Art Blog

Artist information

Artist name: Kiyomi Fukui

Website: http://www.kiyomifukui.com

Email: fukui.kiyomi@gmail.com

Instagram: @kiyomimiz

Medium: paper mache and plants

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About the artist

Kiyomi Fukui is a Japanese-American artist living and working in Long Beach, California. She has recieved a MFA in Printmaking at CSULB and a BFA in Graphic Design at La Sierra University. She often dabbles in projects revolving performance art, and she often requests viewer participation in her projects to study the human interactions that transpire.

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Formal Analysis

The formal qualities of this project include a natural toned color scheme. The paper scraps used to cast the thumbs add a complimentary beige color that allows the green plants to stand out. Natural wood planters also allow for the art to stand out against a very basic and muted surface.

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Content Analysis

The thumbs in this project were casts of Kiyomi’s and her mother’s thumbs while her mom was on her death bed. Though this project seems like just a planter of small plants upon first glance, there is a deeper context of preservation of legacy. Kiyomi used the thumb casts to plant seeds in order to bring life from death (circle of life). By using her late mother’s thumbs to plant life, she allows her mother to live on, conquering death in the gardens of the many who planted her thumbs.

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Synthesis/ My Experience

I really loved this project the most out of any of the art seen in the galleries throughout this semester. I loved the idea that her mom could live on because of her art. Although she talked about other compelling projects of hers, this one immediately grabbed my attention because I gravitate towards plants. This project inspired me make the most of time with my loved ones to ensure that I have memories and pictures that will let there legacy live on years after their physical life.

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For this project, I decided I wanted to remix photos using photoshop. First I found a picture of myself to use.

I decided to use this pic from when I was 4. My family had just moved into our house, and we were redoing the floors. The mask I’m wearing reminded me of the times we are all experiencing right now in light of the global pandemic.

I then found a pic of a family wearing masks to insert myself into.

After cropping my old picture, I layered the pics and viola! If I were to do this again I would look up how to better change the colors so the lighting on child me matches the lighting in the rest of the picture.

This week we were tasked with writing our names in graffiti. This was probably one of my favorite assignments this semester because of all of the possibilities. After looking through hundreds of Google images, I selected a graffiti letter style that I liked and began to sketch. After I adjusted the pencil sketch to look the way I wanted it to, i made an outline in sharpie in order to have clean lines. Next, I colored in the details with a yellow highlighter to add affect to my letters. I used a light blue marker to color in the letters, and then I colored over the bottom portion of the letter again in order to make a subtle color gradient. Finally, I thickened the black lines in order to make the letters look a little more three dimensional.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable little art experience, and I loved the process of this drawing. If I were to do it again, I would probably change the shape of my “L” to make it look like less of a “Z”.

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Ephemeral: lasting a very short time, short-lived, transitory.

My goal here was to draw inspiration from the Buddhists belief that art should be made and then promptly destroyed. Although the Buddhists performed their art in the form of sand shapes in zen gardens, my eggs and toast also disappeared quickly, and therefore could not be kept as a belonging.

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When I was thinking of a topic to do for this gallery, I kept thinking back to the idea of abstraction being freedom. I did not want to find pieces that had blatant meanings upon first glance. I wanted to put together a group of pieces that really spoke to me in regards to emotions and nature when I looked at them. I picked these three artists in particular because I really connected with the way they used color to express this theme. Below are a variety of paintings that artists made and listed on Facebook Marketplace. When purusing through the gallery, remember the theme of freedom through abstraction, and try to feel the emotions that nature provides humanity.

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Yang sticks to the freedom of abstraction in these two works in particular. He blends a variety of colors in the first painting with no real shape. In the second he chooses rigid shapes over a very murky colorful background that leaves the painting open for interpretation.

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Sikes also does a very fitting job of making free flowing paintings that refuse to adhere to a specific subject. The use of colors into flowing shapes contrasts the white and black lines that she swirls through to catch the viewers eye. I appreciate her use of vibrant colors that remind me of the emotions felt during the transition between different seasons. P

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Finally, Rbibo does an excellent job connecting abstract colors and shapes to emotions in nature. Although resembling water and land on the horizon, she never strays from the theme of freedom through abstraction and keeps the shapes blurry and vague. By keeping her works open to interpretation, Rbibo and her painting fit perfectly into this gallery.

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Exhibit Information

Artist: Mahsa Soroudi

Exhibit: YouTube/Nature’s Cadence

Media: photography

Website: http://www.mahsasoroudi.com

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About the Artist

Mahsa Soroudi is an expatriate artist born in Tehran, Iran. Now located in California for the last three years, she has been exploring the ideas of nature and our relationship to nature in her project “Nature’s Cadence.” One of her hobbies includes growing succulents.

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Formal Analysis

This picture has qualities of depth. The nature is in the background, obstructed by the blurry black bars of window blinds. The black lines create contrast to the peaceful nature background.

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Content Analysis

I think this piece describes how the artist feels regarding her home country. In the interview she spoke lengths about missing Iran and wanting to go home. The way this picture is taken creates a feeling of longing to go outisde, expressing the artists longing to return to where she is from.

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Synthesis/ My Experience

I think the format of this artist conversation was pretty nice because it allowed for the artist to really dive into their projects. During the in person conversations, the artists seemed to rush the interview to move on with their lives. For this reason, the format of this artist conversation was very nice.

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This experience was super fun in my opinion. I sat down and made a very poor map of CSULB because I had way less room to work with than I originally thought on the paper. For the human spirograph, my boyfriend and I did the candlelit non alcoholic version of the project. Our results are pretty crazy looking, but it was definitely a fun project to do and was very interesting.

1. In this song, I was trying to channel typical romantic pop songs about love.

2. The process I used was similar to writing poetry, in that I rhymed the ends of the lines.

3. This activity seemed harder than it actually was before I started. When I started thinking of the song more as a poem, it became much easier to write.

4. My song was successful, I think, but I also think it could have been more successful if I had more song writing experience.

5. I do not think I would ever want to write another song.

6. If I had to write another song, I would probably write it about heartbreak.

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Lyrics

Verse 1:

I feel the touch

But it’s a temporal thing

I see in those eyes

That you know it stings

But what else can we do?

I know I feel it in you

You’re leaving tomorrow, alright

But tomorrow’s tomorrow, and tonight is so right

Chorus:

So put your hand on mine

And hear the wind whistle through the pines

Ignite the warmth inside

As the doves reign in the sunrise

It’s a natural symphony

And baby, it’s for you and me

Verse 2:

The sun is on rise

But please don’t close your eyes

I see the tears on your cheek you try hard to hide

But let the run, as they run down mine

We don’t have much time

Let’s not retreat inside

Look to the horizon, can’t you see?

Time won’t stay forever, not even for me

Chorus:

(Repeat)

Bridge:

You’ve got your doubts

And I’ve got em too

But put them aside

And share in our last moment as two

Chorus

(Repeat)

Exhibit Information

Artist: Sienna Browne

Exhibition: In class presentation

Media: oil paint, canvas

Website: http://www.siennabrowneart.com

Instagram: @siennabrowneart

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About the Artist

Student Sienna Browne is in her fourth year of the Drawing and Painting BFA program of Cal State University Long Beach. When she is not painting, drawing, or sculpting, Browne works as a Hunington Beach life guard. Her art has focused on issues of body dysmorphia and eating disorder in the past; however, her new art reflects life and how bodies react to nature and occupy space.

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Formal Analysis

The formal qualities of this piece include a bright color scheme made of glow in the dark paint. The first two paintings in the series are monochromatic in color. The last painting includes bright yellow paint that contrasts the other two. The painting also consist of many squiggly lines that make abstract shapes that hide the figures of human faces throughout.

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Content Analysis

Though abstract, these paintings very clearly depict both human forms and oceanic animal forms. This painting explores the relationship between humans and nature (how we react to and relate with nature). The use of the glow in the dark paint is to replicate the bioluminescent nature of deep see creatures. These pieces are a call to humanity to clean the seas for the betterment of the environment.

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Synthesis/ My Experience

I thought this was the best week of artist conversations because it was very engaging. The artist actually wanted to talk to the class and share with us her art, and I really appreciated that. I personally really loved all of the pieces she showed us and thought that her style was very interesting to look at.

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This week, we were tasked with dressing outside of our normal choices to see how people’s reactions and attitudes towards us would change.

Instead of going crazy with my outfit, I decided to dress more feminine and put-together than my usual.

People treated me the same as they normally do. For names, nobody guessed correctly, the most common being: Hailey, Sarah, Meagan, and Rose. To my surprise, one person guessed my major correctly because they thought that this sort of experiment related to a psychology project. Other majors that people guessed included art, nursing, or communications. In addition to these two questions, I asked the volunteers if they thought I participated in greek life. Although I am not in a sorority, half of the people I asked thought I could be.

My conclusions about this experiment were that it went pretty much as I expected it to. The names people picked for me were all pretty common names for white women, and the fact that I was dressed up probably led people to think I was in a sorority.