San Diego Part 2

It has been almost 2 weeks since we have been back from San Diego but I feel the need to recap the rest of our trip in photos since I took so many. After Bradley was done with Comic Con we spent the rest of our time in San Diego doing all those things we always say we are going to do but never do.  Bradley spent a year living in the La Jolla area as a kid so he has always told me about all these places he used to go as a kid. We were finally able to visit the tide pools and beach Bradley used to visit as a kid and we spent one day up in LA visiting a friend and a surprise visit (for me) to the Getty Art Museum.

Reverse Graffiti

Holy crap. Tomorrow is April. WTF? How did that happen? The last few weeks have included a sinus infection (I know. I have them all the time.), standardized tests and gearing up for the crazy spring art show season at work, an early spring has made it's appearance in Colorado and trees are budding out and the forsythia's and dafodils are blooming, and some new household projects started.  I have a month left of my graduate classes for this semester.  These past few weeks I have really been enjoying my contemporary art class.  At first I was a little unsure espeically when we were looking at upside down tanks that some rando was calling art but over time it has really changed my perception of current art.  This week we are discussing street art.  My inner Martha Stewart does a little freak out when I see street art.  I like things clean and tidy.  I totally appreciate it but it really contradicts my desire to live in a clean and controlled environment. However I was totally draw to the Reverse Graffiti.  Street Artist Moose makes wooden stencils, places them against a dirty wall and then pressure washed the wall leaving the shapes of the stencil.  What and awesome impact! People probably didn't even notice how dirty the wall was to begin with.

Trenton Doyle Hancock

So Saturday mornings are usually filled with homework for my contemprary art class.  We have been focusing on art from 1900 on and holy crap is there a lot of it.  I think in my undergrad art history classes stopped around the 1950s  and then I really got into learning about pre-columbian art history (art in Mexico and the Central and South Americas before Europeans joined the party).  This week we looked at the role of text in art I stumbled upon artist Trenton Doyle Hancock who originally set out to be a comic book artist yet in his fine art pieces has created a stories with  repeating characters. This class has surely been challenging my idea of art.  I starting to realize that I am more of a traditionalist that I thought. I really love the vibrancy and chaoticness of his works.  There is a great ART 21 video of his thought process.  If anything is hording tendencies and rationalization of them are facinating enough. 

(images via John Cohan Gallery)

Doom Cow and A Girl and Her Sheep

I was thinking the other day about how horrible I have been about updating my own artwork.  For my graduate classes I am taking an online art education theory class as well as an independant study drawing class. Currently I have about 7 works I have finished this semester. One reason I chose this program was the ability to take studio classes.  I haven't consistently made art work since I graduated from college and this has given me the reason to start again and truthfully I feel more like myself since I have been making work.


These are both mixedmedia pieces and roughly about 9"x11"

I also created a website for background info on these two pieces if you art interested
Doom Cow and A Girl and Her Sheep

Ran Ortner

I am pretty sure that Photorealist Ran Ortner needs to come to my house and paint one of my walls. Either than or I need one of his paintings. So magnificent! I am not sure if I have even seen paintings that capture the essence and power of the ocean like this. I stumbled across him when putting together a power point for one of my classes.  The kids really enjoyed his work as well!  Although they all kind of looked at me like I was crazy for starting a photorealism unit.

(all images via Ran Ortner Offical Website)

Going to the DAM

This past week I talked Bradley into going with me a a bunch of students to the Denver Art Museum.  I usually try to take kids twice a year. Its really nice because they usually take a guided tour in the museum and then have an hour or so to check out all the artwork.  Its enough time for them to explore on their own but not get into trouble.  I was super excited for this trip because Bradley was coming and the museum has a collection of the abstract expressionist painter Robert Motherwell. However on the way down there one of my kiddos got really sick and I ended up having to wait for his mom to come pick him up.  I felt so bad for him and although I wasn't able to go into the museum with the rest of my kids (Bradley did that part) it was so lovely to sit outside on a gorgeous day and relax while my student was asleep on a park bench.  We did manage to run into the museum and check out the Motherwell paintings before the bus left.

Adrain Valencia

Yes! Alive! Why is it that blogger is the first thing to go by the way side when I am busy?
I spent the last week setting up my classrooms ( I have 3) and getting everything ready for the first day of school tomorrow.  Its amazing how fast I can get back into the routine of school and also how incredibly exhausting it is! I have been in bed by 9 or taking random naps on the couch a lot lately. It also amazes me every year how incredibly nervous I get.  I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.  In the mean time I found a fun artist on Pinterest and I couldn't resist sharing. Adrian Valencia's Lady Gaga illustrations drew me in.  I am a closet Lady Gaga fan even though I have no idea what her new video You and I is about (please help?)

Now this is dedication.  I wonder if it is the artist's car. 

Launch Skateboard Project

Actual quote from my dad:  "I had no idea you could draw"
Thanks Dad. You only paid for 5 years of art school. What did you think I was doing there the whole time?  Frolicking in a meadow?  Getting high behind the pottery dumpsters? NO!  Working my ass off!
Sadly, I don't get to make as much art as I want to.  Recently I was given a blank skateboard to make a piece of art on for a local non-profit called LAUNCH.  Here is what happened and I say happened because whenever I start a piece of art my original concept is rarely what I end up with.

Jason deCaires Taylor

A good friend and art teacher budy of mine recently sent my a link of artist Jason deCaired Taylor.  I really can't stop staring at these images of his underwater sculpture.  He casts actual people and things in concrete and then submerges them into water.  I love how the underwater environment works so well with the bodies.  It creates such a serene and calming feeling yet its a little uncomfortable at the same time.