Artists I'm Into Right Now

people asked, and I don't have a facebook anymore :) so I'll post it here.

Banksy

Joan Snyder

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Ryman

Jenny Holzer

Cy Twombly

Hans Hoffman

and hundreds more, but I'm very fond of these people right now. Especially Joan Snyder, her painting amazes me.

Off the Radar

So for the past couple of years, my life has been heavily involved with social networks online. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter. Blogger is thankfully nothing like that. So a couple of days ago I decided that it's not worth it. It takes up way too much of my time, when I should taking care of important things, like painting lol. I think I'm not alone here, social networks like facebook have become so popular among my peers are especially the younger kids that I would call it a permanent part of american culture. Blogging is a bit different. I enjoy having people read my blog because they stumble across it, not because they think they are obligated to.

In general, I think I'm headed towards a new direction, less dependency on technology. Now that isn't to say i'm dropping Everything ( though I would lke to) I mean these days I need a cell phone to check on my sister. I need the internet for my blog, which allows me to think about things that going on right now, I also need it because the colleges depend on it so much, everything is done online now.

I am cutting down on my ipod, unless I feel like listening to Dylan lol. I am, for the most part, done with t.v. news 12 long island is the worst news station ever, am I am going to just stick to the paper. I've been done with video games for a couple of years now, I don't own a new system. I'll probably never own an HD t.v. I never have nor will I ever own a GPS. They are terrible I love getting lost, and I just trust my own instinct.

Moral of this blog: we're all still human, let's not depend on technology 100%.

- Here is a quickie
Funny how poetry works
When it is terrible

- The Pungent smell of
life exposed when one removes
his dirty work boots

- It's hard to keep faith
when lands of milk and honey
fall and drift away

- Instead of saying
Fuck those corrupt, dirty pigs,
stop breaking the law!

By the way, I'm going to continue my blogs about artists you should know and shows you should visit. I'm just thinking about who to talk about.

P.s. If reading is not your cup of tea, be on the look out for my Art Vlog On youtube!!

Photography / Artistic breakthrough Blog haha

So a few things are going on in my life. I landed a work study gig managing the Dark Room in the art department. Which is great, I love film photography so much more than digital. On a personal level rather than technical. Sure with the digital age you can have high quality pictures edited to the core and sent to a million people in less than 5 minutes. But, it doesn't stimulate me. I need to be stimulated when I work. I love the process, I'm starting to think I'm a methodical kind of guy. My painting though abstract and kind of minimal, definitely has been reflecting my methodology on things. I think a large majority of it is a result of taking printmaking with Julia : ) , I liked the risk of failure according to a calculated trial. I hope that makes any sense to you, maybe it's just me XD. I think it brings out the human in me. Let me clarify:

I love working with machines, and I love overpowering the machine. It means we're not slaves to our own creations, yet. I love how even though it's the press's job to force ink onto paper, It's up to me whether it completes the mission or fails. Even though there is a chemical recipe to process film, it's my patience, my accuracy that developes that film correctly, not the chemicals. There is a HUGE risk factor in monotypes, carvings and film based processes that I love. With painting, you work until the painting's "done" or you give out, or you're about to hit that deadline : ). But with these mechanical processes there's a contridiction that goes as follows:

I want to calculate everything so I'll have a finished product, but I also want to screw up just enough to make it interesting.

Even I have patience and love the long hours, somehow it ends up with wanting instant gratification.

But back to methodology. In my painting class, I am amazed / disappointed with the evolution of my work. I was expecting to go in a hundred different directions, trying out different things so I can understand what "art" is. But, I ended up building on the same method of painting. I'm discovering things about myself I never knew, but apparently I'm very aware of, since I keep doing it!!

I started with a brown painting of squares, very organic, very design based. I loosened up a bit for the second, painting a gray tone, very thick abstract, with a more depth of field. Third was a still life of bricks. I made them softer and drippy, very alive and organic again. My last painting was a shocker it took everything I;ve done in my life and meshed together well. Not to mention I love adding surface to my paintings now, with extra canvas and string :).

You know something's wrong when I have more fun with my college life than my social life heheh