The Art of Henna

Here is my video about Henna Art. I thought this would be a great closing to my blog by showing cultural art in action. For the history on henna art, refer to my previous blog entries on Henna's.

This project was fun and much easier for me to do once i got the hang of it. Up loading and triming the videos and music was the most time consuming because I wanted everything to be just right. I enjoyed ever aspect of this project. The only down side to it was that my computer was toughy and took a long time uploading the video on blogger and on youtube.

The video itself goes from the wet Henna mix on the skin of other people, it shows someone's legs, arms, belly and feet. Then, the video goes into my instruction on how to do Henna Art and i use my own arm as an example. The last frame is of a women's hands that I thought looked better then the one I did on myself.

Thank you for watching my video and i hope you enjoyed it.

E-Portfolio

SJSU Art Creations present our website:
web site

SJSU Graduate Class of 2009 presents our pamphlet:
indesign


Out of the two, I liked in design best because I did not have to worry about connecting anything to a server or anything like that. I loved to design aspect of Dream Weaver and I never realized how much web page design was like layout design on illustrator. The downside to the DreamWeaver project was the connection I had to make to the JMC Server. Although, i did learn a lot about how it the nuts and bolts of creating a website and the "behind scene" stuff. I had to learn the hard way but i still appreciate the experience.

Destination # 7 Eastern Mediterrian

I have always been intrigued with henna body art because it is transforming ones body into a movie expression of art and beauty. For those afraid of needles or that are against tattoo's (I am so afraid of needles), they can indulge themselves in henna. I do henna on myself and other people, while I am doing it our getting it done, it is a peaceful and fun process. That is another reason why i like henna, i find doing things with my hands like drawing are relaxing and henna is a mix of both those loves.

I also like the meaning behind henna. It is a mini pet peeve of mine to hear people getting tattoos for no reason. I ask my friend why he got a tattoo of a lion and his response was, "No reason, i just seemed cool." Henna is done to celebrate or dress up the body for different ceremonies or to express one's inner beauty. If my friend told me he got his tattoo because he was a Leo or because he loves lions or something rather then, "I thought it was cool.", I would have more respect for what he did to his body. Then again, it is his body and his money so to each his own. Some may ask, why spend time and money on a 2 week henna? That's a valid question.

Here are some links to go to if you are interested in learning about the background history of Henna.

http://tattoo.about.com/cs/hennamenu/a/henna_intro.htm
http://www.hennapage.com/henna/history/index.html

Destination # 6 Indonesia

Indonesian Masks

"Exotic beautiful Balinese Barong Mask from Indonesia. The Barong deity comes to earth during Balinese Hindu ceremonies and enters the body of a follower. The possesed goes into a trance and performes the exotic movements of the Barong dance. This exotic mask will make a great addition to any collection or a unique gift."


"The flying Balinese goddess of fertility."


















"This beautiful one of a kind hand carved batik mask is awesome. The colors and velvety soft feel of this mask will make a great addition to any collection or give it to somebody who has everything."


These Indonesian Masks are from the islands of Bali, Lombak and Java. These Indonesian Masks are some of the most exotic masks of current day Indonesian artists. Indonesian masks are very important to preserve the tradition of what their culture values, create pyhsical representations of religious values and depict things from their history. Indonesians use these makes to past down their history orally to their children and so on. I like this because i think by giving children a vivid, tangible and intricate mask, they will be more interested in the story being told and more likely to pass it on.

Many of these masks depict people, deities, demons and more. Some reports on Indonesian masks say that they are used to ward off evil spirits and protect the family.

for more information, go to: http://www.1worldsarongs.com/inmas.html

Destination # 5 Alaska

THE FIRST TOTEM POLE
Written by Rosa Bell
Illustrated by Christian White



Many, many years ago a Haida family lived in a village called Yan. In that family there was a boy named Sta-th. He was one of the Eagle clan. He wore an Eagle carving around his neck.

Sta-th's mother was called Koon-jaat. She was also from the Eagle clan. Her hat had an eagle on top of it. Sta-th's father's name was An-o-wat. An-o-wat was from a different clan. He was one of the raven clan. He wore a Raven crest on his clothes.

One day An-o-wat was fixing their fishing canoe. Sta-th went over to help his father. Soon the canoe was ready. An-o-wat started to take the canoe down to the water. Sta-th asked, "May I go, Father? May I go with you?"

An-o-wat said, "Yes, I will take you. We'll go as far as Rose Spit. I want to see if there are any more holes in the canoe to fix up."

Sta-th jumped into the canoe. It was a beautiful day for a ride.

The water was very calm. The canoe moved smoothly through the water. An-o-wat was glad to see that there were no holes in the canoe. The canoe was now ready for fishing.

By the time they got to Rose Spit, the sun had begun to set. They wanted to get home before dark, so they started back.

Sta-th was fascinated with the water. He bent over the side of the canoe. Sta-th watched the clear blue-green water as they traveled. He saw big crabs and pretty starfish. Jellyfish flashed here and there.

Suddenly, Sta-th shouted, "Stop, Father, stop! Look into the water." Sta-th is pointing at something in the water.

They both looked down. They saw the most beautiful village. It looked like their own village. There were lots of longhouses and many canoes. However this village was different from theirs. It had tall, tall poles. These poles had beautiful carvings on them.

They looked at this village for a long time. An-o-wat looked carefully at the poles. He saw a raven and eagle carved on the poles. He saw a bear and a whale, too.

Soon it grew too dark to see. They decided it was best not to tell anyone about what they had seen. People might not believe their story.

The next day, An-o-wat and Sta-th went into the forest. They were looking for a big cedar tree. An-o-wat wanted to make a pole like the one in the underwater village. He wanted to show his pole to the people of Yan. Then he knew they would believe him.

At last, they found a good cedar tree.

An-o-wat and Sta-th began to carve the pole. An-o-wat put a raven on top. Then he carved a strong bear and a killer whale. That night they shared their secret with Koon-jaat.

Each day they worked long and hard on their pole. It took many, many days to finish it.

At last the big day came. They were ready to take the pole to the village.

An-o-wat called a meeting with his family. His brothers and sisters came. His aunts and uncles came. His grandfathers and grandmothers came, too. They all came to hear what An-o-wat had to say.

A n-o-wat told them the story. Sta-th told them what he had seen at the bottom of the sea. Then An-o-wat showed them the pole.

An-o-wat called for a village meeting. Everyone thought that the Eagle clan should raise the pole. An-o-wat and his family would have to pay them.

An-o-wat asked the Eagle clan for help. He asked them to help bring the pole to the village. The people of Yan saw them pulling the beautiful pole. They were very excited.

The next day, An-o-wat and Sta-th dressed in their best clothes. They both felt proud of the work they had done. Many people were invited to come and see the pole.

An-o-wat and his family met their guests at the beach. They welcomed the guests with a song.

People came from all over the islands. They came to see the first totem pole.

All the people went into the longhouse for a feast. An-o-wat's family gave gifts to the Eagle clan.

They gave songs and dances. They gave drums and rattles. They gave canoes and animal skins, too

There was singing and dancing long into the night. The sun was rising as the people went home. Everyone was thinking of what they might carve.

This is how the Haida people began to carve totem poles. This is the story of the first totem pole.

Credits:

Written by Rosa Bell
Illustrated by Christian White

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca

Destination #4 Western Culture (the U.S. as a whole)

The origins of comic book are traced back to prehistoric cave paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphics (writings). The meanings and symbolism behind these images translated a language or something to read to understand. By drawing the connection to hieroglyphic meanings and that they had to be read like we read books now-a-days, it only makes sense that western culture would have to insert our form of writing along with our symbols of meaning (for example, a person) to have our comics be relevant to us.

Text insertion can be widely attributed to the first publicized comic strip, “The Yellow Kid” in 1896. Richard Fenton Outcalt was the one who created it but was not the first to have the idea of comic strips. He made comics popular and introduced the word bubble that contains the characters words and leads to their mouth with a tail.


Timeline:

1827-
Rudolph Töpffer - Birth of the Graphic Novel
Switzerland's Rudolphe Töpffer created a comic strip and continued on to publish seven graphic novels.

1842-
"The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck" became the first comic book published in the United States.

1859-
German poet and artist, Wilhelm Bush published caricatures in the newspaper Fliegende Blätter.

1865-
Wilhelm Bush published a famous comic called "Max und Moritz".

1895-
"Yellow Kid" created by Richard Outcault has often been cited as being the first comic strip.

References: http://www.ask.com/bar?q=origins+of+comic+books&page=1&qsrc=0&ab=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Finventors.about.com%2Fod%2Fcstartinventions%2Fa%2Fcomics.htm

Destination #3 Ethiopia

The sequence nature of Ethiopian art has a rich historical background. They depict their religious values, daily life and tell stories as well.

When you see this, what do you think of?

A) cave drawings
B) comic books
C) stain glass windows
D) nothing but what you see

My answer to the questions is B) comic books. The connection between Ethiopian art and comic books found in the West are purely based on the repetition of images in a box form.

Comic Book images to come…next destination.

references: http://web.mac.com/manuel_ramos/iWeb/MacSPEP-English/Ethiopian%20Narrative%20Painting.html

Destination #2 East Africa follow-up

My last blog had images of East African scenery. The elephant and graffias that are in love, are a few images Nick B. chose to highlight. The wild life is a big part of East African culture because East African has a lot of wide open panel land that the animals have made their own. East Africans embrace and respect animals, so this is why Nick chose to take peaceful and very powerful black and white pictures of the graffias and elephant.

Destination #2 East Africa ia UK

Biography
Nick Brandt was born and raised in London and studied Film and Painting at St. Martins School of Art...More
Nick Brandt was born and raised in London and studied Film and Painting at St. Martins School of Art.

uk

Brandt started photographing in December 2000 in East Africa, beginning the body of work that is his signature subject matter and style. He no longer directs, devoting himself full time to his fine art photography now.


Nick Brandt's first book of photographs, "On This Earth", was published in October 2005, by Chronicle Books, with forewords by Jane Goodall and Alice Sebold (author of "The Lovely Bones").


Nick Brandt has had numerous one-man exhibitions between 2004 and 2006, including London, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Santa Fe, Sydney, Melbourne and San Francisco.

The Young Gallery can be seen online and further information about Nick Brandt at: http://www.younggalleryphoto.com/photography/brandt/brandt.html
east africa

Blog Banner

Hello All,

I posted my blog banner last week and I forgot to explain it on my Blog. It has an Egyptian piece, a Mayan mural and a Belizean mural. In the middle is an African sculpture of a woman. The Mayan and Belizean murals express different parts of daily life. One was of them hunting and the other was a picutre of the marketplace in Belize.

Here are the links where I found my pictures for anyone who is interested in seeing more work like what is in the banner.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/2950353061_40b106616b.jpg?v=0 (Egyptian)

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://library.thinkquest.org/11577/media/mayan1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://library.thinkquest.org/11577/art.htm&usg=__V80L351RxukmRrQURbHtZbOaQV8=&h=638&w=938&sz=481&hl=en&start=35&sig2=4IBKinpfdsSwiXfQhma8sw&um=1&tbnid=wRtSZshDEJhKpM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=148&ei=tpagSfrvG4r0sAP3oMzACQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmayan%2Bartwork%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUS313%26sa%3DN mayan)


http://www.alowaisnet.org/tacsoftnet/ImageGallery/manhootat012eng.JPG (man)

http://www.artrujillo.com/products.htm (lady)

What this is all about:

This blog is going to focus on the artwork from different cultures. I promise this won't be a blog an art history blog, it is more on the visual side. I want this to be more of a look at how other cultures expressed themselves through paintings, drawings, symbols and sculptures.

I have always been intrigued in different art expressions and am in a constant growth process to broaden my skills and knowledge. For those with a mild or intense interest, this blog will cater to every type of art lover.

Cultural Destination #1: Mayan

I have always been intrigued by Mayan culture and their artwork. Most people have seen Apocalypto which was written and directed by Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia, and have an image of the gruesome and almost hedonistic nature of Mayan men. I would like to show people that the Mayans where quite smart and developed civilization. The Mayan culture is well-known for having the only fully developed language of their time, and where just as talented with architecture, numbers and astronomical system.

The image next to the map is of Chaac, the god of Rain and thunder. The Mayans had many gods but each symbol and depiction of each god had as much of a meaning to them as the cross or Buddha does nowadays.



The sites that I found my research on where:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaac
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/
http://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-art.html

Challenges and Opportunies for Bloggers

I think the challenges and opportunies go hand and hand with eachother. As bloggers, we have the opportunty to share our thoughts, opinions, observations and personal experiences with anyone willling to read. Some of the downsides is the critiques that may be given that the author may not be expecting or because of the lack of professionallism by the author, they can lose their audiences.

This gives me as a blogger a forum to communicate and reach out to others, which is something I feel our generation has been constantly changing. I do believe we are moving away from face to face communication and enchancing our written communication. Which things like facebook, myspace, teting and blogging.

The downside to it all is people are lacking some verbal skills and because we are writting our thoughts, the inflections and ability to explain ourselves is lost. Therefore our readers may misunderstand or be over critical about what we write because they may not fully understand what we are trying to say.