Where was this when I needed it?

Got an email from the art teacher: D-Money. And it had this really cool article about this upcoming artist Michael Anthony Simon and his outdoor installations concerning nature.
 isn't that interesting?? When I looked up installation ideas for our project I couldn't find anything like this. Given, I probably wouldn't have been able to use the "environmentally friendly" material that he uses since I am after all, just a college student, but it would've been super interesting! I put environmentally friendly in quotations because I wonder if it really is true. Leaves get their nutrients from the sun by absorbing it through chlorophyll and if the paint is added over the natural green then wouldn't that starve the plant?
Anyways, he also does some really cool work by painting spider webs.
 he captures spiders and releases them after they build a web. I have so many questions to ask about that....does he feed the spiders bugs? How does he get them to only build between the poles and create those different web designs?

I will overcome!!

My life is often characterized by experiences that challenge me in some way. Often times, I usually am on a hunt to find new challenges that will test part of me. Recently I've been challenging myself with outdoor/sporty activities. Usually I know it's working when I am pushed to a limit where I don't think I will be able to do anymore but somehow, I'm just so determined to finish what I've started, I somehow do it--often times to my own amazement.
 This weekend however, my artwork has been the most frustrating for me! Right now we have two projects occurring simultaneously (well at least for the people that haven't finished the first one haha) and that has been a bit hard to chew. I went down to the trail to work on my outdoor installation yesterday morning and I found that part of it was torn apart. Here in Arkansas the weather is unpredictably crazy and the day before the wind snapped a few of my support strings so that I had to redo half of it instead of spending my morning finishing it. I can't tell you how frustrated I was, I spent the first 15 minutes crying big tears of frustration while I was working on it....of all weeks that this had to happen to me, Finals week??? Really now?? Anyways, I pushed through my frustration and finished it....now all it has to do is make it through the next few Arkansas days to our critique. *fingers crossed* I don't really know how much I like it though:/
  So, if that wasn't enough, I started working on my other project. I'm making paper mache energy drinks out of homework and it's a lengthy multiple step process. Well last night I was finishing the tops of the cans and when I pulled them off the mold it pulled everything in on itself so that it basically collapsed what I just spent two hours making. It was so frustrating because I made two others before these few and I didn't have the same problem because I used saran wrap as an intermediate layer. However, the extra gave it this sloppy look when I was done because I wasn't able to wrap it as closely to the can as I did the others. So now, I'm faced with another dilemma: do I risk the aesthetics for easier construction or should I just push through it and it'll fix itself as I keep working on them??
  I guess we shall see! :]

Oh Em Gee New Fave!

Two words: Robert Doisneau. He is awesome! so you know how Google has a doodle for also every day of the week? Well a few weeks ago they had a bunch of pictures of his up on Google and it really caught my eye. There are so many pictures that I love. I don't know how he manages to capture these certain moments cause a lot of them don't look posed but they have a certain kind of flow and balance that I haven't seen a lot of in other photographs.
Here are some of my favorites I've seen so far:


 I love how he caught these dancers in that exact moment when they look like they just got done swaying to one side and are about to step into the next move. Even though it's just a photograph I can totally imagine them doing so just from seeing this picture!

He also took alot of pictures of children and they are some of my favorite because they bring back memories of your own childhood!
  this one cracks me up!!


 Love this one!!


I think one of the reasons why I like his pictures so much is because they are in black and white. I think that helps the viewer focus more on the content than the color associations they are forming. I just like how real his work is!! Can't get over it. I will definitely be hanging up his work in my future home:)

Artists Errwhere

So I went to an outdoor conference this weekend and it was pretty stinking awesome! One cool aspect of it was the people that I met there who were artists! One guy named Larry Rainari is an elementary art teacher I had some pretty cool conversations with him about his passion for clay and painting. I got a business card from him and checked out his website.

I love this handmade mug:

It kinda makes me wish I had more pottery experience in high school to make stuff like this! Instead, I was making seal shaped piggy banks that exploded in the kiln and destroyed other people's animal piggy banks......Oops!!

installation blogging has been..

..kinda hard. I feel so lame talking about something that I have been working on for awhile even though I am loving what I am doing. People have been coming up and asking me about what I'm doing when they see me carrying materials back and forth from the studio to my room and vice versa and I want to tell them all about it and I try but I don't ever feel like my words ever fully capture the picture that is in my head that I'm trying to create. Ever get that feeling? My project sounds lame to my own ears when I describe it :(
  Anyways, working on the second installation piece right now and we are supposed to be wrapping it up but I'm not really at that point right now. I am making paper mache energy drink cans out of homework that I have collected from my peers to commemorate the milestone achievements that they have passed in their college lives. Can I just say that it has been frustrating just collecting the homework. People have been telling me that they will donate stuff but they never really do even though I remind them time and time again....Sigh. Anyways, I really wish I had more time to work on this project right now. Sometimes I just wish I could just go to art classes and nothing else all day, errday. More later.

Art redefined

While I was searching for pictures of mini pigs [pigs that will stay tiny forever thanks to their genetics] on Google, I found this adorable article about these mini pigs who paint. They accidentally got into some craft paint one day and the owners thought it was really cute so now they are given paint on purpose and they "make art" to sell for charity. 

Their art was said to be reminiscent of Jackson Pollack. It's an adorable concept but I still don't know what to think about this type of "art". Should it be considered art if it's not made with intention? Can pigs have intentions of making art?