When One Door Closes, Walk Through the Wall

We have all heard the saying “when one door closes, another door opens,” right?

Well forget that. Who needs doors. The title for my installation may sound forceful, however the intent of the work is to reveal a truth that exists in our lives. I believe that when you set your mind to something, you can accomplish it. There is nothing that is impossible and many of the limits we face are limits we place on ourselves. The wall depicts a limit being broken. One hand shows a metallic string tied to a single finger as if gently pulling or guiding the body through to the right direction, where the other hand is grasping on it’s own. Success comes from within. We are more effected by what’s inside of us than what’s outside of us, however there is a positive light which seems to be there constantly guiding us in the right direction. At times it’s hard to follow the light; because it want’s us to walk through a wall rather than wait around for a door to appear. It’s as if we are supposed to confidently advance in the direction we feel we should go, even though we don’t fully see where we will land. Think of it like this; your ultimate goal is to get to your bed to sleep. You start at one side of the room with obstacles and pitch blackness between you. By combination of your reaching effort and metaphysical guidance of what you know or feel is the right route, you will get there. You may have to jump over objects, or go slowly, but ultimately by overcoming these difficulties we will be stronger and more successful than those who travel conventional routes in life. Don’t spend your life waiting for the easy way out, start breaking barriers.

This is an installation which motivates me. It has a bandaid on the knee to represent me when I was growing up — I always had scraped knees, but it was because I was always trying new and adventurous things that often produced minor injuries. If I didn’t have such an adventurous nature, scraping knees, and overcoming hard tasks, looking for creative solutions, I would not know the success that I have today. Visually, the work of art is imperfect in that it’s an imperfect casting of an imperfect person, however it is still glorified in unity through the repeating metallic elements and pure white. The gesture and integration into the wall is a successful aspect of the work as a whole, however an unsuccessful technical element would be breaking my fingers as I was de-molding the plaster. I have never worked with alginate before. It was pretty easy, but definitely a learning experience. I now know that ordinary school glue is actually the best glue to use on a broken plaster sculpture, and that I should be more careful next time. When I permanently install this, I’ll use a putty to make it flush with the wall.

In the end, I love this installation, and I hope it inspires you to walk through walls with me.

P.S. I would love to do a partial casting of my muscular friend imitating the David by Michelangelo and call it “The Adam” just because that would be really awesome.

Art on.

Guilty of hipsterisms

I need to confess to something… I get really annoyed when the general public catches on to my music and then says they loved them before they were famous. That’s bull.

Specifically regarding Lana Del Rey… she has only been out in the music world under that name for maybe 5 years. Her real name is Elizabeth Grant and before she was famous, she went by the name of Lizzy Grant. Her album Born to Die came out last year, and still… nobody knew who she was… and THEN her song Summertime Sadness got remixed (also wrote a song for the Great Gatsby) and all of a sudden people who don’t typically listen to her kind of music show up and say they have always loved her… yeeeaaahhhh…

It just bothers me… and it shouldn’t. I guess what’s annoying about it, is being so passionate about a musician, knowing their life story, philosophy, lyrics, everything, and seeing someone who you believe does not share the same caliber of love… act as though they do. Stop. Just stop. It almost ruins it for me. She was my secret gem, and now people who listen to Miley Cyrus are pretending that they were ALWAYS die hard Lana Del Rey fans. Yep. If you wanted us to gasp in awe at you, I’m just rolling my eyes. It shouldn’t take a remix of a song to make you express your “always existing” love for a musician. Matter of fact, you should probably appreciate the original version of the song more.

If you are a true music connoisseur, then you would share these artists with people as you got the chance… not all of a sudden and in a big, proud way after they blow up with fame. I see why hipsters like music until the general public finds out about them… it’s because they don’t feel like the public can truly appreciate the find, even though they claim to. We know you don’t. Let us appreciate our non-commercialized music in peace, or authentically join us!

Here is the link to her most recent song that she produced for the movie Maleficent. Her new album, Ultraviolence is rumored to be released May 1st of this year… yes folks… 2 months!!! Not to mention, I also love the Black Key’s and she worked with Dan Auerbach. Needless to say, I can’t wait. And every time I listen to her, it brings me back to last summer when I traveled spontaneously to see her in concert. Even though these people are catching on… I still love, and will always love, Lana Del Rey.

Mute and misty night

It was approaching 9pm. Upon walking outside there is a sort of shocking, beautiful fog that hides everything in a short distance from where you stand. We got in the car and I started driving feeling like I was in a surreal world. On the way home we decided to stop by the grocery store and on the way out I witnessed something I would have never thought I’d see.

While beautiful, the mist being so prevalent and close to the ground as well as covering the distance created an environment that was fit for a scary movie. I felt like at any moment, someone could appear and attack. Walking back to my car, there was a small, hooded figure standing in the middle of the parking lot. As we got closer, I discovered it was a girl, and she had to be around my age. I didn’t know why she was standing there. She looked like she was waiting for the right person to be going to their car. I was not that person.

I started my car and looked in my rearview mirror to make sure I wouldn’t back into her, and that’s when I saw her eagerly talking to a man who was sitting in his truck, driver side door open. In that moment it was very evident to me that she was trying to sell herself. The way she was dressed (not terribly obvious, but just enough) and the way she only waited for single men to be coming out of the store that late at night… this was not just some girl standing randomly in a parking lot for no particular, or innocent, reason. This was prostitution.

I felt so guilty and regretful as I drove away, thinking I should have talked to her. I should have asked what she was doing, why, and how could I have helped her. I could have saved her from one more night of this. I could have, why didn’t I? Why don’t people help when they have a gut feeling that someone needs help?

The mute night brought my instincts to mute themselves. A lot of people don’t have any idea how real prostitution and sex trafficking is in our world, and backyards. There are several motives… but for a girl my age? The possible motives frighten me. I highly doubt she wants to live that life, and I have a strong feeling she has someone encouraging it.

Time after time this subject has been appearing in my life as of recently, and it’s real heavy on my heart. No human being… child of God… should have to endure that.

I have two Kenyan babies!

It’s a little past midnight and I’ve decided to sponsor two Kenyan children. It has just been on my heart.

Their names are Joan Morra and Quinter Anyango. Joan is 7, likes to sing, and has 2 brothers. Quinter is 5 and enjoys reciting poems! I love them! I was not planning on sponsoring a child, let alone two, (and ironically both from Kenya) but I did and now I feel really happy and hopeful for them.

I am a broke college kid indeed…but I am not poor. I feel as though our country barely knows what poor is. I am sitting here using a $2,000 apple computer, an iphone 5, and I’m going to drive a 2009 Honda Civic to my expensive Art School tomorrow. I am overly privileged although I have practically no leisure money.

I found the organization that I’m sponsoring through because of research I was doing about child trafficking. Changing the world by giving opportunity to one child at a time.

I kind of want to adopt some kids… right now… just so I could love them.

“I guess I was just angry.”

During critique, I was very surprised by one of my classmates. This last project was very personal, and spoke a lot about who we are as people. Mine revolved around travel and old vs. new. His revolved around the army.

Upon looking at his sculpture, I would not have felt as moved as I did after reading his artist statement. He said that out of anything he has accomplished in his life, joining the army was the only thing his mom was proud of him for… and it was his biggest regret.

“I regret being the man I became through the atrocities I’ve seen and the ones I’ve committed…that none of us will be held accountable for because it was in the name of God and country — A God I don’t believe in and a country that’s a sad perversion of the dream it was meant to be.”

Jesse is 27 and very dead inside. He is covered in tattoos and an art major because he want’s to be a tattoo artist. Upon meeting him I knew he was deeply broken, and didn’t know why. After this project it all makes sense. He said that he got blown up and got to call his mom, upon answering the phone she said, “you will never believe the week I’ve had.” He hung up and hasn’t talked to her since. I know a few other people who have served and since then cut ties with their families. I think the first step is coming to terms with that. Deep down inside they know they want to mend these relationships, and it’s possible.

I have never heard someone from the Army talk about how they believe it was wrong, how it was one of their biggest regrets. Our society creates a proud message to surround it… Is any of it real? How many ex-army members commit suicide because they cannot handle the trauma? We’re talking about the toughest of the tough here, and they can’t handle the memories even after they are safely home. He said that a 3rd member of his cabinet recently committed suicide. He said, “I guess I was just angry.”

Making this cabinet was his way of “hanging it up” and closing that door from his past. This cabinet is for them. I know it’s hard… but it’s important to share your story. I encourage you to read his. It took my breath away.

De Stijl – The Absence of Red

I’m starting to make art beyond assignments, which reminds me that I’m an artist. At RMCAD they were having a very low key student show with the theme of RED. I had an idea that I just could not resist so I stayed up until 3am the night before the show to do a painting.

Here’s a little background information on the De Stijl movement. It was a dutch movement that only lasted between 1917 and 1931. They used a series of geometric shapes (squares / lines / rectangles) and primary colors (red / yellow / blue). This movement was a search for the universal, as the individual was loosing their value. There is so much structure and balance in De Stijl work, including the golden ratio. A very notable artist is Mondrian, which several people use his name in replacement of “De Stijl” when they see similar work.

The golden ratio is present everywhere — the human face, nature, you name it. It’s a natural formula to make things subconsciously visually appealing. A is to B as A+B is to A. How many times can you find it in the Mondrian above?

This isn’t the first time I’ve altered the ideas of the De Stijl movement. Since the harmony and balance of the three primary colors is so critical, I like to remove that structure. The first time I did it, I mixed two of the colors to create a bright orange and only used orange. I called it “Chaos,” because it obstructs the intent of the movement. This time, I took out the red, and dripped it for good measure. My caption was, “let’s not lie to ourselves by pretending we are all whole.” We are all seeking, missing, something. The De Stijl movement was a way to create that wholeness through structure and balance. My take on it is almost interventionist.

and here is the other work which is much larger and on 4 panels, Chaos.

A Travelers Consistency

What if I told you that growing up, there were very few consistent things in my life? I moved around a lot; changing scenery, schools, routines, and people. The assignment was to create a cabinet of curiosity — something to house objects that tell a narrative. I wanted to create something meant to house me. The chair I designed and built is made to fit eighteen-year-old me perfectly, and all the previous younger and smaller versions of myself. This encompasses the goal of portraying a chair with a history of past, and present. The fact I did not sit in the chair for the final product serves as an element of future — I have come so far and have so much more traveling to do. My concept revolves heavily around the balance between change and consistency.

  

Let’s think about a chair. You sit in a chair when your legs are resting. You bring furniture with you to your next home instead of buying all new sets. The form of a chair, to me, is consistent. The chair I designed is unique in that it is not just a chair. It is meant to house objects that one would collect on their life journey over time. Inside the hidden drawer, there are old photographs, plane tickets, and receipts from foreign places that I have gone and tried new things. There are also a few notes scribbled to me by friends who I am no longer in touch with, and have no idea that I intend on keeping their notes until the end of time. All these things I have collected and hidden inside of this drawer as an element of consistency within the mist of change.

  

The other objects are also sentimental. Many people are afraid of the unknown, the cloth I have under the chair encourages comfort. The journals I’ve kept over the years as well as books I’ve collected sit together on the back shelf. The journal of a friend who has deeply impacted my life with her friendship and has asked me to be her bridesmaid sits on the end. The hardcovers serve as visual elements in that they are balanced and compliment the work as a whole in density and color, however the text inside them is what is most significant to me. The middle shelf holds a two jars of sand — one brought to me from Egypt by my mother and one from Florida from my best friend in 6th grade. The sand adds to the element of travel in that carrying a jar of sand is almost as if carrying another part of the world. The top shelf is home to objects such as lipstick, bullets, and perfume. All these things representing the growth of a young woman into someone strong, beautiful, and independent.

  

As a whole, my chair is a very modern design that still contains an old antique feel…this is achieved mainly through color and compliments my concept of the balance between old/new, change/consistency. A lot of math was used – including the golden ratio. The golden ratio is a way of adding hidden structure to a chaotic design and is a formula for making things visually appealing. The final product of this conceptual furniture is sentimental and full of nostalgia.

Interventions + Art

I have a friend who is working on a series of art pieces based around sex trafficking. It’s very uncomfortable just hearing her talk about it. She is using underwear, children’s underwear as well as women’s and making a series of sculptures. In a way, this is interventionist art, but in another sense, it is also strikingly obvious about the emotion and message she wants to convey. When I go see her show I’ll be sure to write it’s own post.

The idea of interventions are formed both by art and a broad range of cultural experiences. Some people associate interventions with “political art,” however with that term comes a significant amount of accompanying expectations. Political art is often thought of as a unilateral institutional critique. The common overpowering political text, graphic images and symbolism, and charged statements attacking the viewer are no longer truly adequate means of communicating. Interventions can be used in much more subtle yet effective ways, which is revealed to us in several instances.

The influence of culture has shown to be very powerful in more than just a few instances. In 1991 the underground band, Nirvana, reached number one on the pop charts officially making alternative music mainstream. Black, feminist, and queer culture began to follow. To put it into perspective, in 1915 an average person could easily go weeks without seeing a single advertisement, now the average person can see around three thousand a day. Just this morning I saw a video of my friends 2-year old saying that the letter R was “toys-R-us” when his mom held it up.

These changes in pop culture called artists to reconsider their tactics in order to be heard. There are two specific tools that were used. The first is detourné, which is re-arranging popular sign systems in order to produce new meaning. For example, “culture jammers” and popular magazines such as AsBuster began to recreate popular advertising to produce an underlying message, such as the McDeath logo taking a spin on the health behind McDonalds. 

This is a great example of a striking intervention, however is not as obvious as some ideas found in “political art.” The second tool was the dérive, developed by Baron Haussmann in the 19th century. This tactic was designed to resist the work and control-oriented design of Paris. The artist would jump over fences and walk in lines around the city in ways it was not designed for. The significance of public verses private is very evident through this tactic, which almost tries to tear down that boundary.

These tactics, as well as humor among other things were all used for redesign and application in the streets. Reclaim the Streets (RTS) was named for the protest of rules around dissent in London. Dancing, DJ’s, wild costumes, and pleasure were all introduced in combination with the newly booming rave culture. Interventions are not created purely by visual art and we can see that through Reverend Billy who was created after RTS. He would dress up and call himself Reverend Billy and then preach in various multinational corporations about consumerism. He was so significant that Starbucks added a manual for their users on what to do if Reverend Billy shows up.

As Krysztof Wodicko says, “Designers must work in the world rather than ‘about’ or upon it.” Wodiczko is also the artist behind the Homeless Vehicle Project in New York which was a critical point of departure for much interventionist political art in the 1990’s. Essentially, he focused on the issue of homelessness and created a user friendly place for both sleeping and can collection. Mobile architecture became a present element as well, where clothing became tools that activate the body as a place for politics. Lucy Orta was a fashion designer who came up with the notable Refuge Wear series of nomadic clothing. The changes in a bold culture, as well as issues within the culture, served as a vehicle for interventionists.

Interventional practices are part of a larger movement and do not work in isolation. The artists are constantly concerned with strategies and want results beyond aesthetic pleasure. By manipulating commonly seen items or advertisements within our culture, interventionists are able to produce a new kind of “political art,” which provides both the artist and the viewer a new sort of opportunity.

Don’t give up.

A few days ago, I went back to my old high school. I couldn’t help but to feel very overwhelmed in my heart as I drove up the street passing the part of the building where the cafeteria was. All thoughts about Vince Nett came to mind, in addition to the overwhelming amount of memories in just that part of the school.

Freshman year, knowing maybe one or two people… looking for someone to eat lunch with… feeling shy… nervous… afraid. The place to get last minute homework done before class. Long nights of poms practice in the cafeteria. The stress of not doing a move perfectly. The joy of finally getting the splits down. The spinning floor tiles after coming back inside from an intense run in the bright outdoors — or spinning wall bricks when trying to do more than a double pirouette. The place where I’ve made new friends, and eaten alone.

I spent 4 years of my life in and out of those four walls, and thats where he wanted to end his.

All the memories spun back, and I’m not sure I was prepared.

I know how he felt.

and I’m sorry.

Don’t give up, okay? The same day I went back, I left the StuCo room to go downstairs and visit Mrs. Winkle to tell her how much she meant to me and on the way down there was a kid sitting on the stairs with his head in his knees. I asked if everything was okay. He said yes. I asked if he wanted to talk. He said he was fine. I asked if he would like a hug. He said no thanks. I hugged him anyways. He smiled.

It made me think, how many times when we are desperate for help, do we deny it when it comes?

and how many of us offer up help and quit after the first attempt?

Don’t quit, and accept help when it comes, no matter how hard or how badly you don’t want to.

High school is hard, but you can’t deny the good times either.

These are pictures of my good times, but they aren’t the same for everyone — just remember that. Just because you aren’t in a sport, don’t have too many friends, don’t like school dances, don’t think you’re pretty enough, don’t get good grades, didn’t make captain, or WHATEVER, does not mean you are worthless.

Just promise that you won’t give up on this life you have been blessed with. Considering all the biological odds, the fact that you exist beautifully and perfectly you, is a miracle.

Restore Your Faith in Humanity

This is the first blog post I’m going to write about a person who wasn’t completely insane.

I had the privilege of sharing dinner / breakfast with an incredible individual. We talked for 4 hours just this night alone. First off, how many of you reading this have maybe lost faith in humanity? You feel as though everyone is selfish, don’t have any passions, are unmotivated, or just take up space while they are trying to figure things out? You feel like maybe there are no genuinely good people anymore (and if there are, it’s few)?

Well meet Adam! He will likely restore your faith in humanity.

Adam is one of a kind. He is not selfish, in fact, he is always giving! He’s always there for his friends, even strangers to him. It doesn’t matter, he will stay up on the phone with you until 6am just to make sure you’re alright. He genuinely cares about people. He brought me mango juice for really just…no reason because he’s NICE. I love mango. His heart, intellect, and character are in check. Not only that, but he genuinely cares about himself in a non-conceited way, too. After high school (which we are both SLHS alumni) he tried college twice and decided that his dreams and the plans set aside for him did not quite line up with college; so he became an entrepreneur. Now he is doing what he loves, which is helping others better themselves in the form of nutrition and fitness. He started his own business called Elevated Health and Fitness, like it on Facebook!

This man likes to start incredible things. He was a huge role in starting the original Day Without Hate and still plays a significant role today, and he worked to start the Gator Alumni group to help current students get through high school called REACH as well (which is how I met him). I think it’s evident that he is motivated, inspiring, and has a secret agenda to change the world. Recently, he’s been contacted to speak at a high schools day without hate assembly among other things. However, he is not defined by these accomplishments, he is defined by his heart. He has such a big heart for people and the world, and he is motivated to make a difference. We should all have something to learn from Adam. Mindset is key, and you have to believe in positivity. I hope this testimony of someone in my life will restore your own faith in humanity!