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