“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is a cinematic masterpiece in which David Fincher paints a portrait of love and time.  Life is filled with moments that both enthrall and bore us, but love fills our hearts with memories that outlast many of our thoughts.  Its more than just a feeling and certainly molds us into the people we ultimately end up becoming.  Our heart portrays love as art and that beauty is always slightly ugly because it is so real.   This movie is a variation on Love in many ways- From lost love, new love, never-ending love.  The array of emotions that we feel, never truly feel complete without love.  I have spent time trying to understand the importance of love and how it connects us yet at times also separates us.  If life were like a fable in which fantasy delivered us meaning then love would be something that was magical because we could not see it.  It isn’t something tangible that you can grasp or hold close to you; yet you know exactly what it is when you feel it.  Our soul must be the carrier of our love which it can only keep locked in a small glass box because it is easily stolen or broken to which it is up to us to take care of it.  Realistically meaning defines our choices in life because we understand that logic rules our theories of why we are here.  Right where you stand now is where you are at.  At its most simple life is common sense because it is instinct.  Love is neither common sense or instinct, its something beyond what we can comprehend.  Time is our greatest enemy because it steals from us the moments that mean the most, but it also relieves our heartache from past events.  I’m older not because of choice and that maybe a reason why life feels so fragile.  In the movie Benjamin ages in reverse first starting life as a very old man nearly on his death bed and by the end he is but an infant catching his last breath.  In the span of his life he will love many and lose many as people do, but his sadness to not grow old is his personal fate.  As I age slowly older everyday I think about the impact that I’m supposed to have on this earth and whether it will be minimal or profound.  There is no way of knowing at this point because I don’t know my fate.  Life is grand as people move about their daily life making decisions that impact them and others. I feel that love is the same way, that it ripples out from you and touches everyone around you.  That need that we have to be wanted and needed is universal in its affliction.  I don’t think that your soul ever deteriorates, but I do believe that it changes as you evolve and it learns from your feelings the importance of thought and meaning.  We evoke passion from our education as well as hope and fear.  These things shape us and our knowledge of love grows because of it.  You may always have love, but the meaning can change over time due to our understanding of it.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a surreal fantasy on life beyond fate and realism.  Love is what binds our heart to our souls and that no matter how you live that it will always teach you the importance of a greater life.                    

The movie Gran Torino is one of those exceptions in Hollywood where social political ideas clash with true artistry. It’s a movie about now and how the relationships that bind us also tear our community apart.  Economic class, religion, social opportunity, and race define our culture as democratic ideals shape the fabric of our country.  Gran Torino pushes its racist chauvinistic lead in our face and asks us to acknowledge that there are people that talk like him and act like him in every family.  He is a catalyst to which all our anger and mockery of each others skin color comes to head.  The movie doesn’t filter itself through magic “we are the world” propaganda, but instead enlightens its viewers on a quest to personal empowerment.  Only we have the power to erase racism and it isn’t going to go away without people making an effort.  No matter what your skin color there is a sort of “code” or equality amongst your “people”.  The characters of Gran Torino crash into each other making a lot of noise, but not saying anything that will champion a cause of love between race. The commodity here is voice, one can not have a voice that lends itself to go against the ideas of your community.  The young boy is asked to join a gang out of pure family obligation because Mongol's must follow their own.  Black gangs are young men who listen to rap and use their egos to voice “Life has put us down” mob mentalities.  Its all very stereotypical in a way; because we all know that some truth lies in its accurate portrayals of the human existence.  Life is poor- so our ideas must be poor because violence teaches us that the weak can be over powered and greed has importance.  Money is a true commodity, but it rarely serves as deep of a service as brotherhood with malicious intent.  If you live in fear of your voice than you have no choice but to live in a society where murder isn’t rare.  The stories in this movie are interwoven as a tapestry of social class indignities and slum environments that breed hatred and resentment.  For me its a beautiful movie because it speaks true of our fears and that race only separates us because we allow it to.  I’m always thinking about why racism ignites our fear and how violence within our own class identifies our importance in society.  A poor degenerate is low on the class scale, but high on the fear scale.  These problems will always exist because division among us has always set our importance.  There is no simple answer on how to solve this because generations of people believe in what they are taught and what they see.  I’m hopeless in searching for answers to why we can’t change.  It can’t be because there are just too many of us.  The deeper the resentment for one another the longer it will take to heal our scars.     

Move Fix: ***** A movie with more than just a message.

Today’s webby comes from Vlad Studio’s an amazing designer of some of the most simple colorful 3D art that I have come across.  I literally stumbled on Vlad’s website while I was searching for some backgrounds for myspace.  I was immediately drawn to his color schemes and the “love life” themes of much of his work.  Most of his pieces deal with nature and animals rendered in a cartoony fashion.  Please check out his website and decorate your desktop with one of his pieces at www.vladstudio.cm  The picture below is the tree of life rendered in blue.  I love this photo, I use it as my phone background.  I don’t know how to say it, but it gives me a sense of hope. 

This might have been my favorite project of the entire semester – I really tried to focus on an overall theme and with these pieces I was showing off the “line”, mostly the impersonal and signatory concepts.  Creative: A  Craftsmanship: A-  Examples: A

“The Afternoon Walk”

Signatory Line

 

“In life we trust”

Three Dimensional Contours

“In the Vector”

Implied Lines

“Elephant rapid Graph”

Impersonal Line

So, it has been a few weeks since I’ve written anything in the blog, but its because I have been super busy.  Last week was semester finals and I had to scramble to turn in all my projects and study for everything.  The school year ended really well for me and I felt extremely accomplished.  Life gives you those moments when you feel like it was all for a purpose.  I’m happy its over and I’m excited about next semester even though its a good three months away.

Three days ago I got a new smart phone called the LG Versa and I was excited about getting a brand new gadget, but after thinking about it- I have mixed feelings about getting it.  Don’t get me wrong the phone is amazing and a great piece of technology, but I’m worried about how I acted when I realized I was getting the phone.  I was excited about it and waited anxiously for it to arrive.  I don’t want to be attached to “things”, I don’t want to be the type of person who puts value in getting stuff because its cool or the latest- greatest thing thrown at us for prices that could serve our society elsewhere.  I’ve started to notice a lot of fake in the world, people who think having something equals some type of happiness. I can’t believe I wanted a phone so bad, its nothing more than a neat accessory.  I didn’t pay anything for it because it was a free upgrade, but that doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t change my life or who I am.  I feel like when you act like material things mean anything your putting your head in a bad space.  I see design all around me and I notice people tend to act as if they are better than you and smarter than you because they have ownership of more things than you.  I want to make a difference in my life, I want to make a difference in someone else’s life and I want to be something.  Money is important, but I’m not sure why being materialistic must be important. I’m working on being less self indulgent.  The phone brought to my attention that I “want” things because style = affluence and perception is everything.  I’m an adult, but many times I don’t feel like one because I’m lost and have no idea what I’m supposed to do.  I guess I’m a work in progress just like everyone else.