Hooray! I feel so energized with my new project. I am planning to portray how I feel about the MBTA and the whole Charlie ticket fiasco. I originally was going to paint a subway scene on the canvas, but I decided a projection would be even better. The canvas I chose is 48 x 48 for it is about the size of a subway map in a station. I am collecting tickets from stations with the Charlie ticket and I am going to paste them onto the canvas in a design to give the background some life. I won't have a specific pattern for I want the design to be confusing to the viewer. I will then paint the actual subway map onto the canvas. I am then planning to project a slide show onto the canvas. I am going to all the major stations and I am going to take pictures whether they are Charlie ticket or cash/token. I plan to make the slide show fast pace so the viewer won't know what station they are at. The MTA song will play in the background. I can't wait for it to be finished. I hope it comes out like what is in my mind!!!

I travelled to the Harvard Fogg Art Museum to glance at the famous artist sketchbooks. They were on display at a small exhibition in the Straus Gallery of the museum. The collection contained skecthbooks from hundreds of years ago to ones from the last century. They varied from type of paper and quality.

Sargent used his skecthbooks for studies. He used these studies to create his final pieces. The two sketches from Henry Moore seemed like complete pictures to me; with full color and line. Some artists did caricatures within their sketchbooks. Thomas Rowlands depicted people's faces as different fish heads. There was a sketchbook from David Smith a sculpture for you could tell by the shapes and movement of his lines.

Many of these artist used their sketchbooks to simply do basic sketches with simple lines and simple mediums such as ink, pencil, and carcoal. The subjects in these skethes included animals, structures, and people. The sketches were of studies, completed works as well as just a startig point for the artist.

This exhibition shows that even though these artists were famous and dead that we still follow the same steps in creating art. We start with sketches that we collect as we carry our sketchbooks through new places and old. Our sketchbooks consist of the same range of artwork as they did hundreds of years ago.

For this project we had to choose a piece of writing to help us start our new project. I finally figured out what I would use for my project. With the changing fares and new way of riding the T in Boston, I thought I would go back to the past when the MBTA was the MTA. I had heard the song many times in my life and I decided with all of the change it would be a great influence for a piece. Heck, the name Charlie is used for the new tickets and cards. so here is my piece of writing:

Let me tell you the story
Of a man named Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket,
Kissed his wife and family
Went to ride on the MTA

Charlie handed in his dime
At the Kendall Square Station
And he changed for Jamaica Plain
When he got there the conductor told him,
"One more nickel."
Charlie could not get off that train.

Chorus:
Did he ever return,
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn'd
He may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned.

Now all night long
Charlie rides through the tunnels
Saying, "What will become of me?
Crying
How can I afford to see
My sister in Chelsea
Or my cousin in Roxbury?"

Charlie's wife goes down
To the Scollay Square station
Every day at quarter past two
And through the open window
She hands Charlie a sandwich
As the train comes rumblin' through.

As his train rolled on
underneath Greater Boston
Charlie looked around and sighed:
"Well, I'm sore and disgusted
And I'm absolutely busted;
I guess this is my last long ride."
{this entire verse was replaced by a banjo solo}

Now you citizens of Boston,
Don't you think it's a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay
Vote for Walter A. O'Brien
Fight the fare increase!
And fight the fare increase
Vote for George O'Brien!
Get poor Charlie off the MTA.

Chorus:
Or else he'll never return,
No he'll never return
And his fate will be unlearned
He may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man (Who's the man)
He's the man who never returned.
He's the man (Oh, the man)
He's the man who never returned.
He's the man who never returned.

Welcome again to my blog! My second post is about a magnificent exhibition going on at my school. I traveled to the CRAFTY show and was amazed by most of the work shown. The basis of the show was the basis of craft as an art or that is at least what I got out of it. I was drawn right away to the photo montages create by John O'reily. They weren't created by photoshop or some computer program, but by hand. You could see the glue marks and the actual seems of the overlapping paper.


I think with new technology people seem to forget the old way. Craft is been taken over by a machine. You can no longer see the effort of the creator. Art created by computers, to me, seem effortless even though the artist has spent hours infront of a glowing tube that has surely made them go blind. Not all art is being replaced by technology. The hand craft beading of Nick Cave displays this notion. The art of hand beading has been around for thousands of years and is displayed wonderfully in nick Cave's piece. It is bright and vivid with the splashes of silver and gold on the with champagne tone of the fabric. It may seem flashy but I enjoyed this piece a lot.


As I walked around some other pieces caught my eye. I was drawn to Lara Schnitger's work. Her fabric montages of a lower naked half of a male and a female amused my eyes. They were simple but straight forward. I wouldn't consider them pornographic at all. They were just playful with their fabrics cut into the shape of sex organs. I was also drawn to Imi Hwangbo's layered work. The layered work showed a lot of time and effort in cutting out each individual panel that were then layered on top of one another.


The final artist that I enjoyed I almost looked over. I was ready to leave the exhibition when I walked by the work of retired dentist Ruvim Mogendovich. The hundreds of carved animal on the shelves made me squeal with delight. I own a few hand carved animals but none like these. The smiles on the figures of the animals make them come to life in a child like way. They made my day. I could tell that a skilled hand had carved these animals out of scrap wood. It made sense when I read he was a retired dentist for dentists know how to use their hands to carve.




I wasn't disappointed in this show. It made me feel at home for my work isn't always fine art but more on the crafty side. I always liked working with my hands and not so much on the computer. I could see the time and effort in everyone's artwork even if I didn't like what was shown infront of me.