- The current plan with my life is to be an accountant in some form or way. I’m in the accounting program, and am finishing up my second year of my 4 year bachelors degree. After that, I will be taking a 1 year masters program to earn my master’s degree. After that, I’ll become a certified CPA to keep my options open. And after that…. I’m not too sure. Something? I don’t know. But picking something for the sake of this assignment, let’s say I work in the accounting department of a company. I’m currently helping my online employer with bookkeeping and accounting, which has given a whole new world of knowledge and experience. I decided to interview him for the prototyping, and ask him what I have done well and what I have done poorly, so that I can improve myself. What came of that is that I’m helping him, to the best of my ability, with what needs to be classified as what. As for improving, it’s simply a matter of timeliness and improving my knowledge and better marketing myself.
- Confidence – 9
- Resources – 9
- Impact – 6
- Satisfaction – 7
- If my accounting plan did not go as planned, my backup plan would be to get a degree in something to do with business, probably management or finance, and then just try to get some office job in some company somewhere. I’m a very practical person, so when it comes to job prospects I don’t tend to reach for the stars and dream big; I tend to go with something practical that is a safe bet.
- Confidence – 7
- Resources – 7
- Impact – 5
- Satisfaction – 5
- If I could choose the job of my choosing, it would definitely be to invest in cryptocurrencies. These are things such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Golem, Ripple, etc. I’ve been learning more and more about it. I had the opportunity to invest in Ripple when it was around $0.01/unit back in March, it is now currently $0.22/unit (I know someone who put $20,000 into it to currently have a value of $440,000). Another opportunity was Ethereum a few months ago at around $6/coin, where it is currently now $90/coin (I had a friend make over $50,000 when he sold his coins around $60/coin). If I had the working capital and knowledge to identify these trends and rises, I could make very solid money. I’ve spoke to someone who has identified a few possible ones and I’ve put a total of around $1,000 across 4 different possibilities. I’m starting to work to do this on the side with money I can afford to lose, just to see what it would be like.
- Confidence – 3
- Resouces – 6
- Impact – 4
- Satisfaction – 9
Week 15 – Conversation with a classmate
His website: jaredmalabed.wordpress.com
This week I spoke with Jared Malabed. He’s a third year engineering student who is going to be transitioning to taking some hard 400 level courses next year. Similarly, I’ll be transitioning to taking nearly all 300 level courses next year, so we’re both going to be taking some harder classes. When we started talking about what hobbies we have, we learned that we both love hockey. We’re both big fans of the San Jose Sharks. He actually played for a few years before he became busy with school. It was really cool to spend a few minutes talking hockey with someone. Supposedly, hockey is one of the big 5 sports in the US, but actual fans are few and far between, as opposed to sports like baseball, football, and basketball.
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Week 14 – Drawing at the Japanese Garden
Aside from my terrible drawing, this is the sketch I produced. I want to say thank you for having us do this. My freshman year, last year, I lived in the hillside E dorms. When I looked at the school map before moving down here, I saw how close the garden was. I was looking forward to going there to distress and study/relax. The first few times I tried to go there, it was either closed, busy with an event, or another reason why I couldn’t enter. After the third or fourth one I stopped bothering and eventually forgot about it. This was actually the first time I’ve been inside, and I’m super glad I got the opportunity to go inside. Back on topic, when we got there, there wasn’t much room, so I found a couple rocks to sit on and sketch. My friend Mark drew the bridge in the background, and I wanted to draw the same bridge; however, there was a bush in the way (bottom left) and it was on he other side of the pond so I couldn’t see all of the details the bridge had. I decided to draw he portion of the pond that was directly in front of me. Albeit being terrible at drawing, I did my best to keep all of the rocks/side of the pond/Lilly pads placed correctly to how I saw it. There was also a pump that made a mini fountain towards the edge of the pond, which is what the concentric circles are. Overall, this was a really fun activity to do during class.
Week 14 – classmate conversation – Alex Gonzalez
His website – gonzalezalexblog.wordpress.com
We forgot to take a picture 😦
This week I spoke with Alex Gonzalez at the Japanese garden. He is a first year who lives in LA. When I asked about which dorm he stayed in, he told me that he actually lives at home and commutes an hour each way every time he comes to class (only 3x a week). Next semester he plans on scheduling all of his classes on Monday and Wednesday so that he only had to commute twice a week. We talked about how we both struggled at times during the year; he works a lot in addition to commuting 3x a week to come to school which has caused him to not have time to participate in the sports he loves anymore. We’re both looking forward to the summer to work a little bit extra and have some more time on our hands to participate in activity we like.
Week 13 – Conversation with an Artist – Laura Lopez
IG: artdelauralopez
Laura Lopez is in her third year here at CSU Long Beach. She is originally from Colombia and she came here only for school; she will return to Colombia once she is finished with her classes here. She is working towards her masters degree in fine arts that she will earn at the end of spring 2018. She likes being with friends in her free time, and she enjoys a wide variety of colors. She doesn’t understand English too well, so it was difficult to get her to answer some questions about her work and herself.
The work is very vibrant. It uses the color wheel very well, in that is uses the opposite sides right next to each other to make the colors really pop off the canvas. She also makes good use of geometric shapes and lines to help accentuate her leafs and tree stocks. Both pieces seem to have a theme: one is more warm and happy colors while the other is more cool and sad colors. The warm color piece seems to have a very neat feel to the painting: each of the tree stocks are fully visible with nothing crossing them or blocking their view. The cool color piece seems to have a very messy feel to the painting: it has many pieces of shrubbery and short branch sticks that go in front of the tree stocks (there is a lot going on in that piece).
When asking her what her paintings were about, we got a simple answer. She said that nature inspired the pieces. Plants, trees, animals, everything and anything nearby is what inspired her. She said the tropical atmosphere of her home country is what she is trying to capture: the beauty of nature. She said she studied landscape architecture in Colombia before coming to the United States to study art, so she found it a fluid transition to painting landscape. She has always painted since a young age.
She gave a simple answer, that she was trying to capture the beauty of nature. I can not help but think that there is a deeper answer than that, which she was unable to express. The first painting is warm, neat and clean. That makes me think she painted that piece at a happy time in her life, when she was clear of mind and simply enjoying nature. Maybe it was a sunny day, or maybe someone in her life made her have a good day. The other piece is somewhat sad and cluttered. This makes me think that she painted this while sad, distraught, or maybe even feeling unorganized and all over the place in her life. Maybe the day was stormy, or she recently went through a bad event in her life.
Week 13 – Conversation with a Classmate – Alexander LeBreton
This week I spoke with . We were both drawn to the exhibit by Laura Lopez. We immediately began talking about how interesting the pieces were and what they reminded us. We then quickly transitioned to how much nature was inside of them, and how we both love doing things outdoors (hiking, biking, etc.). We’re looking forward to summer, it’s only a few weeks away now! We’re in the final stretch and we’re both so ready for classes to be over so that we can get outdoors stress-free and simply enjoy nature!
His website: alexlebreton.wordpress.com
Another bad selfie 🙂
Week 11 – Conversation with an Artist – Sirius Moghim
IG:
This week I spoke with Sirius Moghim about his gallery. He is a senior graduating this upcoming fall, so this is his senior show. He will have his BFA in sculpture. He is mostly interested in Islamic culture and expressing it through geometry to create patterns. He decided to come to CSU Long Beach because of the excellent art program that it has in comparison to the other schools here in California.
The main piece I’m focusing on is the violin that is suspended in the air in front of a colorful and symmetrical background. The violin is seemingly made out of some form of opaque plastic that light cannot shine through as evidenced by the dark shadow it leaves on the background. The background has a wide range of colors that are mostly warm colors. It reminds me of the top of a tree with leaves, and the sun coming through the holes where it’s a bright white/yellow. The only cool colors seem to be at the bottom right with a green/blue hue there.
Speaking to him, he had a strong sense of the message that he was trying to portray and the reaction he was trying to elicit from the audience. He said that this piece was the portrayal of the excellence of god, and that it hints that patterns can transcend emotions and thoughts. His gallery and artwork as a whole is inspired by grief that he has had throughout his life, and this is how he processed said grief. He said that the crystal violin reminds him of his mother, and the shadow on the background caused by the violin shows the void and absence of his mother.
I feel like the contrast between the vibrant color and the dark space tries to communicate the emotions experienced in life. It says that by and large, life is a wonderful experience that will have plenty of amazing moments; however, it will have moments of grief and sorrow. Looking at it, the void only is about 10-20% of the art piece, so that may show that those down moments are not nearly as often as the joyous ones. I believe that the vibrancy of the colors is an attempt to show just how beautiful and breath-taking life is.
Week 11 – Classmate Conversation
This week I spoke with Miguel Cabada. He is a first year here at CSU Long Beach and he is going to declare in computer technology. He originally lived in Compton, California and chose to come here to Long Beach because he loved the beach atmosphere that this town has. He enjoys playing soccer in his free time, although he doesn’t play with a team. He also enjoys spending his free time watches videos on YouTube/Netflix. We mainly talked about how excited we are for summer, and when we visited the gallery with the interconnecting boxes and wires, it made us think about how we all had our excitement for summer in common. We then chose that gallery to base our notecard drawing off of. The other classmate I spoke with was Mark De Artola; however, I have already spoke with him in a previous conversation.
Miguel’s website: cabadamiguel.wordpress.com
Artist Conversation – Week 10 – Brittany Waters
IG: Artbywaters
Brittany Waters is a senior here at CSU Long Beach. She had her senior show this week in the Dutzi Gallery. She feels passionately about both animals and ocean life. Unfortunately not much more is known as she, along with the other artists, were not present at the time the class met.
The exhibit was split into two sections by a wall. The first section was photos of small sea turtles on the left wall. They were great resolution photos, you felt as though you saw those turtles yourself. The second portion of the exhibit was experiential. You turned the corner and saw the area covered in sand. There were baby sea turtles scurrying along the sand towards the ocean (projected on the wall). There was a seat where you could sit down and were invited to take pictures of the turtles running for the ocean. Finally there was a hidden iPad making ocean noises, which gave the room a relaxing feel.
The message the artist was trying to get across is pretty clear: this is an issue that we can all see in our own packyard. This isn’t out of sight, and this is impacting us now. She was bringing awareness to how our behavior is affecting wildlife in our community; therefore, we need to treat the environment, specifically the beach in his instance, much better than we currently are. She even gave us a simple and fun way to get involved: take a selfie and use the hashtag #MoreThanASandbox to send a message and get this circulating on social media.
While her message was clear, I felt like her exhibit could have brought more of a feel of urgency to it. Without reading the statement, someone padding by might get a totally different feel. The room had a calm feeling to it, and the beach setup was relaxing and enjoyable. There could have been elements she could have added to get across the message that we need to treat the environment better. Until I read the statement, I thought she was trying to go for a relaxed, slow down and enjoy nature feeling to combat the high paced high stressed society we currently live in.
Week 9: Conversation with an Artist – David DeSantis
IG: rapturefineart
David DeSantis is a senior here at CSU Long Beach. His first major was graphic design; however, upon stepping foot in the printmaking building he immediately went to his advisor and asked to switch majors. He transferred from a community college here to CSU Long Beach. He chose this school because it is a top art school on the west coast; San Diego, his home area, did not have much of an art program and the program at Fullerton did not compare to Long Beach. He likes lithography and screenprinting. Aside from art, he likes to listen to Dubstep, snowboard, and go to music festivals.
Out of all the pieces I’ve seen in the galleries this semester, this has to be one of the best. Each piece looked incredible and, simply put, was awesome. The two main pieces I’m focusing on are the samurai head and the wolf mouth. The samurai head seems to have slightly curved lines where the color is missing (almost as if there had been tape down and he painted over the tape and removed it once finished). The lines are very precise, and it seems to use similar shades of a dark red. The wolf mouth is white/grey/black and seems to have a faded feel to it. There are some distinct lines, but much of it blends together to give a vague feeling of the shape. You can see one eye at the top right, but the other eye is not easily discernible, and the background seems to be visible within the mouth and all around it.
He described his motivation for his pieces was often fueled through music. He said that hr would listen to Dubstep whilst creating these pieces; the music would bring about an emotion that he either is currently experiencing or has experienced in the past. He then uses that emotion to create his piece. He didn’t go much into depth specifically as to what each piece meant, but based on the colors and the line usage, I would say that the samurai head is associated with anger and the wolf mouth is associated with a sense of feeling lost. He also has an artist inspiration who is Jackson Paul.
When he said he listened to Dubstep and that was his primary motivation behind his pieces, my ears perked up. When I was younger I enjoyed listening to dubstep and went through a phase for it. I’ve since transitioned on to EDM; however, I have fond memories of where I began listening to electronic style music. It helped me connect with the art and recreate in my head what he was potentially listening to and how the music made him feel. Since he likes to snowboard and tends to fit the general stereotype of a masculine college male, it’s quite possible that the samurai head was simply creating during a song he felt was cool, and he felt the samurai head was simply cool too. I can only guess.
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