me anxious. I’m not the best artist but I’m an extreme perfectionist so the fact that they wouldn’t come out looking perfect really bothered me. As far as taking the pictures, I really liked that because I love photography so that was a nice part of the experience.

Wk 13-Art Experience-Art Care Package

This week’s art experience was an Art Care Package. When putting together my ACP I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do in the beginning. So what I did was went on to her blog and found out that she seemed to be a really hard worker. So, in my ACP I wrote Lorena a handwritten note and a friendship bracelet for her to keep and do whatever she wants with. One of the questions that really interested me was, “How is sending someone an ACP similar to sending someone a Snapchat?” When I first read it I thought to myself, absolutely nothing. But if you think about it, they’re both an item that you send to someone and they get the opportunity to open it and look at it. The only difference is that a Snapchat is either a picture or a video while an ACP is an actually item. Overall, this art experience was interesting and I can’t wait to see what I get in the mail. 

Wk 13-Classmate Conversation-Danielle Dallas

For this week’s classmate conversation, I had the pleasure of talking to our honorary student Danielle Dallas. Danielle is currently a communications major with a minor in marketing here at Long Beach State. With that, she wants to join a big company and work on their marketing, public relations, and advertising. In her spare time, Danielle likes to hang out with her friends, take long walks on the beach, and play her ukulele. When asking why she chose Long Beach, she said that it was the only school that she visited that made her feel at home. Overall, I loved talking to Danielle and I hope I get to talk to her more as the semester is ending!

Wk 13-Artist Conversation-Ihab Ali

Artist: Ihab Ali

Exhibition:Eyewitness

Media: dry wall, car, black sheeting

Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Marilyn Werby Gallery

Website: N/A

Instagram: ihabali

About the Artist:

Ihab came from Damascus, where he originally lived for 14 years before coming to America. For the artwork we saw this week, it was his senior show. Surprisingly, Ihab is a ceramic artist with a BFA in ceramics, but his senior show had no ceramics in it at all. In his free time, Ihab doesn’t really do anything else but art. He said that in whatever spare time he has, he goes to the studio to work on his art. The most prominent idea that his work explores is memories back from Syria, and trying to demonstrate to Western Culture what it’s like.

Formal Analysis:

For this show, a lot of different pieces went into it. To list a few, there was dry wall, burlap, black sheeting, and even a real car. When entering the show, it was pretty scary feeling, dark and mysterious even. Ihab tried to portray memories and flashbacks he had back from his homeland. The artwork was very striking and caught your attention right from the beginning.

Content Analysis:

Before I spoke to Ihab, I first walked through the exhibit and was kind of lost as to what it meant as a whole. However, after speaking to him, I walked back through the exhibit and understood it 100 times better! Ihab really wanted to portray what it was like back in his homeland and to bring it to Western Culture. When asking him to describe his exhibit to us, he called it a “theatrical piece of reality that portrays poverty, destruction, and abandonment.”

Synthesis:

For myself, I really enjoyed Ihab’s show because I don’t meet too many middle eastern people here at Long Beach. I’m 25% Iranian so I was really interested in what Ihab had to say about his time back in his homeland. Although I have never actually been to the middle east, my dad and grandpa have told me stories about what it’s like there and some of what Ihab said resonated with me. I really connected with him when he said that people are quick to judge middle eastern people in America and how they automatically attach stereotypes to us. I can relate to this not only in the way that I’m middle eastern but I’m also on the cheer team, so many people assume that I’m dumb or not athletic at all, when that obviously isn’t the case. Overall, Ihab’s exhibit has been my favorite up to this date.

Wk 12-Art Experience-Location Based Gaming

For this week’s art experience, we had to do Location Based Gaming. At first, I was really excited to try this out to see what I could find. However, when it came down to it, I tried three different Geocaches and I was unable to find any of them. I was pretty disappointed, but I want to keep the game and try it out again some other time, maybe in Long Beach and not by my house. However, I did place my own treasure and hope it will be more successful.

Wk 12-Classmate Conversation-Jayson Fields

This week I had the pleasure of talking to Jayson Fields. When speaking to him, I learned that he’s on the club volleyball team here at Long Beach State. He is currently a second year and an athletic training major and absolutely loves it. In his free time, Jayson spends a lot of time working out and running whenever he gets the chance. He also loves watching basketball and football on his lazy days. When asking him why he chose Long Beach State, he said that it was close to home and had an amazing athletic training program! Jason is an amazing person overall and I hope everyone gets the opportunity to meet him!

Website: https://jaysonfields.wordpress.com

Wk 12-Artist Conversation-Jennifer Chen

Artist: Jennifer Chen

Exhibition:  SUCCESSION

Media: Printmaking and Digital Prints

Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Gatov Gallery West

Website: N/A

Instagram: N/A

About the Artist:

For this week’s artist conversation, I had the pleasure of meeting Jennifer Chen. To the class’ surprise, Jennifer’s undergrad was done in Biology, but she is now in her last year trying to obtain her Masters in Fine Arts. Outside of art, her interests are wide-ranging and she says that some of her artwork reflects that in the way that it merges her love for science and art. Her plans after she graduates is to hopefully teach a class here at Long Beach State. Her artwork explores the idea of succession, which is an ecology term, which describes after a disturbance in a landscape and how it changes.

Formal Analysis:

For Jennifer’s artwork, her main media is printmaking and digital prints. Some of her pieces have an unique texture in the way that they don’t lay flat on the paper, and it’s levitated above. There’s another piece that is pink and makes a very bold statement because of the drastic changes in colors. Overall, I think that most of Jennifer’s pieces have jagged lines that speak loudly in the gallery.

Content Analysis:

Before speaking to Jennifer, I walked around and looked at her artwork first. And after speaking to her, it was clear that her thoughts and her artwork connected. Her background in biology was evident in the way that she demonstrated the environment, and how she spoke of the macro and microscopic aspects of it.

My Experience:

Personally, Jennifer Chen’s background connected with me the most. For myself, I’m a chemistry major and have always had an interest in photography but never thought about pursuing it. After listening to Jennifer, I realize that it’s possible to do both and don’t have to pick just one.