Jerry Cabrera/ Brittany Kennedy

Upon visiting the Joan Grona art gallery last week I was taken back by Jerry Cabrera's "Haven Series". The content within these paintings are very simple. They have a nice tonal range within the gradation of the horizontal line. Other then the relationship the colors play between one another there is nothing but color on the canvas. The canvas has no variation of shapes except for the line and the relationship built between the color and space around the color. I found his "Haven #50" to be the most appealing. My eye was restful and my mood was peaceful. Meanwhile viewing some of Cabrera's other works I became uneasy as the relationship between the colors were more vibrant and confrontational. I was more at peace with Haven #50 due to the green tones that were on the canvas. The image above is actually Haven #7.

malaquias montoya/ Brittany Kennedy

It is a privilege to be taught by an artist who has made a mark in the art world. Malaquias Montoya is a well known poster artist and major artist for the Chicano Art Movement. Many of his works stem from the subject of the Chicano Culture. I am currently in his Contemporary Studio course and though I do not have a great appreciation for the art of printmaking I do gravitate towards the silkscreen process. Towards the end of my undergraduate education the idea to make art work fueled from a concept or body of work has become more pressed. I have worked in a intuitional manner up until last year. This has caused me to be more appreciative of those who do work off of a concept such as Montoya. His works in terms of graphic quality and tonal ranges between colors make his work interesting to me. I have contemplated how Montoya and Libby work off of a set concept and allow there work to flow from there. This style of producing work has led me into a set body of work stemming from consumerism into advertisements' objectification of women and men. As time goes on I get more and more excited about finding a body of work to produce art within or finding a deeper avenue from the body of work I am currently working with. This reassures me of my ability to succeed in making a living off of my art work and encourages me as an artist to be an artist.

**Also while doing research on Montoya I found that he was in the Marines and later used the GI Bill to attend a University in California to study art. I thought it was interesting that he makes such political work emphasizing the Chicano Movement and that he also served this country. This reads across as very interesting. People may move on and make adjustments to advance their lives however one who stays openly true to their background never seize to amaze me. :-)

SAMA: Psychedelic Exhibition Brittany kennedy

I recently went to the SAMA. I was able to see the psychedelic exhibition that is currently being shown at the SAMA. The artist range from Frank Stella to our own Constance Lowe who is a professor here at UTSA. I was very much into a work of Frank Stella and just being able to view his work in person was a pleasure in itself. I was drawn to a work titled Double Scrambled. I could not acquire a photo of the work and this photograph seems smaller then the one I viewed however this pattern was in the work and it was a diptych. The design read across to me as very minimalist however the vibrancy of the colors screamed psychedelic. The way the two squares interchange conversations in a push and pull relationship. The painting works as an accordion expanding and contracting between the relationship or conversation between the colors coming from both shapes. Ironically Stella stayed close to the use of primary colors versus secondary colors. Since Stella was still able to create such rhythm and controversy between the colors using only primary colors makes this work even more aesthetically appealing.