Final Project

I'm gonna say it is kinda hard to write about my final project, but I am gonna give it a shot.
For our final project, Billy decided to change the format to a fun project that incorporates food.  We had to incorporate food into art, whether it be an edible artwork, a drawing of food, or a food sculpture.  I was all over the place with my thinking, not really knowing what to do.  I had some ideas at first, making my favorite dish and focusing on everyone enjoying it, or making a more artistic piece that may not be edible.
I started out thinking about baking some cookies.  I was going to try to incorporate some important events during the last ten or so years.  The idea would be to have a cookie that looks like the twin towers, maybe one that resembles Barack Obama, and another that looks like the every popular ipod.  I had some good ideas but in the end I figured that it would be too tough to pull all that together.  I didn't know how I would make the cookies resemble the figures or events.  So I changed my plans and made an awesome frog.

  

This is the frog that I based my project off of.  I googled "food art," and saw this picture and it looked really cool.  So, I went to the grocery store and bought the necessary materials, an apple, grapes, carrots, spinach leaves, and rice to put it on.  I started by cutting the apple in half, and then carefully cut out the body of the frog using a sharp knife.  Next, I carved out the sides of the frog, shaping him to look nice.  Then I poured lemon juice on the apple, since it would be in the fridge for the night.  Next I cut the carrots to resemble webbed frog feet.  I found a square tupperware container and poured the uncooked rice into it.  I pulled apart some spinach leaves and layed them around the outside of the container.  I layed the carrot feet on the rice and placed the apple on top in the right position.  Next I found some toothpicks and pulled out two grapes.  I put the toothpicks through the grapes and into the apple and shoved them all the way in to keep the eyes in place.  That was the final step, and then I starred in amazement at my beautiful frog.

I don't really have a reason as to why I made a frog for my art project.  I wanted to make something completely out of food and I came up with this idea.  Though I wouldn't eat it, especially the uncooked rice, it is completely edible, technically.  I wanted to make something that was appealing to look at, and so far I have gotten some good comments on my frog.  My frog is one of my better looking art projects, if I do say so myself, and I hope everyone enjoys the donuts I am bringing in to eat with my frog!

Art Event #1 SMP Art

I decided to take a look at the art projects that students have prepared for their SMP projects.  The gallery was set up inside of Montgomery Hall, and displayed the work of many senior art students.  I must admit that I have never really been to an art gallery, but from what I can tell, the gallery was very well set up.  I didn't go to the opening show of the gallery, instead just walked through on my own and analyzed a couple pieces I was intrigued by. 
The first piece that I analyzed was by a student named Allyson Moore, titled, "Vintage Values."  When I first saw the work I thought that it looked very basic, just a cardboard cutout with glitter.  But once I stood in front of it I began to become very interested in the way that simple design was able to have a major meaning.  The small amounts of cutouts and glitter did a fantastic job of showing emotion in the face.  I would normally feel that the kind of detail I could see in the piece would require a detailed form of art, but the placement of the cutouts that surrounded the face integrated the feelings that the person in the piece must have felt.  I was able to look at the piece and feel major emotion in the piece.  I found it interesting that my mindset regarding the complexity of the piece was able to change so quickly from first glance. The artist did an astounding job of showing emotion without an intricate amount of detail.
The next piece that I looked at was by Allie Snyder, an oil on panel piece called, "The Missing Child."  I think that one of the most important parts of Allie Snyder's work was the wood panel that the art was arranged on.  She took out a child in each piece, and illustrated the emotion of the "empty" child through the emotions of the people that surround the "empty" child.  Also, she did a good job incorporating the emotion through the scenery.  Her piece on the far left, where the children are looking over the edge of what looks like a bridge or a small building.  You obviously cannot tell the emotion of the missing child, but the other child and the scenery set the mood.  You can see the theme of the piece without an integral part, one of the people.

Critique

Recently, in class, we presented our projects based off of our researched artists.  I presented my work, based off of visual artist Paul Pfieffer.  Pfieffer did a lot of work with altering pictures and changing the meaning, a theme I tried to capture with my work.  I was previously inexperienced with Photoshop, aside from our small amount of work in class, and decided to tackle my project using Photoshop.  Photoshop was one aspect of the class that I wrote about in our mid-semester blog post that I wanted to use again and one skill I wanted to become better with.  I was a little bit intimidated by Photoshop at first, which showed in my work.  As I became more confident, and Professor Friebele taught me different techniques, I think my artwork benefited.  I thought that the creations I was making towards the end of the time with Photoshop was stronger, and did a better job showing Pfieffer intended themes. 
During my critique from the class, I think that my point of getting better with Photoshop as time went on, was illustrated.  When I presented my artwork alongside Pfieffer's, my later work better compared to his.  My latest piece, that I felt strongest about received the best praise, and my earlier attempts saw the most criticism.  My later artwork, which were of Lebron James, related to Pfieffer's themes of incorporating the fans into the picture more than the athlete.  Though the athlete is the centerpiece, taking away his material things (team name, number), you can draw in the outside perspectives.  My last piece, I decided to take out all the players that were present on the court, aside from Lebron.  I also cropped out his team name and number.  Altering the court added to the focus on his action of what looked like a dunk, but left things up for interpretation.  Pfieffer always succeeds in showing just enough action in his work that it can be interpreted, most of the time correctly.  I enjoyed presenting my work, even when it did draw criticism.  I understand that I am obviously not a perfect artist and I feel I was able to handle criticism and also praise all in perspective.  

Artist Research

Edgar J. Brown
    My first artist that I found for my research project was Edgar J. Brown.  I searched for artists for created sports images and came across Brown.  I am a big sports fan and wanted to explore different ways that sports are portrayed through art.  I came across Edgar J. Brown's paintings and I think he does a good job showing emphasis through painting.  One specific painting of Muhammad Ali shows a great illustration of what I was saying, the main emphasis is on the bright red in Ali's gloves punching forward.  The brightness of the red in the gloves shows what Ali was all about.  Another great painting of Brown's is of UFC star Randy Couture.  The color in the painting is dull, aside from the blood Couture draws from one of his punches.  I think that the main focus of Brown's paintings are the emphasis he uses with color to draw the viewer into a certain part of the piece. I think that the way that Brown incorporates emphasis with color would be a fun art project to work on for myself.  The color that he chooses to bring out the brightest is important with drawing the viewers eyes towards to main focus.

Andy Warhol
   The next artists that I chose to research was Andy Warhol.  Andy Warhol changed art with his unique drawings and use of color.  Some of his famous artworks include "The Soup Can," and paintings that incorporated such celebrities as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.  Warhol attended Carnegie Melon and studied fine arts.  Warhol attributes his love for art at a young age to the fact that he came down with chorea as a result of scarlet fever.  Warhol was bed ridden and found himself exploring drawing and collecting pictures of celebrities.  While at Carnegie Melon, a friend of Warhol's inspired him to further explore his art technique of "pop art."  Such examples of his "pop art" are his paintings of Marilyn Monroe and pink and black knives.  Warhol's paintings have been modernized and you can now find clothes and different forms that have the famous Campbell's soup cans utilizing unique colors.  I am not sure how I could incorporate Warhol's ideas into my own art, mainly just copying his idea with Marilyn Monroe and the different colors.

Pablo Picasso
   Another artist I looked into was Picasso.  Picasso is one of the most famous artists that someone would think about, along with Van Gogh and Michelangelo.  Picasso was born in 1881 in Spain, where his father was a professor of art, so unlike other artists, Picasso had art "in his blood."  Picasso took many trips to Paris during his younger years and studied the impressionists.  Picasso, at about 30 years old, relocated to Paris, where he remained all of his life.  It is said that Picasso's art can be broken into time frames.  Early in his career, he embarked on the "Blue Period," where the colors and forms that he painted were melancholy and flat of form.  Next, Picasso had the "Rose Period," which was similar to the previous period, only a little more romantic in color.  Picasso also further explored an idea of "Cubism," and then collage art work.  He even found himself drawing themes about women and children, and sculpting.  It is said that Picasso's affect on modern art is "immeasurable."  

Midterm Review

During the first half of the fall 2010 semester, I can easily say that Visual Thinking has been my most enjoyable class this semester.  Going into the semester I was worried about taking my required art credit, being that I had never taken an art class before and wasn't familiar with the course.  To start, I enjoyed that Professor Friebele understood that each student was in the class for different reasons, some people were art majors and some students were fulfilling a gen-ed.  Having that be understood, along with the understanding that there were differing levels of art skills in the class, has made the whole process easier to think about and do. 

One of the main parts of the class that I have enjoyed is the atmosphere in the classroom.  I have found it very easy to speak out in class and voice my opinion on readings and artwork that we have looked at.  Everyone in class is very accepting of other people's opinions and never criticizing.  I also think that the general concept of an art class yields a great class environment.  Since I have never taken an art class before I didn't know that in class, it doesn't have to be about being right or wrong, its more about how you feel and what you see/interpret.

My favorite project thus far in class was when we played around with photo-shop while listening to music.  I had never messed with photo-shop and had always heard good things about the program.  I enjoyed playing with the program, as I see it being something that I could utilize in my work field of business or economics.  With regards to a project we turned in, I have enjoyed my animation I am currently finishing up.  For the project I decided to take pictures of my roommate juggling a soccer ball and work them into i-movie for a 25 second animation.  I think that i-movie is a fun program to use and I am happy that I went out of my comfort zone to explore it during this current project.

I would like to continue to explore the technological aspect of the class.  I feel that the use of technology, as I have said before, will benefit me in my career path.  Using the different programs available in the computer lab is a good way for me to figure out the basics of some programs that I may need to know.  My older brother, who got his Bachelor's degree from UMD, said his biggest regret of college was not learning more computer science/technology stuff.  He is finding in his marketing job, that he needs to know how to use computer programs to make flyers and presentations.  I know that I see myself in a similar job, and want to be ahead of the curve with my knowledge of programs that hopefully will benefit me.

Overall, I have enjoyed the assignments and the class structure that we have had in Art 105: Visual Thinking.  I look forward to the remainder of the semester and maybe even another art class in the future!

 

This past week in Visual Thinking class, I really enjoyed making my collage and seeing the collage's that other students prepared.  When I prepared my collage, I looked at multiple nude model drawings that I had from our nude model session and chose to pick just two of the drawings and base my collage off of those drawings.  I began looking through magazines and thinking about the direction I could venture off to with my collage and started to see alot of faces stick out to me.  I realized that in my drawings, I had not drawn faces, and collaging faces around my drawings could add a different aspect.  I was able to find an immense amount of faces, from the Mona Lisa to Dolly Parton, all of which were able to alter the way that I viewed my model drawings.  I discovered that the pictures were able to add to the drawings of the model and change how the each person viewed the drawings, depending on the face you placed on top of the body.  I enjoyed looking at other people's collage's as well, especially the collage that imitaded the drawing we previously looked at, "the girl walking down the stairs."  I thought that piece was very well prepared and the flow of time was very obvious.
Our next project, the postcard project is giving me alot of grief.  I know the direction I want to go with the project but am having trouble putting my thoughts on paper and explaining them in an art form.
The Scott McCloud reading that was assigned was able to explain the phenomenon of comics in a fun way.  Esxplaining comics by utilizing a comic strip helped to really explain the points that were being made.  The incorporation of the visual aspect added to my personal ability to understand what was being portrayed by McCloud.  McCloud's arguement about how our perception of sound changes comics, and changes length, made alot of sense to me.  When a pictured is seen without captions, it looks still, but the addition of captions and words, adds a dimension that makes it seem as though the picture is moving.  This to me seems like one of the major reasons that comics illustrate a progression in time.  Another important aspect of comics is the "breaks" between images.  This aspect leads to a flow from one image to another, making the comic strip move through time.  McCloud's illustration of this is obvious with his showing of the different shapes and sizes and progressions that comic's use.

Questions:
How have comics grown over time, which aspects that McCloud presents are the newest?

Why are comics more succesful then flip books, when they are so similar.

For research, I decided to look at the Futurists.  We have been talking about the futurists alot and I wanted to learn more. One underlying thing about Futurism is that it seemed to want to instill a change in society, and I think, from reading that it did.  It made people open up to the art piece and look at the piece as a whole, in order to understand.  Sometimes, as I found while looking at the art in class, you can't see what the piece is meant to be until you see the title.  Futurism actually originated in Literature, and was one of our earliest form of abstract.  Futurism did and still does help to open minds to the overall meaning that a piece of art may encompass.

This past week in class, I experienced aspects of art that I never had thought about before.  From the experience of drawing a nude model, to drawing what we hear while listening to music, it was an eye-opening week of art for me.  Since we had been working on drawing, Tuesday took it a step up and we moved from drawing weeds and bricks to drawing a nude model.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit reserved about how the session would go, but it actually was an interesting experience.  I enjoyed the different directions that Prof. Friebele guided us in, drawing using dots, quick lines, and not picking up the drawing utensil.  I particularly enjoyed using dots to draw.  I have struggled with slowing down while drawing and the dot technique forced me to really slow down.  I actually felt that my drawing, using the dot technique, was a lot better than some of my other drawings. 

I enjoyed being in the computer lab on Thursday, and using the computer drawing pads.  I had never used Photo shop before, and had heard that it was an amazing program.  I was impressed with the different things you could change and play with while drawing on the pad.  I had trouble at first drawing what I heard while listening to music, but eventually my mind calmed down and focused on what I was hearing and let my pen flow.  I hope we get to use Photo shop more, as I know it is a beneficial program to be proficient in.  Some people in our class had previous experiences with Photo shop and were able to make some pretty sweet drawings.

This week we read the article, "Ways of seeing," by John Berger.  Berger presented many interesting topics about perspective.  Specifically, I enjoyed thinking about the aspect of the "originality" of a piece of art.  These days, we see art in so many different places, on clothes, on T.V., in random places.  Berger pointed out that seeing art in its non-original location changes our view of the art.  Seeing pictures of the "Mona Lisa," is much different than being in the museum it is located in and experiencing it as it is meant to be seen.  An artist thinks of their art in a specific place, and media and technology may skew our view of what the artist meant.  Berger illustrates this when talking about pictures of art, saying, "When the camera reproduces a painting, it destroys the uniqueness of its image.  As a result its meaning changes.  Or, more exactly, its meaning multiplies and fragments into many meanings."  I don't think a reproduction of a piece of art ruins the meaning, but I do think that we need to appreciate the fact that an artist planned for his or her art to be seen in a specific way, and we should respect that.

Questions:
Which type of music, when an artist listens to it, creates certain types of art?

Many artists don't create art so that it will be seen in a museum, so how do we know which surroundings are meant to bring out the real meaning?

For research, i decided to look at some art pieces created using PhotoShop.


These pictures really interest me and I would love to learn how to do similar artwork.  Technological advancements such as PhotoShop are necessary in many careers nowadays.  Having the skills to use PhotoShop would greatly benefit me.  There is some crazy artwork that people have made on PhotoShop, Google it!

The most captivating aspect of class since my last post is definitely the movie, Memento.  I have never seen the movie before and became enthralled in the plot and the disease that the main character has.  I could not imagine being in his shoes, and having to take pictures and write notes to myself to remember who I am talking to.  I have heard of tragedies (i.e. his wife being raped and murdered by "John G"), having a negative affect on people's memories.  I would like to research his disease and see if it is real on an level.
One aspect of the films making that is interesting is the contrast and use of black and white vs color in the scenes.  It is difficult at this point in the film to tell the relevance of the black and white and color in differing scenes.  The reason, I think, for the difficulty is the fact that the movie is played in a sequence that represents the main characters memory.  The movie starts with what seems like the final scene, and works backwards, incorporating different characters before they are actually introduced.  This is representative of the main character because he is constantly put in situations where he is left wondering, "how did I get here?"  A prime example of his condition is when he is being chased by the man who shot out his window, and a couple minutes into the chase he stops and wonders, "why am I running," and has to use clues around him to figure out he is being chased by the gunman.  The fact that the movie goes in the sequence of his mind adds to the interest in his disease, while also adding to the mystery of what "happened" leading up to the point he is at now.  I am looking forward to seeing the end of the movie, and figuring out the earlier events that led him to what we have already seen.
In the last post, I commented on the assigned reading by JG Whitrow, "What is Time?"  After we read and discussed that article, we were assigned a later section from the same piece by JG Whitrow that further dove into the idea of "Time and Ourselves."  As I read the article, I found the arguments of many different philosophers, such as Kant, Guyua, Socrates, Diderot, Bergeson and Freud, among others.  Guyua had a theory that I found very interesting.  He though that "the idea of time arose when man became conscious of his reactions towards pleasure and pain and of the succession of muscular sensations associated with these reactions."  We discussed the idea of the difference in human memory and animal memory, and Guyua thinks that the difference is in the fact that animals have "particular patterns of sensory awareness- known as 'releasers'," where humans learn from their own experience.  Another interesting quote in the reading, that I feel relates to the movie Memento is, "the usefulness of memory is so obvious that we tend to regard forgetting as a defect."  I think that Leonard, the main character in the movie, illustrates how important both forgetting and remembering really are.  As much as Leonard cannot remember people or things, it would also make it easier if he didn't forget so easily after someone told him.  I think that remembering and forgetting, obviously, go hand in hand, in terms of importance.  Leonard would be in a much better situation if he could at least not forget things once he re-heard them after the incident.

Two questions:
What do people think is more important, short-term memory or long-term memory?

Since Leonard's disease came about after the incident, wouldn't he forget that he had the disease just as easily as he forgets other things?

While looking into diseases similar to Leonard's in the movie Memento, I compared it to Alzheimer's.  The early stages of Alzheimer's affect short term memory tremendously.  The inability to learn new skills or acquire new memories obviously relates to Leonard.  A major difference in Leonard and most Alzheimer's patients, is how the disease came about.  In Leonard's case, his disease was a result of a tragic incident, while Alzheimer's usually is a disease that comes about with age.  Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease, while Leonard seems to be living a healthy life, aside from his lack of memory. 

Introduction and JG Whitrow- What is Time?

During the first class, I really enjoyed the music video we watched "Come Into My World" by Kylie Minoque.  The inability to pick up on certain aspects of the repetition in the video were amazing.  We were able to compose a list of similarities after one viewing, and then another list, completely different, after the second time we watched the video.  Knowing what we were looking for, rather than nonchalantly watching the video, proved to help our eyes follow exactly what was happening, and see more of the parallels as the video progressed.  Similarly, in the second class, we watched another music video.  This video similarly was able to play tricks on my eyes at first glance.  The ability of the director to tell a story, not only through the words in the story, but also by changing the direction at which certain aspects of the video were playing, forward vs backward, were amazing.  Personally, I was fooled by this aspect of the video, in that I thought the black cat was going against the grain and walking backwards through the "forward side" of the screen.  Until we watched the video in slow motion did my eyes recognize that the cat was true to form, and was walking forwards. The ability of the visual tactics used to trick you unless you paid close attention was amazing.  Thinking about the screenplay of the video and replaying it in our own pictures and words, helped to organize the thoughts everyone seemed to have about the video.

"...Only time has this peculiar quality which makes us feel intuitively that we understand it perfectly so long as we are not asked to explain what we mean by it."
Whitrow begins his piece by discussing why we ultimately cannot seem to answer the question as to why we can not explain time.  First, he looks at the origins of time, whether it be with the Gregorian calendar, the Mayan calendar, the Christian calendar, and contributions by such groups as the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians.   The Mayans were "the most obsessed with the idea of time...picturing the divisions time as burdens carried by a hierarchy of divine bearers who personified the respective numbers by which the different periods- days, months, years decades and centuries- were distinguished."  Though we recognize that the Mayans were able to break ground on the though of time, we know that our sense of time now, is much more sophisticated.  Our ability to acknowledge and understand the idea of past, present and future is only a trait that man has been able to comprehend, differing from even the "most intelligent animals such as chimpanzees."  Once we are able to decipher between past and present, we can start to examine events in the past, such as the beginning of time, time that we consider today and also the start of everything we know.
Personally, I have never thought about the idea of explaining time.  It is a hard concept to ponder, because it is something that we know, but can't comprehend.  If someone asks me what is time, I would, after reading this article, think about time on many different levels, rather than the "time" on the clock.