Wk 15 – Classmate Conversation – Enrique Plascencia

Enrique Plascencia is a senior here at California State University Long Beach. Enrique is planning on graduation with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. During his free time, Enrique enjoys drawing, playing video games, spending time with friends, and ultimately learning more about art. He says that he has really enjoyed the art program here at Long Beach State and feels that it has helped him find a new direction in his art. If Enrique had to pick a favorite food, he said it would probably be pizza, but he likes anything with bread like sandwiches. Asked if he could be any animal and why, Enrique said he thinks it would be cool to become a cheetah or a bird because of the freedom. His dream job is be able to sell his artwork and make a living off of it.

Wk 14 – Art Experience – Sketching in the Garden

For this week’s art experience, we went to the Japanese garden and sketched. I thought this activity was very relaxing and fun. Being an engineering major, it’s not often where I get to draw and sketch for class credit. The most time consuming pieces for me where the abstract sketches, but they were also the most fun to do.

Week 14 – Activity Feedback

My 3 favorite activities:

• Wk 7 – Group Video Activity. This was one of my favorites because I enjoy making skits and working with other people in group projects.
• Wk 4 – Graffiti Writing. This was a very fun art experience in my opinion because people make graffiti writing look so easy, but you don’t realize how difficult it is until you try it for yourself.
• Wk 3 – Snapchat. I love how you can take a picture of a lifeless scene and bring it to life with snapchat drawing. This activity really made you think about how you composed a picture because it would either make or break your drawings

My 3 least favorite activities:

• Wk 5 – Cuisine, Couture or Coiffure. This was one of my least favorites because being a dormer without a car, I had limited access to resources that would help me with this art experience. On the contrary, I feel my opinion is of the minority and I can also see how this activity could be very enjoyable for people.
• Wk 8 – Automatic Drawing. This activity was definitely interesting, but compared to the other activities I found this one very lackluster. It could just be because I didn’t spend enough time on the drawing.
• Wk 2 – Plaster Casting. Since I was unable to go to the beach with the class, I found it rather difficult gathering all of the materials to do this on my own. Other than that, I thought this art experience was a fun and well documented one.

I think that this class was overall a fun experience and pretty easy. What I think could make this class better would be to restructure what we did on Tuesdays where we would usually talk about two artists and compare them. I found it interesting learning about the artists, but I didn’t retain a lot of the information from those days.

Wk 13 – Classmate Conversation – Andrew Andrade

Andrew Andrade is a second year here at California State University Long Beach. Andrew is a Political Science major from Long Beach. He has lived here in SoCal his whole life and commutes to school every day. His dream job is to become an attorney dealing with criminal and civil law. After he graduates from CSULB, he wants to go to law school. Some of Andrew’s hobbies is relaxing and spending time with his loved ones. His top three favorite foods are Mexican, Korean bbq, and Japanese. Asked if he could be any animal and why, he responded with saying he would want to be a tiger because it represents a defender from evil spirits and outside forces.

Wk 13 – Artists Conversation – Nick Bamford

Artist: Nick Bamford

Exhibition: No name

Gallery: Gatov East

Media: Plastic, Cement, Foams, Plaster, Wood

Website: Artist has no website

IG: @nickbamf4d

Nick Bamford is an under graduate student here at California State University Long Beach on his final year. He will be getting his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Ceramics. Nick grew up in Huntington Beach and has always enjoyed art. On the contrary, he has a younger sister who does not enjoy art and is an accountant. During his free time, you can find Nick either playing his guitar or working on art. He says that art takes up most of his free time, but he enjoys doing it a lot.

Nick’s art work is very chaotic yet inspiring. It is very interesting because a lot of the pieces in his sculptures glow because of the black lights. Because of the chaos and how everything was oriented, I feel as if the artwork was inspired by the movie Mad Max. The sculptures give off an apocalyptic flare, as if they were the result from an artist giving their interpretation of the chaotic mess that could follow an apocalypse or a war.

Nick’s inspiration was to do something that other people were not doing. I can say that he definitely achieved this because his exhibition was something I have yet to see before here at Long Beach. He said that he tried to use personal objects from his own life within his sculptures. He also states that he wanted to leave the meaning of the sculptures up for interpretation for the viewer.

Nick’s art work means many things to me. To start off, it reminds me of the movie Mad Max and the chaos of the rebel like society that uses scrap to make anything work. Next, the bright neon colors in his sculptures resonate with a feeling that makes me happy and excited. Lastly, his sculptures feature some skulls which makes me take a step back and really think what they mean. It made me think that the sculptures portray all of the sad and happy times we have, whether it be fun times like watching a movie, or sad times like going shopping or having to cope with the death of someone.

Wk 12 – Classmate Conversation – John Stouras

John Stouras is a first year here at California State University Long Beach. John is a film major from the bay area and said that he came to southern California to experience the “culture” that Los Angeles has to offer. Asked if he could be any animal he wanted and why, John responded that he would be some sort of bird because of the freedom it entails. In his free time, he enjoys watching basketball. Coming from the bay area, his favorite basketball team are the Golden State Warriors.

Wk 12 – Artist Conversation – Jennifer Chen

Artist: Jennifer Chen

Exhibition: SUCCESSION

Gallery: Gatov East

Media: Digital Print

Website: Artist has no website

Instagram: Artist has no Instagram

Jennifer Chen is a graduate student here at California State University Long Beach on her final year. She will be getting her Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking. Jennifer has a bachelor’s degree of science in biology. She has experienced working in many environments ranging from big corporations to small companies. One of the biggest things she worked as was helping people. Since then she came back to get her MFA in Printmaking. She is teaching art 270 next fall here at CSULB and hopes to continue teaching after that.

Jennifer’s work is very fascinating. It incorporates perspectives gained from google maps and photography into one art work. Some of her pieces are a lot larger than others which helps give a perspective of how big the landscape is. The exclusion of most manmade objects help show the beauty of the trees and all nature within the pictures.

Jennifer says that she tried to incorporate rudimentary qualities in her artwork. She used photography combined with google map stencils to accomplish this. She said a lot of the bigger pieces took longer to mask with stencils, but the size of these bigger pieces helped show perspective and some gestures. Most of her artwork also showcased the nature in the landscape exclusively.

While the meaning behind this artwork may not be apparent right away, I believe there is a deeper meaning behind it. Since the artwork showcases the nature and not the manmade objects, I believe the message is that we our changing our environment. I agree with this perspective of the artwork because I do personally believe that we are changing our environment, for the better or worst. With concerns with global warming being a controversial topic right now, these art pieces are very relevant.

Wk 11 – Art Experience – Turning Pages

In my opinion, I believe the best way to document ephemeral experiences like Turning Pages is through pictures or writing. Words can help revitalize an old memory or help spark a new fantasy. It is said that a picture is worth one thousand words. Pictures can help capture a moment in time and remind someone of their past or something they have not experienced. I do believe style does matter. If a writing is less precise or leaves blank spaces, it is up to the viewer for interpretation, versus if the writing was very descriptive, it would give a very good visual for the reader. For photos, there are many ways to control the observer’s perspective. Such as controlling field of view, shutter speed, how light or dark the picture is, etc. Or on the contrary, you could leave the picture bare and open for interpretation. I do believe that trying to document an experience somewhat takes you out of the experience, but documenting it allows others to also experience what you did. From my experience, taking photos on a trip or vacation does take me out of the experience a little. But when I go back to look at the photos, they mean so much more to me because of the memories they bring back and how real they seem.

I felt that taking pictures in the book store was a lot more welcomed and we did not have to be as secretive about it. I thought this activity was interesting and the thoughts that came along with it. In our everyday college student lives, we don’t really ask ourselves these types of questions, or at least I don’t. I couldn’t say I really have any new insights about the nature of spaces, books, or education besides the fact that as the times are changing, so are these spaces.

Wk 10 – Art Experience – Instagram

Wk 10 – Classmate Conversation – Leon Phung

Leon Phung is a second year here at California State University Long Beach. Leon is a civil engineering major and would like to one day become a building inspector. Leon’s favorite food is steak that he cooked himself. Asked if he could be any animal he wanted and why, Leon’s response with saying he would want to be a lion because it is similar to his name. Leon enjoys cars and during his free time he enjoys cruising around and spending times with his friends in his car.