November Precolumbian Events

Here are a few California events in November touching on topics of the Ancient Americas.

November 3
32nd Annual Rock Art Symposium
San Diego Museum of Man; this year's Symposium will be held at the Otto Center at the San Diego Zoo on Park Blvd. in San Diego's Balboa Park. Seating is limited, so register early. Registration is $35 for students and Museum members, $45 for general admission, including a commemorative ceramic mug.

November 8, 7:30 PM
Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Lecture
Dr. Eleanora (Norrie) Robbins, "Middle Paleolithic Transport of Medicinal Plants to North America". Irvine Ranch Water District, 15600 Sand Canyon Avenue (between the I-5 and I-405, next to the Post Office) in Irvine.

November 9, 4:00 PM-6:00 PM
UCLA Friday Seminar Series "New Data on Olmec Households in Veracruz, Mexico"
Fowler Museum Seminar Room (A222), UCLA

November 10, 10:00 AM
The 2007 Lewis K. Land Memorial Lecture, "Windows to Another World: Murals and Flower Symbolism in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest", Karl A. Taube, University of California, Riverside.
Koret Auditorium, de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

November 13, 5:15 PM
Pomp and Circumstance: Cities in a Maya Landscape
Professor K Anne Pyburn will consider commercialism as a stimulus to the development of ancient Maya cities. She shifts focus from production and prestige economy, which have been the subject of much archaeological reasearch and theorizing, to consumption by ordinary households, which is less often discussed. Professor Pyburn does not propose consumerism as a prime mover for the rise of cities, nor does she visualize ancient Maya traders as canoe - born capitalists. She proposes that consumer culture is not exclusively a product of modern capitalism (contra Campbell 1987, McCracken 1988 and others), and that certain archaeological patterns suggest that a healthy trade in commodities contributed to Maya urbanism.
Stanford University, Archaeology Center, Building 500

November 14, 12:00 PM
Brown Bag Lecture
"Transport in the Prehispanic Andes: Archaeological and ethnographic investigations" Nico Tripcevich, PhD (Archaeological Research Facility) Room 101 in the ARF (2251 College Building) University of California, Berkeley

November 19, 12:00 PM
Shamanism and Rock Art, Ken Hedges
The interpretation of rock art is one of the most vexing problems in archaeology. American Indian shamanism has provided one of the most popular contexts for rock art interpretation, but also some of the most heated controversy. In this lecture, Ken Hedges will present an overview of shamanism and rock art, outlining the ways we can use shamanism to give insight into rock art images while avoiding the pitfalls of an oversimplified shamanistic model.
Gill Auditorium, San Diego Museum of Man

November 30, 4:00 PM-6:00 PM
UCLA Friday Seminar Series
"Household Archaeology, Volcanoes, Remote Sensing, and Social Memory in Ancient Costa Rica"
Fowler Museum Seminar Room (A222), UCLA

J. Paul Getty Museum Visit

Each semester the Associated Students of Chaffey College charters a bus trip to a Los Angeles area art museum. The bus trip is free to all students of the college. Today some students, Susan Stewart, director of Student Activities, and I went to the J. Paul Getty Museum. The event, as always, was a great success. I've included a few photos of the day below (click to enlarge).

Chaffey College at the Getty Center



Chaffey Art Organization VP Krissy Danforth enjoying the Getty Center gardens.

Catherine Maldonado, Chaffey student and employee of the Wignall Museum, sits in a virtual 18th-century French library.

Girly Zine Festival (Boys can come, too!)

Saturday, November 3, 2007, 12:00-4:00 pm

An integral part of the exhibition Girly Show is the impact of the zine on third wave feminism. During Girly Show hundreds of feminist zines have been collected and created. The collection, along with two films about zines and the connection to riot girl culture are on display in the Girly Reading Room at the Wignall Museum. In celebration of the contribution zines have made to the third wave the Wignall Museum is hosting the Girly Zine Festival (Boys Can Come, Too!). The festival features a lecture by Dr. Brenda Helmbrechts, Assistant Professor and Director of the Writing Program, Cal Ploy San Luis Obispo; a workshop by San Diego’s Grrrl Zines-A-Go-Go, an all-women based group that facilitate workshops on zine production; a Girly Discourse lecture by Chaffey College faculty John Machado and Jan Raithel; as well as music by dj trickmilla and dj OMG and a Sweet Dreams Bake Sale held by the Chaffey College student group, Chaffey Art Organization (CAO) in support of their innovative art programming on campus.

Treat yourself to something sweet.
Join us for the Girly Zine Festival (Boys can come, too!) and support the dreams of the Chaffey Art Organization with a sweet purchase from the bake sale at the Wignall, 12:00-4:00 pm.

Girly Lecture: There Is No ‘I’ in Grrrl: The Bustin’ and Bitchin’ Rhetoric of Third-Wave Zines
12:30-1:30 pm, Chaffey College Theater
Assistant Professor and director of the Writing Program at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Dr. Brenda Helmbrecht will discuss the world of feminist zines and the irreverence, anger, wit and sarcasm that saturates them. Helmbrecht will look at how third-wave feminists are using zines to transform the debates surrounding feminism and gender-sexuality issues.

Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go Zine Workshop
2:00-3:00 pm, Wignall Museum Patio
Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go is an all-women group that have been facilitating workshops in community venues and college campuses in Southern California since 2002. GZAGG will conduct a lively and empowering workshop, in which participants will collectively create their own zine.

Girly Discourse
3:00-4:00 pm, Wignall Museum
Tour of the Girly Show exhibition with Art & Art History faculty, Jan Raithel and John Machado

Mesoamerican Network Meeting

Fall 2007 Mesoamerican Network Meeting
Sunday, November 18, 1-5pm
University of California, Riverside, 1350 Watkins Hall


Speakers:

Wendy Ashmore (UCR) Border Politics in Southeast Mesoamerica: Social Diversity, State Diplomacy and the Morjá Link

Karl Taube (UCR) The Breath of the Sea: Conch Symbolism in Ancient Maya Thought

Scott Fedick and Katherine Sorensen (UCR) Cosmological Basis of Community Boundary at the Ancient Maya Site of T’isil, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Michael Mathiowetz (UCR) The Sun Youth of Paquimé, Chihuahua: Mesoamerican Religion and the Transition to Plaza Oriented Pueblos in the 13th Century American Southwest

Rhonda Taube (UCSD) Interaction and Integration: K'iche Maya Dance in the Age of Globalization

Directions: www.campusmap.ucr.edu/CampusMap.php

Mesoamerican Network info can now be found at www.mesoamericanet.com. There is also a new discussion board and email list, MesoNet. MesoNet is a Mesoamerica discussion board for scholars and enthusiasts located in Southern California. This board is a location that announcements of Mesoamerica related events, topics and questions can be shared and discussed. We hope to develop MesoNet into the central hub for information distribution in Southern California. Please participate by joining at http://groups.google.com/group/MesoNet.

Natalia Update

Hey Everyone,

It is already week 6 here at Artcenter, and I know that a newsletter is long due. Its been a weird term, but the load of work has hit. In addition to school work, there is an upcoming portfolio review and I've also been taking care of some healthcare. So far this term, my Friday class, Type 1, has been the hardest class with the heaviest load. All my classes are difficult, but Type 1 is the only one that will have work ripped off the wall after it has been worked on for 10 hours. I fortunately have been lucky with my work staying on the wall, but only because I worked all night only getting 1 1/2 hour shut eye before class. Crazy, but despite the instructor's ways, he's really good and actually quite likable.

I finally made a goal in soccer on Fridays, after insisting that the guys pass to me more.

I'm including some images:

my workspace when I work at home

the letter "thin" that I handrew, took me 5 hours to do and the teacher thought it was beautiful...it got a b+ ( oh, and that was just 1 of 3 words that were due that Friday- only one week to do)

and 2 views of last term's Design 2 project " abstraction from nature" displayed in the student gallery.

Hope you all are doing well,
Natalia

Girly Show

Arriving on the heels of major museum surveys of feminist art, Girly Show: Pin-Ups, Zines and the So-Called Third Wave extends the discourse through an investigation of recent works that linger in a reconsideration of one of feminism's most hotly debated issues, that of the sexualized and insistently empowered body, a.k.a. the pin-up. Featuring works in an array of media by emerging, mid-career and establishmed artists who utilize personalized strategies of appropriation that are evocative of zines, Girly Show reveals contemporary feminism to be an ever evolving, critically complex, and incredibly spirited artistic movement that refuses a tidy definition.

Girly Show is curated by Chaffey College instructor Denise Johnson and will be exhibited at the Wignall Museum from October 22 - November 30, 2007.

There will be a gallery talk with the curator and artists on October 23 at 6 -7 pm, with a reception immediately following at 7-9 pm.

Visit the Wignall Museum for more information.

Why was the South smarter?

Perhaps you people could enlighten me on a pesterous question I have had for many years. Why did the civilizations of central and south America reach such high levels of sophistication regarding their mathematics, calendrics, archetecture, and many other developements of civilization while most native North Americans lacked these things on the level at which southern civilizations did?

New Works by Takashi Murakami

The Rape of Europa

I saw this excellent movie over the weekend. I highly recommend everyone going to see it.

The Rape of Europa is a feature documentary film that tells the story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction, and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures in the Third Reich and Second World War. Today, more than sixty years later, the legacy of this tragic history continues to play out as families of looted collectors recover major works of art, conservators repair battle damage, and nations fight over the fate of illgotten spoils of war.

CAO Meeting

Wednesday, October 10

Chaffey Art Organization
Monthly Meeting

Wignall Museum/Gallery
12:30-1:30 PM
Join the Chaffey Art Organization to plan events and discuss issues relevant to the visual arts at Chaffey College. A central goal of CAO is to create a community of students and professors that will function as a resource for students on their path toward a career in the visual arts.

For more information www.ChaffeyArt.org.

My Visit

Imagine walking into a room where your every day propaganda has been altered to expose the truth behind the company. The Wignall Museum/Gallery at Chaffey College was holding a show titled Subvertisements, which are political graphics used to make a statement.

The artists altered many images that at first glance looked original, but when seen closely had another meaning to them; but there was one in particular that caught my attention. Many of the images that caught my interest were dull, with faded colors, portraying a stronger illusion of cruelty and inhuman acts. Others had bright colors drawing my attention to take a closer look. These pictures showed what looked to be a high fashioned clothing advertisement, but when seen closely it was the designer underpaying foreigners and old people to create their cloths. There was an Ipod advertisement referring to the war in Iraq; the images showed people, soldiers and Iraqis with weapons and at the bottom it said “10,000 soldiers’ dead.” With its bright colors, it seemed as though the advertisement was proud of the war or it was just a joke. They images also expressed the truth behind what the politicians say and their actions. These images made me stop and think about what was really going on in the world and what I really knew about it.

There was an image called La Cucaracha, The Cockroach, of a politician with Fraid in his hand that made me heated. With its black and white colors, it looks like a newspaper clipping, as though it was meant for everyone to see. The image said, “FRaid – Anti-immigration Border Spray. SOS Spray on spics! Keeps working up to two elections.” With a political figure consuming most of the picture it can be assumed that it was referring to the immigration problem the government was having with the borders. It was intended to persuade the Caucasian American population, who had the right to vote to support politicians to stop Hispanics immigrating. If “nine out of ten racist politicians use FRaid” to keep people out, it must work and must be acceptable. This image made me upset because as a Mexican-American, many times just because of the advertisements or comments people, we get treated differently and misjudged. Seeing an image that stated politicians are racist and knowing what had happened at the borders, it made me question the society in which I live.

The Wignall Museum/Gallery held a lot of controversial images portraying the cruel reality behind the comfort of our lifestyles. The images also showed what the media didn’t want people to know, the way our politicians act and the truth behind wars. The altered images made me stop and think about what is going on in the world and how much I know about it. La Cucaracha brought out a little bit of anger regarding a matter that takes part every day of my life.

21st Century Lego Art

I was searching for some Lego pieces this week to help my nephew on a project he is working on for school. I began my search through google and immediately came up with results and pictures of both Lego sites and Lego artist websites. Lego Artists? Interesting I thought, so I clicked the linked and discovered the world of Lego art. I know these sculptures and artworks are nowhere near the level of difficulty as traditional art but nonetheless it deserves a minute of appreciation. These artists were simply doing something they loved and realized they had natural talent and put it to good use. Through my search I have found 2 Lego artists that have put themselves above the rest and might be worth looking at. The first is one Eric Harshbarger. His web site is www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/. His most famous artwork is probably a copy of Leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa. The link for that artwork is http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/mona_lego.html. This Mona Lisa is made with 30000 Lego bricks and only uses 6 colors to recreate a remarkable rendition of the Mona Lisa. The level of realism and recreation using only 6 colors is amazing. The picture actually has a great deal of depth as well when viewed at a closer angle. The picture even has the same haunting stare as the original Mona Lisa. Eric Harshbarger has also created hundreds of other Lego creations including a few other Renaissance remakes. The second artist is a Lego sculptor named Nathan Sawaya, his creations can been seen at www.brickartist.com. He has created several dozen pieces for museums and public galleries. Thanks for taking a look at these unconventional artists and art pieces and also this blog entry.

Monet Damaged

On Sunday morning October 7th, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, a Claude Monet painting was damaged. A group of people broke into the museum and it looked like someone punched a hole in the painting titled "Le Pont d' Argenteuil", leaving a four inch tear in the canvas. Read article.

Moses by Frida Kahlo

Moses by Frida Kahlo was "inspired by an essay by Sigmund Freud that made a link between Ancient Egyptian beliefs, Moses and the origins of monotheistic religion" (Tate).

My interpretation:

The image is separated in half to express the difference in each register by showing its opposite. This exquisite piece of art has captivating images that are divided into four sections: fertility, gods, prophets and leaders, and civilization.

The first thing that catches your attention is the center of the image dividing the picture in half giving a strong sense of life and fertility. There is a big bright, yellow and orange sun dominating the top portion of the image. The sunrays are hands with fingers pointing at different parts of the picture and grabbing onto both sides. Underneath the sun is a fetus with what looks to be an ovary on each side. If seen closely the right ovary is fertile and the left side is not. The fetus is upside down in a fully developed stage, in what looks be the birth canal. There are rain drops, signifying the water breaking and giving life to a new child. Below is a baby on a river wrapped in a white cloth with a fixed stare. There is an eye painted on the baby’s forehead relating to the eye of wisdom. It is known that the sun is the center of universe, then assuming that this child is important and the fertility of women is the center of mankind.

At the top two corners there are images of gods. The colors are brighter especially the blue sky to represent them in a mythic sense. On the left there are the Aztec gods. The main one is Coatlicue, the mother of all gods. It is a statue with claws, a human chest, a skull in the middle of the figure and a serpent at the bottom. With its neutral green and browns, the statue incorporates life and death all in one. To the right are the mythological gods. There is the jackal, which in Egyptian history was the god of the underworld, and the eye of Ra that saw and knew everything. Next to them is Zeus, the gods of the Greeks, with thunderbolts in his hand and many more gods. Having these figures at the top means they were worshiped and considered at the top of the hierarchy. Underneath these gods there is an image on the left of a naked man with a crown lying comfortably with skeleton underneath it, and on the right is a naked woman laying with a ponderous expression over a devil and a skeleton. They appear to be royalty with different roles, the man has a crown meaning a man can be named king but a woman can not; gender roles begin to be expressed here.

Below this are prophets and leader of multiple countries and religions. On the left are leaders such as, Mahatma Gandhi, Sir Hiram Maxim, an Egyptian ruler and many more. These men have serious looks on their faces and represent different races of the world. The leaders all are unique because they ruled countries and contributed to history. The right side contains men like Mohamed, Jesus, Hitler, an Egyptian ruler in bronze, etc. These people can be considered prophets because they are underneath the gods, assuming that these people were sent down from the divine being to make a difference. Frida Kahlo also put her image in this section portraying herself as a prophet sent here to paint life as she saw it and communicate it with the world. They were divided because leaders worried about the obtaining power and necessities of the moment and the prophets worried about communicating a message and what the future had to hold.

At the bottom two corners there is society, represented by two people. On the left there is a man with an ax, as though he is working, behind him there is the rest of the society. In this civilization there are Aztec pyramids, a confederate flag and a Japanese flag. The right side has a woman with a child in her arms and behind her as well there is another society with animals and statues. Here again we see the gender roles applied in the image; defining that women have children and men do all the physical labor. Above both civilizations there is a red fog in the air representing war and hardship. Also, the colors of the bottom portion of the image are darker to represent the bottom of the hierarchy. Both people have paint on their faces and bodies; it is separated into two colors a blackish, brown tone and a beige tone to represent all races of human beings. Next to the two people there are monkeys in lieu of human evolution.

Frida Kahlo’s painting Moses is a striking image with a unique meaning behind each portion. The emphasis on the child means he probably was a little bit of all sections of the picture; to some he was an ordinary person, to others he was a leader, to many prophet and to some a god. Moses in fact was a prophet. The division of people into four sections: fertility, gods, prophets and leaders, and civilization can express how he would be treated on the hierarchy scale. There is so much more behind this image when you take the time to truly look at it and try to find the meaning.

- Jennifer Palacios

History on a Mixtec Vase

FOWLER MUSEUM
October 4, 2007, 7 pm

Fowler OutSpoken Lecture:

History on a Mixtec Vase: Reconstructing Heroic Legends of Ancient Oaxaca, Mexico
The Mixtec of Oaxaca created literary masterpieces in the form of codices, portable storyboards lavishly illustrated with colorful pictographs that recorded the lives of heroic ancestors dating back to the 9th century. Drawing on works from the museum’s collections, John Pohl, the Fowler’s newly appointed curator of the art of the Americas, demonstrates that many of these stories were also painted on drinking vessels intended for serving alcoholic and hallucinogenic beverages. A reconstruction of the use of the codices together with the vessels suggests that by invoking Mixtec legends in song during their feasts, the spirits of ancient ancestors could actually be conjured into existence.

Fowler Museum at UCLA
Los Angeles CA 90095-1549
Phone: 310/825-4361
Email: fowlerws@arts.ucla.edu
http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/incEngine/

Open: Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and Thursday until 8 p.m.

Admission is FREE

Enter UCLA from Sunset Blvd. at Westwood. Drive ahead to the Parking Information Booth in Lot 4. Convenient Fowler parking is at the northeast or southeast ends of Lot 4 (see map), where automated pay stations accept $1 and $5 bills and credit cards. The parking fee is a maximum of $8. The Fowler is visible to your left when you ascend from the elevator or stairs (follow pedestrian walkways, indicated by arrows).

The Fowler is walking distance from the UCLA Transit Center at Hilgard and Strathmore Avenues, where several public bus lines stop.

Going to the Getty : OCTOBER 27

The Associated Students of Chaffey College is sponsoring a FREE bus trip to the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art at the Getty Center in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 27. This isn't a yellow shool bus, this is a first class going-to-Vegas style bus - comfortable seats, air conditioning and movies. Seats are limited, so you need to reserve your seat on the bus now at the Student Activities office in Campus Center East (next to the Bookstore). This trip is free to all Chaffey Students who have paid their student service fee. Remember to bring your tuition payment printout and id when reserving your seat. Find out about more art related events at www.ChaffeyArt.org.


The details: We will meet the bus on the morning of October 27 at 9:00 AM in parking lot #7 (east of the Bookstore). Entrance to the museum is also free. We will stay at the Getty Center for about 4 hours. You can bring your lunch or there are several cafes and a restaurant at the museum. When exactly we will arrive back at Chaffey will depend upon traffic, but it is usually between 4:00 and 5:00 PM.