Final Blog Post

        My final art project is a full scale painting of myself, similar to the work of Edgar Degas. Degas was famous for sculptures of tiny dancers so i decided to take on a similar idea. I traced my body on pieces of paper and painted my body black to represent a shadow. I sponged on primary colors around my body to represent all the hopes and dreams I have. I then placed basketball in my hand to represent going up for a dunk on the court. Degas explained that his sculptures were created to show how people want to become a "superstar", a famous person per say, while keeping their identity. It is important to remember where you came from in order to reach wherever it is your going. The shadow is me as a young kid and also me today, showing how I have grown and achieved new heights. i chose primary colors because they have a significant meaning to me. Every morning when i would wake up and go to the gym, I would walk past a group of trees. One had red leaves, one yellow, and the other green. I chose to use blue instead of green because the blue represented the sky and mixes with yellow to make green. This painting is significant to me and really opened my eyes to Degas' work.
       This semester was definitely a positive experience, and I will take home many things from this class. I learned different styles to paint, different ways of painting, and how uses of colors can effect a painting. I also learned how to use photoshop and ways to play around with it. One thing I can use from this class is how to appeal to a focal point. Whether it be a presentation or a painting, I can frame it to capture the audience's attention and get them to see my message. One suggestion i have for this class is learning more about different painters and the styles they use. This was a great class overall and I'm glad i took it. 

Post Modernism : Identity

In my post modern project, I chose to follow the quote, "Americans may have no identity, but they do have wonderful teeth." by Jean Baudrillard. To start, I took images of celebrities and a variety of diverse employees off the internet. After finding a bunch of different images, I used photoshop to place them all in front of a background with a road leading into the mountains. I placed these people in different spots and made them all different sizes. The person in the middle, who I made the biggest, is a dentist that I found represented the quote. One my photoshop piece was complete, I decided to cut each individual out and place them randomly on a black sheet of paper. I then proceeded to paint a yellow background, along with splashes and lines of blue and red. My goal for this was to make the painting asymmetric, and I believe I achieved this. However, after looking at it multiple times, I do believe that it has a sense of balance. As the painting dried, I added black ink to the mix. I drew lines of ink soley inside the yellow paint. Once my lines were on the page, I lifted the paper and shook it to make a droopy effect.

I took this quote as a way to portray how society as a whole doesn't know their true purpose or meaning for this Earth. By including everyday jobs, I wanted to prove that even though people are doing what it takes to gain money, they don't know if what they are doing is right for them. Even if they believe that it is their dream job, they have not had enough time on this Earth to truly figure that out for themselves. The author Jean Baudrillard included the connection between the lack of identity and the wonderful teeth. The teeth represent an unattainable goal that people believed they already achieved, not knowing that they will never be able to reach it. This is similar in the sense that since nobody knows what they really want to be, they all are the same in their own unique way. This shows how people use that "perfect smile" as a way to hide from reality that their true identity will never be discovered. The yellow background was to show off the perfect smile, and how the red and blue lines, signifying all the doubt in people's minds, was unable to penetrate the yellow. This is because people think they know what is best for them so they continue to push doubt aside and focus on their "identity". However, the black line, signifying the negativity and reality of true identity, was able to impede on the yellow. This shows that true identity still hinders in people today and nobody will find their true identity, but at least they have wonderful teeth.

Post-Modernism

Post-Modernism is sort of a way to contradict one form of artwork from another. The strange thing, or beauty I should say, is that these contradictions can be seen within the same artwork. In music, we can see this occur by mixing songs together to form a new rhythm. In todays culture, we see this occur in the music style EDM, (electric dance music), which has a sort of disco beat behind the music. In art, we see post-modernism when artists add bits and pieces together of art that normally wouldn't be placed together.

Black-Figure Krater

                                                       
              The piece of artwork I found most interesting was the Black-Figure Krater. I was amazed that pottery created around 530 BCE is not only still around, but in close to perfect condition. At first glance, it looked like a type of bowl/glass used to cook food. However after looking much closer, I saw that there are two eyes with people standing in-between. The description given defines this piece by saying "on this cup is a pair of eyes with courting male figures in between. In Greek culture, eyes ward off evil. The courting figures are fairly typical subject matter. The SO graffito on the underside of the foot appears on many vessels of the time and is believed to be the mark of a bulk purchaser".
             I learned from this that the eyes are a way to ward off evil, used in greek culture. The date this was made shows that Greek Spartans were in the midst of their reign, and the pottery might have deeper meaning than first glance. Although i am unsure of the meaning, I can infer that the two men are Spartans and the eyes act as a "god" or "higher being" that protect these spartans during battle. Regardless of the meaning, however, The pottery is still wonderful and is still admired generations later.
           

The Shape of Time

One thing I found interesting in the article "The Shape of time" was the comparison between talented and genius. One thing the author describes is how talent can be seen from a young age. The mind is able to master techniques and problems more quickly, and the mind grows at a faster rate. Genius is more of an unorthodox and rare method, seen in a few number of people. Genius was thought to not be genetic, rather a phenomenon seen in a rare, and special few. The author then leads to how both genius and talented lead to solving problems faced by man. The author says, "we always may be sure that every man-made thing arises from a problem as a purposeful solution."

Data Visualization

Data and graphs have been used since the beginning, and we see that they have become more sophisticated over the history of mankind. One thing I leaned is that people have "fight or flight" which helps them quickly react in order to help them make decisions and survive. This can be used by designers because they are able to create patterns and designs that people quickly pick up and react to. We also see example of how advanced data has become. Google Maps can be used for people to not only see something but actually be able to use it. Something I learned is that its better for people to see things do learn. However, most people see things to confirm.

Whitescapes

Comparing white piece of paper & Starbucks lid:

The white piece of paper turns to a rose / pink color while the Starbucks lid takes on a hint of grey.

Newspaper Ad Response

The original Ad I chose was of a square strawberry to represent JELL-O. At first glance the Ad seemed very plain and basic. However, it captured my eye because of the vibrant color used as the background. The color was a warm pink that gave me a sense of security. The Ad had the strawberry in the center to it is a great sense of balance. I believe that balance was the strongest composition type used in the Ad. I recreated the ad by cutting out a kitchen from an advertisement and putting a bunch of different food below(inside) the kitchen. I replaced the kitchen window with the strawberry to separate it from the rest of the food. I used the food to show contrast from fruits, vegetables, and meats. I also chose dark colored foods and light colored foods to add more contrast. My goal was to take away the balance by filling the ad with a bunch of different food, rather than just the strawberry. It is also different from the first Ad in the sense that there is no focus point. Instead of just having a strawberry, there are a bunch of different food scattered around the ad. This takes away a single focus point and makes the audience look around the Ad without settling on one individual image.

Newspaper Ad

Original Ad

New digital Ad

This advertisement is of Utah's Hogle Zoo. I wanted to show how the animals are treated more like prisoners than pets. I placed the animals behind bars, replaced the Z"OO" with handcuffs, and said smile through the pain because the animals are pretending to be happy.

Seeing Comes Before Words

One part of this article that I found interesting was the section were they explained that the way we see things can be affected by certain beliefs and prior knowledge. Here, they were specifically talking about how the Middle Age men would perceive the fire as an image of Hell and that all the pain from burns and the ashes were apart of that. On the flip side, we could see that people who saw fire today would not have this same perspective as the Middle Age men did because some don't believe in Hell so that idea would not come to mind. This was interesting because it makes you see that there is a certain understanding with the different sides of one story, how different perspectives can be so similar yet so complex at the same time.

One thing I learned in this article is that there is a special connection between the things we physically see and the way we connect it back to ourselves. We do not just look at something and stop there, we find a way to figure out how that thing is in any relation to ourselves or what it is doing that makes it so intriguing to us. Also it was a great addition to say that our visions are continuously active and moving because it shows us that nothing we think about is unimportant, that everything we notice, even the slightest sight, has some kind of meaning involved with it.

Artist Sol LeWitt created this piece of art called "Wall Structure". The reason I found this so interesting was the symmetry in the artwork. It appealed to my senses and made this artwork stand out. Something I noticed in the museum was that you could see a small shadow underneath every box. This shows that the boxes are made of wood and stick slightly out of the wall they were places on. I chose to analyze this piece because it caught my eye and made me think "outside the boxes"

Traveling

Artist David Hammons created a wonderful piece of art called, "Traveling". At first glance, the artwork looks like a mixture of black and white colors. After reading the summary, I realized that this was created by taking Dirt found in Harlem, placing the dirt on a basketball, and bouncing the ball on the paper. The simple meaning of the artwork represents how it is a violation for someone to move while holding the ball. The deeper meaning is how it was difficult for African Americans to move up in the social ranks because it was considered a "violation" by society. This is a very powerful piece of art and can really impact the lives of the audience.

Bleached Beeswax

Artist Meg Webster created a beautiful piece of work called "Bleached beeswax". Some of the key notes of this creation is that Webster created this artwork by heating beeswax , creating a thick surface that seems to "defy gravity". Something I found interesting is that at first glance it seems plain, but as you look closer you can see detail in the artwork. Also, something interesting is that you can see your reflection in the artwork. This was my favorite piece of art because it looked very plain but had a very interesting story to how it was created.

The Whole Ball of Wax

Jerry Saltz discusses in his article if art has the ability to change the world. What he means by this is can art stop "global warming" or "prevent the spread of AID's"? The answer to this is no. Art does not have the power to cause effective change in society. However, art can "change the world incrementally and by osmosis". Salts means that art is a form of energy source that helps create change in society. I agree with this statement because even though it cant directly affect change, art has the ability to impact change in society.

"Visibility"

      After reading the article " Visibility" I began to understand the different aspects and techniques that artists use in their artwork. One thing that stood out the most was how the audience has two unique techniques for under art. One is how the audience reads text and translates it to visual and the other is how the audience views visual imagery and translates it to text. This makes sense as I read it because I do it every day. As I read something, I visualize it in my head, The same goes for when I watch something, I turn the visual imagery into words in my head. One thing we talked about in class was visualizing something before you do it. I can relate to this because I visualize myself succeeding in everything I do before it even starts.