Art Events

CADRE at Haldan Art Gallery at Lake Tahoe

     CADRE at the Haldan Art Gallery was a small exhibition and it was a truly interactive experience.  When first going into the gallery there were a lot of things to look at, but it was confusing trying to figure out what exactly the viewer was looking at.  The art piece that I gravitated towards was the bin of Minecraft blocks.  I'm a Minecraft fan and I just remember my cousin showing me pictures oh his lovely trip to the first Minecon in Las Vegas.  This piece being in one of his pictures and I just thought, "Wow, that's such a simple idea and I would love to own a little Minecraft block!"  Actually holding one of the blocks in my hand, it was amazing how detailed the texture of the block was.  Even thought it was covered paper, it would be interesting to see the artist take one more step into actually painting, using different materials for each block, and texturing the blocks as well.  I was very tempted to take one, but out of the integrity of the sculpture I didn't go through with it.
      Another piece that I enjoyed was the Pixel Board; which was set in its own little space, before entering the space was a QR code on a small artist statement.  When stepping into the space, there's a bench on one side of the wall and a projected imaged of black and white squares.  Jacob's "Your Sqaure" reminded me of this piece where you could interact with other people by changing the square to either black or white.  Even though the board wasn't big enough to make a convincing image of a penis, there was still a possibility for it.  Anyone who was on the site of the Pixel Board could easily communicate anywhere and with the QR code anyone could play around with the board from their phones.  Since my phone was having troubles with reception, I watched another young lass play around with the board and changed the colors of pixels right from her phone.  I was amazed that it was happening right before my eyes and how much communication has developed.

Sheppard Contemporary: Two by Land: Nicole Donnely & Katherine Sandoz

     The Two by Land exhibition was gorgeous.  Before going to the exhibit itself, I looked at photos of what type of work would be presented and let's just say photographs do not do the paintings any justice in terms of color.  By each piece a title card or artist statement was not presented like the CADRE exhibit, but instead had numbers next to each painting.  I'm the type of person that enjoys reading the little cards of what materials were used and titles of paintings, but like the CADRE exhibit I had to interpret the painting for myself.
     There was one particular painting that looked as if a ship made of clouds was surrounded by wild brush fire.  The technique used to make the "fire" and the colors were beautiful.  Personally, a scene like that would be chaotic and wild, but instead the piece presented had more of a calming and surreal feeling.  Several of the paintings had this same style to them and the way the "fire" interacted with everything else was like it was trying to destroy everything it touched, but at the same time it was stuck in that one particular moment.  As the viewer I didn't know what type of change the fire would have made to it's surrounding, would it make it more beautiful? Or would all that lively color just go away and turn it into the same neutral background?


Gallery South: Brian Krueger MFA Thesis  Lecture
     
     During my Spring 2012 semester, I had Brian Krueger as my ART 100 professor.  I enjoyed each lesson he had to teach and even though we were just drawing fruit most of the time, Brian really made his students take their art to the next level and challenge themselves.  Going to the Fall semester, I took on my biochem courses and realized that all I really wanted to do was draw during my lectures.  After thinking about what I would have like to pursue, I contacted Brian asking him what type of steps I should take to becoming an art major.  I showed him several of my work that I did that fall and he told me, "Your work is beautiful, but they're all missing one thing. You.  It's not easy creating work for yourself when you've been in the commercial art industry for so long, but what you need to focus on when becoming an art major is to find your own voice."
     I went to his lecture, glad to be able to see one of my previous professor's work.  During his lecture he constantly brought up the term "voice".  At that point I realized, "Yeah, I can see what he means by voice."  I'm currently stuck in a position where I feel that as an artist I'm making nice work for other people.  I don't have a set style because I have yet to discover my true "voice".  I would have liked to attend his gallery event where he has a performance boxing match.  But I'm glad I was just able to hear his transformation as an artist during that lecture.