Artist Interview

Although my artist was unavailable for an interview last week, I am still going to interview her ASAP out of pure interest. I have come up with a few questions though I am planning on going in whichever direction our hopefully comfortable, frie. ndly conversation takes us. I have known her for a some time so I'm not planning on sticking to only these questions, because the interview at this point is more out of pure interest, and less an academic requirement.

I am interviewing Lynn Sushotlz, an artists whose art is displayed all over San Diego, and in my opinion, her art is a direct reflection of the Culture of San Diego.
Here our my guiding questions, I will definitely post about my interview and all the wonderful knowledge I obtained.

1. What type or artist do you consider yourself?
2. How has your style developed over the years?
3. How many different project do you have going on? (ex: teaching? Public art? Anything besides personal work?)
4. Who got you into art?
5. What would the world be like without art?
6. Who are some of your favorite artists, living and dead?
7. Do you ever get nervous that people won’t like your work?
8. Where do you draw inspiration for certain pieces?
9. Which of your pieces is your favorite?
10. The future? Any big plans?

The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a project in which the goal was to create the first atom bomb. The United States, The United Kingdom, and Canada were the key players in the Manhattan project. More specifically in charge of the project was The US Army's engineers, and American physicist; Robert Oppenheimer. In 1945 they were successful in creating 3 nuclear weapons, one a tester which was dropped in New Mexico, and 2 that were dropped in Japan, one in Hiroshima, and one in Nagasaki.
The project itself was developed in fear that the Germans were en route to creating nuclear weapons of their own. The Manhattan project started out small, but then developed into a project that employed over 130,000 people and cost about 2 billion dollars. Although it does have the name "The Manhattan project," there were about 30 research facilities scattered all throughout the United States, Canada, and The UK.
The United States reasoning for dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was because they assumed this would end the war immediately, therefore saving the lives of many Americans. The number of causalities, the second the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima has been said to be as many as 100,000.

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all felt that one way or another."
J. Robert Oppenheimer

So was it a good choice for the United States to drop the Atom bomb? Would Japan have surrendered anyway? This is the question we are being asked to debate this coming Friday. More research will be presented as this debate develops.

Art to Science

Over the past few weeks, we have had from 20 minutes to an hour at the end of class to simply do art. No boundaries. We were supplied with water colors, markers, charcoal and colored pencils and had complete artistic freedom. At the end of these art sessions, we picked a few of our favorites and scanned them into a computer. Due on Wednesday is 3 photoshopped versions of these three rough drafts. Then we will take the best of the three and turn that into a painting using the paint we will create in chemistry (view (Egg) Tempera Paint? Blog for more details). I chose 2 water colors, and one very simple drawing with markers. I will post pictures soon, along with the photoshopped images. Im really looking forward to editing these pictures because I think they have a lot of potential. Im a little worried though about the water colors because of how blended they are, and since there is no defined lines, that they will be hard to edit. But I will do my best. Wish me luck!

Poetry to Art

Last semester, I learned about different types of poetry and even wrote a few pieces of my own which eventually developed into a portfolio. After my portfolio was completed, I picked one poem and brainstormed ideas of ways to turn it into a piece of art. I ended up picking my sonnet, called "this feeling." It is about my experience of seeing one of my favorite bands in concert. When I wrote up my project proposal for the art piece, I said that I wanted to create something fast paced, with a lot going on, because that is exactly what I was feeling during the concert. I decided to create a graphic design piece, and utilize my photoshop skills. Also, I figured the best way to create a different interpretation of my poem would be through graphic design.
Here is the poem and my final art piece:

"This Feeling"
By: Kate Gallagher

This seems to be the best night I have seen
Bass is all around, flooding through my ears
My life is complete, I’ve just reached fifteen
It has just begun, my mind quickly clears

The floor is dirty but the air is worse
But not one person cares a single bit
He approaches the third and final verse
Look up, falling confetti is moonlit

I wish for this feeling to last all night
I wish for this moment to never end
He departs from the stage, down go the lights
Best fifteen dollars I ever did spend

When walking out the door, the feeling declines
But this memory shall forever shine