Entry 2

                 Michael Salter was something! Quite a presentation I have to say. I sincerely and honestly say this was one presentation that really grabbed me. At first, I had the attitude “mmm k yeh another professor another presentation remember some stuff for the blog blah blah.” Boy was I wrong! The way he gave the presentation, his attitude, his word choice (excellent word choice!) it was just simply perfect.

Painting I made by listening to music

                Ok enough of my mindless babble, I’ll get serious now and actually talk about the content of his presentation. Salter’s presentation was extremely visual;  280 slides of pictures, you can’t get any more visual than that. What really grabbed me  in the presentation was when he talked about how he is influenced by what he sees. He absorbs all the images that are out there in the world, thinks about them, and then creates a piece that echoes that of which he has absorbed. I can relate to Salter in this area. However, instead of being influenced by what I see, I am influenced by what I hear. Sound is my media. Did you ever try to put sound on canvas? What I do is I plug my headphones in and I listen to music, and I draw what I hear; the images that manifest from the sound. You should try it, it's trippy.

Another painting I created through sound

                In addition, I also found another uncanny similarity between me and Michael. We both used to be people pleasers and are no longer. He mentioned that he no longer cares about trying to create something in order to sell it, but instead, he creates something for the sake of creating it; because he can. I am much like that. Back when I was younger, I cared about what people wanted and what people thought; how to fit in. But I realized I was killing myself slowly. I honestly do what I do because I want to, and not because I am expected to. Ironically, I have more friends now, then back when I was trying to please everyone. This can also be applied to art. One must let art conform to him, and not let himself conform to the art. I mean what’s so cool about drawing a person with extremely technicality with no imagination? I bet you this cake in the background that my 3 megapixel phone camera can probably do a better job.  But, when you add creativity, wit, and personality in there, then and only then can you create something that is worth contemplating and worth talking about.

                The drawings I create are heavily dependent on what kind of music I am listening to at that moment. For example, this piano solo makes me think of a theme that has to do with renewal and hope. Which would compel me to draw something relating to some sort of cycle or rebirth. My palette would be dominated by warm colors. It is weird, I never have any plans when I paint. I just plug in my headphones and draw what I hear. 

                Michael Salter did a lot of collaboration with Chris Coleman, the artist we are focusing on this week. As usual before I do any reading on the artist I would sift through their art work first to just get a feel of what I’m diving into. I watched a few animations and I’ll be honest, I did not like them. I think it’s just me, because I have an attention span of 6 year old. I watched a clips from “My House Is Not My House” and I couldn’t last 5 seconds without having to skip through it. I just did not feel it. After reading what Coleman wrote about this piece I understood it. It was meant to communicate isolation and the loneliness of the western culture. I think that being from the Middle East and having a different culture might have affected my interpretation of this art work.

                However, Coleman had a video animation called “The Magnitude of the Continental Divide.” This piece was something. It is indeed a disturbing piece, but disturbing does hide the fact that it reflects our world today. I grew up watching a blood stained T.V, and now I know longer have a T.V. I  think it was the best decision I made since I decided to study abroad. If I had to pick a part that really stood out from that video, it would be the part where a woman and her daughter are planting a little plant. The woman nurtures the plant and then when it appears that the plant has flourished, the woman rips it out from its roots and tosses it away. It conveys human nature, we have a tendency to destroy the things we love.

                 I made a bridge between “The Magnitude of the Continental Divide” and the song Zombie by the Cranberries. These two videos have very similar themes and ideas. When I was watching Coleman's video, this was playing in my head.

                The reading, in my opinion, was a lot more interesting to me than last week’s. It totally tripped me out because it made think about things I never really gave much thought to. For example, he said “Words are totally abstract icons.” I never really thought about words themselves as pictures. That means that this whole entry is, in a sense,  one big picture. The sequences of these letters create and image of something in my head, making it an icon, a symbol, or an abstract representation of reality.

                Another thing that I found interesting was the part about the human face. The author states that the human face is a mask worn by us since the moment we are born; “Slave to your every mental command.” He goes on to say “But the face you see in your mind is not the same face as others see.” I found this statement to be very significant. It shows that we as humans are have different perceptions. For example, I think that this cake in the background is a master piece of edible are but you can totally disagree (which is impossible, it’s a universal fact that this cake is awesome). This explains the rocky road of art in history. When impressionism came around  people scolded it. When Marcel Duchamp paved the road for Dada, people didn’t even call it art. But now look at us! There is a freaking urinal on display at a museum and people worship that thing as holy piece of art. It’s all about perception.

                I think the obvious element that binds all of the things I have discusses in this entry is the word “visual.” Everything was visual about this week. Salter’s 280 slides were captivating. His own art work was original and I found myself in his work, very visual indeed. Michael collaborated with Chris Coleman and after looking at Michael’s for a whole a hour, I can see his influence in Coleman’s art work. They both are digital artists which means they do videos. And videos are visual because it requires the viewer to invest time to watch the several minutes of mind blowing art it has to offer. And Finally, the reading itself was visual. I have never seen so many pictures in a reading for a class (I was thrilled). I discovered that pictures tend to keep from getting bored and I am proud to say that I survived the reading without injury.