LOTS OF ART!!!

I am on the road to becoming an artist, but… what exactly is an artist? One would say that an artist is a person with the ability to produce art, but then it becomes more ambiguous because really, what IS art??? Some would say that art is an expression of the artist in order to evoke a response from the viewer. In other words, art is subject to interpretation. I had to go to a lot of art exhibitions in the last couple of weeks; some were good and some were bad, some were hard to elaborate and others looked like children were playing around and the outcome was that particular painting. I am not going to post those pictures because there are a lot of them and you’d have to be involved in some kind of art making to somehow appreciate them. I am learning to do so but it is hard, to open my mind and really get a painting or a sculpture for that matter. For me it is as if I open a bottle of wine of Premier Cru Château Margaux. I know it is a great wine, but I don’t think I could elaborate on why this specific wine is that good. Well, art, as wine, is an acquired taste, but you have to be very sophisticated (which I am NOT) to create or critique on those pieces. I just see good, bad, or repulsive, in some cases.

Either way, art is good because it is an expression of someone, it could be beautiful or grotesque, but it always has a meaning, even if the author doesn’t know it. The main question here is what is art to you, or in this case, to me! I have done some pretty bad artwork (as you will see), but some seem to like them. There was this case when I did a project for my sculpture class and I created an object using tongue depressors. I spent around 5 hours gluing them together and at the end I knew it wasn’t a work of art and it was obviously very cheap (250 tongue depressors cost me around 4 dollars), but at the subway one girl came to me and smiled when she noticed the “sculpture”. (Maybe she was flirting with me but I am totally clueless on the subject ;)). This made me think that if this obsolete abstract piece of “art” (I can think of a better adjective for it) could make someone smile, then it is a good work of art and it should be exhibited. Well, I wanted to test this theory so coincidentally that day we went to 5 exhibits. One of the exhibitors specialized on creating a lot of random stuff using garbage, very similar to my homework; so I put my piece on the floor near some other sculptures to see what happened. This is for real, people went on and admired my sculpture, and I even heard one interpret why the author made this thing. Seriously, art is everywhere… and since then, I am finding art in the most unusual places.

Ok, so I want to be a comic artist. Is it still art? Hell, yeah! Next week I am going to post some comic artwork and you better like it or else… But honestly, I have seen original art from comic artists and they are so exquisite that I know by now how difficult and time-consuming they were.

Another thing to considerate is that when you create something, it is YOURS! It has a certain connection to you. For instance, I made another sculpture (This class is so fun but I really don’t want to keep doing this!!! I’d rather be drawing) that when I left it on the table around other pieces made by my classmates, I was really connected to mine. I protected it. It had no life but still I knew every detail of it, I knew how it was assembled and how it was painted. All the decisions for it to become what it is were mine. Somehow, and this could sound really creepy, when I turned around I felt its eyes on the back of my neck (No, I am not doing drugs, I am just expressing myself as an artist ;)). I think this is the only way to actually OWN something. Buying something does not make you an owner, anybody, with enough money, can do that, but to create something, even if it is crap, it is your creation, yours and nobody else’s.

                 

Besides sculpture I do other stuff too! I also paint and draw. I did four paintings and one big drawing! First I am going to talk about my painting experience. In class we had to paint a white still life and give the composition some values and tones. I spent around twelve hours doing this painting, and since it was my first oil painting I think I did OK. I noticed how in my first class I was messy and could not handle the brush well, but since it was an in-class project I got better by the end, which made me fixed some mistakes at the beginning, others were impossible to rectify. We used the mix of two composite colors and added white to make specific tints and some black to create shades. Let me remind you “this is NOT my BEST, this is my FIRST!” So if somebody want my first painting the bidding starts at $200 ;)

The next projects were homework and I spent like 4 hours on each one. I used acrylic on a board canvas. The Mondrian inspired project was intended to use as many colors I wanted the way I wanted them. It was an exercise on mixing colors. I got an A so I guess I did OK. The other I enjoyed more because it was more challenging. I painted my running shoes using just orange. Of course you can see more colors but only because I needed to use some whites and blacks in order to give some tonality. I really liked this one, specially since I am a runner.

 I also had to do a Sol LeWitt inspired painting on a 6 x 6 in. wood panel for my art history class. I just taped it and painted in black and white. I didn’t feel like doing more, above all because the teacher told the entire class that my last project was the least intellectual (the nerve on that guy!). I did NOT do my best effort with my latest job but he was enchanted, mesmerized, fascinated with this piece. He told the entire class that this was the best response to LeWitt since I extended the painting to the edges, so it focused more on the object rather than the illusion of painting. I nailed it with this and all of it came from within me, I just did not know it when I painted it :). Who knows, maybe there IS an artist inside of me!

Finally, my beloved drawing project, this is what I really enjoy the most. My assignment was to take three objects from home and draw them. Once I watched my fellow classmates turn in their works I knew I overworked for this one. Don’t get me wrong, there are some talented guys in the class, but even they did not spend so many hours with this project. Like I said in one of my tweets: “I am not the most talented, but I am for sure the one who works the hardest”.

Since I cannot finish my entry without mentioning anything pejorative about my classmates, I will only say this: I am learning a lot of slangs from them. For instance, when you say “two thumbs down” it means, as we all know, that it sucks, stinks, or it is just bad, but when you say “two thumbs away” it means that this is just not worth it, the absolute worst, so bad that it has crossed the point of no return. Also the term “rad”, which I will write down the definition from the Urban Dictionary below.

Rad.- An abbreviation of 'radical'--a term made popular by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Still primarily used by people on the West Coast who find words like 'cool', 'awesome', and 'tight' to be tired and overused; 'rad' is generally considered to be a much higher praise than the aforementioned superlatives. Also used as a general expression of awe.

So, these couple of weeks were RAD!!! ;) I know! it is totally lame that I am learning this shit, but really, I spent 24 hours a week with them, and it always comes from the same girl. Maybe she is lame and I am catching lame words. Was it a joke, a gag, some uncool word to say for a couple of laughs? I honestly can’t tell, and don’t care that much either! As WTF means “why the face” to Phil Dunphy from Modern Family, now RAD means “cool” to me. Have a RAD week you all!

Godspeed,

José Luis

THIS IS MY DEATH STAR!

I was watching a silly movie… Fine, I admit that I watch a lot of silly movies. Ironically, I read a lot of mature, or to say the least, intellectual comics.  So this movie is named FANBOYS, and it is about a group of close friends who grew up in the 80s with the privilege of watching the Star Wars movies when they still seemed as MAGICAL and playing with their toys, now overflowing in the market in order to satiate Lucas need for growing his empire. I totally lost track of what I was saying due to this fanboy rant! Anyways, these friends want to go to Skywalker ranch to steal the pilot for episode I before its official opening debut. It is a highly stupid comedy, full of Star Wars references, but there was one thing that picked my interest.  One of the friends persistently told the other guy who was losing his faith in stealing this movie that this particular moment in his life was his “death star”. As I HOPE we all know, the Death Star was a huge empire base created by the empire to destroy entire planets (If you really don’t know what the hell I am talking about, please do yourself a favor and watch the original trilogy. It has special effects, some muppets and very incestuous connotations but it is a really fun and intelligent movie!!!) Luke Skywalker (if you don’t know who he is then I can’t do anything to help you!) was practically a nobody, but he had one achievement in his life that changed his course completely. He fired an impossible shot through a small hole from the base and blew up the entire Death Star. Nobody believed he could do it but he did it anyway! I know by now that I have lost some of my audience, but please be patient that I am getting to my point. I think life presents you with lots of opportunities to succeed; saying that, it also give you one life changing opportunity (maybe two if you are lucky) to be what you are supposed to be, to prove yourself what you need to do in order to triumph in life. This is the moment that you have to get some courage and shoot the Death Star.

I realize that I am not making much sense, but you see, I learned something today (South Park reference ALERT!!!), that you have to live YOUR life and nobody else’s. I was at the NEW YORK COMICCON, which is the second best comic convention next to San Diego Comicon. It was a lot of fun and I had a blast wandering the halls full with thousands of exhibitors, but where I spent almost all of my time was at the “Artist Alley”. My life is drawing, or at least that is what I want my life to be, either by mimesis or creation, but I want my art to express itself. I think my drawings express the essence of my life in its purity. And what shocked me most is that I could see hundred of artists that are maybe feeling the same thing. Why? Easy, I don’t think anybody will feel any social pressure to get into cartooning! It is ridiculous to even think about it. I cannot imagine any parent saying to his child “you MUST study cartooning because that is a honorable and decent career that will give you a lot of money and recognition”. No, I don’t think anybody will hear a “must” in that context. Maybe once you made up your mind about this career path, maybe they could say to you: “you MUST be better at what you do” but not before. I think an unhappy cartoonist is a hungry cartoonist, and I am sure there are lots of them. Still, I am hungry for that lifestyle… I don’t know, maybe I will not need to sell a $40 sketch to a fan to survive, but I definitely want to be able to do it. And in case I do need it, I’ll have my preparation and experience in other areas to back me up.

All those artists in the artist alley saw me as a fan, a geek, whatever adjective you think is proper for us, but when you are in there, the only weirdo is you! Think about it, thousands of people discussing how Flash could help solve the energy crisis without collapsing the speed force, or for instance, how Darth Vader eats! It is crazy, and maybe trivial, but it is the way they have chosen to live. To say it better, they have chosen to expand their capacity to analyze characters, plots, continuity, stories and in doing so making the trivial not only important but vital to the common geek. VOILA! I think most of those artists are geeks themselves and sometimes they treat you with the respect you deserve. Some are nice, and some are way over their heads and think they are THE shit! For those stupid bastards I can only say this: beware! They do not see me as a competitor, because I am not, but I will be. This is not a discussion. I will be!!! (yes, an artist treated me bad and I am pissed!) In any case, I don’t like when people forget where they come from. They were geeks, and now they make fun of them. And to tell you the truth sometimes it is unavoidable. There are way too many extreme geeks out there. American pop culture is very weird; I do not even understand it well. Of course I like what they like, but they idolize, obsess and pay tribute to those idols. It is as if they have nothing else but the need to express themselves this way. It is weird but sometimes you cannot help feeling sorry for them.  But what I really like about them is that they really don’t care. They dress up as comic book characters and they are happy to pose for you, and I am the one who is taking his picture, so I guess the joke is on me!

I had a really good time at the convention, and although it is kind of frustrating to be the one asking for sketches when you want to be the one sitting drawing, it still is a cool place to be. This is where I heal my hurts, and by doing this I get fuel, an extra life if you want. It is as if I don’t need anything else at that point. I know that I need a lot of things, and I also know that when I get there I will need more to fill my unfulfilled life, but I try not to think as the goal oriented man that I am, but rather as a man who is enjoying the view more and more each time I see it.

I hope I did not bore you with my complicated, sometimes contradictory feelings, but it seems in this case they blossom in the fall!

Oh! I forgot to talk about my classes! I will only say this: Why kids sleep so much??? They finished early their work, they sleep, they see an instructional art movie, they sleep, sometimes they even sleep working! It is amazing and I cannot understand it, but oh hell yeah I can remember! Good ol’ times! Next blog lots of pics since this week is going to be deadly!

Godspeed,

José Luis

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS AND MORE

So I have not written anything for a while. Hell, with me drawing all the time I don’t think I am capable of writing anymore, more like drawing words. And it is not that I have writer’s block either, I just DO NOT have the time. Ok, enough excuses! I have postponed writing this blog for too long, or until I got used to the new schedule in my life. But as you can see, not even in the face of Armageddon I will stop to communicate my feelings which are of utmost importance (This in reference to my fellow Ecuadorians who are in the midst of a civil unrest due to the fact that the police just felt like they weren’t being paid enough so they decided NOT to work! I think I will write my perspective of this issue in my other blog “La Espina” in Spanish, or maybe not, because like I said before I have NO time at all!!!).  Anyway, it has been more than two weeks since my last entry and to tell you the truth I was hoping you didn’t notice it. Perhaps you didn’t, but it is good to dream that somehow you miss my anecdotal yet funny journals!

What have I done in the past two weeks that I claim I had no time to write this blog? or paraphrasing a little bit, I had the nerve to neglect my audience? The main event was in the first weekend, which I went to Miami to spend time with my beautiful girlfriend and lovely family (Sadly it was not the whole clan). Actually my birthday was two days after the trip but I knew beforehand that I was going to be alone that day so we “pretended” that my birthday was on Saturday, in Miami, with my family.  I know you must be asking yourselves “How in the world Jose would be alone in his birthday? Has he not has any friends at all being the friendly and so easy going kind of guy?” I know, I don’t get it either (sarcastic spasm). To tell you the truth, I have made like two friends, but this is New York and logistically it is a nightmare to meet up with friends during regular weekdays. I had a great weekend in Miami and my family even got me a surprise gift. I was not aware that my brother was going to meet me in Miami. They got me there :)

Since that was just the weekend, the rest of the time I have spent it drawing, painting, reading, doing homework, starving or eating too much junk food, and of course, riding my bike. Yes, Scott Pilgrim and me are one and only (The brand of the bike is SCOTT, so I named it Pilgrim as an homage to Preacher* Comics, clever huh!).

Following I am going to give you a brief description of my feeling about each class and probably post some pictures of my works for the fans (thank you mom, I Love you!) who are supporting me one hundred percent. Following the infamous yet brilliant classes:

·      Painting. - Am I allowed to say that I hate it? It is not that I hate painting; I just loathe all the chaos it creates to make one piece of artwork. It is not entirely soothing because even though you start relaxed creating a nice painting on a white canvas, all the paint, the turpentine, the medium get in the way and it gets messy pretty fast. I am a really neat guy and I need most of all ORDER. So I have to deal with the fact that I need to learn how to paint and also understand color values and mixing. No easy task let me tell you. I am posting two works that I have done at home, they are supposed to be Mondrian rip-offs, one in values of black and white and the other is of tonal values of mixing two composite colors, both in acrylic. The actual painting that we are doing in class is a work in progress, but I can tell you that is a boring still life. I need to take two semesters for this class and then I don’t have to take it anymore. Of course I will paint, but I hope I will be painting digitally. In any case, the career I want to pursuit as a cartoonist does not require me to paint my own work (although it is most advisable to know how to color it) because the mayor publisher have colorists of their own. I just have to worry about understanding the script (if I am not the writer of course), thinking the composition of the pages, panels, etc., pencilling it, and maybe inking it (There are independent inkers too, and very good ones, and it is usually because of a time factor or a better finishing material). Anyhow, I am getting ahead of myself with this, but since we are talking comics, lets cover the next class, Storytelling.

·      Storytelling. - I love this class. This is a sophomore class that I am taking in my first year because I did not have to take Western Civilization (guess what: I took it fourteen years ago). This class is the only one related to cartooning and is amazing how much I enjoy this stuff. For some people it may even sound irrelevant, but for me is the learning of how to tell stories visually. The fun fact is that you don’t even have to know how to draw properly!!! You may even tell a story visually using lines and circles but comprehending composition, sequence and all the fun terms I am learning but won’t share with you to avoid sounding as a complete geek (Too late maybe). In any case, I am sure that my pals at Toys & Comics will appreciate my newfound terminology :) I am not posting any work from this class yet because all we have done are thumbnails (layouts), which means drafts of future works.

·      Drawing. – Fantastic but also very challenging. We just go to the class and draw. Sometimes we draw a nude, or a still life, and most of the time we end up drawing some things that I would have never chosen to draw. That means that I am learning new things. For instance, yesterday we drew a shell. Let me tell you something that you may already know, it is BORING, but also very very hard! This is the class I enjoy the most. Here is a picture of a homework that took me around nine hours to finish. It is incomplete though, perhaps in its 75%. Needs more shading and maybe some background but in any case I am really proud of it. I am also putting the original still life for you to compare and be critics! (My friend Konanz is always giving me a hard time with proportions).

·      Art History. - I have so many things to say about this teacher. He is the most theatrical person I have ever encountered. A lecture from him is like assisting to an underground play performed by Greek actors from the classical period at the Epidauros theatre. I think it is fair to say that I am learning a lot from this guy even though sometimes you cannot even imagine there are people so sophisticated and eccentric as this man.  He is a character all by himself. His teaching style is slow and sometimes very infantile, but everything is now stocked in my head so I am sure that his method is effective. Also I must declare that he has a talent to see art EVERYWHERE. Some classmates have turned in some pieces of “artwork” that I am pretty sure they have done it in fifteen minutes and with a quasi permanent hangover, nonetheless, he has claimed that those pieces are glamorous, brilliant, and exceptional… all this for a napkin full of geometrical figures (not measured, no straight lines). My homework was the least intellectual. I didn’t care for that comment but afterwards I answered correctly and he made all of my classmates to applause my genius response.  I was on stage and shining!

·      Sculpture. – I am sure I said it before, this feels like daycare, but it is getting more fun and weirder by the minute. I do not have many anecdotes since all we have done is make a lot of plaster forms in order to do a sculpture. I am posting a picture of the finished elastic paddle that I talked about in the previous post.

This is it, as Michael Jackson would have said it. The hours are adding up and I am closer to my goal, at least closer than the week before. It is just uphill from now on ;) I hope I did not bored you to death and that more awkward things will keep happening to me to keep you, my loyal fans, entertained!

Godspeed,

José Luis 

* You may not know who the preacher is, but rest assured that when HBO airs it I will have to tell you that it was first a comic book (not a “graphic novel”), like I have made so many times by now. I feel like Hollywood is stealing from my underground collection!

SURVIVING FRESHMAN YEAR

First of all let me tell you that this is not going to be a big entry. I am so tired that I could really use some sleep. Actually, what I really want to do in what is left of my Sunday is not to think anymore. Maybe watch some mindless funny cartoon like Family Guy or watch an uncomplicated TV series. Even if it was hard to understand, I would not make an effort to do so. Why do I emphasize in this? Because even though I have not drawn the weekly hours I would have liked, the effort I have put in paying attention to class, doing homework and assignments and expanding my artistic sensibility, has been out of this world. I am not used to thinking like a crazy person, and now I have to do it as homework. Let me elaborate this thought with an example: one of my assignments is to transform an object. How can I do this you ask? It is not as complex as it sounds; I just need some random material, a lot of glue, an arbitrary object, and some creativity. I would prefer to dig up a hole and bury myself rather than glue rice to a paddle, at least I would know what the teacher expect. But I won’t get ahead of myself.

Since Monday was Labor Day I did not have any classes. I spent the last day of my common life doing nothing. It was as resting the night before a big race… yes, a race against time itself, it seems.  On Tuesday I attended my Storytelling class. Let me tell you, it was exactly what I expected, awesome. It is my dream class because it doesn’t focus on drawing (which eventually I will get better), but mainly it teaches how to visually tell a story. Here I can learn about all the terminology that a comic writer, penciller or inker needs. This is a sophomore class so my classmates were around nineteen or twenty. As if one or two years will make a big difference. The class is very practical and hands on, it is fun but I noticed that one of the teachers (the class is given by a married couple) is stricter than the other. I will not reveal it though; I do not want an F in this class after all. The class lasts around three hours a week, which is kind of manageable. Homework: draw a nine-panel comic, a phoenix comic based on jam comic! (You would know the terms if you have had come to class, but I am the one who is paying this tuition;)).

My second class was on Wednesday and up until now is the most fun of all. Foundation Drawing is hard work (six hours a week) but is much enjoyable. I just have to draw, draw, and draw some more. That day we had a nude model. For all who are giggling right now the model was female, none that it matters anyways, after drawing for three hours you just see shades, forms, and areas. Anyway, I really like this class and I think it will help me the most of all my classes. Homework: Create a drawing that describes your real or imagined ancestry, which is unique to your experience such as your ancestral heritage, family history, culture, and mythology. Say what??? This is what explained before; it is not an objective assignment. It frustrates me because I do not know exactly what the teacher is expecting. How can she grade me? If I lack creativity would I get a lower grade? Is it my fault that I have not yet expanded my artistic side? Well, I gave it some thought and ended up with a drawing that I am kind of proud at this early stage of my studies. I drew Rumiñahui (Ecuadorian ancestor) sitting on a throne and surrounded by bananas. I actually spent four hours doing this assignment over the weekend and I think I have not yet finished it, so I hope she grades me for my effort :).

I have Thursdays off, so I stayed home and took advantage of all the free time to do some homework. I know, total nerd, but like I said before, I am paying my tuition, so I at least should get better out of the investment. Besides, I do not mind because I love what I am studying; everything is new for me.

On Friday I went to my sculpture class. I was very enthusiastic because I really like statues, so I was hoping in the first day I was going to mold a face or something. That is exactly what happened, sadly not the way I imagined. We played with plaster like kindergarten children. We were given a huge block of plaster and we had to dig and crate an inverse human head inside. Afterwards we would have to put some clay in order to cast the face. Mine looked like an alien from outer space. Also considering the fact that the kid next to me said: “I was sitting next to an old dude” when I told him my age, I was not feeling very enthusiastic anymore. I did not dislike it but taking into account my time, I guess I think this class is the one that I will need less in the future, like that Philosophy class I took in high school. Homework: Object transformation (explained in the first paragraph) and gather “forms” to cast, aka trash!

In conclusion, the classes are good, some are better than others and I still have not gone to the painting and art history classes, which are on Mondays. I feel that the most difficult part is the inability to relate to my classmates. I feel like a fish out of water due to my age and my non-artistic background. I hope I will feel better regard this in the future.  Like my brother Oswaldo told me: I have to survive freshmen year, for a second time and care less about the questions such as: “Are you a student or a teacher?” I have fourteen hours up to this week so nine thousand nine hundred eighty six hours to go.

Godspeed,

José Luis