IMAGE ESSAY #9

In Barbara Kruger's work titled, "You are a Captive Audience" (1963), she shows a great example of what we are working on in class, currently. Kruger creates artwork that used black, great, and white tones in a way that makes the audience feel a sense of depth and dramatics.

In order to have something stand out, I learned that you need to have higher contrasted colors to make it appear to be popping out. Therefore, I found that this piece of work demonstrated this technique in a beyond average way. The artist used text in her work (which I find to be a challenging concept because it makes the viewer believe a certain thought. I believe that artwork is something that can be perceived many ways; the viewer's aspect, and many other different opinions, the determinate being how they view life, what they see, etc. Therefore, I think she did a great job picking what type of text to use and how to arrange it in a way to overall set the mood of the piece of work, which I feel is hurtful, jagged, and shameful.

By using black in the background, Kruger made the objects that were highly contrasted stand out more to the viewer. This was a great technique. This work of art inspires how I could go about working on my project.

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #4---STORIES

Art:21

1. Important stories that are told today, which I have noticed, are tales of the war. Since there is a war currently taking place, and many peoples' elders have participated in a previous war, almost everyone can relate to these stories somehow. The stories that your grandfather will tell you about his experience in the war may just relate to you and give you a background on what someone you know may be experiencing in Irag right now.

2. I think some stories are told over others because they hold more meaning. If a story can be related down generations and it can be related directly today, I believe it has more chances of being passed down and retold. Others could be lost because they are too far out there. They could be fables that lead your mind astray or could be too bizarre.

3. The artists featured in 'Stories' use sketchbooks and journals in their artistic processes because it assists in their creative thinking. It gives them a visualization of what they want to convey. I believe that these sketchbooks are in fact, art. They may not be the 'finished product', but they are most certainly the steps that are the creative process leading to the masterpiece. That in itself, is artwork.

4. I was six years old. The sun was so bright that it was blinding my eyes. It was the type of brightness that if you stared at it too long, you'd be seeing spots and everything would have iredescent tones to it each time you blinked. I spend every day laying in the grass, playing with my dolls and drawing pictures of flowers and the clouds. I dream of becoming a so big that I can touch them. I feel so content when the sun's rays hit my face. The warmth makes me smile.

I was such a dreamer. I would look up at the sun and lose myself in the moment. I took pleasure in the beautiful things in life and would depict that in my drawings created from my notebook paper, crayons, and markers. I had such a vivid imagination. I had these impossible dreams of becoming something I could never be, but I would imagine it so well in my mind that I almost believed I could.

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #4----PLACE

ART:21

1. I think that a place defines us. No matter where you are from, I feel as though that place definitely has shaped you, whether it be the weather, language, culture, or people that surround you.

2. Richard Serra is influenced by the launching of ship, which he was around when he was a child. His massive artwork seems weightless, reflecting that experience. Sally Mann used her love for the south to take pictures of things that she loved and that felt close to her, due to its great history. Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee were inspired by folk art, which was the art that was depicted all around the area of which they lived. The art was on buildings and businesses nearby. Pepon Osorio was influenced by the place he lived and wanted to provoke change, only through his artwork. He was particularly traumatized by a barbershop.

3. I got a new sense of how place reflects in artists' work. I see a great connection between artists and where they live or grew up.

4. I feel most connected to Sally Mann. I think she is a phenominal photographer. She is very dedicated to her work and is connected to the south, much like I am. I love serene settings and love finding beauty in the simplest things.

5. Richard Serra uses the ship launching to inspire his work; this makes the scale of his art large, but seem so weightless when you view it. Sally Mann uses nature in her work and it definitely shows the same size and depiction when you see her work. Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee found beauty in grafitti, and their artwork is of folk art-inspiration, making their paintings much larger than one may think. Pepon Osorio creates overpowering space, probably because of his tramatizing experience at a barber shop.

6. When I was young, there were many places that intereferred with my spirit.

*Pond-beautiful

*Cedar Point-thrilling
*Bathroom-intimidating
*My hometown-comforting

*Treehouse-security

7. My hometown of Gibsonburg, OH. The objects that occupy it are friends, familiar faces, flowers, streets, grass, churches, and smiles. The textures were soft, comforting, round, and fuzzy. The lighting was mostly bright, because it always seemed to be sunny when I remember it. It was a bright and happy place to be.

Image Essay #8

A great use of gestalt would be in the artwork created by Romare Bearden titled The Prevalence of Ritual: Baptism in 1964. This artwork is based on the art of Cubism, where the subject matter is basically African-American. The fractured image shows baptism in this work. The pieces and figures that are depicted in this artwork are pieced together by using grouping of textures and different contrasts. The viewer can get a great sense of depth with the use of various textures in the piece. Bearden takes information and energy into a single image and then combines the various shapes to compose an entire scene.By using various contrasts by using high key and low key components of black, white, and gray tones, the artist gave the viewer a sense of depth. The background has more black tones to create the illusion of an image that is further away from you. He uses more shade, which represents more black than white. There is a significant value pattern that is used within this artwork, where white, gray, and black are arranged in variations in light and dark areas. By using the visually emphasized techniques that he chose, the high value contrast definitely bring the front images closer to you, while the lesser contrast stayed back, which is represented as the background of the artwork.

Image Essay #7

A great example of a piece of work that has a distinct example of a focal point is Joseph Mallord William Turner’s Snowstorm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps. This artwork is a great example of how the artist uses many different techniques to guide the viewer’s eyes to the focal point of the work, which is essentially the blinding light from the ominous sun. Turner uses a rich overlay of historical motifs to set the feel for his work. At the lower part of this painting, Hannibal is leading his troops across the Alps to launch a surprise attack on the Germans. Although this is the part of history that the artist chooses to convey, it is surprising that your eyes do not directly go there. However, your vision is directed towards the bright orange sun that is peering through the hazy, gloomy skies that the battle has created. The cataclysmic forces of nature are being displayed using gray, black, and white. This creates various types of contrast in the background that direct your eye around the scene. I would like to bring back the use of dominant, subordinate, and accentual figures. In this piece, this technique is used as well, in order to bring focus on the focal point. For instance, Hannibal (bottom of painting) is barely noticeable, reduced to a speck on an elephant in the background.

Image Essay #6

William Claesz Heda’s Still Life is a beyond average example of the term, “synesthesia”. The best way to describe this is when one sense makes you feel another. In this example, images and how they are portrayed make you feel an entirely new approach to what is stereotypically rendered about the images. In this painting, food is viewed upon as a luxury item. Heda uses crystal goblets, glasses of different sizes, silver dishes, and traditional images and details that give the feeling of luxury---chosen for their contrasting shapes, colors, and textures. William Claesz Heda used analogous colors in this painting. Perhaps by using colors that were so close on the color wheel, he did not wish to have contrast in the visual colors of the piece, but rather contrast in the shapes and textures of the objects conveyed. For instance, the objects were painted as if the person whom was at the table was suddenly forced to leave. The broken glass indicates an upheaval on a narrative level. The entire artwork represents a curtain that time has just lowered on the scene that gives the objects a strange pathos. The unstable composition of objects that have implied feelings to human senses create the sense of a hasty departure, suggesting transience. While white wine, sweet lemons, slimy oysters, and pepper in a cone give one the applied feeling that is almost stereotyped into these objects, the overall composition of the painting give you an entirely different feel of the senses.

Image Essay #5

Man Ray’s work, The Gift, is a great example of iconography. Many icons, labels, or logos give you an image and you are likely to associate with what it means in every day society. For instance, many figures, shapes, and objects fit stereotypes of how they should be and what they stand for. In this piece, the viewer is deceived; the image takes on an entirely different approach to an iron.I have noticed that surrealistic artworks are fetishistic objects, mysterious poetic things that were found and created, and had no narrative. I feel as though they jolt the unconscious and spawned infinite associations, often sexual and violent. In this artwork, the viewer sees a clothing iron. However, the artist glued tacks onto the flat side of it, creating a new dimension to the stereotypical iron, known for ironing clothing in the home. It is a dislocation of both a household item and hardware that creates something unidentifiable, without logic or narrative, but filled with innuendoes of violence, pain, and sex. I feel as though this art is a beyond average example of how artists can change the misconceived meanings of certain objects into a new meaning, by simply adding a few tweaks. It is no longer just an iron used to steam and remove wrinkles in clothing; it is now a weapon, an object of lust, pain, or violence.