Art in the News: Tampa Museum Light Show

The exterior of the Tampa Museum is in fact a work of art in itself. As many of you most likely are not aware of, Leo Villarreal, an American artist, created the light show designated on the exterior of the Tampa Museum of Art in downtown Tampa using LED lighting within aluminum panels. These panels have two layers yet still allow the lighting to reflect the beauty of the show Villarreal created. I have always loved to look at the lights of the night outside this amazing museum and have noticed that the series of lights are never the same! Who would have known that a building that contains just phenomenal art would be exhibit in itself. Most people who see the lights outside of the museum undermine the reality of it, its not just ordered lighting. It is the creation of someone who put time and effort into a masterpiece of such magnitude! The name of the artwork is Sky and is using a software system that shows the lights moving from one direction to another, fading to one color of another, and allowing the viewers' eyes to follow the lights with awe. I have become so fascinated by this and have been curious as to if Villareall has other areas of his pieces. It just so happens that Villarreal has artwork in many places, including the MoMa in NYC: Brooklyn and Queens. Looks like I'll be visiting these locations this summer!

Here's the direct link of information about Sky residing on the exterior of the Tampa Museum of Art. Check it out!

http://tampamuseum.org/exhibition/sky-tampa/

The Escape of Sharp Ears

            Operas have long been an expression of art, emotion, and certainly a cherished form of entertainment. Moreover, an opera utilizes stage arts and designs of costumes to visually and audibly excite the audience. As civilizations and cultures have developed higher quality productions, the elements used within operas became no longer limited to a few stage props and masks for actors, but has become beyond this due to the proliferating opera industry. Along with this, higher quality productions can manifest a foundation for game designers, in which it not only gives them ideas for the plot of their game but also the characters and their strengths/weaknesses within the game design. This transition from a sophisticated opera to a playful video game can be exemplified in the opera, The Cunning Little Vixen.

The Cunning Little Vixen was created by Leos Janáček in 1923 and was first publicized within a Czech newspaper; the opera’s first production was in 1924. The story lit up Janáček’s life and inspired him to turn the newspaper column into a libretto opera. “Janácek was clearly captivated by the story and the illustrations, and his original newspaper cuttings, together with the story as published in book form the following year, still exist today, complete with his copious annotations” (Clements, Andrew). Janáček was born in Hukvaldy, Moravia, where he adopted a love for Moravian culture and music. To comprehend the cultural value of this opera, it is important to understand how Janáček incorporated his passion for the traditional music he grew up on. He used his knowledge from his childhood education to transform the folk music he grew up on into an individualized style of his own, which made him one of the most prominent Czech composers. The original title and script of the opera was written in Czech but was later translated to The Cunning Little Vixen in the English language.

Although there is no typical Janáček piece, in some ways this opera is a summation of his life and his work. In the context of an extraordinary late-life productivity, this work is not only a lovely piece of music, but one which meant so much to the composer he requested that the conclusion be played at his own funeral (Dorsey, Sarah).

Therefore, the stage art, singing, and dialogue of this opera not only showed Janáček’s cultural background but also his passion for what he did as a composer.

The opera begins within a forest setting, where a female vixen, Sharp-Ears, happily dances around a forester. The forester ends up capturing the vixen and tying her up within his cottage. Sharp-Ears dislikes being held captive and is ridiculed by the hens and other animals, but the vixen questions why the other animals do not try and escape. After, the vixen makes his escape and the forester’s wife witnesses her leave out of the cottage. Undeniably, the vixen is much happier now that she is a free animal and settles for a home in a badger’s pit. Sharp-Ears ends up meeting a male fox, who she falls in love with and becomes pregnant with his cubs. However, the forester is searching for Sharp-Ears and yearns for her presence in his life again. Because of this, the forester is convinced by a poacher to set up a trap with a dead hare to catch Sharp-Ears. The opera transitions from a light note of a happy vixen family to somewhat of a tragedy.

Unaware of the trap, Sharp-Ears’s cubs were playing around it where the poacher crept up on them. Sharp-Ears threatened the poacher to not come near her babies, but the poacher took out his rifle and killed her with a bullet. “Elements of the dramatic closing music are heard at two other high points in the opera, once in a love scene between the vixen and the fox (act III, scene 1) and later in that scene after the vixen had been killed” (Dorsey, Sarah). Janáček enhanced the emotion of both of these scenes by linking them together with the beautiful melodic music. The next scene opens with the same setting as the first scene: the forester within the woods. However, this time it is not Sharp-Ears dancing around him, but her cubs, who were left behind. In my opinion, the meaning of the story is within the forester’s ending decision. He desires to capture the cubs because they remind him of Sharp-Ears. Instead, he lets the babies go and realizes that like must go on. The subtle message within the forester’s decision to let them go is that there is a circle of life where Sharp-Ears’s cubs can be free in the wild.

To create a game design using The Cunning Little Vixen’s plot and characters as a foundation, the game would be divided into levels, which have different tasks within them. The main character that would be controlled by the player is the vixen, who the player can make into either the female vixen, the male fox, or choose from her two cubs. The vixen’s cubs will look the same but have different strengths and weaknesses from one another. For example, one cub will have very high endurance while another cub is quick with changing directions. There will also be a setting that can be unlocked that the allows the player to go on “blackout bonuses” where they are allowed to use all three cubs to get away from the enemies but the game brightness will be very low.

The first level is within the forester’s cottage, where the goal of the level is to dig a hole from the place where the vixen is chained to the fence on the other side of the cottage. To successfully do this, the vixen must get to the other side of the cottage without the hens or the forester’s wife seeing. The level would be in a maze-like establishment with hens and the forester’s wife walking in different directions; if the vixen is seen by any of these characters it will lose one out of three lives. When three lives is over, the vixen must restart from the beginning no matter what level it is on. Each level also alternates from daytime to nighttime, in which during the nighttime it is harder for the vixen to recognize a poacher or other enemy.

Once the vixen successfully gets to the other side, the player will be brought to the next level. Within this level, the vixen is within another maze-like setting but within a different scene. The vixen must find the other vixen while the poacher is on the loose. The poacher lurks around and, once the vixen is caught by the poacher, the player will lose a life. The vixen has the option to use a badger hole to hide from the poacher but must do it in time before the poacher can catch him.

The game has options as to whether the player desires to play a quick game, which just hardens levels as they get higher, or the player can choose to play the leveled game, which takes the player longer to accomplish. I believe it is important for the player to feel in somewhat control of their path within the game and this is why there are choices as to speak with a “guider” or just continue on to the next level. Once the three levels are unlocked within the full-leveled game, the player is opened to the entire forest and can roam around freely with no restrictions. The game will give the player goals to complete to gain more points and the player can also interact with all of the wild life within the forest setting. Within the forest, there will be a store in which the player can enter and buy new features such as buying more endurance throughout the game or a shovel to dig more holes that can hide the vixen from enemies. The sound effects of the game will be parallel to what happens to the player. For example, if the player makes the vixen jump into a badger’s hole to hide from a poacher it will make a squishing sound.

Through this exercise, I was able to get in touch with the technological side of my artistic abilities. I used the plot of The Cunning Little Vixen to create a game that would be visually stimulating as well as being directed to a large audience. Because there is no graphic material within the game design, all ages can play this game and can control which direction they would like to pursue within the options given. I believe that the gaming industry benefits greatly from using previous concepts made by other creators, regardless of if these ideas are taken from a composer, musician, story-writer, etc. Taking advantage of the technological advancements society is grasping can create a more modernized piece of art and most definitely receive more applause for outstanding use of effects. However, it is when technology blinds the eye of the creator that makes technology a negative effect on the imaginary mind of an artist.

Works Cited

Clements, Andrew. “The Cunning Little Vixen – A Musical Guide”. theguardian.

Guardian News and Media. 4 June 2012. Web. 16 February 2016.

Dorsey, Sarah. “Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen”. The Opera Journal 29, No. 4. 1996:

28-41. Print.

Opusarte. “Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen (Glyndebourne)”. Online video clip.            Youtube. Youtube, 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.

Paper Airplanes

The beauty of paper airplanes is that no matter how hard or light you throw it, it will not effect where it ends up. Just like how life works, even though one may work really hard at school it does not determine the grade they will receive but thats the mystery of it! It was really interesting watching everyone throw their unique paper airplanes into the air, especially off the parking lot. It was even humorous seeing girls' paper planes go farther than boys in the class because it does not depend on one's strength. With this being said, I really enjoyed this project! Everyone did a really good job!!

Extreme Body Modifications

I never really understood why people modified their bodies so much to the point of looking completely different, looking to the point that people cannot help but look at you as you walk by, but maybe thats the point? I remember watching the show, Taboo, the showed the certain cultures and tribes in different cultures that modify their bodies. However, these people modify their bodies because it is considered traditional and even beautiful to people who are accustomed to it. For example, women in China would conventionally bind their feet to reduce the size of them and were considered beautiful to men. It would become so extreme to the point of having serious internal foot injuries that sometimes could last a lifetime, it even became illegal. With this being said, maybe the reason of being beautiful is the reason regular people modify their bodies in an unconventional atmosphere. Maybe, just maybe, even though their choices are not considered beautiful to other people they are considered beautiful to themselves and that is the most important part.

In respect to this, Maria Jose Cristerna is a perfect example of this. I remember over everything that she was a domestic violence victim and that can take an extreme toll on someone. She has not had the best life and the way she copes with things is completely up to her. So if dealing with this hardship is her modifying her body to an extreme, then so be it! I admire her for taking such a risk of portraying herself in this way because I know I certainly would not be able to regardless of if I wanted to.
In conclusion, don't judge people on the way they look. Maybe it was caused by their past, maybe they did it to feel beautiful in their own way, maybe they wanted to feel recognized in society, or maybe they are following a tradition they have always known. For whatever reason, they have done it because they wanted to and did not fear what people would think. That is something that should be greatly admired and appreciated since some of us do not have that strength.
So go Maria! You're a beautiful person!

Performance Art: "Purple Haze Down My Spine"

Directed by: Elise Gutekunst

Painter: Elise Gutekunst

Model: Natasha Grayson 

Audio Source: Youtube Free Music Archive on www.youtube.com/editor

Dan Eldon's PhotoCollages

I have never been a big mixed-media artist but after looking into some, I have been motivated to try it out. Dan Eldon uses disassociated photos in such a way that makes a photo with such unrelated images seem whole, which is certainly not easy. For my share of trying it out, it was hard to me to be able to place everything in a manner that compliments each other. It has to do a lot with mastering abstractionism and utilizing it in a way that makes the piece unpredictable, yet make sense in a way. I find it easier to make a successful piece by picking out the images, colors, and patterns that are desired to be used and then placing them on the surface of the work before using an adhesive to make the glued on. I found it the most challenging using paint with other materials to make a collage but it can be very entertaining to do so.
Viewing Dan Eldon's photo collages gave me a lot of ideas at how to utilize different materials in a way that make them all appreciated the same amount. I have realized he also uses consistency and duplication go images but not too much where they are over used. It seems that he also uses his culture to inspire his images, which is very much appreciated by me. I often find it difficult to channel in my cultural self and incorporate it into my pieces. This is why I look up artists who do this and see the techniques they use in hopes that it will make me a better artist. Dan Eldon uses a lot of abstract patterns, typically within the background of his pieces, but also utilize images of reality in a way that makes the viewer appreciate such a commonly seen image even more. Some of my favorite pieces of his art the ones that are very congested and make the viewer have to really look at it in order to be able to see all of the aspects of the artwork. I have also seen his use of water colors which motivates me to try and use them more as I don't think I am very good at it yet.

I have been showing pictures of my recent artwork to express the styles and techniques I use so I am also going to show a collage I made that was inspired by William Goodman. William Goodman often makes his pieces look as if they are graffiti or on some type of wall, but still is able to show that such unrelated images can make a full and beautiful whole.

Here is also a picture of one of William Goodman's most popular pieces, which can express the use of collage making. Hope you enjoy! 

Source of William Goodman's artwork: www.supersonicart.com 

The Nature of Surrealism and Its Impact on Me

Looking at the differences of periods of art it is quite interesting to recognize the differentiating factors between them. One that has always stood out to me was surrealism, which expressing dream like states and unrealistic scenes usually with a fantasized nature. Before surrealism took its flight, Dadaism was a centralized theme within art. Dadaism showed artists' expression and opinions of negative aspects of society that they thought should not be. It's incentive was on diminishing the artistic styles of the past into a way that showed an opinion on the present. It certainly gained its controversy when artists began using it as it was not a conventional and certainly not a positive expression of art.
Surrealism on the other hand was a positive expression of art and tapped into the untouched imagination of many artists. It was not a common expression of art and had heads turn all around the world. Surrealism not only taps into the artist's imagination but the viewer's imagination too, showing the power of the unconscious. Artists did not begin a piece of art with a pre-existing intention, instead it touched base with a part of their mind that was not typically shown appreciation. Through this, artists opened a gate way of showing unrealistic and dream like scenes that opened the eyes of their viewers. This is why I am so in love with this period of art. It portrayed artists' ability to put such unrelated objects into one picture and somehow have them make sense in an imaginative way. I for one enjoy going into a piece of art without a picturized motive but instead going with the flow.

I am going to post a picture of a surrealist type of painting I have done recently. It is just a bunch of colors with a central point in the bottom of sunglasses. I have also created a painting that expressing the song, "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles. What makes it surrealist is how unpredictable it is. It is truly therapeutic for me to use the Surrealism that prevailed after that period of its beginning. I hope you all enjoy it!

One of the favorite surreal artists is Chloe Early! She is definitely worth checking out!