Final Art Project

For my final art project I tried to incorporate different parts of Francisco de Goya's work. His main work used paint so I decided to not just use paint to try to create my final piece. I used his Black Paintings in the background of the first art piece. I printed out many different artworks that were in the collection of Francisco de Goya's Black Paintings. I cut them out in different ways to try not to create the same piece over and over again. I was going to use Photoshop to try to make the background but I felt more comfortable printing out and cutting the pictures the way I thought they should be in the background. The person in the center is supposed to be "opposite" of the meanings of the Black Paintings. I used light colors to contrast with the black, browns, and dark yellows so that she would stand out. I picked orange for her shirt because it is near the yellows that are featured in the background, but it is much brighter to symbolize happier tones.

For the second piece I tried to do the opposite of the first piece, I used works of art that Francisco de Goya painted earlier in his life that had lighter themes and brighter colors in them. The girl in the center has tones that are similar to those in the background in the first piece of art. The background artwork was created the same way it was in the first piece. I did not want to use Photoshop because I wanted to make it unique and I wanted to fit the cutout pieces where I thought they should be, rather than having the pattern repeat over and over again.

I wanted to make the two pieces opposite because that is how Goya's work seems to be when comparing the beginning of his artistic career towards the end. I wanted to show that there is some darkness in light and light in darkness, much like the idea of Yin and Yang. I thought that the two different mediums of art, paint and printed images would really emphasize the idea that things that don't seem to go together at first might go together if you keep trying. The background of the pieces are very busy so I wanted to keep the human figures simple in order to not crowd the piece.

I also felt that mixing the two mediums would help modernize Francisco de Goya's art because this idea of a collage mixed with a painting is not something someone saw when Goya was alive.

Light City Baltimore

On April 4, I went to the Light City Baltimore display at school. There were displays in the hallway and in the theater. The main display was in the theater, on stage was white sheets that seemed to be in the shape of a tree. There were different lights that were shining on the white sheets, that would change colors and shine in different patterns. There were different boxes hanging from the ceiling that looked like they were holding candles that were also different colors.

The first picture was my favorite display in the Light City display. This display was inside the ticket box office. I had to look in a little hole in the box office window to see these silver objects hanging around the room. There were different lights around the room that would emphasize different parts of the display. I liked it the most because I liked how it was all one color, silver, rather than a mix of colors like the other displays around the Light City.

The second display was in the front hallway before the theater. There was a light fixture that was hanging from the ceiling that was displaying these little lights that would flash on the ceiling and on the walls in different patterns. They would make different patterns with the shapes they would make, and the speed at which they would flash.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a very confusing era of art. It seems to be hard to define but it might be a mix of different cultures and things that don't seem to go along with each other but are put togerher ans somehow do look like they are supposed to be together. Postmodernism seems to be saying that there isn't one way of life anymore but the way of life is a mixture of different things from different  cultures all mushed together. Postmodernists may believe that electronics and television are taking over our lives but help to create a "hyper-reality" which is "more real than real" which I do not understand what this is saying. Places like Disneyland can be seem as a "hyper-reality" because it allows for people to forget their worries and troubles but in reality they are just being represented in front of them. I do not really understand what they are trying to say but I think it means that people look towards things like a fake world that isn't real to forget about the "real world" but the real world is just outside of the park or the house. Places like Disneyland are fake places made to make people feel comfortable? Postmodernism is a very confusing concept and I do not think I will ever truly understand what it means. My best guess can be that its a mixture of things that do not go together but do that makes people feel safe or makes them feel as though its real.

Shape of Time Review

Kubler's "The Shape of Time" he discusses the difficulties that biographers of artists have to face and the different ways to compare artists. He believes that writing about an artist's life solely through biography doesn't do a good job in being able to understand the art and the messages behind it. He believes art that an artists creates changes throughout their life. Only having "one entrance" about an artist means that the author will skip over important information in order to just summarize their life rather than take a deeper look into the art. He believes that it is very difficult to determine if one artist is greater than another because there are so many different ways an artist becomes who they are. He says "talent is a predisposition", which I agree with because a lot of artists are born with this talent that will lead them to greatness, their painting or sculpting might come more natural to them then the next person. Their talent is hard to judge from person to person because I believe that their messages and ways they developed their talent is so unique and different from artist to artist that its hard to compare their work. Kubler believes that there are a lot of factors that effect talent such as, "physical energy, durable health, powers of concentration, are a few of the gifts of fortune with which the artist is best endowed". He looks at the life of an artist to see what events were going on that could have affected their art at the current time. I believe that it is important to look at an artist's life because it makes a huge impact on their art, they take their struggles, successes, good times, and bad time and try to create a story or a narrative to express their feelings. Reading a biography of an artist can really help someone understand the art but people should be aware that it is just a summary of their life, rather than an analysis into a specific part of their life.

Whitescapes

                                 
The picture on the left is a towel on a white bed sheet without the flash. The picture on the right is the same picture but taken with the flash. The picture on the left without the flash seems so have more warm undertones that makes the towel and the sheet seem more soft. The picture with the flash makes the towel stand out more and makes it look more white and more harsh. The bed sheet in the back seems to be more smooth and flat and you can't see the shadows as much as the picture without the flash.

Ways of Seeing Reflection

In John Berger Ways of Seeing he discusses the importance of "seeing" and the different levels of it in our world and daily lives. I found this excerpt to be really difficult to read and to keep focused on but I found some interesting points that caught my eye and made an impression on my. His first point is "the way we see things is affected by what we know or believe". This idea is really interesting and I believe that it's true. People are going to look at a painting and see different things based on their knowledge of art and painting. A regular person might look at it and see just what it appears to be like a landscape or a portrait, but an artist who studies paintings might see the different brush strokes, the way its laid out, or the kind of paint the artist used. Berger discusses the idea that we don't just look at one thing, but that we are always looking at things in relation to ourselves. This idea was interesting because he goes on to talk about how a photographer chooses to take a picture a certain way to get the viewer to see what he wants them to see. This idea can be expanded because this is the way a lot of artists, writers, or directors create their art. They create something a certain way because they want you to see what they saying.  A musician's music video is an expression of what they see when they play their song.

Berger also makes an interesting point that images can "outlast what it represented". People can look at a picture from a long time ago and "see" what was seen a long time ago. Also artists might see something in their art that other people might never be able to see and will never truly understand what the artist is "seeing". This idea is demonstrated in the thousands of art pieces left behind by deceased artists, we will never really know what the artist is seeing or what they are trying to say because we all see different points, and have different backgrounds that makes us think differently. This John Berger wrote a very interesting excerpt that I found to be confusing at times but made me think about how "seeing" really affects the way we live. Although artists, photographers, musicians and writers try to have us see their vision, our interpretation of what we see is all going to be very different and unique.

Visibility Reflection

This reading by Italo Calvino was hard to follow but there were many points that I found important about the idea of imagination and imagery. Calvino starts his excerpt by talking about Dante’s Inferno and the images and ideas that Dante has. While going through many circles of Purgatory Dante sees images of different landscapes, scenes from heaven, people, and supernatural beings. Dante believes that there are two types of imagination the “high fantasy” and the corporeal imagination. Calvino continues with this idea and elaborates on this idea with his idea that there are two types of imagination, the first one being that imagination starts with the word and ends with a visual image. The second time is that imagination starts with a visual image and ends with a verbal expression.

Calvino believes that the first type of imagination is the one that usually occurs when we read. He goes on to describe how movies and television shows are just products of this, they are the visualizations of a story or book that someone had written down. The director and the writers “visualize” what they think the book or story is and make it happen physically. This type of imagination is always at work even when we don’t think about it. Visuals and images are in everything even if they are not meant to be. Even reading a scientific article or a set of data can force the imagination to picture what they are talking about visually. The second type of imagination, that imagination starts with a visual image and ends with a verbal expression, seems to be the more complicated of the two. Calvino argues this point by saying that when he first starts writing he usually has a visual image in his mind that is the source of his fantasy stories. This can be seen throughout a lot of art because the visual of the painting can often cause someone to have a verbal expression, they did not create the painting but they had a verbal reaction to it. So maybe the two types are just a circle of imagination, visuals starting from words and words starting from images.

Calvino believes that imagination is the basis for everything, art, science, writing, even math. People think in terms of images and it is a very important part of our lives that we don’t think about very often. Calvino ends his excerpt with the question of is there anything left for people today to create brand new ideas and stories? He believes that people are either going to have to recycle old images and ideas and create a new context for them to be in, or that we will have to start from scratch. This reading was very interesting and thought provoking, I had never thought about where imagination and ideas are derived from. Image is a powerful tool that we use to communicate and survive. Calvino makes a lot of good points about the significance of imagination and makes me wonder if there is any true, original imaginations left or are all images and ideas based off other images and ideas?

Print Media

This is my print media piece. The original image consisted of the couple laying on a bed petting the bulldog. The focal point was the couple in the middle of the piece so I moved it to the bottom left corner. I still believe that it acts as a focal point because there are lines that lead directly to it. I wanted to keep the design as a triangle so that everything gets noticed. I think there is a good balance between all the "corners" of the triangle. I tried to keep the composition neat because I wanted the focus to be on several pieces like the couple with the hot dog.

Advertisment Breakdown

The purpose of this Nike advertisement was to make people want to buy these type of sneakers. Their motto for this sneaker is "The shoe works if you do". I wanted to use this advertisement because my first thought was of the controversy of the Nike sweatshops in Indonesia, China, and other countries throughout Asia. I thought I would use pictures of women working in the factories to emphasize the fact that Nike outsources their work to countries where they can pay their workers very little because there is no regulation for factories like these. I thought that the words were very impactful because Nike is saying that if you work hard it will pay off in the long run, but the real work was done by the people in the sweatshops. 

The Whole Ball of Wax Reflection

"Art is not optional; it is necessary. It is part of the whole ball of wax"

Jerry Satlz's article "The Whole Ball of Wax" was an indepth look into the meaning of art. His many interesting points about why people do art and look at art made me think about art in a whole different  way. Throughout his article Saltz looks at how art can change the world. He belivies that art is a nessesity that must be a part of our world today. His idea that art can change the world is in a sense that it can't cure AIDs or stop genocide or hunger, but it provides and escape away from those bad things. Art is able to take people out of the moment and trancend them into something else. It can provide peace and comfort to people. He says, "Art is an energy source that helps make change possible; it sees things in clusters and constellations rather than rigid systems". Art is the ability to have two very similar people look at a painting and comprehend two very different things, It draws out different emotions, ideas, and inspirations that art viewers may not have felt before. 

One point Saltz makes is that critics often try to put art into different catigories, and they try to make it seem rigid and firm. But Saltz believes that art should be whatever people want it to be and there shouldn't be a strict definition. There are so many aspects of art that people shouldn't just look at 17 different texts or 17 different theories about art, but should see all the different possiblities. Many people underestimate the value and importance of art. Many artists and pieces of art represent a generation or new ideas that changed the world. By looking art are deeply people can see that its something beautiful, and if it doesn't mean something to them, it means something to the artist which should be appreciated. 

The purpose of art means something different to every single person. To some art may just mean a pretty painting to hang on their bedroom wall, but to others art can be anything, from a painting, to music, or to movement in nature. Art is so much more than what can be described on paper and it can change the world one small step at a time, if people will let it.