Una Ardillita

Will she do it?! Stay tuned!

Luminaria

I don't think I posted a blog on Luminaria but I think I should! It was a lot of fun, first of all haha. The weather was amazing! I want to thank Leslie and Joseph (I believe that was his name!!) for helping me out with the set up and everything. I'm really bummed that his projector was stolen though! :( But yes. It was very interesting. I don't think I was prepared! I had my two digital paintings up and most people really enjoyed the male rabbit. Many asked me if I had any cards or a website but... I didn't! Boo. Many people took pictures but I didn't get to take any because my phone sucks haha! If you guys have any pictures from that night, I would love to have copies! I did wander around and looked at other people's works. There were so many wonderful pieces! I particularly liked the clean and precise square frames with the words that would appear as you moved. I don't remember the artist (boo!) but I really liked it because from far away, it just looks like different colored boxes, but up close, there are phrases and words that appear and disappear as you move from one side of a box to another. I wish I could have seen more of the performances though! We were mainly inside keeping people from creating their own "entrances" through the curtains. I didn't get any negative comments, at least not to my face, which I kinda didn't like. I don't know! I wish I had more constructive criticism from people but it's ok I suppose since most of them were "lay" people. Oh! And I met the former mayor, Mr. Phil Hardberger! But... since I'm weird and out of the loop, I didn't realize he was the former mayor until my boyfriend told me! Hahah!! So awkward... lol

Short Films

Haha! I really enjoyed all of the short films we saw last Monday! Although I didn't understand all of them, they all kept my interest. My favorite one was The Astronomer's Dream by Malcom Sutherland (of course!). I know that animation is very popular but I am almost always drawn to it. No pun intended. Ha!.. It's just so imaginative and fun! I think I giggled throughout the whole piece. I really liked the drawing style and the little city inside the spaceman ship. It reminded me of ancient Central and South American civilizations. Another short film I was drawn to is 200,000 Phantoms by Jean-Gabriel Périot. Its eerie photographs and poem about Hiroshima made me feel sick to my stomach but at the same time a little confused. I like the Japanese culture and all the Japanese people I know are very nice but I still know what they did to other countries, to prisoners of war, and to their own people. I know our country is far from perfect but our screw ups, as far as I know, are in our textbooks. We remember what we did to others so that we can some how reconcile. Japan tortured, raped, and killed many people in the neighboring countries, including Korea and China, and yet they fail to mention this in their textbooks and they have not, to this day, formally apologized for their war crimes. But. Even though they have not reconciled, I don't think they deserved what happened in Hiroshima. It was, in hind-sight, a quick way to stop the war. But it destroyed so many lives!! It makes me so upset. Anyway. Those were the films I was attracted to the most. I did enjoy the other ones as well though!

Weebly

http://milkpop.weebly.com/

:)

Alternative Ink

So the trip to Alternative Ink was very interested! I would like to thank Leslie and Gary for the rides to and from! (I hope I got his name right! I am not very good at names...) The location is a little tricky to find but since it is a private studio, I think the location is apt! I was very surprise to see the digital prints of the paintings, etchings, sculptures, and photographs on the wall! A few I recognized like Vincent Valdez's painting of his brother. It was just fascinated by the level of detail they could achieve. I was so impressed with the Great American Hen etching (I think that's what it was called). It was so detailed and since it was an etching, it has to be clean and precise. It fooled me! I didn't know it was a digital photograph of one. Oh and the equipment!! I told my parent about it when I got home. A 1200 megapixel (1.2 gigapixel?) camera! I wish I had one haha. I really enjoyed the print of the currency. Foreign money really is so intricate and beautiful and they captured every line and color perfectly. I have to say, I am not too keen on glossy paper, but I would love to have something printed by them! I also really really liked the tapestry they showed us. Well, it was a print of a tapestry. This woman had sewn this piece and they photographed it there. The print looks like it's fabric. It's printed on paper but it is so convincing. I really enjoyed being there and learning so many new things! Oh and I just learned that Chuck is part of the board of directors to SRISA, the school I went to in Italy over the summer.

Sala Diaz

Ok~~ James Dunn and I had a little adventure! As we approached Sala Diaz, we were greeted by a pair of pitbulls. No one was inside and the door was locked so we had to inconvenience the neighbor a little. But we did end up watching the videos! They were very interesting and humorous lol. I appreciate that they were chronological and given the time they were filmed, the effects, like when he stops and replaces the image, were impressive. I really enjoyed the Black Tower video. It was so creepy and funny at the same time. It really held my attention I think, more than the others. It was about a man who is paranoid because this black tower is appearing all around London. He hides in his house avoiding the tower and ends up practically starving himself to the point of medical intervention. He then leaves to the countryside where the tower also follows and he ends up entering the tower. He then is dead and a female narrator takes over, noticing the tower after visiting the character's grave. So creepy!! The Slow Glass was very philosophical and I liked the metaphor of the glass being liquid and moving slowly, just as things around us change slowing with time. I thought it was a little too slow for me and I think that was the point. The Girl Chewing Gum reminded me of when I was a kid and we would mute the sound of our favorite children's movies, and make up the dialog and story. The World Association was very interesting and I found that I focused more when the word and the pictures came up together. It was very clever, like when "perfect" would come up, a cat would appear because it "purrs". Haha! It was very fun! I did enjoy John Smith's films. :>

It's 7:00AM

And I am done! I will print it out today so that I will definitely have it all ready by Monday! :D

EDIT: The VRC said I have to print it on Monday cause they weren't printing Thurs after 3... :(