Lecture Review : Joan Narthrup on Leo Villeoreal at the Nevada Museum of Art

Art seeing the Leo Villareal's exhibition of Animating Light at the Nevada Museum of Art the previous week, I was really interested in Villareal's work as it was unlike anything I had seen before. I saw when I was there that Joan Narthrup was giving a lecture about Villareal so I figured it would be a great chance to learn more about him and his work.

She did a very good job as she sped through his life and what he did before his work with lights. One interesting thing that she pointed out which I had not noticed the week before was that each of the works were presented in chronological order. After the lecture I went through the exhibit again and it was very interesting to see how much more complicated the pieces had gotten the more he learned about working with the lights and code and gave me even more respect for the work that went into it.

Narthrup also addressed the how the rumor that I'd heard from Elliot about Villareal coming up with the idea of flashing lights after getting lost at Burning Man. It turns out that he was not aimlessly wandering through the desert hallucinating on who knows what like I had thought, but instead he just got lost in the crowds and was unable to find his van amidst the sea of people. Though I have never been to Burning Man I have a lot of friends who have and through their patchy recollections, I can imagine how hard it might be to find your site no matter what mental condition you may be in. The lecture was very informative and gave me more insight into an artist that I had become very interested in and I would recommend it to anyone, especially those interested in Digital Media.

Exhibition Review: Leo Villareal - Animating Light

I attended Leo Villareal's exhibition of Animating Light with Elliott at the Nevada Museum of Art. When Elliott told me that a friend of his that worked there told him that Villareal first had the idea to make the light sculptures after he got lost in the desert at Burning Man I couldn't stop laughing and knew I had to go see the show. Knowing only that the show involved lights, I was excited to see how he used them and was very impressed as soon as I walked into the museum. His piece entitled Star blinked and pulsated over my head almost instantly and I could see how his work was a direct influence of his experience at Burning Man.

Of all his different pieces at the show, my favorite was Diamond Sea. The way the lights moved across the grid and the interplay of them with reflections off the mirror made it hard for me to take my eyes off it. With the mirror involved, it made the me and the other people looking at it a part of the piece while the lights did their own thing.

 My first experience with programming anything was in my CS281 class this semester and I realized how much work the coding of Villareal's work must have taken him. Every different piece uses different code and they all work so well, both together in the exhibit and as individual works. Its really amazing that something which started out as a functional idea can turn into such an original and beautiful collection of work and still hold its own at a place like Burning Man where it was originally conceived. 

Hot Wheels Mini Golf!!!!!!

I modeled this hole after Hot Wheels racing tracks. It starts out with a loop and goes right into a double jump. Its possible to make a hole in one, but only for the most die hard of mini golfers. The Hot Wheels hole will give Tiger Woods a run for his money!

Miniature Golf Course Concept

For my mini golf course I plan to build a 3D Hot Wheels car track and make it functional as a golf hole. When I was younger I used to play with Hot Wheels and I always had a lot of fun making tracks with all sorts of loops and jumps. When thinking of a mini golf idea, the first thing that came to mind was the form of a loop and I instantly got the idea to imitate a Hot Wheels track. I plan to add some buildings and other cars around the hole to make it look more realistic.

Pepakura Object

The Pepakura was a little intimidating at first. For me it was hard to see how the folds would line up to make the object, but as I got further into it, the shape began to take form and got a little easier. I chose this Glock 9mm because it looked fun. Something about a paper gun was funny to me and I think the fact that I could hold it when it was done and it actually felt like the shape of a handgun made it really cool. Im looking forward to using Pepakura more for our mini golf holes and making more challenging objects.

3D Modeling Project Parts 1 and 2

For part one of this project I used ten different Harley-Davidson motorcycle models I found on the Google Sketchup 3D Warehouse to recreate my version of the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. I've never been there before but every time I see pictures of it I always think its really interesting and would be cool to see in real life. With spring on the way I've been wanted to get out on my motorcycle so that is the inspiration for this.

ACTUAL CADILLAC RANCH

Harley Ranch

For part two I used Google Sketchup to make a skateboard halfpipe. After some trial and error I the shape I was hoping for and I was then able to import a wood siding for the ramp and give the Google girl her own skateboard that I found in the Sketchup Warehouse.

Art 343 Music Video