Project #2 - Art Gallery Visit

A. Which artworks make an impact or impression on me? Why?

1. Room No. 2 or the Mirrored Room by Lucas Samaras. 1966. Mirror on wood.

Although it is kind of difficult to see exactly what this room looks like, it is clear that its just a room full of mirrors! This piece of artwork was unbelievable to see and not only could you look inside the room but you can also walk through (with your shoes off, of course)! I really had to look so closely inside the room because in the middle there is a table and chair that is also made of mirrors. This artwork made a huge impression on me and was by far one of my favorites at Albright-Knox!

 

2. Cinema by George Segal. 1963. Plaster, illuminated Plexiglas, and metal.

This caught my eye with the bright flash of white that made it the center focus of the artwork. I love that "Cinema" is in bright red to stand out from the plain white color surrounding it. This made an impression on me and I was staring at this piece for a quite a bit!

B. Which artworks do I feel a connection with? Why?

1. Untitled. Olivier Mosset. 2002. Acrylic on canvas.

I felt connected with this piece of work because it reminded me of my childhood when I always played tic-tac-toe with friends or family. 

2. Lac Laronge III by Frank Stella. 1969. Acrylic on canvas.

I felt connected to this painting because it was big and also had a mix of vibrant colors. I am always drawn to things that are bright and colorful. When I look at this painting I see petals which remind me of flowers, which I love! I also see and "X" and "O" that connect together.

C. Which artworks would I like to know more about? Why?

1. Child's Blue Wall by Jim Dine. 1962. Oil on canvas, wood, metal, and light bulb

When I saw this piece of work I was immediately drawn to the single light bulb in the right corner. I was curious of the story behind this artwork so I looked it up and the artist, Jim Dine, had a love of physical objects from working in his father's and grandfather's hardware stores in Ohio. I'd also like to see more of his artwork and what objects he uses to emphasis his pieces of work.

2. Star by Robert Indiana. 1962. Oil and gesso on wood with iron wheels.

This artwork screams "wild west" to me and reminds of cowboys in a way. When I saw that the artist's last name was "Indiana" I immediately thought of Indiana Jones, who also relates to that wild west theme. I would also love to see more of Indiana's artwork to see if he has a theme with all of his pieces he's done. I really love that he included wheels in this art to make it look more "western".

Module 4: Value Scale and Color Wheel

Color Wheel

Value Scale
 

 1. Creating the value scale was a little harder than making the color wheel because each shade in every box had to either be light or darker than the box next to it. I had to keep looking at it from far away to see the progress of black to white. The color wheel was fun and a little easier to make. Its interesting to know that you really only need the three primary colors to make any color you want. 

2. I liked making the color wheel more because I enjoy anything that has to deal with paint. I'm not really much of a drawing or sketching kind of person but I do enjoy painting. 

3. The most important discovery for the value scale was that I really needed to be careful on how light or heavy I pressed the pencil against the paper to determine its shade of black. And what was important for making the color wheel is when mixing two primary colors together you have to make sure the amounts of paint were equal so that it wasn't a lighter shade of orange or a darker shade of green.

4. The most important information I learned from watching the videos was that we were taught that red, blue, and yellow were primary colors but when all of those colors were mixed it made a brown color. When cyan, magenta and yellow were all mixed together it made black, therefore, cyan, magenta and yellow are primary colors.

Module 3: Color Theory and Emotional Effects

Color is very crucial in terms of art. It is the quality of an object of substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation, brightness, or chroma. It sets the tone with any piece of work and creates a sense of feeling within the audience. Color is stated to be a function of light and also dependent on it. We associate things by its colors, just like trees are supposed to be green as water is blue. Color can also give people emotions such as blue gives a sense of sadness and yellow can be associated with happiness. Any bright color is exciting as any dark color can also give a sense of fear, sadness, and loneliness.

For not really being too aware of art and art history, its intriguing to me how much color relates to the way someone can feel or how color can express something about a person.The theoretical aspect of color that most fascinates me is that we are born into associating colors to things or colors to emotions. We learn that "happiness" can be portrayed through bright colors like yellow or orange, as black or dark colors symbolizes sadness, or anger.

I learned that color has much impact on the way we feel. It controls emotions and feelings that we sometimes cannot convey through words. In the part of the video where the artists were painting the ceilings of a chapel, it was interesting to me see how the paint itself was made. In Titian's painting of the woman, the speaker of the video described the way the artist painted, he said, "the red of the virgin's robe reflect onto her hand, her blue coat cast blue onto her neck." The color of the clothing a person is wearing in any painting can really show the audience what the artist was supposed to convey in terms of feelings and emotions.

In the feelings video, I like the way that David's audience was used to the way his art depicted the ancient past and portraying pleasure, but he reversed it and included darkness and strong feeling.

Photobucket Slideshow and Reflection

http://s1164.photobucket.com/user/jzoldos1101/slideshow/

This is my elements and principles slideshow on Photobucket.

For this project I included pictures from my home, my friend's dog, pictures from disney and pictures from the "Lumagination" light show at the Botanical Gardens. This was a very fun and interesting project to work on and it made me look at objects or things in a different way. I used past pictures for just a couple of the elements or principles but for the most part each of the pictures were recently taken just for this assignment.

Module 2: Video Review

1. In the video, Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts, I've learned that many of the artists or philosophers mentioned have different views on art, beauty and nature. The definition of aesthetics is the philosophical study of beauty and art, in which both are very different from each other. I also learned that different philosophers look at reality and illusion differently or knows the difference between the two. Every philosopher/artist have different arguments stating their view on art. For example, German thinker, Alexander Baumgarten, posited that "art and beauty belong to a middle ground between sensitivity and reason." Another artist, Immanuel Kant, stated that nature sets the rules to art. This video was to show the different aspects and understandings that artists have that different from other artists.

In the video, CARTA: Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics, I learned about:

•  discovery of symmetry, discovery of symbolism and the discovery of artistic composition. 
• art and aesthetics are:
• works of art = artefacts, human productions; specialized for intersubjective communication
• distinct from language
• esthetic efficacy
• art is in constant evolution
• the human brain and how differently everyone interprets art
• dynamic thought // social and cultural evolutions
• conscious reading vs. non conscious reading
• Eight Laws of Art

In the article, What the brain draws from: Art and Neuroscience, I learned:

• our human brain is wired in a way that we can make sense of lines, colors and patterns that help us recognize art
• lines and faces
• color vs. luminance
• "what" and "where" streams -- "what" allows us to see in color and recognize faces and objects while the "where" is a faster and less detail-oriented but helps us navigate our environment but is insensitive to color

2. I feel that Plato (4th Century B.C.) is the most important. He states, "What is beautiful in itself is not this object or that one, but that which conveys their own nature." Plato mistrusted many other artists because they spoke of things they couldn't really know about. Plato argued there is no art to writing poetry, and also believed that art was simply imitating appearances or copies of another work.


3. What I learned from the video is when Changeux studies art, he goes through explaining the processes of what the brain goes through to create a piece of work. Ramachandran studies visual aesthetics, explaining the Eight universal Laws of Aesthetics. He also included symbolic descriptions and transforms and explains that acts of perception involves judgement on what the eye actually sees. The most interesting fact is learning a whole new way of thinking and seeing the perspectives of someone else.

4. The videos and article relate to the readings in the text because our brains function differently allowing us to look at images differently. Without another view or someone else's perspective, I would not be able to look at something a different way or be able to relate to that person.

5. I enjoyed the films and having a new understanding of looking at art. I also enjoyed learning a little about the history of different artists/philosophers. They add depth because it includes more details and a better understanding of how art is created.

Getting started

1. Setting up the GMail account was pretty simple, considering I already have two other gmail accounts! Setting up Blogger, however, was a little more confusing and difficult than I expected. I think I have it right.

2. I expect to learn the basics of art and terminology relating to art because I have never really been a part of a class like this before. I hope to learn or discover that I may potentially have an artistic bone in my body!

3. I have taken many online courses but never an art course. It is more in depth than I thought it would be but also a challenge I am ready to take. With work and going to school I really have to find the time to set aside for this course.