Looking Down from the Ivory Tower

Kitsch: a term of German origin that is used to categorize art that is considered an inferior copy of an existing style, bad taste, and also commercially produced items that are considered trite or crass by the educated elite. This term can be applied to most of what is seen in the piles of "art" at yard sales on memorial day weekend. However, one yard sale did have their kitsch displayed fairly creatively. Part of me wanted to transport the whole display into a gallery and leave it open for discussions peppered with references to Clement Greenberg's essay "Avant-Garde and Kitch". I imagine the discussion would end with someone quoting Greenberg's frequent statement, "If you don't agree with me, you're wrong."

500 Years of Women in Art

I have recently been informed that I "youtube just enough". Well, I may have over posted them this week, but this one is too amazing to not share. Five hundred years of female portraits in Western art, morphed together chronologically. I can't identify them all, though I have scanned the list of artists in the youtube description; whoever compiled this knows their art history.

For anyone who missed it...

...that's me in the sea of graduates. I have no clue who that guy is beside me though, so I don't know why he's looking at my dad too.

"Happy painting, and God bless."

A little Bob Ross on this tranquil Sunday, and I don't have to work tomorrow.

Sometimes...

...I just miss being on dance team; no matter how cheesy the music, costumes, etc.

Customer Conversations

There is a family that has been into the dealership several times this past month. Either the mother or father pulls into the service drive behind the wheel of a fairly old, but still luxury, Avalon with their 16 year old son in tow. Now, when a customer returns with frequency it usually means they're upset with us because their is a recurring issue that we haven't handled properly. The issue with this family, however, is not us. The issue is the son, who is learning to drive. He's always slightly embarrassed and stands back as the repair requests are taken care of. I found today's story particularly amusing.

Me: "Good afternoon, how can we help you this time?"
Customer: "Well, today we learned the importance of ground clearance. Jimmy (yes I made this name up) tried to drive over one of those parking place cement things without realizing that an Avalon is too low to the ground to clear one of those."
Me: "Oh...well...I'll get you checked in and we'll see what kind of damage needs to be repaired."

As it turns out, he had continued to drive over the "cement thing" despite the fact that it was making some sort of awful noise; he ended up tearing most of the skid plate from underneath the car. There is rarely a dull day when dealing with customers and their cars.

A Reason to Visit The Bowers

Now, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana is possibly the most over priced museum I've ever visited; $14 for students and $19 for adults, free under age six. The Bowers specializes in Mummies and early California history, which is all fine and dandy, but I've never been excited enough about Mummies to shell out the $14 when other more exciting museums are cheaper. However, in 2008 the Bowers will host an exhibit of a selection of the Life-size terracotta soldiers from the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi (r. 221-210 B.C.), China's first emperor. The terracotta soldiers are the focus of some major controversy, because they are part of a burial site many people think they should stay buried out of respect for tradition. So the fact that the soldiers are traveling at all is quite significant, let alone that they're traveling to Santa Ana where I can visit them. This exhibit will be worth shelling out the money.

Accessories of a Graduate

You can tell I'm a graduate because I now possess a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

A spiffy, congratulatory, balloon.

A flat hat and a red leather binder that will soon hold my diploma.

A new art book.


Two new pairs of earrings.

Cards with my name on them.

And this beautiful alumni license plate frame; a gift from the school that already wants me to donate money. Yay! It's official.

Offensive Coffee

I've come across an interesting church issue, coffee. Is it offensive to enjoy a cup of coffee during the service? Apparently, to some, it is offensive to have a cup of coffee at church. At my church in Orange this morning, I attended the traditional service. I usually attend the contemporary service, but I doubt that the coffee would have been less offensive at that service.
After a long day of graduations and family gatherings yesterday I found myself bleary this morning, but determined to worship at the church I rarely get to attend these days. On my way to the service I stopped at the Chapman Coffee House and purchased a medium cup of coffee, slipped into the back of the sanctuary, and proceeded to participate in the service as I have always done. However, after the service I went to get a drink of water when I overheard an old lady complaining to someone. "That girl with her cup of coffee, I could smell it during the whole service! We should prohibit all food and drink from the sanctuary." Ummmmm...alright. So she overlooked the fact that in a time where most people my age would rather be sleeping in on a Sunday I chose to attend church. If it's the smell that's offensive maybe I could get an iced coffee. I don't know if I'm being selfish here, or simply ignorant of other people's worship practices. What's the stance here? Is it wrong of me to have coffee as I worship?

Graduation Webcast

Thanks to modern technology, if you have a computer with a DSL connection you can watch me graduate via the following website; Saturday May 19th at 8:30 am. I'll be among the sea of black caps and gowns, under either "A" for Art History or "V" for Visel.
http://www.chapman.edu/commencement/webcast.asp

Sold!!!

The estimated $35 million for Warhol's "Green Car Crash" has proven to be far too modest a guess. Tonight at the Christie's "Post War and Contemporary Art" auction the painting sold for $71.7 million. The painting went to a private buyer; no word has been released on whether the public will be able to see the painting before it goes into the collection of the anonymous patron.

Another Anticipated Multi Million Dollar Painting

Andy Warhol's "Green Car Crash" 1963 is set to go to auction on the 16th of this month; the pre-sale estimate is $25-$35 million. What makes "Green Car Crash" so important? Well, it was painted during the time of Warhol's life when he was actually concerned with art and social commentary instead of marketing. "Green Car Crash" is composed of a repeated image of an actual news story. In a fiery car crash a man had been ejected from his vehicle and impaled on a pole. He received no help from witnesses, and if you look closely there is a man strolling behind the reckage with his hands in his pockets. The repetition of this image implies a disregard for human life. It's a theme Warhol explored during his Death and Disaster series, in which he created images of electric chairs, ambulances, and car crashes. What makes this painting stand apart from the rest of the series is that it was done in color while the others were simply black and white. For a collector it would be a prize piece, and for a museum it would be an acquisition worth the splurge. The likely hood that a museum will be able to afford the work is doubtful though, and I look forward to seeing if it becomes a piece in another private collection or if it will become something the public will be able to enjoy.

I've been trying desperately to decide what to wear under my graduation gown on Saturday. Here are my ideas so far.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

The Swallows Inn

Yesterday for Cinco de Mayo my boyfriend Chris had a sound gig at The Swallows Inn bar in San Juan Capistrano, so I tagged along. It was a dive bar, complete with random street signs, photographs, helmets, and underwear hanging from the ceiling, but the band was really good and I got to sit back behind the sound board and watch all the drunk people dance.



After the first couple sets my ears started to hurt and I decided to get some air and explore downtown San Juan Capistrano.




One of the side streets had road repairs that reminded me of abstract expressionist paintings.



Over all it was a good day; I got to explore a cool little town, listen to some good music, watch some crazy dancing, and hang out with Chris.

The Time Has Come...

..to find a grad school and return to my studious ways. Despite the fact that I started out thinking I could wait a year before going into grad school I don't want to postpone. It might not be until the Spring semester of 2008 because I still have to take the GRE, find the perfect school, apply, be accepted, and be given a wonderful financial aid package. I just miss academics, I miss doing tedious research, and I miss the whir of a projector as the images of great works of art flash before my eyes.