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For this weeks artist conversation, I met Venessa Betancourt, who I did not know prior to Thursday’s class meeting. From our small conversation, I got to know a lot about her interests and what she likes. Vanessa is from Bellflower, where she commutes from. She is currently a first year social work major, which she plans to use in order to do office work or to be in charge of cases. Some of her hobbies include hiking, going to the beach, and hanging out with friends. Vanessa’s favorite color is burgundy. Her biggest fear is not succeeding. The first thing she notices about people are their eyes and smile. Something we have in common is that we both like Italian food and music in general (aside from country). Her favorite artist is J Cole. If Vanessa can travel anywhere in the world, she said she would like to visit Italy. One thing on her bucket list is getting a full tattoo sleeve. Overall, it was cool getting to know Vanessa because we share some interests and I found out we take Hist 173 before this art class. Vanessa’s website: https://vanessabetancourt.wordpress.com

For this weeks art experience, the class had to go to the Japanese Garden instead of the galleries to draw sketches of the garden. For the assigment, we had to draw six sketches, in which three are representative and three are abstract. For the three representative I concentrated on the garden and the pond. I put more details into my sketches. For the abstract, I basically sketched quickly and never lifted my pencil off the paper. This was easier because I kept drawing other lines over the ones I messed up on, which then added detail to them. For these drawings, I drew quick lines in forms of leaves for the trees and bushes in the garden. What was difficult in the assignment was drawing the animals in the pond because once you looked back at them, they were no longer in the same spot. This made it more fun as it took memorization for me to continue my sketch. Overall, I loved this assignment because we got to spend times outside of the gallery and got to sketch at the Japanese Garden.

For this weeks art experience, I decided to do ethnography, which is the pre-electric culture experience. Because I missed out on Tuesday, I decided to choose a different art experience I can still participate in. Although this assignment was not to difficult, it was somewhat boring until I knocked out. The purpose of this was to experience what people did when there was no electricity where they were and determine how you wanted to spend your time. I spent the time in the living room of the house and turned off the television before I started. I started off by talking to a friend that was with me, but after a while in the dark decided to let time pass by. I went to sleep and wanted to get this over with since it was late anyway. I figured that it was more difficult for those in the past because they dealt with this all day and couldn’t pass through time. 

This weeks classmate conversation was with Carlos Cucufate, who I already met prior to this conversation. Carlos is currently here at CSULB as a Business Administration Management major. Carlos graduated from Animo Leadership in Inglewood, where he lives and commutes to CSULB from. Carlos told me that both his parent are from Salvador and the last time he’s been there was in the 9th grade. Some interests me and Carlos enjoy iclude playing  basketball, playing video games, and listening to rap/hip hop. Carlos also enjoys to play and watch soccer. He told me his favorite artist is Nas and his favorite sports team is Real Madrid. Another thing we have in common is that we both like Jordan shoes. Although I met him in the earlier weeks of the semester, I enjoyed getting to know Carlos more. Go check out Carlos’ website: https://carloscucufate.wordpress.com

For this weeks classmate conversation, I got to do it on Martin Diaz. Originally from the San Diego area, Martin is a 3rd year computer engineer student. Some of Martin’s interests include hanging out with friends, boxing, and cars. I thought it was cool that Martin boxed because my dad used to do amateur boxing. Some things we both had in common were that we’d both like to cross sky diving off our bucket lists, like sports in general, and like rap music. One thing Martin would like to do is attend a big boxing event or soccer game. One thing many people don’t know about Martin is that he was born in Durango, MX. It was good getting to know Martin, he seemed like a chill, cool person to get to know- check his website out: https://nitramdiaz.wordpress.com

Compared to other weeks art experiences, this week was a bit different due to a guest artist, Marta Troya. For this weeks art experience, we participated in an experience known as turning pages. This experience was a bit odd at first but after having understood its purpose and being able to answer the questions provided, I understood it. Turning pages showcases that people can document such experiences by taking photos or writing about it. Pictures and words can capture an experience because those who were not there can truly understand what occurred by photos and a detailed description. Depending on the person, the type of words and images used to document these experiences might matter, but in general they help document events that are worth remembering. Turning pages taught me that we can capture other experinces by enjoying it rather than taking images (like the library). The act of taking pictures to capture an experience can both help the experience or take away from it, depending on its cause. For example, meeting a famous athlete one looks up to can be helpful with a picture because it is a experience they’d want to be able to view again. On the other hand, taking pictures because you have to (like in a project or assignment) can take away from an experience because we are only doing it to get it over with.

Overall, the idea of turning pages was fun because it is something we have not done this semester. We started by going to the library and picking up children books to discuss it with others in the class. The second part of the experiences took places in the bookstore where we were able to visit different parts of it. The big difference between the two was that we were allowed to take images in the bookstore, unlike the library. I had more fun in the library because we were all together in the waiting room, reading in an area where it was not allowed.