**I really don’t get why my camera reacts so badly to the lighting in these rooms! I sincerely apologize for all the stripes across my pictures! :((( **
Exhibit Information
Artist: Ingrid Gonzalez
Exhibition: Lamps
Media: wood and epoxy resin
Gallery: Dr. Maxine Merlino Galery at Cal State Long Beach School of Art
Website: http://www.behance.net/ingridg
About the Artist
Ingrid Gonzalez is a transfer student from FIDM in LA who is in her 2nd year of her 3rd year here at the beach. She is working toward her BFA in the School of Art’s Wood Program. Her first woodworking project asked her to made a pedestal, and her original idea was to have a tube of light penetrated in the middle of the piece. After she had made the base for her pedestal she realized she had no idea about wiring or anything to really do with electrical currents, this pushed her to learn more about lamps and transfer to CSULB. She eventually wants to be successful in making a lamp that can pulsate to the beat of the music she plays, and hopes to achieve that by her show coming up next year.
Formal Analysis
Her work showcased in her gallery gave a very homely vibe, it made you feel comfortable- especially with her choice of music playing on the speaker she incorporated into one of her pieces. Her perception of what a lamp is very pretty and uses very simple materials. Obviously, she incorporates a wood medium and then for the colorful lamps pictured above, she uses epoxy resin around balloons. Using transparent epoxy, she adds dyes to the mixture before pouring it around a balloon to give it some color or even a marbling effect. As you can see, she had produced many of these orb type pieces to be able to put them over her lightbulbs. For the wooden structure of her lamps, she bases them off spindles of wood. Woodworking wood into a spindle requires repetition and rhythm.
Content Analysis
Ingrid’s art is experimentation. She said the processes form organically with her pieces and she likes to explore color theories. She said she loves to listen to electronic music and that influences her art. She wants to explore different lamp wiring until she gets to the point where the light can flash with the beat of her electro music as mentioned above. She explores how she can create functional art to place in living spaces.
Synthesis / My Experience
Personally, I found her different lamp pieces very interesting. I asked her about the idea behind using epoxy resin. She actually said a friend of hers was playing around with it and noticed she made paper mache balloons, so he told her to try the resin with the balloons instead. Being able to use different dyes in the transparent epoxy to create the perfect color of lamp sphere you want interests me so much, to the point that I might give epoxy resign a try next time I feel crafty! Ingrid actually told me and my classmate, Norma, that when she was assigned her original pedestal at FIDM and couldn’t figure out the penetrating lamp concept, that drove her to want to transfer to CSULB to learn more. I find that so inspiring because she went after what she wanted, and look at her now! She has her own exhibit at the Beach!
megg does art 