Tattoos as an art form

I know we previously had a presentation on this topic but I thought it was necessary for me to post about it considering my love for tattoos. Tattoo's are without a doubt an ART form. The only thing different from an orthodox style of art is the canvas, being skin. I also feel as if people do not respect them or like them because they have seen bad tattoos. I have seen plenty of bad ones but I look past that because I have also seen many beautiful ones like the one above. This tattoo is a Native American Chief with an immense amount of detail. The shading and line work is just perfect making it visually pleasing. I personally like black and grey but that doesn't mean the color tattoos aren't good.......because some are amazing.

Memorial

When this project was first assigned, I couldn’t think of anywhere in my house, room or car where a memorial of some sort was set up for display. Well over the weekend my five year old cousin passed away from brain cancer after a yearlong battle. The point is when I arrived home I immediately put his mass card above my bed on a shelf where others already rest. Without noticing, I have had a alter set up for years now.

It first began when my best friend passed away from leukemia in 2006. I put pictures of us above the shelf and contents that reminded me of him on the shelf. For example when we were younger we used to paint action figurines and go to the zoo, so there is also an alligator head, which are now part of the alter memorial. I also have a wooden statue from St. Francais of Assisi from my grandparents’ house along with both of their mass cards. Having this shelf gives me comfort and lets me know they’re at my side every night when I go to sleep. Also when I am feeling a little down or missing them I'll go to the shelf and memories will rush back to me. These memories make me feel better and forget about the bad. It’s crazy how I could forget about something that is so present in my life. I just never called it an alter or memorial and I feel that is why I didn’t put two and two together.

As for being art, I wouldn’t consider this art or myself an artist from this memorial. It didn’t take any type of skill or imagination. I just put contents that are important to me into one particular area to honor their lives and for memories.

Final Project

Roberto Falck

Engagement

For my final project I am choosing Photography, in particular a local artist/photographer

from Brooklyn known as Roberto Falck. I first heard of him in about 2008 at my cousins wedding. I was absolutely blown away by his work somehow he finds a way to catch the personality of each picture. Roberto is beyond creative and takes photography to another level. Not only does he do weddings but he does engagements, portraits and his travels to other countries.

Trip to Massai

Underwater Wedding

Johnny Cupcakes As Art

In this blog I would like to discuss graphic tees as an art form, in particular Johnny Cupcakes. Johnny Cupcakes is a clothing brand that was started in 2001 by a man by the name of Johnny Earle. Originally started as a joke soon became a social/fashion icon. The trademarked skull and crossbones and cupcake took a liking. The company soon took shape and put Johnny on the rise. Opening three stores that are extremely original and designs including popular icons.

Not only are Johnny Cupcakes t shirts art but everything in the brand is. Take a look....

LA STORE

Limited Edition Dynamite Packaging

Jordan/ Johnny Cupcakes

As you can tell everything pertaining to this brand is creative. I would personally agree that all of his designs and ideas are an art form. I would like to follow in his footsteps hopefully be as successful as him one day. His marketing is brilliant and he has a love for the brand.

Street Art (Banksy)

BANKSY

One of my absolute favorite 21 century artist, is a street artist by the name of Banksy. He is from London and basically does graffiti having to do with society. His image isn't known and somehow remains to be unknown. He has such a distinct style that you can spot out his work with one glance. Creative isn't even the word when speaking about him. To me it is indescribable. Some is super realistic and some cartoony but almost always dealing with social puns. Above are some of his famous images but the list goes on. Not only does Banksy do graffiti but he also does exhibits like sculptures and paintings like such.

He was also featured in a film named "Exit through the Gift Shop" in 2010. It is basically filmed accounts of what happens in the street art world. How they make money, why they do it and how important fame is to them. After watching this documentary you respect the art form a bit more and it kinda motivates yourself to do something that will always be remembered.

Black Hawk Down

I decided to write about Black Hawk Down which is a film directed by Ridley Scott in 2001 about a number of United States soldiers being dropped off in Somalia to settle a civil dispute. According to IMDB this battle took place in 1993 where 100 Army Rangers where dropped off into the heart of the city with orders to capture two infamous warlords. While doing so two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by RPG‘s, forcing these Rangers to complete another difficult task of securing the areas of the crash. One of the pilots was then taken prisoner but no man gets left behind.

This is one of my favorite films of all time and is one of the reasons why I decided to write about it. Not until this blog post did I really notice the music though. I must have seen this movie fifty times but only now am I realizing the music’s full potential in the film. It truly lets the mood be known.

In general the movie doesn’t stick to one type of music. Throughout the film different genres of music are played. It opens with some authentic Somalia instruments letting you know where the story takes place. It then goes into some city background noise or harmonious flutes and violins. On IMDB the soundtrack includes Elvis Presley multiple times, Stone Temple Pilots, House of Pain, Jimi Hendrix, some indigenous artist and a lot of orchestra. I never realized that these famous musicians were part of such a great movie.

Certain scenes require different types of music, especially a war movie. Something different Ridley Scott did was put an orchestra while fire fights were happening and rock songs on their trip into the town. Generally you would think a loud heavy rock song would fit in with gun fire, loud explosions and helicopters but he proved me wrong. It does go quite well with it. He includes both sad and soft violins but also some very upbeat drums to describe various scenes of panic and pain.

For ex. You can really feel the soldiers pain and can put yourself into their shoes

The Godfather

The Godfather was released in 1972 and directed by Fancais Ford Coppola. It starred Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and James Caan. The film is rated number two just below Citizen Cane on the American Film Institute top 100 movies.

I decided to evaluate some of the scenes that are present in this film. In particular I wanted to focus on the special effects. Compared to today's movies they are absolutely terrible but givin the time period I don't think many questions were ever raised about them, especially because this was such a great movie.

At 3 minutes and 35 seconds you can tell where I am coming from. The shooting in the elevator is first. The gun used sounds like a firework and seems totally unrealistic. The second scene of poor special effects is when he is shot in the eye through his glasses. I was expecting blood to come pouring out but instead it looked like discolored water. I am in no way putting down The Godfather because it is absolutely one of the best films created. I wanted to shed light on how much special effects have evolved within the last 30 years.