Art Dump: 3D projects from my hawaii days

Here are some projects I did while I was in Hawaii that have a more sculptural focus- something I don't particularly excel at, but here we are.


Woodshooop! That was a definite *experience* The assignment was to make a stool. I wanted a fun project sooo... Mario Mushroom!

Little did I know the painstaking process they'd put us through. We had to cut the board of wood up into specific sized strips (I think it was 1"x2"s) and then recombine them into whatever we needed. This made me take thrice as long to complete the project, since I had to spin it all on the lathe anyway. My boyfriend was supposed to assist me to make it go faster, but he was forced to leave the workshop because he was considered "a liability".

Materials: Poplar, reddish stain that turned out to be the wrong color, permanent marker



I'll admit that I'm not the best at ceramics. In fact, that one class almost made me want to stop majoring in art. Sitting at the wheel at 2 AM struggling to make the damn clay even center for 34,356th time isn't my cup of tea, and I stayed in a violent rage.

But! This hand built blueberry cake was pretty fun to make :D

I forgot which type of clay I used specifically. Probably some sort of earthenware.




On October 2, 2007 my grandma died suddenly and I interrupted my classes to fly back home for a week for the funeral. There was a lot of controversy surrounding her death and a lot of family spreading vicious rumors and pointing fingers. It was exhausting and more difficult for me to deal with than the deaths of my other two grandparents, probably because it was so unexpected.

So when I returned to school, I made this piece. I still maintain the fact that I am shite at ceramics, but this is my favorite project of that class.

Materials: Earthenware, tenmoku

Hold the Phones

New favorite artist: Shirin Neshat


It's rare that I find a serious, professional artist that's also down to earth / keeps their inflated ego in check *cough*lookingatyouMeesa'Bahney*cough*
We have Shirin Neshat's Faezeh series of video installations in the Newcomb Gallery right now. I just walked in one day because I was blowing off time before painting class, and found I was the only one in there besides a couple of chatty security guards.

Usually I approach installations with a wary eye, since more often than not they come off as a lot of self-congratulating masturbatory fluff. This time was different however, since I was able to sit through a good deal of her videos before being forced to walk to class. I actually didn't want to leave. Her imagery and themes were unique, beautiful, and actually thought provoking.

She deals largely with the topics of Islam and Muslim women in Iran, especially after the revolution. Here's a cool interview with her here, for those who are interested.

The bottomline, I like her so much because she's intelligent and makes art that people can actually relate to and/or learn something from.

I was surprised to see that she is a part of the Gladstone Gallery, the same as Meesta' Bah-ney. She's a definite cut above that hack.

Gladstone Gallery: Shirin Neshat

Art Dump: First Digital Media Project

The theme was "imaginary landscape" and we had to make it from a collage of images / photographs / scans. Finished Sep. 20, 2008
40+ hours of painstaking work
Click for a massive view. And this is the low-res version. >_>

I'll probably enter this into the undergraduate juried exhibition or some other contest.