Artist Statement

I am a creator inspired by text.

Hypnotized by music.

Observing people. 

Hoping to capture the moment.

I move as if gravity did not hold me down. 

The notes capture me. 

I, a conglomeration of things most dear to me, 

Coming together to make an individual a unique artist. 

Artistry is not everything I want but what I do with it. 

How can anyone define what they are? Is it by what they say they are or by what they do? Is it the opputunities that have been given to or what we have always wanted to do? 

How is art defined? Is it to be good at what you do? Can you be an artist of teaching? Is artist a definition for someone who is good at what they do?

I don’t want to define my artistry because I don’t want to be stuck with a definition of what people think I can do. In a world of acting I have many options of being different types of people.  This fact works against a statement about who I am as an actor.  

Depending on 

1. who I am surrounded by 

2.what opportunities find me 

3. what people know I can do and create 

I find myself as a different persona of myself . One of the crazy, wacky sides I have  

If in ballet class, people know me as a horrible dancer. In tap kids around me know me as a great dancer!  It is the situations and the people around me that mold who I am that day and bring out different qualities out from me. Each day my artistry and it's resemblence to my true self change. 

I am an actress if people know I am. I am bored in Anthropolgie class. I am a singer in recitals and in the Sirens and shy if I don’t know you at all. 

To myself I am first and foremost the person who is in love with becoming characters, who adores to sing out loud their stories, to needs to blend in the Sirens and to gains freedom through dance when no one is watching! I love to sit on the couch watching movies or TV to learn from the ones who have already done their research.  Seeing the little details they have chosen to bring to their craft. 

I collect trinkets that I have somehow created some sort of stupid meaning that persuades me to keep them. I am a pro in my own mind at capturing events with my camera and obsessively creating photo albums with this pictures in them, hoping to have others get as much as I have from these pictures. 

All of these capture moments I keep. I can change my personality for any type of situation like I do with my characters, dances, songs and photos. The closest thing that I can say about my artistry is that I am a acting-dancing-musical fiend who dabbles in photography, observing the little details of life and sharing them with others.

Duane Hanson's Unreal Realities

While working a shift at the California Science Center, I flipped 

through a Human Body book for kids.  In this book was a

fascinating picture of a chubby shopper and her full shopping cart 

exemplifying the human body.  I had a double take when I

realize that the woman in the picture was a sculpture. 

This is where I discovered Duane Hanson. 

"Supermarket Shopper" 1970.

Hanson loved capturing the human form as early as age thirteen

with a sculpture of Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy out of wood.

"Traveler" 1988, auto body filler, fiberglass and mixed media with accessories life size

In his lifetime, (January 17 1925-January 6, 1996) this Minnesota native, made many sculptures of people, 

most depicting life as a member of America’s middle class.

He made sculptures by making a cast from a live model and creating the sculpture from mediums like bronze, vinyl , oils, fiberglass and real accessories like actual used clothes from second hand stores.

"Queenie II" 1988, polychromed bronze, with accessories life size

All of these art pieces are very life like, life size and eerily uncanny 

to real middle class tourists, workers, shoppers and middle class 

people.  Which is why I was confused first seeing the shopper in the 

book at work and thinking her to be a real person.

His sculptures create a 3-D photograph that the viewer can walk around and study the situation the 

sculptures are in. Most of the sculptures capture a moment from real life. The audience can compare those 

casual and everyday moments that the art creates; grocery shopping, waiting with your luggage at the 

airport, or taking out the garbage, to their own everyday moments in their lives.

He captured real people and what they look like. He did not cast skinny models, bringing 

the audience closer to people who look like them.  This brings appreciation back to what the average 

population of Americans look like. This is a confidence booster to anyone that is not stick thin 

or perfect looking as he includes the details on his sculptures like bruises, veins, and each tiny hair on their 

body. 

"Woman with Child in Stroller" 1985, auto-body filler, polyvinyl and mixed media, with accessories

Life size

Hanson was known for capturing human dullness of everyday events as well as humanity.  Other scenes 

depicted bodybuilders, policemen and hard hat construction workers doing what they would be doing on a 

daily basis, working and bored out of  their mind.

"Flea Market Vendor" 1990, polychromed bronze, with accessories  life size

Almost as fitting as one of his sculptures, which seem to say “that’s life”,  Hanson died in 1996

from lymphatic cancer due to toxic resin and the fumes from  his own sculpting. 

"Man on a bench" 1997-98, vinyl, polychromed in oil, with accessories life size

Hanson's art career lasted thirty years, with his popularity in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

WENDIGO is coming for you!

The Wacky Windigos is our group name and story telling is our game. We created a story board and a presentation that took the class through a process of pre-production of a movie.  Organizing everything that goes into filming a script is taken for granted as an actor. The pre-production is where everything comes together before filming the actors. Because the actors only show up at this point, when the movie is being filmed, they may be unaware of all the steps it takes to put together the movie before they arrive. 

All departments on a movie like script writers, lighting and costume designers, and the rest of the crew, must come together to understand the vision of the writer, producer and director, to make a cohesive movie.  

The script has to be finished, the producers and their money have to be lined up, the green light from a studio must be achieved- meaning they sign a contract to make the movie. These are all issues before the filming begins.  Our group focused on the in-between steps of selling our movie to the studios and the actual filming of it.  We created a storyboard to set up a scene from a script "Wendigo" that Morgen had written. 

 

We created this short story board from drawings and a power point using other movie's still images, also called screen shots, to compile the camera shots the writer may have envisioned for the movie.  In a real story board meeting, like I have seen on the special features portion of Monsters Inc., 

DVD the animators would tell the complete story of the movie to the big wigs of the Disney / Pixar company to get a sense 

of what the movie's plot might be or what the shots would potentially look like. They draw many boxes that show the action of the scene. (Monster's Inc. storyboard on the right illustrates the action of Boo and Sully.)  Each box is a relevant picture of what the script is saying.  Usually the writers point to each box as they tell the story to the big wigs and point to the box that goes along with their narrative to show what part of the story they are act and what the camera shots will look like.  Some of the drawings are created so that the cinematographer and the camera men, know exactly how to angle the camera and what type of shot the

 director wants.  We, as a group, took the ideas of Morgen's script and talked about what she envisioned. We also talked about what we pictured when we read the script. 

We came to realized, because of our backgrounds with different art forms, our visions of the script's shots were very different. I, as an actor always about thought what was at stake in the scene for the character which always had the shots in the movie with the actor as the main focus and in the center of the frame. Morgen thought of the shots as a directorial position, creating interesting shots by

 placing the actor not in the middle of the short like I was seeing, but put the objects in the frame like you were seeing a photograph that was  aesthetically pleasing to the viewer also sometimes  the more beautiful shot. Take Sandra Bullock on the left, you can see that the way she is shot gives a more interesting frame than if just was just in the middle of the screen. With space in front of her in the frame makes the stairs longer which may create suspense to see what is waiting for her upstairs. Morgen, taking directing and script writing classes had a better idea of what would be more interesting on screen. 

Alexis designed the costumes.  As Morgen wrote the script Alexis created a costume for the Wendigo which included a lot of special fx makeup like you would see in any monster movie.  This type of art includes many talented makeup artists and latex. To create it there would be a rubbery body for the monster as well as many latex face and mask pieces that will blend into the actor face after they have been painted with makeup to hide the rubber.  Think of any monster on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or Eddie Murphy's "The Nutty Professor". Both medias used lots of fat suits, latex to distort and create a different face for the monster or professor.  Here is a youtube that shows how the process works. 

 

During the project Candy and I were coming from the actor's point of view which helped putting a face and image to Morgen's script.   For the story-board-power-point we searched for images to help the audience have an emotional connection to the text as often actors do while they perform the text. In this project we assumed the position of the

 communicators of the script through the pictures.  Alexsis helped by drawing some of the events in the script that we could not find pictures for like a Wendigo clinging to the wall, stalking its prey. 

As an actor we are the ones that bring the story to life, it's what the camera films. We bring the writer's vision to the big screen. This parallels my contribution to the project because Candy and I brought 

the performances , through pictures of other actors. Because we could not perform on the slides we had the photos that struck a chord with us emotionally either thinking that is what the shot described to us, ro what we envisioned. 

The project made us appreciate how much work goes into making a film and how a writer has to compromise their vision of the script as others create what is in the script to the best of their ability as they come together as a whole to create one piece of art. 

stumble upon this.

A website I happened to "stumble upon" has me entertained for hours, as a web-surfer-enthusiast, but also as an artist.

 

Stumbleupon.com is a website that leads the surfer to new and aesthetically pleasing web-pages that have been submitted or recommended to the site. It keeps the viewers thinking with sites that show artist bending the definition of art. It showcases artists who think in unique ways when it comes to their artwork.  

What happens when you dial in to this site is simply click the button that says  "stumble upon".  This takes you to a random website.  There is also a "stumble upon" button for a specific genre of site, like art, theatre, artists, humor or photography. It comes up sites, in these catagories with the most interesting creations. 

In one I found "make something cool everyday"  where artist Brock Davis, makes some sort of design, photo, sculpture, illustration or just creates something amazing everyday! All of his creations are interesting, out of the norm and fun! 

He has many photos of M & Ms creating a simple and creative way to represent popular TV characters. 

Here is one titled ... "the Simpsons" 

Cleverly he has put together four yellow M & Ms to represent Homer and the kids and one blue M & M to stand in for Marge and her aqua colored hair. 

 Another site illustrates an artist's use of an exacto knife to make the cover of books into 3-d images that jump from the cover of books into real space. I have never seen anything like this! 

IT's from the blog "make do and mend"  :

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

More sites I tripped over: 

•  cute overload : mass pics of puppies, baby tigers, and many other animals that make anyone say "AW"

• The next one showcases a master of photography. This is a series of photos using the same model. The photographer, lighting designer and makeup artist have been able to send this twenty year model into the past as well as in the future and show what she may have looked like at 10, 20 years of age as well as project what she will look like at  30, 40, 50, and 60 years old.  20 year old model photographed as if she was 10,20,30,40,50,60 years old  

• A literal version of the 80's music Video "take on me" that narrates what is happening in the video to the tune of the song in the video. This is an artist who is creative and has a knowledge of music to take the popular song and make it his own parody. 

• <<<< Efeitos Realistas,

uses  trick photo

graphy to make images look like two things are meant to fit together. The image have been photographed so that the tulip makes this woman's skirt.  This tricks the eye.  To think of art like this takes innovation and skill to get the photograph just right to make a perfect fit of the two objects. 

Stumbleupon.com is a great place for artists to be inspired in all forms of artistry. These are some of the sites that rearrange the definition of art through the creativity of the artists on the sites. 

Totally F*cked!

“Totally F*cked”

Spring Awakening, the musical, made a tour stop at the Ahmanson Theatre.  It's story and lyrics are complicated, the characters stories each have their own through line making an enjoyable experience for the actors in the audience. Artists needing their voice to be heard, just as the kids in this musical, will understand its meaning. The charming part of the show is that the young characters are played by very talented young actors not older than twenty five. 

The story was taking from the,  “Spring Awakening”, play by Frank Wedekind, written in 1891.  The creative team for Spring Awakening, Steven Sator (book and lyrics) and Duncan Sheik (music by this 1990’s pop artist) met in 1999 to start this project. It won eight Tony awards including Best Musical in 2007 and well as a Grammy for the broadway cast's recording of the show. Set in Germany in 1888, where the topics of puberty, sex and youthful urges are taboos, never to be uttered in the presents of a “child”.  

The tale circles around a very liberal teenager, Melchoir Gabor, who lives to defy and question everything he has been told.  He’s soon-to-be lover Vendla and best friend from school , Melchoir, are the foils and have been taught nothing, the complete opposite of Melchior. The point of view comes from the teens in the age where puberty is at its greatest,  with songs where boys dream of their piano  teacher’s breast, “just let those apple’s fall”, liking the same sex, “Bobby Mailer, he’s the best, looks so nasty in those khaki’s, God, my whole life’s like some test,” discovering your body as well as falling love for the first time. The musical takes an age where everything is new and anything is possible to the accepting teen and once teenager audiences with delight.  

Excitingly, the musical numbers are all soliloquies, these stopped time and let the viewer in the minds of the characters. It stretches out time to hold the story in that moment. The contemporary rock 'n roll music that accompanies the scenes go against the setting, costuming and views of 1888.  This act as the juxtaposing views of the kids and the adults in the show. In “Totally F*cked,” Melchior, the rebel of the school, who know too much about sex, is forced to confess to writing an obscene journal for Mortiz, he's ignorant friend. The teacher asks him, “Melchoir Gabor, did you write this?” Both know he has and the scene immediately jumps from the dialogue of the teacher and Melchior, to his mind as he sings 

“There’s a moment you know , you’re f*cked, 

not an inch more room to self destruct, 

no more moves oh yeah, the deah end zone... 

wanna bundle up into some big ass lie, 

long enough for you to get out of it.” 

This insues while the rest of the cast dances wildly on stage acting like children throwing a tantrum or jumping in rebellion. This gives them freedom to escape the strict rules that have been placed upon them. 

This cast was very specific with acting moments. The sharpness of the choreography was striking. There was not too much dancing and the movements seemed to be interpreted by each actor. Each had their own reason to be dancing, ranting or jumping.  In "Totally F*cked” there was organized chaos on stage as the whole company jumped, leaped, kicked!

The minimal dancing comes from the mind of Bill T. Jones and uses the inner feelings and soul of the characters to create moves that look very natural and poetic. Their tribal like gestures look like they are taking their movements from the angst and character’s motivations showing the pain and emotions they are going through. 

  The set is beautiful as the blue and white lights cover the stage.  There are no sets but chairs that are brought on to set the scenes of living room or school room. There is a most interesting piece that is representative of a hayloft. It is is a piece of the flat stage that is raised one foot off the ground by ropes as the actors swing, in the air, on it during the scene. 

On the back of the wall of the set is secret doors, butterfly wings,  a chair to sit on that is nailed to the wall, pictures, lights, and chalk board with set list of songs from the show drawn on to it. For each scene this collage of items is lit accordingly based on where the scene takes place.  If it is the classroom, the chalk board and portraits of scholars are lit, for the home scene a narrow mirror is on display.  This enhances the performance because the audience did not see the crew racing to get the sets changed. The audience could focus on the actors and the story that was being told.  Mortiz (Blake Bashoff) really stood out in a negative way.  I felt he was overdoing his character.  It was hard to concentrate on what he was saying because of his acting style. He would elongate certain letters and whine through his lines. He did not match the energies of the other actors.  Melchoir, (Kyle Riabko) was very committed and did not let the intensity of the scene falter. This role is very meaty and Kyle stayed in character creating a mysterious character to portray an all knowing soul.  This role musically is very difficult because it goes very high in songs like “Mirror-Blue Night” and “All That’s Known”. Kyle mimicked the original broadway soundtrack too much.  Like the original Melchoir, Kyle spoke in a whisper like the recording rather than finding his own way of singing the songs.

The play challenges taboo subjects through songs like “Touch Me” a song about what sex is like, “The Dark I Know Well” is about abusive fathers and “I Believe” has the cast sit onstage during a scene where Vendla and Melchoir have sex for the first time.  The music is very innovative. 

 The harmonies in “My Junk” and the chords of dissonance and in “Touch Me” are beautiful.  The songs of “Whispering” and “Those You’ve Known” are so haunting , the violins and cello sing quite eloquently, that there is no escaping the genius musicality of this show.  

There are few musicals that have gone this far to tell these type of stories. This show has created a exciting and novel musical because the kids situations are provocative and real. Not many musicals have been created to tell their story especially when dealing with sex.  Spring Awakening is innovative and finds its voice from youth’s perspective, which gives a new type of musical to the theatre community.  

* If you want to learn more about the touring company of Spring Awakening, CHECK OUT their very own blogspot *