Done at last

Thank God, I am finally done with this project! After roughly over 600 crayola crayons & 6 1/2 bottles of gorilla glue & close to 20 hrs of time, this hunk wax is finally finished. Still a little bent on how much money I spent on it. Oh well, few beers & I'll give a shit less. I you want to, feel free to donate I accept cash or booze!

Just cause I can

SAW THESE PIC, HAD TO USE IT!
Heard about this amazing website
http://failblog.org/. Full of stuff like this and other random funny stuff. NOT FOR ALL AGES & PEOPLE WITH HIGH MORAL STANDARDS!!

Artist Entry 2 Ralph Steadman

For my 2nd artist entry I decided to go with Ralph Steadman, his work is easily recognizable. He was born in in Wallasey, England in 1936. Ralph is a writer/illustrator, he has written numerous books & his art has also been included in many books as well. His work is synonymous with Hunter S. Thompson a famous American writer. Like most people my age I was first exposed to his Ralph's work when I saw the movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"(still one of the best, weirdest movies ever!). When I saw his art work I was truly blown away by the grittiness. Some of his most famous work is in George Orwell's Animal Farm. He also has other famous pieces like 1970's "Kentucky Derby", his "Gonzo" collection, and "The Joke's Over" collection which is dedicated to his long time friend Hunter S. Thompson.
Once again I'm drawn to this demented artwork. Like I said before, I'm drawn to the twisted work for some reason. I know his illustrations aren't what you expect from a great artist, the lines are rough but still flow; the work seems like it's a rough sketching or doodles of potential works. You get the impression the person who is doing the work is out of their mind, but at the same time is completely sane. I know when I first saw his work, I thought this guy has to be on heroin because who could image this off-the-wall shit. With his work he challenges the political & social norms of society. I love the fact that it goes to show you don't have to be an amazing artist to make powerful art. I truly admire his work because you can tell he put his true vision to paper.

Art Project 2_ Huffing glue is better than eating it!

For my 2nd project I thought I had a bad ass idea, I still think I do; but who knew crayons and super glue would have been so expensive? There is roughly 400 crayola crayons & 4 bottles of super glue in it so far. I guess I get to do something while I'm huffing my daily ration of glue; at least it's productive. I'm pretty sure it looked weird; a 26 yr old guy buying boxes upon boxes of crayons & superglue at a time, the check out clerk probably thought I was trying to entice kids or have some kind of weird fetish. I estimated I've spent roughly $60 on this damn project. My pictures here are on a scaled down body of a guitar, I was originally going to go full scale but after careful financial consideration (and boredom) I figured I probably would have spent over $200 on it. I love the idea, but not that much. If I had a significant bank roll I would have done a full scale version, but since I'm a poor ass college student, I better cut my losses & move on.

"Conceptual Art" Questions

Redneck version of "fountain"

1. Conceptual art was in a way created shock value; so in keeping in shock value the "viewers" reactions & thoughts can give the piece more meaning, good example if the "viewer" did not like Duchamp's ur-anal, they start to apply more meanings to it whether positive of negative, making the piece go even farther than the artist could have imagined it.

2. It was difficult because people had been so used to seeing sculpture & paintings & that's all they thought could be considered art. But when Duchamp put "Fountain" out there, it challenged people beliefs of what's considered art.

3. How can you recognize a piece of conceptual art when you encounter it? A good example of this is in Felix Gonzalez-Torres photograph of an empty double bed w/ crumpled bedclothes on it. The picture has no text on it, so it leaves the viewer to draw their own meaning.

4. A good example of this is with One of Three Chairs, since there was no conceptual art department the museum had no clue where to store the piece. So as the readings put it; they had to break up the piece in to different departments to store it and by breaking up the piece they destroyed it.

5. I like the quote by John Lennon, "God" pg 1.

I found it interesting because in life it doesn't matter what you believe in, like, or your past successes; the only person that can make things happen in life is you. You can have faith in all those things, or play off prior successes but they can only get you so far, it's all up to you to get the most out of life.

Project 2 Idea List

Crayons

Formal Qualities:

small, variety of colors, light weight, round tapered point, cylinder, 3" long, wax, smooth, fragile

Meaning/Content:

colorful, structured, drawing, artistic, youth, simplicity, fun, innocence, transformation, diversity

Guitar Body

Formal Qualities:

Musical instrument, smooth, wood, rounded, heavy hard, grainy, thick, flowing curves, horned

Meaning/Content:

Musical influenced, talented, creative, heavy, passionate, aggressive, emotions, freedom, personal expression, natural(wood)

Drinking Glass

Formal Qualities: clear, can hold things, fragile, retain temperature, random shapes & sizes, gather condensation, round, not very thick, reflective, kind of heavy

Meaning/Content: Fragile, empty, full, everything is transparent, salute, can see every flaw, good can be in glass, see it for what it is (no B.S), purity

Ellen Scott

Not sure my earlier post about Ellen Scott would be enough for required entry, it was more towards the D-Bag.

After looking over Ellen's work again, I still prefer her plexiglas & liminal (where the object is removed from the picture) work. She is a very established artist w/ credentials that span the world and the experience people can only dream of. She works in a variety of medias & dimensions. I not going to bag on her work, obviously she has an artistic eye & an unlimited imagination. I really can't say her other work is bad (Ie: her central station and harmonic videos) because she is worlds ahead of me in the knowledge & concepts of art. What is impressive is she can take a picture of a simple, meaningless moment in time & turn it into something significant; which is truly amazing. A lot of my judgement is based on my inexperience to what art is. A good example of this is in her plexiglas works. I see a group of people walking, that's it; but she sees something greater, I would have never imagined to cut an individual person out of a picture and put them in a plexiglas case. The idea is so simple, but is still powerful & changes the meaing of the image completely; it's gotta be a new idea. Her Liminal prints are also impressive for the fact that she took another simple idea and ripped away the original meaning and created an entirely new identity for the image. There is so much meaning that can be pulled from all her work, a lot of it I don;t understand quite yet. I'm not too big of a fan of her other works now, but maybe with more experience I can grasp her concepts and truly appreciate her work down the road.

Project 1 paper sketches

Nuttin funee bout dis post, jus bidness.
-Knew those ebonic classes would pay off someday.
Here are my 5 paper sketches. They look a little rough since the page rubbered up against the cover. They are not the best but they still work. It was interesting to do this assignment since I'd never drew anything like this before.

Red Eye

Last night me, my wifey & her friends decided to go to the Red Eye in Kuna. I've lived in Kuna for 3 years & I've never been there before. I was pretty surprised how fun it was there, from the outside it looks like dirty bar were you're more likely to get a STD before you'd get a good drink.

The bar had a Mardi Gras party and I never realized how big of a whore a chick would become just to get a plastic bead necklace or a shirt or a beer glass. If you're not aware how they get the beads, all they need to do is show their boobies. The DJ there was hilarious(he sounded like Larry the Cable Guy) and he saw his fair share of boobs since he was giving away free shit, pretty sure the majority of them he wished he would have never seen; usually you have to pay for that kind of service. My wife came home with 30 bead necklaces, I came home with a couple too (yeah right). I shouldn't be surprised by these chicks since booze was heavily involved; these are the same women of course who bitch about not being respected by men. Here is a perfect reason why not to respect them; the bar had a contest to see who could get the most beads; the winner had 35, are you F'ing kidding me did she even wear a shirt all night! God, I think I married the wrong woman; that's the kind of woman you take home to mom & dad. I'm sure this skill looks good on resume; I'm not a misogynist but some women just don't deserve respect & if you're a feminist don't bitch to me, go bitch to your fellow woman, she's the one making you look bad.

Overall the night was fun, I was loooooooaded; bless $2 beers. It's amazing what you do when you're drunk, besides showing your boobs to complete strangers when you're drunk. For some reason I decided to take a picture of a condom machine in the mens bathroom for the hell of it. I really think it's some of my best work considering I was seeing 2 machines at once. Really wanted to buy the horny goat weed, but didn't have any quaters; pretty sure this stuff is FDA approved.

Artist entry 1 John Dyer Baizley

Artist Entry Numero Uno (1)

John Dyer Baizley

This is my first artist entry, hope it doesn't suck. I discovered this artist by accident. I had heard this band Baroness a while ago, for some strange reason out of the blue I went to their website & saw they had a new album out, so I picked it up. When I got home I looked at the album art & I was blown away by the artwork(image up top). I looked at the credits and found out the guitarist/singer John Dyer Baizley did all their album cover artwork. So I researched online to find some more of his work.

I was instantly drawn to his work since it's so dark & gritty; I dig that kind of art. All of his work is inspired by something from a dark place, but it still has some sense of demented beauty. I love how he can take something beautiful & take it and twist it into a creepy, medieval mythological place where death is hiding behind the corner with a gigantic axe. When looking at the work you can see so much meaning behind each piece, all his pieces are littered with symbolism and contradicting ideologies. His attention to detail was amazing & the monochromatic color scheme is perfect for this type work, the shading in the color in the work makes it pop. His work truly sets him apart from most works I've seen. The same is said for his music in his band Baroness. If you listen to their music it seems like it's a direct extension from his artwork. They are both inspired by the same things. If his artwork had a soundtrack it would be his music in Baroness

After researching the limited information I could find; I found out he resides in Savannah, Georgia & attended to Rhode Island School of Design. His work is is mostly pens, water colors, inks and some computer work. His work is very underground and has a cult following, I've heard of websites where people bid competitively for his limited edition concert posters. He is also credited for creating album covers for numerous heavy metal bands. Like I said before he is an artist both visually and musically. I wish I had more information on him, I would really like to know more about him & his work.

A.I.C. Concert

I went to the Alice in Chains show on Monday @ The Knitting Factory, it was a pretty killer show. From my earlier post I was able to make to the show before they started playing, luckily. They were pretty kick ass, they sounded tight and the singer definitely does a great job w/ the songs. It was a simple show, no extravagant light show just kick ass music. I wasn't disappointed, worth every penny. Some how once again I managed to get a guitar pick from Will Duvall the lead singer/guitarist. I get lucky when it comes to this stuff. I somehow I've ended up w/ a pick from at least 9 or 10 different shows, not really sure how I do it. Whatever it is though it works.



I love going to heavy concerts, but it seems like every time I go I forget that personal hygiene is disregarded at these things. I don't know if I don't get the memo, but it seems like every other bastard who goes to these things smells like he/she hasn't even bothered to glance at a bar of soap in over a week. What makes it even worse is, it's hot as balls in these tiny clubs because their packed with 300 people or so and everyone is all sweaty and moshing. The combination of all the smells creates this vile smell that's a cross between swamp ass, guch(taint), sour balls, marlboro reds & Naty Ice. But yet I still go, I guess I like the smell if I can take it for 4 hrs at a time.

-My only complaint about the night is the mens downstairs restrooms at the Knitting Factory. I've been attending concerts there for over 10 years, I seriously don't think they've cleaned that bitch once since I've started going there back when it was still the The Big Easy. I figured when The Knitting Factory took over this venue they would at least fix this toxic sewage dump they call a restroom, guess not. The stall door has been ripped off as long as I can remember & there is still all the graffiti all over the walls & old ripped band fliers. I know that it gives it character, but God forbid if I ever have to shit in this place I'm not sure what I'd do. I would rather shit in a jail toilet surrounded by a bunch of hardened criminals than shit in that toilet. This bathroom reeks like the smells above but 100x's worse. I swear to God, I probably could leave an upperdecker and comeback 6 months later and it would still be there.

One more horrible thought, I feel sorry for any poor drunk bastard that passes out on that piss, puke covered restroom floor; guaranteed Hep C, herpes or at least a Staph infection.
Done pissing & moaning for tonight.

Why kids need to be spanked!

On Thursday night I went to the Artist show/interview of Ellen Scott a Famous Artist from N.Y. The show was at BSU in a room full of about 70-80 people; mainly art students and professors. She opened up the show w/ a slow motion video of people walking through a subway station in Japan. It was a little odd, I'll admit. Then she showed us a few other oddball videos as well and she began to show us her other work that made her famous. Her work is a little hard to explain; go see it for yourself at www.ellenscott.com. So after this she explains her work, how she got there & what inspired her. All of a sudden a guy(he'll be referred to as DOUCHE BAG for the rest of this story; DOUCHE BAG looks like he's a 19 or 20 yr old punk, with a bunch of zips, ratty ass hair; like he hadn't combed it in a week, and shitty looking, patchy facial hair.) raises his hand and asks her, "How many times have you show this video to a group of people?" She replies, "once; this is the first time, why?" Then he tells her, "Maybe you should show another video instead" She then asks him, "Why, did you not like it?" He replies, "No, not really". Which instantly made everyone in the room uncomfortable. The show continues on and about 2o min later the show enters the Q&A portion. Well guess who decides to ask more JACKASS questions? You guessed it, DOUCHE BAG! DOUCHE BAG continues to rip on her work in the middle of her Q&A session in front of everyone; making himself looking like a dick hole in the process. Why she kept on calling on him beats me? But he continued to do this for about 10 min. I'm surprised no one escorted him out. Finally the shows ends, very awkwardly, Thank God and you can tell Ellen just wants to beat the Dog Shit out of that little bastard.

My Take on this: I know Art is different to each person, fine. I, myself only cared for her Plexiglas work, the videos were too odd for me. But it is still art. What pisses me off is this artist is a person who was invited by BSU as a guest; she traveled across the country to do this exhibit and in the process was heckled by some trouser stain. I don't care if DOUCHE BAG didn't like the work; but you gotta have some respect and keep your stupid opinion to yourself. You don't disrespect another person in the middle of their show like that just because you didn't like the work.

I don't know or care what happened to DOUCHE BAG, but I hope he got gang raped by a bunch dudes on his way home or he got beat up and got Tea bagged by a bum on the street. This example of Douche Bagery shows the lack of respect in this country today and it's about F'ING time people start spanking their kids to show them respect! If that was my kid, I would have beat the hell out of him and made him apologize to Ellen. Sorry, Ellen Boise is not that kind of town. Please feel free to come back anytime.

Alice in Chains & school

I'm starting to get a little excited for the big rock show on Monday! Alice in Chains has been a band I've had on my concert bucket list for quite sometime. Unfortunately Layne Staley died, so I thought I'd never be able to see them. Well, they are back now & kicking ass! I've heard the new stuff, I can honestly saw I'm not a huge fan, but the old stuff is still good enough for me. They still sound killer & the new singer still sounds pretty sweet.

Now to the part where I Bitch.

My grievance is that on Monday night I have a Certain type of History class (it's one where you learn about painting & sculptures) & the Prof is a Gigantic Douche! And yes, a woman can be a douche. I'm thinking about starting a fundraiser so I can raise the funds for her to have the surgery to remove that gigantic stick from her ass! 3 hours of straight lecture from a rude prof gets irritating after a while. I really don't learn a lot from the class & she makes it so you don't want to. Note to Prof: Being rude to your students isn't an effective way of teaching! What really gives me a case of the red ass; I pay this lady to be pissy to me & not teach me anything, I have a funny feeling that I'm wasting my money on this class. If you hate your job that much, do students a favor & QUIT. I have to attend the whole class because she gives the quizzes at the end of class & she doesn't allow make up quizzes either. So as soon as I get out of class at 9pm, I'm going to have to drive from Nampa and go all the way downtown for the show. What a PAIN IN MY ASS! My other Art Teacher is pretty cool and my Engrish Prof is OK, luckily. If they weren't, I would really consider quitting the whole school thing & go into a more lucrative career like working at an Asian spa or working the pole, again! At least it's a honest living, sort of.

God, it feels good to vent; this is better then having a cigarette! I'm done pissing & moaning for today. I hope the concert kick ass, I'd imagine it will.