Drift Experience

 Down below are the pictures I took for the drift project. At first I had no idea where to start. I didn't want to drift at the heart of downtown where casinos,traffic, and crowds of people due to the fact it could affect my concentration and focus from the task at hand. What better place to start than at a public park. I started my adventure at the Jones St. and Riverside Dr. intersection which was one of the few places where there's no charge for parking. From there I walk to Bicentennial Park where I got my inspiration from Charles Ginnever's sculpture "Gallop-a-pace" to take pictures of public art. I then made my way across the Truckee River to Barbara Bennet Park in which to my surpise found a painting of two figures playing tennis with one another on a garbage can of all places. Shortly after I went back to Bicentennial Park and made the decision to walk along Ralston St. where I stumbled upon some sort of railroad track tunnel which I was evidently standing on. Right under the fencing on the concrete there was multiple imprints of leaves. As I continued my drift I walked past a cool but weird looking public art bench called "Redirect Red 5" made by Bo Kempf. Just a block away or so I found a painting of a purple blossom with two words on the side that read "Random act" which pretty much sums up my action of taking the picture of it and the "random" location of the painting. My drift came to an end soon after ,once I realized nothing else appealed to me. All in all it was a eye-opening experience that I won't soon forget even though the people I tried to avoid, for example the crazy homeless people and the crack addicts which goes hand in hand at times, approached me and asked for money. It's a sad sight to see the state that these people are in. It really makes you feel sorry for them. In a happier note in my drift experience  I came to realize that art is virtually everywhere if you take the time to notice it.

Charles Ginnever's "Gallop-a-Pace" Sculpture



Painting of two figures playing tennis

(other figure is on the opposite side of the garbage can)

Imprint's of three leaves.

 Bo Kempf's public art bench "Redirect Red5"



   

A Painting of purple flowers that I walked

upon on a the wall of a building.

Visual Conventions

  John Taylor, who's a journalist hired by Leslie's Illustrated Gazette and Native Ameican artist Howling Wolf, a member of the Cheyenne tribe, both depict the signing of the peace treaty at Medicine Lodge Creek in Kansas. The peace treaty took place in October 1867 between several Native American tribes and the United States Government. Although both have drawn an image of the same event taking place, their point of view coming from two different cultures significantly contrast with one another. For example, Howling's depiction would be referred to as abstract art, whereas John Taylor's art would be referred to as representational art.
  Howling Wolf's colorful ledger drawing is drawn from a hilltop view point perspective in which he used pencil, crayon, and ink to make his art work. The identity of each seperate tribe and even each individual is revealed through the iconography of the decoration of their respective dress. Wolf depicts space by not limiting himself to the grove where the gathering took place, but by further expanding the view of the image. He drew many tipis, a horse, and the Medicine Lodge Creek which suggests the importance and the respect his cultue has for the environment.
  However in John Taylor's drawing he directs you to center of his image. His illustration is based on sketches done at the scene which may have had some influence to not use color but rather to use both light and shading to constuct a center and background to differentiate space. Unlike Wolf's image, John limited his view to the grove itself. In his drawing he potrays Native American tribes as one of the same with no identity. It's this depiction upon others that make his drawing ethnocentric which makes me believe that  he perhaps didn't feel each particular tribe had their own identity.
  Furthermore the absence of women in Taylor's depiction illustrates the insignificance women have in his culture at that time period. In Howlings depiction however he includes a large number of women, who are attentively sitting with their back to the viewer upon the signing of the peace treaty, which the women happen to be important figures in his culture.
  Even though the two images potray the same event it doesn't mean they tell the same story. At first glance it may seem it does, but the more you analyze it the more the story starts to unfold. In this instance the point of view of two different cultures is how the story is told even if they contrast with one another.
 

Faith Ringgold

  Faith Ringgold is an African-American woman, who began her artistic career more than 35 years ago as a painter. She has exhibited in numerous major museums around the world. Throughout the years she has written and illustrated children's books. Her first book she wrote was called "Tar Beach" which received numerous awards and honors. Today, she is knowned for her painted story quilts which by the name alone tells you that the art combines painting, storytelling, and quilted fabric of your choice. Her painting "God Bless America" to me embodies what role #4 depicts. "God Bless America" relates to the universal truths of the political and social issues that African-Americans have endured during that time period which personally she felt compelled to address. The painting itself was painted during the Civil Rights movement in 1964 where white prejudice against African American was enforced by the legal system. The painting represents the imprisonment of the American Flag. The star on the flag symbolizes a sheriff's badge and the stripes on the flag symbolizes the bars of a jail cell. The white woman is potrayed as a racist who is denying blacks the right to vote. The woman herself is a prisoner of her own bigotry.

"God Bless America"



Quilting as an Art Form Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lia6SFTOeu8

Faith Ringgold-Art Collection:
 http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/collect.htm

Thy Will be Done

  Chester Arnold was born in Santa Monica, California in 1952. He received private schooling from 1966 to 1970 in Munich, Germany and soon after he attended College at Marin in Kentfield, California for four years. He later received an M.F.A. from the San Franscisco Art Institute in 1987. He was influenced by German painters such as Caspar Friedrich and  Albrecht Altdorfer. His first couple of artwork he painted were based the transformation of Cities and Landscapes by the effects of comtemporary culture. As far as his most recent paintings, they are based on his concerns of exploration and exploitation that humanity are having on the environment.
  I have never been to an Art Museum before or did I know that there was one here in Reno of all places.When Candace Nicol announced that the class was going on a field trip to the Nevada Museum of Art, I got excited because it's been a long time since I've been on field trip. The day finally arrives to meet at the Art Museum. As I walk into Chester Arnold's " On Earth as it is in Heaven" exhibit, I was overwhelmed with excitement kind of like a little kid at a candy store. I didn't know where to start, so I ventured off into the Artists mind as i scan through his artwork from portrait to potrait. To my surprise, his oil paintings at first glance seemed rather simplistic and hollow with not much to it.
  That all changed when I walked upon an oil painting that got my attention and interested me called "Thy Will be Done" respectively. It stood out from the rest because of the graphic and dark nature of it. There was so much to comprehend that I had to take a step back and dissect each individuals' action in the painting. At first glance I thought of the Holocaust because of the pit in the painting where the jews were burned and buried in. I later found out when I actually started to do research on Chester Arnold that he drew inspiration from the German Expressionists' shift to naturalism during the same time that the Holocaust began. However once I opened my mind and started to look at the big picture, I realized there was more to it than meets the eye. The scenery is that of a baron muddy wasteland with little foliage or signs of life other than the people of course. There were people in body bags being carried inside storage trailers to be dumped in the pit, there were also drunken men, construction workers, slaves, basically people from all walks of life.
  To me it was evident that the painting "Thy Will be Done" depicts complete chaos. A world without order and no sense of direction. It speaks out how dim the future for humanity would end up looking like if we don't change our ways. I understand that there is an end to everything when the time comes, but it seems to me we are only speeding up the process and taking everything else with us. When our time comes that's when the world ends.


Sources:
1. Nevada Museum of Art
2.http://lindahodgesgallery.com/artists/arnold.html
3.http://tamarind.unm.edu/bios/arnoldbio.html