Quality Worlds Exist: Do You Know what Yours Is?

        Man, I really just want to tell you all how wonderful I've been feeling for the past few weeks. El Centro College had student gallery art showing where all students who had pieces displayed where currently in studio classes. They also were giving out awards of up to $600 in scholarship money, in category of media, and honorable mentions who got gift cards worth $25 dollars worth of credit at Asel's art supply. Along with a good many of my classmates, I received an honorable mention for a 24x36in. oil pastel piece on crumpled watercolor work I did entitled, "Rightward Pondering".  Having a couple of my very own pieces being put up for display & sale was a great accomplishment in itself, but actually getting attention of judges and being awarded with a mention of honor, was even deeper progress; and joy. Sticking with the subject of school, I gained even more experience and progress with technique with the last few assignments, making motifs to use in repetition for at least 4 different patterns. This exercise aided me the most in tightening up my hand control and line quality with drawing media and a paint brush. Adam Palmer, (my design instructor), is such a caring & at the same time, relaxed, instructor; it's very prominent that he genuinely cares for student progress, and wants to invest his time in us all. We are an enthusiastic young bunch of student's that in the words of our instructor, seem to be "the class that really cares" about our work and the progress we make. Well, I wouldn't doubt those words, I know how much I care about my own personal growth, as well as my class' as a whole. I've built very nice friendships with most of my fellow design students, and a particular colleague of mine, who's someone that makes me very happy to be the type of person that I've been for my 19 years of living, because it's caused me to have bumped into them & ultimately get to know them, started up an intriguing conversation recently. While riding the train back to the Ledbetter station, she brought up the fact that the Learning Frameworks class she was in, discussed the concept of quality worlds; what makes up one?

     Quality worlds are pretty much personal utopias created by one's self; consisted of the desired people, feelings, situations, accolades/material things, and accomplishments. Now, keep in mind that when I took my Learning Framework class, I didn't quite grasp the concept of- well, that's not exactly the truth. It's not that I didn't understand what type of 'world' we were creating for ourselves, as much as was figuring out what kind of a world I personally wanted to be involved with. And now that I think about it, I might not be sure if my case is one of wanting this personal utopia that only myself and maybe a few people can enjoy being in, or spending a lifetime of hard work and energy to maybe improve upon the surroundings that I'm immersed in as of right now. Either way the act is being looked on, it all involves a great bit of investing time and energy, and most likely a bit of money as well.

     For me to accurately assess what my quality world would be, I'd have to take in consideration what I want to accomplish on earth while I'm here to do it.

• Constantly be a sociable/relatable person,on whatever kind of tip it could be. (musical taste, spirituality, artistic taste, etc.)
•  Attract some like minds & differing one's that have at least a few strong similarities; something that I'd imagine to be in being a spiritual being, maybe in personal attitude: open expressions of love, constructive criticism, and resides in being optimistic
• Represent an idea- I don't necessarily want to be looked at as the man who accomplished this great feat, but rather as an example of an idea; particularly the idea that every one of us human beings have talents; we carry potential energy that can should become kinetic while doing what we love, whatever it may be. As long as no bloodshed or harm has to come to yourself or anyone else, it's all fine. And be confident in it. Don't let yourself, or anyone else instill fear in your heart simply because you want to do something/aspire to do it. 
• Give people as many wonderful, pleasurable, mesmerizing things, as I can, that take them to a space in time of their own worlds; ones of nostalgic bliss that can magically take you away from the calamity that usually is living in a reality as this,(which actually does have numerous things of great beauty, but does not allow you the time to stop and ponder or enjoy them due to the overbearing need to stay alive, financially on top, and living some certain standard).

     Taking all those points in mind, I can maybe, in a nutshell, define my quality world as one that is run by myself and whomever I can relate to, revolving around the desire to openly show love & respect to all: of constant encouragement of creativity and of being knowledgeable of what has been and what currently is; where I've done/am doing my part in making others' lives better because I was there at some point in time. And I must say, while typing out this post, I am really confident that I'm in grasp of my desired world; Maybe not right at this very moment, but will be soon enough.  So, what about yourself? Do you have an idea of what your quality world would be?

Put a smile on today, why don`t-cha ?

Watch "Dia Los Rainbows" on YpiTu
Feeling down? Wanting a little more color in your day? Check this little video out and just try to say you don't smile even just a little. Matter of fact, I dare you not to smile or laugh. If you don't smile, then I`ll owe you five bucks.

Art... "What's it to ya"

        A topic of discussion that I'd like to touch on in this blog entry is one that I hope starts a conversation or two all around. For any of us out there, whether you're a "professional artist", occasional doodler, the person who buys almost every last print that they happen to come across in an Art-con or Comic-con because it "totally speaks" to them, or that guy who likes the invigorating workout of splattering insane amounts of primary colored acrylic paints on a canvas that's about as big as the side of a barn: we all have our treasured opinions as to what art is, or what we would accept a work of art to look like. This, to me, is all very fine and dandy, but it could leave a lot of leeway for much criticism; (good, bad, or ugly). Now criticizing anyone's work isn't bad, when used totally in a nondestructive connotation, it can be quite the helping hand an artist needs to find out if any specific techniques could be used, what media to be using, all of that sort of good stuff that can emphasize an emotion, draw a spectator's eye towards certain directions, etc. The only real folly of voicing an opinion/suggestion of other pieces is the vast variety of opinions had due to whatever the circumstances; I couldn't tell you how many times I've known someone who get this undeserved sense of grandeur just because of a few semesters of print making, figure drawing, and an art appreciation class. (Seriously guy, being in community college art classes, and getting a "good job" from the instructor on your ebony pencil figure drawing with the hand you don't use all the time, doesn't immediately put you in the spot to just not give any constructive/destructive criticism to anyone who doesn't ask for it.) I don't know. I just feel like there's a couple different areas that should be weighed while determining what art is.

     Are you aware of the fact that America is an accumulative of differing ideas, cultures, languages, thought patterns, hobbies, and much more? We all should be by now.. Wouldn't it make sense that all of us, national and international, as human beings with intricate emotions, would all have individual ideas or principals that are very near and dear to our hearts? Art- well actually...creativity.. is an expression; something that's made to embody a moment in time that influenced someone, and did it in such a way that every fiber of that someone's being had to project that feeling onto something more permanent than memory. Now, this principle results in a multitude of works and projects. For example: Could any of us living now possibly know what exactly sparked Da Vinci to paint a view from a high cliff or maybe a bridge, overlooking a body of water; know why Picasso went in a child-like whimsical direction like cubism, or artists like David Choe to use the organic feel of street art graffiti as a template of creative control, and the quickness that taggers wield to spray as fast as they can, (mainly so they don't get caught), because he says that it's actually a kind of stroke or subject matter that would be more "honest" than mapping out something that the masses would appreciate? The point of bringing up all the diversity in America prior to the references of a couple well-known artists, was basically to drive the point that we all not only speak in different languages, but at times we even think in different languages as well. What the most important thing about all the translation in these languages isn't being able to speak that exact language at that point in time, it's about deciphering the message. How I see it, as long as we genuinely understand what the artist is getting at, then the work of art has done it's job in society.

The start of something great

Well, Yesterday was the beginning of a collaboration with one of my peers. I'm happy to say the first day went very well, and not to mention it was actually a lot of enjoying the day going on. Yeap, fun was had. Haha Can't wait to see what we're gonna get in a few weeks.