Final Blog Post!

For my final project, I used the style of Henri-Edmond Cross and twisted the Impressionistic and Pointillistic style into a more modern style of Impressionist art. I wanted to pick something out of the ordinary to be my center piece for the painting so I chose a jellyfish and an octopus. Cross painted sea schemes but only painted the ocean waves so I wanted to go deeper into those waves and paint what lies on the ocean ground.
The jelly fish and the octopus has a blue background with white paint almost scraped on. I used this technique as my impressionistic, blotchy, stroke technique. At the bottom I added the dark thick strokes to incorporate a little bit of the actual style. The jellyfish and octopus are created out of vibrant, bright colors that would not be seen on these creatures. This is another aspect I put a twist on. The colors and the bright strokes make the painting pop and moves your eye all around the painting. I painted with thick paint to create actual texture and added the white to make it look perceived texture in the photos.
The focal point of the jelly fish is the bright yellow and red in the head of the body. The variety of colors in the tentacles quickly moves your eye from the head to the bottom of the painting. for the octopus, the bright red tentacle pulls your eye in and the brighter greens and reds move your eye around the piece. The darker tentacles in the background are the last ones to be spotted since they kind of fade in the background.

The literal answer to the question you asked would be the paint, paintbrushes and left over Bristol and drawing paper that I did not use. I took away a lot of techniques that I learned in the class such as new painting styles and how to paint with ink. Your class made me go out of my element and paint more abstract paintings which I turned out to really enjoy. The only thing that I would comment on to make the class better would be the amount of writing that is attached to the class. I liked writing thEblog posts but I would rather spend more time painting and drawing than writing the blog posts. overall loved your class!

Visual Analysis on Post Modernism Project

                 For my project, the denotative aspects consisted of my photo-shopped image of a street with the right side a blur and the left side with a castle in the background. (the castle was a separate image I photo-shopped on the picture of the street). The paint on the piece drags off the picture and is continued on the whole paper. There are words written in ink such as "adventure, discover, explore and life."
                 The connotative and ideological aspects pulled from my piece can mean a couple of different things.   When creating this piece, I interpreted it as the right side is like having amnesia; everything winds up being a blur and is hard to remember what happened. As you continue on the street or as you drive further on down a road, you can wind up finding a new discovery or something that has never been seen before. I wanted this piece to represent the quote, "Driving is a spectacular form of amnesia. Everything is to be discovered, everything to be obliterated." As you drive down any road, you are exploring, adventuring, discovering new things and seeing so many unique things that you may have not noticed before.
             I wanted to add the fantasy and magical touch to the piece by adding a castle in the background just to show that anything can be discovered. Driving can be such a thrill and such an adventure to many because the roads are endless and can lead people to magnificent sights.

Kubler: Shape of Time

In the document written by Kubler, The Shape of Time, I liked the analogy of using a train track to describe the path of an artist. It is important for an artist to follow on their track but keep in mind and extend their view further beyond or behind their path. Kulber separates his writing into a few sections. In talent and genius he mentions the famous artists but brings up the idea that it is not just their talent that makes them famous. It's the time, energy and power of the artist, concentration and the fortune that the author has. In the invisible chain section talks about how an artist has a chain of prior events that lead him to his art.
Kulber's writing offers a different view on the uniqueness of the artists but it also reviews the importance of each individual artwork that an artist makes and how many things contribute to that genius and famous aspect of a painter. Everyone will remember a famous artist because of all of the things that contribute to their art and their fame.

Ancient Greek Pottery Opening Ceremony

I attended the gallery opening for the ancient greek pottery display that is in the gallery right now. I find it pretty amazing how pottery was used to convey stories and how each different display holds a different story. For instance, in the top picture, there are two eyes painted on the sides which in Greek, is a symbol to ward of evil. In the middle of the eyes, there are two male figures. It's just interesting to look at a piece and try and figure out which each symbol means or the story behind the art on the pottery.

Data Visualization

Data visualization is when you create an image, or diagram or object to represent a message. The video I watched was pretty interesting. I learned that a piece of work is deemed successful when you are able to use complex data and display it in a way that is simple and understood. Creating images using data can be very complicated for many people but if a person is able to display the data and have others view it and understand it, then the data visualization succeeded. Another interesting thing I heard in the video was that people need to start using data to learn new things and not to confirm data. This is how many people are going to learn so many more things.

White Balance

I used a white index card and placed it on the shades in my room. Between these two photos, I noticed the difference in shades on the curtain and index card when I turned the light on and off. One picture has more color to it in the corner compared to the other one which is more of a grey tone. 

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John Berger: Ways of Seeing

                  I chose to watch the video on John Berger: Ways of Seeing on YouTube. It started off with talking about cameras and how before cameras were invented, everyone saw art standing in front of it at a museum. "I am an eye, a mechanical eye. I the machine show you a world the way only I can see it." I really thought this quote was a neat way to depict the role of a camera when it takes a picture of art. The invention of camera changes the way we things now. We can see details that weren't possible to see before.
                 Berger brings up the topic of paintings and how there are so many copies around the world. He says that the reproductions are distorted and are not identical. He also says that the original art is unique and authentic which I agree with. On the other hand though, if someone copied an actual painting and it was spot on, I most likely would not be able to tell you if the painting was the original or not so I would find the copy still unique. Berger definitely a passionate guy when he comes to talk about what he believes in.

I really enjoyed going to visit the Baltimore Museum of Art and seeing all of the different pieces. Computer screens do not do the artwork justice because you cant see the simple brush strokes or which areas in the painting are jolting out or even the actual size of the art. The three pieces of art I chose are titled, 9.11.01, Chimeras in the Mountains and Nude. I found the first piece very intriguing because Jack Whitten used mixed media to create his response to the 9/11 attack. He used a variety of things to create this art like bone fragments and blood. The second photo is of a piece by Max Ernst and the picture does not do it justice. In person, you can see the small detail he used and in certain areas of the painting jolts out. I painted a self portrait of Max Ernst so to see his actual work in person was pretty amazing for me. Lastly, the painting entitled Nude was my favorite. Cross used small brush strokes to create this painting with eye popping colors. The thing I enjoyed most was the colors he chose because it made the art pop and the vibrant colors really stood out to me. I really liked his style of art and how he was able to make the painting look very realistic by using the same brush stroke throughout the whole painting.  

Jack Whitten 9.11.01 C. 2006

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

Max Ernst Chimeras in the Mountains C. 1940

Oil on Canvas

Henri-Edmond Cross, Nude C. 1985-1896

Oil on Canvas

Visibility

As someone who admires art and who loves to find meaning in artwork, I never thought of viewing movies the same way I view art. After reading this article, It never dawned on me what actually happens in order for a movie to be on TV. The movie has to first be written out, then visualized, then an actual construction of the film has to made and the final step is to make it into the actual film. It's fascinating in a way to think about how much work every single person that creates that movie goes through and how much of a thrill it must be to start from just an idea and watch it play out in a theater. One of the topics that Calvino touches on is imagination. I really enjoyed the quote, "the imagination is a kind of electronic machine that accounts all the possible combinations and chooses the ones that are appropriate to a particular purpose, or simply the most interesting, pleasing or amusing." I think this quote is a really good interpretation of our imaginations and how we are able to let our brains go wild and imagine all of sorts of things. It is fascinating to think that we have all of these thoughts that pop up in our head and imagination allows us to think outside the box or behind the scenes in order to get a unique and creative idea or concept. 

The Whole Ball of Wax

                 Art is the freedom for expression and allows for the ability to create brilliant and unique pieces that helps relate to a person's life or aim to inspire new ideas. All over the world, art is illustrated through paintings, photography, graffiti, poems, music and in so many other forms and in each of these different styles, each piece displays a different emotion, vision or feeling towards someone.  As mentioned in the article The Whole Ball of Wax, art helps people see things differently in the world and to many, an artist's work can lead to a change in the world and connect people together. Saltz says that art may not be able to fix the actual problem of global warming, or halting the spread of AIDS but artists can express their feelings through the piece of art leading to a person seeing the painting and being able to take away a new perception or new knowledge on the problems in the world today.  
                 One piece of text that stood out to me was," when we look at art, we're not only looking at it;  we're also looking into and through it, into and through the paint, pigment, canvas, or whatever to something else." This sentence is very powerful to me because it makes me realize that it is not all about understanding someone's art but it is about experiencing how the artist got his idea, how he painted his idea through his art and how the artist experienced his reason and motivation to create what they did; almost like I am jumping into the body of the painter and seeing who inspired them. Art is an inspiration to many and creates an amazing connection through emotions, feelings and the way people see different things.