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I’m tired and quite frankly I want to go to sleep. Now that I’ve got that thought out of the way, let me write a little something before I lay my head down. Who needs sleep anyway? I mean, really! I was painting as a young artist and mostly I was painting these clouds and one day, sitting and painting looking in the sky, I saw twelve military planes passing by and they made these incredible drawings in the sky.…
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Yet, I had to write a little something about the next piece I’m working on – La Pocha Nostra. Yesterday, I attended the Corpo Illicito: The Post Human Society #69 performance piece at the SOMArts Cultural Center. There’s a lot of processing going on but I wanted to forewarn you of any photos I may post of the event (yes, it was one of those performance art pieces, photos will be for the extremely open-minded and for a more mature…
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It’s All a Blur is far from a blur when you consider the show’s theme does not really have much to do with temporality. Walking through the exhibition is nothing like walking through a flurry of sales at the mall or a bustling city block. The Blur artists take what is often fuzzy in our lives and sharpens our focus. Each experience finds its way into the crevices of our subconscious. Individually, each work reconfigures and re-contextualizes American history and Western culture. Although the pieces are seemingly…
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With the valiant effort of keeping with my “art diary” format and writing as much as possible in the new year (every day to be exact), I figured it would be nice to write about a Bay Area artist. I’m hoping to learn more about her work as well as her processes as the year progresses. There will be more, I can promise you that, dear reader. For now though, I’m just spinning my wheels and getting the juices flowing. So, let me…
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Art is supposed to be an experience. Don’t you think? Well, I do. These days, it’s not enough for me to look at something on a canvas or a neatly stacked collection of combs (okay, so if it’s Sonya Clark, I know the combs are ridiculously magnificent looking and rife with cultural subtext and history. Yes, I love her work but I just digressed, big surprise). In any case, I said it and I’ll say it again. It’s NOT enough…
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Who said beauty doesn’t matter? Similar to art, beauty’s ubiquitous and enigmatic nature is ever-present in our visual landscape. It is not just on billboards, in magazines, or the growing number of photographs we see of others (i.e., seeing our own ‘beautiful’ friends on social networking sites as we all re-define self-portraiture in this digital age) but even deep seeded in our histories, you will find how standards of beauty have been created. Our histories reside in our bodies. It is obvious in the way in which we care…
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Art / art community / conceptual art / ethnic studies / filipino / performance / performing arts / Philippines / poetry / San Francisco / writing¶¶¶¶¶
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Being on medical leave (for knee surgery) subjected me to RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate – Thanks, BFF and Google), reading and playing Words with Friends (via my iPhone). Since I love being outdoors, taking walks (anywhere and, sometimes, aimlessly), it’s safe to assume the recuperation period has been challenging and makes me rather talkative when my girlfriend comes over to have dinner after a hard day’s work. Good ole cabin fever starts to make me wonder all sorts of…
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Hello Friends! Please check out 101 Conceptual Art Ideas. It’s a clever blog about, well, you guessed it, Conceptual Art Ideas. You can actually find the link under “art places/spaces” under the Links section! Some of you may ask, “Why do you love this blog, Dorothy?” Answer: It’s simple. It starts a dialogue. Please visit and talk to me or anyone you know. The conversation may last for 2 minutes or 2 hours. Regardless, you’ve been equipped with more art…
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Another (recent) short paper I wrote on artist, Fernando Botero, for the course, Contemporary Art: History and Theory taken at UC Berkeley Extension (for Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts). ************************************ One of the fundamental lessons in drawing class entailed drawing untold numbers of fruit, boxes and bags. The exercises were required to instill the importance of actually depicting what existed in reality versus what the mind believes or thinks exists. I was often reminded that we first see everything the…
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From the documentation of sleepers to a man’s description of his life through the experiences of his colleagues, friends and family, Calle’s work emphasizes the absence of the artists to create portraits and capture universal ideas of contemporary life.
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aesthetics / anonymity / conceptual art / contemporary art / contemporary life / detachment / documentation / experiences / exquisite pain / fabrication / human condition / human interaction / identity / intimacy / linda weintraub / melodrama / modern technology / personal relationships / photography / portraits / sensations / sophie calle / suite venitienne / the notebook man / universal ideas / voyeuristic¶¶¶¶¶
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writer | artist | scholar
Dorothy R. Santos, Ph.D. 