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Public Art Theft

Public Art Theft

The video posted above is a great example of where vandalism and public art exist in tension with one another - and potentially conflict.

"The History of Loss" is a public art King Edward Station on the Canada Line in Vancouver, Canada. The piece is a $250,000 piece of art work, and is essentially a display case for many small replicas of VW beetles.

Because of the theft, the insurance company whom has insured the piece is saying that the risk may be too high for repeat thefts because of the nature of the piece. They are saying that it is probably the result of a prank - though I like to think that it was an avid VW fanboy who is pleased that he has a piece of VW for himself!

The Art of Eating

This past Thanksgiving I, like many other people, ate way more than I normally eat. As great as everything was, I was literally miserable for two days afterwards from all the sugar.

So, keeping our art theme in mind, I was wondering if anyone had made an art out of eating?

A quick google search led me to The Art of Eating: an independent magazine about all the best food and wine.

I started thinking about how cooking was a great way to incorporate many

different themes in art that we've been discussing in class. For example, it can been seen as art itself (take a look to the left), either literally for purposes of art, or less literally with dual purposes for consumption.

In addition to the artistic nature of the presentation itself, actually cooking can been seen as a type of performance art in some cases: I'm thinking those awesome Hibachi places where they make volcanos out of towers of onions?!

Thai vegetable/fruit carving is one of the most artistic forms of food art, in my opinion, and examples are readily found on any cruise ship. If you don't have access to the buffet lines at the Royal Caribbean right this minute, check out this site: Simply-Thai.com for some awesome watermelon sculptures.

WEEBLY!

So, Dreamweaver was awesome, no doubt about it. It's a really great way to make a website, and it was really helpful that we had someone sitting there teaching us how to do it along the way.

That said, WEEBLY IS EVEN MORE AWESOME!

It's a drag-and-paste website that makes Adobe CS5 look SUPER HARD.

Needless to say, our group unanimously decided to use Weebly instead of Dreamweaver. It seems like Dreamweaver would be a great tool to learn how to use - but I just don't think there's enough time if you aren't already proficient in using the software! I've heard that the other Adobe products can be difficult to learn how to use, though they do make some really powerful software.

I can't wait to have a finished product - it will be neat to see what everyone comes up with as themes - I know we had a little bit of a difficult time narrowing down on one!

Guerrilla Girls of Science

I thought the Guerrilla Girl readings were really interesting to say the least. I remember hearing about them a while back, and the role of the female in art, as well as the role of the female artist is something I haven't thought much about. It did remind me, however, of a similar sex difference that is seen in science fields. There are so few women in science (compared to men) who go on to get Ph.D.'s, conduct postdoctoral work, or much less start running their own labs. It's also really interesting to see how women conduct themselves in the sciences (particularly around labs) compared to women of other fields. In all of the labs I've been involved with, women don't really wear make up, get dressed up in skirts or high heels, or do their nails like women from other "more feminine" fields do. I feel like in science, the perception is that to look feminine is to look dumb, and that's such a shame.

DREAMWEAVER!

I've made other websites for classes before (CS), but I've never been exposed to Dreamweaver. I just think that it's SO COOL!

I actually have a website that I bought to put my resume and stuff on for grad school applications - but I had NO IDEA how to edit it!

I'm so glad we went to the tutorial today! It was really super-helpful.. I was afraid that we were just going to have to learn how to do everything for a website on our own, and now I feel like it will be a much easier and even fun project!

Here's a link to some Dreamweaver tutorials for those of us who are more technologically challenged:

http://www.entheosweb.com/dreamweaver/default.asp

Group Outing to the High

Today our project group went to the High together (except Drew -- I hope you did well on your test, Drew!) and we went to the Titian exhibit, and also toured around the Dali exhibit as well as the permanent 20th century collection. I wanted to post my favorite picture from the exhibit here.. Venus Rising from the Sea... I'm basically obsessed with the ocean (and mermaids), so seeing the original at the High today was really a treat for me.

I thought the way that they painted all the walls in the exhibit red was really interesting, and a really effective choice. I noticed on several of the paintings, there were a lot of dark tones, light tones (like on skin), and then a bright red shirt. The contrast of the red walls to the painting and (mostly) gilded frames was really nice.

I also noticed that they were getting some of the Persistence of Memory pieces for the Dali exhibit beginning on the 12th! I hope that I have some time to go back and see those pieces again! They are definitely my favorite.

Art at MIT

This past weekend I went to MIT for the iGEM competition there. We were touring around the city and taking a lot of pictures... One of the really neat things about MIT's campus is all of the interesting architecture there! This first building down below were actually dorms on the campus, I think. The second picture is of a statue that was in the middle of campus. I really enjoyed the different architecture that was found all over the "older" city -- Atlanta's buildings and architecture (as well as the foliage and green space surrounding the city) just has such a different feel than Boston.

To anyone who hasn't travelled up that way, I would definitely recommend doing so whenever you get the chance!

Painting on a Petri Dish

As a self-proclaimed scientist, I don't usually spend a lot of my brain space on art, especially before this class, though I consider myself kind of versed in art. I mean, I'm not ignorant, I've looked at art.. but not really thought about art. I just had a passive stance, but now I've been really noticing art -- and how it affects things -- more frequently. I was reminded of this fact recently, when a girl whom I work with in lab, was talking about "painting" with RFP (red florescent protein). Shine a UV light on bacteria, and wherever the grow- they light up! She "paints" phylogenetic trees" on petri dishes -- they look so neat! I didn't have a picture of one of her trees, but I did find this picture of a beach!

The artist/scientist, Nathan Shaner, made this "living painting" of San Diego in 2006. He used the E. coli to express florescent proteins GFP, BFP, mTFP1, Emerald, Citrine, mOrange, mApple, mCherry, and mGrape. I think this is a great example of a really unique form of art, it's active art -- transient (those bacteria wont live forever on that plate), sciencey, and all kinds of goodness.

ENJOY!

Final Comments on Visual Essays

I wanted to make a final post on the visual essays that were presented in class; sort of as a before and after. When we were first beginning, like I said in my first post about the visual essays, I was pretty concerned/trepidatious about the whole project in general, how it was going to progress, and how it was going to turn out.

One of the things that was mentioned in another post, and in a response in class was how interesting it was that the projects presented a lot of the same pictures (naturally since we are on Tech's campus), but presented different perspectives of the same element of art: for example the interactive nature as well as the impermanent nature of side walk chalk art around campus. Or, for example, the campanile, and how it was a memorial, or the height of it, et cetera.

The one statue on campus that was highlighted the most, I think, was the statue of Dean Griffin, shown here. I found another picture online, and liked how there was actually an element of visual art in it: someone has put a flower in his breast pocket!

Visual Essay

I am really glad that I signed up on Tuesday -- because I had never had to present a visual essay before, I was really unsure how to even go about it. The "picking your own theme" concept was especially daunting to me! I had no idea how to go about it, but I found that once I started taking pictures and was out in the city, the theme came pretty easily.

I was also worried about the pecha kucha style, too. I tend to talk a lot and in circles, too, and was worried that I was going to talk too much. But, especially after seeing some of the other presentations, I think the pecha kucha style is really effective. My mind tends to wander during presentations, but I was attentive for everyone's presentation, they were short enough to hold my attention. Everyone did a great job on choosing themes, too, and some of the pictures were really nice!

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the presentations today, and even though I was really unsure about the project in the beginning, I think they're all turning out really well, and I think the assignment is a good one. Really unique, interesting, and informative.

Good luck to everyone who hasn't gone, yet!

This is Not Graffiti

When I was touring around the city looking for good examples of public art and trying to come up with a theme for our projects, I kept coming across buildings (particularly all up and down Ponce) whose owners had commissioned graffiti artists to paint signs on the buildings. The signs for the buildings or advertisements were all done in graffiti-style, but they were clearly something that traditional graffiti is often not: purposeful.

I really enjoyed seeing artists incorporation of their own style into traditional building signs. I feel like it gave all of the buildings I viewed a sense of uniqueness and originality. I even found an old Kodak building whose sign had been painted long long ago!

Public Art - Bellagio Fountains

The Bellagio Fountains

When thinking about public art in class, I was reminded of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas. The whole city is so alive and full of color and light, things to do, things to see. I had seen "water shows" before, but nothing like what the Bellagio puts on (multiple times a day I might add). The way they are able to manipulate technology and water in a way to create such a meaningful display of public art is really awesome. Because they have it all synchronized with music, there is a key auditory component, as well as visual, while integrating within it an additional sense of "performance" art. While many (if not most) things in Vegas can be viewed as public art -- the buildings, shows, performances, light displays -- I think the Bellagio Fountains are one of the most overt displays of public art. If you ever travel there, definitely stop by!

Laranda Photography

Laranda Photography
I'd like to take a moment to completely brag on my little sister.
She's a photographer, and I think she's awesome!
We just got back from spending the weekend at the Georgia Marble Festival, where she had a couple of pieces in a gallery, and where she also sold some prints at a booth. I was helping her "man" the booth all weekend, and it was so much fun. There is so much behind trying to be an "artist" than just doing the art. I never really imagined how much business skill an artist could need.
Anyway, I had a great weekend with her, and I can't wait to see how far she takes her art.

How to Write Consistently Boring...

I have to admit that this past assignment (Rhetorical Analysis of a Painting) was a great deal harder than I anticipated it to be. I took AP English in high school, like most of the class probably did, and I also took English 1101 when I was a second year, but had to withdraw from school.
So, here I am, a FIFTH year in an English 1101 class. At first I thought, Well, I'll be older than most of the other students, and this will be a breeze. I can crank out a paper fast. NOT SO! This was one of the most difficult papers I've written at Tech, EVEN WITH the rough draft process! It made me realize that while I HAVE been spending a great deal of writing, the KIND of writing I've been doing is totally different: scientific writing and lab reports! All past tense! Impersonal. etc. etc. etc. I know a lot of you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I just wanted to say how funny I thought it was that I had such an unexpectedly hard time cranking out the paper, but it feels good to get that side of my brain working again.
I found a great paper talking about scientific writing, that pretty much summed up how I felt about the whole "art" of it all!
http://192.38.112.111/write/How_write.pdf

Julian Beever

I've been meaning to write for a few weeks on an artist that I really like, who I think challenges a lot of the perspective/viewer interactions with art that we've been mentioning in class.

His name is Julian Beever, and more of his work can be seen here. While he does all kinds of paintings, he is most recognized for his 3D pavement work - 1 D chalk-drawings that are made to look very large and 3D when seen from a certain perspective.

He travels around creating these drawings in many different cities.. "Time Square" in Times Square, NYC is shown here. The child standing on the side walk helps to illustrate just how realistic and 3D his drawings appear.

I really appreciate how his drawings make his audience really interact with his art, and also how they make the audience really stop and notice. Julian makes his art available and literally brings it to the streets where people are just walking to work, going shopping, or otherwise carrying out their day-to-day business. No time for galleries? That's okay.

Paper Reviews and Rough Drafts

I really like that we are doing peer reviews of our papers. Often times we get so used to the way that we think and what we mean, that we aren't aware of (or aren't much concerned with) how it will be received. I often find myself stringing together words, and they have a specific meaning in my head, but if someone else reads them, they just don't make sense. I particularly liked the help and constructive criticism in the areas of clarity and form, and I know the comments will help with the final paper a great deal.

Additionally, I think that the class focus on art, and the perception of art is a great way to focus on not only the act of writing but also focusing on how one's writing will be perceived. I've written a lot of papers, but have to admit I've never focused in such detail on how my writing will be received.

GT/Woodruff Season Passes

I wanted to repost this link I got in an e-mail from the school. It advertises a GT student pass for a year to the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art. As a frequent visitor to both the ASO and the High, I am going to definitely take advantage of the offer.

The best part is not only that it's a package deal, but it's $20.00 for the entire year for all three!

The Five Spot

This weekend I went to The 5 Spot and watched a Reggae band for as long as I could stand it... they were a group of young 20-something hipsters who looked like they had probably never been to Jamaica, smoked too much weed, and even decided they should try out Jamaican accents.

It was terrible.

What WAS good, however, was all the art The 5 Spot had in it. The benches we painted, the walls were painted, there were paintings and posters everywhere, and the outside of the buildings were covered with graffiti, too. I've been many times to Little 5, but talking about art so much in class has made me notice it other places -- everywhere -- and at times I don't expect to notice it.

The Reverend H. Finster

On Sunday I visited the High Museum of Art in Atlanta to decide on a piece of work for the rhetorical analysis assignment.

I've been to the High Museum many times and have always been extremely fascinated by one particular artist who has a permanent collection in the High. His name is Howard Finster, a Baptist Reverend from Summerville, Georgia. He has is own little wing in the Folk Art section of the museum, and I think I could spend forever looking at his work: there is always something new to find in one of his pieces. Reverend Finster claimed to receive visions from God, which began when he was a child. He works are distinctive in style, and contain many recurring themes, thoughts, and techniques. Before his death he had produced more than 46,000 works.

I am looking forward spending more time in the Reverend Finster's wing at the High, and to understand not only the art, but the artist behind it, as well.