ars gratia artis

Ready for the world~ or just naps and sun!

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:53:22 -0700

Ready for the world~ or just naps and sun!

I didn’t realize she would be there. When they announced...

Fri, 31 May 2013 23:10:00 -0700

I didn’t realize she would be there. When they announced her to come on stage, I stood up and I can only imagine my emotional face. Surprised and happy, I wish I could have shared that moment with all the women that introduced me to her work and that I admire. For one, my mother, she watched the The Color Purple when it premiered in Mexico, 1985. It was showing for a film festival and she went to see it by herself, because it was only she who would have such an interest in a foreign and American film. It wasn’t until we were going through our local library’s video collection that she found it again and she told me it was mandatory for me to watch it. In high school, I read the novel along with her poetry. I didn’t stop there. I was enthralled by the stories, empowerment, and sense of beauty that Zola Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison also described. Back then, I was educating myself. These stories aroused my mind, spirit, and sexuality. Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth is a documentary that follows her history and her own thoughts about her work. As well as the trials she faced and her accomplishments. What she says is thought provoking, funny, and truthful but most of all inspiring.

While watching Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth, I remembered the scenes and passages of my heroines but I had also forgotten so much. It was as if it was the first time that I was hearing about women and I was realizing I am one. Why? Have I been lost all this time? No, I’ve simply been in school, living in a linear capital society. I am learning about the world and my mechanical function within it. No longer learning about my organic self. Realizing now that I don’t have the same naive confidence that I once had, I yearn for it. I need to integrated into my being. I’m sure that it’s still there because I think that the honor and joy of being in the presence of Ms.Walker rejuvenated it. Her words and sincerity resonated in my conscious and I cannot let go of this feeling again. Reading her words once gave me life and now I must again affirm my confidence as a being, as a woman, and as a mind. It is not that I have been unconscious all this time but rather it is that I haven’t been fully awake.

Perhaps, now that I am graduating I can once again pick up a book without the anxiety of an exam.

"Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light...."

Thu, 23 May 2013 20:20:14 -0700

““Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be...

artistcandyman: I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE Photograph, 2013

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:40:33 -0700

artistcandyman:

I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE

Photograph, 2013

artistcandyman: DREAM WORLD #6 Digitally altered photograph,...

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:20:17 -0700

artistcandyman:

DREAM WORLD #6

Digitally altered photograph, 2013

artistcandyman: JOYRIDE INTO THE ABYSS #5 Photograph, 2013

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:40:16 -0700

artistcandyman:

JOYRIDE INTO THE ABYSS #5

Photograph, 2013

artistcandyman: PATRIOTISM Photograph, 2013

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:20:32 -0700

artistcandyman:

PATRIOTISM

Photograph, 2013

artistcandyman: DREAM WORLD #9 Digitally altered photograph,...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:40:29 -0700

artistcandyman:

DREAM WORLD #9

Digitally altered photograph, 2013

What Smells in the Studio? with CandyManArt Above you...

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:53:00 -0700

What Smells in the Studio? with CandyManArt

Above you see “DREAM WORLD #2”

Digitally altered photograph, 2013

What do you call your work?

I don’t call it anything, I think language kills magic. The meaning of words are very arbitrary, so I try not to use too many of them.

What do you want people to see?

Something unexpected, something to make them stop their hectic lives for a hot minute and realize you create your own world, your own reality.

What is your process of work?

Unpredictable and sexy.

What inspires you?
The world chico, and everything in it.

Where are you from?

Candy land.

Where do you dream of traveling to? What would you do?

Outer space, which I would colonize and start a new utopic civilization.

What does it smell like in your studio?

Succes.

Success has a smell?

"Taking a photograph is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night, and stealing Oreo cookies out..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:44:00 -0700

“Taking a photograph is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night, and stealing Oreo...

"Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence"

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:15:30 -0700

“Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence” -...

Yet another write up for TWIF on the HENRY.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:33:48 -0700

Yet another write up for TWIF on the HENRY.

"To be young is to grow. To grow is to live: evolution, continuous growth, is perpetual life. To view..."

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 16:37:23 -0700

“To be young is to grow. To grow is to live: evolution, continuous growth, is perpetual life....

Last night, I saw Kimya Dawson. It was amazing to hear her in...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:50:00 -0700

Last night, I saw Kimya Dawson. It was amazing to hear her in person and to eat banana pancakes that she made for everyone! I feel so lucky and I didn’t leave without a HUG <3

I never realized how much of the music I love is from the Northwest! I also feel that there is so much happening~ What’s trendy these days?

"Facts are sacred, opinion is free."

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:02:10 -0800

“Facts are sacred, opinion is free.” - C.P. Scott

Kimsooja A Mirror Woman, 2002 Installation at MUDAM, Luxembourg,...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:20:24 -0800

Kimsooja

A Mirror Woman, 2002

Installation at MUDAM, Luxembourg, 2010

Kimsooja To Breathe: Mandala Installation at Kunstmuseum Bochum,...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:40:28 -0800

Kimsooja

To Breathe: Mandala

Installation at Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany, 2011

Kimsooja Encounter - Looking into Sewing Installation at FIAC...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:20:21 -0800

Kimsooja

Encounter - Looking into Sewing

Installation at FIAC 2012

A Needle Woman, 2005 Installation at Daegu Art Museum, South...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:40:20 -0800

A Needle Woman, 2005

Installation at Daegu Art Museum, South Korea, 2012
Site specific installation curated by Daegu Art Museum

A Needle Woman, still from video, Performed and filmed in Paris,...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:39:00 -0800

A Needle Woman, still from video, Performed and filmed in Paris, 2009, 25:00 min loop, silent
Commissioned by Nuit Blanche Paris, 2009

Internship adventures~

I’m a Student Exhibition Guide at the Henry. You can see me around during the Saturday Public Tour at 12pm, and at art events.

This year my favorite piece so far has been Kimsooja’s A Needle Woman, it was a video in the Stroum gallery with Now Here is Also Nowhere: Part I exhibit. In the video we see the artist standing still wearing a gray smock that washes her out of the crowded street. People walk pass and around her without stopping or even realizing that she is there. For a while, I waited to see her move but then my focus moved through the faces in the crowd. At this point I was awed by the vibrations of the colors in the white t-shirts, red lipstick, and blue blues. The slow motion take allows the viewer to notice details and time. The aim of Now Here is Also Nowhere was to bring together works that attempt to represent intangible ideas. In our time many artists have taken up the task to visually express feelings of love, brotherhood, death, and in A Needle Woman, we see humanity.

While A Needle Woman was on display I made a point to include it in my tours. I am always interested to hear opinions from visitors of all ages and backgrounds. On one occasion, after watching it with a group of Saturday visitors they all agreed that the overall feeling was loneliness. Even though, the artist was surrounded by many people she was ignored. Through Kimsooja’s stillness the viewer found themselves in the same perspective, everyone felt still and ignored. In A Needle Woman, the feeling of loneliness in today’s most crowded cities is expressed. The viewer senses this loneliness and lack of connectivity between everyday people. I find that this feeling is human and that everyone senses loneliness and embraces it differently. The film documents the lack of communication and intents to show feelings that the modern life does not make time for anymore.

While on other tours, this idea of universal loneliness prompted a whole new conversation with a group of kindergarteners. We talked about manners, and everyday courtesies that we notice. The group concluded that in everyday situations we should all communicate with each other, even if it is only to say hello to the morning bus driver.