Artist: Kiyomi Fukui
Exhibition: The Green Thumb Project
Media: Planting, Paper Mache
Website: http://www.kiyomifukui.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiyomimiz/?hl=en

Kiyomi Fukui is a Japanese-American artist who resides in Long Beach, CA. Fukui received an MFA in Printmaking from California State University Long Beach and a BFA in Graphic Design from La Sierra University. Fukui’s favorite Japanese food is hot pot. While in this quarantine she has enjoyed painting her nails. Kiyomi practices in performance and fiber arts, such as tatting and crocheting. Kiyomi is married to her husband who is also an artist.

Fukui’s art project is called The Green Thumb Project and is a combination of plants and paper mache moldings. The molding consists of scrap paper casted into a thumb mold. All of her work is biodegradable. The plants came in a variety of different sizes and shapes. There was some that were small and smooth and others that were tall and pointy. They were put into different pots. As the plant grew the paper mache thumb began to decompose. It looked as if it was a zombie finger. She planted seeds into these casts until they sprouted out of the cast and then transferred into a larger pot to add into a large garden. She presents the plants in six raised-bed planters, two tables that display plants in various stages of growth, accompanied by a faint audio recording of her voice describing the growth of the sprouts, one table that functioned as a paper-casting station, and a collaged printed work.

Fukui’s Green Thumb project started in November 2014 right before her mother passed away. Fukui took a a mold of her mothers thumb. Although she could not speak she could tell that her mother was entertained by her pressing of some gooey silicone material against her thumb. After her mother passed away she kept the mold of her thumb and took time to process her emotions. The thumb has a strong resonance to her that is lodged in her consciousness. Fukui gave the molding of her mothers thumb a meaning by created this project to create a memento of her loss. Since the thumbs are paper mache they decompose and eventually look brown and rotten. Fukui said that she enjoyed the comedic relief of the finger looking like a zombie since it was such a heavy topic. In the process of caring for the thumbs, the efforts and numerous failures took on another layer of meaning. For Fukui is was healing from her mothers loss and coping with it by combining everyday activities such as gardening.

Fukui did an amazing job conveying her message, and had beautiful way of explaining her artwork. The connection she made about the plants to her life were very creative and interesting. Her art work and story help my remember how precious life is and not to take anything for granted. It was fascinating getting to hear about her story and her perspective on how she healed and coped with her mothers lose. It is inspiring to know that she is following her dreams despite all the trials and tribulations she has had in life.

For this weeks art experience I was tasked to do some graffiti art work. Unfortunately due to the the Corona Virus Pandemic that is going on right now I was not able to go out and do some real graffiti with spray paint. Instead of going out and to spray paint a wall I opted to draw out my name on some paper using a pencil and colored pencils. Before I wrote out my name I looked at some graffiti letter on instagram for some inspiration. I wanted to create a simple look. I started out my writing out the bubble letters with a pencil. I was able to erase some imperfections and while I did that I realized that if I were to spray paint a wall I would not be able to erase my mistakes. I then colored the letters in with a light pink colored pencil and created a thick outline with a darker shade of pink. I wanted to add more depth to it so I outlined the letter in black. Most of the pictures I saw on instagram had a paint drips coming down from the work and I wanted to create that effect on my drawing by using the black colored pencil to do that. I enjoyed my experience writing my name in graffiti letter, however, I would have felt more liberated if I was able to go out and do some real graffiti with spray paint.

I had hard time thinking of what I wanted to create for this weeks art activity. Since I am stuck in quarantine I was very limited to organic material I could find around my house. I decided my best bet was to find material in my backyard. I instantly realized what I wanted to do once I went there. My family and I haven’t been going in my backyard so there is dead leaves all over the ground. My idea for my project was to create something using the dead leaves, rocks, and living leaves in my backyard and do a bit of cleaning at the same time. I decided to create a heart out of the rocks and fill it in with dead leaves that have fallen off my plants and pull some living leaves off of them as-well. I then took a bunch of the small dead leaves that were all over the ground and created a border around the rocks. I wanted to play with the theme of life and death. My creation was inspired by a quote by Haruki Murakami that said said “death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it”. The heart is symbolic of life itself and inside of it are both dead and living leaves. Nobody can escape death so people should not live their lives in fear of it. The border of the dead leaves around the heart represents that there is no escape of death. I think my creation does a great job of expressing my idea.

I think a kiss should last however long the people that are kissing want it to last. A great meal should last a life time. The taste of the food does not always make the meal great, it can be the company, view, or mindset that one has while having that meal. They can make the great meal into a memory and make it last a life time. A work of art should last forever. That does not meal that the art will stay prevalent forever but it doesn’t mean the art should be taken down or apart. A marriage should last a life time if you are with the right person but if things are not going the way you want them to or you do not love your significant other then that marriage should not last. Human life should last however long it can last. There is not a set age that a human’s life is meant to last, however that does not mean it would be unfortunate for a young child to loose their life before they get the chance to explore the world and learn about theme-selves.

Knowing that things like ephemeral artworks and human lives having a finite time make a difference in the way we experience them. Since we do not know when our lives will be over we tend to try to take advantage of time we have by doing what we love and surrounding ourselves with those that make us happy. Things, like clean water, air, and land should be sustainable and long lasting. One person can make a difference in a global problem like Climate Change. All changes begin with one person making changes in their lives and inspiring others to do the same.

This is my igloo on the virtual world of Club Penguin Online. In order to obtain or buy any items on club penguin you must get coins first. You can get coins from playing games and from help from your puffles (pets on CP). There is a variety of igloos to choose from and they each have a different price range. For my igloo I went with a studio and theater theme. Club Penguin Online is fan remake of Disney’s Club Penguin that was around back in 2005-2017. It strives to make the game as similar as possible to the original game. I was very excited when I found out that someone had recreated it as it brought back many memories from my childhood. I used to play this game all the time with my friends and cousins before we had cellphones as it was a way to chat and play games together without physically being with each other.

This is the igloo of one of my fellow classmates, Sofia. Here you can see the professor and other students have a good time in her igloo. I liked the lay out of her igloo and how colorful she had made it. It was an interesting experience taking a virtual tour of a classmates igloo as our class time and straying away from the normal lectures.

This is my igloo in the virtual world of Club Penguin Re-Written. I went for a normal home look with my igloo as I have a home gym, living and dinning room, office, and entry way. Club Penguin Re-Written is another spin off of the original Club Penguin that was created before Club Penguin Online. I have had this account much longer than my CP online account since that is fairly new. The main difference between the two remakes is that CP online has a lot more features that were on the original club penguin and have many more option for players.

My goals for this video was to simply have fun and not worry about being a perfectionist. I wanted to talk about some things I have been doing during the quarantine. I talk about trying new things. I even show a video I have been working on since I learned how to use imovie. This quarentine has given me some time to take advantage of this free time and try new things. Although, there is many times where I am sitting and spending hours scrolling through social media and youtube. I think it okay to do this since we are human and we don’t constantly need to be doing something productive. It is sometimes fun to just lounge and kill some time on the internet. With that being said, I do believe I accomplished my goal with this vlog. I was able to have a casual conversation with the camera and show some examples of what I have created with my free time. If I were to do this again I would want to incorporate more music and visual examples of the things I created. I probably will not create another vlog for the entire internet to see. If I did create one it would be for my friends and family.

My favorite You-tuber is YesTheory. Their ability to use their platform to inspire and encourage others astonishes me. They are truly great people. They have created a community for their viewers to fall on each other for anything they need. Their moto is to seek discomfort and they convey their messages in their videos incredibly well. I enjoy that they jump back and forth from a narrative over videos to regular video clips in their videos. If there is one thing I can take away from their videos it would be to go outside my comfort zone and not worry about what others think of me.

Authenticity is that act of being genuine and true to who you are in whatever you do. YesTheory imbibes authenticity. Performance is the process of carrying out an action that can be based off something real or false. Authenticity and performance can exist together. There are performances that can be real and authentic, however there can also be performances that are well done but not authentic as they aren’t genuine. The viewer the one who can decide what it is. I think both of the clips of Jennifer Aniston were authentic however, the clip at the studio was more of a performance than a sit down genuine interview. When there is a bunch of cameras, a live studio audience, and she is able to know her questions before the interview it becomes more of a scripted performance than an interview. She may be saying what she feels but it is not a casual conversation.

Artist: Mahsa Soroudi
Exhibition: Natures Candence
Media: Planting, Photography
Website: https://www.mahsasoroudi.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mahsasoroudi/

Mahsa Soroudi is an artist. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Visual Communication from Azad Art and Architecture University in Tehran since 2006. She was born and raised in Iran. She states she was in a moderate Muslim family. Mahsa and her family went on many vacations to near by asian countries. Her father was a painter, so she always had a connection with art from a young age. After she got married to her husband in Iran, Soroudi and her husband both left the country and moved to Malaysia for about a year. She learned english while she was living in Malaysia and about a year later moved to America.

Soroudi’s art project is a combination of different types of succulents. The succulents came in a variety of different sizes and shapes. There was some that were small and smooth and others that were tall and pointy. They were put into different pots. Some pots were clear so you can see the roots growing throughout the soil and others where solid colors. The top of the soil in some pots was covered with a vibrant green weed like grass. The succulents were this pastel green and some of them had vibrants pink flowers sprouting through them. Some of her pants stood up tall and others dropped down from the pots.

Soroudi’s art project portray the resettlement of her life coming from Iran to America. She does this through identifying with the replantation of ornamental plants and their adaptation to a new environment. She does this by cutting parts of her plans and growing entirely new plants from each little piece. She is trying to show that just as plants take a long time to adapt to their new environment and grow to be brig and strong she similarly goes through the same changes in life. She talks about how she forgets to water her plant and it fights and is resilient to survive and overcome its trials. Soroudi similarly goes through hard times and overcame her obstacles in life.

Soroudi did an amazing job conveying her message, and had beautiful way of explaining her artwork. The connection she made about the plants to her life were very creative and interesting. It was fascinating getting to hear about her life and her perspective on growing up in Iran compared to other people I know. It is inspiring to know that she is following her dreams despite all the trials and tribulations she has had in life.

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to create my cognitive map of the CSULB campus. I ended up opting with simple shapes that are representative of the buildings themselves. I began drawing out the buildings and structures of lower campus that I was familiar with. I am familiar with lower campus since I would have to run laps around lower campus for my kinesiology class. I realized how more I love lower campus and it is reflective on my cognitive map drawing since I took most of the page to draw it out and had to cram the upper campus buildings in a corner. Since I am a kinesiology major I spend a lot more time on lower campus. The environment on lower campus is much more relaxed, chill, and happier. My drawing is defiantly not spaced out correctly and does not reflect sizing of campus. I enjoyed doing this activity because it gave me something to do while in quarantine for this global pandemic.

For the human spirograph activity I did not have anyone to the activity with but I still completed the same steps. Unfortunately my family still has to work through this pandemic so I opted to this by myself. I closed my eyes and let my hands do what ever they wanted. I used a pencil since I do not have oil paints. After I finished my spirograph I turned the paper and noticed it had a cool rhythm to it. I used my color pencils to trace the lines with different colors. I though it looked like a sunset over a sun so I used colors that reflected that. I had fun doing this while watching some Netflix and drinking some Coca-Cola.

Verse: Closing my eyes, dancing with nobody  
I remember days feeling like I lost time
Thinking that that I lost my life
Foolish of me, not knowing my worth
Cause the the only one I gotta love is me
Chorus: closing my eyes, dancing with nobody
sun in the sky, feeling like a hottie
not really caring who sees
clouds vibbing by, minding everybody
days passing by never feeling groggy
Verse: Closing my eyes, dancing with nobody
I'm just doing me, Never been so happy
cozy as can be, living every moment
Don't need nobody
to make feel this happy, so I'm just ...
Chorus: closing my eyes, dancing with nobody
sun in the sky, feeling like a hottie
not really caring who sees
clouds vibbing by, minding everybody
days passing by never feeling groggy

What were you trying to think about in your song? 
For this song I wrote I was trying to think about a time where I relied on other people to make me happy. I wanted to portray when I realized that I should be focusing on myself to make myself happy because that is the only way I will experience true happiness. 

What was the process for writing you song and was easy, hard, what you expected, or surprising?
This weeks art activity was defiantly the most difficult one I have done so far. I had a very hard time writing this song because I did not even know where to start. I decided I would listen to some music for inspiration and to get an idea on how the artists are structuring their songs.

How successful do you think your song is? 
I don't think my song is incredibly successful. I am not a song writer by any means, so I didn't expect this activity to go well. I hope that the lyrics convey the message I was trying to put out since they were a little choppy. 

Do you think you will ever write another song?
I do not plan on ever writing another song. I plan on leaving the song writing to the professionals. I did not enjoy writing a song but I am I glad I experienced it. 

Artist: Sienna Browne
Exhibition: Product of the Palette
Media: Painting, Drawing
Website: https://www.siennabrowneart.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siennabrowneart/?hl=en

Sienna Browne is an undergraduate student at the California State University of Long Beach. She is in her fourth year and her last semester at Long Beach. She is working toward finishing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the School of Art’s Drawing and Painting program. Browne is currently a Huntington Beach lifeguard and an instructional student assistant for the art department at Long Beach State. Browne struggled with an eating disorder that subconsciously influenced all of her art work during that time. She states that she didn’t realize that the pieces she created held a much deeper meaning behind them until she was in college.

Browne had presented multiple pieces of her art world that she created over her life time. Most of her pieces were very bright and colorful. However, there was some of her pieces that were just black and white. Many of her pieces were abstract and included depth, rhythm, and texture. She even has a collection with food on top of people’s heads.

Browne spent her first three years of college focused on processing themes that concerned her struggles with her eating disorder and body issues. She initially did not realize why she was creating art that was centered around food. She told her professor that she thought the puns from her paintings were clever. Her professor told her that was not a meaningful explanation behind her paintings. She later realized that it was her subconscious feeling about her eating disorder she was expressing.

Browne did an amazing job conveying her message, and had beautiful artwork. It really helped having her in class to explain her story and meanings behind her work. Her artwork was was so well done that there was some pieces I couldn’t tell if it was a painting or a drawing. I could relate to her in the way that she didn’t realize she was expressing her subconscious feelings until she was older.

This week I went down to Los Angeles with my cousin to get a break from studying for midterms. We stopped by the Disney Concert Hall for the first time. I was surprised at the size of the building itself. I reminded me of the “Now” sculpture on the CSULB campus. My initial though was that it did not look like a building. It looked more like an art sculpture. The light was reflecting off the different pieces of metal that made up the building creating an effect of different shades on each side. It made me wonder how it was possible to create each piece and make them bend the way they did.

Right before we went to Grand Central Market we went to check out the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which were extremely close to each other. It was really cool to see all the light up signs they had up to advertise all the little shops. It reminded me of the Anaheim Packing District, which is a similar building with a bunch of small restaurants inside. I had a tasty lunch at the Olio Wood Fired Pizzeria. I would defiantly come back to the Grand Central Market to try all the other restaurants inside.