...fantastic fungal organisms...

Natural vibrancy of orange, purple, and green--my favorite combination of hues.

        While working on a community collaborative art piece I noticed that people have the tendency to be reluctant about making art, and especially around others. That there always seems to be a stigma of whether their work will be 'good' or 'bad.' I say, "compared to what?" The natural tendency for wanting to feel accepted is a deterrent from the process of making art; as opposed to viewing art for its ability to open your mind, to explore your thoughts in new ways, to play with the physics and chemistry behind mixing pigments and solvents, to expand local consciousness, to express yourself, to just have fun completing a lighthearted task, or heavyhearted if thats what it becomes for you. Art speaks so loudly through the nature of the process. The product is only just a work in progress anyway...just trying to capture a moment in time...but time keeps moving, and so must art.
       This realization has made me even more excited about spreading the creative outlet to the masses. Why shouldn't you make art? And don't tell me it's because you can't. I believe that there is art in everything, so then, saying that 'anyone can make art' is the same as 'anyone can make.' We all know that anyone can make. A baby makes a poop, a mechanic makes a motor, a clean freak makes a tidy atmosphere, a cook makes a meal, a doctor makes a person well, a cat makes a meow. All of these products are reflective of the maker. Whether 'good' or 'bad' is not the issue. The endeavor itself speaks. This, in my opinion, is all art. Because the process of having a vision and seeing it through, no matter whether it turns out the way you intended or not, is art. It definitely won't always turn out how you intended. And, with practice, the process is able to get you that much closer to the original vision each time you set out to make. But art is always there, it just depends on the way you choose to view what's around you, what's inside you, or what's not. Art isn't about judgment. Its not about right or wrong. Art spreads ideas, introduces the new, the different. It is surprising. It is the inter-workings of the mind unveiled through a process that the person who is making sets up all on their own; and most of the time, without even realizing. It is a medium to which you speak in very subtle ways and, in turn, it speaks back just as softly; but don't think that it doesn't have the ability to get loud. Art is binary with nature. It is powerful; art teaches, art heals, art understands, and most importantly, art has the astounding ability to covalently bring people together in sharing wonderful experiences. Art is life.
       It is for these reasons that people should have no fear in sitting down with others to look through their creative windows together. And maybe also this will encourage the imagination whilst alone. There is beauty in the bigger picture of art, no matter how the smaller marks reflect what is 'beautiful' for anyone around to see it. And furthermore, just because you don't 'like' it, doesn't mean its not beautiful. Your process is your own. No one else has to understand because art already does.

For this next project being a performance piece, I have come up with a couple loose ideas of which I am hoping to be able to work out the kinks. For the first idea I am kind of really stepping outside of my element, however feel that it could be a great thing for my artistic practice to do so. I have been focusing much thought on gender roles and biases lately. Within central African art history, research about feminine perspectives, representations, and roles within society has caused me to wrap my own feminist brain around these ideas to form opinions about the similarities and differences between genders, however, difficult when judging that of another culture. I’ve mainly come to find a large grey area shared between male and female genders of which I personally see no reason for a bias or role depiction at all. The culture I happened to study within central Africa has a ritual in which a male creates a feminine spiritual mask and then dresses up as a female, thus performing in front of a group of females his opinion of the “ideal” woman. A female in the crowd is then able to challenge this ideal if she believes that the masked man is not adequately representing the feminine role. This being said, one proposed idea I have for my performance piece is to somewhat mimic the mukanda masquerade ritual, however, do so by wearing a strap on penis over my clothes whilst doing various tasks. Some tasks may be random things I like to do such as climb a tree, drink hot tea and others strictly suggesting gender specific roles like cooking, cleaning, etc. I don’t think I will lean toward either sex, however, act as if within the grey area shared by men and women. Hopefully the strap on will enhance the concept of the piece, in that, it is a sexual item of which I plan to not even acknowledge.

Conversely, I have another idea of which has not developed as far but could have potential for this piece. This concept is completely unrelated to the other and rests more along the lines of sustainability. I am very infatuated by the cosmos and have learned of our search for another place within the universe to set up home due to our insolent pollution speeding up the Earths natural decaying process. Though I do love space very much, I would find it incredibly unfortunate to have to desolate this wonderful planet. This has brought to me a couple of performance ideas, however, they would need to be developed a bit more. One was to either wear a fishbowl full of polutants over my head to represent that of an astronaut in a sense or moreso to depict the horrible toxins we take in every day due to pollution. Or a gas mask may work better in order to signify the damage we have done to the air on our own planet as well as what it would be like to have to wear a breathing device at all times on another. Not exactly sure, but definitely still brainstorming and want to ultimately create an interesting as well as somewhat ambitious performance piece.      

SoundScape Idea: I think I'd like to create a scene in which different cultural sounds on this earth are overlapping, in a way that sometimes feels fluid but mostly clashes, then there are sounds that imply dispute and horrible things that happen between cultures worldwide, and then a transition to sounds that elude to an imaginary planet or existence of peace and tranquility. Id plan to transition into this peaceful atmosphere and slowly begin to add in the cultural sounds from before, this time in a way that they fit together seamlessly and the sounds work together in order to create harmony. 

The other idea that I now have, and think I am most likely going to pursue, is a sound piece in which all of the noises are made by my own mouth. Something that I feel is personal to myself. Also as another addition to the concept theme I sort of have going in this class consisting of reverting to childish ways and playfulness and such.

We watched Dexter: Season 5 Episode 6
Pan: 3:33
Tilt: 5:34
Zoom: 2:29 and throughout the entire intro
Dolly/Truck: 6:32; 9:22
Pedestal: 2:59; 20:02
Arc: 5:42
Birds eye: 15:50
High: 3:53
Eye level: 8:15
Low: 7:57
Crane: 15:58; 17:52
Aerial: 7:44

I came up with a couple ideas for this project. One being to build an indoor fort out of sheets and blankets to fill a 6x6 area and utilizing this space as a safe haven. The other was to video my best friend whom is a dancer and show a silent music video in which the music can be heard through her movement. I then decided to merge these two ideas and film her dancing within an indoor fort! I plan to depict her resorting to childish ways inside of this safe place of which she has created.