Analyze That!

I chose this image from Adele Murphy’s blog, who got it from Mary Le’s blog! This image is really cool. My band performed at an “art walk” they have downtown where a bunch of “sidewalk artists” (I guess you’d call them that) came out and chose their space and produced pieces of art like this! It’s crazy to me how this artist created depth in this image. It looks as though you can actually step into that little pool and get wet! The motion the artist created in the image is also very impressing. There is motion you can see in the water, and also in the women. The women is lifting her left leg up, which is movement, and it also looks like she’s trying to keep herself from sinking any deeper than she already is. I can tell this partly from where her left hand is and what it is doing. Texture is also created in the water of the image; you can tell that it is water. Texture was also created in the tile; you can see a good example of it right in the center / bottom of the image. Where the artist has the tile slightly cracked. I notice that the artist uses light and shadows very well also. You can see deeper and darker shadows towards the edges of the water, where the water isn’t getting as much light at it is in the middle of the pool. Also shadows are created and present on the women’s leg, and on the beach ball floating in the water. It seems as though this artist might be sponsored by “coke”, or maybe is making an advertisement for “coke”. I say this because there is a Coke at the bottom left of the image, in the women’s hand, and in the artists (assuming that’s the artist) hand; kind of interesting. I wonder what that is all about.

Same picture, different light

For this assignment I chose to use my little brother and sister, Brenden and Annicka. I took the picture outside under a light in front of my parents house. I did this because I knew that my camera wouldn’t take a good picture at night unless I had some sort of light. I found this assignment to be pretty interested. It’s crazy how you can take the same picture and change it’s mood so much just based off of the light used. The picture with light seems happy, they’re both smiling and the sky is blue. In the picture taken at night time the mood is more serious. Unfortunately they’re smiling a little less in the darker image. It was hard to have them make the same exact face. Guess that’s the challenge of using people at your target for this assignment. The color is also effected when the light changes. In the picture taken during the day time the colors that the kids are wearing are bright and clear, they are a lot more intense. As apposed to the nighttime picture, the colors all get a lot more dull and dense. The actual light in the daytime picture kind of washes out the top of the image; it doesn’t necessarily steal your focus, more of a cool effect if you ask me. In the nighttime picture the light above their heads almost gives the effect of the sun glowing down on them. You can see rays created from the light. The light above their heads also brings out the color and adds highlights to both of their faces, and creates more shadows. Because both of their faces obviously have curved and round lines on them, chiaroscuro is present; which means that it represents light falling across the curved and rounded parts of their faces.

Analyze This!

check out the full size image here: http://img1.nnm.ru/imagez/gallery/8/1/8/6/e/8186ee3a3e00d152aa22558c4edfe559_full.jpg

Line & Space

After reading this week’s material I did find myself looking around for and noticing key terms that we’ve learned. Just like after I took an earth science class, every rock I would see I would try to identify it, same idea. My apartment and every other house or building I’ve been in for that matter has linear perspective all over the place. In any room I would come across. I also noticed a lot of linear perspective when I was driving. I drove to Tahoe and back this weekend so I noticed a lot within all the roads. My surroundings have become more visually interested. I have found myself looking at things differently. From an artists perspective I guess, or should I say an art appreciators perspective. As far as work goes I did also see a lot. I work construction, and the other day we framed up a couple of walls. Which I saw linear perspective, and contour lines. The picture I posted represents some linear perspective I saw while driving. And the other is of a couple framed up walls at work.

Something i've been working on...

Acrylic paint on a cut up piece of plywood from work. Haha. You can't really make out the cuts in the picture though.

Controversial Art

For this weeks blog post on controversial art I decided to discuss the controversy that arose over Maya Ying Lin’s “Vietnam Memorial” in Washington, D.C. in 1982. This piece was done on polished black granite, and was 492 feet in length. I think there are a lot of benefits to having controversial art exist. First of all, the most obvious reason is for the people who are fans of controversial art. If every piece of art that was done and published had guidelines and standards then art as we know it would be different. Art would be more limited, and I don’t think anybody would like that. I also believe that maybe artists would be reluctant to do certain pieces, fearing that maybe in somebody’s opinion it was controversial. I do not believe that the world would be a better place if all art was done based off predetermined standards. Art is one of very few things that has no rules, that’s what it unique about it. Anything is possible when it comes to art. I don’t think it is even possible to have standards and regulations put on it. Somebody somewhere is going to be painting or sculpting whatever they want. If it was possible then saying that we live in “a world of art” would slowly start becoming less and less true. Like I said before art is art because it has no rules. I’d feel like if the world had walls around it, the walls would slowly be closing in on us; if that makes sense. I was surprised on a lot of people reactions to certain pieces of art. Some considered Maya Lin’s memorial to be “an insult to the memory of the very soldiers to whom it was supposed to honor”. Personally if I see art that I don’t like; whether it’s because I don’t agree with what it means or if I just don’t like the way it looks, I simply won’t look at it anymore. I won’t raise issues and create problems over it. I think more people should do that if they disagree with something. I do however kind of understand the controversy that arose over Chris Ofili’s piece titled “The Holy Virgin Mary”. From a viewers standpoint it is pretty absurd to see that the artist used elephant shit in the piece. It’s hard to see any well meaning in that. But, Ofili said that he wanted to bring “their beauty and decorativeness together with the ugliness of shit and make them exist in a twilight zone.” Which goes to show, like the book said, there are many factors that go into the arts value.