Lecture: Maddy Rosenberg

   

  Maddy Rosenberg is a talented artist who has caught my attention with her beautiful book arts. As a student of book arts, I've seen many different styles and know how difficult these can be. Many of hers look simplistic yet difficult to create. She is a very successful artist who even owns her own gallery!

Shadow of Decent

different sides like a cube. It was black and white and it folded up into a book box that was very well made and really stuck with the theme.  I think this book was one of the best pieces that she talked about because it was so detailed and beautiful. Also it told a story through paper cut outs rather than words.

Speaking of words, she also did another book called Memory (1996). During the lecture, she mentioned that she had created this book for a show but was told that the book did not have any words in it. She mentioned that the book told a story through art, but she did what they wanted her to do anyway. She went back and designed the book with words surrounding the images. The word that repeated throughout the book was 'word.' I really appreciate the style and idea behind the book. Too be honest, i think the word 'word' repeated made the book a little more interesting and found it funny since she sarcastically put in actual 'words' in her book. I also liked how she mentioned the sizes of all her works, and this one specifically was so small it fit in the palm of her hand. Creating small books that look that good is extremely difficult to accomplish. 

Patchwork

    Besides her books, she also mentioned some paintings that she has done in the past.  One of my least favorite pieces was a painting called Patchwork (1996). I thought this fell short because I was a little confused about the idea behind the painting and also though it lacked many things. The white space was too much and would have worked better if the images were larger, in my opinion. Besides that painting, I enjoyed many others she presented.

     I think that her work is extremely valuable to the art community because of her creative book arts, which is not a huge medium and also her paintings which she has also mastered. It would have been nice to see more of her work during the lecture, but I could always find things on her site. I think her strong point are her book creations rather than her paintings. Although they're well done, I feel as though they lack potential.

Lecture: Brian Krueger

 Brian Krueger is not only a performance artistic but digital media artist as well. His current gallery deemed to be quite interesting, loud and very, very pink. It was creative and hard to understand some pieces, but generally fun to look at. Especially the pink. That was super awesome.

Image of the video of himself

    Krueger was an artist unlike many that I have ever seen. During his lecture, he showed a biography type video of himself that Ben had made. I was a little confused as to why it was even created and didn't know why he showed it. But besides that, the lecture was funny and knowledgeable about his type of art.

     The most interesting and meaningful pieces was probably the refrigerator piece. He explained that his brother committed suicide a couple of years back and one of his friends collaborated with him to create this freezer because antifreeze (I could be mistaken) is what his brother used to commit suicide with. They laid the freezer on the ground with a bunch of string looking things that go all the way to the ceiling which I believe represents his brothers spirit. This piece was in the center of the gallery and I felt as though is was the most powerful and had such a great idea behind it. Gave the viewer different feelings about it.

     Another one of his successful pieces was Make Time for Tom which was a series of drawings that were underlying nature of IGT or the other major corporations he has worked for in the past. His paintings were very well done and even after the lecture, an audience member asked why he didnt talk more about his paint work or make it more of a big deal since they were so good. I would have asked the same question because this is a really strong suit of his, besides a few of his performances. Personally, I wish he had showed more art works and explained them in depth.

     Krueger explained during his lecture that frames determine the boundaries for everything. He touched on this subject a little while which pretty much defined his work and how he goes about coming up with his stuff. He said that frames determine also what is allowed in and what remains out. Oddly enough we frame our identity as a sort of brand. This was creative to me because I never thought of frames in this sense. Overall, I had a few issues understanding a lot of his ideas or work, but he tried to explain the best he could with humor and a mix of other interesting aspects. It was a successful show as well as the lecture. 

Exhibit

PixelBoard

     The exhibit up in Tahoe was a required field trip, but 100% worth it. I have never been to anything up in Tahoe so I wasnt sure what the exhibit would look like or where it was even located.

This was one of the best exhibits I have been to, and i have been to a lot, let me tell you. What was so great about this one was that most of the pieces presented were playable and interactive. For example, there were old school looking arcade machines with created games by the artist in them! They were a little difficult to play and sometimes a bit confusing, but overall the machines were fun. One was called Zine Star and the other was called Game, both were interactive and loud. Really made the exhibit pop.

     There were a few main pieces that really stuck out to me including the awesome piece that anyone from anywhere with internet can connect with called PixelBoard - Dc Spensley and Peter Spangler. 

Real life Minecraft

The idea was to create anything within the page limits using a sell phone or other device. It allows the user to move/delete/create blocks (little pixels) into any form they want to, and of course Chris created a giant penis. It was inevitable. This piece succeeded because it was so interactive and fun that we did not want to stop playing with it when we got to the exhibit. And the fact that people are allowed to mess with the image where ever they are located was also a real pro to this work of art.

Zine Game

    Another piece that was interactive was the piece called Game (similar to Zine Star). They were the old school gaming machines normally found in arcades which allows you to choose different games that were created by these people. This was also a very successful piece because they were too fun to not play. Obviously since they were games, it was definitely an attention grabber and they were all creative and original. 

     One of my least favorite pieces was Papal Propagation which also looked similar to the old style games like Zine Star. The different with this piece was that it was unplayable and had a short clip that played over and over again. It was repetitive and unpleasing to look at. I also did not understand the idea behind it either. Maybe if it was playable, it would have been more interesting.

     Overall, I think the exhibit succeeded in the interactive aspect of it. Even the none interactive pieces were extremely interesting to look at and really kept my attention the whole time we were there.  

Box Battle!

Game salad game

Abort, Abort.

Kelsey and I did a game that focused on the struggles women would face if abortion was illegal. The player gets to choose to keep her baby and struggle to care for it, or choose to abort the baby illegally. Of course, there would be issues with that option as well.
Personally, I liked how the game turned out. It was funny, but also gave a serious message. Hence the whole 'serious game' idea. I thought giving the player options they could choose from would make the game more entertaining and playable. We just wanted the player to have fun, but also kind of learn something from it as well.

Link to game:
http://www.unr.edu/art/digital_media/games-2013/samkelly.htm

The Graduate Project 1

Original at 4:00-6:00

     As a group, I dont think everyone put in enough effort. I wont single any one out, but Ill just say that Gabby and I were in the art room for many hours piecing the project together. Besides that, I think that the project came out pretty awesome.  I easily created Mrs Robinson using photoshop and a face template made for second life and also found the suit for Ben. Creating all the scenes piece by piece was a little tough, but overall we made it work and I think it looked pretty great.