art 21

SALLY MANN
immediate family-pictures of her 3 kids
landscape pictures
use art to express spirituality
the pictures of her kids, especially the ones without clothes, appeared shocking and exploitative to some viewers

MEL CHIN
SPAWN- Detroit houses burned down, plan to use this as a way to represent rebirth via devil's night crawlers
video game representing arabic tribes by use of real rug design and patterns
planting special kinds of plants into toxic soil that leeches metal so that other plants can grow and then can be burned for metal

JAMES TURRELL
roden crater-place where you can feel rotation of the earth
live oak friends meeting house
work is about the experience of being one with the universe, being part of the atmosphere, the closeness of the sky, and the way we experience and interact with light

GABRIEL OROZCO
photographs what he sees, show communication and interaction
reconstructed car with new vanishing point
pottery-clay
doesn't consider himself an expert in anything, uses basic forms
games

twelve

I found this picture at home one weekend.

My dad is seventy years old now. This is a picture of him when he was in his early forties. As long as I've known him, he hasn't ever looked young like this to me.

I don't think this picture is art. I think my older sister snapped the shot to finish off a roll of camera on her film; I think my dad was there and I think his pants coincidentally match the drapes and the light coming in through the window lights him up like that by mistake. But I love this picture. So even if it isn't art, it is still valuable.

eleven

I am kind of obsessed with drift wood. My friends and I went camping once and we all found pieces of driftwood and wrote poems out on them as displayed them at an art show at a community college by my house. I found this one at Point Lookout State Park and was drawn to its shape, the curve, and the way it feel more tactile than others that I'd seen.

Driftwood is interesting because, by nature, we don't know really where it came from. Or where it's headed. We can hold onto to it temporarily but eventually it will get to be somewhere else. Eventually it will warp and shrink and the words we've written upon it will fade, get soaked into the wood, evaporate. It is symbolic of everything that's worth anything in this world. What I like about art is that sometimes it is more permanent than other things. We look at cave paintings and we study Ka statues and all of that has outlived its creators and will outlive us.

ten

I found these guys in the parking lot behind Caroline. Again, I am not sure what they are supposed to be but they look like abstracted human torsos. When I found the first one, I thought about collecting all of the ones I could find, filling up an entire shoebox and keeping them under my bed for the next few years. But, I didn't find any others for a long time.

Then the other day, I found another one and decided to scan them in for this. I am interested in the way I see them as pieces of a human form, but that is only because I look to make things human. I think all humans do that. I wonder what a dog or a bear or a horse or an alien would see. Also, I really like that the guy on the left has a chest cavity.

nine

I found this keychain at Point Lookout State Park. I saw it, golden, glinting in the winter sun on the side of the road, bent down, and picked it up. It is the exact keychain that my grandfather gave me to put my car keys on when I was fourteen years old and incidentally had no car keys. A week after my grandfather gave this keychain to me, he passed away and I will always think about the last thing that ever passed from his hand to mine. A Trump Taj Mahal casino keychain from Atlantic City, given to him as one of the many gifts to regular patrons who reguarly lose money.

I lost my keys in a movie theater in Washington DC a year ago and with them, this keychain. To find something that could be it and is exactly like it made me feel strangely in touch with the memory of my grandfather. Like maybe I was meant to hang onto this thing. This time, I won't lose it.

eight

I found this in the parking lot behind Caroline Dorm. I find it interesting because of the way it looks somewhat like a feather from an animal, but actually it is manmade material. I am not sure what it is used for but I think it has something to do with the parking lot.

It is really interesting looking, which I why I chose it. I wouldn't consider this object to be art but if it was used or taken in a different context then maybe it could be.

seven

Cigarette butts are probably not art. But they are everywhere. Even on a campus that prides itself on sustainability, efficacy, and worldliness, these little pieces of trash are everywhere. But they're more than trash. It's a living, unintentional work of community art that is added to and subtracted from every day. The presence of these things speaks to our own sense of entitlement as well as laziness and a disregard for our own health. There are cigarette disposal bins on the side of literally every building.  So why do they all end up on the ground? And it's not just here. Cigarette butts have become a fixture of the American landscape. If Thomas Cole was alive today, I'm sure they'd be included in his paintings. 

six

I found this light on the way down to Church Point. I think that the light is not necessarily art by any means. It may be interpreted as beautiful, but alone, it isn't art. To me, art is something that is intended and a sunset is some kind of natural instinct. But, this image drew my attention to things that exist in nature that can easily be sources for art.

Artists often depict the sun. Lightsource is one of the most important considerations in drawing, painting, photography, and other media. However, it can't become art unless someone intends it to be that. Maybe. I am still trying to come to terms with this idea.

mark napier

Mark Napier is the creater of "Shredder 1.0." This is an interactive work of art that allows the viewer to enter a web address into the system and watch as it jumbles the site. Shredder "literally deconstructs the site, slicing and dicing its text, imagery, and source code to form abstract compositions."

I got super carried away and shredded every site that I go to (my blog, friends' blogs, school website, email, etc.). It was really fun but after a while it kind of freaked me out. It's like when you're a kid and you see someone dressed in a suit of one of your favorite characters. You might know on some level that it's not real, but once you see the zipper, you're crushed. This is like seeing the zipper on all of my favorite websites.

five

I found this street sign on the way home from the beach. I found it significant enough to pull over and take this picture because of the Bruce Springsteen song "Thunder Road."

Street signs are a part of everyone's lives. They are something that we rely on, look for, and use even if we don't know where we are going. But, when a place becomes familiar enough, we no longer need to look for the names on the signs. In that way, street signs become unnecessary to many of us.

Street signs are definitely not art, but they can be something more than street signs. I don't know who named this road "Thunder Road" and I know that it probably has nothing to do with the song. However, because of this allusion, it becomes something worth looking at, or at least serves as a reminder that sometimes street signs can be more than just street signs.

raqs media collective

Raqs Media Collective Operates on an online platform that allows artists to upload their work. Then, work is mixed together to create what they call a "recsension," or a sort of remix of many artists work into one, new work. Raqs Media Collective operates on the principle of appropriation, that is, the borrowing of already existing art to create new, different art.

"From Dada to Pop, and from found footage film to hip hop, appropriation has become an increasingly important strategy for artists of all stripes."

four

I found this tree by Church Point. This tree was interesting for a lot of reasons. What first drew me to it was the way in which it seems to allude to Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and her description of a tree outside of the manor that looks as if it is "taking alms from the sun" which is how this appeared to me. Additionally, because of the time of year and the lack of leaves on the tree, it seems to be stretching towards the sun for nourishment.

I also like this tree because of how it is somewhat conventionally ugly. I love things in nature that are ugly. I love that nature makes certain things ugly, or that we perceive things as ugly. I think "ugly" also usually means "interesting." This tree is sort of sad in that way, too. You wouldn't take your wedding pictures under it and you definitely wouldn't want to have a picnic under it. You also wouldn't be particularly drawn to hang out by it because it doesn't function as much more than a scar on the face of a picture of an endless sky like this one.