5 "Body" artists

Robert Gober incorporates the body into everyday domestic objects that someone could find in their house. He uses sculpture in a way that looks as if the body part is meant to be there because he blends it with whatever object he is using. Gober doesn't present the whole body only pieces of it but the viewer still gets the essences that a figure is there. For example in one of his pieces he features a sink but instead of having knobs he puts two legs. 

Untitled
Ana Menadieta

Kiki Smith

Tony Oursler

Fruit
Tim Hawkinson

Untitled
Robert Gober

Ana Mendieta features the human body in her work but in a more eerie way. In some of her work she presents it as if the body "were"  there but is now gone indicating that the person is possibly dead. In other work she covers that human body with material from nature to make it look as if it became a part of the earth but the body outline is still very prominent.  Mendieta's work is very interesting and leaves the viewer with a different feeling because of her difference portrayal of the human body. 

Tim Hawkinson uses the human body in his work by exaggerating body parts or multiplying them.  A great deal of his work features hands and fingers but in a way that gives different meaning to them.  Hawkinson does work in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation and sound. His work tells a story and I believe encourages the viewer to look at human body parts in different ways then what they are normally used for. Beyond that the size of his work can fill a room which also makes a statement in itself. 

Tony Oursler's work is focused more on the human face and in a comical way. He exaggerates the features of a face such as the eyes, nose, and lips. Oursler doesn't necessarily stay true to the human face normally is but instead takes separate features and makes his own interpretation. I think his intention is to have to viewer look at the human body in a humorous way and also to make us realize that we should embrace things we have see as flaws on our body. Oursler's work is very interesting and is like nothing I have seen before. 

Kiki Smith does such a beautiful job at sculpting the human body but each of her works, I feel, has a different story about the body. She is very good at featuring the body in different positions which, gives the viewer a whole new dimension or outlook on the body. Some of her work is of a human form emerging out of another living creature which, creates a story that may have different meaning to each viewer. Smith's work features the body in a concrete way but also makes the viewer think deeper about what she is portraying .

AHRC Project

In my Living and Learning Community we recent got an assignment that entails creativity. Our class was broken into small groups mine has four including myself. We each received a blank canvas and basically have free range to do whatever it is we like, the only thing is that our group has to have a common theme among us and we have to incorporate the campus read, “ The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”. The main object that the book is set around is a windmill that is built by William (the main character in the book) who literally constructs it from looking at a picture in a book.

The windmill William constructed.

With this in mind my group had our jumping off point, we knew we wanted to include a windmill somehow on each of our canvases. This meant we would need a background and we each agreed that we wanted to integrate photography somehow. We had the idea of taking black and white shots of Boise and the BSU campus and use this as the setting for our windmills. Each of us would take our own photos and all have different backgrounds so to speak.  After we mounted these photos on our canvases (14” x 18”) we each could put in place out own interpretation of the windmill using whatever medium we like. All of them will be done in landscape and when we are finished we will display them side by side in the hall. (I will include more pictures when we get started.)

Spam!

Well I can now officially say that I have carved at object out of Spam. This is unlike any other art midterm I have ever had to complete before but I would accept this over a test anyday. At first when we were asked if we would rather work with Spam or soap I initially thought soap was the way to go. However, after thinking about it for a few minutes and knowing that we would have manipulate them in some way or another I knew that Spam would probably be the better choice.

"Tea Time"

The Spam Contest Winner!
By: Savanna Barnett

After we got our official assignment on Tuesday I was glad I stuck with my choice Spam seeing as we were going to have to carve something. The hardest part about this whole assignment was trying to figure out which object to carve in the first place. Spam is an odd shape so some of my initial ideas went out the widow. Finally, I had an idea in place! With a steak knife and exacto knife in hand it started carving away at my Spam. It was fairly easy to carve I just had to be careful that I didn't cut away too much. After I got the shape that I wanted I rubbed the Spam to give it a smoother look. At last my Spam tea-cup was complete. Hope I have a shot at the prize! I'm looking forward to seeing the my classmates creations.

"The Paper Bag Test"

Last Thursday I left Francoise Duressé’s lecture in amazement of all that she has been through and the inspiration behind her work. Her recent work is title "The Paper Bag Test"; I had no idea this title held so much substance but as she spoke about her life it became clear. The "Paper Bag" test was an actually test at one point in history where a Black person's skin was held again a paper bag to determine if they could be accepted into certain schools. If their skin was darker than the paper bag they were looked down upon and were not accepted and but if their skin was lighter they were in the clear, so to speak. This held great meaning to Francoise because she has been ridiculed her whole life for the color of her skin. At the age of 14 she was brutally attacked by Neo-nazi skin heads and was in the hospital for a year and a coma for three days. Beyond that, she hears about her skin color from her grandmother on a regular basis who doesn't accept it. 

Her work really embodies the struggle, that still exists today, with race and the judgement of others that is based purely on the color of their skin. Franocise described a process she uses to literally beat up the canvas, which creates nice texture, but also symbolizes the anger that she still has towards her attackers. This particular series features mixed media. She also has various Black characters that are repeated throughout her work and in different ways represent who she is. I truly enjoyed learning about her work and not only does it hold great meaning but it has such great depth with layers of color and texture. 

Basque Culture

Lauburu

Coral Ikurrina Earrings

This semester I'm talking Basque and recently I had to look deeper into their culture and from that I came across a design company, Ahizpak Designs. It was started by two sisters who come from a Basque background and their work features décor, jewelry, paintings and other arts featured around Basque symbolism and culture. I thought I would share it because their work is really beautiful and the Basque culture really shines through. Maite and Izar, (the two sisters who created Ahizpak Designs) would have never created their business Ahizpak Designs it weren’t for Boise. Boise is the largest Basque community outside of the Basque Country and the two sisters come from a Basque background.

Carved Lauburu

Maite, the older sister works with pottery, jewelry and interior design where as Izar, paints and does graphic design. Izar actually designed the logos for the Oinkari Basque Dancers and the Cenarrusa Center for Basque Studies here in Boise. Although, there aren’t a great deal of Basque symbols that doesn’t stop the sisters from using their creativity in designing modern ways to approach the Basque culture. The symbol that is repeated quite a bit in Ahizpak’s work is a spirally looking design that has four petals (as seen in the picture). After doing some research I found that this lauburu or a Basque cross.  Lau buru means, “four heads”, “four ends” or “four summits” in Basque. The lauburu is seen as a symbol of prosperity but Imaol Mujica, a Basque intellectual liked to say that the four heads meant spirit, life, consciousness and form. Their work doesn’t only feature this symbol but also photographs from the Basque Country along with paintings of Basque dancers. Until this class I never really realized how big the Basque culture was here and its something that I’m glad we can embrace as a community. It’s not every day that art I look has such great historical meaning behind it and for that reason I’m glad it influenced these sisters to start this business.

"Uztai"

Contemporary Judaica

Myrtle Hadas
(spice box)
by: Anika

Until yesterday I had never heard of the art form contemporary Judaica but was very intrigued by the work. Initially, I was a confused about the meaning behind these pieces that we saw in the gallery by Anika Smulovitz. Her main medium of work is metal; she has a large interest in silversmith and in the Jewish culture, which is essentially what makes up her work. Anika states that contemporary Judaica allows her to examine current issues through Jewish tradition. It was easy to see that she had a history of working with metal because her craftsmanship was really beautiful.

Prayer shawl / Apron

I found out a lot about Jewish tradition and contemporary Judaica from Daniel Belasco in the lecture. I never realized that there were so many traditions and rituals that were apart of the Jewish religion. I find it interesting that artists, like Anika, are now creating pieces that serve both as art but have great meaning and can be used in these traditions. This type of artwork serves multiple purposes, which is very innovative in its own right. One of the pieces that Belasco talked about was that of a prayer shawl used in the Jewish prayer but also doubled as an apron. I thought this was very clever, Belasco explained that the artist, Rachel Kanter, who was also a mother, wanted to stay true Jewish tradition but also needed something practical. I really enjoyed learning about contemporary Judaica, this an art form that is definitely becoming more popular and is extremely interesting.  

Untitled (Hanukah Menorah)
by: Anika

4. Wayne Thiebaud

I was having a hard time trying to figure out who else to write an artist blog on when I thought of a painting that I saw in the De Young Museum in San Francisco  two summers ago. The painting was of three gum ball machines and I remeber loving this piece when I saw it in the museum. I couldn't remember the artist's name so I did a Google search and sure enough the painting popped up and I came across the artist Wayne Thiebaud. Thiebaud, is a famous American Painter and he is known for his work during th Pop Art movement. He paints things like cakes, candy, pastries, lipstick, ect. objects that are of intrest to the mass culture. In his paintings he likes to used very vibrant and heavy pigments as well as casting extremely defined shadows in his work.



"Three Machines"

One of the reasons I like his paintings is because I love color and he is not shy when it comes to the use of color. There is a simplicity to his work, he uses very defined  and crisp lines. Theibaud also pays attention to symmetry and his work never feels off balance, which I appreciate.  I like that he paints objects from popular culture cause I can relate to the these objects that he features but he also puts his own flair on them.  Overall I think his work is refreshing and fun, it reminds me of memories from my childhood and thats always enjoyable.

"Boston Creames"

"Cakes"

t-shirt cutting & weaving.

When I attended to the first BSU I saw a bunch of girls who had cut and weaved their  game day t-shirts in all sorts of styles. I was instantly inspired and wanted to try it out with one my t-shirts. Plus, I  figured it was something creative that I could blog about and share the steps. I went in search of "how to do t-shirt cutting and weaving" on YouTube and luckily I came across the style I wanted.

Before

Cutting the slits in a triangle shape
down the back.

the results after weaving

The final
product!

I first started off by trimming off the top of the shirt, so it would fall off the shoulder, and then I trimmed my sleeves shorter. Next I had to fold my shirt in the middle going down the back of the shirt vertically; this is where the cuts were made. I cut slits in a triangle shape starting wide at the top of the back and coming to a point and little past the middle of the shirt. The slits were about the width of a pinky finger. After the cutting was all complete I wove all of the strands together by taking the strand and pulling it under the strand above it and than over. I continued this process with all the strands until I got to the bottom. My shirt was now complete and I love the results!

In Progress

Sketches

Large sphere in progress

Project 2 is well on its way and so far I'm feeling pretty confident in the direction Im going. I have gotten good reactions in class which, reassures me that it will be a successful piece. I have only completed one  2 spheres of coffee filters and I'm trying to decided where I want to go with it next. One is medium size the other is smaller and I'm in the middle of making a fairly large one.

Project 2 in progress

The point I'm at right now is trying to decide whether I should stack spheres on coffee filters on top of each other or should I just connect them in a random fashion. Or should I even have them connected at all? I have also had ideas of making other shapes too, and not just spheres. I think I would be cool to make a cube however, I'm not sure I can pull it off so that it looks good. As you can see there is still a lot to consider but I have a direction and I'm going with it. I kind of just make things up as I go, thats when I feel I do my best work instead of trying to plan it precisely.