Wk 13- Artist Conversation-Nick Bamford

Artist: Nick Bamford

Exhibition: No name

Media: found objects, plaster, clay, wood

Gallery: Max L. Gatov Gallery East

Website: none

Instagram: @nickbamf4d

 

Nick Bamford is an undergrad student in his last year in the BFA ceramics art program. He is from Huntington Beach and fell into his love for art in high school. Nick always enjoyed art as a kid but taking a ceramics class in high school greatly deepened his passion for art. His interests of building things and experimenting with objects stems from his love for art. Nick especially enjoys sculpting and finds joy in creating new things from a simple block of clay.

Nick’s largely scaled art work is a combination of various found objects, plaster, clay and wood. Each of the pieces include sharp, and jagged edges as the different objects come together. Nick’s use of vibrant colors such as lime green, neon orange, magenta and electric blue really captures the audience’s attention. He chose to utilize neon lights because he has always liked black lights and finds that it brings a more artistic meaning.

His art work isn’t inspired by anything in particular but instead, each of the objects used in his sculptures are from his own life whether it be random or not. Therefore, the art pieces Nick creates are somewhat personal to him. Although there is no definite meaning, Nick encourages onlookers to take in each sculpture and interpret their own meaning and relate it back to his or her life. Nick also describes the objects in the art work as exploring different concepts of use and putting things to use for a different purpose.

Overall, I found Nick’s sculptures to be extremely captivating with his unique use of bright colors and random objects. I also found that placing the self-lit sculptures in a dark gallery greatly increased its appeal. In my opinion, I see the dark gallery as the world we live in and the brightly lit sculptures as treasures or joy’s each person can find in life if they just look. I loved Nick Bamford’s exhibit and I look forward to seeing more art from him!

 

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Wk 11- Art Experience- Turning Pages

This week’s art experience was something completely different from anything I’ve ever done before. Marta Troya came up with the idea to visit the CSULB library and bookstore and basically challenge the space we were in. In the library, we sat in the the computer area and simply read large children’s books. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal since we were just reading in a library but people were staring in confusion. Although a library is typically meant as a place where you’re supposed to read, the workers there grew slightly angry as if reading children’s books was not allowed. We could not document this experience and I feel as though it caused me to actually be in the moment instead of worrying about taking a picture.

Next, as a class we went to the bookstore and first discussed how it was strange that there weren’t many books actually being sold. Marta definitely opened up my eyes with this experience as I walked around the bookstore and saw sweatshirts being sold, lounge areas and other merchandise for sale but the actual books were in a small section in the back of the store. I found that photographing this experience did not necessarily take away from the activity because I was more aware of my surroundings due to Marta’s insight that she shared before walking in.

We can document experiences like these simply by memory to make sure that you are fully living in the moment. But I also feel that documenting with photos and words can capture an experience more permanently where as a memory can fade away. I also think that the style of words or images do matter because the way you portray something can give different meanings. Overall, I fully enjoyed this experience because it opened up my mind and eyes to the different natures of a space.

 

Wk 8- Art Experience- Automatic Drawing

I can honestly say that this week’s art experience was something I had never done or even thought of doing before but it was definitely enjoyable. My partner for this assignment was my cousin Tanya. We sat down with our legs crossed and knees touching which did start up some small giggles because we were sitting so close. We sat and held the color pencil for about 10-15 minutes total. At first, we held the pencil towards the bottom, waited 5 minutes and it hadn’t moved at all. So instead of having a tight grip and the bottom we thought it would be a better idea to hold it gently at the top to hopefully allow some movement. After sneezing a couple of times and holding in our laughs, the end result was some small swirly lines in the center of the huge blank paper. I was actually expecting the pencil to move bit more and create more marks on the paper. Although the end result wasn’t what I had expected,  I do like the simplicity of the little red drawing in the center of the paper.

 

Wk 5- Art Experience- Cuisine, Couture, or Coiffure

For this week’s art experience we had the opportunity to choose between cuisine, couture or coiffure. I chose to do cuisine simply because I love food! I found inspiration for this idea from a video that I found on youtube. First, I cut a grapefruit in half (thank you to my neighbors tree for supplying the grapefruit) because I thought the different pinkish color on the inside would be a nice contrast from the yellow on the outside. Next,I cut small slits all around the grapefruit and then I made each of the slits into small triangles to imitate the petals of a flower. Then, I sliced the peel off enough for a layered petal effect. Lastly, I added three blueberries to the center and three grapes on the sides to act as leaves.

I found this art experience to be extremely enjoyable but also a bit dangerous because I almost had a few slip ups with the knife. First, I attempted making the flower out of an orange but it was too small and the juice was squirting everywhere. Then, I thought to use a grapefruit because they are bigger and have a pretty inside. I like the simplicity of the flowers on a white plate because it is cleanly presented. Also, the cutely cut grapefruit tasted delicious! 🙂

Wk 3-Art Experience-Snapchat

I found this week’s art experience with snapchat to be easy yet entertaining because most of us use snapchat everyday. But utilizing snapchat in an artistic way was a new experience for me.

The first two pictures are my own creations. I thought to draw a person in the “fat cell garment” with the caption “Does this make me look fat?” because I wanted to add humor to the serious yet important meaning behind the piece regarding body image. The second picture was of a small sculpture made of beans which represents the budget crisis in schools. The last two pictures are those of my classmates. The first one with the caption “fight me” is by Alanna Godinez and the last picture is by Gina Householder. I think both are funny and a creative way to add their own spin on an art piece.