Extra Credit

David Garibaldi

David Garibali performed at the Bovard Auditorium on Monday, March 1st 2010. Garibaldi is a young, new, hip artist with his own show: Rythem and Hue. In this show he combines his love for art and music and creates giant masterpieces in eight minutes or less. If you dont believe me, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Uy5T4x-p4 to see for yourself. These painting are 6 foot portraits of pop icons all done to music and what seems to be in a blink of an eye. At the Bovard Auditorium I had the pleasure to see Garibaldi paint Lady Gaga, Obama, Michel Jackson, and lastly Einstien. What made Einstien so amazing and the reason why I posted the picture was because not only did he do this is 8 minuests but he also did the entire portrait upside down.

Garibaldi is a huge inspiration of mine, and this is the second show of his that I have seen. I can really appreciate the work he does because i do the same type of performance art myself. My one big show was at the Talent show I painted the Joker UPSIDE DOWN as well, in 6 minuets to music and won first place! (my picture shown)

He has a very inspiring show and talks about his hard times growing up in LA and only having illegal Graffiti to express himself. He tells the audience that all you need is passion for your dreams to come true. To prove this, he has started a fund raiser for non profit organizations and has raised over $500,000. It is his goal to reach a million by the time he is thirty. It was an amazing show and I really recommend watching Garibaldi's work but nothing can truly inspire you more than a live performance.

Check Out Steven Heller's new video

Olympic Pictograms Through the Ages

Designer Steven Heller traces the evolution of the tiny symbols for each Olympic sport since their appearance in 1936.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/24/sports/olympics/pictograms-interactive.html?ref=design

Mark Bradford and Rick Lowe: Critical Conversations

extra credit --

This event lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes, but was quite interesting for the most part. Rick Lowe spoke first and gave a powerpoint presentation on various community projects he had contributed to over the years including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. Mark Bradford also gave a powerpoint on his work and focused on a particular project called Prospect 1 that he had contributed to by building an arc in the lower ward 9 of New Orleans. Both speakers focused primarily on the actual going into the community and experiences they had rather than the artwork they displayed there, and both speakers had different approaches of taking their profession to the public sphere. Lowe's focus was a practical one, personalizing the project to the area and the people's needs, noting one of his most successful projects as the one in Houston in which he helped transform rows of small shotgun houses into beautiful living conditions for single mothers. Bradford's artwork in the community differed by his outlook. He was very sensitive to the idea that he was entering a place that was not his own and wanted to be careful that he wasn't viewed as stepping down off his high horse to serve the poor with his artwork. He made a point to get to know all the people near his building site on a personal level, knocking on doors and doing what he could through his art connections to raise money for whatever they needed. The most interesting part was the discussion at the end in which both artists sat at the front of the room and talked about their work and its place in the community. One thing I noticed was how everyone used a high level of academic discourse to ask their questions and to discuss art, but Bradford pointedly tried to avoid that and spoke more simply. His succinct and straightforward remarks made his points and overall message clearer than anyone in the room. Though the two artists have very distinct styles, they both shared beautiful artwork, and helped me view public art in a new light.

beautiful losers

Totally forgot to post this sooner... here's my extra credit:

The event started late because it was raining that day so Aaron Rose was running a little behind so I didn't get to see the end of the movie. The 40 minutes or so that I stayed for were fun to watch but my only problem with it was that it really glorified the 'rockstar' artist life. They are self titled losers but I don't know that I would call them that really-- they are different from the main stream culture, for sure, but by no means are they losers, and the movie makes them out to be super cool... I guess it's all in how they felt. They also seemed to me to be stuck in high school mode- a lot of the stuff they said related to their experiences back in the day. Part of it is that they kept their child-like sensibility that definitely adds to their work. Part of it annoyed me though. I can't quite put a finger on why. Anyways, I thought it was a good film and a lot of those guys are really funny. It was interesting to put a face to the artists and hear what they were about and stuff. Mike Mills was the silliest, I thought, even though he was wearing a suit in a lot of the interviews.
-deb

Journal Making!

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I really enjoyed the journal making workshop! I made this journal for my older sister, Ivana because she's a journalist and loves to write so I knew she could put it to good use:)
Cheers
Diana

Beautiful Losers

On Wednesday February 24, 2010, I attended the exhibition of the documentary Beautiful Losers and heard Aaron Rose speak of his experiences creating the film. Personally, I thought Beautiful Losers was one of the best documentaries I have seen all year even though Rose claims him and his fellow artists had minimal experience in film making. The documentary consisted of artists such as Margaret Kilgallen, Harmony Korine, Geoff McFetridge, Barry McGee, Mike Mills and Stephen Powers II. All these artists depicted their unique and one of a kind styles which varied from acrylic paint to spray paint, and skateboard artwork to political cartoons. My two favorite artists were Stephen powers and Barry McGee because I found their graffiti artwork as an outstanding novelty. I also really enjoyed how down to Earth, vivid and witty the documentary was and yet it also managed to send a powerful message to its viewers and audience on how artwork is an important aspect of society and culture and that every artist should take pride in who they are. Aaron Rose said " what I was trying to do with this documentary was make people want to make cool stuff" and "encourage their friends to keep working on their art." Another interesting fact about the documentary was that the title was not planned ahead of time, rather, Aaron Rose had to think of a title at last minute so he looked at titles of books on his shelf and saw a novel titled "Beautiful Losers" and said "that's it!" Currently, Rose is working on a new film project on the life of Sister Corita, whom Rose claimed some believed Andy Warhol stole her style during their friendship. I am definitely planning on looking into his new film when it is out. Overall, I was glad that I attended this speaker event because walking away from the documentary Beautiful Losers, I feel I have built much more appreciation for valuable artwork.