Lumpen by Julia Couzens and Ellen Van Fleet

Hoo boy, did I have to think this one over for a good, long time.

That's right, it's time for my long-awaited verdict on the Robert Else Gallery installation, Lumpen, and after chewing on it like so much granola for a week now, I've finally managed to collect my thoughts on this little show.

See, the artists, Ellen Van Fleet and Julia Couzens, visited Sac State to tell us all about their experiences as artists, how they came upon some of their ideas, and what the overall concepts common in their works happen to be. But don't let me hog the mic, let me pass it along to Van Fleet for you.

Sometimes it's just better to let the artist say it herself. That doesn't make me lazy, I swear!

This is a diagram of how to construct the sculpture in the above video.

 Where Van Fleet's art is very spontaneous and emphasizes the unexpected and temporary beauty in things like shadow and movement, Couzen's work is more focused on linear shapes and grids, albeit warped in interesting ways. Though she also works with a variety of materials, particularly textiles, she said much of her art starts out as a drawing or is at least planned like a drawing.

Linear forms, you say?

Grids, huh?

Yeah, I think I see what she's getting at.

Between the two, I found I preferred Couzen's art, since I'm a bit more familiar with drawing than sculpture, but one thing is certain--seeing the artists and listening to what they had to say definitely helped me appreciate and understand what they were trying to express in Lumpen. See, the idea was never to convey some hidden message. It's simply a celebration of textures, shapes, and unusual compositions meant to tease the eye and entertain the mind. It is, quite simply, art for art's sake, drawing the viewer in by nothing short of the sheer magnetism of visual art.

After the presentation, the artists had a Q&A session, allowing us to ask them something that had been floating around in our heads while listening. I decided to ask why they used materials that didn't seem to be too sturdy and how they planned to preserve them, if at all. Van Fleet's answer was that she had no plans to preserve it and people could do whatever they wanted with the remains. Couzens simply insisted her works were sturdier than I thought.

After that, we had the opportunity to return to the gallery and take a second look at the art. I decided to do exactly that and see if I could find the traits they cited in their work for myself. Of course, this meant taking lots and lots of pictures in order to point these things out to you, the readers.

Honestly, it's still baffling to the layperson, isn't it?

 The really fun part, of course, is that my stupid camera's battery died on me in the middle of this. I managed to take about three pictures and this was the only one that was only a little terrible. Usually, I take several shots of the same thing and narrow it down, but no such luxury here. The lesson here, kids, is always keep a spare charged battery on you.

Don't be melacritic. Be smarter than melacritic.

So after all that cogitation and agitation, I bet you're all at the edge of your seats, wondering what I'm going to rate this installation. Actually, no I don't, but I still need to rate it either way. Frankly, it's a conundrum, because the plain truth is I just don't like this art.

There, I said it.

I like the idea of the art. I like the artists. I just don't like the art. To me, it looks like a confusing mess and even after hearing what they have to say, I don't think what they had in the show was their best work. I really, truly, in the bottom of my graphite-filled heart enjoyed the art in the slideshow so much better than anything I saw in the installation. That being said, I'm giving Lumpen the rating of S'mores.

No, this is not me flaming the artists. Chill out.

"What gives, melacritic?" I hear you say. "Why rate this so high if you don't like the art?"

The answer is actually very simple; art is subjective and what I dislike and find confusing and dull might be enchanting and fascinating to others. Just because it wasn't my cup of tea doesn't make the art bad. Lumpen made me think and reconsider and work toward a conclusion outside of my immediate reactions, and for that, I have respect for the artists and their creations.

A Digital Tour of Five Sacramento State Galleries: Part Two

Last gallery...will it be worth the visit?

Told you I'd be back.

So here we are, the Raymond Witt Gallery. I do like the nod to Andy Warhol in the exterior design, but just peeking in at first glance, I can tell it's not a very big gallery. Oh well, I guess there probably won't be anything interesting here to see or anybody to--

O hai dere.

Well, I stand corrected. Folks, meet Julia Kropinova, a student artist who was featured in the gallery during my visit. See, unlike the other galleries, none of these works have a label next to them, because it's all her work. The Raymond Witt cycles through different students through the school year and I just happened to walk in while this artist was in. Might I say, too, that her art has a very distinctive, unique quality to it, as well! In fact, you've already seen one of her pieces before--I had taken a snapshot of it earlier in the Union Gallery. Naturally, I was intrigued and started asking her some questions about her medium choices, process, and overall vision, all of which she was more than happy to share. She even pointed out her favorite work, which I took a video of just so the details could be appreciated just that little bit more.

She didn't know I was filming this. I just happened to get lucky and record just as she spoke up.

Julia considers her works to be a form of recycled art, using all sorts of materials to create framed sculptures with a great deal of texture, symbolism, and depth--literally! Her works all emphasize using three-dimensional space, rather than flat pieces. Here are some pictures of a few pieces she personally discussed with me as we looked around the gallery together.

She uses whatever material catches her eye and figures out how it can make the overall composition more interesting.

That being said, she's also a very good painter! This one is meant to have a sci-fi, cosmic feel to it.

This piece was especially interesting. According to Kropinova, this one represents urban life, the crowded feel of living in the city, and the heavy feeling of pollution. The keys represent noise and a dense population. I thought it represented a women waiting for somebody she loved at a train station, as evidenced by the red tones and heart shape, with the keys being the keys to her heart. We had a good laugh over the widely divergent interpretations, but Kropinova herself expressed being very open to people viewing her art in different ways, even though she has a clear vision in mind when she sets out to create art.

 

This one is a map of California. Look closely and you can see intersections in the strings!

She mentioned that she especially likes working with string. Big shocker, that.

So yeah, this was way cooler than I ever expected. While the gallery was small and only featured a single artist, having said artist in the room discussing their work with you makes a huge difference. Very rarely does one get the chance to hear directly from the source in such an open, casual setting. As much as I like the Library Gallery, having the ability to ask questions and have a real discussion with the person responsible for the art you're seeing is really something else. I highly recommend it.

Julia Kropinova, you are awesome and I rate you The REALLY Good Piece in the Valentine's Box. Best of luck to you and here's hoping more people take a look at your creations.

A Digital Tour of Five Sacramento State Galleries: Part One

Like most universities, Sacramento State University has an art gallery or two. Or seven. Of course, anyone who knows me knows I'm incredibly indecisive, and if you don't know me, then I'm telling you now. I'm incredibly indecisive, so I decided to visit all five.

"But wait," you say. "Aren't there seven galleries?" Technically, yes, but if you consider the Anthropology Museum or the Tsakapoulos Hellenic Collection contemporary, then by all means, allow me to direct you to the nearest dictionary.

Union Gallery

For starters, let's check out the University Union Gallery, with its current exhibit of student art, Commune.

This particular show was a bit small and cramped, but had a good variety of art from different Sac State students. While there wasn't much there, the exhibit did have a good variety of styles and mediums. I took some snapshots of some of the more interesting pieces.

Claire R. by Mustafa Sheen

Madonna of the Demon Breasts 2 by John Chanthaphone. Also, I think this blog might be NSFW now?

Untitled by Ashley Young

Caught Up by Julia Kropinova

As interesting as it is to see student art shown like this, the gallery is only one room and there was very little background information available. I have to say, it's a little bit of a letdown that there wasn't more here. As it stands, I like the variety, but there's not much of a reason to stick around. Fortunately, I know of another gallery that's got just a bit more going on, and it's not far from here.

Rating: White Chocolate

Library Gallery

And here we are, the Library Gallery, which I've been meaning to visit anyway.

Now, I've visited here before in the past for no particular reason other than to see what they have. Based on that alone, I'd recommend checking it out if you have time to kill, but let's be specific about what's on the menu for the moment. This gallery has two main rooms. The first one contains a whole lot of mixed-media paintings and drawings by Theresa Stanley.

Like, a lot. Everything in this room is her work...

...and they all sort of look alike.

The theme behind these pieces, most of them mixed media, was of gardens. The titles all allude to gardens and they have a rock-garden aesthetic to them. However, while the paintings are individually nice to look at, an entire room with the same subject matter and style got a bit stale, so I checked out the larger room. In there, the display featured art by a number of different people with a very wide variety of subjects, mediums, and ideas. Now that's more like it! Just like before, I took some pictures of the more interesting works, as well as a couple videos.

Lavender Bull by Rudy Autio. Yep, this blog is now officially NSFW. Champagne all around!

The Wave by Peter Alexander

Horse Thief by Gordon McConnell

Untitled by Richard Misrach. Also, the closest I'll ever come to taking a selfie for this blog.

Consume by Michael Sarich

Soon after filming this, Stanley Kubrick rose from the dead to make me write "I am not a cinematographer" 500 times.

So very strange. So very cool.

I think these works speak for themselves. I can honestly say I would recommend this visit just as much after re-visiting the place as I did before. These are just a sample of what they have and it's certainly among the better galleries I've seen in a university.

Rating: Novelty M&Ms

Design Gallery

From there I moved on to the Design Gallery, which I wasn't even aware existed. I was kind of excited, actually. The room was a bit difficult for me to find--mostly because I have no internal compass--and I felt like I was on some kind of art treasure hunt.

Well this is disappointing.

If you listen closely, you can still hear my voice echoing off the barren walls.

Yep, this is all they had. I can only assume the exhibit is either not ready yet, or just plain closed, but the sign on the wall seems to say otherwise.

For the record, I visited this place on the 11th of March.

The place was deserted, so I couldn't ask around and find out what was up. Either way, I wouldn't waste my time here. 

Rating: Palmer Easter Bunny

Robert Else Gallery

After I gathered up all my punctured expectations, I made my way to the next place, the Robert Else Gallery.

Who else but Else? Oh, I crack me up.

Oh goody, another one-room gallery. The first thing I noticed walking in is the lighting wasn't getting along with my camera. I had a rough time taking pictures as a result, but here are a few I took that turned out okay.

These works are part of an installation called Lumpen, created by Julia Couzens and Ellen Van Fleet. As you can see, the art uses a lot of recycled, unconventional materials. There weren't many pieces available, but the ones that were could take a good long while to look at. There's not a photograph on earth that could capture everything going on with some of these works and searching for the little details and oddities in them was an adventure on its own. Personally, I prefer the Library Gallery, but it's always nice to see something unconventional, even if I have no idea what it all means.

Rating: I was going to give this a rating, but considering the artists are delivering a panel on this installation, I'm going to wait to hear what they have to say first. Consider this rating Pending.

The only place left now is the Raymond Witt Gallery. How will this visit turn out? That's what we'll be finding out in Part Two. And by we, I mean you, since I was already there and know what I'm writing ahead of time just for the sake of killing this joke. Toodles!

Speaker: Sean Clute

I don't know about you, but my day just isn't complete unless I see something delightfully strange. In fact, we could all use a bit of extra strangeness today, couldn't we? So before you read on, click the link to this video. Go on, I'll wait.

That, my friends, was the work of Sean Clute, a New Media artist with one of the most unique approaches to creating art I've seen in a while. Mr. Clute paid a visit to Sacramento State recently and delivered a presentation on how he came upon New Media, his philosophy on the style, and how he goes about creating these works. Don't take my word for it, though--hear what the man himself has to say.

Even from the front row, I still can't record anything decently ever.

This story he's telling is related to a visit to Bulgaria during a solar eclipse celebration, by the way. I can't think of a more dramatic time to have an art epiphany. This man has a fascinating vision for possibilities. Remember that video you watched earlier? Not only did he animate and produce the video while drawing along with the animations, he had to invent and re-purpose his own tools and software to do so. The scene with the Olympic Runners, for example, which you may have elsewhere in a more static medium, went through four different kinds of software. The cameras used to capture the drawings were mounted on makeshift holders while Mr. Clute drew to the music while switching between camera views as the movie and sound he put together plays on. Are you getting the scope of this project yet?

Such is the way of New Media art. With more artistic tools available than ever, and an astonishingly broad scope of what is viewed as artistic in the contemporary eye, the potential stretches as far as the imagination dares to go. Mr. Clute's work demonstrates a certain innovation static mediums can scarcely grasp. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay for the entire presentation, so I cannot rightly give this man a rating, but I certainly can recommend him. If you see his name on a project, take the time to go see it. If nothing else, what you get will most certainly be unlike anything you've seen before.

SOL Collective

I have no idea what SOL means, but it's probably not what you think it means. Get your head out of the gutter.

For this visit, I went to the SOL Collective in downtown Sacramento. The reason I came by it was simple enough; after my Yelp mishap, I was none too eager to trust the internet again. When I saw a poster about a show titled Fused Perspectives and realized I happened to get off work not long after the show would open, I decided to stop by and see what they had. Of course, I got there a bit late, so the event was in full swing by the time I arrived and this is what I was greeted with.

Yes, I did record this with a potato. Why do you ask?

Obviously, this wasn't going to be like the other places I've seen so far. This place had musical performances and the art was a small collection from two UK artists, Dilrani Kaur and Vik Kainth. There was also a table of food--empty, since I got there late--and flyers with upcoming events SOL was either hosting or getting involved in, most of which were based on local activism. SOL, you see, in an activism-driven collective that focuses on art with social messages. But more on that later, let's talk about the art pieces.

As I said, the art was a collaborative collection from two different artists. Dilrani Kaur's art has a particular focus on Indian cultural symbols and creating forms through repeating patterns and shapes. These are all reproductions, but the original works were made with ink and graphite. If you look closely, you can very clearly see the pencil strokes, but the ink parts are made with extreme, painstaking precision. Kaur's art composition is quite impressive, both in terms of technical accuracy and sheer, abundant detail.

Ganesh by Dilrani Kaur

Dil Ki Rani by Dilrani Kaur

 Vic Kainth's work was more in the digital medium, mainly portraits. These portraits appear to be renderings of existing photos, but with a simplified shading style emphasizing shapes of highlights and shadows. They're not unlike certain well-known Pop Art of famous people, actually, and I quite enjoyed looking at them. While not bursting with the same mesmerizing detail as Kaur's works, Kainth certainly displays considerable skill in choosing interesting photos to work from and catching the eye with color and shapes.

Bob Marley Portrait by Vik Kainth

Oh, but the fun doesn't end there. Remember when I said SOL is an activism-driven collective?

An activism-driven collective? You don't say.

 Clearly they focus on topics of social justice, a term that Tumblr has ruined for everyone, so I'm going to redefine it here based on what I saw at the collective. Social justice is the gathering of like-minded people in order to serve a cause. The SOL collective uses art as the main tether, but through their art, they promote their cause and call people to action. It's all done in a very genuine, non-pretentious way that appeals mainly to young adults who want to share a message with the community.

A russet potato with an f/11 aperture, if you were wondering. The audio comes courtesy of a high-quality sea urchin.

On a final note, I'd also like to point out the graffiti-style art all over the building interior. It's just a very interesting extra touch that gives the entire experience more flavor.

What is it? Who cares. It's cool.

Uhh...lady, you might want to get that checked out...

One thing I hadn't brought up until now is the SOL Collective is pretty darn small. I cited this as a problem when I wrote about the Viewpoint Photo Gallery, so it might seem hypocritical for me to brush it off here. Let me explain. The problem with other small galleries isn't that they are small, it's that they are not an experience. The social messages of Viewpoint's photo display weren't all that different from that of SOL, but Viewpoint was quiet, constricted, and sterile. SOL was alive with activity and enthusiasm, full of welcoming people getting together to have a good time and work toward a cause. If I had a choice between a place like SOL and a place like Viewpoint, I will pick the living, breathing world over a white-walled, funeral-silent isolation tank any day.

For being so much more than I expected, I'm rating this visit A King-Sized Bar on Halloween.

The Capitol Building

Well, this was an interesting visit--unexpected, too, since I wasn't actually planning to go to the Capitol Building in Sacramento. Originally, I was going to visit the MAIYA Gallery, until I drove all the way there and found out it'd been closed for about two years. Thanks for the stellar up-to-date information, Yelp. You can count this post as two reviews if you like--for not even existing, the MAIYA Gallery gets the shameful rating of Carob.

So there!

Fortunately, as I was driving back, I passed the capitol building and decided to make a visit on the off-chance there might be an art display worth noting. In a pleasantly serendipitous turn of events, I found a rather unique collection of art on the first floor.

Hello, what's this?

This hallway and a few other short corridors connecting to it have a window for every county in the state of California. This might be a familiar concept to anyone who ever visited the California State Fair. These are essentially the booths set up for each county, but scaled down, and according to the museum docent, they're fairly recent additions, ranging from the '80s to a few weeks ago. The windows are designed by people from those counties and made to represent prominent features of the area.

Sacramento county

Marin county

Shasta County

Tuolumne County

Humboldt County

The question of the day is whether this is really art, or just an educational display. Personally, I argue it's both, but my reasoning for it being legitimate art is this: art is meant to reflect human existence, the experiences of people and how they view themselves. One thing I hadn't mentioned yet is these windows are taken quite seriously by the people of the counties. The docent told me a little story; the original display for Lassen County was all wood art. Somebody took issue with this, insisting their county was more than just wood, so the window display was changed to better reflect Lassen County as the residents saw it.

Pictured: how people of Lassen County view Lassen County.

I consider these displays art because they matter to people and because they serve the purpose of conveying human experiences, even if it's just a small window.

Hah, window, geddit? Oh, I kill me.

Long story short, this was a worthwhile visit. Even after seeing the entire hallway, there's an entire building and complex to explore with plenty of paintings and architecture to admire.

This picture has no relevance to contemporary art. I just wanted to show off how gorgeous the building is.

The MAIYA Gallery may have dropped the existence ball, but for the capitol building, I'm going to go ahead and rate it Novelty M&Ms just for being such a nice surprise.

Seriously though, don't trust Yelp.