I chose this idea because I was thinking of things that were shocking to me and this popped into my head and I knew it was very controversial which makes it really fun to talk about. Also I’m pretty passionate about this topic because I’d like the world to be equal and I have many opinions on the topic.

I hoped to communicate that we hold different countries to different standards and we shouldn’t. We should want all countries to accept all people and it’s not okay for anyone to discriminate people based on race and that we give too much focused blame towards America even though other countries are much worse with racial issues.

I think I explained myself pretty well, I think someone, even if they were born in Mexico, would read what I wrote and understand that I’m not coming from a place of hate and I’m just wanting the world to be more safe for everyone and more fair.

I wouldn’t do anything different. I liked the topic I chose and I liked the way I delivered the information, should be a pretty clear and good message.

Another idea I could explore for “shocking art” could be why I think smoking cigarettes should be illegal. Maybe I’ll go into more detail about that in a later post if we do shocking art again!

A shocking truth that I wanted to explore the idea has to do with the acceptance of race per country and the acceptance of countries per people. My girlfriend Linda and I are an interracial couple with her skin color being brown and her mostly being Mexican and my skin color being white and I’m partially Mexican. Linda was going to go visit Mexico to see some family, I, of course, wanted to travel with her and meet them as well as see the country half of her family was in because I had never been there and heard the beaches were beautiful. My parents would not let me go and were laughing that I even wanted to try to go because they said I would be killed where we were trying to visit. Then I told Linda that I wanted to go with her and she talked to her family who again, thought it would be too dangerous for me to visit because the particular part of Mexico they were visiting was not very friendly to interracial couples nor anyone from America. The thing that was shocking to me was that, when my parents and my girlfriend and I all talked about me wanting to go but not being able to because I’d get murdered, it was a sort of joking / laughing conversation. Even though it’s such a serious issue, that I can’t even visit my girlfriend’s family members in Mexico because I would be causing high risk to my life, we laughed about it and joked around about why I couldn’t go. This, to me, shows our acceptance of Mexico even though it is extremely wrong for me not to be able to visit, we don’t fuss about it and carry on. However, once something happens in America that has to do with racial issues and is much less severe than not even being able to enter the country at the risk of being murdered by cartel, it then becomes the most serious conversation you’ve ever had and “how could America treat people that way”, “America is evil and horrible”, etc… In reality, the racial issues in America are much less severe than other countries such as Mexico for example yet when we talk about the issues in Mexico, we play them down as jokes and accept that that’s just the way it is. When we talk about racial issues in America, instead of downsizing their importance and joking about it, we start to pretend that we live in the worst country in the world and America is built upon racism. In summary, it is really shocking to me that I can’t visit their country without risking my life because they hate me over there, and that is fine and funny yet when someone is the slightest bit mistreated in America, we must revise the entire constitution because America hates color. If you’ve read this far, please don’t be offended by anything I’ve written, I do not dislike Mexico and I still hope to visit, but i’d like for us to be fair and hold each country up to the same standard.

I chose this story because Escape from Tarkov has been one of the most fun video games to play recently and I am having so much fun playing the game that it was the first thing that came to mind when telling a story.

I think I did very good and I’m actually very proud of the story ending. This story is one that I was proud to tell.

I think the best image was the final one showing off all the fat stacks of cash. That image is funny to upload and looks really cool. That one is by far the best, the close second would be the looting picture because all of that loot looks really cool too.

Yes, the image of the main screen isn’t necessarily a “great” image alone but without it, you wouldn’t understand that all these images are of a video game that I enjoy.

I wouldn’t do anything different next time, I’m pretty proud of how this story turned out and I’m glad I got the last second inspiration to do my story on this game.

Sure, I rather tell normal stories than photo stories though. I think including pictures in stories is nice but having them required to tell the entire story with no wording except captions is not my cup of Starbucks coffee.

Photographs can be both true, fiction, or both at the same time. It depends on a lot of things including it’s intention, result of the photo, and if editing was done to the photo. You can take a picture with good intention but then the photo may still portray a story that isn’t necessarily true, making the photo true and yet the meaning that people take away from it, fiction. Photos can be fully and purposefully fictitious, usually modeling photos.

I guess you can argue a difference between “true” and “truth” but we use them interchangeably and their meaning is often just inferred with context in most situations. Something may be a lie yet still hold “truth” but, context is usually the divider between those two things.

Of course fiction can contain “truth”, we see it all the time with children stories. The tortoise and the hare, beauty and the beast, humpty dumpty sat on a wall, etc. These are fiction stories but they hold truth in them that we pull out and see how their messages work in our own lives.

You can put anything in a photo caption. The photo caption contains whatever the person who took the photo wants in the caption. It can be details about the picture, an inside joke to someone particular to see, anything at all.

I look at images because I enjoy seeing images. Interacting with people I know and seeing everything around me in life. It’s fun surfing through photos on Instagram and seeing cool pictures people take. I also like to post my own pictures from time to time and I assume people look at them the same reason I look at their photos, it’s a commonly nice gesture to like someone’s photo and fun to see what other people do with their life.

Most often I don’t like photos for the quality of the picture or me actually liking what the picture is of. I usually just like photos because it’s a nice thing to do for others. When you have a friend and they post a picture, the only time I wouldn’t like the picture is if it was of something really bad I didn’t want to be associated with liking. Other than that, it’s just something nice we do for friends as a sort of high five, thumbs up, glad to see you enjoying life sorta thing.

I don’t like photos to be liked by the person who took it, I like photos because if the photo is on my feed, it means they’re someone I know and would consider a friend or someone I know that I wouldn’t mind letting see my own posts. I would like anyone’s photo that was on my feed because that’s just what friends do for each other, they support each other.

Sometimes i’ll look at a picture for less than a second, like it, then scroll by. Sometimes I won’t even see the picture, just sort of see it but see who it’s from and then like it because it’s someone I know. Sometimes if the picture is interesting, i’ll stop and look at it longer and then keep scrolling but its never like a “let me study this photo” type thing. It’s just casual scrolling and relaxing while seeing my friends.

I think selfies are fine, I haven’t ever seen someone post a selfie, girl or boy, and thought “ugh, why did they do that” or anything like that at all. Having the confidence to post pictures of yourself is a great thing and I don’t look down on anyone who does it.

The most amazing photograph I’ve ever seen is one of the millions of photos of my girlfriend laughing. My favorite pictures are the ones off guard of her laughing because that’s when she’s doing her real smile and laugh and those are the best photo’s ever.

No, I don’t own a big / real camera, I have a friend who does who takes pics of the group when we go out to events some times because he likes photography but I myself just use my phone.

• Artist: Chanmealea Huy
• Exhibition: Glass Eyes
• Media: Wood Panels, Acrylic
• Gallery: LBSU School of Art
• Website: chanmealeahuy.com
• Instagram: pichhuy

Chanmealea Huy is an artist / grad student at CSULB who’s in the pre-production program.

Her art is very unique in that it’s background is really noticeably her work. She seems to make the background blend / morph and have her characters really standout a lot compared to the background.

Her art explains the struggle between man and machine. Her characters are robots and it speaks on how much we rely on technology that it consumes us up entirely. Although I do disagree somewhat with the man vs machine thing, I do appreciate her conveying her message in her work.

Talking to the artist really helps see the art’s meaning. Without the artist there to actually tell you their thoughts and wants behind the pieces, it’s hard to appreciate work without trying to understand it for insane amounts of time. I enjoyed the experience of talking to an artist about their work. It’s always great to talk to someone about something they’re passionate about.

Yes, it was very fun sitting around with friends enjoying food and drinks while laughing at how bad my art was. Frustrating at first but once I realized I wasn’t an artist and didn’t need to make them perfect, I had fun with it. I don’t really like to draw, i’d rather do something else. I’ll probably only try again if you assign another drink and draw.

Yes, If I put time into it, I would improve a lot, but I don’t think drawing is worth the time when computers exist.

My major is Computer Science. I don’t think sketching on paper is very useful, everything useful is done on the computer.

Drawing is not a language but it can reveal meaning difficult to communicate through language.

Yes, I enjoy drawing even though my ideas are better than the results that end up on the page.

No, I find special ways to appreciate what I make. Even though it may be objectively worse than someone else’s, I find an excuse to like it.

My girlfriend Linda speaks more than one language. She speaks Spanish and English. She’s better than me at Spanish and I’m better than her at English.

I speak 1 and 1/2 languages. I speak full English and I know most of the curse words in Spanish as well as the basic conversation words in Spanish.

Yes, depending on what words or tone each language uses in different situations can affect the way people receive them / feel about them.

Yes, I’ve seen a wonderful drawing by The Linda Gallardo herself. It was an amazing picture that represented many emotions that were more clear to me through looking at her art.

Form: This object is sleek, smooth, shiny, black, and happens to be bolted into solid concrete. The piece is missing bolts near the bottom and has a tall, curvy shape.

Aesthetics: This piece gives very peaceful vibes. Although the color may suggest darkness, the shape and texture represent something quite silly and liquid / interesting.

Content: This art shows us what life is like, or in a more specific case, what college is like. Wavy, looks dark from the outside but is actually silly and interesting. College is unstable and different for everyone, hence the unhinged bolts. The shape offers a story of how one does in college, starting at the bottom, moving up and down and eventually leaving at the top.

This piece was already art, us putting a rectangle around it changes nothing. All it would do is make people look at it but it isn’t our job to force others to recognize art, and putting a frame limits the art, someone else’s view may be much more than what was contained within our little rectangle.

The art will continue to stay art long after the rectangle is gone, the question is: Will anyone else ever notice it again?

Art has nothing to do with what object it is, it has something to do with what meaning we gave that object. Before my mind wondered off on some random imaginative spew about it explaining life in college, it never meant that to anyone. We make art, art does not exist without a maker.

Art can of course be something other than an object. Art can be people, people were made and people are beautiful, wonderful things that can be admired as an artistic masterpiece.

Art has nothing to do with the experience of the viewer. Something may be art and go unnoticed forever. Ignored and walked past, the piece will maintain it’s beauty secretly. Art doesn’t have to be noticed and appreciated for it to still hold value as art.

I find art anywhere I try to look for it. As long as you are setting out to find it, you can find “art” within anything.

You’re supposed to look for anything that has significant meaning to you that may have been hidden at first but jumps to your mind.

You know something is art when you can truly enjoy the beauty and respect it for what it is.

Art is NOT everything, but art can be anything. Things that aren’t art is subjective, I can’t tell you what is and isn’t art, you have to make that up for yourself.

A curator is someone who likes to collect things they personally hold of value.

A curator isn’t different from an artist. An artist creates pieces but there can be something very artistic within the purpose behind a well kept collection. A curator has art within reason and meaning to do an action other than create the pieces themselves, I would consider him an artist of another degree.

Social media hasn’t killed loitering, loitering is fine but i’d say that we’ve evolved. Where we used to waste time standing around idly, we now move our minds quicker and more efficiently. Some would say this looks over important things we shouldn’t abandon but I enjoy the way our society has changed.

A Flaneur is someone who experiences the world around them and walks among it to see it’s beauty.

The experience was relaxing and fun, I enjoyed just doing silly things all over the canvas and not worrying if it was going to turn out good or bad because it was only meant to look abstract.

It was easier than I expected. I already expected it would be easy just to scribble my finger around a canvas but it was even easier. Took very little attention or effort, it was just messing around and didn’t really have meaning put into it.

The feeling of making a painting with no subject honestly felt pointless. I don’t see a reason of making paintings like this other than to just mess around and relax in case you like the feeling of it as a hobby.

The paintings this finger painting compares to is all of those “abstract” art paintings you see in museums where there’s absolutely nothing but splashes and blob all over the canvas and they somehow sell for millions of dollars and are adored by people. This took little effort, has little meaning, and holds little value, just like the ones that sell for millions in art museums.