Unless someone kills the Mighty Conando.
I've really been eager to see his show again. It's been a couple of years, and maybe I can actually get decent guests this time!
Woo.
Art Game. Art Game. Well, it's being maintained. A lot more than say, last semester or the one before. I don't know if many people know about Ben Jones retiring next semester. Is he really going to do it? I think I've heard something somewhere that he always says he's going to retire, but it might be it this time. G'nna have to take Drawing Comp II in the fall. Sigh. I miss him anyway. He's been gone for almost two years, right? A retrospective doesn't mean that you have much farther to go, either.
Did I word that right?
I'm going to start an iPod fund.
I just emptied out my Super Smash Bros. Brawl savings today. Next Sunday, I will be an official Brawler. (That sounds so odd.) I've been saving up since January, I guess. If you want to smirk and sneer, I'll tell you that my method's better than dumping a quarter or a fifteenth of two week's pay in a day (depending on how many days I'm wage-slaving).
I was sitting on Wolverine this whole time.
My brother's eighth birthday was yesterday. He got many a gift. Including a complete X-Men set, a 12' General Grievious, and a Marvel Legends Dr. Strange action figure from Rai. Stephanie gave him a set of super-heroes and such and a sword and shield set. Very durable and smart.
I think I'd also like to point out that my eight-year-old brother could have been a leap-year child. Which would have been fun, I guess, aside from the every four year "real" birthday.
I don't know if I would have let it happen or held the child in another day.
Thank the skies I'll never know what that feels like. ba-dum-bum.
Anyway.
Last week, I accidentally read about Daniel Joseph Martinez. I found him to be a genuinely interesting artist. Really taking risks, and attempting to put a spin on what the people think.
The one piece he made that I thought was really amazing and riveting was one he did on the campus of Cornell University called The Castle is Burning. The artwork took the form of an eight-foot-tall, tar covered passageway between administration buildings and classrooms. The roof of the structure would be covered by saying like: "In the rich man's house, the only place to spit is on his face." This, in turn, sparked, not only responses, but racist epithets like "White Pride" and swastikas. The amazing part about Martinez's piece is the result of minority students marching and demonstrating in front of the administration buildings and holding sit-ins until negotiations were formed.
A Cornell Review opinion piece said this: "Mr. Martinez: we have a special message for you. You snot-brained fiend, you flighty, warbling, gallivanting, strutting, little twit. You whining, moaning, kvetching, sniggering, paste-and-construction-paper excuse for an artist. You puerile non-entity, you prattling babe in the woods, you slobbering lapdog of the putrid international art establishment. You've ruined our campus."
It may seem like something bad to the most of us, but that's just what Martinez wanted. To rigorously and violently wake up the people of Cornell University and the rest of the world to the evil uglies beneath our everyday events. This is essentially why I find his installations so amusing and interesting.
First of all, Martinez acts as his work is part of guerilla warfare, tricking or searching for loopholes in agreements for his installations to be present in an area. The smartest thing I've heard of really. Especially if you know that your work is likely to offend most or all of the people who view it. There's the select few who will be inspired greatly by it, and that's where you win. However, for Martinez, his pride takes place when the masses are enraged by his work.
Maybe they're angry because it's true.
The only part about Martinez that's kind of vague is whether or not he is doing this for the shock value, which can only go so far. I believe that he is sincerely doing work like "The Castle is Burning" to MAKE people THINK. His topics are important, and not cheap like Jesus slaying vampires. (Which is not a bad idea, totally.)
Seacrest out.
