This is my altered book. When i first found this book in class i did not realize that it actually an old version of the story “The Jungle Book”. I decided to play on that kind of theme and i cut some pages out and added tree designs to it. I used watercolor paint to paint the trees and i used some gold paper i got from the book making class we had in the semester.

From the years of studying art, i came across a really good artist by the name of Barbara Kruger. Kruger is definitely one of the artists that has inspired me through out the years because of how powerful her work is. Her excellent work with text shows the viewer and makes them think about social issues. Her powerful art expresses views in woman’s rights and how women are quickly stereotyped into different classes.

I really like how Kruger applies text to her work. She seems to use the same type of texts in her pieces but she uses different sizes. Even though the majority of her art is 2D she has a nice way with perspective and thats what i like about her the most.

Barbara Kruger is one of the first artists to apply found pictures and use them in her artwork. She incorporates many pictures and applies them to her views. She is also very aggressive with her art work which helps her get the overall theme across to viewers who might be skeptical. Her main ideas have to do about sexism and she has been criticized for that. According to Wikipedia, she states “I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are and who we aren’t.”

So there was a lot of people in MOPA. One of the artists i thought that took great photographs was Diane Arbus. Diane Arbus’ photos were very nice i thought. I have learned to critique photos more and i realized that Arbus’ photos had a certain thing about them. All of the people in her photos had unique expressions and it seemed very sad in a way. I noticed that most of the photos in this exhibit is very sad and i know because the over all theme showed the lines between being white and a person of color. Aside from that, Arbus’ photos showed more of the unseen “street”.

Her photos were different and the people that she took pictures of had a certain look, and just by looking at her photos you knew that this was an “Arbus” photo. I really enjoyed the other artist’s photos in MOPA, it was just an overall great show. When he hear the word “street” we think more of an Urban picture, and this show showed that in all aspects.

Maybe because he also came from a drawing and painting background like me. I really found it interesting that he is so knowledgeable about stuff that more traditional artists never have touched before. I also came from a drawing and painting background, and when i first came to CSUSM i was so lost. I had to learn new programs like Photoshop and illustrator, as well as Lightroom and In Design. Although i dont have a good grasp of them, i am working hard to do so. Ash inspired me to learn more about these programs and become a better artist. I graduate in May and i want to make sure i take a lot from my final semester here at CSUSM.

One of my favorite installations from him would have to be the one called “Good as Gold”. This installation shows many books stacked together making a huge circle. I definitely got the meaning of this just by the title. I feel as if since technology is zooming by us, we forget that we can learn a lot from books and we could learn a lot from the past.

Ideas like this make me want to look more into book installation artists. This stuff really makes me happy.

I really found her lecture about the homestead project very interesting. She explained a lot of stories of the people who use to live in those homesteads and those people had great stories themselves. Professor Stringfellow really seems passionate about the work she does, and she chose a great thing to document because people who use to live and still live in those homesteads are passionate people. What i really found amazing was the tour you can take to see some of the homesteads, all you have to do is drive down the 5 and have the pdf and audio file with you.

The Salton Sea project was astonishing i thought. When she was explaining about the community around the sea i found it interesting to know that people make a living with all the salt in the sea. She then explained that the fish living at the sea die because of the salinity of the sea. She showed us pictures of a torn apart Tilapia, it was gross to see it pulled apart like that.

Overall, i believe i learned a lot about some people’s passions in life. If i can devote my life to tell a story through art i believe i will become a great person myself.