drawing final

drawing final project -- face unfinished in this photo

3D final project

3D final project -- research based on sarah sze

more research!

Looked at some work by Frida Kahlo..

• The Broken Column
• b/c of her physical injuries -- fracturing of her spinal cord
• damage to her self confidence -- traumatic childhood and her husbands frequent affairs
• body -- outwardly proud in order to cover inside pain
• shows anguish, distress, torture, pain
• "I paint my own reality"
• highlights her unattractive qualities

• The Two Fridas
• around time of divorce from her husband
• her very separate entities
• somehow linked together -- connecting cords
• LEFT - woman Diego no longer loves, exposed heart damaged, shows feelings of desolation, white European dress
• RIGHT - traditional Mexican attire, openly displaying healthy heart, holds pic of Diego, cord attached because she is a lover to Diego and also serves as a mother
• background -- turbulent sky shows conflicting emotions

• Self-Portrait with Monkeys
• attention drawn to her thick dark eyebrows
• traditional Mexican necklace
• hair elegantly tied up
• jungle behind her shows her love for the garden
• animals show fondness for animals -- filled her loneliness

I really liked the idea that Frida used the backgrounds to convey her emotions and often used split scenes. Each aspect of her pieces carry a certain association with her emotions and what is occurring in her life both internally and externally.

also looked at work from Diego Rivera -- found the movement in the figures and the composition especially interesting in his piece "Apollo & Marsyas"

more books to research & look through for composition ideas...more to come!

final project - week uno

Really looking into the way Goya portrays his figures...

really like the surroundings of his pieces and they way that create movement around the figure

also how the figure creates a focus and diagonal across the page that is greatly contrasted from the detailed background

one of my favorite pieces of his -- space around the figure is really activated

like the composition and how the darks are pushed - something I really want to incorporate into my piece -- the movement from working on top of a dark instead of dark on light

love the line work even though its a print -- composition is really nice [upside down triangle]

will probably end up using a triangle-like composition in my final piece

MORE TO COME!

in class figure drawing

quote review

"The point if, that every piece of art changes your whole perception of the rest of the world for the rest of your life. And it's not a joke! And if it doesn't, then it's not art, it's a commodity."
--Lawrence Weiner 

After reading this quote I immediately came to the conclusion that I was in disagreement, every piece of art does not change your whole perception of the rest of the world for the rest of your life. I don’t know if this differs for other people, but in my opinion art can be life changing for someone but it isn’t every single piece of artwork. I don’t believe that a piece of artwork can appeal to a bunch of people, rather art is meant to focus on a single type or group of people, and it may not always be interesting to every viewer. What may be appealing to one person may also be repulsive to another.  A good example of this concept is observing art museums. Some people will stop and spend a great deal of time staring at a piece of artwork, while other glance and pass by. That one person that stops may see something in the piece that changes their perception of the world, but it may only be that one piece or pieces similar to that one that changes it, and every other piece of art doesn’t have the same effect on them. I also don’t think it can change your perception for the rest of your life, maybe while you are interested in that particular piece of artwork it may change your view on other things, but I don’t think your perception is completely changed. It could “boggle” your perception or add a new element to the way you think about the world and art. I also disagree with the last part of this quote, “if it doesn’t, then it’s not art, it’s a commodity”. A commodity can also be art. Every piece of art that I observe or take interest in may not be life changing however it can be a commodity -- something of use, advantage, or value. We value the way we see things and we value what we are able to take away based off of our own perceptions and the way the piece influences us. Everything the human eye can view is something of use, they can disagree with it, agree with it, be able to contradict it, relate to it, etc. If art was not a commodity what would we be able to take away from it? It is always something of use or value in my opinion. A piece has some amount of value put into it, even if the artist is not satisfied with it, they still have some attachment to the piece due to the amount of time they placed into it. Art always seems to have value too, to those that view it. People who enjoy the piece value the elements of design, the beauty of the piece, and the overall aesthetic qualities. To me, art is always something of use; we use past and current works to influence our own work. It is to other artists that we look, especially as young artists, for inspiration and reference. Just because art does these things however does not make it change an entire perception of the rest of the world. It could alter a perception in some way but I don’t believe there is any way that it can be that life changing, however though it doesn’t change your perception, it can be a commodity for the reasons I described above. Art and commodity are definitely not a dichotomy, I don’t think they contradict, rather they work with each other to provide an overall ability to influence others views and the way that they look at things both as pieces of art and as objects in the world. I think art has always been a commodity in earlier times; we spread our ideas by having other people try them out and practice them. We value the concepts we learn from each other then pass on to those we know, in hopes that these ideas grow and are added on to with the changing of time. We also use art as an advantage; it can help describe those things that some people cannot put into words and are able to express through powerful visual interest. It is those images that make a major influence upon out lives and become those ideas of value we continue to carry with us in conversation, interaction, and other observations.

remix!

figure drawings in class - moved around the room to another persons drawing every few minutes during class and changed/added things to better the drawing overall