Jessica Hische

To say I was amazed with Jessica Hische would be an understatement. I truly think this is a direction I could see myself in. Hische is an upcoming illustrator and typographer. She designs for big industries and small industries alike and is amazingly accomplished for only graduating from Tyler in 2006. She pretty much chronicled from her graduation to the present of what she has been doing with her life. After applying to many places she got a job in New York which truly changed her life forever. From there she blossomed and now freelances her craft. She does lettering and typography and has managed to mix the two using the internet a lot to get her stuff out there. She also kept stressing the difference between Illustration and Design. She explained in Illustration you get an assignment and due dates and the client is never totally consulted whereas with design there are more meetings and revisions. Her whole speech just enticed me to the idea of moving to New York. I had the choice to go, however I thought that at my age Philadelphia was less intimidating. I think I would be able to handle New York in time. This might be something I could do with my life. I love the commercial style that Hische has and that is something I really do want to emulate in a way and make into my own somehow. I am a little unsure if illustration is what I want or even typography but the idea is coming more and more to me so we will have to wait and see!

Ben Volta

Different from many of the speakers that have come to Tyler, Ben Volta, is more of an artist with a cause. He works mostly with students from middle school to high school developing on their creative skills through giving different assignments. He seems like a natural teacher starting out with simple ideas for his students and then building on those ideas. For instance he let a group of his pupils draw whatever they could think of that one would find in certain rooms in houses. Like in a kitchen there is a table and a sink and so on. From there through working together on computers and designing they were able to make a mural that would be like wall paper on the side of a building using all those little images that they had drawn in the first place. He just seems like he has such a direction and vision for how he wants kids to progress creatively. And somehow he is able to get out of these students a sense of a collaborative style that who can say his Volta's or theirs because he is more of a creative director and they are more of the artists. It is interesting to see the different kind of work one can do with an art degree and passion.

Change the Meaning

H. John Thompson

An artist who graduated from UArts, John Thompson, went on a journey talking about his work. He detailed how his studio is set up in the basement of his grandfather's bakery and how it is unintentionally set up in the same way that the back of the bakery is set up. Thompson just feels like such a handyman when he talks about what he did to achieve what he did, however when he talks about his work its is just an artists mind. He builds most of his "paintings", as he calls them, out of wood and gives everything a homey, old lake house feel. It probably helps, the fact that he was a carpenter before he went to graduate school. It just seems kind of mathematical all the things that he does, because even when he is making "drawings"or "sketches" as he calls his little miniature models and/or sculptures that are intended to be a window to what will be a larger project, everything is so planned out meticulously. He was pretty fascinating with what he was able to accomplish, like building a shed to house an old truck and then it became art and he set it up in the UArts gallery. Everything he was explaining was done so nonchalant, as if his feats were just something that happen to him and not something that really is hard to do and amazing. For that he was really interesting to watch talk about his experiences.

Scanner Face

Warning Label

Doug Bucci

Today the artist, jewelry maker, designer, and there is definitely more you could call him because it seemed like this guy does it all! He incorporates science and his condition of diabetes into so much of his work and the products look awesome. For instance in this piece it looks like blood cells made into a necklace. I was amused by this speaker's enthusiasm throughout his speech talking about his process, his life, and his work because most of the people who have come to talk really haven't been this engaging or kept me listening the whole time. He gave helpful hints to making it as an artist and my number one favorite and I think that something that I am really going to use as  motto in my life, is to be uncomfortable. He explained that you should always put yourself in something that you are not comfortable doing and therefore you will produce some of your best work, push yourself, and in the end learn, which is ultimately, in my belief, what life is about. I know a lot of Bucci's work is commercial but I really liked that aspect of him and it makes me think about going into industrial design or using CAD or something. That's actually what my parent's degrees are in, but up until now I never gave it that much attention. I don't think I would totally be comfortable doing that and I think that may be a good thing.  

TED.com speech: Rives on 4 a.m.

The poet, John G. Rives, gives a fascinating and hilarious speech, filled with irony. I had to watch it a few times because of the pure coincidental connections that so many things in this world have tied to the time of 4 o'clock in the morning. Rives talks about how its the worst possible time to be awake in the morning and yet people seem to always be doing things at the time. For instance he says plotting someones killing in the movie "The Godfather." He goes on this whole web of connections to what people are doing at 4 in the morning. In his whole schpiel he gives it the name of the "Giacometti Code." It is here, in the picture above where Giacometti, an sculpture and artist, has a piece called The Palace at 4 in the Morning. This was made in 1932. Rives then goes on a rampage of hilarity, linking actors and writers to Giacometti and his life. I cannot do it as brilliantly as he does but just typing into google "4 a.m.", brings up a lot of connections to the actress Judy Dench, another famous actor who killed himself the same day that a writer was receiving the Nobel Prize. And coincidentally enough she was born in 1932 when the sculpture above was produced! The connections keep going and I found that to be so incredibly interesting and fascinatingly funny. Rives delivers this speech so well that had anyone else done it, it probably would have been interesting but not as much so and not as humorous as Rives made it. I totally recommend watching, if not once, more.

http://www.ted.com/talks/rives_on_4_a_m.html

"Persona"

In actuality I find myself struggle a little at what I thought of “Persona.” I liked it, but I didn’t at the same time. I think while I was watching it I was annoyed with the flashing of random images and sometimes many clips were in there that did not actually add or take away from the story – they were just there and I found that to be very odd. But then I think back to specific scenes, particularly ones that involved Sister Alma spilling her guts to Elisabeth, or them at the sea and I am intrigued. I liked how you definitely know from the start that you are going to have to watch this movie a few times to really grasp what’s going on and what all the symbolism is about. That is one thing I really did enjoy about the film, the constant symbolism and metaphors. I didn’t get all of them, I do admit and some may get bothered by that but I liked how things had a hidden meaning and even now I am trying to think back to what this meant and that meant. Like with the glass that Sister Alma deliberately leaves on the ground for Elisabeth to step on. Or when Ingmar Bergman put in Sister Alma’s monologue in twice. One with the focus on Elisabeth and the other with the focus on Sister Alma. I wonder the symbolism behind all of that and what the purpose was. I can guess that it was to make the viewer really focus upon “the artist”, Elisabeth, and her reaction to what had happened to her and then to see “the subject”, Sister Alma, and how her resentment for being the subject of Elisabeth’s skill and how this story makes her see what Elisabeth truly is and why she is taking care of her. It is all very complicated and I enjoy that. Also, with the artist and subject, that is how I see this movie. Elisabeth is “the artist”, for all intensive purposes, and likewise for Sister Alma to be “the subject.” Elisabeth’s craft is to study people, pick up their traits, and in turn better her skills as a great and accomplished actress. The thing that gets me is, what really happened to her to make her completely change out of the blue from a vibrant, upcoming actress to a recluse, who completely fell off track. I feel like there was something else besides the hatred of her son, and for some reason I keep coming back to the idea of a hatred of men. There is kind of a theme of men wanting too much from women throughout the movie, or at least over powering them. Like the expectation for Elisabeth to have a child, the boys at the beach who have sex with Sister Alma, and Elisabeth’s son who longs for her attention and love.  Maybe that is what the move is about putting on a “persona” for men.  But I think there must be a few meanings.
Then there is the style of the movie, which I loved. I respected the way the images were so crisp in their grays and contrasts and values. I really thought that it contributed wholeheartedly to the mood of the piece. Rubens said that it was as if every frame was painting or a picture which I totally agree with. I feel like I could go to any scene pause and I could take that picture and put it on my wall. The composition of each frame was so perfectly set and for that I think of Ingmar Bergman as a true artist. One beautiful scene I remember from the movie was when Sister Alma is in her bathing suit and a straw hat and is sitting on a small bench outside the house where the doors are all open and the curtains are flowing in and out from the wind. They looked so silky and she looked so warm, and it felt comfortable, desirable, and balmy, even in black and white. I think it actually was stronger in the black and white. Her bathing suit and body would not have stood out as so organically in that scene and the curtains, although would have looked soft, would have lost their beauty in contrast to the flatness of the house and the porch area. Overall, after I do my drawing I plan to watch this movie again, to not only attempt again to gain new ideas on what the concept of the film is but also to enjoy the well formatted pictures of Bergman.