Picture: Me coming out of the water after a race.

Image Altered. Water emphasized, skin grayscale.

Installation art is the use of sculptural materials to utilize a space for art. It can be used with any type of media and isn't confined to a specific space either public or small. 

Performance art is exactly what it sounds like: people acting, dancing, etc. in any place at any time! Performance art can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the performer's body and a relationship between performer and audience. 

Laurie Anderson is an American experimental performance artist and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental art and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s.

 

Blossom

Field. Cartoon. Rose. Blend. 

I just started with a filtered rose on photoshop and then i just kept going with it. 

Let me know how it makes you feel.

Music Video Critique!

Movie #27... by Gabe-

Interestingly interesting.

PoketMonsters Video with Tess and some other girls-

wow. that was completely random and confusingly funny.

music video (varsic & fill-up)-

some strange, alien trippy nonsense. too long.

jessica "i want to be free" video-

outstanding! amazing singing. 

the lamb story-

um...... OK. lamb? what lamb? looked like you were just messing around and accidentally recorded it.

A Scar To Remember

A shot. A screech of tires. Then nothing. Warm fluid running from my neck. Adrenaline rushes through my veins like fire. I stand there for a moment, trying to imagine what just happened. The pain is like none other I have ever experienced. My head throbs with it, but I stand. I place my hands on my neck, just under my jaw and I see a dark liquid flowing off them like water onto the cement stairs at my feet. Then another jolt. It feels as if and invisible hand is pulling the spinal cord in my neck out from the inside. I sit down on the step.

She came up behind me and asked, "Ben, are you all right?" It took me a second, but I replied, "I think I've been shot..." with a rough sigh. Every muscle in my body immediately tightened after I said those words. Had I been? Why would they shoot me? I had done nothing. No words were exchanged. I couldn't even see there faces that dark night. I was just trying to walk home. Why, God? Is this it? Is this where my story ends? Oh, Mom I can't do this to you. Dad, I love you. This will tear at my family's heart. I don't want to die. I'm terrified of death. These thoughts raced through my mind like roaring rapids as I sat there with nothing but my shorts on. Cold, wet and scared but comforted. She held my shirt tied around my neck to try and stop the bleeding. So much blood. I was beginning to feel light-headed.

But, no tears. No crying. Just gentle words of comfort from her. They were frantic, running to get help, dialing 911. I lie there. My head on her lap. Bleeding. Thinking. Why couldn't I have just stayed home, safe and sound? Is this my punishment, Lord? I deserve this. Sirens. Men pick me up and place me in the ambulance. Bright lights. Needles. Bags of clear fluids hang above me. Sirens. Motion. We're driving. Hospital. Don't know where I am. Nurses. Doctors. Questions. I remain perfectly awake, but dazed slightly. I answer the them. They are going to call my parents. Oh, no. Please God, make this go away. I'm sorry. Don't let my Mom find out about this. Don't let my Dad hear that his son has been shot in the neck from a strange voice over the telephone. The chaplain calls. My parents come. Now the tears flow like a dam-break. I apologize, express my love over and over again. My parents hold me. They cry. I lay on the operating table, neck brace on, covered in blood, covered only by a blanket. Rest.

On June 23, 2008 I was the victim of a drive-by shooting in my neighborhood just outside my school. I snuck out of my house at around 11p.m. to go swimming with my friends at Verdugo Hills Pool. After we were done swimming, we were walking down the path towards the sidewalk, when a dark car pulled up, shot once and sped off. After I heard the blast, I immediately felt a blunt pain in the back of my neck that would later be described as a .22 caliber bullet.

I spent about 2 days in Holy Cross hospital Intensive Care Unit. I was informed that the bullet had pierced the skin right below the right side of my jaw and was lodged between my neck vertebrae. I few millimeters in either direction and I would have been paralyzed from the neck down or worse... They would not be removing the bullet because it was too dangerous. Too "risky".

Three weeks later you wouldn't have known that I had been in the hospital, much less the victim of a drive-by. The doctor said I was perfectly healthy, just with a little extra metal in my body now. The muscle surrounding my vertebrae would encapsulate the bullet and keep it lodged there indefinitely. I was disappointed. I wanted that stupid thing out of me completely. But, now it serves as a reminder. A very real sign of what could have been.

God had his hand over me that night. I know I would not be here today if it wasn't for that miracle. It will forever be my scar to remember.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (film)

Based on the memoirs of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the film follows him throughout his massive stroke and recovery time in the hospital. Only able to communicate through blinking his left eyelid, the film is a very intimate and follows Bauby's life in recovery through first person experiences. The lead actor, Mathieu Amalric, must have had such a difficult time in the role as a deformed, mute man attempting to write a book.

Bauby's thoughts were heard throughout the film while he was laying in bed, sitting on the beach, and even while trying to watch a soccer game.

There was a scene that stuck out in my mind; when his children and their mother came to visit him and spend the day at the beach. His children, symbolize freedom and health and his desire to love them and hug them tugs at the emotions of the audience.

Overall I felt it was exceptionally well made and the actors played their roles with precision and flow that made the whole movie come together smoothly.

MIchael Phelps

Photos: Google
Michael Phelps will be returning to the pool to compete in the Charlotte UltraSwim in May for the first time since he was suspended by USA Swimming this month after a British tabloid published a photograph showing him with a marijuana pipe at a party in November at the University of South Carolina.

Honestly, when I first saw the picture of him holding the pipe, i was very disappointed and even a little upset. For those who know me, Michael Phelps is a person and a swimmer who i strive to imitate. His accomplishments in and out of the pool have been outstanding and unprecedented. He serves as motivation for me in the pool.

I own his book and have read it several times. He, like the rest of us, is nowhere near perfect but he strives for it and I commend him for that. He tripped up in 2004 for a DUI and ow this. But, when Obama admitted to his own use of marijuana, he was forgiven and even praised. Why can't Phelps be offered the same courtesy?

Many people don't know that Phelps, along with many other Olympic athletes, signed up for extra drug tests during the 2008 Beijing Olympics to prove that they all stand for something stronger than drug abuse.

In conclusion, I say: stay strong Phelps, and I can't wait to see what you can do at the 2012 Olympic Games in London!