So this week I met a pretty awesome friend and his name is Mark De Artola. He is currently a sophomore at CSULB. Mark is studying Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Science. Mark is hoping to become a chiropractor or physical therapist. Mark live in temple city and commute every day to school. On his free time, Mark like to skate, surf, and work on his car. Being a Kinesiology Major, Mark love sport. He enjoys playing basketball and rugby the most. However, Mark would play any sport and enjoy almost all of them. One of the things we both have in common is that we are both a dog person. Mark and I love dog and would love to eventually adopt one. We actually like the same kinda of dogs, dogs that look like wolves. Mark and I love husky and just how majestic they are. 
Wk 14 – Art Experience – Sketching in the CSULB Japanese Garden
OH WOW! I NEVER EVEN VISITED THE JAPANESE GARDEN BEFORE. Truly, this garden was beautiful. Too bad my drawing skill can not keep up with the beauty of this garden and can not do it enough justice. It lacks the immense details that go into the garden itself and the beautiful nature surrounding it. Anyway, for my sketch, I just draw what was in front of me, without looking down and just let go. After I had a rough sketch and the outline, I went in and add some details into my sketch. The only problem is that I made a lot of mistakes and had to improv. For example, some of my boulders were extremely sharp and pointy. The proportional were off too because I didn’t look at my drawing and some of the outlines were too big because of my perspective. But I had a lot of fun and I think my foreground turn out quite well because it was the closest thing to me so it was a lot easier to draw. I was still pretty happy with it though.
Wk 14 – Classmate Conversation – Christopher Toledanes
Mmmm, the ‘almost’ last week of Art class. Oh man, I’m going to kinda miss this. I met another great friend today, Christopher, or as he introduced himself, Christ. Christ is an amazing person. Although I was late and had no one to talk to for the classmate conversation, he is willing to talk to me and do two classmate conversation. Thank you, Christ. Anyway, Christ is a fourth-year student here at CSULB and is currently working toward his Computer Engineering degree. Christ is actually graduating next year, so congratulations to him. In the future, Christ wants to make something rather than work in a large company. Although he does not have plans or ideas to do a start-up but that what he would like to do in the future. Christ actually sleeps for most of the day beside schools and studying. Apparently that what you do when you go to upper division classes. However, when Christ isn’t sleeping or studying, he would be watching animes or play video games or be doing his cool new hobby, 3D printing. Christ actually watches quite a lot of anime and gave me many great recommendations for the seasons and also give me advice on where to watch them. Christ also plays video games, not as much anymore. but when he does, he plays a lot of Overwatch. 
Wk 13 – Artist Conversation – Laura Lopez
Artist: Laura López
Exhibition: Selvática
Media: Drawing and Painting, Canvas, Oil Paints
Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Werby Gallery
About the Artist:
Oh boy. Laura López’s gallery was absolutely stunning and beautiful. The moment I walk in, my eyes was lit up and I knew I had to talk to her. So, who is Laura López? Laura is currently a graduate student in CSULB and is getting her Master of Fine Art in Drawing and Painting. Laura will be graduating with the degree next year. Laura hometown is Medellín, Colombia and she moved to South California to pursue her dream of being an artist. At first, Laura was actually very excited to be in California and enjoys its weather and beaches. However, Laura now misses her home in Columbia and is ready to return to its more tropical and mountainous areas. Laura also has several cousins and siblings who are extremely important to her. When Laura is not painting or drawing, she enjoys hanging out with her friends, singing, and dancing.
Formal Analysis:
Laura’s arts are extremely colorful and just…jawdropping. Laura draws entirely with oil paints on large pieces of canvas. Laura’s artworks are generally extremely vibrant and just overflowing with colors. It made Laura’s artworks come to life and just pop out of their canvas. Not only those Laura uses a large assortment of colorful and vibrant color, Laura also uses many different and varied patterns. Within Laura’s foregrounds are usually animals that blend into the strokes and color of its surrounding.
Content Analysis:
Of course, just by looking at her gallery, one can tell that one of the biggest inspiration for Laura’s color pieces are the jungle of her hometown. Laura said that she have always been amazed at how, as complicated as the jungles are, always seem to flow together into a beautiful fluid ecosystem. Everything just seems to fit together, from the trees and plants life of the jungle to the animals and species living in the ecosystem. Laura has always been interested in the jungle because she lived in Columbia but what set her interest into love is when Laura visited the Amazon Jungle. Laura vibrant and diverse uses of color reflect the equally vibrant and diverse species living together in a jungle.
Synthesis/My Experience:
Wow. The moment I walked into Laura’s gallery, I was absolutely amazed. It was beautiful and vibrant. It was basically a color explosion point blank to my face. Not only are the canvas huge, which I love, but Laura doesn’t settle for one particular set of colors. All of her work feature totally different and unique colors and I have been absolutely blown away. Looking closer, you can actually see all the details and wow. With such a huge canvas, Laura not only drew giant jungles and put details into them too. I was absolutely amazed and speechless.
Wk 13 – Classmate Conversation – Marisa Monrones
Woo. Another week, another classmate. This week, I talked to Marisa Monrones and how we actually talked to each other is a funny story. She was just walking around while I was looking up on what to do one Slack on my laptop. I found out we needed to do a classmate conversation this week and I looked up at Marisa. We made eyes contact and she walked toward me but then she walks away and then walks back to me again. Finally, Marisa sat next to me and ask if we have to do a classmate conversation and I said yes, laughing at how indecisive she was. Marisa is currently a sophomore who is studying Excercise Science. After all, Marisa loves sports. She played all kind of sports for fun, soccer, softball, and volleyball. Marisa is actually in a team for her high school for all the sports and said that sport keep her active and she has fun doing it. Marisa favorite sport is softball since she played it for the longest. The reason she liked sports so much is because Marisa’s hometown is Catalina Island and apparently the only fun thing there is sports. Marisa hopes to be a Physical Therapist when she grows up and finish her degree. An interesting fact about Marisa is that she like giraffe since she never saw it and it fascinated her.
Wk 12 – Art Experience – Ethnography
Well. This was a….weird one. To say the very least. First of all, my life is basically dependent on technology as I am a Computer Science major. I bath in electricity and technologies. So a day without a technology would be…difficult. But alas, this was this week project, what can I do? Saturday, the day where I would usually just let go and have fun, instead, I now was forced to live without my precious computer. Sitting there, I thought it was pointless not to do anything, so I decided to take a walk. It was my first time walking around our neighborhood. I actually walked quite far, lost in thought. We apparently have not one, but THREE parks near our house. Also, I lived two streets away from a rich community where everyone has two stories houses and garden so massive it was basically a flower field. They were quite a joy to look at. Too bad I couldn’t take a single picture. We also had a creek a few street over the next neighborhood. There wasn’t much water, but there was a small wooden bridge that you can walk over. It was my first time walking across a wooden bridge, pretty freaking scary. We have a HUGE water reservoir near the main street that has a GIGANTIC water tower thingy. It was REALLY cool. The walk basically took up half the day since I woke up at around 1 PM. Once I return, it was time for dinner already at around 5-6 PM. I ate with my family and then proceed to my room. I slept at 8 that night. Mr. Glenn, I hope you are reading this because although the morning was fun, it forced me to sleep at EIGHT. EIGHT, who even sleep at eight. At least I got to wake up REALLY early the next morning, instead of around 12 – 1 PM like I usually do, I woke up at around 5-6 AM. Oh well, I got to spend the whole Sunday with my computer so that was nice.
Wk 12 – Artist Conversation – Alice Andreini
Artist: Alice Andreini
Exhibition: No-Mans Land
Media: Painting, Oil, Wax
Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Max L. Gatov Gallery
About the Artist:
Probably the longest I ever talked to an artist. Alice Andreini almost immediately stands out as she is probably one of the oldest person there in the gallery. I did not ask for her age for obvious reasons, but I once I started talking to her, I realized she was quite old. Alice has been working in the art industry for a long time. Alice used to teach at a community college for perspective arts and landscape arts. Which she incorporated into her art now. Alice is currently aiming for a Master degree in Fine Art and apparently, the writing on her wall was meant to be part of her thesis. Which no one understands and complained about, which she fixed while we were talking. Alice enjoys social media in her spare time like Facebook and such when she isn’t drawing. Alice was a lot of fun to talk to, be it a bit hard to follow at the time due to the difference in our level.
Formal Analysis:
What draw me into this gallery was Alice’s unique style of art, especially the scale of her arts too. Most of them were humongous, towering over other galleries’ arts. However, that wasn’t the only thing that made it so interesting. Alice drew landscapes and used different colorization to give each piece a unique feel. Alice also like to draw in this grid, perspective-ish style that made her arts look like it came from a game.Alice like to draw ‘random’ objects that seemingly does not fit the art but add to the uniqueness of each piece. I find them quite interesting, especially when I can create stories about some of the ‘random’ objects.
Content Analysis:
The thing that amazed me the most is the story behind Alice’s art. My apology, Alice, I probably will butcher your ideas since it’s so advance but let me give it a try. One of the most important ideas from Alice’s art is that it is not really a representation of anything. Although the landscapes in her art are real, she changes them to give them different feeling and different representation. Actually, they all are golf courses, just painted differently and with a different perspective. THat’s another important idea from Alice’s arts. Most of it is based upon perspective and how it can be warp into something more interesting. However, Alice also drew grids to show how even as warped as the perspectives are, they still somewhat contain, grounded within reality. It’s a fine line between, surrealism and realism. Alice actually compared it to something like a virtual reality, not exactly real, but not exactly fake either. It was quite interesting to listen to the idea and inspiration behind Alice’s arts.
Synthesis/My Experience:
It was a great pleasure talking to Alice. She was quite knowledgeable and I enjoyed our time together. I hope she finish her thesis and clean it up since it was quite confusing the first time I walked in. I actually almost walked out because of how confusing it was, but I glad I stayed and listens to her stories.
Wk 11 – Artist Conversation – Yujia Gu
Artist: Yujia Gu
Exhibition: Tracing Gun Violence in the USA
Media: Graphic Design
Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Dennis W. Dutzi Gallery
About the artist:
Wow. The moment I walked in, I was amazed. I knew I had to talk to Yujia, her gallery was amazing. Not only that, but Yujia was amazing herself. She is a student here at CSULB and is working toward her Bachelor in Fine Art. Yujia wants to work toward a Master degree in Fine Art in her dream school, LSU – Baton Rouge. Outside of art, she likes to hang out and spend time with friends and watches movies.
Formal Analysis:
The gallery was amazing the moment you step in. I was greeted by a giant gun made by people, smaller guns, and texts. It was an overwhelming sight. It actually took me awhile to take it all in. On the wall, there were ‘holographic’ pictures that were really well done. The bottom of the wall was lined with the percentage of gun-violence comparatively to Canada and America almost sextuple the amount of gun violence that Canada has.
Content Analysis:
Yujia made this exhibit to bring awareness to the amount of gun violence in America. She said was interested in the colossal amount of gun violence that we have here in American compared to China. This is note-worthing because, from a foreign perspective, we have very loose gun-control laws. Yujia’s mom was actually worried about Yujia being in the United state because of the massive amount of gun violence that we have in America. Yujia’s gallery also gives a really good perspective of how our gun violence compared to that of Canada. It might be exaggerated, but it sends a very clear point.
Synthesis/My Experience:
This exhibit is probably my third favorite gallery of all time. It was so well done and detailed. When I first walked in, I couldn’t even believe my eyes. For the third time in a gallery, I exclaimed without realizing “Wow…” Someone actually went through all the work to put sands into an exhibit. Not only that, but it was not just a little bit of sands, it was a lot of sands. But that was not even the most amazing thing. Brittney handcrafted hundreds of individual turtles. She did not even half-ass it either, I look at each one of the turtles and each turtle was so beautifully created and detailed. It was mind-blowing how someone could have the patience and energy to create hundreds of turtles individually like that. I also love turtles, my second favorite animal.
Wk 11 – Classmate Conversation – Amilcar Perez
Oh man. Amilcar Perez. Or what I like to refer him as, A.P. AP is a really amazing person. We have so much in commons, except for his love for movies. AP is as much of a movie nerd as I am a computer nerd. That’s why his major is in Film. However, he is minoring in Web Application which is really cool. Unlike me, he is a second year though. Have not met a single freshman… Anyway, AP wants to be a director or a screenwriter with his degree. He would like to direct or write an action/adventure film. Something similar to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s works. His favorite movie is Donie Daku. AP also enjoy watching anime, especially Cowboy Bebop. It seems he also enjoy GTO which is something we both liked and talked extensively about. AP favorite game is League of Legends, which is also my favorite game so we got to talk about that too. AP was pretty damn cool, too bad he’s bronze.
Wk 10 – Artist Conversation – Brittney Waters
Artist: Brittney Waters
Exhibition: #MoreThanASandbox
Media: Clay, Varnish, Sand
Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Dennis W. Dutzi Gallery
Instagram: @artbywaters
About the artist:
I have not actually gotten a chance to meet Brittney in person. However, I had the pleasure of talking to her through her Instagram. She seems like a wonderful person, very outgoing and bright personality. Brittney is currently a senior at CSULB and is working toward her Bachelor of Fine Arts for the Art Ceramics Program. What influenced her to begin working on this gallery is her trip to Hawaii when she saw an exhibit for sea turtles. She realized that many wildlife is not supported unless they can be used as an entertainment for us. That why you see many sea turtles, but never any sea turtle nestings as they are not very entertaining.
Formal Analysis:
Brittney’s turtle. Oh my god. They are amazing, absolutely amazing. Each one is carved by hand and has its very own design, be it not very married but still. Brittney made about a hundred individual turtles and that not counting her prototypes or scrapped sculpture. Not only that but each turtle are so detailed, it’s really amazing. Brittney even went to dipped her turtles in sands to give them texture and authenticity. Brittney also set up a little beach for the turtles with real sands. Which is going to be a pain to clean up. She also has a video playing of the beach to give you the illusion that the turtles are walking to the beach.
Content Analysis:
Brittney made this exhibit to bring awareness to sea turtles. The fact that we never saw a single sea turtle nesting is extremely alarming and concerning. Brittney wanted to make this exhibit as realistic and entertaining as possible in order to bring awareness to preserving sea turtles. She thinks that our society only cares for things that entertained so she decided to create an exhibit to entertain others about sea turtle nestings.
Synthesis/My Experience:
This exhibit is probably my third favorite gallery of all time. It was so well done and detailed. When I first walked in, I couldn’t even believe my eyes. For the third time in a gallery, I exclaimed without realizing “Wow…” Someone actually went through all the work to put sands into an exhibit. Not only that, but it was not just a little bit of sands, it was a lot of sands. But that was not even the most amazing thing. Brittney handcrafted hundreds of individual turtles. She did not even half-ass it either, I look at each one of the turtles and each turtle was so beautifully created and detailed. It was mind-blowing how someone could have the patience and energy to create hundreds of turtles individually like that. I also love turtles, my second favorite animal.
Art 110 