Week 15 – Featured Artist – Troy Rounseville

 This week I was fascinated with Troy Rounseville’s gallery! Upon seeing a drum and a keyboard before even entering, I knew it was going to be interesting! These amazing contraptions that Troy put together seemed rather sophisticated and super cool looking!

There were chords and wires everywhere and it all connected in the middle! The entire set up of the gallery just looked amazing and was totally different than anything we’ve seen at the galleries this semester.

I also love the fact that Troy addresses the affects of technology on human experience and expression. Technology has definitely changed our lives tremendously, in good ways and bad. It was interesting to think about how it affects human interaction and emotion, specifically. I think emotions and feeling can definitely go through some type of transformation when filtered through computers or cellphones. And I definitely don’t think that face to face experiences can be truly captured once filtered through digital media. It is just not the same.

I absolutely loved this gallery! It might have been my favorite one this year! Thanks Troy!

Week 15 – Student Interview – Rachel Price

This week I got to interview Ms. Rachel Price! She is a psychology major from Cypress, California. She went Los Alamitos High School where she played soccer. Her hobbies include watching movies, surfing and long boarding. She is in he second year at CSULB and is not quite sure what she wants to do as a career in the future. However, she knows that she would like to work with children. Rachel has an older brother who is also a student at CSULB. He is 21 and is studying mechanical engineering. It was nice chatting with Rachel! 🙂 Too bad I forgot to take her picture! 😦

Week 14 – Featured Artist – Jeff Dulla

Jeff Dulla’s piece, titled “Cyclical Nature”, was quick to catch my eyes. All the beautiful colors and contrasts in this piece are so beautiful and made this piece stand out amongst the rest. This painting reminded me of something you would see in a Tim Burton film (which I am a huge fan of). It has a very whimsical feeling, while seeming a bit dark and mysterious all at the same time. I love everything about this piece. Thanks for sharing Jeff! 🙂

Week 14 – Student Interview – Lindsey Karasawa

This week I interviewed Lindsey Karasawa, a 19-year-old, nutrition/dietetics major. She is from Cypress and is in her second year at CSULB. Her interest in food science led her to study nutrition. She enjoys this course of study because she feels as if she can implement what she learns into her own life, while helping others. Her hobbies include makeup artistry and hanging out with her friends and family as much as possible. She also like basketball and has played since she was a child. She has two younger siblings, a 14-year-old sister and a 16-year-old brother. Since they’re pretty close in age, she says that they have grown to be very close and are good friends. Lindsey was incredibly nice and a pleasure to talk to. I wish her the best in her future endeavors! 🙂

Week 11 – Student Choice!

For this week’s student choice activity, my project was basically chosen for me! I was at the fabric store with my five-year-old son, searching for new fabrics for a particular project I had in mind. We walked past the Halloween fabrics, specifically, the Angry Birds Halloween fabrics. BAM! I knew I was doomed. He quickly chose his favorite fabric and asked me to make him a Halloween Angry Bird’s blanket. I didn’t mind too much since the fabric was discounted anyway! However, since the fabric was not suitable to make a blanket, I talked him into an exciting new pillow case! I sew quite often but have never made a pillow case. I figured it would be incredibly easy, quick, fun to make, and my son would love it.

Ta-daaaa!

Week 11 – Artist Feature – Romina Del Castillo

This week I decided to focus on the works of Romina Del Castillo. Her artwork features a lot of black and white with small, subtle pops of colors. I chose this specific piece called Shifting Focus. I chose it because of the realness it portrays. The woman in the drawing seems to be a woman of color, possibly of a lower socio-economic class. She is lying nude on her bed in a very relaxed pose, with an expression of indifference on her face. Del Castillo drew the woman’s body in a manner that appears to be very honest. The woman’s body looks like the body of an average woman, in her 30’s or 40’s, and in no way reflective of the photoshopped images that we have become accustomed to. This pose was often used in history to portray women of wealth and status. This drawing really captures a shift of focus. Thanks Romina!

Week 11 – Student Interview – Oscar Rocha

Oscar is a twenty one year old CSULB student, currently in his third year. He went to Huntington Park High School, where he played football all four years. He is a sociology major and is also minoring in business. He is very active in his fraternity, Kappa Sig, and really enjoys it. Oscar listens to rap music and mentioned that Notorious BIG is one of his favorite rappers. He enjoys socializing with friends and going out for drinks whenever he can! It was nice meeting Oscar Rocha!

Week 10 – Landscapes with a Corpse

Death is not such a scary concept to me. This may be because I’m young and not expecting it any time soon. I understand that we will all experience it one day.

For this project I decided to portray a suicide scenario. I’m not exactly sure why I did this, considering I’m not or have ever been depressed or suicidal. For some reason, I really wanted to do a bloody, slit wrist, bathtub picture. I thought it would make for a great picture. But, I rent and didn’t want to make a huge mess in my landlord’s bathroom So, prescription drug overdose had to suffice.

Week 10 – Artist Feature – Almira Nikravesh

This week I am a featuring a piece created by Ms. Almira Nikravesh: a square box made of pennies. This piece was actually really neat to see in person. The colors of the pennies and the reflection of the light made it look really cool. It really made me think of pennies a bit differently. The penny, being the lowest valued form of American money, is often disregarded. For example, would you stop in the middle of the street to pick up a penny if you saw it lying in the road? Probably not. However, seeing all these pennies made me think, ‘wow, there’s probably a significant amount of money in that box made of all those pennies’. The idea is so simple, yet so interesting at the same time. I love that she also named this piece Honest Abe, and listed the materials as “Time & Money”. So cool!

Week 10 – Student Interview – Ariadna Rivera

Ariadna is a hospitality management major from Long Beach. She is 20 years old and is in her 3rd year at CSULB. After graduation, she hopes on getting a job with a hotel that allows her to travel or own her own business. One of Ariadna’s hobbies includes finding cute clothing boutiques or mom-and-pop stores or restaurants. She also is an exceptional swimmer! She even received a scholarship for swimming for a school in Florida. She turned it down because she has been swimming since she was a child, and felt a bit burnt out on it. Also, her family wanted her close by. Ariadna is a sweet girl and I wish her the best of luck in her future!