week 11: self portrait

1. Artist: Frida Kahlo
Title: Self Portrait with Monkey
Year: 1938
Media: oil on canvas

I chose this one to mainly focus on in drawing my portrait. I liked how it was just not the artist in the picture but also other things were included that showed who she was and her other interests.









2. Artist: Vincent Van Gogh
Title: Self Portrait with Grey Felt Hat
Year: 1886/87
Media: oil on pasteboard

I chose this picture as my second inspirational piece because it looks like a natural painting like it was just taken, and no posing was involved. I am not good at posing for pictures, which you will see when you get to my picture.









3. Artist: Paula Modersohn Becker
Title: self- portrait
Year: 1906
Media: oil on canvas

I chose this as my final inspirational piece because like the other two it is also a natural picture that shows who she is and not someone she wants to be or someone other people want her to be.

I really did not enjoy working on this project, this is my worst part of art classes, drawing people. I had a hard time  drawing myself because i am not good at drawing to begin with and i am definetly not good at drawing people. I chose to use colored pencil to draw and create my self portrait, because it is the media that i am most comfortable with. I had problems finding colors to color in my picture. i could not find a color that went for skin, and colored pencil really does not blend very well, so i had to do my best to make it work. In this work i used the elements and principles: asymetrical balance, space, unity, and line. This piece represents me because it has me holding my son which represents motherhood, caring, and responsibility.

week 11: Extra Credit Course Content

the assignment i liked the best was photo slideshow we had to create. Although trying to find things that match the elements and principles of art was some what difficult, it was fun because i enjoy taking pictures. The assignment that i enjoyed the least was the art curator one. I found it to be the most difficult for me and it was not very interesting for me to do. I have taken many online classes before using angel- so i did not have any problems with using it. I would keep everything for the course but the art curator project and all the videos. Too many videos!! I would maybe add a sculpting project like creating something out of clay- i always liked that in my art classes. I would definetly recommend this course to others.

week 11: Art criticism

For this project i chose to review three exhibits: Green, The Beauty of Nature, and How Bizarre...How Bizarre. I chose the exhibit Green to critique because i felt it was a better exhibit and i would have a lot more to say about it.The How Bizarre one- was missing a lot of detail so it was very confusing, and the Beauty of Nature exhibit did not have the curators thought in it. The only trouble i really had was just figuring out what to say in two pages. I ended up writing a little under two pages, but felt i covered all topics. I didn't mind critiquing a peers work. I like when others critique my work because it gives me different ideas and thoughts that i may have missed or not known. I would like to read the critiques people wrote about my exhibit. I would rate my article as a 8. I felt i covered everything i could and was completely honest, but i felt i did not write enough. I did not enjoy making the exhibits but i did enjoy critiquing them and seeing everyone elses exhibits.

week 11: Reflection

My expectations of this course were to learn more and appreciate more about art. I feel that my expectations were met, i learned about a lot of different artists and i have a better understanding about what goes in to making different styles of art works. I would still define art as anything that a person sees as art. Van Gogh was my favorite artist in the beginning of this course. Now i would have to say i do not have a favorite artist. I cannot choose just one but i have favorite pieces from most artists. I do still like older works compared to newer ones. I think my choice of artist has changed to undecided because i have gained a better understanding of all styles of art. I feel the same as i did before about taking an online course. This is the forth one i have taken so i knew what to expect.

week 11: Last Video Review!!

The three videos i chose this week were: The Critics: Stories from the inside pages, Greenberg on Art Criticism: An interview by TJ Clark, and Greenberg on Pollock: An interview by TJ Clark. I really had no thought or extra help in picking these videos, i just randomly chose them. I probably would have found these videos more interesting had they not been the last video review for the class, i was so happy to get these videos over with! This weeks videos had to do with art criticism. The main focus throughout the movies was how not everything that we think is art, is actually art. The first video went into more detail than the other two about how things are critiqued. The other two video discussed Greenberg's critiquing methods and how he viewed Pollock after his death and art. Overall they were good videos and im sure they will be helpful for my project due this week.

Week 10- Project 4

My theme for the exhibit was called Nature Affected. I chose this theme because i love being outdoors and it was originally going to be called art in nature. I decided to change because i thought it would be more interesting to do one on how people and other things affect nature. I chose to add some paintings in which nature was not affected for comparison. I set up my exhibit by grouping them by mediums and artists. I had some problems trying to find works that i wanted to use, especially finding the information to go with them. This was my least favorite project to do for this class. I felt like i had a hard time with it. I kept finding pictures that i felt matched my theme, then i kept on second guessing myself, so i hope it looks alright and people can understand it.

week 10 video review

The first video i watched was The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art. This video was ok, not that interesting to me and a little hard to understand. The video defined Loowbrow as a person regarded as uncultivated and lacking in taste. Lowbrow is also known to many as Pop Surrealism. There were many influences in this type of art such as pop art, comic books, car culture, flok art, and people like Robert Williams.
The second video we had to watch was Displaying Modern Art: The Tate Approach. During the 1970s an art style became popular, making art come off the walls and become busy and noisy. This style was broken down into four sections; Landscape, still life, history,and nude. Gender, ethnicity, and sexuality all began to come into the picture and take over in popularity. Like the first video, this one was not very interesting to me and harder to understand than the following two.
The third video we had to watch was called Bones of Contention: Native American Archaeology. This video was about Native American bones being collected and examined by museums. Anthropologists have been saying for many years that Native American remains should be returned to ancestors and not kept in museums. Laws such as NAGPRA in 1990 have helped protect Native American remains. The Smithsonian currently has over 18,000 Native American bones stored there. The first thing that needs to be done in order to return remains is to determine tribal affiliation, which is one of the hardest processes because there are so many different tribes. I enjoyed this video because it was interesting to me, as i am majoring in anthropology, and knew a lot of this information already. It is always interesting to see how Anthropology can relate to different things, including art.
The final video we had to watch was George Eastman House: Picture Perfect. I enjoyed this video, which furthered my knowledge about him and his importance to art. I learned about him in high school, when i went on a field trip to his house. I thought his house was really interesting. It started being built in 1902, and now is a fifty room estate. George Eastman was the father of photography and he invented film, the motion picture. Kodak is one of the most well known film industries. This name was created by George Eastman. George Eastman always wanted to be in control. When he got sick, he decided he wanted to be in control of his disease, so he took his own life.

Week Nine:Modern and Postmodern Video Review

The first video i chose to watch was Andy Warhol - Images of an Image. I chose this video because he is a very well known artist and i wanted to learn more about him. His works were printed on silkscreen and depicted iconic images. He is most famously known for his works like Gold Marilyn Monroe, Campbell's soup cans, and Ten Lizes featuring Elizabeth Taylor. He uses one image and copies the same image over and over within his work. He image seems the same, but has a slight difference like color or shading. I enjoyed this video it went along with what was presented in chapter twenty two of the textbook.
The second video i chose was Uncertainty: Modernity and Art. I really don't know why i chose this video, the title just seemed like it would be interesting. Art has its own memory of itself. Civilization alters itself, tries to be better than itself. Past works sence values that are carried on through art. This video takes us through questions such as : What are you now? What do you believe in? This video focuses on pop art, which is described in the textbook as a style of the 60s, depriving its imagery from popular: mass produced culture. Pop art focuses on the overfamiliar objects of daily life to give them new meanings as visual emblems. I did not like this video at all i thought it was boring and hard to follow.

Week Nine: Modern World Video Review

The first video i chose to watch was Matisse and Picasso. I chose this one because i have never really understood the works of Picasso and wanted to learn more about him. This video explains how Gertrude Stein was the first to recognize the talent of these two artists, and insisted that they meet. In 1912 Picasso created the first collage, and Cubism started to appear. His main influence for his works was life, mainly women within his life. Matisse did not find his talent until later on in his life. He uses anguish in his paintings. Matisse paints showing the progession of his work, whereas Picasso, paints over his works, sometimes there is more than 20 paintings in his final work. Matisse is organized while Picasso, draws on impulse. By their old age Picasso got into creating ceramics, and due to Matisse's cancer nd old age was unable to paint, he turned to collage.
The Next video i chose was Dada and Surrealism. I chose this video because in reading the chapters for this week, this movement stuck out and interested me. Dada was an international movement that appeared during world War I. Dada created an anti art that emphasized absurdity, irrationality, chance, whimsy, irony, and childishness. Surrealism was a movement that emphasized imagery from dreams and fantasy. Salvador Dali was the artist who drew my attention in this video. Like most surrealist artists, he was influenced by psychologist Sigmeund Freud.
I enjoyed these videos especially the one about Matisse and Picasso. They went with the reading perfectly. They added to the material covered in the textbook.  

Week 8: Mask Project

The first image i chose was the one of the drama masks. These are very well known faces and they have always interested me, especially the tragedy one. These images use balance, texture, color, and form to give the happy and sad feelings.

The second image i chose was the masks from teenage mutant ninja turtles. I grew up likeing them, raphael, the red one being my favorite, which is why i chose the red one in  my final drawing. These images use balance, shape, color, and emotion to give them their shape and meaning.

For the last image i thought i would chose one from a culture we learned about this week. My favorite type of ancient mask comes from the Aztecs. I admire their use of detail and designs, as well as known nose type that is seen in their masks. This mask uses texture, balance, and shape to appear in the traditional Aztec way.

This sketch was really bad, not what i wanted at all, but i thought i would include it here.

This is my sketch, which is not very good. I used the form, eyes and mouth of the tragety mask, the eye mask of the teenage mutant ninja turtles, and the nose and details from the Aztec.

This is what my final product did look like, so i thought i was done and took a picture. I then realized it seemed to plain and needed more detail. I used form, balance, color, and emotion to create my mask.

After relooking at the mask i creted above, i thought it needed more design and color to it. I used texture and line to add designs and shapes to the mask. I am happy with my design, and i enjoyed the project. I thought it went well with the reading from this weekd chapters.

Week 8: Video Review

For this week’s videos I chose to watch African Art, African Art: Legacy of Oppression, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I chose the two African ones because in my Anthropology classes I have learned a lot about Africa and find it to be really interesting. Next I chose Buddhism because I did not know a lot about this religion and feel a lot of people don’t, and yet you see statues of Buddha everywhere. The last video I chose was Hinduism because none of the other videos seemed interesting by name so I just picked this one. In African Art, they discussed mainly dress, costume, rituals, and performances. I found it really interesting learning about some of the symbolism behind African art, like why they wear certain clothes and masks in their rituals. Most of the masks in the video were designed for evil. I learned a lot of interesting facts in the next video I watched, African Art: Legacy of Oppression. I thought it was weird that a museum in Belgium is home to the world’s largest collection of central African art. I also found it interesting that one had to bring back the right hand of the victim for every bullet that was fired. I always heard about heads or scalps, but I never heard of this. I really liked the video about Buddhism. Like the museum in the African video being located in Belgium I found it interesting that the largest Buddha in the Western Hemisphere is located in a monastery in New York. I was also amazed by the temples and building in the video. My favorite was the Borobudux temple shaped like a lotus flower. I don’t like flowers at all, but if I had to pick one I like this one the best (we wanted to use it at our wedding in October, but cannot find any florist who deals with it so we chose one that looks similar).   The last video I watched was Hinduism. This video focused a lot on the Ganges River. I found it interesting that the river could represent life, death, and rebirth. Also I learned that a devote Hindu cannot touch a deceased body. An outsider or a non- devoted Hindu must remove and care for the body after death. Overall I thought this was one of the better groups of videos we had to watch. I felt I could relate it more to the readings than some of the previous videos.

week 7: gallery visit 2

I went to the Burchfield Penney Art Gallery to do this project since i was not impressed when i went to the Albright Knox. I have been to this art gallery before and i think it was better the first time i went, the whole first floo was pretty much projection screen, which did not interest me at all, so i did not even look at them. I chose the exhibt 3- D Wit for this project. The theme of this exhibt was humor and satire. Its main focus was being a pplay on words, or a pun, which to the creator of the exhibt has the greatest impact for its seemingly effortless consideration of philosophy and hidden meaning.
The lighting that was used was dim lighting with spotlights on the artworks. There was a skylight in the room which was covered to darken the room.The surrounding walls were white. Only one work is hanging on the wall, the rest are in cases or on stands throughout the room. The architecture used is drywall and white paint. The room has plenty of empty space to walk. On eartwork is toward the center of the room, and the rest are close to the walls .There was also a bench in the room to sit.
I though the organization was weird and poorly organized. Whereas most exhibts are organized by artist, this one was not, two works by the same artist were on totally different sides of the room. The artworks are all 3-D and were all created to "send a message." They differ in the types of mediums that are used and the styles in which the artist used to create them. I found one artwork called Swept Away, which i did not choose to analyze, because it made no sence to me why it was in the exhibt. I twas just a pile of broom handles on the walll. The artwork to me seemd out of place in style, medium, and position, it was the only artwork hanging on the wall. Some of the artworks are encased, and they are all on white platforms, with the exception of Swept Away. They are all labeled the same way. There is a plaque to the right of each artwork, far enough away so it does not interfere with the viewing of the artwork. The artworks are evenly spaced away, with enough distance in between so that viewers can walk around them and view them from all sides.

The first artwork from this exhibt i chose was Export Crop- Cotton Skiing and Export Crop- Sugar Cane in a convertible made of painted steel and mixed media by Christy Rupp in 1988. These were actually two related artworks in the same case. This artwork caught my eye right away for a weird reason (I call my son chicken wing and one of them was shaped like a chicken so it was funny to me) so i chose to pick it because it was interesting when i looked further at it. These two pieces come from a series called convalesing staple crops and recreational export crops that commented on the plight of American farmers who struggled financially during the 1980s. These people lost families as well as many other resources because exports were favored over domestic markets. The car with the Cane i see as representing the cane leaving. Ant the cotton- chicken skiing to me represents cotton going down due to inflation. The elements and principles used are balance, form, texture, line, and movement.

The second artwork i chose was Four food Groups by John McQueen in 2006. This artwork was made of sticks, strings, bundle ties and hot glue. The words were woven into the sculptor. And according to the information on it, it referenced early renaissance paintings, i dont see how. The birds block the words that are a symbol of contemporary memento mori- which reminds us that we all face death. The words are in the shape of the food pyramid and say bacon, beer, cake, and coffee. it seems to represent assembled crows who are disrupted from their feeding. The elements used are balance, form, and texture.

The last artwork i chose was by Wetley Olmstead created in December 1996 and it was called Skip and Joy. The work was made out of brazed metal parts, painted, and mounted on wood. There were two seperate sculptors that made up this artwork. Olmstead was in the army during the korean war. He was influenced by the art he saw in Europe. The works were assembled with objects that commented, American culture. He had another similiar artwork that used the same method and use of old typewriters and cash registers. The message espoused non violence and spiritual strenght in world chaos and war.The elements and principles used were balance, form, movement, and color. 

I enjoyed this art gallery visit a lot more than the first. I really learned a lot from this exhibit and looked at the surroundings and lighting in a way that i have never looked at before. Normally i just look at the artworks and pay no attention to the surroundings, but this project brought a new perspection to how to go about viewing an art gallery.

Week 7: Exploring Line

I thought this project was interesting, i remember doing this in school a few times( i was better then). I have never been good at drawing hands, especially when drawing people, I dont know why but it is the hardest thing for me to draw. I could not keep my hand still so i can draw it and hold the paper at the same time. I chose pencil, because it is my favorite media to work with, I hate charcoal it is my least favorite. Ever since i broke my left- non dominant arm i have had problems with it, so drawing with my left hand was difficult and took a lot longer than the right, i erased many times. I used to be good with my left hand, i could even write legible with it, but now i am horrible at it. I could barely hold the pencil with it, i felt like a kid learning to color, holding the pencil incorrectly. I actually cheated on doing the left hand- i traced my hand and filled in the details- which was still really hard. my right hand  was alot better in my opinion, but still bad because i am horrible at drawing hands. They do look somewhat worse and less detailed, because i had to retrace them, because they would not show up when i took a picture, and some of the details still didnt turn out. When i was in high school, i would have probably considered drawing with my non- dominant hand, but now i would definetly have to say no.

Week 7: Video Review

The first video i watched was The Night Watch. I chose this video because i enjoy the works of Rembrandt and wanted to know more about his works. The begining started out interesting with the preperation for the reenactment of his painting The Night Watch. This painting was very large in scale and weighed 337 kilograms. The painting people see today was not how the artist intended. The painting had been restored multiple times and is missing some of the features. It had damage from being moved 3 times during world war II. A school teacher slashed it with a knife. And a man poured acid on it, so it had to be diluted with water. This painting is the object for dutch pilgrimage and attracts millions of international visitors each year. This painting was different from normal italian works of this time. Most figures were posed, whereas in this painting they were acting.
The second video i chose was Leonardo Da Vinci: The mind of the Renaissance. I chose this video because i find Da vinci to be an interesting person. I was surprised to find out all of what he was. He was a painter, sculptor, architect engineer, and student of anatomy, botany, architecture, hydrodynamics, aeronautics and other disciplines. His works were normally representative of the emotions of the sole. Although somethings are false, just a persons view, and/or made for the movie, the Da vinci code movie and book have got me interested in his works. Although i knew it before watching this video that he used mirror writing, i thought the video explained it better than i had known.
Next I chose the video The Drawings of Michaelangelo. I chose this because i knew a lot of his works, but never knew anything behind them or about Michaelangelo himself. His most famous work was the Sistine Chapel and the works inside them. I learned a lot from this video that i had never known. one thing was he kept his artwork to reuse, and many of his drawings were destroyed by himself because of hesitation and second thoughts. Many have tried but no one has been able to master his designs. Michaelangelo taught himself to sculpt and only created one statue: David. This was the first marble statue to be carved in Italy since the period of antiquity. He also started doing artworks for a church owned by the Medici family. The family was forced out and michaelangelo never finished his work .one thing that the book talks about that relates to the movie is christianity. Christianity was important in the artworks of this time and was the driving factor behind Michaelangelo's works.
The last video i watched was La Primavera. This painting was done by Botticelli and also known as Allegory of Spring. The painting was a famous work ofo Western art and was done using tempera, and provide the audience with multiple interpretations. Some interpretations include: was it an allegory, a pageant of sexual permissiveness, or an emblem of Renessaince humanism and neoplatonism. This video ties in with the chapter on the renasissance and the ideas of renaissance humanism. Th epicture depicts the goddess of love, venus. Her son cupid, flies above her, blindfolded, holding a flaming arrow, aimed at a group of woman. Next to them is a young male, named mercury, who is the messenger of the gods.
Although i am getting very tired of watching videos, i think that this was my favorite set of videos i have watched so far.

Week 6: Video Review

The first video i watched, More Human than Humas, was required. Throughout history and even today, humans do not resemble the products in which they create. Human artwork is everywhere, from portraits, to self portraits, statues, photographs, etc. In history most artists chose to make humans non- realistic. Michelangelo's work was more human than human. Examples such as Venus of Willendroff, which is over 25000 years old and the Kritos Boy are examples of over exaggerated human figures. The second video i chose to watch was Late Gothic Art and Architecture. I chose this video because the architecture part seemed interesting to me. The main focus of this video was the church and the age of faith. Westminster Abbey in England, was considered the National identity and regionalism. Like the book also mentioned the Greeks used the Romanesque style, until the church was destroyed during reformation. Later the architecture and art moved toward the Gothic style. The third video i watched was- The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure. This video focused on Greek artwork, which was the most interesting reading this week for me, which is why I picked this video, to learn more about it. The Grreks like the Romans, wanted to portray humans in realistic ways. They were obsessed with perfection. In the 6th century sculpture was at the heart of Greek Art and Architecture. The final video i chose was The Cairo Museum. Being an anthropology major i have been to plenty of museums and enjoy learning about artifacts, so i picked this one to watch. The first time i went to a museum for school- and was actually old enough to realize what i was looking at- i found out like the video says that most artifacts are kept in the basements, or upstairs because they are too fragile to take out or simply because there is not enough room or need for them out on display. I went to the Buffalo Museum last semester for one of my classes, and i got a tour of one of the rooms where they keep all the extra collections. It was really interesting especially learning the ways how artifacts, like art work need special care to be preserved.

Mike Farrel:
The first comment i posted on mike's blog was to his gallery visit. Out of all the pieces we only chose one the same-Indefinite Divisibility 1942 by Yves Tanguy. I agreed with him that the piece was very interesting and how there was no limits. I think he chose this one as one of three that impacted/impressed him, whereas I chose it as one I would like to learn more about.
The second comment I posted was about project one. I did agree with his choices of pictures to match the elements and principles. I also saw how some could have more than one. The one I liked the most was of his dog, i would have never thought of choosing texture, i probably would have chose emphasis for that picture.  http://farrelmr01.blogspot.com/
Tracy- anne King:
The first comment i posted on tracy's blog was her art gallery visit, which i really enjoyed. She did her project at a gallery in NYC and i did my at the Albright Knox, so obviously we wouldnt have chose the same pieces. I did look at the pictures and then read the descriptions, and I would have agreed with alot of her reasonings, especially the walking stick.
The second comment i posted on her blog was to her project 1. I agreed with all of her choices, though i thought most i would have picked different elements or principles. i thought the chair or stool thing was a very different choice for line, it worked, but i never would have thought of that.
http://adventuresinart-tracy-anne.blogspot.com/
I think that reading other people's blogs open my eyes to more interpretations that i would never have seen on my own. I also thought that the comments were useful, they gave more explanations for some things i wouldnt think of such as, the canoe sculpture.

week 5: Art Making/ Material Exploration #3 - Installation

Step 3: Installation art is a form of art in which an entire room or similiar space is treated as a work of art to be entered and experienced. Any kind of materials can be used in installation art. Installation art started out and still remains today to be for more practical purposes than just art. For example the earthworks were made for religious or burial purposes, but today people see them as art. Andy Goldsworthy was the artist i found most interesting, and his work Reconstructed Icicles was my favorite.
Step 4: I really enjoyed the works by Andy Goldsworthy mainly because i feel a connection with them. I love being outdoors so his nature scenes are interesting to me. I chose to explore the nature theme in my installation. For materials I used trees(wood) and rope. Since I could not finish this project on time and i knew i would be at my fiances property in Cuba, NY this weekend, I chose to do  my installation there in the woods.

Step 6:
I chose to do my installation in the woods, because that is where i spend most of my summer, and i had help from my niece and nephews. They always ask for help making a fort but no one is ever willing to help, so i thought this would be a good project and it would be a good start for them. I did not complete it but it has a door and some sides. I used balance in centering the door in between two trees. I enjoyed this project it was easy coming up with an idea and it served as a purpose other than art. It is hard to see the picture t looks better in person. It is hard to tell what are actual trees and what is the front of the fort- but that is kind of the point of a fort it is supposed to be hidden. and art works are meant to have interpretation- so looking at this it would just look like trees if you didnt know the meaning behind it.

week 5: video review (Architecture)

Being an anthropology major, I chose the videos Classical Architecture and Imperial Rome, Ostia, and Portus: Ancient Architecture and Technology, because i am more interested in ancient/ historical things than modern.
Classical Architecture:
Modern architecture such as the ones used in the monuments in Washington and Nuremberg, the ideas come from greek and Roman architectural ideas from more than 2000 years ago. The renessaince work was an architectural rediscovery of roman. i found it interesting looking at all the old buildings like the Bank of England that was demolished in the 1920s- that included abstract elements. I also thought seeing the change from the Classical style of the Parliament building to the Victorian style was interesting to see the comparison.
Imperial Rome, Ostia, and Portus: Ancient Architecture and Technology:
I really enjoyed this video the most out of all the videos i had to watch this week. I learned that the reconstruction of Ancient Rome is hard and is still not complete, due to  1 million people population and the cramped classical style buildings. They are still trying to figure out what materials were used, how the population was supplied and housed, and how the city was run. The most interesting thing I found out was that the Romans brought no advancements to technology. Instead they took the technological advancements from the people they conquered. From the buildings that remain no floor or roof skills survive, but there is proof that carpentry was the highest quality they possessed. The big holes in buildings and the glass fragments found by archaeologists, suggest that they knew and used the technique know as double glazing for windows, and knew the thermal properties.

Week 5: Video Review (Sculpture, Ceramics, Installation)

Through the Eyes of a Sculptor:
I felt this movie was really long and boring. What i did find interesting is when they explained how to tell whether a piece of limestone is good or not. I also thought it was interesting how they followed the sculptor through each step in developing a statue- i never thought about how many step it would actually take to create a statue. The pictures on page 241 in the book go along with the movie in showing how a sculpture is made. I think the movie explained the art of sculpture a lot better than the book
Glass and Ceramics:
Like most of the things I have learned in this class so far I never relized how much we used certain materials, and that for example glass is almost everywhere we look. I also found it interesting to learn how glass was made, i had no idea thats how it was made- I feel really stupid saying this- but i never even knew it was made from sand. I also learned how they made colored glass through a process of sementation. Also that the use of lead is the oldest technique to make it colored. I never realized how much work went into making stain glass windows, i never thought about each piece being its own seperate part and having to be cut and painted down to size.
Installations:
This movie was very hard to understand what the people were saying. I did understand what installation was more from the movie then the book, i could not figure out what the book was trying to say. Some interesting facts I learned was that sculpture is all around you. Also installations are artwork that takes over space, it defines space. I also found it interesting and from the books description i never would have thought that a building could be an installation.

I enjoyed going to the art gallery but it was much better the last time i went there. I felt like there was less works there especially since the upstairs was closed.
Works that impressed or impacted me:
I liked this work, i liked how there was a lot going on in the picture and it kept your mind and eyes busy looking around and trying to make connections within the art work.

This picture of the cow makes me feel sad. He seems lonely or possibly sick. The leaves and the trees in the background seem to be dying or perhaps fall is coming. The colors give a dreary look. Also it is said that when a cow is lying down it means it is going to rain. I don’t know who believes this- I don’t, but it may be what the artist is getting at.

This picture I find to be interesting as well. I think that the curves have some kind of hidden meaning behind them that is up to the viewer’s interpretation. The title is called dangerous curves suggesting that the artist is trying to warn the viewers of something or imply something is wrong or about to happen. The colors also give a sense of evil, anger, and worry.

Connections:

I feel a connection with this artwork because she seems how I seem at parties. I always get weird looks and do not like being the center of attention. She looks like she does not want to be there or she is trying to get towards somewhere else, but is being dragged somewhere else. I feel like this is going to be me at my wedding, which I am dreading, I hate being the center of attention, and I do not like people watching me.

I feel a connection with this one because it reminds me of my house. I have an eight month old son, a pit bull, and a beagle. My son loves his dogs and the dogs take good care of him. He just started crawling so he and the dogs are best friends. They just lay together on the floor and the dogs; especially the beagle follows him everywhere. Also they are protective of him to make sure he doesn’t get harmed.

I really liked this work; I thought it was different how the artist made the walking motion of the dog and person. I feel a connection with this one, because with my hectic life, my baby, two dogs, school, my job, etc. I am always moving.

Would like to know more about:

This is a picture I would like to know more about. I just found it interesting with a woman sitting in a bathtub and a cow standing over her. I can’t tell where she was but I just wonder what came over the artist to do this, why a cow too.

This is another picture I would like to know more about. I stood at this picture the longest and just could not understand it. I walked by a view works of art that I didn’t get, but didn’t care to. But this one there was just something about it that caught my eye. It looks interesting, but I really had no idea what I was looking at. I tried showing my fiancé and he was stumped too.

This work of art was the first thing I saw before I even pulled into the parking lot, and it captured my eye right away. I thought it was interesting, but again I wonder why. It didn’t make anything, at least not that I see. It was just a punch of canoes thrown together. Why canoes? Why were they put the way they were? Was there any meaning behind it? Again it was interesting but to me it’s not really what I consider art and that is why I want to know why it was done.

Overall I really enjoyed this project. I never really go to museums or art galleries unless it’s for school, so it was fun going and looking at all the work. I looked forward to going to more for the other projects.

week four: Logo design

I did not like this project very much- i am good at coming up with ideas but not at carrying them out. I am also really bad at drawing so that did not help me not liking the project. It took me a while to create my logo. I started with a few sketches that represented things that mean the most to me and the things that represent me- which was easy. Then i had to figure out how to put some of the items together. My most important discovery about creating a logo was that the first thought is not always the best- you should try multiple ones until u are truely happy with the final work. From the videos and also with my logo i learned that the process of creating a logo is very time consuming. The artists has to be told thought and information about the business, then he starts to brainstorm. once he has ideas in his head he has to come up with multiple sketches- which leads to a proof. The proof then needs to be approved by the customer, before the product is finalized. The pictures of my sketches are hard to see:
the top represents my black belt in karate. The bottom is a chicken wing- it is the nickname i have for my son.
the top one is of an elephant, which i like. The bottom is also an elephant blowing water out of his trunck- to represent both beach/swimming and elaphants.the left one is a sunflower. The right is of a puzzle piece- tattoo i want to get for my son.
this is my final logo- it incorporates most of the images in my sketches.

art material exploration 1

I prefered making the value scale much more than making the color wheel. Although it was hard to make the value scale and change between shades, especially in the middle, it was a lot harder for me to make the proper colors on the color wheel. I found that if you do not use the proper amount of one color the new color will have a different look then its supposed to for secondary colors. I also did not prefer making the color wheel over the value scale because i was never good with paint, especially when i had to combine colors. As you can see in my color wheel the colors are not very good - especially the black, it looks more gray. Also the pictures i took did not turn out very good, the cyan- in between the blue and green- is a lot lighter than it looks because of the shadow. the value scale also came out a lot lighter because of the flash on my camera- you could see the picture at all without the flash. The most important thing from this exercise is the fact of how two colors can make a completely different color from the two. I also know that, at least for me, it is very hard to make the same color more than once, because the smallest amount of one color can make a big difference on the result. I learned from the videos that red, blue, and yellow are the true primary colors, and magenta, cyan, and yellow are not. It feels like it has been forever since i was in high school and actually took an art class, but i have always remembered learning that cyan, magenta, and yellow were the primary colors- so it was no surprise to me and i think that is the way it should be.

Color Theory and Emotional Effects

Color effects us as to saying it can have an emotional effect on us. Emotional responses to color can be both culturally conditioned and intensely personal. For most people in America green and red, when seen one thinks of christmas, but when seen seperately green can represent St. Patricks day and red for Valentines Day. Lighter colors tend to give a more easier and peaceful feeling, while darker colors tend to mean more anger and evil. For example Edward Munch's painting The Scream; the clouds are painted red which is said to be interpreted as blood, and the persons face is screaming. The book explains that how would we know that it was supposed to indicate horror, blood and anguish without actually reading Munch's diary. Why can't it be a beutiful sunset and just a person yelling to someone else. This is because color effects our emotional response to the artwork- the red (blood) sky, and the person in black clothes (dark-evil) screaming with his body wavy- making us feel uneasy. I am most fascinated by why people feel impulsed to do things due to color- such as eat foods because of color, or when colors are calming, and relaxing. To me it seems like a natural impulse that no one can explain, like why people get comfort out of eating when they are depresses, and why people smoke when they are stressed- it is just something we do. In the color video the thing I found most interesting was the part when the artist Mark Rotko tried to attract an emotional response using color in restaurant and dinner settings. In the feelings video what I found most interesting was learning about artists from thousands of years ago and how they had a sense of feeling and color. They used color in their works of art to bring about emotions in people. They would either blend the colors to make a harmonizinf effect or contrast them to give a mixed feeling.

Project1: Elements and Principles Slideshow

This project was a lot harder than it sounded. When I started doing it, I thought this should be easy and fun. I love taking pictures, but it wasn't so easy. I get doubting myself whether or not I was using a right picture for each term. I guess this is why people say art can be complicated and is up to interpretation. I could find many elements and principles in one photo, but I kept thinking was I right? Would someone looking at this see the same thing? That is why art is not about what the artist is really saying in a work of art, but how a viewer interprets it.
slideshow

Video Review

The first video Philosophy of the Arts was mainly about the interpretation of beuty in art. The video showed  artists different views on art in a philisophical way. The video showed that each person sees art differently than others and each person can have a different perspective. The Second video CARTA was about two scientists, Changeux and Ramachandranwho looked at the conscious and un conscious brain and their impact on how  a person views art. I feel like Plato's theory in the on aesthetics was most important. Plato was a Greek philosopher during the Classical period in the 4th century B.C.. Plato believed that art was just an artist's copy of a copy. A quote from Plato in the movie was, " What is beautiful in itself is not this object or that one, but that which conveys their own nature." Plato believed that beauty attracts a person; which include beautiful objects, incorporated proportion, harmony, unity, and symmetry. I liked both video's views on art, especially the first one. I feel like the first one anyone can relate to- I found it to be more interesting the theories and the evolution of the theories. I thought that the second video was also interesting but I felt that I already knew most of it. I have always been interested in science and focused on many science classes throughout the course of my schooling so to me it seemed pretty common scence that the brain controls a persons ability to view art. The videos relate to the reading by reemphasizing the idea that art is up for interpretation and they further discusses aesthetics in both scientific and philisophical ways. My opinion of the videos is that they were interesting and gave me different perspectives on the way people view art. But I think that no matter how many people try and explain art - it is up to an individual to interpret art for themselves.

first post

The process of creating a GMail account and setting up the blog was real easy, especially with all of the easy to follow steps and the powerpoints. From this course I expect to learn about and appreciate what art really is and how people see it different than me. I like online courses much better than the ones on campus. I have taken one kast summer and am taking three this summer. It gives me options to do work when I can find the time. Also in a classroom you do not get to hear the opinions of all the students like you do online - many people do not to share there thoughts in front of others which can bring interesting views to a discussion.