Nick Blinko and Outsider art

I decided to take a break from fixing my paintings for the final critique on Friday (the fumes giving me a headache), so I decided to post about "outsider art".

Outsider art is usually made by people who have not had any formal training in art and are usually hospitalized due to psychiatric problems. Much of the artwork usually is incredibly detailed and fantastical. It's a really hard topic to describe since many of these people were cutoff from the rest of the world, so their influences and styles were out of the ordinary.

Nick Blinko, the lead singer for the anarcho-punk band Rudimentary Peni, is also and outsider artist. In the past, he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and creates his artwork while not on medication. All of the band's albums contain his artwork as well. The music is also definitely as weird as his art...

If you just google Nick Blinko, you can find much more of his art. It's really...crazy...no pun intended...

I'll be posting some more during the weekend. This week just has been hard for everyone. Everyone is cranky, upset, or sick about something. So, now I have to finish this painting...then stay up to write my paper. Yay...

Eh

from Njordfoto

Just spent over an hour talking to my uncle on AIM. It's really funny how whenever I get confused about life, or if I'm having trouble with something, he just randomly comes on and asks what's new. He was up late tonight because he works for this email company which deals with other big companies emails (like AOL) so he gets over a thousand emails a day about random crap which he doesn't care about, and so he was getting an email from a company at 12:30 tonight. He hates his job, but loves everything else in his life, and he still wishes that he could have taken a different route instead. Him and his wife don't have any children, so he tries to offer his nephews and nieces some advice once in awhile. My one female cousin, Sarah, who just turned 18, also just got married and has been pregnant twice. Her brother was always pushed to be good in school, and is now already a second year Pre-Med student. Our other cousin is too little to figure out what he wants to do, but in ten years he'll already have to decide. I already chose the more academic approach to schooling, and am now obviously in art school, but I'm stuck in a situation that I don't want to be in. I'm not going to say I hate my life, but I'm not happy at all. This is not where I want to be, but I feel stuck. I told my uncle this, and he then thought that I was crazy since I'm only going to be 21 in about 17 days or so. He is going to be 46 and his birthday is three days after mine, but he wished that he stayed on the artistic route he was on years ago (he used to be a musician, even came to NYC for that and had a whopping one room apartment a few blocks from Central Park, but settled down and became a corporate man and is now working on Park Avenue). He just told me to not give up, think of all of the options I may have, and just do it. It's just really hard when you want to do so many things and there are so many other things (and people) who are holding you back.

First, I need to move out of this apartment, but I have no place to go and no money. Fun fun fun....

Today at the park...

Our class went to Central Park today, even though some people were apparently unenthusiastic about it. I really couldn't wait to go since until I moved to New Jersey, I used to go to parks all the time by myself. As Bo Ae put it, "Bayside is just full of parks!" Anyhow, we weren't allowed to sit next to anyone today, which I completely forgot at first. Once we left to go find our own spots, I first followed Michael, and then I saw Ali lagging behind all by herself. Michael had to go to the bathroom, and he didn't want us to wait for him, so Ali and I walked to try to find something interesting. We walked past the baseball field, then past all the screaming kids on the carousel, and then saw a statue of Shakespeare (I think this area is called "Literary Way"). We soon stopped in front of a weird tree that had all of these knots and bumps on it. We sat down where it was quiet, and she drew another tree. After a few minutes, I got bored, and I thought I saw a few people walking by themselves (we saw Christina earlier, and I could have sworn I saw Henry walking by the other side, but who knows), so eventually I told her that I was going to see her later so I could try to get lost...

(Trees, left big tree was the weird one)

So, according to the map that I'm now looking at, I wound up somewhere past The Lake and into "The Ramble" area. No wonder Danielle couldn't find me! I've been to that area before, and usually there aren't many people in that area. Most of the people that were in that area were either bird watchers, lonely people, hikers, and some bicyclists. Some of the paths are just dirt and not cement, which added to the whole atmosphere of being (somewhat) alone in the woods, even though we were still in the middle of a big city. After doing some gesture sketches of squirrels (which didn't photograph well), I then moved closer to the lake area since I felt a little too alone (wearing a short skirt when there are only men around would kinda make a person uneasy, right?). So then, I sat on this rock that had a bunch of other larger rocks around it (which seems to be a big thing in Central Park), and so I started to sketch that area since it seemed interesting. (I don't get what goes through my head either sometimes...)

There were a few other people that walked by, but most either seemed like they were set on a destination or were walking with other people, so most of them weren't taking in the whole environment. When you are with someone else, you usually wouldn't notice the different sounds of the birds, or the brown-nosed squirrel that wants someone's attention, or that creepy guy that just walked by ten minutes ago and is back again only to sit on the rock next to yours and wants to stare at you for about 20 minutes without you noticing even though you were just talking to a random Mourning Dove? Yeah...So, while I was drawing, I noticed this one old lady that looked pretty sad, and she was just standing by a tree feeding the birds. I wouldn't have noticed her if I was there talking to a friend or just walking by, and I also wouldn't have noticed that when she was done with the bird food, she stood by another tree to get a smaller bird to climb onto her hand. A few minutes before she came, I was trying to do the same thing with a squirrel since it wanted a piece of my sandwich, but it evidently didn't like the bread that I had and preceded to get some more food out of me. The pigeons instead ate the bread, and they were really fat ones, too. I, however, didn't feel so alone when I saw the older lady, and it was possibly the only thing that could make her have some happiness and escape from the rest of the world. A few more minutes passed by, and I tried to do some sketches of the birds that were flying around. Pigeons are easy to sketch since they just walk around humans all the time and are generally lazy compared to the other birds that are more shy and fly away whenever someone moves. I saw the usual birds- pigeons, sparrows, starlings, and fat robins. Then I saw a blue jay, a male and female cardinal, mourning doves, and even some woodpeckers. Eventually, I saw some other birds that I had no idea whatsoever what they were since I have never seen them in my life. There was also one that was kind of greenish, but it was probably someone's lost parakeet... I was then aiming to do about 30 gesture drawings of them, but then I noticed that guy that came back and was staring right at me. It just ruined the whole mood and brought me back to humanity instantly. If he tried to do anything, what could I do- hit him with my sketch pad, stab him with a calligraphy pen?

It was about 3:30 anyhow, so I started walking back so I could try to find a place closer to do at least one more drawing. I walked around the lake again, bored still, but then I saw some pretty trees budding with flowers. I feel bad picking things off of trees for some reason (not sure of they have feeeeelings, but who knows), and I also didn't know if I was even allowed to do that since they had a fence around them. So, I picked some petals off of the ground, and walked some more. Further down, I saw some more trees blooming, so I took some more flowers, and I sat down on a secluded rock where there weren't any screaming kids. A few minutes later, this happened :

There were a few people that walked by with their dogs, and they probably thought that I was crazy. A girl dressed in black gluing random things on a piece of paper in the park isn't exactly normal. I then thought what else I could do... (There were so many dead leaves everywhere, so why not...a tree with dead leaves...)

I then thought what could be weirder, and something that someone else might not do. With only a few minutes left until I wanted to walk back, I thought that I could glue some dirt on the paper. At that time, some family was yelling for their kid that was running away, and then these other parents brought their kid around to annoy me. I don't understand why you would let your kid run around someone when they are in the middle of doing something (this also happened to me when I was drawing the birds). This time though, the mom saw me sprinkling some dirt around the page, and so once again, I guess me being dressed in black doesn't really help with the weirdness of the scenario.(for some reason, it didn't dry in the middle, and i'm getting other ideas for dirt in art...hmm...)

So, after I was done gluing, I was going to wait a bit to let it dry, but people were getting annoying, and so I walked back to our meet up place. No one else was there, but eventually I spotted Bo Ae. We walked back to the spot, and a few other people showed up. We then left early after we showed Danielle our drawings, but I didn't want to go because I had to either go to Port Authority and wait on a huge line during rush hour (which is oh so much fun even with a thin portfolio), or take a longer trek and spend more money for the PATH train. I took that PATH, but then there was some weird businessman looking at me maybe wondering why I had dirt on my shoes, it made me wish that I was back in the park with the birds and squirrels. It's probably illegal to have a pet squirrel, right? Hmm....

Attack of the Nerds...

I'm in my little room (the spare "bedroom" that we have, which really can't even fit a small twin size bed), and I'm just here looking at different videos on Youtube. I can be doing other things, but it's a lazy Sunday evening, and my boyfriend is in the living room playing Call of Duty 4 on his new XBOX. I counted all of his war games, and he has about 20 of them. I'm wondering if this is really normal or if it's just because his dad was a Vietnam veteran... Either way, my boyfriend has off next week since it's his spring vacation (he's a 3rd and 4th grade teacher in the Bronx), so I'll probably be stuck in here after class everyday trying to do my homework while he sits on his ass playing that game. Oh yeah, and he also has a headset with it so he can harass people while trying to kill them at the same time. He is also happy because he gets to destroy one of my ex- boyfriend's places of birth (Azerbaijan) in the game. Is it weird that the entire game is set in the Middle-East, or is it just me? And they say that our society isn't violent...yeah right...

So, I feel like adding some music videos of some of my favorite bands, and I'm pretty sure that no one in the class has heard of them (for example, it doesn't seem like anyone knows of Sopor Aeternus, the transsexual German Neoclassical Darkwave artist and her band?)

1. Unto Ashes- Palästinalied

A "paganfolk" band that I chose to do the CD project on for our Visual Computing class. Many groups have covered this song, and it was originally written by a German poet during the first crusades. Most modern musicians who cover this leave out the last portion of the song since it states that Christians eventually take over "the Holy Land" since they are the "chosen ones". Pretty song anyhow.

2. Dead Can Dance-Frontier

Absolutely my favorite band. They broke up a few years ago since the male singer decided to move to Ireland after buying an old church, and she stayed behind in Australia. They both still make their own music, but she is definitely the better singer. Some of their songs are in English, while others are either in made up languages or languages that the song was inspired by. I'm not really sure what this version of the song is in, but the original is in English.

3. Gjallarhorn- Suvetar (Goddess of Spring)

Finnish band that sings in Swedish. A very beautiful song and video, I actually saw this video first on a World Music show on LinkTV.

4. Sopor Aeternus- Hades (Pluton)

Obviously, not the actual video, but my favorite song by her. Apparently, she is so depressed that she never performs live, yet she has been playing music since the 80's. So....yeah...

Here you can see the actual singer. I showed this to Brittany once during our computing class, and it kinda freaked her out. There's nothing wrong with a transsexual trying to be a sprite in the woods...

5. And last but not least, a group that some people know of: Cocorosie- Live performance of Black Poppies/Black Rainbow

Two very strange sisters, one lives in Paris while the other one, I think, still lives in Brooklyn. Their music keeps on getting better and better, also weirder...

There are many other bands and musicians I listen to, but this is just what I'm in the mood for today. And I listen to happier music, I swear. I also just realized that all of these videos feature female (or female- identified) singers...oops.

Some crappy pictures of some actual work

So, after some struggle with my camera, I managed to try to upload some pictures. None of these pictures show the finished product- I still have to add the details of the interior decoration for each house, draw out the furniture, and finish the people.

Top of the house, completely opened. I'm going add some more details so it actually looks like the roofs of the houses. It's also about 20 inches high by about 28 inches wide/diameter.

Walls of the first house. It actually looks a lot paler in person, and the paper clip is only there to hold the house open until I attach the book covers. I also cut out the door so it seems that the first two houses are connected in some way. There are also stairs for this house, but I took it off when I was trying to set this up, and I forgot to put it back on.

Interior of the second house. The door is closed, and I also made a wall that detaches to make the bedroom smaller. Adding other elements later on would obviously make this look more like a house, rather than just a weird stained piece of paper...Third house. The leopard print is just a blanket to cover up the tiles of my actual floor... Looks darker in person, and that weird tan thing on the first floor will eventually be the stairs. You can't really see, but I just have a window cut out on the second floor so you can peep into the fourth house (since in my mind, those two worlds are connected).

4th house- this will be a little different since the first floor is a tree and the second floor is the main floor. You can see the window a bit here. Also part of the attic floor (I only put an attic here to make a connection with the rest of the houses since most tree houses wouldn't have an attic...).
This is the dedication/statement and table of contents page that I never put on here yet. When I'm done with the house, I'll type out everything that I wrote on here so everyone could at least understand why I did each house.
That's it for now. My plan for the next two weeks is to finish the interior this week, and then finish the people and put together the entire house during the last week. I hope I don't wind up losing the rest of my sanity over this, especially since my camera keeps on eating up every battery I put in it whenever I try uploading something on here.

So yeah, it's late, and now I have to stay up and try to fix my website for our Visual Computing class since my teacher is making me red0 it because she didn't like it. I just don't know anymore... Oh yeah, and I have to write a paper on Sofonisba Anguissola, which there is almost no information on. Yay again. I guess it's what I get for pushing myself too far past my limit.

I see your truuuuuuuue cooooooloooors...very early morning post...

If everything goes as planned (or more like if I don't pass out after painting class tomorrow night) there might be a 90% chance that I'll be posting my actual work tomorrow night, along with all of the other stuff from the last critique as well.

So, since I was in a happy mood today, I was looking up some Cyndi Lauper music (yeah I'm a nerd...). But anyway, I found a video where she won an award from the HRC (Humans Rights Campaign) back in 2005. She was introduced by the two female singers from the B-52's (Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson). In her acceptance speech, she talks about how so many people have problems with being "different", and sometimes people do stupid things (such as committing suicide) because so many people have hurt them because of their differences. She then ended her speech with singing her song "True Colors" which she has used to help promote gay rights with HRC. The video really brought me to tears since I almost lost one of my best friends in high school since he realized how hard it might be to come out as being gay. He is probably one of the most sweetest and peaceful people in the world, and even though this happened almost four years ago, I still cannot believe that he would think that he would not be accepted and loved this way. Our high school in itself was nicknamed "Gayside" since there was such a huge gay population already, and there were many people who were part of GSA (the Gay/Straight Alliance). I haven't seen my friend in awhile now, but the last time I saw him he seemed really happy for once!

So, here is the vid to when she gets the award. Her Queens accent is almost as thick as Fran Drescher's, but not as nasally! My accent disappeared, but you should hear my Grandma...

Reason #367 of why it sucks being a commuter student...

....and reason #145,345,139 of why it sucks having a boyfriend that SNORES...

I wound up oversleeping for class today. Actually, I woke up at 8:30, and even if I left the house with my pajamas on, I wouldn't have made it since class was at 9 and it would have taken me longer than that to get there.

I guess it was good that I overslept since our class has so much to do for all of our classes (one term paper-two for some people-, our final painting, our drawing project, and then finish our website). We have to do all of this in TWO WEEKS- How fun!!!!!

Yeah, not really...I might upload some pictures later....maybe...

Also, on top of this apparently I still owe SVA about $4000. A month ago, I got a bill stating that I only owed about a $1,000, and now I owe more? I'm so confused...and since no one in this school actually is helping me with this, I'm starting to get sick of it all and I just want to leave this school. I'll be stuck with a huge loan to pay, so I'm stuck. Which is strange in itself since the other college I went to cost twice as much, the books cost more than the art supplies in total, and yet I owe that school NOTHING.

So besides all of this crap, my mom has been going to a lot of concerts lately (her boyfriend broke up with her a few weeks ago, so she has been doing things to make her happy). Soooo, my mom wants to go see the B-52's and Cyndi Lauper at Jones Beach in June. My mom used to see the B-52's at CBGB's when she was my age, so I guess it will be a bonding experience or something with my mom...



Happy Spring/Summer music! B-52's Rock Lobster

Since I'm up...

Danielle emailed me about two weeks ago (I'm sorry I never got back to you!), and she told me to look up another artist. She suggested Elaine Kaufmann (who was originally on the recommend artist list), and I was going to write about her work before. That entry was just way too long...

From her "International Design" drawings:
In these drawings, she took articles about home design and replaced the images with drawings from the homes of developing countries. By doing this she was allowed to show the extremities between more wealthy countries compared to third world countries. With the "Distinctive Bathroom" drawing, you can see how they try to make it seem that anyone can have the "exotic" appeal through a "do-it-yourself" project, yet the people who actually have this as a toilet out of necessity.

Also found on Elaine Kaufmann's website. The Brainstormers...

Hmmm....I wonder which one is Danielle....
and also their "Weather Report". It's kinda funny!

1AM ramblings...

"Class is rarely talked about in the United States; nowhere is there a more intense silence about the reality of class differences than in educational settings."
-bell hooks

I wrote this on one of the 40 drawings that we had to make earlier in the semester. I do believe that this is a really big problem, especially in art school, since so many people just do not realize that people come from various economic backgrounds. As seen with our painting class, it's expected for us to buy new materials almost every other week, and if we don't have enough money to even get to school or to eat, then "too bad". If you do happen to talk about it, even to supposed "liberal" students, then they usually just roll their eyes or talk about their problems, which just show that they really do not understand your position whatsoever. Then, the only option, as seen with other political discussions which tend to flare up once in awhile, is to force yourself to be quiet and pretend that you are just as ignorant as they are.

So, what are you really supposed to do if someone deeply offends you? Just pretend that nothing is wrong? How can you talk to someone that doesn't have any first hand experience with a certain situation, or only know about the problem through history textbooks or by television/movies?

These are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night. Sometimes I feel like it shouldn't be my responsibility to deal with these things, but someone has to think about them. I'm sick of people telling me that I'm an unhappy person because I actually give a shit about people that are outside of my circle of friends.

ich bin mude...

I chose to translate this song for my German class a few years ago. It was a nightmare...



I can't remember most of the German I learned, so I had to look up the lyrics. They may not make any sense, but it happens when you translate things...
I dream that I meet you deep under
the deepest place of the Earth, Atlantic trench, seafloor

Between Nanga Parbat, K2 and Everest,
the roof of the world, there I'll give you a celebration
Where I can no longer see forward
If you come, I'll see you come from the edge of the world

There is nothing interesting here
Just the ruins of Atlantis

But no sign of you
I believe you come no more

We have passed each other in dream

You dream of me, I of you
Don't worry, I won't wake you
Before you wake yourself

Over the ice, directly to the North Pole, that's where I'll wait
I'll stay on the world's axis

From the Pacific Rim in hard dream-work to the Pole
will I hurry and wait again

The north star is directly over me

This is the pole, I was here
Only you can search far and wide until we see each other

I was at the wrong pole

We have passed each other in dream

You dream of me, I of you
Don't worry, I'll find you
Before you wake yourself

Please, please don't wake me
As long as I dream, you exist...

You dream of me, I of you
Don't worry, I won't wake you
Before you wake yourself

Let me sleep the year away on a ship
Course: El Dorado, Punt, that is your home town
I was on the coast, searching the horizon
until I finally see you, I'll sail there

But the captain is drunk
and mostly under the deck
Even in dream, I can't steer the ship
The clipper hits something, we take on water
We sink in the North Sea
An iceberg drives us down

I believe I am stranded
Punt remains unexplored

We have passed each other in dream

You dream of me, I of you
Don't worry, I won't wake you up
Before you wake yourself
You dream of me, I of you
Don't worry I'll find you
Halfway through this dream, I'll sieze you
and draw you to me
then you'll dream of me, I of you
I dream of you, you of me
We dream of each other until we wake

Uh...

Well, I'm up doing some more research for our city project in our painting class. I know a few people are really unhappy and bored with the project since he didn't really give us any guidelines for it. Some of our topics range from pigeons to gentrification, skylines to just a few specific buildings and people. Either way, my two thumbs up guy that some people found amusing is looking a lot like a burn victim, and many people have been pointing out that the NYC map isn't really looking like anything (I really got the point when a guy at the bus stop thought that it was a very beautiful abstract piece...).

So, besides that, I've been looking up some more stuff on gentrification. Michael kept on pointing out that I included a small section of New Jersey, and was really annoyed by it. I know that New Jersey is a separate state, but gentrification is happening over here (and all over the country for that matter) as well. I've been reading a few news articles within the last year about people calling Jersey City the "6th borough" (which is amusing in itself not only because it is a separate city but also because most people can't even name the actual 5 boroughs), and there has also been new developments and other odd things happening where I live as well. Union City, being so close to Manhattan and being relatively cheap has caught the eye of over 30 developers, and they are already planning to build some pretty ugly condos. Also, they are calling the area closer to Hoboken, "West Hoboken". West Hoboken became Union City in 1925. Does this sound familiar? Realtors renamed the eastern part of Williamsburg "East Williamsburg" so it was separate from the more "hip" and whiter areas. They are also renaming some parts of Harlem the original names before the Harlem Renaissance, and other areas throughout the NYC are going through the same problem (like SoBro-who came up with that?). I can already see Celia Cruz Park (and the shrine that they have of her on Bergenline Avenue a few blocks from my apartment) demolished and renamed for some white general from some war (or how about Britney Spears Park?), and the statue that they have a few more blocks away of the soldiers that were killed in the Spanish-American War replaced by something else as well.

Anyway, is this just the most ugly thing you have ever seen? I see them building this thing everyday, and it just looks so out of place. It might look better in Manhattan, so it seems like they might be developing more of these types of buildings here in the next decade or so.
Honestly, even though I've been made fun of by a few people at SVA for currently living in New Jersey, I actually like Union City. My boyfriend refused to move to Queens, so I had to move over here instead. It still sucks having your mom nag you ever few days about why you never visit her and your cat that supposedly misses you because it takes TWO HOURS (a bus to Port Authority, the whole 7 train line, and the Q28 bus) just to get to her house. In that time, my boyfriend can fly almost halfway to Puerto Rico to visit his mom. I know you have to make sacrifices for the person you supposedly love..but blah blah blah. Some people in our class know what's been happening with that situation...

So, I'll leave you with that, and the fact that I now have to go to sleep next to my snoring boyfriend that likes to take up the entire bed. Times like this make me wish for my crazy cat back.
(she likes to sleep in the weirdest places)