Hybrid/Futuristic Project: artist examples

A few nights ago, my roommate showed me the artwork of artist Tomory Dodge, who was Colorado-born, now L.A.-based.

The first image I posted, the colorful tree-like oil painting, is called "Survivor Type," measuring 80 x 71 inches. I like the bold, colorful brushwork in the foreground combined with the flat gradient sky-like background. There is something complex yet simple about his pieces.

A quick glance at the piece gives the viewer a simple understanding, that it is large, colorful, and abstract. Yet as ones eyes linger, you begin to see the purpose in the brushstrokes, the representational tendencies within the large brushstrokes. The subject matter. I'm sure seeing them in person is incredibly captivating.

Thanks to this website for the following bio summary:

"Tomory Dodge is interested in what happens when painterly and representational concerns collide. His paintings are formed by a mass of bold and fluid gestures, often thickly laid on in precise dashes or squeezed out directly from the paint tube. These marks have a sense of economy and intention independent of the images they constitute. Where Dodge's early expressionistic canvasses featured vacant arid landscapes, often hinting of human existence somewhere within the un-inhabitable climate, the artistís more recent works explores more fully the possibilities of abstraction in fields of limitless space."

Hybrid/Futuristic Project: Project ideas

Showing a contrast of my hopes and fears. Two worlds. The first being the futuristic combination of technology and a return to a greener simplicity. I imagined it being shown in a bubble, being protected, next to the other world, my fears of the future described in the previous blog. The world of fear would have advertisements all over, children living scandalous adult lives.

Hybrid/Futuristic Project: thoughts

When I think about our future, hopes, ideas, and fears come to mind: hopes of returning to what is most important; ideas of how we can get there; fears and ideas of what may happen instead. Possibilities seem endless.

Hopes: that we return to a greener, more sustainable, and ultimately more simple way of living. Technology being used for good. Food and agriculture being home-grown.

Ideas: Perhaps due to my Buddhism class, the I thought of was the idea of cycles, Samsara - meaning the endless cycle of birth and rebirth.

Fears: the glorification of all those self-gratifying components of the media. The obsession of "reality" that is really a complete of deviation or reality. Children growing up way too early. Advertisements, the tools of the media, gone awry..

May he Rest in Peace

Poor Michael Jackson. Just skimmed an article describing the current status of the case against his doctor who administered powerful sedatives to him in his last days.. Who knew THE icon of all time would be taken by modern medicine's prescription drugs?

Effects of one's thoughts on water

Anyone heard of Masaru Emoto's concept of how thoughts affect water?

Music These Days

While I've never been a huge fan of the general mainstream rap or hip-hop, there's always been a few songs I really liked. But for the most part, the songs I heard on the radio from elementary school onward served the purpose of being entertaining, whether it was funny like Shaggy's song about getting caught "banging on the bathroom floor", or if it was Afroman's song about getting high.

Back then, I thought those songs were great. How hilarious that someone makes a song about this kinda sh**! But now, after having worked with children in an after school program for a couple years and done a little research on the media's effect on children, I have a new perspective. Take for example, Lil Wayne's song "Every Girl." Here are the lyrics. Don't know if anyone else had a "WTF" moment with that song, but I know I did! I instantly picture all the little under 18 year old boys singing this as their personal anthems. To think about someone having made it in the music industry, only to popularize sex, drugs, and alcohol, is so disheartening.

It's hard enough to grow up in our society. The last thing our youth needs is filthy rich rappers preaching about how living extravagantly and unrestrained (in terms of addictions like money, sex, drugs, aclohol, women) is what's up, all because they themselves probably can't stand to fall asleep sober.....

Response to Bruce Mau

Wonderful concept. I wish more people were used to thinking of life and creativity in these terms. Here are a few that struck me.

14. Don’t be cool.
Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

(I wish middle/high school students were taught this)

21. Repeat yourself.
If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

(Someone once said something similar to me, but I believe it was in the context of a relationship. Either path you choose will lead you to growth, even though going back for another dose of _____ may not be fun.

39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.
Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces – what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference – the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals – but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

(Love this one. It sounds counter productive, but really isn't.)