On halloween, the art department viewed a presentation on Japanese aesthetics through the lens of the western world. We talked about the major components of this style which are: Wabi, Sabi, and Yugui. The general premise is that the beauty is focussed on simplicity and remembrance as apposed to in the western world where there is a more gaudy view of beauty. What I found interesting about the presentation was that it seems like the Japanese view everything like a memory, they can be simple and sometimes sad but in the end most memories are beautiful. In America we see beauty as a more objective thing, either it is or it isn't, but in Japan it seems that beauty is what each individual makes of it.
0 Comments
Figure drawingThis week we continued to work with Tommy on developing value in our figure drawings. This was our last week working with him, and in the end I'm not sure how I feel about this style of figure drawings. In my opinion, my figure drawings look best when I have free reign to start and finish where I want. While for some people, this method of building up with gestures might be helpful, I prefer to focus primarily on the negative space. I found that with gesture, many of my proportions were inconsistent and by the time I realized it it was too late to fix anything without erasing an entire body part. HOME projectMy home project is not moving along as quickly as I would like. I have gotten pretty far into the design of the tattoo, but I want to spend more time on it seeing as it will be going on my dad permanently. I also think that it will be impossible for it to get tattooed on by the deadline, so I have put that project on hold and am shifting gears a little bit. I plan to do a print of a similar theme, because my inspiration for the tattoo was Japanese block printing.
On an unrelated note, I got an idea for a new project that I think could be really cool. I have my old iPhone that is completely unusable and plan to possibly smash it, attach it to a wooden "canvas" and continue the shatters out. The shatters will have moments missed, presumable because of being absorbed in technology, in them. Right now it is just a brain storm though. This week we have been working with Tommy to make figure drawings. Monday we focussed on searching lines, and Wednesday we worked on the surface of the figure.
This week I finished the second sign, painted the edges and got them ready to hang. I need to work more on clouds and coping with acrylic in place of oil for the given time.
WHAT DID YOU DO?
Today I did an extra layer on the sky and sign, painted in all of the letters, and started on the decay. Next class I plan to finish the decay and the neons, and if I have time give it a stormier sky. DID YOU USE YOUR TIME WELL? I got a lot of the painting done today and should be on track to finish by next class. I may need to get it ready to hang during lunch on Friday, but I can probably get it done in the class period. WHAT OBSTICLES ARE YOU FACING? The most difficult part of this project is changing up the media. I am used to working with oil paint that gives me more than enough time to blend. This is not the case with acrylic. Another issue with the paint is that I am used to the color set up of oil that is not available in the acrylics that we have (I prefer having a warm and cool version of all the primaries as well as a black and white). I usually work with an easel, but have found with the size of the painting that that is almost impossible. Over the course of this year I have seen much improvement in my art. In the beginning of the year, I tried to avoid faces at all costs and had no idea how to deal with them especially in a setting where I need to put it down quickly. While I do still avoid the front I have taken more risks over this year and learned how to quickly put in the skeleton of the body instead of trying to do each part independently. I also learned about time management to do a basic sketch of the whole body and then going into more detail once I have the basics down. I think my biggest issue is time management especially considering my sculpture and home projects. If I had started many of my projects early I could have had a better final product. There is still room for improvement and I look forward to continuing this next year.
Matthew Wiley is the founder of the Good of the Hive initiative, and, like my sculpture project, focusses on the interconnectedness and reliance of bees and humans. He plans to paint 50,000 bees, the number needed for a healthy hive, in murals across the United States to bring awareness to the plight of the bees. Although I did not know about him when I started my project, the amount of commitment he has to seeing the project through has inspired me when I doubted my own work. I also appreciate his style of murals and how realistic they are while still keeping the cuteness of honey bees.
The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is a new building that was recently constructed in Richmond. My class was fortunate enough to be the first official school group to visit the ICA and get a tour. All of the artwork in the ICA is carefully placed to interact with each other, even the building's architecture works with the pieces exhibited to show meaning. My group particularly enjoyed their interactive art such as the recording studio and the watches that do not keep time. Everything about the way it is orchestrated makes you want to stay and explore the area forever. The three hours we spent there was not enough to truly experience all that the ICA has to offer.
“Shadow boxes become poetic theater or settings wherein are metamorphosed the elements of a childhood pastime” Joseph Cornell was a surrealist artist who did assemblage sculptures using wooden boxes. Inside were artfully arranged found objects that are often creepy, nostalgic or both. I have always been interested in making shadow boxes and dioramas, so I think that his work could greatly influence me. Over the summer I plan to tackle one of these projects and hope to instead of drawing on the idea of nostalgia draw on the theatrical elements of the shadow box.
The work Robert Caldwell has always left me astounded; the fine details of every aspect make his work look so real that it looks unreal. Every time I walk into his studio and see the pieces he was hanging on the wall I am inspired by both his craft and attention to composition. He creates pieces using both graphite and oil paint layering them to create great depth and to create distinct values.
Steven Glass creates beautiful ceramics and teaches classes at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and is the Resident Potter there. Recently he created a bowl that was used to break the tie breaker of the 94th house delegate district, but going further back he was the artist in residence at Rufford Craft Center in England and has solo exhibitions in the Republic of Korea and England. He has also published numerous articles that have been published.
The assigned readings "The 1913 Armory Show: America's First Art War" and "the Ism that Isn't" focus on the introduction of new forms of art to the art world. In the article pertaining to the Armory Show it discusses the introduction of new European art and its reception by the American people, while "the Ism that Isn't" centers around the creation of Neurotic Realism in the Saatchi Gallery. They both discuss what makes art groundbreaking and how this changes the public's perception of it. Another idea that stood out in both of the articles is the hypocrisy of the Association of American Painters and Sculptures, in the Armory Show, and that of Charles Saatchi.
Two questions that may seem at odds with each other are: what makes art groundbreaking? and what makes art welcomed by the public? In "the Ism that Isn't" it is argued that the shock value associated with the term "ism" is often used as a way to show how much the new form of art shatters reality. Discussing the difference between isms and other movements the author wrote, "To call an art movement an ism is to imply that instead of depicting the world in a commonsense way, the artists make an argument, propose a theory. Medieval and Renaissance art never wanted to defy the past, but to be faithful to it"(2). This is an important opinion because it shows the difference between ground breaking and a movement and that a movement can be ground breaking but that this is not always true. This leaves the question: what makes art welcomed by the public? A study done by Carlos Silva Pereira, which focusses on what makes art popular, says that familiarity makes art widely accepted and popular, not that this makes it necessarily good or successful. The poor reception at the Armory Show was caused by the fact that people were not familiar with this new art and in turn did not approve of it. However, the Armory Show did help to begin this familiarization, which was fathered by the CIA during the Cold War, to make this new art more widely accepted. In the article it states that "Nude angered people because they understood it too well, but also not enough" (5). As the understanding of what the artists that utilize Cubism grew, the art form gains popularity. In general people do not like the unknown and will always be drawn to the familiar, and one way to do this is to, instead of recreating existing art, is to make groundbreaking work that will become familiarized by how outrageous it is. A criticism of the articles is the hypocrisy with in them. The main source in the article "The 1913 Armory Show: America's First Art War," was the Association of American Painters and Sculptures' (AAPS) claim to want to hold up American artists. The AAPS was anti-academic art which was the popular belief of those in Europe at the time, but in America academic art still reigned supreme. To further their beliefs they created the Armory Show which did contain thought provoking art, however it was primarily European. It appears that their purpose was not to support American art, but their own agendas. In "the Ism that Isn't," Saatchi makes the point that "many are questioning whether all these isms, these movements and manifestos, actually illuminate works of art, or artists just like talking big"(1). He criticizes this and claims to have created Nuerotic Realism in order to shine a light on the art world and the overuse of isms to make them less meaningful. However, he appears to be doing the same thing. He is using the title of ism in order to gain publicity for his exhibit like, in his own words, "an ad campaign." While both the AAPS and Saatchi have honest criticism and feed back that they can bring to the art world, their messages are blurred with their personal interests. Hamilton Glass is a wonderful artist who spoke to us about his journey. His talent for art was realized when he was young, and he stresses the importance of foundation skills even when they seem repetitive and boring. He became a mural painter, not because he wanted to be an artist, but because he wanted to create. By what seems like happenstance, his work was noticed. Glass pushed the idea of a good work ethic, that he learned while getting a degree in architecture. This is an important lesson that everyone needs to learn. What you expect to be difficult may not actually be where the road block is. In his presentation he said "the hardest part of my job is not painting, it is managing the projects."
Painting murals in Richmond, Glass found an issue. Many of the muralists focus on their personal expression as opposed to the culture and community of Richmond. While it is wonderful that many talented artists from out of state/country, the culture of Richmond should also be showcased. Glass decided to solve this issue by working with with communities and schools in particular to make murals that are focussed around them. You can see work by Glass and more information about him by going to the website link below. |
Mia
|