Saturday, November 26, 2011

Untitled

So as promised I am going to really really give you guys a nice blog post. I am a lot better this week but I didn't get this typed up and to you guys early like i said I would in my last post...but....I'm here now right? Well faithful few, let get on with it then... The title of this post could very well be called "Back to my Roots" but I decided to leave it untitled. In art school I started to focus on race in my work right around my junior year.  Race is always a touchy subject with people so it makes for really good conversation pieces when creating any type of art.  Somewhere along the line I lost the conversational tone in my work.  Now I am not saying that I lost my "Aatisuto no michi" but let's just say that I have strayed from the path.  I have had moments when I have went through dry spells when it came to creating but this totally different.   The work I have been doing in the years preceding my time from art school has not dealt with race to often. That doesn't come from lack of subject matter; subject matter for me has been more about the continuance of creating.  I have been more concerned with keeping the creative juices flowing.  I know what you are saying where does "Back to my Roots" fit into this post.  I will get to that in a sec.  In some ways the more I strayed away race, the more I believe race in my work and mind has been secretly calling out to me. Lately I have stumbled across articles, images, and even stories that have caused me to rethink the direction my work has been going.  I have been for the longest time, a black artist creating art.  I have discussed with you guys almost ad nauseam about my internal struggle with the "black art vs black artist creating art" so I am not going to touch on that too much this post.  Ill revisit that matter sometime later.   I have begun to brainstorm about some new work that will take me "Back to my Roots".  I think the reason for my departure from this subject matter in the beginning was because I got bored with it so to speak.  The boredom didn't come from not having enough to talk about.  I believe it came from me holding back.  One thing I have always tried to avoid was coming off like an angry black man in my work or more importantly; like I am some "fascist pig" spewing out propaganda.  I have decided that I will begin to explore the subject matter of Race again and this time I won't deprive myself of gaining my full potential by putting myself in the proverbial "box". I plan on busting the seams of said "box". I hope to take you guys on this journey and I will be glad to have you along for the ride!  -Namaste

Saturday, November 19, 2011

SICK...BLEH

Hey faithful few, I am under the weather today so I am not going to try and do the blog I wanted to do for you guys today. I will probably post it early next week so be looking for that ok.

-Namaste

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Tech -to- Art

So I couldn't decide on whether or not I wanted to do an actual post this week or do a video.  I decided to just let you know what's on my mind via letters. So for right now I am going to "Occupy" your eyes;)  I picked up my new IPad this week and right out the gate I was amazed with it.  It was as advertised.  Lightweight and fast.  Zooooooommmmm.  I have had some processor unfriendly apps on my first gen iPad that when ever I opened them they would immediately crash.  Even ones that weren't as powerful would crash.  I can remember always having to open safari back up because it crashed; what a pain!  Sketchbook Pro, was at times extremely unusable.  I could probably get in about 5 minutes in with it and it would crash.  Very frustrating "don't you know!"  I was using it a few hours ago on my iPad 2 and no problems whatsoever.  At some point I am going to purchase iMovie and begin to do some video editing.  So look for some cool little things by way of video from me in the future.  But enough about my tech obsession.  Next week I will finally take a vacation this year.  Its been a long year. I am not going anywhere so it will be a "staycation".  I plan on catching up on some reading, some movies that I have stockpiled and also making some art.  I was telling one of my co-workers how I am going to try and do a lot of drawing next week.  I have been getting a little lax and rusty lately there when it comes to drawing, so what better time then a staycation then to make it happen.  I am actually pretty excited about my week to come.  I should have a lot to talk to you guys about next week.  Probably if I can too bored and feel like I have too much time on my hands, I might end up blogging earlier than usual.  In any event, I look forward to sharing with you guys. -Namaste

Saturday, November 5, 2011

A-HA!!! 7-7-10-7-5-3-2

So I recently discovered that it can be pretty easy to understand "The Guitar" My dad has been playing practically all his life. He is a wizard at "strummin' and pluckin' an axe" (I know that was probably really corny but "...so what, who cares!!!!") I can recall as a kid, my dad trying to give me lesson...let me just say that was an utter and total mess! No matter what he did, it seemed like he was trying to teach me the evolution of time as it pertains to physical systems in numbers;) I never, ever got it. I don't know maybe it was just me being a boy who felt like his dad was trying to teach him something that eventually would always feel like a task or a chore. My grandmother even brought me an acoustic (which I still have to this day) I would play around with it now and then but I never knew exactly what the hell I was doing. A few years ago, I even replaced the strings on it. Picked it up strummed it and again no dice. I have always told myself that I got my artistic gene from my dad but instead of manifesting as music, it manifested itself as art.

Flash forward...Back in April of this year I purchased an iPad. One of the first apps I purchased was GarageBand. I spent many a night playing around with GarageBand "strumming and plucking" the different guitars on the app. Even going as far as learning a very, very elementary/amateurish version of the opening rift to Free Bird.
I hadn't played around with GarageBand in a few weeks but a couple of weeks ago I got the urge to learn a little Seven Nation Army (YES, I am a White Stripes fan; don't JUDGE ME!!!) So I found myself late one night watching YouTube tutorials on how to play the chords on a guitar of all instruments. After watching these videos it finally clicked. Some of the things my dad was saying to me back then began to make sense. I actually began to understand the guitar. Frets became extremely clear to me! For the next couple of days all I kept hearing in my head was the tabs to Seven Nation Army...7...7...10...7...5...3...2 over and over and over...It made me feel so great!

I will definitely continue to follow this up and I will continually share with you guys my experience...

-Namaste