The Flow of Art

Art is everywhere, whether it is hiding from you or right in front of your eyes, there it is. You can’t put a single definition for the word because there is no proper way to explain exactly what art is. Every person has different standards to meet when it comes to art. Some people like colors and some people like dull/bleak work. This year as a class, we worked on several different art projects and got to look at some more professional pieces at the gallery. Experiencing this opened my eyes to artist all around me and how to always keep an open mind. Art is being manufactured everyday by you and all your neighbor’s and you probably would not have a single clue. Personally, art is everywhere I look and everything I do. I look for the cinematic points in life from nature to movies to music to a persons style.

As a film major attending California State University, Long Beach, I am constantly trying to make up something original to provide someone entertainment and a positive experience. That is why I pull the art from my life and I transfer it to the screen. Films is the first major art form I ever appreciated or took a special liking to. I was glad to have found films because I have acknowledged so many underrated actors, directors and their works. One day you’re watching Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War and the next day you’re watching Lars von Trier’s Europa. Art house films are a passion of mine and I collect as many of them as I can because that is where all the original ideas and art is, instead of your basic action cookie-cutter movie the studio pushed out to make money. One thing I learned from the artist at the art galleries is that you need to be proud of your work. My future dream is to be a film director and to be invited into Cannes Film Festival, but for now, my brain still turns to produce a critically acclaimed script.

Writing is the second passion in my life, and to be honest, the most frequently used piece of art that I take up. I found my love for writing at an early age in life and should have known how much it meant to me at such an early age. Everything happened, I needed a notebook and a pen so I could write it out. Writing for me is the art form I close when I am trying to let out feelings I have that I don’t know how to get out or who to share it with. When writing, I am given this sort of freedom that I can not find anywhere else and that alone is very comforting for me. I write poems, songs, short stories, screenplays, really anything at all and I have to give my creative writing teacher credit for the major influence he had on me and my writing. He helped me find my voice in my work and helped me discover what it is I am good at writing. Like the many art pieces I observed and studied over the course of this school year, I noticed that all art is not like any other and needs originality. Originality is a huge factor when writing any type of art.

The last art form that I cherish in my life is the one and only, music. I go through phases with my music, but I do not like to think of them as phases at all. Instead, I like to think of it as art that I appreciate at the time and at some point in my life will reconnect with that appreciation. Heavy Metal to Rock to Classic to New Rap to Old Rap. Repeat. Repeat. When thinking about all the artists and their work, I think of a band and their work and how priceless it may be to them and to others it may be an atrocity. Some art is not for everybody and that is okay to remember and always have in the back of your head. Take criticism with a grain of salt and move on to the next critic and at the end of the night is this art work supposed to make them happy or you?

To tell you about my art experience means I have to tell you how the whole day went. It started off perfect with the sun up and an extra hour of sleep. I still felt tired. I wake up and post my movie review about the new “Suspiria” remake, which was great, and started getting ready for my day. I hung out with my friend John first before he had to do his families laundry. We played skate and I won. He left and then my friend Andre came along. While me and him are hanging out I remembered I had to spray paint today. We picked up John and then kept the day moving with some food. I then brought up the spray paint situation again and we go back to my house to look for the spray paint “in the back of the garage. In the drawer.” like my dad said. Im looking and I see a lot of cans that look like spray cans, but aren’t and I start freaking out and then my friends think they hear someone in the garage and start freaking out. It gets to me, so I go with them. After, John say “Hey man, I have spray paint in my car if you need it.” So I rushed on over to car, we grabbed the paint, and then left. I got home and as I was looking at the can it looked familiar like it was in the drawer. I went back to look and there was a black spray the whole time and I was glad. I call my dad and he tells me to “Spray on the wooden table in the back, nothing else” so that is exactly what I did. I decided to spray my name because I didn’t have all that much room and my name would be on the table, so it would be my property. I start with John’s red paint and spray my name, I go slow so it doesn’t look to bad because I am not an artist. I make the lettering a little thick and quickly realize that I regret it. I then grab the black paint and spray inside the red. So it reads my name in black, with a red background to it. That was not enough for me though, so I grab the paint and spray above the wooden surface so there is a drizzle of red paint on the left side of my name. I then grab the black and do the same to the right side. I actually liked the way it came out altogether and I had a blast painting and the mission it took to get the paint. It was a great Sunday.

This is a little project (<— Click) me and my close friends embarked on while spending the whole day in downtown Los Angeles. It is supposed to be a mockumentary/ reality type short film based on a young scientist testing out his second prototype of Artificial Intelligence. It was a blast working with them once again and I hope you have fun on this not so serious top secret short!

For the last few yers I have been fascinated by the creation of making films and ever since I took creative writing my senior year of high school, I have been interested in screenwriting. I am on social media and I have learned a lot from the film community on films and the making of them, but there is still so much to learn and observe. Currently, I am enrolled at California State University, Long Beach looking to major in FEA (Film and Electronic Arts) and minor in creative writing. With these credentials I hope to make my way into the film industry and become a film director and screenwriter. I will try to get my foot in the door by participating as a volunteer for 22 West Media located on campus and hopefully after the first year they can hire me on as a team member and no longer a volunteer.In my second or third year of school I would like to study abroad in Italy to take in the culture, meet and get to know the people and hopefully gain some material to inspire me to write in the future. I want to marry on my last year of school or after I have graduated. By the end of the four years, I hope to have a somewhat reliable job within the arts industry that’ll boost myself into a better career that I can put all my focus and motivation into. To follow this, I plan to start a family with a wife and eventually move into a nice home in a Long Beach neighborhood near campus, as I was raised there and am very fond of the area.

If film and writing were to just disappear without a trace tomorrow then my next plan would be to major in Engineering. I have never thought about going to college for engineering, but if I was more serious about it, I wouldn’t doubt it. The reason I would go to engineering is because it is a greatly paid career and all I worry about is that I am able to support a family one day and raise any future children I have in a good and healthy environment. As I would study at University under engineering major, I would try to get my foot in door by connections I have. Connections are everything in the future and communication is key. I have a family friend that is in construction and another close family friend that has a high position at an engineering company. I also have an ex that her father was an engineer for Edison electric company, but I wouldn’t depend on that. During school, I would study hard and put all my focus into the field, but during the summer I would apply for a job or see if could volunteer anywhere to get more experience in the field to expand my resume. By the end of school I would graduate with a degree in engineering maybe with a girlfriend and I would try to find a reliable full time job that has a good pay. After working for awhile, I plan to marry and give the wedding my future wife wants and after that settle down somewhere with some kids and support them as much as I possibly can.

In a world where I could be whatever I want I would want to go to California State University, Long Beach and I would want to get my M.F.A. in creative writing. A dream of mine would actually be to co-write a television show, comedy preferably, or even a screenplay for any genre. Writing has been a good passage for me thus far, I have several different poems, screenplays, short stories, and a novel in its early stages. Writing is a good way for me to get all the negativity or any problems for that matter that might be consuming my life, it almost acts like a pause button for me. I would go over too 22 West Media, turn in some work I have done and see if I can get it published in the magazine. In the meantime, I would also apply to be a volunteer because a foot in the door and experience is always a great thing to have a surplus of. During the third or fourth year, I would be sending out work to multiple agencies to see if any of them would make an offer and be a manager for any future work I have. When I get a manager, it is essential that they are able to have a great relationship with me, so that it isn’t only business but a friendship. After some work gets published I’ll move to a new place and somewhere down the road full of words and sentences, I hope to meet a wife to share kids and a life with full of fun and memories.

My plaster casting experience was a hit and miss this past Wednesday evening. It all started when I arrived. First of all, where was my head at? I didn’t pay for parking for the first two hours I was there, even though I am fully aware and have experienced a ticket before hand from this. Maybe I was too excited to start? Luckily I wasn’t ticketed and I was able to pay for parking. Secondly, I had no idea what I was doing. I go up to a group of three or four nice girls and ask them “What is happening right now?”. They seemed as if they didn’t really knew either, but they were making designs in the sand of anything they wanted, so I thanked them for their time and quietly sat by myself for a few moments thinking in my head I’m going to do what the are doing. Monkey see, monkey do. So I grab my friend I dragged along with me who wasn’t in the class and I say  “Help me build a base for my casting.” and the confusion on his face was priceless. As I sat there digging up the base, I suddenly realized I had no idea what I was going to make a casting of. Now, the smart thing would have been to do my hand, but I’m either difficult or don’t think these situations through because that was the last choice in my head. I ask my friend, Anthony, “What should I do?”. Hey replies “Oh man, you gotta do the ‘Sublime’ symbol.” Okay Anthony let me just sit here and detail the sublime symbol for the next three hours. Now that I am thinking about it and writing about it, I don’t think either one of us were thinking clearly that day. Eventually, I decide that I am going to do a popsicle with a bite take out of it. I start digging, and I start digging deep. Now in my head I though this box of plaster had a surplus of plaster for my use and that I will have plenty enough and maybe even some left over. I should have know this was not true when Glenn comes over and says “Woah, are you making a soccer stadium.” I laughed it off, but I think that was a very generous way of telling me, “Hey man, relax on the digging.” So I finish digging my popsicle after about 20 minutes and now I need to use a bucket. I look around and see several abandoned ones and I grab the closest one to me. Right before I pore the plaster ingredients in, I see two woman I have seen I class before go to the spot where I took the bucket. Feeling bad immediately, I go over and say “Hey, I totally took your bucket, I’m sorry.” they say it is okay and they were completely understanding and let me use their bucket. So I mix the water and plaster together pore it in and there isn’t enough plaster. Nico you foolish man. As I scrape and pluck at the liquidated plaster, I got sprayed several times with plaster that eventually stuck to my skin. I was uncomfortable, but when there wasn’t enough plaster to complete my tragedy, so Glenn recommended I scoop the remainder of the plaster out with my hands. I did exactly that. My hand felt three pounds heavier and the plaster dried on my fingers. I was so terrified that it wasn’t going to come off that I took off my shirt, awkwardly emptied my pockets with my one good hand and jumped in the water. It felt amazing. This past summer I gained quite a connection with the ocean, in the sense that I would swim everyday and feel like a new person. With everything I was going through and still am, it was a refreshing wake up call that I have missed since school has started. After we swan for about 20 minutes me and Anthony and my other friend Gian decided we wanted food. If you are at seal beach and don’t visit “A Slice of New York” for an amazing meal, you are more foolish than me! We pack up the car and I go check on my plaster casting. It looked about ready so I carefully pull it up and the stick snapped off the popsicle and sadness came over me. Gian said it would’ve looked pretty cool if it wasn’t  broken, maybe it could be like a mouse or a turtle or an old phone. Thanks Gian and quite possibly yes. I put it in the trunk and we go enjoy the rest of our night with some New York pizza and California skies.