Ebony drawing

Hello all!!

I bring to you another drawing!  This assignment for my drawing class was really enjoyable, and once again, it is the first time experimenting with this specific medium.  We used ebony pencils on coquil (or however you spell it) paper.  It really produced some beautiful results.  The ebony pencils are really similar to just graphite pencils, but the paper is really something else.  It is really toothy, so it shows a grainy texture that is just gorgeous.

Too bad you can get up close and personal to see the grainy texture.  I think that's what makes this medium so elegant and special.
Let me know what you think! :D

Dali- Recreated

Hello!

So recently in my drawing class, we were asked to choose a famous piece of artwork, recreate it, and change something about it.  So I chose Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Time" piece and made my own version called "Persistence of Hunger".

I had a lot of fun doing this.  It was interesting to draw a painting. 
My choice of medium were the pastel pencils.  I've grown really fond of these pastels ever since I've been introduced to them in the beginning of the semester.

Here's the original piece:

Constructive criticism welcomed!

Shaun Evaristo

Shaun Evaristo is such an amazing dancer, choreographer, and performer.  He travels the world performing and teaching workshops, and he also choreographs routines for international stars, such as a Korean band named Big Bang.  I'm just so amazed by how smooth, clean, and flowing his moves are.  It takes great precision to get to his level.

Here is a performance I really enjoyed.  He collaborated with many different dancers, including Sh*t Kingz.  Check it out!

Shaun Evaristo / Miguel Jontel ft. The S**t Kingz, Keone, Paul,

 Dana - H.o.B.

House Dancing

I recently began learning about House Dancing since summer of 2009.  I still remember going to the city library for the first time, seeing Danny Dance with his DJ equipment with people dancing around him so freely.  Since that day, House has become one of my favorite styles of dance.  It is still fairly unknown amongst the mainstream culture, but there are many amazing House dancers in the world.  The style itself is very free and soulful, and you have to let your body loose.  The key is to let your body move as one with the beats of the music.  The main groove you must learn is the Jack.  The Jack is the essence of House dancing.  You can have all the moves in the world, but if you don't have the Jack, then you won't have House.

Blu --> Urban Artist

For our personal website assignment we have to create for our Project 1, I decided to choose Urban Arts as my topic.  I have learned a lot about this beautiful genre of art through research for this assignment, and I am happy to say that I am a fan.  The style is so unique and edgy at the same time. 

I came across an artist named Blu, which is just an alias name to cover his real identity.  He utilizes the art form and adds animation to it as well.  I believe he'd paint an image, take a picture, erase it with white paint, and paint the next continuous image.  So it is like a stop-and-go animation.  Can you imagine the time and patience it would take to complete a whole project like this?? I really really respect Blu as an artist, and I am just fascinated with his creativity.

Here's a few of his animated pieces.  Check it out!

MUTO - Blu



BIG BANG BIG BOOM - Blu

Evolution V

I just recently came back from New York/New Jersey about an hour ago, and once again, the east coast never ceases to inspire me.  I mainly went for major Breaking Event called Evolution 5.  The best of the best BBoys and BGirls from all around the world came together to compete in this joyous event.  Even though everyone did not know each other's languages, it was beautiful to see people from different countries interacting with each other through the language of dance.  New friends were made, new inspirations were created. 

It was my first ever major battle out of Utah, and it definitely had an entirely different feel compared to Utah's battles.  For one, the scene is a lot bigger outside of Utah, and people from all around the world were competing.  The dancers were doing moves I would never have imagined possible.  In the finale, it ended up being Maximum crew (Korea) vs. Found Nation (Japan).  It was a very intense and close battle, but Maximum ended up taking the win! The winners get to fly to France to compete in another major battle.

It was definitely a great opportunity I was able to witness, and I am so motivated to practice even harder!  I want to be able to cypher with the rest of the amazing dancers out there in the world.

The beginning of Fall = a whole new fashion wardrobe!

I absolutely adore fashion, and I try to stray away from the typical things and spice it up in order to be more unique, original, and me.  As we may all realize, the weather is rapidly turning colder every day. I always love Fall season! It's not too cold, nor is it too hot, and i can expand on my fashion wardrobe BIG TIME by layering, layering layering!!!  Because I can layer so many different clothing and accessories together without being terrified of the heat, I can create many different outfits with just a few things!!

Some of my favorites to wear are blazers and jackets.  They are so versatile and can be worn either casually or formal.  Because it is an outer wear, you can throw this over pretty much every outfit!

I also love gaged earrings.  I have always been fascinated with them, but the thing is, i don't want to actually enlarge my holes.  So what can I do in this situation?  I came across this website http://www.zukiimports.com/earrings, and to my lovely surprise, they actually sell fakies (which are earrings that give the illusion of your ears being gaged).  I am super excited because it is exactly what I need!  I have not ordered from this site before, so I have some researching to do, but hopefully they are trustworthy.

There are so many fun clothes and accessories out there.  If only I was very wealthy, my wardrobe would be filled with awesome fashion.  I just strive to be unique in some way, and it is another outlet for me to express my creativity.  I feel that fashion isn't just "beauty and outer looks", but it can also be an art form that one can use to express oneself.

Moon Festival 2010

So the time of the Moon Festival just recently passed.  The Moon Festival is the celebration of the brightest full moon of the year.  Every year the Vietnamese community puts together a festival to celebrate this ethnic holiday, and my friends and I are asked to perform a routine as part of the entertainment.  Although there are always many technical difficulties that occur when we perform every year, we still love dancing; whenever an opportunity to perform is thrown at us, we always take it. 

Within the last year, I have met many great dancers in Utah's scene.  I feel as though I have grown within these past few months as a dancer than I have through out my entire life.  Although I know I have a long road to go on my dancing and choreographing journey, I can see that I have made definite improvements from my past, and I always excites me how much I have learned and how much more is stored for the future. 

We only had 3 days to practice for this dance because of such a short notice from the committee, so it's not the tighest we could be.  Hope you all enjoy! :]

Song: Give it to me Baby (Rick James)

Self Portrait

In my Drawing 1 class, our first assignment was to create a self-portrait using colored pastel pencils.  I have never used this specific medium before, so I was very nervous.  I decided to choose a neutral dark gray canton mi tientes paper to use as my background, because the photo I was going to use had a lot of dark cast shadows.  I honestly was not sure of how my results would turn out in the end, but I am quite pleased with the outcome.  Although the portrait overall does not look that similar to the real me, I'm still glad I was able to pull through after the many long days of working with this messy medium (the pastels are similar to chalk and are really dusty, getting all over my belongings and my face!). My biggest downfall was having to put up with how much the pastels fade.  Let's say one day I really saturate one section, and the next day when I return to draw my portrait, I find that the very saturated section I just worked on was not as saturated as the day before.  I just have to keep reapplying the color, and it was getting very annoying!

Well here it is!!

 Here's another landscape piece we were doing in class at the same time with the same medium.  Can you guess where it is? haha



Quality isn't the best since I just used my camera to take a photo of the pieces.

I love hearing constructive criticism and comments!! :]

Federation 2

The time has finally come!! Series 2 of the Federation battles have begun!

For those of you who do not know what the Federation battles are, it is a breaking competition held over the course of several months.  Some of the top breakers in Utah form their own crew of 4 members to face off with the other crews, and the top crew wins airplane tickets to any state they want. 

Although I am not a contender, I absolutely love to be in the audience, feeling the hype and excitement of the battles.  Utah's breaking scene may be small, but I see it slowly expanding and growing.  Not only is it fun to watch and cheer for your favorite dancer, but it is also inspiring to see how hard the dancers practice and let it out on the dance floor.  It definitely inspires me to practice harder in order enter a battle myself.  I can just imagine the excitement, tension, and anxiety that overcomes you right before you enter the circle. 

For those of you who want to try and experience something new, I definitely recommend attending these Federation battles.  Everyone is friendly and willing to meet new people, and you will also be able to experience a bit of the real hip hop culture.

For more information, check out the official website.

http://www.bboyfed.com/

A beginning__

Now will be the time to document the passions of my life.

What inspires me could possibly inspire you.

The arts are the answer to all creative imaginations.

.



I was definitely sad with the unfortunate passing of the great Nujabes.  His music is emotionally inspiring, and I believe everyone should give his music a listen.
A good friend of mine showed me this video created by a fan.  The cinematography and idea was amazing and matched the song perfectly. It's about the mind of an individual who's lost someone dear to them, and the struggle they face in trying to remember the person as time goes by.  Beautiful work, and it definitely inspires me to experiment more with film.