Sean Clute, Interdisciplinary New Media Artist

New Media Art department candidate lecture by Sean Clute from March 11, 2015.

Due to nature of lecture and time constraint, this blog will more or less be written in note form highlighting key art projects and the importance of them.

• Shabala, Bulgaria 8/11/1999. Massive solar eclipse event. After performance with electric guitar and sound pedals, a feeling didnt sit well with the artist. This led to a quest for new expression and led to new media as that expression.
• Invent. Greek mythology (mythos) project. Incorporated simple animation with projector and live camera feed of artist's performance at the same time to collaborate a visual piece. Used Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and Max/MSP Jitter.
• Adapt. (Stories from Dubai) Talked about the struggle to create an installation in Dubai such as multiple location movements, weather and environment conditions, and dealing with local customs and beliefs.
• Play. University of Arizona, created a piece titled "Circles" which consist of a large touchscreen to interact with dancers and musicians. Equipment used are a sound system, IR camera, IR emitter, rear projector, projection surface, laptop and coding.
• Collaboration. Worked many times with a group called Double Vision which originated in Oakland. Created events that incorporated movements and sound.

Sean Clute's works emphasize heavily on the human interaction and sound, which based on the examples shown I would classify as more performance art. Personally I am unsure what he can provide/teach prospective students based on his past projects that he chose to share and responses from some students after the end of his lecture. I also felt many of the projects he could have gone into more detail regarding the purpose and execution of the pieces and what he was trying to achieve in each. For more information about Sean Clute and his works, visit seanclute.net.

L to R: Faith Sponsler, Sean Clute, Ian Harvey, Lindsey McGrath. photo by me.

L to R: Lindsey McGrath, Sean Clute, Faith Sponsler and John Chanthaphone.

Visions: Comic Illustrators Exhibit

Consumnes River College presents "Visions: Comic Illustrators Exhibit," which features the works of local comic artists Robert Love (Number 13/ Never Ending), CP Smith (Wolverine/Ten Grand), Mel Rubi (Red Sonja/Boundead) and Thomas Yeates (Prince Valiant).

I was a former student of Cosumnes River and was very excited to see this new gallery building which was completed last semester. I was also nice to talk to my old professors such as Jeff Kimbler and Yoshio Taylor, who is also the curator for the gallery building. (side note: the second floor on the CSUS Union displays one of Yoshio Taylor's pieces, a full size clay humanoid sculpture, similar to the pair of harlequin sculptures on the east entrance of the Downtown Plaza which he also constructed)

The gallery building is a beautiful space with large amounts of wall space, very high ceilings, and excellent lighting. It also has wall partitions that not only added more wall space to provide for more opportunity to display work but also provides a nice path for viewers to flow throughout the building.

As for the actual exhibition, I thought it was a great success, besides the food and refreshments, there was also live music and most importantly a lot of art. I use to be an avid comic collector (mostly mainstream publishers like Marvel and DC) and it was enlightening to see lesser known comic titles that still possess the same quality of art as mainstream comics. I particularly enjoyed the works of Mel Rubi because his style of drawing the human figure and to convey dynamic movements within each comic panel was very pleasing to me and reminded me of other comic artist that inspired me.

Visions flyer, exhibition runs from March 6 to April 24.

Thomas Yates's "Timespirits" issue 1 cover.

Me with "Timespirits"

"Mad Mauler" by Robert Love

"Friends" by Robert Love

"Queen Red Sonja" by Mel Rubi

"Queen Red Sonja" by Mel Rubi

Wolverine 41 Cover by C.P. Smith

Wolverine Noir Cover by C.P. Smith 

Wolverine cover by C.P. Smith

Punisher X-Mas by C.P. Smith 

Timespirits issue 5 by Thomas Yeates

Insularity: Recent work by Doug Loree

"Insularity," a exhibition of the recent works of CSUS student Doug Loree at the Witt Gallery. The context of the pieces revolves on how current society has become so obsessed with technology, cell phones in particular, and social media that they lose grasp on reality. Many of the pieces displayed shows a "creature" so obsessed in it's phone that it's environment and self-being has begun to be sucked into the reliance/addition to technology. Loree also displays strong blue hues to further emphasize the power of technology because the blue represents the light emitted from electronic screens. Another emphasis the artist makes present is the symbolism of the vortext/spiral effect present in each painting to represent how reality is being sucked into the technological world.

I am personally interested in Loree's experimentation to his newer pieces which gives the viewer a completely different perspective of the cell phone. Instead of having the viewer see the paintings as an outsider and witnessing the "creature" being sucked into the cell phone, we now become the creature and experience what the "creature" is experiencing.

Commune: Form Collective

About "Commune"

Commune: Art by the FORM Collective offers a unique insight into how the subject matter has a multitude of discrete references are connected to each other. Members of the FORM collective are training in their relative visual languages, represented at the University Union Gallery by painting and ceramics. Each student-artist is discovering ways to connect to the historical moment.

I was lucky enough to participate in this art exhibition with my fellow peers/talented artists. It is nice to see the various styles and mediums every student is utilizing. The only downfall most the consensus agreed upon was the lack of lighting available to properly display each artist's piece at their best.

Commune front flyer.

Commune rear flyer.

A small sample of the works on display.

Some of the artists. (I'm second from the left)

My piece, "Madonna of the Demon Breasts 2"

Savage Dragon: The Art of Erik Larsen

Celebrating the 200th issue of the renowned Image Comics series by Erik Larsen, one of the founding partners of Image Comics, this exhibition features more than 40 pieces personally selected by Larsen from his archives.

The exhibition takes place at the Cartoon Art Museum at 655 Mission Street, San Francisco and I was lucky enough to join the artist's reception on Feb 28 with a special guided tour of the exhibition conducted by Larsen himself. Larsen talks about each of the pieces he selected which highlights the the artist's most memorable milestones circulating his creation.

 After the tour, Larsen opened the floor for a Q & A session as well as signing fan items and photo ops. Overall a very awesome experience because I was a big fan of his artwork since my junior high years. His exhibition runs until May 31st.

Photo Op with Erik Larsen

Erik Larsen even sketched in my sketchbook.

Early design of Savage Dragon

Cover art for issue 193.

Issue 27, Wondercon variant cover art.

Larsen paying homage to Jack "the King" Kirby.

Moments before the tour.

49 Geary Art Galleries

I took trip to the 49 Geary Art Galleries in San Francisco back in February. This location was recommended to me by Prof. Ortbal because it consisted of roughly fifteen different galleries consisting of contemporary artwork. I have mixed feelings at this building, I do like the idea of viewing various works in different galleries under one roof but I was somewhat disappointed because I felt almost half of the galleries exhibits are in the form of photography. I personally have no offense to photography as art but I was hoping to see more paintings and sculptures than I did.

An exhibit that did interest me were Uel Renteria's Paintography, which is located on the 5th floor at the Storefront. Another exhibit that interested me was Yvette Gellis's Standing in the Corner series at the Toomey Tourell Gellery.

Uel Renteria's Paintography series.

 

Melissa Dickenson's Hard in the Paint series.

Yvette Gellis's Standing in the Corner series.