Recently, our class went to the Pace Galleries, and I saw the coolest thing ever. The name of this piece of art is Football Face, by Irving Penn, and I thought this picture was attempting to degrade the notion of women putting on make-up. Every time I glance back at the photograph, I think about all the reasons women use cosmetics. Usually, the purpose behind using make-up is to cover up any unwanted marks or blemishes on the face. Perhaps this is a wrong-doing according to Penn, and maybe people should learn to appreciate and take note of what sets them apart from others. Here’s the problem: when people try to meet others, the first thing they’ll look at is each others faces. Therefore, if the face is not looking its best, its a problem.

People are so concerned about the way they look; its evident every time you open up the T.V. Loads of commercials pop-up about eyeliner, lipsticks, mascara, acne treatments, and much more. However, the issue that Penn was trying to point out is that when we use these products, its more or less us creating a mask on the face. Is that the way we are to meet each other, by throwing on a mask before we walk up to them? It happens so quickly and so often that not many of us realize it, but it is true. Women put on all types of skin products, and many try to alter their skin pigmentation. For example, women of darker complexions use facial creams with bleach to lighten their facial color, and others of pale complexions tan their skin to get darker. The problem is that women change themselves to become something that they’re not in order to please the public. At that point, they are deceiving the public.

So what happens when all that make-up comes off? The same thing that happens when  a person’s mask comes off: pure embarrassment. The meaning behind this photograph is extremely intense, and it might just be offending as well. Nonetheless, its inevitable: make-up doesn’t improve the way a person looks. It just makes the person look worse after it comes off.

One of the first pieces of art that anyone would see walking into the Rox Gallery was during the Delusions exhibition was one by the artist Lauren Xandra. Being displayed adjacent to the stairs near the front on the gallery the image immediately caught my eye for its vibrant contrasting colors and unique design. It was different from many other works of art that I have seen and while being extremely neat and clean, it also seemed to be in disarray. So many distinct designs and patterns were all being displayed within the constraint of a single frame. A combination of sleek lines, geometric shapes, and wavy patterns to name a few, were all composing this truly delusional work of art. It was difficult to understand what I was looking at originally, however I could see the effort that went into creating it. White, black, and gold were the three colors that were used to make this work however the arrangement and careful positioning, having the light touch each color made it seem as if there was so much more happening.

This I would soon realize was the beauty of the work in itself. While making it both sleek and precise and still achieving the delusion of making it seem in a state of disorder, a possibility arose within my mind. Was this image in itself a representation of the order that we have held in society, yet continue to perceive as being overwhelming? For example one could describe the exact activities a person would most likely go through on an average day as simply waking up, attending school or work, eating, and returning home and completing any errands or work; basically following a schedule. These although when described like this make the average day seem unassuming and rather orderly would justly be proven wrong when they themselves would experience them. When put together these straightforward tasks become a mixture of confusion and distress. Although being familiar with all the tasks individually much in the same way we are familiar with the distinct colors and patterns, together they are responsible for the disorientation we at times experience.

Strange how something so abstract has so many different means of interpretation. The title of Delusion for the gallery was truly a match in my eyes.

Besides our conversation in class about John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing,” Kara will join us to discuss your art movement and artist interview multimedia assignments in class tomorrow.

This week the College has the honor of hosting Tibetan Monks from the Namcholing Monastery in South India.  Led by Khenchen Rinpoche, the artist-monks will be making a Tibetan sand mandala. If you don’t know anything about sand mandalas, you can click this link for an introduction.

If you are interested in Bhuddhism or in Tibetan art, this is a rich opportunity for exploration.  Master Khenchen Rinpoche will be available for interviews on October 8, from 2-3PM  (VC 1-107).

The exhibition  is open from 9AM-6PM today and tomorrow.  It also includes a photo exhibition, “Voices of Tibet” by Nyra Lang.

It would be weird to draw a self portrait.

At the Rox gallery, this group of mirrors do the work for you. Designed by Ultra Violet to describe selfhood and trapping, their message is clear: this is you. No enhancements, no brush marks- just the regular and present you.

It reminded me a lot about sociology. In this field a man named … Cooley conceptualized the idea of the “looking glass self”. It is the idea that your sense of self, your thoughts and feelings when you view yourself as an object, is attributed to how you see yourself through another persons eyes. First, you  view yourself through another persons shoes, then you imagine them making a judgment about you, and finally you experience a feeling based on that judgement. Those feelings contribute to how you feel about yourself. When looking at these mirrors, you see yourself as how others see you on a daily basis. Through them, you experience a myriad of feelings. You may feel that your eyes are too small, your nose is too big, your bags too prominent, or maybe the contrary: your face is absolutely perfect. Whatever the case is, you add onto your sense of self with these thoughts.

These mirrors also represent change. Nobody stays the same throughout their years of living. People change and evolve and their outward appearance goes along with them. A self portrait when you were 18 years old cannot accurately display what you are like when you are 50 years old. All your experiences will shape who you are and what you look like. Years of experiences can add dimension to yourself and it would show on your face.

Ultimately, these simple mirrors can display everything about yourself without even having to pick up a pencil.

The first thing I noticed when I walked down the stairs of the Rox Gallery was the piece shown above. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the background of it was a mirror and it reflected the stairs behind me. What caught my attention was not just the piece itself, but also the actual placement of it. In the picture, it shows a bunch of women standing on reflective,mirror panels that create a sort of floating-in-air sensation. It shows the women heading towards a general direction — up. Now this is where the reflection really played a big part in making me notice this piece at all. It made it look like the women were trying to ascend up towards the light at the head of the stairs. This made me wonder if the picture was placed in front of the stairs on purpose or perhaps it was a creative coincidence.

I was taking the bus to the mall and saw this mural located on the side of The High School of Arts and Business. The mural caught my eye because it was very colorful and I couldn’t help wondering who made this mural and why it was on the side of the school. I went home and did some research and found that it was called “Yield in the Name of Creativity.” There’s a lot going on in the picture, which was why I was curious as to what the meaning behind this mural was. In the background is the skyline of NYC and a few roads, so I knew this had to involve something with NYC. There were also books, instruments (such as a piano and brass instrument), and objects that looked like they were works of arts. This made sense to me, since this school was focused on arts and business. There is also a girl holding a “Slow” red sign and a boy holding a “Yield” sign. From my research, I found that this mural was to promote the “importance of livable streets and the multiple roads leading to success for New York City youth.” They also wanted to promote safety and make people aware of the reckless driving that had been happening a lot at the intersection near the school. What I found the most interesting was the man with the head of television. The television seems to be showing a graph and I believe he represents business. In his hands is a magnet, which seems to attract all the other objects in the picture. I think what this is trying to convey is that business leads to success, which is represented by all the other objects in the mural.

Words like “liar, hypocrite, fraud, hustler, sinister” and all these negative words will indeed hurt a person emotionally which will affect the person externally as well. This stood me out to me the most from the gallery. I understood what this meant painting meant when I looked at it and made me feel sad. I wonder what the artist was thinking and what inspired him to make this. I wonder what incident the artist had. This really shows, “how bodies of thought and people are often reduced to form.”

I feel that artist are usually portrayed this way and been through this at least once in their life, which was the reason why the artist created this painting. Many people have thoughts like this, all negative towards a starting artist. Of course, the artist will be hurt by those mean comments. I feel that this artist used art to express how people viewed the arts of some artists or the artists themselves. This portrays a delusion of the people who make these comments. Artists aren’t liars, hypocrites, frauds, or any other harsh words. I feel that the people who make those comment are deluded which is the reason why the painting was picked to be displayed in this gallery for the concept of delusions.

I felt really bad and it hurts when I think about the artist. The colors give the atmosphere of a sad and a depressing mood. The fact that the white words are on a black background makes the words stand out even more. The words are drawn like tear drops falling from the cheeks. It looks as if the painting itself is crying too by these words. It shows how much words can hurt a person. I understood the pain an artist had to go through or will through in this industry. The hardships and pain they’ll experience at least once throughout their career.

If I feel this sad and gloomy from looking at this painting, I wonder how the artist felt as he made it? I’m pretty sure everyone of us went through an obstacle of facing hateful words as well.

While I was at Argo Tea near Baruch today, I saw this photo and it really stood out to me. I was surprised a painting was at a place where tea is being sold. I wonder how that happened. This painting is priced at $250. So I’m assuming the artist is just beginning to go into this business. I wonder why the artist chose a place like Argo Tea to sell her work. I really was attracted to this painting because of the colors and the speakers. I really enjoy music so I saw this as how the speakers are playing all sorts of different musics which is expressed through the different colors. It shows how creative the music can be it’s interpreted differently from people. I like how the speakers have a neutral color. It shows that they’re the basic to letting music be heard. The neutral colors around the colorful colors ironically helps the speakers stand out in the painting. It shows the positiveness music can do. Just looking at this painting makes me feel happy and want to listen to my music.

Did any of you see this painting too? Or seen a painting in a place you never imagined like I did?

In the beginning, I was anxious and excited to see the his paintings since religion influenced Zhang Huan and I am Buddhist as well. However, my feelings were actually opposite of how I thought I would feel. I thought it was going to be about peace, but it’s totally the opposite! First of all, the paintings I saw were definitely NOT “Poppy Fields.” They do have that concept but it’s not as beautiful as it seems. Instead of poppies, there are heads in the paintings, specifically skulls. When I saw it from a far, I thought they were heads of dragons for because I thought of the Chinese background and the love for dragons. The eyes did freak me out a lot. I thought the colors were pretty, in the beginning. However, as I got closer to the painting, it shocked me and I felt really uncomfortable. It made me dizzy and scared by the weird eyes, colors, and the popped up paintings of some of the heads and colors.

I was so shocked to know it was about hallucination and used real incense ash in his paintings. The colors, repetition of the skull, the 3-D pop ups gave the negative feelings. I wonder what inspired him to create this painting. Why hallucination out of all the topics in the world. I wonder if he secretly did drugs or had an experience with hallucination, which was why he created this painting. I do agree with him that it does lead to death and the painting sends the strong message. I wonder why he made so many “Poppy Fields” paintings but with different colors.

How did you guys feel about the painting? Did you feel disturbed as I was when you saw the painting or was it just me? More importantly, do you like the painting?

“Delusions” at the Rox Gallery was definitely a different experience from the other exhibitions we went to. However, I really liked this gallery because all of the pieces together were different from what we normally saw. In fact, this gallery featured pop art and surrealism, two types of art that, together, are pretty amazing. However, the one piece of art, or rather four pieces, that interested me were located downstairs. You all probably saw the pictures of the leaves downstairs. For some reason, I was just engrossed in those images. At first, I thought, “These are photos of the same leaf, only with different colors. What is so great about it?” But then, it hit me that these photos were not the same leaves in different colors. No, in fact, these photos were showing the stages of the leaves. First a leaf in spring is a bright green. Then as summer ends and autumn comes around, the leaf turns red, orange, and eventually the leaves become multicolored. Eventually the leaves start falling from trees and the trees become bare, with no leaves. This leads to the last picture, the picture of the black leaf. When the leaf hits the floor, it degrades and loses its color. The cycle then repeats again when the weather changes from winter to spring. These photos caught my eye because it reminded me of the circle of life. A leaf is “born” in spring and has a green color; it “grows up” during autumn and becomes multicolored. The leaf goes through a lot of color changes. Finally it withers and “dies” in winter. Something as simple as leaves can be used to show how despite everything coming to an end, there are also new beginnings. Besides, since we are in the season of autumn (though it does not feel like autumn haha), we should appreciate all autumn has to offer, which includes nature and the different colors of the leaves because in about a couple of months, they will all be gone.