Blog Entry Assignment #1

The purpose of this assignment is to provide (the instructor) with some background on my work and to give me practice writing about my ideas. Write anything (I) want no less than 300 words. Please Proofread, use paragraphs, and spell-check! Publish this to your blog.

Consider:

-How long and for what reason have you made art?
Well, really I've been making art ever since I could pick up a utensil made for marking on things, although I was never really conscious of it. So I suppose I didn't know i was making art until I started having art classes in grade school, but I didn't start intentionally making art outside of the classroom for the sake of making art until I was in the 5th grade or so when my teachers told me I had pretty good artistic and creative abilities. That is also the reason I started making art; people told me I was good at it.

-What are the sources of your ideas?
Anything and everything around me influences my ideas for my art. However I usually only take influence from things I like. (i.e. videogames and movies I enjoy, comics, graphic novels, cartoons, other artists whose work I have seen, etc.)

-Under what conditions do you learn the most
Through what I am taught by other artists. Personally, I am not one to explore other art mediums or concepts unless otherwise told to in a class or something. I guess I would say that I'm only comfortable with art that I have personal experience with [pencil/pen sketching, photoshop, MS Paint (Yes, I've drawn entire anime scenes with the line tool and the paint bucket lol.)] or am at least taught how to utilize properly (pen and ink, charcoal, etc.)

-What materials have you used and why?
Mostly, I prefer to use Adobe Photoshop or other digital means. Otherwise I use pencil and pen. Also, through Drawing Foundations class I have learned to use charcoal, willow and vine charcoal, conte crayon, graphite sticks, India ink and pigment liner pens successfully. (side note: I didn't take any conventional art classes throughout high school. I only took Intro to Computer Graphics and Advanced Computer Graphics, hence my affinity for Adobe Photoshop).

-What defines your urge to pick up these objects and make art?
Whenever I see art that I like on TV or in videogames or comics, it makes me want to do the same, which is usually why I ever create art outside of classes.

-What inspires you?
(see: "Sources of my Ideas")

-What is art?
(see next question)

-What defines art?
After taking Aesthetics last semester, I have come to believe that art is whatever the artist wants it to be. Furthermore, whether or not something is art can only be defined by either the artist or the viewer, but it is only their own opinion. Therefore, I believe there is no such thing as a universal definition of art.

-Do you consider movies art? Music? Video games? Comics? Television?
Yes, I believe that all of those things are art.

-Why?
I think those are all art because I see them all as crafts, and I also see craftsmen as being the same thing as an artist. Therefore, if anyone puts their creativity and influence into any craft that they make, I believe it is art.

-Why do you get to decide? Who else decides?

I get to decide for only myself what is art. I don't get to decide for anyone else what is art. I believe everyone decides for themselves what is or isn't art.

-Why did you pursue art academically?
Simple. I think to be happy in life you must enjoy what you do for a living, and art is the only thing I can enjoy doing for as long as a lifetime.

-When you debate music or movies with your friends, what critical elements or standards do you hold them to?
I debate many aspects of music and movies depending on the nature of the argument, but when arguing about the general value of a movie, I only rate it on it's entertainment or artistic value to me, but I don't believe that what I or anyone else has to say about anything artistic is the ending say in the matter.

-What was the best movie of last year?
Really, I can only say which movie(s) I enjoyed most this past year. Also I could never pick just one movie to be the best so I think there were probably 4 that I liked best above all the others. I think Juno was the best comedy of the year by far. Also I loved No Country for Old Men and the funny thing about that is that I have no idea why I loved it, I just did. Also, I liked Ratatouille and Transformers a lot because I consider myself to be a digital artist more so than I consider myself to be any other type of artist and when I watch movies the digital effects are what stand out to me the most. Both of these movies delivered amazing digital effects, not to mention they were both extremely entertaining. (side note: I also loved Transformers because of 2 reasons. 1: I loved the cartoon as a kid. 2: I read that each frame that had a transformer in it took 36 hours of digital work and I think that's pretty hardcore.)

-What is an "Art Film"?

I think all films are art, but I wont lie; I think any film that is classified as an art film is any film that doesn't make any sense to the general audience or is at least meant to not make sense.

-When was the last time you went to a museum? Gallery? Artist Studio?
During the last few weeks before Christmas break I visited the Toledo Museum of Art twice and the Faculty Art Show in the Fine Arts Building multiple times.

-When was the last time you made a drawing? painting? sculpture?
The last real drawing I made was for my Drawing Foundations final (I remade an Escher piece to make it my own). Also I jacked around in Photoshop countless times over the break, but I don't think I saved anything.

-What CD or mp3 is in your player?
Either Led Zeppelin: Mothership or Brian Setzer and the Nashvillians: Red Hot and Live


-BK

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