Art Adventures

Today was a fun day of various art adventures with my good friend, Heather.  She introduced me to a few places in Long Beach that I wasn't aware of.  We began at Art Exchange, a community arts center, where we make snowflakes for the surviving students of Sandy Hook.  It was amazing to see people walk in off the street and begin making art together.  There was definitely a feeling of a community in that room.

Inspired by our first activity, here are Dune (on the right) and Sparks (on the left) making paper snowflakes.

We made our way to a cool music store, Fingerprints, and had brunch and browsed the shop.  Then, she introduced me to The Long Beach Depot for Creative Re-Use.  This is a store with odds and ends that normally people would throw out, but artists may want to use in recycled art work.  It was a bit overwhelming to walk through.

We ended our Art Adventure with a trip to the Museum of Latin American Art.  I love this museum.  It is small, but it definitely puts on a big show.  If you haven't been to there, you should check out their current exhibits.  I love their permanent collection exhibit.  It always changes.  They find fun and innovative ways to display work in the permanent collection.  Last time I was there, they told a tall tale with the paintings and sculptures.  This time, they have connected work to cards in the game of the lotteria.

It was a fun and exhausting day!  I can't wait for our next Art Adventure.

Influences-Fernando Botero

 About 10 years ago, I was walking out of a store and saw that they were selling reproductions of famous paintings.  They were the usual Monet's, Picasso's, still life of flowers, and landscapes.  But then I saw this painting of a couple dancing.  I had never seen this painting before.  I immediately fell in love with it.  I can't say for sure why.  I loved how round their bodies were.  I loved how they didn't portray the perfect people.

I remember asking who the artist was and the title of the painting.  Afterwards, when I would look for the painting I would only find the dancing couple with the woman wearing the red dress.  I liked it, but it wasn't quite the same as the first painting.

The more I looked at his work and learned about him, the more I fell in love with his work.  I seem to have a fascination with artists who create reproductions of famous works, but add their own personal twist to it.  Here are some of Botero's:

I saw some of his artwork at MOLAA (Museum of Latin American Art), but only a few pieces.  When I attended a lecture there, the gift shop was having a sale on their street banners.  As a surprise, my ex had bought me the Botero banner of the couple dancing (woman wearing the red dress).  It now hangs in the corner of my classroom, which stirs up many student questions about why the artist paints "fat" people. I love having the discussion with my students about what was considered beautiful during the renaissance times v. current day, and how there is a beauty in Botero's figures. Sometimes, just sometimes, it gets my students to think about what society considers beautiful and what should be valued as beautiful, but is overlooked.

In 2009, the Bowers Museum had an exhibit on Botero.  It was the largest body of his work that I have ever seen all at once.  I learned a lot of his art had political messages to them.  This delighted me.  As an illustrator, I love artwork that has a message or tells a story.  It appeals to my imagination.  It appeals to the storyteller inside me.

I think his work appeals to me because it reminds me of images from my childhood.  The roundness of the faces remind me of Cabbage Patch Kids or Garbage Pail Kids, both of which were favorites of mine.