User:Danielhernandez

bio
Hispanic Male Age 21 Height: 5-10 Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Birth date: 8/16/87 Driving Impairments: N/A

assignments
"Ive always wanted to" Well technically I've always wanted to go skydiving but I think it might prove to be much more of a challenge considering expenses and past efforts mentioned in class failing due to poor weather. Bungee jumping will then have to suffice my need of wanting to jump to my death (knock on wood). Don't get me wrong I also want to bungee jump but for some off reason I'd prefer the former. Of course both have their similarities as I just mentioned, chance of jumping to ones death (knock on wood) and the chance piss myself silly for the first time since I was 2.

midterm
Maybe getting to class an hour early only to find out that the door was locked was a blessing. A blessing? Unlikely. With an hour to spare, I walked a lap around the North Campus and to my demise only managed to shed about two minutes off the clock. Then I remembered about the Olympic Sculpture Park, where Steven, had told us his friend was stopped by what might of seemed like the “thought police.” I walked a few blocks North and right out of the woodwork the first sculpture I saw was “Typewriter Eraser” by Claes Oldenburg. I am not trying to say my choice was any more pure or unbiased than anyone else’s because I got an early start but it definitely helped make this feel like less of an assignment.

Now I do not really understand modern art at all or art in general. That sounded bad, what I mean is the meaning behind it all. I kind of have an understanding about art during the French revolution. I am sure to be wrong in some aspects but from what I get all art was biblical, having to do with or about anything religious. Along comes a man that paints a bowl of fruit and all of a sudden its mind blowing. That is probably oversimplified, but wait! It took me quite some years but I was able to appreciate that. I was able to understand the break in conformity, which in turn led my mind to be blown as well but that is not to say that I understand the piece itself. It need not take me a cheesy haircut, black turtleneck and glass of wine while uttering “Oh, yes… the humanity” to understand it. But sometimes it does, unluckily for me I just do not seem to follow.

The aesthetic pleasure usually followed by “what the hell were they thinking” seems to be the process in my case. Again that is not to say I mean it in a bad way at all but in this case I did. “Typewriter Eraser” although did strike the wrong chord. Most of the larger sculptures seemed to follow a certain idea from what my eye saw and contrasted some of the smaller ones. “Eagle” and “Wake” which turned out to be my favorite were large and flowing contrasted to some of the smaller ones that were painted all black with angles and identifiable shapes. Then there was the pizza cutter with dreads, which almost seemed to be careening down the hill into the traffic below, upon noticing that I chuckled a bit.

As it turns out Mr. Oldenburg’s other works seem to draw my interest. His wife Coosje Van Bruggen is actually his partner as well. She has helped him create such works as “Soft Bathtub” which is a bathtub made of cloth. Mrs. Van Bruggen normally does the sewing on the soft sculptures. Other soft sculptures include “Soft Toilet, Soft Typewriter, Soft Drums” and various other “Soft” foods. It seems Claes Oldenburg likes to take any everyday object and make a huge version of it. I wondered why then it was that I could not find “Typewriter Eraser” appealing? I realized then that it was just a lot easier to hate something than it was to like it because it is new. That is not to say that now I have come to enjoy “Typewriter Eraser”. I am very sure that there are plenty more people out there like me that just do not get it.

I this case of “bigger is better” the saying seems to be true. The same reason I came to like “Wake”; its enormous size yet smooth flowing curves of steel led me to understand and appreciate the works of Mr. Oldenburg. My science teacher told me a long time ago that humans don’t seem to understand large proportions and numbers until they grow older. Lucky for me it seems I have reached an age where I’m able to understand how mind boggling and how hard it is to create a work of are such as Claes Oldenburg’s. Who the hell makes a giant ice cream cone and sticks on the roof a building in downtown or a giant lipstick on tank tracks? Claes Oldenburg does.