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.