Art Intersection

Art Intersection is a gallery/workshop space that opened in Gilbert last January. It's primary focus is on photography, but it also offers a variety of workshops dealing with book making, paper punching, and similar techniques. They have a large workspace, equipped with darkrooms for both film processing, digital processing, and alternative processing. I visited last week to attend a lecture hosted by Jim Hajicek, a retired ASU photography professor who is well known in the photography community. The lecture was a "walk through" style, where the attendees followed Jim through out the three galleries located at Art Intersection, as Jim explained how each photograph was made. There was a variety of techniques exhibited, including salt prints, tin types, ambrotypes, silver gelatin, and photogravures. It was incredibly interesting listening to how each process is different from the other. I would highly recommend checking this great location out, as it is growing fast and becoming a great source to learn everything there is to know about photography, including how to incorporate it into a three dimensional piece. The piece shown below is from a collection of tintypes made by David Adams, who is an ASU graduate student.

New Graduate Show

I went to visit the Graduate Show on Thursday and what really drew my attention to this exhibit was the vibrant painting done by Ally Glowacki titled Blue Presence. The painting shows a goat floating in a bright blue background. I am a real sucker for animals and I love how even though the piece is so simple it has the ability to draw so much attention through the use of its color. I also really enjoyed the piece by Kelly O'Briant titled Tea for Two with Bugs. The tea set is so cute and well crafted. It looks just like something I would buy at a local store because it's so functional and has great craftsmanship.

New Graduate Show

Like the two previous people, I also went to the Harry Wood Gallery. I thought all the artwork there were really neat. I found Exemplary Augmentation by Dannon Shroeder to be really cool. I love the "alien" look it had. At first glance, it looked like some alien form (that looked like wood) was implanting itself in the object or growing out of it. However, after looking at it for a while from far away, it reminded me of a tail. I loved the sense of movement of the tail. That was the main thing that drew me over. Its smoothness made it seem like the tail would continually grow. I also liked Pullin My Tail by Haylee Bolinger. The form really appealed to me. It too had an alien look to it; it reminded me of those movies where there is a large, eel-like sea creature swimming freely around, killing people on a nearby ship. I also really like that it is interactive; I saw someone pull its tail, and its mouth would open. Another thing I liked about it is the design of it's body. I find the repetitive circular lines making up its body to be quite beautiful. Overall, the show was very interesting. I like that there were different styles of art and that some were made to be looked at, while others were made to be interacted with.

I went to the exhibit that is currently in the Harry Wood. My favorite part of the show was all the different sculptures. The sculptures were all different. It was really cool to see all the different mediums that different artists used to create their sculptures. One person used paper, another used metal and a third used wood. It was also to see the different types of sculptures there were. They ranged from amorphous shapes to abstract monsters to realistic representations of familiar objects. I love to see these little insights into the different ways that approach their art. Its awesome to get these small insights into how different people's minds work.

Hey everyone! This week I visited the Harry Wood Gallery to see the New Graduate Show. The exhibit featured new ASU graduate students from around the country. It was really cool to see the variety in style from all of these new artists. While most pieces in the exhibit were sculptures, there were a few very unique drawings, some done with gold leaf and charcoal and some done with paint and resin. The piece that stood out the most to me was the electrical sculpture with a foot pedal. When you press the pedal, the machine starts to whirl and vibrate! I'm excited to see more from these new grads, you guys should check it out if you get the chance!

Ceramics Research Center

This was my first trip to the Ceramics Research Center and although it was small there was so much to look at and I got the chance to view art pieces that others talked about in previous blogs. I came across a piece by Beatrice Wood that I thought was really interesting. I had just recently watched a video about her in one of my classes and it was really cool to see one of her pieces in person. The work is titled 'To be Digested' and resembles a fish-like creature that appears to have swallowed a few people.

I also came across a piece the resembled a unicorn that I really liked.

First Friday: Downtown Phoenix

I decided to take a little trip to Downtown Phoenix tonight before I go to Octoberfest at the park in Tempe Town Lake. Today is the first Friday in October! Why is that special? Because every first Friday of every month downtown Phoenix closes down some blocks and local artists, musicians and craftsmen get the opportunity to gather and show off all their magnificent talents! This is an incredible chance for local art to get noticed. Here is an image of a few that I personally enjoyed. The top right one I thought was amazing because of the scale of the painting. It's a street painting done on the side of a building and I really loved all the reality and abstraction that existed within this piece! The bottom right picture showcases a local artist whom I didn't get a chance to meet because he was extremely busy creating this magnificent piece of art. But I included this because I thought it was a great example of pointillism and how Seurat's technique is still being applied today. This piece was magical with the way the moon lights up the night sky and the stars glimmer over the meadow of trees. Saved the best for last! The piece on the left was my favorite of the night. Mainly because I like the simplicity of the piece but also because it made me feel very peaceful in a way. Also, this piece was done on old wooden slabs! Ah, I totally loved the fact that the artist took used wooden slabs and recycled them into this amazing creation! He also painted the negative space which I thought was absolutely brilliant and definitely adds to the success of this piece! That is all for today! Thank you for taking a look! Hope you enjoyed :)