Video Review- Module 12

Andy Warhol
Art and Modernity
 
I chose the Andy Warhol video because I think Andy Warhol is an interesting person in art and has made a big impact of art in the modern world. I chose Uncertainty: Modernity and Art just sounded interesting.


Warhol: When she passed, Marilyn Monroe made Warhol famous. He used the silk screen technique and printed a serious of the Monroe motif. He began with a certain idea, took images, cropped them and changed them many ways and produced many of the images. The next celebrity that sparked his interest was Elizabeth Taylor, also silk screen prints of these images of the actress. Transferring a photograph to a silk screen the image must be enlarged several times, the contrast can be altered, then the image is printed. It is stretched and treated then after covered in water. This creates a negative image and then paint is applied to the silk screen over canvas. Warhol played with the technique, if there is too much paint the image becomes smeared, if the pores on the screen are clogged the images is lighters, etc. The texture of the canvas and the screen create a pattern. He used Polaroids to capture images of himself and his celebrity friends and clients to make the screen printed versions. Consumerism was at the time Warhol created these pieces, so his pop art style drew consumers and he took advantage of the consumerism movement. The repeated images, such as the one of Liz Taylor, each image after the initial seems deformed to some point.

Uncertainty: Modern art, is it the higher realm or the lost path? Modern Art tells us that there is no single code for living. Future will look back and see a changed society and a society that lives by change. Obscurity had been made glamorous. The bricks that lay on the form of has an uncertain meaning. Modern art is difficult, we wish it could just pull itself together.  Picasso's first cubist painting, was out of the norm and this became the look that began the change. Distortion in modern art is to give life to new forms. Modern civilization agrees that everything is relative, that is where abstract art began. Abstract art asks you to look beyond something that doesn't have a meaning to find a meaning. Abstract expressionists asked viewers to look at the void. The artists we outcasts because they couldn't accept consumerism, they felt reality was chaotic. Art in this case is telling society off for its falseness. Popists seem to be cruising through society, because that is what society does.

These videos relate to the text because they discuss the artists in the texts such as Warhol and Picasso, also those artists of the art expressionist movement, also known as the New York school. These videos discuss the terms we read about society like consumerism, and also painting techniques like silk screening.


I like that the films allow us to see more visuals of the art being produced in different art movements. I also like that they do in depth about the meaning of art. These two videos seem to support the idea of pluralism. Art has many different meanings all at one time. 

Art Gallery Visit #2

First thing is first, I visited the Burchfiled Penney Art's Gallery on campus. The three exhibits that stood out the most to me were : MELT by Brian Millbrand, Biological Regionalism by Alberto Rey, Fly Fishing: A celebration of the stream. The major themes of these exhibits all made a splash with water. 

Fly Fishing: A celebration of the stream
The overall theme of this exhibit is display the beauty of nature. The colors on the walls were a darker gray, and this exhbit was in a hallway. The lighting was dim and shined on the each piece slightly to emphasize the piece of art. This exhibit included more than one artist to be in focus and also a mix of media.However, each piece was apporximately the same size and framed the same. They were all labeled to side of each piece on a plastic white plastic lable. Since this exhibit is in a hallway the movement down the hallway is linear and you look at one side then walk back down the hallway and look at the other side. These paintings are about equidistant from eachother.

MELT: Brian Milbrand

The theme of this exhibit it displaying the movement of waters and organisms. Milbrad used two different types of media's within most of his pieces. One: a projector and two: watercolor on canvas. The lighting used within the gallery was dim ambiant lighting. The exhibit was not too bright, but also not too dark. The colors of the walls were a really light gray. The space was at the end of a hallway corridor with the flying fish exhibit and it opens up to a room made of walls that made it almost rectangular shaped. However, the walls do not continue all the way to the cieling, the cieling was extemely high up. So it allowed more light into the area, but made it more of a intimate space. The movement for me was about counter clockwise through the space. I started with the wall that had the name of the exhibit and moved around the room to the left and watched the movement of the pieces. The artwork was organized on the wall with approximately equidistance from each other with the same dark black frames of the same material. The art pieces were similar in size and also content was mostly water color. The artwork was different because of content and movement. They moved in different ways, some flowed more and some were more choppy. The pieces were each identified and labeled with little plastic lables on the right or left hand side of the piece depended where on the walls the piece was located.

Biological Regionalism: Alberto Rey
Can I start by saying, THIS EXHIBIT WAS AWESOME! The theme of the exhibit is to reconsider our relationship with our environment. Scajaquada creek was the main attraction. The colors of the walls were white or light gray. The ceilings were high and the lighting was bright. The exhibit was gigantic! I walked out of the MELT exhibit and my jaw dropped. on the right was the wall with the title of the exhibit and I started there. I then walked across the room and started with the artwork that started at the beginning of the Scajaquada river . The geography of the river was painted on the wall which lines like a timeline connecting to each piece naming the location. Along with each painting, there was an artifact from each location in a jar with the content of the water. Not only did Alberto Rey paint and collect artifacts from approximately 6 sights along the river, he also had the water tested. It was tested for safety of the water and conductivity. His exhibit examines the ecological changes over time. The wall the mural of the creek and these paintings are on is curved. outward, the cielings are high and the lighting is bright. I moved from the right wall of the staircase where the description of the exhibit is located to across the room to beginning of the river to the end of the river. The artworks are similar because of colors used and the content of the river, however locations and point of views are all different. They are all framed with what I believe are wooden frames. They are labeled with a description of the art piece as well as the information about the artifacts with bargraphs and infromatin about the water testing. Each piece of work is separted within equidistance of each other.

I think that visiting the Gallery with taking more the surrounding into consideration and thinking of the theme was purposeful because the artists are a part of the whole space their exhibit takes up and it displays where the view should look, how they should move around the space, which pieces have more or less emphasis and create and overall atmosphere to display their works of art. I personally was drawn to the three exhbits that were related in theme, with the overall content of water. I think the neutral colors for the walls create more emphasis on the works themselves which is nice too.

Video Review- Module 11

Dada and Surrealism

Impact of Cubism

I chose Dada and Surrealism as well as Impact on Cubism, because these art movements are intriguing to me. I responded in my discussion to Dada and Surrealism, and I read on another student's post about Cubism, so I thought these videos would add depth to my knowledge on these subjects. 

Dada: This art was the anti everything art. The some pieces disucssed were a mishmash of negative images on top of eachother and almost like a collage, such as Hanna's "Cut with a Kirchen Knife".Surrealism was the next movement right after the dada movement. Surrealism was bizzare. The paintings have many shapes that are extrme forms of what they represent. Miros was an artists that portrayed surrelistic art, just as Salvador Dali. Man Ray was another artist that the content is of familiar objects within unfamilar arrangment. The theme is the discrepancy between the reality and what is portrayed. 

Cubism: Colors, textures and shape are the main elements of cubism. After looking at these paintings the shapes represent objects, and it depicts life as we know it from a more distorted point of view. The one artist starts with abstraction and moves to a real object in the finished piece. Picasso was a very important artist within this movement. He was influential to other artists. The arrive at an image, we have to imagine what the subject is behind the abstraction. 

The films explained nnore artists that created these movemts that ents. However, they mostly just reinforced the information from the readings. It also explained more about the artist of this movement. I always say, the video are just so dry and boring, I sometimes feel like I learn more from the reading, but in this case it was nice to have more visuals of these types of art. 

Mask of Roses

INSPIRATION

I really had a blank mind on this project until I went grocery shopping. I love flowers so I always check out the flowers at Tops or Wegmans, especially around holidays because I am always curious to see whats out, whats new, what I can get as gifts, or what I can ask my boyfriend to get me (JUST KIDDING!.....not really.) I also work at a Bridal salon and I love seeing bouquets and asking what flowers girls are using. I personally love roses, and I saw the rose petals while I was snooping around and I thought to myself that I could not believe how inexpensive they were. Then I strolled the aisles and I saw Easter stuff, and all the fun colors and pastels.

So my inspirational images are just things that I thought of while I was grocery shopping and coming up with ideas for this mask. 1) M. A. Carr, the bridal salon that I work at. 2) Ivory rose bouquet, because I work in the bridal industry and I saw Ivory roses. 3) Macaroons, because I tried my first one ever over the weekend, and because of the colors, which I saw all over the grocery store because of Easter. I am not sure I can do an artistic critique on these inspirational images because they really are not art pieces that inspired me, just things in my environment that did.

PROCESS

I picked up a crayola set of water colors, ivory rose petals and a balloon. I was thinking about doing paper mache. Yep, epic fail. I have no idea what went wrong, but it would not dry. So instead I just found thick paper in my craft closet and decided to glue the rose petals to that. As I did so, I really wanted to see texture so I made sure the petals were not perfect and had a 3-d effect. I let the petals dry all night and I woke up in the morning and painted them pastel blue and yellow because I keep seeing that everywhere and red because I feel that the red added depth to the petals and displayed the veins in the petals the best. I used elements of color and texture and the principle of balance with the symmetrical shape of the mask as well as the uniform amount of petals used around the mask. I really liked my mask. I think it is beautiful, it has personality, it reminds me of me, and I think that going with the flow on this one was the best option.

HERE IS ME WITH MY MASK OF ROSES!

 

Buddhism and Hinduism

Buddhism  and  Hinduism

I selected the two videos because right now I am taking a Food and Cultures of the Far East class and we have briefly touched upon Buddhism and we have not gotten to Hinduism or we may not be touching upon that so I was curious to expand my knowledge. 

Buddhism:

Began in India with Siddhartha Gautama. Goal is to get to nirvana, which is total salvation. The video explains different areas such as the tree of enlightenment and the Majobodi temple and their decorations. Stupas are the center of monumental architecture to display art that worships Buddha. The great gateways are filled with pictures of the Buddhas life. He is not seen in human form, only in symbolism. The sculptures of the great stupa used wood carving techniques in stone. Three tiered umbrella at the top symbolize the three levels of heaven. The temple of the countless Buddhas is one of the largest sculpture parks for Buddhism, which was restored in the early 1990's.  It is located in Indonesia. 

Hinduism: 

The oldest inhabited city, is also the most religious regarding Hinduism. The Ganges river is the great stream of death and reincarnation. Hinduism has many gods and goddesses which are displayed within much art and architecture. The shines are elaborately decorated. The temples are the giving up of worldly things for another worldly goal. Mamallapuram is where the Ganges turns into stone. The carvings tell the story about it. Cave art is a part of Hinduism as well. Epic and ordinary, fantastic and familiar Hindu art is. The temples are build of wood originally then turned to stone. The ancient shore temple was recovered after decades, and in it, it contains a stone thing that I can't understand the name of. It is pretty cool looking however. The Kasharoma? complex is the jewel of the golden age of Hindu art and Architecture. Dedicated to Shiva who lived in the Mountains. 

The videos add more visual images of the carvings and explain more history of each religion in depth as well as reinforces architectural and sculptural styles used within religious shines and temples, as well as cave art and wall carvings.  We see some things in our text book within the videos. 

I think that these two videos are well made and extremely descriptive. I think this gives more of an idea of Art within both Buddhism and Hinduism better than the textbook. 

Exploring Line

1. What was it like using your hand as subject matter for a drawing?

It was interesting using my hand as a subject matter. I do not think I have ever really noticed how mank lines and wrinkles are on my finger until now! 

2. What media did you select - pencil or charcoal? Why?

I chose pencil pretty much just because I prefer it over charcoal. Sometimes charcoal is too messy and I just got my nails done, so I opted out of that. 

3. How did it feel to create a drawing with your non-dominant hand?

Drawing with my non-dominant hand is really hard. I could not pick up the pencil off the paper in time, my straight lines are wicked crooked and zig-zag like, and it is really just awkward. 

4. Compare and contrast your final drawings. Do you think they are successful studies?

I think the one I drew with my dominant hand is pretty accurate. It definitely has better lines, better shadows and better detail. The one with my non-dominant hand is pretty horrendous.  

5. Would you consider using your non-dominant hand to create artwork in the future?

NOPE! 

Module 9 Video Review

Albrecht Dürer: Image of a Master
Velázquez

1. I chose these two videos because I do not really know much about these artists, and I thought they would be interesting. 

2. Valasquez: Vlasquez went to Italy and studied Rafeal and Michaelangelo. He painted mythology, which is not normal for Spanish artists. He painted slowly, until he was quite sure what he wanted to do. His masterpieces were works that he worked on for years. he would stop and begin again and again until it was perfect. He had pieces that were built on the foundations of the baroque. He created multiple jester portraits. They represent artistic and physiological breakthrough. He only painted few religious pieces, but when he did he used a lot of emotion in these religious figures when he did paint them. Valasquez took a second trip to Italy and the outcome were realistic paintings while in Rome. There were landscape paintings as part of this trip. 

Albrecht Durer: His first piece was of himself at 13 with silver point, where he used a silver rod on a special piece of paper. The younger Druer liked painting hands, He used realistic aging throughout his pieces. He paints himself holding a spring holly because he was going to be married. In his pieces of his wife she still has a sparkle in her eye. He visited Italy like Valasquez. He is known for his self portraits. He then worked on landscape pieces. On his way home from Italy he painted a fortress and a whole town in the Alps. Venitain art made a huge impact on Durer. Figures are natural, the colors are fresh and bright. He would apply lots of layers of color to create an enamel effect. He even included himself as a figure in some pieces. 

3. These videos relate to the text because they bring up terms that we learned and time periods that were important. Things like Baroque style and how Valasquez used it and characteristics of the Renaissance that can be seen in some of Durer's pieces.

4. The films personally are boring to me, but they are filled with lots of information. I think it adds depth to the concepts we read out in the textbook because we can actually see and hear the concepts to understand them. The narrators speak about each piece and artist in extreme detail .