100 Museums: Paintings of Buildings That Have Paintings Inside

I went to the ASU Art Museum and looked at the 100 Museums: Paintings of Buildings That Have Paintings Inside exhibit. It was very interesting, because the artist, Rico Solinas used an untraditional canvas for his paintings. He used saw blades as an alternative, which was meant to reflect American work ethic. I thought it was very interesting that he chose to paint museums and no other building. I very much enjoyed the show, especially the one of the Louvre. It brought back memories of when I had the opportunity to visit the museum. It amazed me that the artist spent 13 years putting together this body of work. That is true dedication. I would highly recommend this show if anyone has time to run over and check it out.

New Graduates Exhibit

Check out the lastest exhibit in the Harry Wood gallery located in the Art Building this week.

There was a wide variety of works there, but out of all of them this particular piece caught my eye. At first glance it seemed almost out of place. I say this because it was the smallest piece in the show. All of the other piece were much larger, and the only second smallest was a tea cup set.

Back to the piece titled Memory Sorting Station, I loved the fact that although it is small this piece had a lot of intricate and beautiful designs through. The set up of a bike rack with the Bikes as well may seem like a simple subject matter to depict, but the artists went beyong just that. To me, the intricate bicycles seemed to be made from old jewlery, perhaps a family heirloom or special gift from a significant other? This could also be a piece that pays homage to a specific moment within the artist life.

Its those details that keeps this piece interesting and mysterious. Just what I love in art. Because pieces like this one gives the viewer a chance to create their own stories from what they see.

-Tina O.

I also went to the New Grad Show at the Harry Wood gallery this week. My favorite pieces were the ones pictured above: War for Eminent Domain by Ingrid Donaldson, Memory Sorting Station by Mary Klacza, and Papa Poli by Monica Garcia. But I liked everything else in the show, too. I wanted to touch and play with almost everything in the room; it was a pretty hard temptation to resist. I'm glad I went, it was very interesting and it had some really fun pieces.

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.