1. On the internet, you constantly run into the issue of censorship. There are plenty of rules that restrict you from creating work. For example, people who have careers on platforms like YouTube largely fear “copyright strikes”. Youtubers are allowed a certain amount of “strikes”, and after they run out of these allowed strikes, they face the possibility of getting their channels deleted off of the entire platform. You can get a strike if you include things like songs of artists. If Youtube picks up a song and recognizes it as a song belonging to an artist, that video gets flagged and causes the creator of the video to get their ad-revenue removed, aka demonetization. This means that people who dedicate their lives to creating content on the platform constantly fear to get a strike because that would ultimately mean they won’t make any money from their video.
2. I believe Copyright is working as it should, be I believed it should be modified. I believe it’s completely fair to want credit to remain solely to the creator of the piece, however, I don’t believe thoughts/pieces are completely original. People always bounce off of others’ ideas and make something that a different individual could have possibly done or thought of already. I believe people should be allowed to use work freely and include others’ work in their own work, not to steal credit, but to make different versions of their own and possibly, to promote the original creator’s work.
3. I chose to follow a “Copyright” license for my piece because I am not claiming I created any of these images. I did not take any of these images nor made themself. I give all rights to the creators of the characters I incorporated into the image I made.
4. Well, first off, I’ve always enjoyed doing my own version of things, which is why I enjoy using apps that allow you to “photoshop” images. I have always enjoyed seeing edits people have made of different things. So, the first thing I did was go into Google Images and filter my image search to those who had uploaded their images onto the web as “free to use”. Google allows you to use this tool in their search bar (Image “#2”). Next, I decided to do a compilation of characters from different cartoons I watched as a child to get that sense of “nostalgia”. I thought it would be fun to think back and remember shows I loved growing up. After finding all my images, I saved them onto my phone. I opened a photoshopping app and began to paste them onto a licensing free image I found on Google of a random subway station. I thought it would be funny to remix these characters into being in one space as we would never be able to see these characters interact in their own separate worlds. It was challenging to search for images that were free to use, however, I do enjoy how the final result turned out. I enjoyed doing this remix activity!

Artist: Micol Hebron

Instagram: @Unicornkiller1

Due to the Corona Virus outbreak, we, unfortunately, were not allowed to visit an art exhibition, but rather met an artist during one of our zoom meetings called Micol Hebron. She is an artist located in Southern California. When I first logged onto the meeting, I noticed how positive and outspoken Micol was. I was able to pick up an “activist” sense, meaning I felt as if Micol was very passionate about social justice and fighting norms. As I guessed, she is all about empowering women and their bodies. Hebron even has a “feminists hiking club” where she invites any feminist identifying people to join her on hikes where she shows them her favorite trails. Along with this, she runs an annual video art festival to showcase and promote female-identifying people’s art since she felt as if she was not seeing enough female representation in the video-art world.

Micol explains how she loves art  because she believes it’s “a really fun way to navigate new knowledge about the world.” When Hebron began to describe her art, she explained how she does not follow one specific form of art, stating, “My artistic practice doesn’t take the form that’s recognizable in any one particular media.” Hebron uses different things to express themselves, mostly by photographs. She incorporates her body into her art and shares messages through human bodies.

Hebron is essentially using her art to spread her ideas about empowerment. She, unfortunately, endured plenty of abuse, both sexual and psychical all throughout the majority of her life. It’s exactly for reasons like this that her art is trying to empower female bodies. Along with this, her idea is a direct form of combating the censorship we all around us. We live in a world where the male body is accepted by society. Men are allowed to walk shirtless without being judged, however, a women’s upper body has been sexualized by society and shames any woman that wishes to obtain the same freedom as men. We see this largely happening on social media platforms which is exactly why Hebron combats this censorship by denying these rules of social media and tries to combat them. One of her artistic ways of doing so is by placing male nipples over her own nipples to send a message to platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

I personally truly enjoyed our meeting with Micol Hebron. Hearing her entire story was so inspiring and motivating. I share similar ideas as she does and I have a high interest in the messages she incorporates into her art. I was captivated by the way she executes her ideas and explains her thought process behind her art. Along with the social norms she is breaking, she is a great support system for people around her. She enables people to explore their own ideas and does things like offering her own personal space to be used by strangers to let them talk and express their own ideas. Micol Hebron is a great artist and I hope she continues to receive more support. 

This was my first time doing bubble graffiti letters. I honestly enjoyed this activity because it allowed me to take a break from all the craziness around me and be able to clear my mind to just focus on the art. I found it really relaxing and was in my own headspace. I googled “graffiti bubble letters” on Google Images and found a template of the entire alphabet in a style that I liked. I found the style I liked and began on my piece of paper. I decided to use the template as a “guide” for my main idea, however, I changed the letters to my own liking. 

I free-handed everything since I thought you can’t really go wrong with “graffiti” style art since it can be your own thing. I first started off doing my name with a pencil since unfortunately, I did not have spray paint nor any paint at my parents house. I began to sketch the letters of my name. After, I got my black Sharpie and began to outline my name. I would add my own lines even after I had sketched out the outline for my name letters. I would add lines anywhere I felt like adding them. I would also “thicken” certain areas to make the letters more bubble like. After finishing outlining the letters in balck, I searched for markers. 

I was lucky enough to find two markers, and to my surprise, they were both my favorite colors: blue and pink. I started first with pink and the blue and did this pattern throughout my five letters. After completing it, I decided to just hang it up on the door of my room because I figured why not. Overall, my experiencing bubble letters was nice for both the actual process of doing the letters, something I found extremely fun, and because it allowed me to chill.

1. Although I don’t think I did a great job of sending my ideas through my art, I was trying to reflect an optimistic feeling. I tried to draw things that make me feel happy as that is something we all need during these difficult times. I drew things like hearts to represent love, a happy face, and if you see the image close enough, written on there somewhere is a message.
2. I went into my pantry to search for food/things that were expired or close to being expired. To my luck, I found nothing except for an expired bottle of “Chamoy”, a Mexican sweet and spicy chili sauce usually used on desserts/fruits. So essentially, I used food as my material.
3. I think at first, people would wonder what my general message is since there are plenty of images that don’t seem to “coincide”, however, I feel like if one just takes their time and observes every drawing with openness, they’ll feel a bit more happy because there are only “nice” things on my art piece.
4. My materials influence my experience of my artwork because I felt a bit limited. I have never tried to do art from decomposable materials and was not used to not being in control of my material as Chamoy sauce is a liquid-water like thing. It was extremely hard to draw what I was drying to draw. 
5. I think a kiss should last as long as it feels right. I believe there are kisses that should last forever, some that should last a few seconds, and some that shouldn’t even happen for the first time, it all depends on the situation and people, and of course, consent!
6. I think a great meal should not last long. At this time of day, people usually take a picture of their food and focus too much on the appearance of it rather than enjoying the meal. If you can’t bother taking a picture because your face is being stuffed with the food, then I think it should be a great meal. 
7. I think art should last as long as the artist wants it to last. Every person has their own reasons for doing the things they do, and artists usually don’t do things by mistake. They plan minor details so I believe the time they allow art to last is completely up to the creator. 
8. I believe marriage should last forever. If you don’t want to spend the rest of your life with your partner and can’t imagine reaching old age with them, the marriage is not for you. You shouldn’t marry to divorce in 4 more months or in 4 years, you should marry to be with that person forever!
9. I believe human life should last as long as the person wants it to last, however, I hope old age. LIfe should be lived to the fullest but every person’s situation is different.
10. I believe it doesn’t, art and life should be enjoyed as much as they could be, and not having them forever makes it better.
11. I definitely hope things like clean water, air, and land will be sustainable and long-lasting.
12. I do believe people like me can make a huge difference in those things being long-lasting. If I can make global warming real, I can stop global warming from happening. If everyone does their part, we can definitely help global problems like climate change and pollution. 

This week, we will be exploring the theme of self expression in virtual worlds. Throughout time, games have been produced to further an individuals freedoms and lets them express themselves in different ways. Before, people were usually limited to one outfit for a character in a video game and that was usually their default wardrobe. Games wouldn’t allow you to personalize them to your liking and would limit the user to just sticking to that basic outfit. 

Recently, times have changed. There have been plenty of new video games that have been developed through the years that allows its users to personalize and customize their character to fit whatever they’d like. These new video games allow people to express themselves through these video games. They allow people to change wardrobe whenever they’d like, allows them to add facial feistiness if they’d like, and even gives them the ability of naming their characters.

In my post, I will show you three different virtual worlds that allow its users to explore and showcase their own style through their characters.

The first virtual world is Grand Theft Auto (GTA). This game allows its users to begin with a character that the user gets to customize, ranging from things like choice of shoes, bottoms, and shirts. It also allows its users to change their characters skin color, hair choice, facial hair preference, and allows their users to add things like piercing or tattoos to their characters. The artists I chose to grab a picture of wanted to show his favorite sports car that he got customized. He said he customized his character to his liking and tried to make him as similar as he could to his own style in clothing.

In the second virtual world I visited, I got to meet a user that goes by “geminif03” in Animal Crossing. In this virtual world, the same theme of self expression is available. The users are able to customize their character and are able to change their avatars dress wear.

In the last virtual world I visited, I got to see a user that goes by “Santabanta56” in the Roblox world. This user had a small chat conversation with me. They enjoyed wearing trendy clothes and were influence by music artists like Ariana Grande.

Clothing and other forms of self expression oftentime are overlooked and excluded from art, however, I believe clothing and style deals with art. These pieces of clothing are planned and produced by actual designers and are made with specific thought. Making clothing pieces itself is art to me, and I found it amazing how video games now-a-days allow its users to explore self exploration and identity. People feel more connected to a character online when they are able to customize them to fit what they’d like. I find it cool how these virtual worlds also allow their users to make other forms of art, like allowing them to customize their cars, build their own houses, make paintings, and plenty of more things.

1. My goal for my video was essentially to show people what my days have consisted of during this pandemic. Since we cannot go out, my days have meshed together and there’s nothing really “different” that I do.
2. I think I did accomplish my goal because I was able to capture most of the things I usually do during these days. I was also able to explain mostly every clip.
3. If I could do something differently next time, I would probably try to include more clips of myself and show more activities from my days. Also, ideally, we woulndt be under quarantine so I would also really enjoy vlogging and include clips of different places I’m at since I usually go out every night of the week.
4. I think I might vlog again on a special and exciting day. I have always enjoyed recording videos so I would love to make a compilation and vlog a day I would never want to forget. So, essentially, I do think I’ll possibly vlog again.
5. One of my favorite YouTubers is “itsblitzzz”.
6. I really enjoy Blitz’ work because she is very versatile with her content. She does different types of videos that range anywhere from dieting videos, information videos on different topics, “day in my life” videos, and even ASMR videos.
7. I can take some of her versatility and not only focus on one specific type of video. Instead, I can make videos that deal with completely different things. Instead of only vlogging, I can do different things like cooking videos, reviews, art videos, and pretty much anything else I feel like doing.
8. I believe authenticity is being original and one owns “true form”. Authenticity means your raw version without any enhancements or hiding any area of yourself. 
9. To me, performance is the way something is shown or represented.
10. I personally do not believe authenticity and performance are opposites, but can rather work together. I believe they can definitely coexist because someone can deliver an authentic performance.
11. I feel like these videos can be argued for either or. I believe both videos she delivers an “authentic performance” because she acts the same way in both the studio and at her home. However, I do believe she is more “authentic” in the way she dresses during her “at home interview” because she would never wear that out during an actual studio interview. She also chose not to “dress up” for the interview so that goes to show how she really is more authentic for presenting herself in her usual at-home attire. However, I believe her studio interview was more performative because she presented herself in this nice glam way by dressing up in a nice black dress and having her makeup done along with her jewelry whereas, at home, she was in a regular black-top with no makeup and no jewelry.

For this week’s art activity, I completed it with my sister. At first, she was hesitant to participate because she was afraid she would “ruin the piece”. My sister and I are both perfectionists, however, she is more of one than me. She enjoys being in control and drawing only to make something beautiful which she actually does after completing her drawings or paintings. After explaining to her there was no objective other than just to let the pen flow, she agreed. I explained to her that we would have to sit down and close our eyes to complete this activity. We went downstairs to her living room, got one of her coffee tables, taped the paper on it, taped it down, and we proceeded to sit across from each other. We closed our eyes and reached for the pen. At first, we were both giggling and couldn’t decide what direction to go in. Shortly after, we both let loose and felt the pen was simply skating over the paper. Letting looser and just drawing felt really nice, it almost felt like a small mental break. After we finished, we both really relaxed and chilled out.

Both my sister and I actually enjoyed our end result. We were both shocked at how we were the ones who created this together and with our eyes closed. We expected something different, however, we were both just as satisfied with the results we ended up getting. It felt nice having an activity with no rules that challenges you not to use your eyes but instead just to relax and have fun. It’s exactly for this reason we both enjoyed this activity and loved our end piece.

Info Block

Artist: Mahsa Soroudi

Exhibition: 7500 Miles

Websites:

Mahsa Soroudi’s Website: https://www.mahsasoroudi.com

Mahsa Soroudi’s “7500 Miles” Website: http://www.7500miles.org/

Due to the current circumstances that we’re experiencing right now due to COVID 19, or the Corona Virus, we have to do our fourth artist conversation based on an interview conducted by Professor Zucman. In his video, he is interviewing artist Mahsa Soroudi. Mahsa Soroudi was born in Tehran, a place she describes as being a “metropolitan” area, stating, “In every corner of it you can experience different things, the cultures”. She also states how Tehran is considered the “capital of art”, or similar to this idea since it is home to plenty of top universities and art academies.

Soroudi’s art isn’t fully focused on sending politically-charged messages, but rather explores “contemporary” art. She believes that the media influences people’s o view of Iran or nations similar to this in a very specific way, leading people to believe that the people there are dealing with all degrees of oppression. Soroudi explains that this isn’t always the case, and she isn’t trying to combat this by including the work of other artists that simply showcase their interests. She focuses on including more women’s art and their own experiences. She believes the art focuses on things like moments, thoughts, and the vulnerability of these artists.

Soroudi explains how her project, “7500 Miles”, was inspired by her sister. Her website is essentially a gateway to networking. She uses her platform to display collections of art in hopes to accumulate enough support to have an actual exhibit. Soroudi shares how the site started with just her immediate friends she had met in school, however, slowly grew bigger due to her friends introducing her to their friends and the cycle continued. She included a place for people to submit their work.

I personally enjoyed this interview with Mahsa Soroudi. I enjoyed getting to learn her story and found it to be empowering. My family also migrated from their homelands to come to the United States in search of the same things Mahsa Soroudi was hoping for. Seeing how far Soroudi has come and watching her being optimistic about her exhibits and goals is inspiring. I also really enjoyed how she not only focused on herself as an artist, but rather shared her platform with other upcoming artists to be given the chance to be included in her “7500 Miles” project.

1. I was just trying to tell a story about a summer fling. Summertime is the perfect time to just let go of your responsibilities and just live in the moment and enjoy it entirely.
2. My process for writing this “song” was just piecing different things together and writing things that flowed together.
3. This activity was quite easier than I expected, although, I found it easy because Im not as involved as a actual musician that’s writing lyrics that follow a specific and correct format. My song just flows everywhere and has no real structure but I still like it. Its also nowhere near to a “good” song either in my opinion but that’s fine.
4. I think my song can go through more work and have more edits to follow a pop-structure but it got the general feel down.
5. I think if I ever get a actual legit beat and its something I actually enjoy, I may consider writing lyrics to accompany the beat.
6. If I were to write another song, I think I wouldn’t be able to tell what it would be about. I would have to be in the moment and express what Im feeling in the moment. I would also need to think of a specific tone for the song and imagine a beat that could match its tone.

For my third “Artist Conversation”, I headed over to the California State University Long Beach SOA art galleries where I visited Ashley Anderson’s art exhibit. Ashley is currently an undergraduate and is majoring under illustration for BFA Pre-production program. Illustrations allow Ashley to explore her ideas and include her own identity within her work.

Ashleys exhibit features plenty of items that add to the theme of her exhibit. Her work features plenty of soft pastel colors that give the room a naturistic vibe. Her art pieces all play a specific color scheme that features plenty of different colors like soft blues, purple, green, brown to depict a late night sky and plenty more. The room also has a big backdrop that is painted with plenty of soft colors. The backdrop is placed right in the middle of the back wall of the exhibit and ties the color schemes together since it features a mix of soft yellow, orange, blue, green, red that are perfectly blended into each other. The backdrop is also covered by green leaves on a wooden stand. 

Anderson explains how she explores plenty of folktales that she grew up with. She states she’s from the South and how as a kid, she accepted all of these folktales and thought they were real at some point. As Anderson grew up, she realized how some of the folktale she believed in as a kid were lies and sometimes even problematic. Now, she uses those tales to break them down and investigate ways of applying positive lessons into her own identity. Anderson is highly interested in “horror” and explains why her pieces are a bit more “spooky” and explains why she includes figures like the goat lady and different creatures.

I highly enjoyed this exhibit because I was instantly drawn by how aesthetically pleasing this whole exhibit was. The color scheme used all throughout the pieces is extremely soothing even though every piece is different than each other. I also enjoyed how nice their painted backdrop included leaves all around it with a stand full of bottles to add to the “Folktale” vibe. The artist did a great job of exploring her ideas and enabling the viewer to get a message out of every piece.