Aaron Dela Rosa

Name: Chelsea Blecha

Exhibition: Mixed Aesthetic

Media: Drawing

Gallery: Gastov East Gallery

Website: chelseablecha.com

Chelsea Blecha showcases her drawing skills at California State University, Long Beach. As she is about to finish her time at CSULB, she loved & enjoyed her time as she became close to many people for the past 6 years. Upon graduation, she aspires to work at PIXAR yet going for a company illustration in order to achieve that goal. Her biggest inspiration was her mother considering how she was an artist. Her work is based on people and personality around her environment such as the iconic film, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. Her desire to pursue art began as a toddler when she first drew simple sketches; yet did not find the drive until high school. She uses art as a means to escape reality. Aside from being an art student, Blecha enjoys any things in life such as traveling, and skateboarding.

Blecha style of drawing showcases her ability & skills throughout the exhibition. Many of her pieces comprises of hybrids and quick sketches. She states how the length of her works range from minutes to days. For example, while her small sketches were fast-paced, other works took longer. In this case, her flower skateboard took her a considerable amount of time as it shows fine detail. She likes to base her works on the city of San Fransisco, which makes identifying a pattern noticeable.

Name: Cassandra Topete

Website: https://cassandratopete16.wordpress.com/

Cassandra is currently a student at California State University, Long Beach and currently majoring in Psychology. As I was talking to her, I found it intriguing that we are both PSY majors and that we’re taking PSY 220 the following semester. She originates from Central Valley which is located near Central California. She enjoys the beach, partying, Netflix, hanging out with friends, pizza. As far as next year, she intends to dorm again next year as she is under the Honors Program.

This week the class explored one of the main fundamentals of art: drawing. Basically, instead of having the conventional routine of going to the galleries, we went to the Japanese Garden at California State University, Long Beach to sketch various scenery. We drew a total of six picture: three of them representational while the other half was abstract. The whole class drew under the sun while we walked around the garden to explore the many things we can draw.

In my experience, this was a fun & interesting assignment. Drawing is one of my favorite hobbies; so being able to exercise that for a class was definitely worthwhile. Drawing both representational and abstract had its pros and cons. For representational, although sketching it proved to be difficult, grabbing the idea of what to draw was a breeze. As for my abstracts, sketching it was easier yet getting an idea what to draw was the hard part. This assignment  not only honed my drawing skills, but also allowed me to explore my imagination in terms of drawing (especially when trying to create abstract sketches). Out of all the places throughout campus, the Japanese Garden was a good scenic environment to draw.

Name: Shannon McGuinnes

Website: https://art110shanmc.wordpress.com/

Shannon is currently a student at California State University, Long Beach as she is majoring in Business Management. Although she is an only child, she still has a close-knit family considering how her cousins are almost like her siblings. She shows talent through her soccer skills for 9 years and passion through her job at High Tech Archery as an instructor. Aside from being a college student, McGuiness enjoys a whole array of activities such as reading, writing, playing video games, watching Netflix, hanging out with friends and family, and singing.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Distance.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Hiding Spot

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Say something nice.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Free yogurt.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – DEAD END.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Proof.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Starting Point

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – In progress.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

This week the class explored a trend that has been motivating people to be adventurous: geocaching. The assignment was to located a cache and then hide one as well. To be quite honest, this experience has got to be terrible. No blame to the practice, but when I tried to find a geocache, none of the items were there. At first, I was excited to find “treasure”. Yet in reality, a walk cross campus proved to be useless considering the fact we found nothing. As my friends and I looked for hours, we could not find any trinket despite the fact the app explicitly told us it was there. I’m sure in the future we will be better, but we were not able to find a single one for this assignment.

On the other hand, hiding an item was quite enjoyable. Instead of being the typical person who hides a tin with trinkets, I decided to place food and Yogurtland Coupons in the bottle for people to find. The coordinates are latitude 33.775138,  and longitude -118.114928. Deciding how the trinket would appear and what to put inside was the fun part. Knowing that people or even student might potentially find my item allows the trend to live on.

Name: Meng Chu

Website: https://mengchublog.wordpress.com/

Chu is currently a Computer Science Major at California State University, Long Beach. Originally from Taiwan, he moved to Northern California in Fremont then recently moved to Long Beach for school. Although he finds school difficult, he has many activities ranging from basketball, fishing, and computer games such as League of Legends. Upon graduation, he plans to move back to Taiwan to build his cultural roots and either find an occupation in his originally country or here.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Me playing the uke.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Paddle.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – They sell Valentine’s candy in April.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Me trying on (and buying) this sweater.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

Because experiences & memories aren’t forever, one key way to document ephemeral experiences is through camera. Taking pictures allows us to physically look back the the things/stuff we saw from the past. While our actual experiences aren’t forever, the moments we capture are. That being said, the way pictures are taken makes a huge difference. For example, the assignment we did in class had us playing around with the various items across the bookstore. Without interacting with these objects, the pictures cannot capture the “enjoyment” many of the students had while doing the activity. Documenting scenery  versus students’ interactions in the store makes a huge difference. Other than capturing moments through photography, another way to share the experience (especially when others aren’t there to directly share the moment) is via blogging. The words we type place a vivid imagination; and describing experiences can help others imagine the experience. However, while trying to document an event (either through photography or blogging), the action to documenting can actually distance oneself from the actual experience. One cannot be emerged into the live experience if the person is not “fully” there. That being said, experience the moments through a camera or keyboard distance oneself from the actual event.

This week the class turned to “Turning Pages” in which we traveled to both the school library and bookstore. Between both, there were huge differences in terms of the experience. For starters, going to the library felt more “real” than the bookstore. Since we were told not to document anything, the experience itself felt genuine and realistic. We were actually able to grasp children’s books without having to worry about documenting the event. As for the bookstore, the fact that we had to take pictures made the experience “staged”. Although it was more entertaining, the fact that we had to take pictures made the experience a little tedious and fake unlike the first setting.

My overall experience of this activity allowed me to rethink how advancement in technology allowed us to shove textbooks into the shadows of both places. The irony is that although both settings’ main priority are books, the fact that the majority of us thinks of computers and college sweaters when we hear of the term “library” and “bookstore” is quite alarming. Despite that, reading children’s book allowed me to wind down from the college life and taking pictures was quite amusing and really set up an entertaining day. The experience itself allowed me to have a new insight on books. The value of a book is important, and the fact that we allowed to push it into the shadows is sad in some ways. Not being able to use my camera on the first portion of the assignment allowed to realize the many sources & values books has to offer.

Instagram: wambie_

Instagram: beachybananaz

Instagram: laayyknee

Instagram: domsartig

Instagram: liokaibikinis

Instagram: _itsalex96

Instagram: justinnmarquez

Instagram: aronism

Instagram: anthonyestalilla

This week the class explored a fork of social media many of us use in today’s technological world: Instagram. What is it is basically an outlet for people to post their images/videos as a way to share their life to the world. Unlike Snapchat, Instagram posts stays intact. For the class, we had to post various Instagram posts in a single day with the hashtag, #art110s16. To be honest, posting more than 1 post in a single day seemed daunting to me primarily because of the fear of losing followers. However, I gradually got over it as the day progressed and repeatedly posting on my primary account.

The experience itself was fun for the most part. I hadn’t posted in a few weeks, so having that feeling of receiving likes (4 times?!) was quite enjoyable. After the “day of posting”, looking at the giant collage of classmates’ posts was quite something. The pictures had a monumental range from food, to work, to school, to art, and even to Disneyland. Looking over these posts made me feel like I was part of the shared experience. While some posts were aesthetically pleasing, others are quite entertaining and also gave me cravings. For the most part, I do see a distinct connection between my posts and my peers’ considering how most of us posted something relating to school. Because we have that in common, a sense of community can be drawn. A community of college students struggling to survive while also having the best times of their lives is a recurring theme while looking over the images. While Instagram does show a sense of disconnection between us and the real world, it also provides an outlet for people to share their experience in any given time of day.