Friday, May 30, 2008
Line and Space
I am trying to apply key terms such as outline and implied line to my daily life by looking at things around me and trying to identify which key terms they relate to. For example, I fit people for glasses for a living. I deal with many different types of lenses with different base curves and unique things such as Franklin bifocals or ultexes and even progressives many of the time. Obviously lines are very important in optics. Optics is in fact all based upon light refraction, which is basically about the way a ray of light reflects off of the retina. All of these rays are types of lines. As far as contour lines go, I have noticed in my friend's room that there is a wrestling poster of Stone Cold Steve Austin, and it shows multiple pictures of him, some looking farther away than others. All of this has to do with contour lines and directing and tricking our eyes into thinking the images are farther away than they really are. Linear perspective is portrayed in a picture my mother has framed on her wall. It gives the illusion of a landscape with the water farther away, and the beach closer up. This gives it a three-dimensional effect because it gives depth to the picture, instead of everything looking as if it is on the same plane. Everything is becoming more visually interesting because I'm starting to look at things such as pictures and paintings through more advanced eyes, rather than through the eyes of an amatuer.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Controversial Art
Chris Ofili, The Holy Virgin Mary 1996
Controversial art is beneficial for many reasons.
For one, it opens our delicate little minds to the idea that there are things out there that we never knew or could conceive about. For instance, I was raised Catholic and was taught the idea of The Virgin Mary being a white woman, and Jesus being a white man. Now, there have been ideas thrown around through things such as movies or the radio about talk of a "black Jesus". Now although I had heard of this idea, I had never thought of The Virgin Mary as being a black woman. Not that this idea is wrong in any way: please don't misunderstand my ignorance for disbelief or hatred of any kind. I was just raised with certain beliefs and taught not to challenge them. This painting was very interesting to me because it did challenge what was ground into my innocent little mind from the time I was a baby: the idea that the Virgin Mary could be a black woman. As far as the mayor of New York, and the same man that was willing to pull funding from the Brooklyn Museum of Art for hosting The Holy Virgin Mary, he was appalled by the painting. The exact painting, in fact, that he had never even seen. There was discussion of elephant dung being thrown at the portrait by avid Catholics (which turned out to be false: what actually occurred was the artist used the elephant dung because in his African culture, elephant dung was part of the earth, so, in fact, it was not a sign of disrespect, but rather a sign of reverence for him to include this material in his painting) and these same people being opposed and offended by the painting.
Continuing on with my original point: another reason why controversial art is beneficial is because it goes outside the box. It stands out. It is different and unique and sometimes crude. It gives us a reason to turn our heads at these types of work, because, unlike regular art it is controversial. It gives us another plane, another level of art that was not touched had it not been different than regular art.
And moving on to my last point of controversial art: it sparks conversations and discussions between two people. While some of these talks may be heated and eventually turn into arguments, they allow us to broaden our minds (if we are open enough for them!) and really analyze a new type of art. A category in itself, controversial art forces us to stare at things we might not be comfortable with in an effort to understand it.
I do not believe that the world would be a better place if all art conformed to predetermined standards. The reason being that art is an expression of oneself. One should be allowed to release whatever feelings or emotions that person has into a piece of art. America is supposed to be about the freedom of expression, and what kind of country are we if we give artists predetermined standards, or limits to their creativity?
Before I did section three of this course, I found myself a more conservative person when it came to art. I didn’t really believe that one should be what I thought was “crude” when it came to creating something that in my mind was supposed to be beautiful. Now that I am a little more educated on the subject, I realize that art doesn’t have to be beautiful to be amazing. It doesn’t have to be conservative to have a deeper meaning. We can appreciate and love a piece of art for what it is, and not be so closed-minded as to what an artist should or should not create. I now realize that art is an expression of oneself and may mean many different things, no matter what it looks like. It is our job as the viewer to analyze the painting for its true meaning, not just the face value.
Controversial art is beneficial for many reasons.
For one, it opens our delicate little minds to the idea that there are things out there that we never knew or could conceive about. For instance, I was raised Catholic and was taught the idea of The Virgin Mary being a white woman, and Jesus being a white man. Now, there have been ideas thrown around through things such as movies or the radio about talk of a "black Jesus". Now although I had heard of this idea, I had never thought of The Virgin Mary as being a black woman. Not that this idea is wrong in any way: please don't misunderstand my ignorance for disbelief or hatred of any kind. I was just raised with certain beliefs and taught not to challenge them. This painting was very interesting to me because it did challenge what was ground into my innocent little mind from the time I was a baby: the idea that the Virgin Mary could be a black woman. As far as the mayor of New York, and the same man that was willing to pull funding from the Brooklyn Museum of Art for hosting The Holy Virgin Mary, he was appalled by the painting. The exact painting, in fact, that he had never even seen. There was discussion of elephant dung being thrown at the portrait by avid Catholics (which turned out to be false: what actually occurred was the artist used the elephant dung because in his African culture, elephant dung was part of the earth, so, in fact, it was not a sign of disrespect, but rather a sign of reverence for him to include this material in his painting) and these same people being opposed and offended by the painting.
Continuing on with my original point: another reason why controversial art is beneficial is because it goes outside the box. It stands out. It is different and unique and sometimes crude. It gives us a reason to turn our heads at these types of work, because, unlike regular art it is controversial. It gives us another plane, another level of art that was not touched had it not been different than regular art.
And moving on to my last point of controversial art: it sparks conversations and discussions between two people. While some of these talks may be heated and eventually turn into arguments, they allow us to broaden our minds (if we are open enough for them!) and really analyze a new type of art. A category in itself, controversial art forces us to stare at things we might not be comfortable with in an effort to understand it.
I do not believe that the world would be a better place if all art conformed to predetermined standards. The reason being that art is an expression of oneself. One should be allowed to release whatever feelings or emotions that person has into a piece of art. America is supposed to be about the freedom of expression, and what kind of country are we if we give artists predetermined standards, or limits to their creativity?
Before I did section three of this course, I found myself a more conservative person when it came to art. I didn’t really believe that one should be what I thought was “crude” when it came to creating something that in my mind was supposed to be beautiful. Now that I am a little more educated on the subject, I realize that art doesn’t have to be beautiful to be amazing. It doesn’t have to be conservative to have a deeper meaning. We can appreciate and love a piece of art for what it is, and not be so closed-minded as to what an artist should or should not create. I now realize that art is an expression of oneself and may mean many different things, no matter what it looks like. It is our job as the viewer to analyze the painting for its true meaning, not just the face value.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Visual Literacy Reflections
In this unit, I really learned the idea of art being interpreted as you would like to interpret it. I wasn't really quite sure what to think when it was stated in the first unit that art can be interpreted many different ways with none of them being wrong; although, I know now that statement is true. There are so many ways to interpret just one piece of art! My whole life, when I looked at a picture, the most I would see was that first "onion-layer" of content: what the most simple, basic meaning was. Now that I have been shown an example of how to really tear apart a piece of art and analyze every inch of that work, it means a little bit more to me than just a picture or a painting. I finally understand the difference between representational, abstract, and non-objective, which I have pretty much almost always been confused about. I also now have a few more words to add to my description category, (and ultimately make me sound like I sort of know what I'm talking about!) which would be form and content. My conversations about art may now be a little bit more intellectual rather than the general "yes I like this one!" or "no I don't".
Thursday, May 15, 2008
A World of Art
The image that was most intriguing for me in Chapter One was Albert Bierstadt's The Rocky Mountains. The painting includes brown, muddy colored mountains with a sunny yet cloudy sky. The second "set" of mountains are sprinkled with snow. Many green trees are embraced in the presence of the six by ten foot display. There are many animals and people, along with several brown tents. There is a waterfall in the middle of the picture with a lake reflecting the mountains. The rest of the ground is filled with grass, sticks, and rocks. Something that seems kind of unusual is the warm tones of the painting, which make the weather seem warm and inviting, matched with the snowy mountaintops in the background. I really enjoy this painting because I love paintings of landscapes and nature itself. It is so calming and nurturing to look at. I am also very intrigued by the reminder of the days when westward expansion was in play and the Indians were being stripped of their land. The most interesting time in history class for me was learning about colonization and the migration west of those people, slowly taking what would become known as The United States away from the Native Americans. In my opinion, the painting is communicating the message of serenity that the Native Americans used to have before colonization took place.
Monday, May 12, 2008
About Me
Hmm..so about me. I guess we will start with the basics: I'm 19 years old, and have been at Sierra College for two years now. I'm transferring to Sacramento State in the fall to get my Bachelor's degree in Chemistry. From there I plan on going to Optometry school at Berkeley. I graduated from Granite Bay High School in 2007. I did my senior year of high school and my freshman year of college at the same time, if you were confused about the dates. I currently work at Lenscrafters and Eye Exam of California, and have been for about 7 months now. I got the job to make sure that I wanted to become an optometrist, or an eye doctor, for those of you that didn't know. I absolutely love it there and it has definitely made my calling more apparent. I also work at Longs Drugs as a bookkeeper. I have been there for over 3 years, as it was my first job ever. I'm in the process of finally quitting though.
As far as my personal life goes, I have a boyfriend who I spend most of my time with. He and I were best friends before we starting dating in late 2007. I watch The Office on a regular basis, and must admit that I am addicted to Professional Wrestling. Other than those things, I have pretty much no time for anything else.
Any questions let me know!
As far as my personal life goes, I have a boyfriend who I spend most of my time with. He and I were best friends before we starting dating in late 2007. I watch The Office on a regular basis, and must admit that I am addicted to Professional Wrestling. Other than those things, I have pretty much no time for anything else.
Any questions let me know!
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