Almuneda Carracedo & Robert Bahar

Online artist 5

I have seen this at a film fest in North Park. This documentary follows the story of three women immigrants who worked in the garment industry, underpaid and overworked. In the process a boycott against the popular young women's retailer Forever 21 was made. I thought this documentary was both beautifully shot and the story was also compelling. Besides photography I also enjoy creating videos. I think I could use some of the skills I have learned and continue to learn in photography, and apply it in how I shoot my video footages.

*Please click on the blog title for online link

Tony Howell

Online Artist 4

I absolutely love night photography. I guess I could have done a special project about night photography, but the self transformation book was really important to me too. I came across this photographer from the UK online. He actually does different kind of photography. There is something about the night...when the last light of the sun is about to go out and the sky does not look black but rather a deep shade of blue. Sometimes you get lucky and see some shades of purple. I just love it. In a way I been experimenting with night photography before this semester even started, and I'll probably will be coming across it again in my work.
Here are samples of some of my early night shots.

Final Book Update

Hooray! My book is finally done. This book has become very personal. It was both hard (as sometimes it is hard to look back at the past) and pleasurable working on it. Though, I don't think I had enough time to really vividly express my self transformation, I believe this book captured some bits of my life that have shaped the person I am today. So here are some pages from my book.

Anne Geddes

Online artist 3
Date viewed: April 8, 2008


I love seeing these small infants wrapped around petals of flowers. They look so beautiful and so peaceful. I wonder how she creates her images, It looks like she uses Photoshop, but I read she rarely use digital cameras. On her website there is a series called Miracle, a collection of her favorite pictures in 25 years of work. All of the pictures are of infants wrapped in different kinds of flower. She mentioned she shoot mostly in the early morning since that seems like the time the babies are calm. Finding the right time to photograph your subject is definitely plays a role. I know first hand how hard it is to stop a crying baby, and yes I also remember that magical time of calmness. Such as when your baby is finally asleep, and you look at her and think what an incredible small person. How innocent and pure. Some of her images definately reminds me of that moment.

aaah...spring break

Over the weekends I went to take more pictures for my artist book. This took me to my old high school, around our neighborhood, and just places where I use to go to a lot. I been working on my artist book during this spring break...we only have about a month to finish this before it's due...and I'm feeling kinda anxious. I'm working on some other stuff, but these few days my focus is to get this artist book going. I'm building more ideas as I go. I just bought a new scanner which I got for a pretty good deal at the store so I can start scanning some materials. My process right now is to just get the layout and the images going, and then concentrate on the text later on.

I have also reconsidered the names for my chapter like for this one I'm thinking instead of "As a teenager" I'm replacing that title to "As becoming" I feel like a lot had happened through my teenage years and even my early twenties...I wanted to include my early twenties with this chapter. Plus this title is more ambiguous than the previous one, which is intentional.

Anyway the semester is almost over, and I can't believe graduation is near. Maybe I'll have a nice vacation somewhere after graduation!

Abigail Cohen

Online Artist 2
Date viewed: March 23, 2008

Abigail Cohen was a young artist finding her voice, and exploring her own life through photographs. Herself and how she relates to others around her had been her ongoing subject. She thought of life as a cycle of always dieing and being reborn again, a circle that is never ending. Her work one cycle of my Journey shows Abigail of finding her own voice as an artist and as a person. She talks about how everything has a balance, a balance between intimacy and tension, of chaos and fluidity, of mystery and awareness. Unfortunately, Abigail's life was cut short because of a heart failure at the age of 27.

This artist compels me because she was close to my age when she passed away. It's so sad to see anybody pass away at such a young age. I especially think her work one cycle is meaningful, I connect with her in that I think around your mid twenties, is the time when you are really trying to find your own voice. I also think it's always harder when you actually make yourself the subject of your artwork. This means you have to analyze yourself, and make the "personal" public. Putting it out in the public means that it will be open to criticism. I'm glad that she was able to put herself in this spot, and have found to be herself and not be ashamed of it. "I am concerned with being home, being attached, being safe, but also being left vulnerable to the wild world, beckoning and demanding my attention," she remarked. In life there are times where you feel safe, and then there are times when you feel scared. Feelings or emotions always changes. I think there is always a sense of freedom when you are able to present yourself as both being strong and vulnerable at the same time.

Photography at the Poles

Art Event 3
Location: Balboa Park
SDNHM: Odover Gallery
Date: February 23, 2008

At the Odover Galley an exhibition called Photography at the Poles was happening. Here photographers focused their talents in capturing the icy poles. Penguins, polar bears, ice rocks, walrus, and arches formed by ice were captured. The icy landscape freezed the atmosphere but yet in a pleasant way. The joy of the three penguins playing and jumping by Ralph Lee Hopkins, will make you smile. Hopkins also photographed the picture above.

Abe Ordover on the other hand had another attempt of capturing the landscape of the poles. He focused on the great sea arches formation, and the defined shapes that they make. One I especially liked was where the ice arc was coming out of the frame, breaking away from it. Over and over he showed the different blue shades the ice makes in his photographs such as Blue World and Blue Ice 613. He also had pictures of penguins. I was struck by a photograph titled "love", a close up image of two penguins. As I look at these photographs, I started to become a little bit jealous. Man, I wonder how it felt to be out there to take pictures of these magnificent animals of the poles. I wonder how the chilly wind felt on their cheeks, and even maybe at times of concentration the chilly weather is forgotten.

There were also two video installation in the exhibition. One was called Shot in the Antarctic by Allan Harley. I find video and photography as a medium that I will be willing to work with. Harley's shots of penguins are joyful to watch. A Colony of penguins seems to be there for one another. Penguins are considered birds that can't fly, but other birds won't be able to survive the cold weather of the Antarctica either.

This exhibition was inspiring. A lot of the pictures were up close, it gives you a chance to take a really good look at these wonderful creations. I remember I did a photography of ducks and geese. I wished I would have focused my camera lens more on them. My hope is to have a better camera someday. This makes me want to take more pictures.

World Volcanos

Art event 2
Location: San Diego Natural History Museum
Balboa Park, second floor
Date: February 23, 2008

After photographing some of the native plants around the Balboa Park area. We went to see some of the artworks on display inside the San Diego Natural Museum. They were having something else going that day called A Day in Pompeii, and it was pretty crowded. When we got to the second floor I can't help but notice some of the pictures on the wall. At first I noticed a colorful photograph by an artists name Stephen and Donna. As I got closer I realized that the houses on the picture were almost covered with the earth. It turned out that what I was looking at was an image of the aftermath of Mt. Unzen volcanic eruption. Then I realized that everything on this wall is about volcanic eruptions.

My husband and I kept on walking, then I came to a stop to look at an overwhelming grayish tone image. There it was one of the largest volcanic eruption in recent history the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines by Hoa Qui photography. Memories started filling my head. I left the Philippines as a young child in 1990, so I was not there to witness this natural disaster. However, I had many relatives who had witnessed the massiveness of this volcanic eruption. I remember their stories through the many phone calls about lahars (mud flows) flowing in our province, asses everywhere, darkness that lasted for days, and the lack of clean water.

When I visited our province back in the late 90s, I long for the green trees and grassy field that I saw playing in the street as a kid. Ridding in a yellow van my, older brother brought to pick us up from the airport, I could not quite recognized the places I was seeing looking out the window. There was an area called Bacaloor, where none of the houses were visible except for the roof top. All were buried underground by the lahar that had flowed in the village.

As we stopped in front of our old house, I could see the steps in front of our house where my I used to watch my dad crack the crabs to separate the meat from the shells were almost all buried with the dried out lahar. The camiato trees that we used to climbed up to get the fruits were also no longer there. However my sadness soon disappeared as I saw the many people in the street waving hi and smiling at us. They have heard of our arrival, and many got out of their houses to welcome us. Last time they had seen us we were so small, they were so glad to see us all grown up. Ha memories...next time we visit the Philippines I want to bring my daughter.

The images on this show were sure powerful. Mother nature is something you can't stop. It reminds you that not everything is within your control.

what's new

Here is what I have been working at this week.

I added more design on page 2-3


On page 4-5, I completely redone these pages. I think they turned out way better than the previous ones.

Here are some new pages that I have worked on.




Anyway, I have five more pages left to do for this section of my book...so soon this section will be done.

artist book update

Gurriella Graffiti Artist-Banksy

Artist: Banksy
Date viewed: February 13, 2008

I found out about this Graffiti Artist while I was surfing on the web. It turns out he's a pretty well know gurriella graffiti artist in the UK. With rumored celebrity patronage such as Brad and Angelina buying his work. They said nobody really know who he is because all of his work were done anonymously. They are some spectulation on wikipedia of who he might be, but I have not found any other sources. His work is direct to the point. One that caught my eye was his work where Queen Elizabeth II was having intimate contact with another woman. Though I started to think...if she was a lesbian...so what's wrong with that? Is he being homosexual paranoid, or is he trying to say something else? Have we gotten better the way we treat people that we might consider different from us? That will be a long discussion. Another image that caught my eyes was of a little girl bleeding and standing in the middle of a battle zone. What stricking was that the media takes pictures and footages of her, instead of helping her. I thought that image was pretty strong also. For the most part the images are in black and white, colors are sometimes use to emphasize what he is trying to convey to the audience.

He's murals are very popular. People actually take pictures of them, to sell them to make money. I like that his murals are in places that you would least expect art to be seen, like on the side of a building, next to a trash can, on windows,lockers, etc...I also noticed that he often uses a little girl on his work. Sort of taking the innocense of this little girl. Mice are also another images that reappers a lot in his work. I wonder if the rat is his alter ego.

Jungle Book

Art event 1
Location: Don Powell Theatre
Date: Feb 8, 2008
A new adaptation by Margaret Larlham

I took my little girl, Alicia, along with me to see this theatre show at SDSU last Friday. It was the opening of this new adaptation of Rudyards Kipling's Jungle Book. As we sat on our sit, there was a woman looking for a small person. She held a poster and walked around the room. What a way to set the audience for what about to come. When the curtain opened I was somewhat disappointed to see just a projection of an area of San Diego Zoo. The idea of the show was that, instead of the Jungle, the site was changed to the Zoo. When all the visitors are gone, that's when the Zoo really comes alive. What differs this more to the original is that a girl is playing the little boy (man's cub) part. Furthermore, my disappointment did not last for very long, as a spot light focused on what looked like a bird behind the screen, giving it some kind of special effect. The screen was then lifted, and our eyes feasted on a beautiful scenic design. At mid center stage a tree house, right stage a cave, on the foreground ropes hung around the sides. What more to say was that the costumes were also beautiful, every last detail was well though out. As far as the acting was concern, I had favorites, the goofy raccoon, her master the tiger, the leader of the wolves pack, and the bumble bee. If I were to change something on this production, it would probably some of the lighting. There were times where I felt some of the lights could have been turned off, like when the wolves took the little girl on left stage, and for awhile they stayed there. The lights that was lighting up the tree house could have been cancelled, to further focus on the actors on the left. I was also expecting the crew to take a bow at the end, but I waited for a little a bit, and they did not come out. We then decided to leave. Overall, I would recommend people to see this show. It was fun, and creative. There were mostly adults in the audience, but I strongly believe kids would love this show. It is so much better than those shows that they see at Disneyland.

class exercise

*image taken from the web

Oliver Herring

I don't really know about this piece. Spitting paint out in the air, that was unexpected. What can I say about that. I felt sorry for the guys, one of the guy with the red dye on his face look like he just came out the battlefield. This reminded me of some of the pictures that you see from war photojournalist, only this ones are not real. Nobody really got hurt. I don't know what to feel about the work. I did notice the blue eyes on one of the guys against his green face. I wonder what was his intention behind his work.

Abedini Reza and Saed Meshka

Saed Meshka


Abedini Reza



These artist are worth looking at. It's great to see graphic designers' work across the globe. Too bad we can't read what there saying, but the calligraphy are beautiful. I love the use of negative space, and I like that image with the bird just on the side of it. They look simple and interesting at the same time. Reza's use of text and images are effective. I like the man with texts coming out of his shirt. It's really catchy. I also like the use of color, his background pretty much is one color, while the images he uses make up for the color that is needed. I really wish I can understand these two man's work better. If only I can read the calligraphy. Thankfully one of the girl in our class was able to translate for us a little bit. I also checked Reza's website, and if anyone is interested there is a little bit more information on his site about his work.
Reza's website

Arturo Hererra

Experimental, very experimental. Love the abstraction of the images created by leaving the film in a glass of water. He also mentioned putting them in a cup of coffee...I'm trying to cut down on coffee, maybe I'll pass on that idea. I might end up drinking the coffee instead. Anyhow yeah, I thought the images were like collages, but only in an abstract way. No, I don't think you can do that with digital camera, he used a regular film. I remember when I took photography in high school we had to develop our film in the darkroom. Dipped them in some kind of chemical, can't remember what, then dipped then in water. That room had a strong smell, but it was fun. Our teacher had us experimenting with all kinds of stuff, like using paint after the pictures have been developed, or leaving them in water with bleach to get some kind of effect.

Tom Scott

I like the idea of finding some images on the sand at a beach. Saw bunch of trees, and I especially like it when there is something along with the sand like a stone, seaweed, etc...I wonder if those were set on there, or if he actually found them like that. It's like finding something on the clouds, only it's the sand on the beach. I wonder how he came up with that idea. I remember there was a student who took pictures of shadow before, that was cool. Hmmm what other things can you take pictures of with the similar idea?

Sarah Moon

I did not really like the audio on this piece, I thought it was rather too fast. I found myself trying to catch up with what she was saying. What I did like was that some of the shot were taken one after another, this gave them a sense of movement. I also like when she was talking about the little girl, and how beautiful her blue eyes were, and it started to close up on her eyes. Yes I thought she did have pretty eyes even without seeing the color because the photograph was in sepia.

The transistion was also different, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Maybe yeah
sometimes it feels like they were a stack of pictures being shown one after another. Other times I felt a little bit dizzy during the transitions. One thing I noticed the pictures were going as fast as her narration.

Artist's Book

Well I have started to think about what I wanted to do with the artist book assignment.
I know it is about a book of transformation...about maybe personal journal both the physical and the untangiable. Well I was thinking more about how can I represent something that is not tangiable...that is what I feel inside.

Digital work using Illustrator

I have just been practicing using Adobe Illustrator. Here is a sample of what I have worked on. Maybe I can use this along the way in my project. We'll see...anyway here is what I worked on. I made it into gif format using Photoshop.

Stefan Sagmeister

Typography is something a graphic designer must know to create effective work. You can change a feeling of a design just by changing the type of letterings you use. Sagmeister's effective because the image(s) and the text(s) on his work directly reflect on another. His hands produces the text and the rest is there to see. Anyways, just wondering those tatoos, were those real? That has to hurt a lot. Curious? Type Sagmeister on google image search.

Getting use to ID

First day in artist's book class

Today is the first day of class, and it's also my last semester. It's been a very busy day today. I went to my internship, and learned more about editing. Also, I started to learn more about television programming. When I got home, few hours later it was time to go to school. I ended up taking May May in my class because my sister was running late. She was supposed to babysit for me. Anyway, I don't mind having May May around, it's cool I got to take her to class with me, since I will be graduating soon. I'm glad our teacher did not mind also.

In class, we watched David Carson. I remember last semester almost half the class in our web class did a research on him. It's funny how he just experiments on his stuff, but it still comes out cool.