Hello! Recently, I visited YBCA(Yerba Buena Center of the Arts) to check out their exhibit Conceiving Place. Did you know, the first Tuesday of each month for YBCA is free admission! Wow!

Before my visit, I did some research on the topic of the exhibition, Civic Engagement. To me, Civic Engagement is actions (one’s or a group’s) to recognize issues and make changes. I’m not sure if I have really experienced a type before but I’ve seen it take place like projects to help a community.

During my visit, I took 5 photos within 5 categories. 

1.      Something that makes you smile

This made me smile because it’s full of color and it looks almost like a collage and I love collages! I liked how the pictures are angled and some overlaps others.

2.      Something that frustrates you

I was confused when I saw this because I couldn’t piece together what it was. I looked for a label but I couldn’t find one for it. I felt frustrated that I couldn’t understand it.

3.      Something that relates to your work at the Asian Art Museum.

This wall is a space filled with many people’s ideas. It’s a hands-on space with comfortable seating for idea brainstorming. I love how it’s a collection of thoughts and its community building. At the museum, we also have a place for visitors to get creative with their ideas with our art activities. Recently, we have a “box project” that’s inspired by the 28 Chinese exhibit and we pulled out some themes of recycling and repurposing materials. Many visitors have participated in our activities and created unique boxes. Although many did take their cool art with them, some left them with us. We took them and displayed it in a space for other visitors to check out!

4.      Something that makes you question your understanding of Civic Engagement

This made me question my understanding of Civic Engagement. This is part of a research project called “Journey to Refuge” which explores neighborhoods that’s affected by prisons and incarcerations. I have not though about Civic Engagement in this point of view. I do feel that my understanding of Civic Engagement is limited but after seeing this, I realized Civic Engagement can take many forms.

 5.      Something you want to learn more about

This is also part of “Journey to Refuge”. I was really intrigued by this collection by the way it appears to visitors. Headphones are provided to listen to the videos. There are books and binders of information. I want to learn more about this project and what was discovered from it.

I enjoyed my visit to YBCA. The exhibit was fairly easy to find as it was near the entrance of the museum. The bright yellow color caught my attention and is definitely an eye catching color. Overall, Conceiving Place was really unique exhibit and you should definitely go check it out!(First Tuesdays of the month is Free Admission!)

-Ivy

This week, I finally got to check out Conceiving Place at YBCA amongst other cool, thought provoking exhibits. Prior to visiting it, I had never heard of the term, "Civic Engagement" but I made the assumption that it was related to communities building something together...

Before the visit:

The easiest way to explain what Civic Engagement is to relate to your own community. Have you ever heard or seen people in your neighborhood/city/or in the Bay Area come together and and work towards a common goal to better their standard of living or to tackled a politically bent issue by protesting, making a petition, etc? That's exactly what it is and is often used to explain activism done by young people.

Civic Engagement to me, is a community learning how to work together and refusing to coexist with oppression by using their voices! It's all about getting recognition for their feats and to help change perceptions.

Have I had prior experience with the idea? Well, if it does count, I did work at a polling place junior year and vowed that I never would again. The volunteers who came in to promote the politicians they supported and numerous obvious questions about how to vote exhausted me and I didn't feel like I was contributing to a greater good.

So without further ado, some important points I searched hard for:

Something that made me smile:

In a sense, I felt both overjoyed and and relieved that many others are aware of what gentrification is doing to urban areas in the US and share the common feeling of hopelessness when it comes to how much you can do for your own community alone.

Something that made me question my understanding of Civic Engagement:

Prison culture?? In what way could a community prevent that? From stats to documentaries I've read, incarceration is often times more the fault of the government than the men of color imprisoned. By marginalizing a community, tension and violence erupts and hurts the people leading to a continuous cycle of it.

Something that frustrated me:

I've heard the term generational trauma before and I'd like to get to the bottom of what it is and how exactly, it affects individuals. One example that is clear cut to me is the prevalence of alcoholism in many Native American communities and has shaped the DNA of the members, being passed down from parent to child. I also wonder how such a cycle can be ended.

Something relates to my work at the Museum:

Creating a safe space! Like the Asian, YBCA did a great job of cultivating a relaxing, comfortable environment for visitors to express ideas, worries, and how to make a change. Both institutions also encourage intergenerational interaction through art and discussion and make a point of displaying political art without having a clear bias of what they think is right or wrong, but leave everything up to the visitor's interpretation.

Something I want to learn more about:

I know virtually nothing about the Native American students who occupied Alcatraz in the late 60's-early 70's other than the fact that it was ended the event by cutting off the power supply. I'm interested in how it has benefited Native American communities today and how non-Indigenous Americans reacted, in support of the issue or not.

After my visit:

Although I had never heard of the term, the content of the exhibit led me realizing I knew exactly what Civic Engagement is. I think I developed a deeper understanding of how communities are marginalized and sense of respect for the many historical instances where people have defied that. I'll admit that I was disappointed to see how small the exhibit was, almost as if it held no relevance. Even the employee at the ticket desk had never heard of it, ironically. That just goes to show how unimportant such matters in are in our society and why we have to educate ourselves and not rely what we're told. Overall, it was an interesting experience and I enjoyed YBCA as a whole.

Samya

Today, I visited the Yorba Buena Center of the Arts to take a look at the special exhibition called "Conceiving Place". This special exhibition focuses on

 a term called "civic engagement". Before looking up the definition of that term, I thought civic engagement meant to engage in a community to try to make changes for the greater good, and I thought it was only for inequality or political issues.

According to Wikipedia, Civic engagement or civic participation is the encouragement of the general public to become involved in the political process and the issues that affect them. It is the community coming together to be a collective source of change, political and non-political. 

There are a few photos I took at the exhibit. This one is a quote and it made me smile because that's basically my life motto. 

This photo made me think about my understanding of civic engagement. I thought it was all about big political issues, but if you think about it, isn't the "idea wall" civic engagement? 

In this photo, I couldn't understand why the artist put her mouth an sucked on the metal bars in her performance.

This next photo reminds me of us interns making projects for visitors to do and executing them to the public.

In this last photo, I was wondering if the drawing was "Tasty" from the show "Orange is the New Black" because of the wall of all prison related projects and items.

After seeing the exhibition, my views on civic engagement have changed a little bit. I understand it more. Before my visit, I thought it had to do with protesting and trying to pass bills, all that technical stuff. But it also consists of performance art and political art. During my visit, as I looked at everything in the exhibit, my views started to change and I gradually understood it better. 

It was a really quiet, small space, but it made the exhibition more intimate and gave it a peaceful atomosphere. It allowed more empathy and gave the feeling that everything you looked at would slowly sink in, allowing you to better understand. It was really relaxing and I learned something new. If you ever go visit, the book on torture tools/methods was interesting. And disturbing...

- Queena

Hellooooo! I'm new here haha. So just recently I went to the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts for their exhibition , Conceiving Place. Before my visit, I did research on what civic engagement was. 

According to google, "Civic engagement refers to the ways in which citizens participate in the life of a community in order to improve conditions for others or to help shape the community's future. This term has been used to date primarily in the context of younger people." (http://jtd.sagepub.com/content/3/3/236.abstract). Civic engagement to me means being involved in a community to make a difference in any way possible. I've done a lot of civic engagement before because I;m trying to make a career out of it. I'm really passionate about social justice work. I was advocating in the LGBTQ community last year for equal rights, teaching health issues at my school, and even more!

During my visit, I was really interested in the exhibition. The way it was set up was as if it was a walk-in office which was really cool. Here are some pics that I took:

Something that makes you smile- This made me smile because it showed how even though we are so tiny on this earth, we are still just as important.

Something that makes you question your understanding of Civic Engagement- The whole exhibit questioned my understanding of civic engagement because I always saw civic engagement as going out physically to help others.

Something that frustrates you- This frustrated me because although we just legalized same-sex marriage, we still have so many issues to address to regain justice for everyone.

Something that relates to your work at the Asian Art Museum- This installation was showing the process of being a citizen or just someone belonging into a community. It really reminded me of a installation we have at our museum called "Buy Everything On You." Theirs had opinions of other peoples about the work which reminded me of how we presented "Buy Everything On You" to others from our perspective and give our opinions which is what we do at the museum: interpreting art.

Something that you want to learn more about- I was really interested in the process of becoming a citizen or being accepted and how different the stories were. At the YBCA it showed different perspectives of acceptance which got me curious about it.

There were many resemblances to the work of the artist we met at Recology to the art work of the 28 Chinese. One of the big resemblance that I've noticed was a heavy cultural influence within their work. For example, Ma Li described that the  the curtains she reused resembled Chinese fans. Another resemblance, is the fact that these artist are all reusing unwanted materials that's been thrown out, such as plastic bottles and dirty water. 

Recology was a one of a kind trip. Never, would I have expected to see an artist-in-residence at the dump. Ma Li's work was truly expressive of her generation and upbringing and reminded so much of a certain upcoming exhibit..Overall, I'd love to see how her project works out and possibly see some of her work in a gallery or museum setting one day.

28 Chinese is going to be the highlight of my year. Over the past months, I've being paying close attention to contemporary Chinese art and literature, admiring the juxtaposition or "fight" between Mao's communism and culture. I highly recommend both Xiaolu Guo's films and novels for a deeper understanding of what the artists of this exhibit are trying to convey through their work. 

A few weeks back, our team visted two artists who's currently residing in SF Recology. During their stay, they are able to create unqiue, creative and personal, artwork. Mali and Michael, the two artists we met were incredibly inviting and seeing their temporary studios were really exicting. I loved how they used everything they found from "the dump" and basically created something out of nothing! That's awesome! 

The exhibit, 28 Chinese will open in the summer this year, Something I found similar with Recology and 28 Chinese was the concept of deconstruction and reconstruction. The artists sometimes took apart objects and used them for another purpose. It's interesting how things can function in multiple ways and even in some ways that are so unusual but fascinating.

-Ivy 

I had such a wonderful time on Sunday. Thank you all for making it extra special! I had also never been to Alcatraz before so it was an interesting experience both seeing the art and the prison for the first time. I thought the exhibit used the space well both to contrast freedom with confinement and to catalyze a dialogue about this juxtaposition. One of my favorite pieces was Refraction, the big bird wing made from Tibetan solar stoves. This piece in particular used the space in a way that was almost frustrating for the viewer, which I think was kind of the point (to feel confined). I also thought the exhibit was successful in making cross cultural, cross nation connections, like comparing the Tibetan Buddhist chant with the Hopi song. Overall, the artwork was beautiful but above all, thought provoking.

-Natalie

The trip visiting Alcatraz to see AiWeiWei's exhibition was amazing! I really enjoyed the time I spent there. One of my favorite installments among all of Ai WeiWei's collection of installments within the exhibition was "blossom" mainly because of the setting that it was located in. I was really intrigued by the hospital setting plus this installment also gave me a piece of information about the artist's childhood which was something nice to know. Another one of my favorite was "Stay tuned" since I have never seen an actual jail cell myself until I had visited Alcatraz. Not only that, there were also these audios that had people from different parts of the world talking or singing for activism which allowed me to compared the views of these many people from around the world. 

-Dayna

My favorite installation would have to be the hand painted kites. I didn't happen to get a picture of it, but the silk screen kite happened to be the one that stood out the most to me because of all of the symbolism it contained. From a distance, you would assume the the pattern of birds was just a unique design the artist created however they really were the national birds of countries that hold the world's most opressive governments. Art that manages to convey subliminal messages and still be aesthetically pleasing is a challenge but seems to be Ai Wei Wei's forte. It was definitely an eye-opening experience. Thank you so much for taking us Hannah!

Samya

Hello! Last Sunday, we hopped onto a boat and went to Alcatraz(The Rock) for an art adventure! Alcatraz's history always fascinated and I really enjoyed visiting the island. There were mulitple installations in the Aiweiwei exhibit but my favorite is "With Wind". The With Wind installation incorporated handmade kites by Chinese artisans and some kites included quotes from Aiweiwei himself, Nelson Mandela and more. I was amazed at the size, color, detailed images on the kites, especially with the dragon. I felt the most connected to this part of the exhibit because kites were a significant toy, plaything in my childhood. My parents talked and told stories to me about playing with handmade kites when they were kids and they've also taught me how to fly one. I really enjoyed walking through the room and it brought back some sweet memories. 

-Ivy

On Sunday us Asian Art interns went to Alcatraz to see a really cool exhibit by Ai Weiwei. In case you don't know who that is, he's an amazing Chinese artist and activist who has been arrested several times for speaking out against the Chinese government. His show is about freedom of speech which is in stark contrast to its setting in Alcatraz. The dichotomy between the prison and the art is powerful - it really got to me. He also did a wonderful job of bringing the audience into the exhibit not just with the lack of barriers between us and the artwork, but by having postcards at the end that will be sent to prisoners of conscience around the world. It was an amazing experience and everyone should check it out before it's gone! I put some of the pics I took up top to give you a taste. 

Aliya

I know this may seem conceited of me, but I really love this print of a tiger I made last year. I spent a lot of time carving into the linoleum, both class time and my own time. I think it took me a little over a month to finish carving (maybe because I'm a perfectionist). Most prints were made with a press, but a few I made with barons.

Well anyways, tigers are my favorite animals. I admire them so much. They symbolize strength, fearlessness, and stability. And I just really find them to be the most beautiful creatures that walk on this Earth.

I titled it "Apex". Getting the linoleum to look exactly how I wanted was a literal pain in the neck. My neck hurt every day when I hovered over my desk carving it. But after all that hard work, it turned out how I wanted it to! I don't remember exactly how many I made, but it was more than 30 prints. 

I hope you guys enjoyed my print! I know I did.

-Queena

I've been absent for quite a bit now. What with winter break, work, college applications, and school, its been a whirl wind. But, as my first post of 2015, I'd like to share with you all, Andy Lovell. An artist who's main medium is print making. His work is something really close to my heart and i hope you all enjoy him as well. My favorite pieces done by Lovell are his perspectives of the London underground train systems, so heres an example of that.

While looking for print inspiration for the upcoming activity development, I came across the beautiful works of Shinji Ando. Shinji Ando was born in Japan and also obtained his art education there. During his printing career, many of his works were presented in private exhibitions in Japan as well as the U.S. 

Etching is a traditional printmaking technique which incorporates the process of using an etching needle to create an image on a metal plate. His beautiful prints are created by combining a few plates with chine colle to get a saturation of color. Chine colle is also another printmaking technique which allows the print maker to print on a delicate surface. He often would use a soft, silky Japanese paper called Gampi paper for his prints. He has various colorful etchings but my favorites ones would be the botanicals. The intricate lines along with the color choices for each print are really unique and beautiful. 

-Ivy

My favorite (and the only one I know) ukiyo-e artist is Hokusai. Published sometime in the nineteenth century, The Great Wave off Kanagawa is his most famous print. It consists of huge waves rolling off the coast of the Kanagawa Pefecture but the actual focus should be on Mt. Fuji hiding the back, a common feature in Japanese art of this time. Why does this piece interest me? It was made during a dark period of his life, specifically when he became a victim of poverty and lost his wife. The continuous tragedy in his life inspired him to create Thirty-six View of Mount Fuji, a collection to show the contrast between the secular and sacred forces ruling Japanese life in his time. It's possible, he was openly criticizing the hedonistic themes, like those of erotic scenes and prostitutes, that fellow artists of his era chose to portray in their art. It can be left to interpretation if actual proof of my theory is never discovered.

Samya

This last Sunday I really learned a lot from Ali and her husband about the art of print making. Also, how there are many types of print making it there, naming some of them are etching, mono prints, wood block printing, and more. My biggest take away for the day was being able to experience and play around a little with print making especially since I don't really have any experience with this type of art. With the guidance of Ali, I learned ways of what I can do when facilitating the art activities such as relocating certain materials for easier access. Another was that for this project, a person does not necessarily have to use his/her prints only but can also request to use someone else's as well. Lastly, the amount of paint you use also determines the outcome of the images, so informing the audience of this aspect would be good. 

Printmaking last Sunday was great! In my experience, I have only printed twice using linoleum and I felt it was really refreshing to get the opportunity to print again. I thought it was kind of exhilarating when printing with Ali and Calixto because the pace was faster than usual. We were a bit rushed, but at the same time it felt like we had a lot of time left to print. We used both the barons and printing press to create out prints. I remember Ali telling us that the paper had to be on top of the template, and I thought it was cool how we experimented with different colors and paper. We made a lot of prints! I mean look at these! 

And that's not even all of them. Time flew by so fast, but that was because of one thing that Ali said to us that day. And that was to not think about the subject and form too much. Just go for it. That was my biggest take away. 

It was really fun printing with styrofoam plates because they were to easy to carve into and print with. Hearing about Calixto's specialty in screen printing really made me want to see the process in person. I had a great time and really enjoyed last Sunday!

-Queena

Hello! This Sunday, we spent some time discovering and experimenting with prints with Ali and Calixto at their art studio. The experience was amazing in which I learned a few printmaking process terms(etching, mono printing, screen printing, wood block, lithography) and got to do a few of my own prints! 

The process of making a print was fun as well as challenging. We drew on a small piece of styrofoam to create a matrix. I kept in mind that my drawing will be reversed once it's printed. This was something I took note of to remind visitors that will doing the printmaking activity at the museum. 

Ali also shared a method for cleaning up. Rags and a large, rectangular bin of water would be useful because we could place the paint rollers into the bin and immediately wash the paint off the rollers. Then we could clean the paint off the work surface with the rags. 

Ali and Calixto were very welcoming, friendly and I really enjoyed this art experience with them. 

Here's a photo of us listening to Calixto explain about the process of screen printing!

-Ivy

Today was a productive and changed my perspective on who can do art and be successful. A tip that Ali gave and resonated with me was using rags to clean up. As random as it sounds, I think it's both something that's cheap to buy and we won't have to worry about throwing away copious amounts of paper towels. Based on what I learned today, I'd definitely advise people both to take their time and accept the fact that print making is a process, you can always add to what you've made and improve. Once you eliminated the idea that your work has to be perfect, you're bound to have more fun and let your ideas flow. I'm expecting this will be a fun project to facilitate on Sundays and that people of all ages will partake in it, whether it's a totally new concept to them or if they have prior experience.

Here I am picking up my newly cut out print and getting ready to stick it onto one of my former works to create a layering ghost effect.

Samya

To start off, I had an amazing day with you all making prints! I loved getting my hands a bit dirty and diving right into making some interesting pieces. I thought Ali (and Calixto!) were both incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about printing and the process. One tip that Ali shared today that resonated with me was the idea of "liberating yourself from the rectangle." I loved that, both literally and figuratively, we practiced making non-rectangular things. I liked the process of cutting the styrofoam plate into different, non linear shapes and laying them over the previous print. This literal getting out the box also led me to think about my pieces more creatively. I think during Family Fun Days, it could be interesting to encourage visitors to also cut up their plates into more creative shapes. 

(Overlapping prints with non-rectangular plates).

Logistically, I liked how all the different ink colors were kept separately as we were working. The very first Family Fun Day I worked last year included a tote bag making activity. It was really fun and the products were amazing but it got very, very messy. (We were also working with produce...that might have added to the mess a bit). I liked that today, we were able to get really crisp, clean colors instead of mixed globs of brown ink. Ali mentioned having separate places for each color which I think could be very beneficial.

Thank you again for a great day!

-Natalie

Can you find the hidden meanings in the drawing above? 

The two gourds in the drawing are symbols. The big and small gourd in the Chinese culture represents numerous descendants. 

The Chinese character 福 means blessing. In many Chinese family households during the Lunar New Year, the 福 character would be taped against walls and doors right side up to welcome in the good luck. After New Years, it would be taped upside down to represent how good luck and fortune has arrived!

-Ivy

I had such a fun time slowing down and looking closely during this gallery exercise that it took me a whole 15 minutes to draw these simple lines. I was looking at a porcelain plate from early 18th century China, decorated with magnolia and peonies. 

I learned that the peony is the flower of wealth and rank. When combined with a cat (symbolizing age 70) and a butterfly (symbolizing age 80) as seen here, the message is: May you live long and prosper! Who knew?

- Hannah

Mary L. Harden is an artist who teaches her own school of botanical illustration. Most of her works are watercolor with emphasis on color, and she often uses plants in the Botanical Garden as the primary subjects. Mary L. Harden and her students have exhibitions widely and frequently in the Bay Area, such as the Conservatory of Flowers and UCSF. 

- Queena

Linda Lorraine Wolfe

She is a contemporary botanical illustrator whose main focuses are flowers or flowering plants. She received her training on botanical illustration at the Denver Botanic Gardens' School of Botanical Illustration. Wolfe believes that each individual flower is unique and can form relations among other living organisms symbolically.

Thursday Sketches

I decided on sketching out the picture of a crane on top of some pine branches. After reading the description of the picture in the gallery, I realized that these two object both symbolizes longevity. However, out of curiosity, I googled why crane equals longevity and it showed up that "it wasthought to have a life span of a thousand year." (That explains the one wish after folding 1,000 cranes.) In another website, it talked about the meaning of what it meant when an object is paired up with a crane. "Crane: There are four types of cranes in Chinese myth: White, yellow, blue and black. The black crane is thought to live the longest - up to 600 years. When a crane is shown among clouds it stands for longevity, widsom and nobility. When shown among pine trees, the crane symbolizes determination, wealth and power. When two cranes are shown together, it is the ultimate depiction of longevity."

Links: 

http://asianlifestyledesign.com/2012/05/asian-symbolism-crane/

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/chinese-symbol-for-longevity.html

Dayna 😄

Catherine M. Watters is a local botanical artist from Paris who mainly focuses on water color paintings. Her paintings have been featured in many home and living magazines in both the US and France. She currently teaches at Fioli and serves as a member on the American Society of Botanical Artists' board.

Samya

So we were all asked to find  botanical artist since the art theme for this Lunar New Year is botanical arts!

an artist that I've found and am very slowly falling in love with is Hitomi Hosono! I'll post a picture but she's an amazing artist who makes porcelain sculptures inspired by botanicals(I also feel like they look a lot like, and will look amazing with, botanicals) so I encourage you to do some research as well! (maybe I'll post some of my own work if i have time after homework?????)

Here's a song that I like that takes me on a journey. I don't feel like it's your typical love song. I like electronic music because you can really feel the song, and that's how I choose my music. I don't have a specific type I like to listen to as long as it sounds good to me and I can "feel" it.

This particular song, Tidal Wave by Sub Focus, has a lot of electronic percussions. I'm sure you've heard of dubstep, but my favorite is drumstep. 

I also find the voice of the female singer, Alpines, really soothing and beautiful.

Hello! One of my favorite songs that takes me on a voyage, through time an space is the piano version of "River Flows in You" by Yiruma. This song is so beautiful. I feel really relaxed when listening to it. I love how it sounds so peaceful and calming

-Ivy

My choice of music that transcends time is Jamie xx's Beat For. It's reminiscent of both UK Garage and Drum n Bass of the 90's with a new electronic twist. The grimy soundscape pairs well with dreary weather, another reason why I listen to it often as we do live in SF..