The One With The Final Presentation

Haha! Now with this we recap the year and I am done. Now I just need to not fail art history and I think I'm good. Here is a video of the keynote that shows all the projects.

The Final (countdown)

Last assignment for the semester. It was hard, I don't like the final product, but we were ambitious and did a lot. Oh well, here it is.

Oops I Never Posted About This One

This was my grandma cactus, she is the best. I had to make an organic structure based off of her that i could wear.

This was a rough first prototype, I based it off of the idea of a barbed sword. Barbed like the cactus and a sword wrapped around the arm like an extension of the arm, like those little arms that come out of cactuses

Ya know, like this

Then I made these but they were too sword like (and a lot of fun)

Then I made these so it was kinda like an more full body thing but I was straying too far away from the original idea (and it was hard to get into)

Then cut myself a bunch making the barbs

Finally we have this. It's twisted to move away from the sword idea and the barbs are placed more porously to make it more like the cactuses barbs. I only made the one so I could focus on just that. In total I made 5 swords over the corse of the project. It was a blast but terrible on my hands.

That Last Symposium

It was about finding our voice as an artist, but the two presenters mainly talked about their voice and never related it back to how we can find ours. Sure, they had interesting perspectives and unique lives that lead to good work, but that's all I learned about. I still don't know what my voice is. I don't know how I'll find it. This symposium was going to be really helpful but the only advice I thought was good was good came from a question, don't try too hard to live life. Just let it happen and the important stuff will come. Basically don't be fake af and you'll be good.

Work in progress

Video

Who would have dreamed this? You couldn't mean this

Chapter 24 talks about time and how there’s two versions of it. Time in a mechanical sense that chugs forward at a steady pace and time as we perceive it where it acts as a feeling that flows.

The people that passively perceive it as a feeling have this idea that time is a heavy weight when you’re troubled, or a light breeze when things seem perfect, it’s a constant flow that works against them. When things are rough the days get long and the years pass by in a moment. These people live for moments, and everything in between is pointless. Other people, see time as a strict guideline for how to live. Wake up at 6:30, eat, go to work by 8, eat lunch at 12, leave at 4, and watch the same T.V shows over and over from 5 till you pass out. They are aware of time so much that nothing else is as ever present. Life is lived only for death and every great feeling in life is just a mix of chemicals.

(this kind of writing reminded me of my favorite album Because The Internet)

Hopelessly Devoted to Family

Family is Peachy keen, jellybean. <- click for vid.
It was pretty hard making a video with no story because that's all I've ever done, and fitting the value of family was difficult until I decided to just not think about it. The cloth was easy to put in there honestly.
I put the cloth around the closest thing I have to family here, which is my friends.
I watched Jane the Virgin because it's the best american hispanic T.V show while drinking Jumex. (A hispanic brand of drinks) I love Jane the Virgin because I relate to it so much. Family and heritage are a big thing for it and it's a parody of Mexican telenovelas, so the idea of family is a constant for me whenever I put it on.
Finally I recorded me talking to family on camera. It was all real reactions and words, I just muted it so it wouldn't clash with the audio.
 I put in Chet Bakers Almost Blue and a conversation with my mom I recorded for audio. I talk to my mom every day and talking to her or any family member is almost always the highlight of my day, but right after is when I always feel the worst. When the call ends I'm always left in my room, alone, and I never know what to do next. That's what the song represents, the mixing of the two are the highs and lows of my day.





My family always gives amazing advice right when I need it, it's what I think back to every time I'm in a rough place.
"It doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's what you do with your dancin' shoes."

This was the first pattern type thing I drew. The idea is that each planet and it's surrounding objects were families surrounding the center of the family. (Which for me it was always my grandma)

Fighting with my sister has always been a fury of dumb insults that I love.
"Oh, bite the weenie, Riz."

Then I repeated it a lot of times over on a smaller scale to see if it would look like a pattern. I kept the same sun in the middle, made the planets more random to have variation, and had constellations at the top left corner and bottom right that were somehow a story related to family.




My name was supposed to be Daniel but my dad (who was drunk at my birth) wanted my name to be Christopher, so I'm Christopher Daniel Cepeda.
"That's my name, don't wear it out."

After, I cut out 15 small for each planet and consolation. (Which made me pull an all nighter) I had a really hard time getting systems to line up so I made this for class because I needed something for the next day. I really Don't like this.




The only person I'd ever actually fight was my cousin when we were kids and way too into WWE. At one point he pushed me into a wall so hard my butt caved the wall in, I just covered it with a poster and no one found out for years.
"You're cruisin' for a bruisin'"

So after critique someone gave me the super smart and obvious answer to my problems. Put the basic pattern on a block of wood and glue them to make sure it'll always line up, and then fill in the pattern with random planets.




Working at my dads car lot helped my work ethic way more then I'd ever like to admit to him.
"Why, this car is Auto-matic. Its System-matic. Its Hyyyyydro-matic. Why, its Greased Lightning!"

This is what I ended up with. It went wayyyy easier this time around and was actually fun. I watched Friends and listened to Ray Charles the whole time.




No mater what I know My family will always be there for me.
"We'll always be together (Chang chang chanitty chang sha-bop)"

Where you lead, I will follow Anywhere that you tell me to.

Family is the most important thing to me. Is it cliche? Yes. But true nonetheless. I call my mom every single day, my sister and dad whenever I can, and I’m constantly talking to random cousins or family friends. I have them to thank for everything decent about me.

When I was in elementry school I was not cool at all. Shocker, I know. I was a dweeby kid with a Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Disk and one friend. (shout out to Oscar) One day I was playing Kingdom Hearts II on the PS2 and the title song Dearly Beloved was playing. I loved it so I kept it on for a bit and I noticed my grandma sit down and just listen. My grandma only speaks spanish (and I didn’t at all) and while we love eachother more than anything we had nothing in common so it was hard for us to just connect. Until that day. I did my best to ask her what she was doing and she told me that she liked the song and wanted to sit and listen. I left it there and though the language barrier we talked about it. After that I thought if me and someone who is over 60 years older than me and speaks a whole other language can find something small in common, then I could do that with anyone. And from that’s the first step to finding out more about them and before you know it you become friends. It took a while but that thinking helped me change for the better. And without my grandma, I wouldn't've been able to have that moment. My family has also given me life lessons way more directly. “Don’t do it for anyone but yourself. The moment you focus on what you want to do and do it for yourself is when you’ll grow and be better.” My dad told me that when I first started my A/V class and I was worried no one would like my videos. I figured he just didn’t “get it” but it stuck with me and eventually I didn’t even know what I meant by “get it.” What’s there to get? I should make what I like and if people don’t like it then they’re not who its for. My family usually gave simple answers to complicated questions and it always frustrated me but they were always right. I remember I was talking to my mom about someone I hated being around and after I complained for a while she just said, “if you don’t like them, don’t talk to them.” Incredibly confused I asked her, “So i’m just supposed to ignore them?” She looked at me funny because I didn’t get it even though it’s pretty simple. “Don’t ignore them but surround yourself with people you like. Avoid the ones you don’t. It’s pretty simple.” And it was simple. Why should I be around them? I didn’t need to talk to them. I liked talking to other people more. After that my life became a lot more fun.

Also just being around them has shaped who I am so much. Having such a huge family that loves each other unequivocally is way more rare then I knew. I always took it for granted, and I feel guilty about it. I love my family, and I know they all love me. All the holidays or random reasons we made up to get together are my best memories. The food they cook, the alcohol they drink, stories they tell, and the games they play at 1 A.M are etched into my memory, and whenever I’m sad I can just think back to those moments and it makes everything alright.

My cousin Lalo and I have gone to each other's houses almost every week since we were 8. He’s like a brother to me and I would do anything for him. Coming here, everyone talks about how distant they are to all their family and it shocks me. I ask them who they went to when they were sad and they said they just stayed in their room or talked to a friend that they now haven’t talked to in years. I ask them about their parents and they don’t know anything about them and never spent time with them. Since I was a kid I’ve always sat with my mom or laid next to her and watched ABC’s Gilmore Girls and we’ve seen the whole show together over 5 times. We talk about who we think Rory should end up with (Logan obviously) and small details you only get to talking about from watching so often. Me and my sister are inseparable and know how the other thinks. I always head over to her room and talk about the things I can’t with anyone else. I would always tag along with my dad whenever he was going to drive somewhere and we talked about random things and I learned more about them each time we went out and I always remember those conversations when I drive. I think that’s why I love driving so much. I can’t help but think about those moments every time someone says they haven’t talked to their family in weeks.

My family are my heroes. My dad is an immigrant and has lived the american dream in an age when people say it’s impossible. He has done everything for us and I can never thank him enough for it. His hard work and determination inspires me and makes me always push myself further. My mom always does everything she can for our family for no other reason other than the fact she loves us. It makes me feel like I have someone to count on and helps me appreciate everything I have. My sisters absolute love for me and how dependable she is has always made me want to be there for other people the way she's there for me. Because everyone needs someone like her.

Family is the most important value to me. Always has been, always will be. Without them I’d be a shell of who I am today. I owe everything to them and will always love them.

Tis But A Scratch!

Here's the video. You have been warned.

OK, if you haven't listened to Beastie Boys, what have you been doing all your life?

Beastie Boys - Intergalactic 

Beastie Boys - (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)

Beastie Boys - Sabotage (Song used in video)

And while I have your attention I guess I can talk about the project real quick. All you gotta know to understand the process are these phrases I said in my head too often during the past week.
"Ugh, another cut? Do I really need to clean it? The first aid kid is allllllll the way over there."
"Ok, this sucks. Gotta redo it."
"Ok, rude. Yes Netflix, I am still watching. Stop judging me "
"Texas really is the best state there is." (I had a lot of time to think about random stuff while coiling up wires.)
And finally, "Ouch."

Film, and Animation, and Creative Writing. Oh My!

This symposium was kind of a trip. I mean we sat there as they showed us some crazy animation and then did a round table discussion on it. While I loved the stuff they showed us I didn't connect as much to the symposium as I had hoped to. They gave us a paper to fill out and while it had some cool stuff on it, it also made me feel like they didn't value movies that weren't philosophical or poetic when sometimes I just want to zone out and enjoy a simple movie. The world needs Paul Blart Mall Cop, The Inbetweeners, and other works that are just meant to be funny. Getting people to turn off their brain after a long day and getting a laugh out of them is beautiful and is art. Maybe I'm taking it out of context but it's still a good thing to say none the less. I really hope for more symposiums that talk about writing of any kind.

Planet of the Political Commentary in Print

Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!

The big stand out to me from this symposium was the Gorilla Girls. They're a group who fights sexism and racism in the art world. They've done a lot with billboards, posters, etc. They don't even put themselves in the limelight by wearing gorilla masks. Their most popular piece is this

I assume the art world had a reaction close to, "You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!" or something like that. It brought a lot of attention to the art world. It humiliated them

And I'm more then sure their response was "The way you humiliated me? All of you? YOU led me around on a LEASH!" But that's just an assumption. 

The art world really is dis-proportionally white and male. If you ask them they'll say they're taking efforts to make it more diverse but nothing they've done has made effective change. A conversation about it with them would go something like this.
Honorious :Tell us, why are all apes created equal?

George Taylor:George Taylor Some apes, it seems, are more equal than others.

OK I'll stop monkeying around. They seriously helped push for change using prints. It's impressive and it gave me the opportunity to use Planet of the Apes (1968) quotes. So, it's a win win. 

By the way if the font looks like the size changes often sorry it does and I don't know why.

The Project Video.

Be prepared for the saddest video you'll ever see

Boom.

Progress the only thing that will last.

Honestly when we started I felt totally out of my league. I have never done physical art so I was a fish out of water. The whole time I’ve felt like I needed to prove to myself that I could do this and at some points I think I really did, and other times I disappointed myself. Mainly because I know what I did wasn’t the best which is a good sign that I can improve, but it’s always been hard to enact those changes to get better.

The first thing we did was inward and outward movement. A common problem is I really don’t know how to represent abstract ideas. My head can’t think in these shapes and concepts because i’m too used to the linear or at least in some way a full story. But not knowing how to do something has never stopped me from doing it, so I did the project the best I could. Went around campus a bit and just kept replaying what Chapin said in class over and over in my head. I got some decent stuff but I knew it could be better.

The next project was one big piece that had both inward and outward. A thing Chapin kept telling us was to go bigger. So I busted out Neil Patrick Harris’ 2013 Tony opening number along with some awesome Jazz and did my best. I turned off my brain and went with what I thought was right and by the end I had something I actually liked. It felt right, and I liked looking at it. But even with that one I went less abstract than I wanted creating the progress of washing something with the continuous line. Kind of a bummer but not a huge problem.

Then we had to make paintings of different views and meanings of our work. This is where my downfall began. I got up to 9 and I was just stuck for hours. People all around me were doing these crazy things and using way different methods for their paintings, and I felt like once again my inability to think on a more conceptual level was really hurting me. I went back to my dorm and tried again with a fresh mindset the next day. I was only able to get 3 more done. On the bright side I caught up on all my podcasts and listened to a movie commentary track while I worked.

Then we worked with the dancers and it was such a cool experience that I felt bad for not being able to replicate it well (this feeling would only be amplified with the next project) but I still had a blast and enjoyed being able to do something different for a day. I felt like it was a lot easier to paint the movement in a way that worked for me because I just imagined it as taking notes on their movement. Also the lemonade and sandwiches we got were pretty dope. But that’s besides the point.

Then we had to make a work with the bamboo that represented what we saw the day before with the dancers. I was absent during class so I tried to put in extra time that just ended up being wasted on forcing everything together in a very poor way. I tried to make small pieces that were going to each be something from my sketches and I was going to frankenstein them together to make this bigger abstract work. But I fell to the same fate as Frankenstein where I found out I couldn’t play god. I created a really bad piece and by the morning it had blown itself outward as if to spite me for not liking it but still forcing it to work. Learned you just can’t force some stuff.

Overall I’ve learned a lot from all of this, mainly about work ethic and what to do when I just can’t wrap my head around something. Also no one has seen the work I put into my blog with its references to work like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Saturday Night Fever, Doctor Strangelove, Gambino, and more. I put genuine thought into what quotes fit what pictures and how the movie/T.V show fits with the work I did. But honestly, even if someone besides my mom read this stuff (Hi Alma, I love and miss you) I don’t think they'd find it as amusing as I do. (And for a good reason, they're lame)

Tuesday Morning Fever.

So I missed class due to being sick but my classmates filled me in and I found out I had to make a piece inspired by the dancers and the movement drawings we made of them.

So I tried to replicate multiple movements in the one work and I don't think it came out that well if i'm being honest. The loops are meant to represent the times when she ran across the room and one foot would stomp and the other would glide a bit more, the loop on the ground was when they kept eye contact while circling, and the loop within the other loop was when they danced together. At first my work was too symmetrical and it was really hard to break it, then when I started to it got better but I couldn't tell why it still wasn't that good. I think maybe if I had gone bigger it would have helped but I know something else is still missing.

"Going Through the Motions" Top 3

You know I really wanted to put a song lyric from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode for each photo but I'm more then sure you all think i'm insane now. But seriously it's the best musical episode of all time. You know what? I'll do it. Skip to the end for me talking about the process.

Buffy: Everybody started singing and dancing?

Buffy: (singing) Nothing seems to penetrate [stakes vampire] My heart.

(P.S this one and the next one are upside down and I tried to fix them but couldn't)

Giles: That would explain the huge backing orchestra I couldn't see and the synchronized dancing from the room service chaps.

Xander, Tara, Anya, Willow: [singing] It's getting eerie, what's this cheery singing all about?

So these are my top 3 from drawing the dancers in motion. It was a great experience and I felt bad for not being able to replicate it well enough. I think I made 3 more? But It was hard trying to replicate the graceful motion. I'm going to see The Nutcracker opening night so this got my hyped. Ya boi got a great seat. I'm talkin Orchestra A with seats in the 100s. Right in front of the aisle. Overall one of the coolest things I've had the privilege of doing.

My 12 Paintings That Were Way Harder Then Expected.

 So this one I painted the figure with its shadows

 This one is just the sculpture as is so I could better understand it all.

This orientation is wrong and I don't know how to fix it but this is all the shadows alone.

For this one I tried to make all of the loops really tight and it made me like the stuff I had made even more.

I focused on the right side for this to show how the lines work and it looks cooler then I thought it would.

This is another one with the wrong orientation but this is the left side and it's not as strong as the other but I still like it.

This one feels a bit like a trip but I painted the sculpture and repeated the curves to really make them pop.

I added loops where there wasn't and straitened up areas where there was. It really helped me appreciate what I had made before.

Why are so many of these the wrong orientation? I added squiggles galore and it made it a mess. 

This is a top down view. The idea came to me when thinking of Top Gun for no real reason.

This one is only lines, without the sink in the way, and the photo is upside down. Boom.

I did the whole thing the other way round and took everything into account.

I totally ran out of ideas at the 9 mark and just stared at it for hours. Took a nice long nap to think of 3 new ones. On the bright side I got to catch up on my NPR related podcasts like the 35 year old mom I really am and I found a new song I like. J'Ai Duex Amours by Madeleine Peyroux, look it up it's a really sweet nice song. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYIWRA7lqOY

Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Making Art.

"Sir! I have a plan!"

"He'll see the big board!" - General "Buck" Turgidson

"Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!" - General "Buck" Turgidson

"Mandrake, have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?" - General Jack D. Ripper

"Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines."

"I do not support the work of imperialist stooges." - Ambassador de Sadesky 


Ok but really tho this was a lot of fun. I kinda turned off my brain while listing to Jazz and trying to make a the outline then honed it into what the final product while listing to Goodbye Porkie Pir Hat, Blue in Green, and In A Sentimental Mood and using what we learned in class. BTW if you look at it from right to left it looks like the progression of someone washing something.


Bonus Quotes I wanted to use but didn't take enough pictures for

"Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face." - General Jack D. Ripper

You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company. -  Colonel "Bat" Guano

[Strangelove's plan for post-nuclear war survival involves living underground with a 10:1 female-to-male ratio]
General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?

Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.

 Ambassador de Sadesky : I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.

Are You an Innie or an Outie?

Inward

The movement from the bending goes up to form a teardrop and I added another smaller one in the center of the formation.

 For this one the bamboo stems form the drain and wraps around and into itself a lot before the other end retreats back into the drain.

for this one I wanted it to look like it was passing from one piece of wood to another while having it move into itself a lot so even thought it's going from point A to point B it still has inward movement

Outward

For this one I wanted something basic but with a strong leading line to have more outward motion to try to start to understand the motion more.

This has upward motion with multiple ends pointing up to try to explode upward creating that energy.

The coiling of the wood around the chair felt active and even though the wood wraps within the chair. It trying to find its way out felt outward in that way.

Inner and Outer

 The movement from one point out out of the rack to another along with the intertwining around the objects captured what I felt to be both types of energy.

 The way this one expanded outward greatly but tightened up at points tried to capture what we talked about with how our hands gave away feelings.

This one was simple but I think it captures in and out on a really basic level that helps in understanding it.