2D @ BSC

The life of a flower

2005-12-19T06:11:00.000-08:00

First of all, can I just say that I completely fell in love with this quote from Corita Kent. It definitely reflects my life and how I like to live it.

Okay, so this is my self portrait. I put a lot of thought into it so before you start bashing it, hear me out. The green background which i made with plaster and then painted over with green shows a lot about me. The cracks and the marks in the surface show that I am not perfect. I used the color green because it stands for a person that is strong willed.

The picture I chose is one where I am not smiling because I am not always happy but I seem content. And I chose to do black and white contrast and stipling because those two methods seemed to be ones that came out with a nice finish. The quote is more towards the bottom right corner to balance the flower. The flower at the top reflects on the quote and my attitude on life.

I hope that everyone understood all the symbolism that I used in this project. By far it was my favorite and I am extremely pleased with the outcome.

A one of a kind leaf

2005-12-19T06:06:00.000-08:00

The painting above was suppose to semi-represent the leaves pictured above. You also have to remember that leaves do tend to die and change colors...haha. I tried my best but i feel the only thing that was even close to real is the background color. Needless to say this was my least favorite project.

One that has made their mark...

2005-12-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

Many artists that receive a lot of recognition tend to pass away early. Many say this is due to the fact that they only have a limited amount of work from that person. This made each piece more valuable and rare because they are not around to produce more. Though this may be true, Van Gogh changed the art world forever with his trademark flowers and image of starry night. He only sold one painting in his entire life. If he could only see the amount of acknowledgement he is receiving today, he would be appalled.
Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundest, Holland.
Vincent's family consisted of his three sisters Elisabeth, Anna, Wil, two brothers Theo and Cor, and his mother and father. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. His earliest years were spent as a quiet child with little or no attention spent on art or artistic qualities.
In the 1870s, the Hague Gallery, which was run by French art dealers Goupil et Cie, hired Van Gogh at the age of 16. His uncle was an art dealer and his younger brother, Theo, also worked there. Being good at his job, he was transferred to the London museum in 1873 and was extremely successful there. He began to learn how to speak, read and write English. Putting his knowledge to good use, he read Charles Dickens on the Destitute of London. After Charles Dickens passed away, after Sir Luke Fildes began to draw the empty chair in his work, he also incorporated that into his work as well, almost like it was a recurring theme.
As many people do in their lives, Van Gogh changed his outlook and decided to return to the ministry. He followed his father's foot steps and devoting his life to the evangelization of the poor. He then abandoned his lessons and began a ministry with the miners of Borinage. During this time he was able to identify with the miners, their lifestyles, and their families. This interaction between Gogh and the worker class is later shown in his works as he becomes fascinated with depicting peasant life. After a while, with the constant urge of his brother, Theo, Van Gogh became an artist. Now when you say artist, he was one all along but he decided to formally begin his life’s work.
With the help of people such as Anton Mauve, who gave him lessons on how to draw, or Sien Hoomik, a prostitute who bore his first child and modeled for him whenever he pleased, Van Gogh began his journey as a an art mastermind. One body of work that comes to mind is “potato eaters”. He mastered weathered hands, faces and other body parts of peasants and created this multiple figure piece. Unfortunately, it was a personal failure even though it did put his name out there in the art world.
He realized that he needed professional training, so he enrolled himself in an academy in Antwerp where he would learn to perfect his skills as an artist. Peter Paul Rubens and other Japanese artists would from now on greatly reflect on his work. In 1886, he moved to Paris to live with his brother again. He found himself meeting other artists, which would be as well recognized, such as Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, and Emile Bernard. At this point, he was highly confident in his new and personal style. This would give him the energy to fuel the fire to open a school of art with many of his friends mentioned above. Paul Gauguin joined him in Arles. He began painting the infamous sunflowers to decorate Gauguin's bedroom. This would later mark a turning point for his work.
In 1888, he began to suffer illnesses that he could not control. This included various types of epilepsy, psychotic attacks, and delusions. At one point, he cut off his ear with a knife and his bare hands, and offered it Hoomik (a prostitute) as a gift. He traveled to Saint Remey and committed himself into the asylum. This is where he produced “Starry Night” in between attacks. Also, this is where “Irises” was produced. He claimed that if he painted he could prevent himself from going insane. It was actually painted before his first attack and the lack of high tension is evident in his painting.
In 1890, he left Saint Remey and contacted his brother Theo. He began to produce one painting a day. He was an extremely depressed person and viewed his life as wasteful and pathetic. July 29, 1980, Van Gogh attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He survived, but died two days later from the wound
The life of Vincent Van Gogh does not surprise me. To be an artist and to face your own work as good is an extremely hard thing to do. The fact that his life was an interesting journey with ups and down makes him that much more appealing to the public. Not only is his work recognized but also his struggles and obstacles as well.
“Irises” is the painting I chose to analyze. I know it may sound cliché and overdone, which it is. But after visiting the Metropolitan Museum in New York, I could not describe the feelings that swirled inside my chest after seeing this piece of work.
This painting is one that naturalistic and has a great deal of organic unity. I feel that it covers all seven principles of organization well. The direction in each line shows that the Gogh has complete control over the brush and where he wanted it to be. The snakelike ribbons of movement that he has are really intense and dramatic. Each petal of each iris shows the curves and detail that the flower truly has. The location of pot of irises, which is dead center, is good but a little unimaginative. I personally don’t like things to be in the dead center. It gives away too much of what you are trying to show the viewer. But I have found through research that he has many different paintings of irises. The postcard that I refer to is just one example of his many paintings. There is another painting of irises, where the flowers are growing in a garden of some sort and that piece is much more attention grabbing.
Another aspect that I would like to take a look at is the colors that he uses in this particular painting. He was in an asylum at this point in his life, so I would imagine that there were these types of flowers all around him to be painting them so much. Flowers tend to brighten people’s moods. The colors blue or green have been said to have calming effect on people. So when he was painting these flowers, hopefully he was feeling peaceful. The flowers project that sort of feeling to the viewer.
The last aspect I would like to point out is the texture of the painting. With each intense stroke on the canvas, Gogh produces a swirl of gorgeous blues and violets. If you look closer into each flower, you can see where the petal begins, the anther is peeking out in between, and sepal and filament are drooping down with the petal. The way each bloom is shown with such fragility is magnificent.

"[It] strikes the eye from afar. The Irises are a beautiful study full of air and life.”
- Theo, Van Gogh’s brother

From only three colors...

2005-12-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

This is my color wheel. I had a lot of fun making all of these different shades of color with just red, yellow, and blue. I was afraid that if i painted directly on the paper, I would mess up. So I chose to paint onto squares and then glue them on. I felt that the final piece came out decent. I especially like that I angled the dominant colors.

The gray scale that is below the color wheel was also a success. There are no large jumps in the shade of gray. Painting on squares and comparing the colors definitely helped.

2005-12-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

To the left are my sketches of eggs. I am not that confident in drawing, so don't laugh. I like the first picture better than the first. However, I put the eggs in direct sunlight, so the cast shadow was really strong.

To the right is the sketches of my cookies. The class was asked to take charcoal and then erase the charcoal to create the image. I chose chocolate chip cookies. However, I wish that I had chose something a little more interesting like oreos or gingerbread men cookies. I could have shown more things in the background. In the end, I ate both cookies...

Overall, these were my least favorite excercises.

All of me...self portrait Montage

2005-12-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

We were asked to choose five different items in certain categories and then combine them to make one piece of art. This is called a montage. It was new and very intriguing concept to me. I had a lot of fun with this project. I took fish, praying beads, a knife and cutting board, and eyes and placed them in manner that would be interesting to the viewer. I tried to use different ways of tracing. I think my favorite part of it is the fish and the eyes. The eyes command so much attention and is a metaphor to look into someone else's eyes.

Enjoy!

Negative space is Key!

2005-12-08T08:08:00.000-08:00

So this is the still life that the class had to sketch...

If anyone wants it to refer to, to touch up their work feel free to use this image!

So to the below is my sketch of the bottles. I am not a good drawer, as everyone knows, so don't laugh! Okay you can laugh.

I tried to zoom in on one part of the bottles and enlarge it. But because I kept paying too much attention to the positive space and not the negative, lets just say it came out okay. But I am still not pleased with my work.

True Colors

2005-12-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Here are my calligraphy pieces. I really enjoy my name written in Japanese. I think it would have looked better in ink (aka sumi) and brush. The one that looks like my signature is close to it. And the one in the orange, I decided to do block lettering to see how it would look. This project was fun but not as much as others in the past.

--Figure Ground--Wasabi style...

2005-10-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

These two photos are my four figure ground masterpieces. The thing that I was most intrigued by these two images as silhouettes was the fact that, the viewer may have imagined the left as female and the bottom as male. But the roles could be easily reversed. I feel that the two dipticts, allow the viewer to break the barriers of stereotypes and accepting others for who they are.

(person with flower behind ear)
I chose this silhouette because I loved the defined pose that demanded the viewer's eye. I feel that the black on white is more effective. Probably because the flower behind the ear is more clearly shown.

(football person)
I chose this image because you could easily tell what activity the figure was engaged in. Football...duh?! I felt the need to enhance small details like the line on the football and the nike sign on the shoe. I think that both pieces are equally effective.

Let me know what you think...

Where would I be without black and white?

2005-10-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Dave Beckerman - Skipping Boxes

The contrast of the black and whites is extreme. Also the subject which is moving is still in the photo. The photo is a moment caught in time, that can be understood by the viewer very easily.
Just the idea of catching this young girl at the moment she is in the air and have it come out so gorgeous is amazing. The perpindicular pole with the reflection of the surroundings and the white lines on the pavement really make your eye move across the photo. Also the contrast of the girl's black hair and white clothes is so crisp.
This tells me about my own quest is still still in motion. I am okay with my life being uneven and on an edge. I used to think that I was a very even person but I realize now that I thrive on the the radical perspective.
I am most drawn to dominance out of the seven principles of organization. In this piece the dominance is the girl skipping and also the pole. I feel that there must be a reason any viewer stops to look at my work, that must be the dominance of the work.

Hay is for Horses...A gallery critque through an amateur's eyes

2005-10-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

If you take a look in the gallery in the art gallery at BSC, there is a new exhibit there. In the artist statement, Deborah Bright states that her work is to show another aspect to a girl’s obsession with horses. She uses horses as her subject to convey different messages. Bright's work that appealed to me was jailbait, wild secret girl, and Drella's Blondie.

But for example, jailbait, I took for a humorous piece. It is a picture taken of a horse doll from the back. Like they say in jail, don't bend over to get the soap. You might find yourself in an uncomfortable situation. Haha. The lighting emphasizes the horse’s muscled features and shines perfectly on the curly mane.

In wild secret girl, the image shows a horse (I am guessing porcelain) that has her eyes and the main part of the body strapped with a white cloth. I feel that she is trying to convey the message that the horse is being held back from something; maybe being free? I am not sure. If you really think about it, the only type of horse that is really free is the wild horses. Most horses are usually kept in stables condemned to lives of obedience and treated like property. Or this could also be interpreted as the horse as a metaphor for a human being. This shows the struggles of being free from society’s struggles, including things like stereotypes and ignorance. The light is coming from the upper left hand corner and allows the parts of the horse that are strapped to be highlighted. Overall I feel the content has a serious mood.

In Drella’s Blondie, the imitation horse that is shown is focused on the foreground. I feel like this is emphasizing the sensual beauty that touches upon the female features. The piece is oozing with the word "sex". The eyes have a substantial amount of makeup on. Most people relate wearing makeup as a female ritual. Each element of the piece allows the viewer to take in the beauty of a female being; the typical blonde bombshell.

If you are interested in viewing her work, she also has a variety of subjects that she pushes. Her website is http://www.deborahbright.com/. Enjoy!

Trash can be Beautiful

2005-10-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

I have a soft spot for this photo because it was one of my best pictures I took when I first learned black and white photography. I like to shoot random things. I was outside of my dorm and decided to take this shot. I didn't realize how good of a contrast a broken coffee cup on grass would make. I like the way your eye is drawn by the reflection of the styrofoam but, at the same time the diagonal metal rod draws your eye across the photo.

p.s. I also have been working at Dunkin Donuts forever...so that may have been part of the reason I liked this piece of trash more than others. haha.

Never had a blog before...

2005-10-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

My name is Anna and I am a junior at Bridgewater State College. I am double majoring in elementary education and art with a concentration in photography. I am hoping to eventually become a second grade teacher and incorporate a lot of art into the classroom.

I chose this template because I love my work to be portrayed as bold but simple.

My 2d art professor assigned blogging as part of our classwork. It is a new perspective of sharing ones work. This may be interesting.