Wk14 – Artist Conversation – Sery Kim

  
 Today for the artist conversation, I interviewed Sery Kim. At the moment she is currently a senior student who wishes to either continue with her education through art or become a teacher. She previously held a job through teaching. One of the things she emphasized is how relevant interning is for an art student. In the near future after she graduated, she wishes to take a year off before starting beginning her education for her masters. Came from South Korea to the U.S. At a very young age to pursue the development of her art skills. 

  
She debuted her gallery on December 3rd, 2015 at Gatov-West. She originally started doing figurative art pieces at start then she transitioned into abstract because of a certain class she took. She realized that there wasn’t a figurative ending to abstract art which made the concept more interesting. The ability to make the piece deeper than what it is in the end regardless of whether it’s already completed. The ripped pieces of acrylic that is meant to represent her emotions or patterns that fitted well was placed on a large wooden canvas. 

  

The dark color during gallery was for the contrast from her earlier pieces which were more bright and colorful. Emphasizing the idea of how a relationship exists between color. Her piece was interesting. Since the pieces ripped represented her, what I saw was a bunch of memories or parts of her life that intertwined back and forth to each other or touched each other. It gives me the dies of how the things we feel are ultimately connected to each other in some way in the end. 
Here is a link to her website: http://serykwon.weebly.com/. 

Wk 12 – Artist Conversation – Christopher Linquata

   
 Christopher Linquata exhibited his gallery for partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree and to reassure his idea of paintings being meant to be displayed and not hidden. His current major is presentation of drawing and painting. Although he is not for sure with his future, he has displayed interest in teaching. 

  
He debuted his gallery at Gatov East on November 12, 2015. His gallery was called: “Sacred & Profane” with another artist by the names with Mike Kent. Through his art, he wishes to inspire others to push themselves for art. Aspiring others to either paint similarly or differently from what he feels about his art. His progression of his sketches and the paintings allowed himself to actually put his art into verbiage and discuss it with others. The pieces all took about ten weeks total with pieces being worked on multiples at a time. 

   
 His painting style is very unique. One of the most attractive pieces to me involved unique colored layers and his shadowig with shading. The mix of color reminds me of real graffiti, the color smears as if the grafitti is actually worn down by something like weather. I found very interesting that he would paint over areas that he no longer was apart of his vision and how it contributed to the layer of color. 

Follow him on Instagram at: @icon5350

Wk 8 – Artist Conversation – Rhiannon Aarons

Rhiannon Aarons has a Master of Arts in Print Making and is currently in her second year at CSULB (Link to her site). She debuted her first gallery at Long Beach in the Gatov-West gallery on October 15, 2015. Although this is her first gallery at Long Beach, she has open pop up gallery. The pieces were created under the idea of how interpretation and understanding of anatomy is flawed and is considered as fact when it could be false. The art pieces were made in reference to interpretation of anatomy based on old historical references and personal intuition. The art pieces were all worked on collectively rather than individually with the wood piece taking the longest due to including a new trade in word working.

The wood piece with the dirt is a representation of how even something perfect from perspective of peoples’ view eventually become the same in the end. The dirt was taken from a cemetery of two iconic women that redefined the representation of women in a patriarchy such as Donna Reed who was a sitcom pioneer actress and Betty Page who was a pin up model. These people in the end are dead and physically the same in the end. The wood piece itself is a representation of what the item may physically compare to if it was actually realistic. Her justification for its creation is insanely interesting as it opens views that I could not realize at first. (Apparently, I did not get a photo…)

Honestly, I have no clue how to interpret her Serpent Series, but I commend her for taking facts from the 1800’s and re associating them to the present time. This does reflect her ideas about anatomy. The historical interpretation and her art piece are two individuals representing the possibilities of a serpent. Regardless of whether either of the pieces are correct there is a fact that in the end the intention was to portray the serpent similarly to how Betty Paige and Donna Reed are anatomically the same in death.

Wk 7 – Artist Conversation – Jane Margarette

Originally Jane Margarette (Link to her Instagram page) started out as a graphic design major then she moved onto ceramics. With just three years of experience in art, she demonstrates great amount of creativity with the references to her childhood and other memories. She sees memories as very fragile and loosely held together, since memories changes over time. The art pieces is a way to make the memory more significant and allows the memory to be more permanent. Originally she was very creative and artistic as a kid, but as time progressed, she strayed away from it. Realizing others’ passion for art, her inspiration for art was revitalized. She started out at a community college in San Diego and eventually transferred to Cal State Long Beach.

She debuted her art gallery at Gatov-West, creating a memory inspired gallery. The gallery was displayed October 8, 2015. All the pieces are made out of clay, rope ties, and ceramics. Any other various items placed along the gallery are all meant for aesthetic looks. For an example the zip ties variation between cut and non cut was to create more interpretation of how something so small can help hold something to its original look. Her favorite piece was an ambiguous based piece with vertical hoops with a rope tie, since it allowed for more interpretation.

From the perspective of myself as a child, I see the rope and hook as a typical ladder on a playground that is held down which in this case is the rock. I believe that even as a kid, the idea of climbing is insanely simple, to get from one place to another. But as we get older the idea of climbing is targeted towards getting oneself at a better position socially, politically, or philosophically. The memory of climbing changed over time. Because the artist’s intent was to bring back the idea of child hood into an art piece, I think she was trying to emphasize the kid like interpretation of the ladder itself.

Wk 4 – Artist Conversation – David Mendez

David De Mendoza creates his art piece in inspiration to horror films and novels such as H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and the movie: The Shining by David Lynch. Mendoza horror based art pieces manipulates the human archetype to create a completely different deities that “torments the human soul.” The lighting and the human form help draw inspiration for the placing and direction of the displays. Link to his blog.

The gallery was shown in Max L. Gatov Gallery West. The art pieces required little planning, but the art was progressively developed as time progresses. The art was somewhat alien, but there are recognizable forms of human archetype. The intention of his art is to represent fear in general. The art piece that I found most interesting and appealing was the Unfathomable Indisposition Of Eros. Oil on canvas. I am heavily interested in the horror genre which draws inspiration similarly to the artist’s. I personally enjoy work pieces by Stephen King. The art piece demonstrates a corrupted version of humans through the deformation of man itself. The babies are conjoined and grotesque shaped along with unpleasant sight of vomit being present. Also the heart is displayed externally binded by chains rather than internally binded by other organs and skin. There is a darker depiction of humans in a darker perspective. Even something like halos that are usually portrayed as angelic or holy is replaced with a blackened halo and skulls. How I see the variety of heads and the mountain represents a single person. Ideally people like to define themselves individually, but as a person there are multiple personas that are developed depending on the situation. Our heart is binded by all of the personas.

Wk 3 – Artist Conversation – Nick Bamford

Nick Bamford.

Bamford displays his interesting interpretation of art itself: “Art for me has become a way to explore my capabilities and to challenge myself.” This attempt to challenge himself can be easily seen throughout his art pieces and his ability to be the best artist he can be. The intentions of his art style is to be vague for others to interpret, to create redefine the human archetype that encompasses a larger idea and audience. Even the lack of tags and simple names on pieces further support this “interpretive” perspective for the viewers. From the placement of the statues themselves to inspiration and dedication to each piece, there is a spontaneous reason for each display. Art pieces coming from items referred to as trash, to be transformed into a work of art. His future in art is to strive to be the best while continuing his education to improve.

Sitting Man

The gallery was displayed in Max L. Gatov Gallery East and West on September 10, 2015. The material used to created the pieces ranged from cement, clay, and plaster, to random materials like electronic wiring and a wheel. The projects were more spontaneous in the forming of each piece. Originally I interpreted a head piece had wiring revealed in the back of the head as the mechanism and wires that allows the brain to function, it turns out the wiring was placed as an attempt to form the product itself.

The Hand

The texture and shape of art piece of “The Hand” and the “Sitting Man” was rough and imperfect which emphasize how nature is not perfect and more spontaneous. The Sitting Man sculpture was a life sized sculpture whereas The Hand was a larger scale display. The artist recognized that location was intentional, so I believe that the location of the two sculptures close to each other for a reason. The Sitting Man is missing a hand and is in a better condition compared to The Hand standing nearby. I think the hand being separated and more imperfect than the man signifies the true condition of the man. It is very interesting that the pieces are not completely finished and was intended to be able to see through the product itself. Regardless of the overall appearance, the minor defined details is one of the most important info there is. Through his idea of inspiration of retaining childhood innocence in his art by disregarding danger, I interpret it as how innocence can be easily lost in the end by the looks of his art.

For more art pieces by Bamford: Instragram – Nick Bamford