Reflection

(upside down)

How do I feel about the outcome?
I feel that this was one of my best projects. I got to experiment a lot with coloring here. as you can see on the leaves, I used white and silver. combining these colors and creating a smooth transition made it look like the leaves had a bit of shine to them.

Reflection

process:
First, I took apart a mini disco globe whose parts would be the key elements in the turtle shell. Next, I needed a base to glue things onto. I chose mesh, since hot glue will connect it to almost anything. I stuffed the form with paper to hold it up. Then I found all different types of objects and glued them onto the mesh. I have not finished this project.

who and how this sculpture represents.
This sculpture represents my grandmother. She's slow, but she's very inspiring and creative. I was going to display that through a colorful turtle shell.

Reflection

What decisions did I make to help describe my family?:
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish this portrait. But I was going to have my brother's piece close to my mom's because they are really close and connected. My Dad's piece would be a little farther away: closer to my mom than my brother. Finally, I would be much farther away. Closer to my dad, then my mom, and finally my brother. Him and I would be on opposite sides of the board.

What is the biggest strength of this portrait?:
At this point, I think the colors in the center of the board are the strongest. The variety of them subtly illustrate the differences between the people in my family.

Reflection

What is the story?:
The story that I am trying to tell is how two kids can develop a friendship so quickly. These two kids wander off from their families to play together. Soon, the parents realize that their children are missing and search for them. Eventually, the dog finds the kids and brings them back. The parents, overwhelmed by their disappearance, no longer let them out of their sight. And so the two kids never see each other again. "Short" in Short Friendship basically means "Short-Lived"

What did I have to do?
I had to do a lot of cutting in this project. Separating one of the child from the mother was a challenge because the mother was photographed hugging the child. To convey the emotions, I used paint in the backgrounds. Also, I used objects in the pictures to create entirely different objects. For example, the columns became trees.

How do the principles of Design help me tell the story?:
In the first picture, there are repeating trees. The repetition sends the lookers eyes to the right. This does two things: Show that the dog is watching the kids, and show which direction the kids were heading off. In the second picture, I have a radial balance to show the passage of time on the face of a clock.

Reflection on Self Portrait

The two aspects:

I wanted to create two of my personalities which had the most contrast. For one side, I chose hot colors to illustrate a fiery side of me. This probably also includes adventurous, fun. It could also be percieved as devious or plotting. The other side has mellow, cool tones to express adjectives like "good" and "honest". For both sides, my background consists of the opposite colors. I did this for contrast, but also to show that I have some kindness in my fiery side, and fire in my kind side.

Challenges:

One of the biggest challenges for me was the value. I knew that choosing "hot" and "cool" colors instead of just one color for each side would be a challenge, because there was still the aspect of value. As you can see, I managed to add value in my nice side. With the devious side, I experimented more with color so my touch with value faded a bit. Another challenge was hiding the grid lines by the paint. I needed enough water in the paint to spread it, but I couldnt use too much or the lines would show.

Next time:

If I chose to do this painting again, I would choose one color for each side so I could improve and experiment with value.

Works of Art I Know

Genesis Wall Sculpture
David Robertson
Contemporary (Actual Date Unknown)
American

How the artist uses texture:
This sculpture seems to branch out in a way that makes the viewer's eyes travel up and down repeatedly as if the entire sculpture cannot fit in one view. The multiple extensions on the sculpture all have different textures. My guess is that the textures are to show diversity. There is a lot of emphasis happening in this piece of art as well. There is a line of symmetry cutting across the center so both the top and bottom are identical. This small detail that actually affects the whole sculpture is not only hard to spot, but teasing in a way as if Robertson is saying, "can you see it?" At first I couldn't notice it because the arrangement and textures seemed so random.

This is a hand-made steel sculpture. I'm not familiar with working with steel, but I don't think that he used his hands to create the textures. I think that the longest branch formed its own texture from being handled so much. As for the short one which increases in width, I think he used a smoothing tool to flatten any bumps it formed. The skinny one which has a small hook at the end is too small to take on any texture unless it was intentionally made. I think that the artist wanted to keep that branch texture-less because otherwise it would be hard to take on the form it has now. As for the other skinny piece, i think Robertson took a skinny cylinder-shaped object, laid the steel on a flat surface, and pressed the cylinder into the steel, keeping the width in between constant.

Works of Art I Know

Princess with Magic Fish
Tom Otterness
2003
American

Story of the Sculpture:
Tom Otterness describes the famous fairytale about the magic fish who grants a girl many wishes, one of which is to become a princess. She frequently returns to the fish by the sea (as depicted in the sculpture), until he sees that the princess is getting too greedy and decides that enough is enough. Just as quickly as he granted her wishes, he made them all disappear, leaving the princess once again a poor girl, just like she was before she met the fish.

I was familiar with this story before I saw the sculpture, but I think that someone who didn't know before could have figured out the story by examining the sculpture. One of the things that hints the main idea of the story is the posture of the princess. She has one hand extended to the fish: almost like she's asking for something (in this case, asking him to grant her wish). Or, she could be reaching to the ring that the fish holds in his mouth. The ring could have been one of her wishes, or it could symbolize her wish to marry. The crown was another give-away, confirming the "princess" part of the title.

Works of Art I Know

Flowers
Jan Van Huysum
1722
Dutch

5 O'Clock Shadow: Green Heron
Pamela Askew
2008
American

How are these paintings similar? Different?
These paintings are both oil on canvas. They are similar in a way because they include nature as the main focus. They are different because in the first painting by Jan Van Huysum the emphasis on the flowers is created by placement: the flowers are in the center of the canvas and take up most of the space. In "5 O'Clock Shadow: Green heron" the emphasis comes from the trail of white lily pads that lead to the yellow object.

How are the artists visions the same?
I think that both artists are trying to capture the beauty of nature through these paintings. I also think that the color was very important to these painters. In "Flowers", the colors of the flowers needed to have a big range so that the viewers can focus on all the flowers instead of their eyes lingering on certain few. In Pamela Askew's painting, the contrast between the lillies and the water was key so that the lily's could stand out and lead the viewers to the object.

Works of Art I Know

The Arbour
Phillip Fox
1910
Australian

What is the Artist's point of view about family?
I think over all the artist wants to portray this family as loving. They spent time together and interact with eachother. judging by their clothes, the family looks like middle class. They also seem happy and relaxed. I also think that Phillip Fox is showing us the roles of the family: father, mother, care-taker or relative, and children.

How the artist uses the principles of design:
I think that the emphasis in this painting is on the man in dark blue and the woman in white. The repetition of the leaves are leading the watchers eyes to the man, who I suspect is the father of the family. The way all the people are positioned in a semi circle around the woman also draws your eyes to her. I think that Fox is trying to communicate that the parents are the most influential in the family.

Works of Art I Know

Nighthawks
Edward Hopper
American
1942

My first impressions:
the setting looks like a town or a city; the building on the right seems to be a diner or bar because 3 people are sitting on stools and leaning on a counter. I like the lighting in this picture because it's dark outside of the building but light inside which makes us focus on that. In fact, it seems that the only light is coming from the building. This sort of gives off a lonely and empty feeling. What intrigues me is the simplicity of the things in the painting, especially the architecture. The big windows make it easy to see the people inside.

What I have learned:
The building in the center is based off of a diner on Greenwich Avenue in New York. This followed Hopper's style in which he tended to paint from the outside looking in. Light played a very big role in this painting. The glow draws our eyes to the diner and makes us wonder about the people inside, what their story is

How he creates a sense of unity:
As mentioned before, the contrast of light has emphasis on the painting. However even though the light may separate the inside from the oustide, the two must be present in the painting or there would be no contrast. So while some may think that the diner is the most important part of the painting, the ouside is just as important. I noticed some repetition going on in the background. The building in the dark has windows lined up horizontally. This leads our eyes in the direction of the repeating windows, which eventually becomes the diner. So there are a number of elements that bring our focus to the diner.

Reflection

If I could do one of the projects from this term again, I would do the found object sculpture. I am really into 3-d art; the sculpture project applies to what I'm working on with my "innovative" material outfits. If I could choose what I made, then I would probably make miniature objects, like paper weights.

Of all the artists I researched, I think that Dale Chihuly is the most interesting because his glass is so intricate, yet random. His works are also very large, and must be hard to work with. His colors are vibrant and the shapes vary interestingly.

Works of Art I Know

Andy Goldsworthy
Icicle Star
2003
British

My first impressions:
this piece is so creative and must have taken a really long time to find the right size and shape icicles. Because of the form, this sculpture is probably extremely delicate, especially since icicles in general are very delicate. He must have exerted a lot of effort into balancing the legs of the sculpture on the un-even rock. The color is a translucent white, with a bit of blue. I'm also assuming that he had to work on this quickly so the icicles wouldn't melt in his hands.

What I have learned:
Andy Goldsworthy is known for working on sculptures from natural objects. Icicle Star is one of his temporary sculptures. Temporary sculptures are called ephmerel art. Other ephmerel art sculptures of his are made from sand, leaves, snow and anything you can find in nature. Since this kind of art doesn't last long, he takes photographs of them to document.

Works of Art I Know

Nude Descending a Staircase
Marcel Duchamp
French
1912

My first impressions:
This painting is intriguing because it shows the passage of time when a person is stepping down a staircase. This reminds me of a strobe light and how all of the frames are fit into one painting. Duchamp is not afraid to show each second of the action because the outcome is supposed to have shapes overlapping and mixed together. He doesn't paint the lines of the body, instead he replaces them with shapes. The colors may be dull, but they work very well when applying value to the shapes.

What I have learned:
Marcel Duchamp was born on 28 July 1887, in Blainville. in 1904 he traveled to Paris to decide which style of artist he wanted to be. All of his siblings became artists also. He was a member in the painters' group known as the "Golden Section". This group worked with showing movement and the passage of time on canvas. There was a commotion about the Nude Descending a Staircase in 1913 at the Army Show. The painting, which included both cubism and futurism, shocked the people. Many parodies and articles were written about the notorious piece soon after. It was learned that before hand, Albert Gleizes, another painter, asked Duchamp to take the painting out of the show, or change the title. To this Duchamp refused and submitted the work anyway. He came to New York in 1915 to find himself famous among people who were surprisingly excited about the breakthrough in modern art by Duchamp's painting. By 1914 he had put painting aside and started working on abstract forms and sculptures. In 1923 he put aside art altogether and dedicated himself to playing chess and being an art critic. Together with Katherina Dreier he founded the "Société anonyme" for the propagation of modern art in the U.S. He died on October 2nd 1968 in France.

Works of Art I Know

"Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer" or "Young Lady in White"
John Singer Sargent
Italian
1889-1890

My first Impressions:
This girl is wearing a long and full white dress, so I assume that she is wealthy. Her body language implies that she has grace, but her face seems to lack happiness, even though there is a hint of a smile. It reminds me of the Mona Lisa painting, how her smile had been so mysterious, it was hard to tell if she was happy or not. The light looks like sunlight, so it must have been a sunny day. Behind her the wood wall has a pattern of carvings that continues until it reaches the bench she sits on. I think that this could be the inside of a church, right next to a door so the sunlight can enter through.

What I have learned:
Miss Elsie Palmer was the daughter of a wealthy American from Colorado. She had rented the Ightham Mote house in which John Singer Sargent would visit frequently. He also painted A Game of Bowls at this house. Sargent had other paintings of children, such as Jeanne Kieffer, 1879 and Casper Goodrich, 1887. In these paintings, he captures the essence of childhood from the art and literature of that time.

Works of Art I Know

Self-Portrait
Chuck Close
American
2004-2005

My first impressions:
The color choices for this painting fascinate me because sometimes the colors are very different than what they appear to be. The small shapes allow Close to use a variety of colors (it appears that he uses just two for each square); but since the details are so small, when we step back we see a mixture of the colors and suddenly we are looking at an entirely new color. For instance he uses some warm reds in the background, however when we are at a distance they disappear among the rich cool blues. I am impressed that he incorporates value into his paintings, which shows careful preparation and planning for which specific colors he wants to use.

What I have learned:
Chuck close begins his portraits with a photo and then marks the photo with a grid. He does this so he can visualize painting the image on a much larger scale. He claims that breaking it down in to small pieces lets the artwork evolve naturally instead of having him speculate what it should look like. The process is much more random that Close makes it look like. After he was paralyzed and started painting again, he used much more color in his artwork that made a writer in New York quote that Chuck Close is, "one of the greatest colorists and brush wielders of his time."

I See The Light Drawing

Morning sparkles

The story I am trying to tell in my collage is in the morning, when the sunlight comes into my room, it shines on this ornament I have with a prism. When the light hits the prism, it shoots small rainbows all over my room.

I used value in my drawing to show shadows and sunlit areas, folds, and 3-d. My favorite area of value was the curtains.

The most challenging aspect of this drawing was the wall. I couldnt get the values dark enough so I kept drawing over it. The ornament was also hard to draw because i had to fit in all the details but it was really small.

The most successful aspect of my drawing was the curtains. Because I like to design fashion, I have had lots of practice with the 3-d effects of fabric.

Story Collage

Same Difference


The story I am trying to tell in my collage is about my first fashion design class at the Rhode Island School of Design. Most of the girls there wore lots of jewelry and expensive outfits, and I was one of the plainer girls. The obvious difference in fashion, however, didn't matter to me because my designs were better than some of the most fashionable girls in the classroom. I am the girl in the middle between two stlylish girls. Our work is posted on the wall behind us, with the grade "A" for the two girls' designs and "A+" for my design to represent the difference in talent.

The most challenging aspect of making this collage was making 3-d objects like the curls for the blue hair and the gold earrings. I also made the sketches on the wall pop out like canvas. This was extremely difficult becuase the paper wouldn't smooth out after a crease had been made, so everytime i changed my mind i would have to cut out another sheet.

The most succesful aspects of my collage are the two fashionable girls on the sides. I had a lot of fun with deciding the hair style and what jewelry they should be wearing. At first I had all the features 2-d, then I went back and wondered which features could stand out more.

Works of Art I Know

The long leg
Edward Hopper
American
1935

My first impressions:
Hopper has many bright colors in this painting and light values which leads me to thinking that the emotion is happiness or excitement. His paintings are really realistic, and i think that he chose this style to best illustrate his stories. By the title, we can tell that the sailboat is going for a long journey. It is not really described where the sailboat is; both where its coming from and where it is going. However it looks like the piece of land in the background is an island or peninsula.

What I have learned:
Hoppers paintings have a still and peaceful aura. The long leg describes the graceful movement of the sailboat along the surface of the water. Hopper loved to sail and this painting reflects his deep love for the sea. The setting of this picture is Stage Harbor in Cape Cod near South Truro where he had a vacation house. His residence was located in New York, which explains his other favorite topic for painting: the city.

Works of Art I Know

"Awaiting his Return"
Charles White
American
1945

My first impressions:
I like how the shading is more random in this picture because it is interesting to look at and ask, "Why did he do that?" I also like the shapes he used instead of drawing everything how they are. I noticed that her face is very detailed too; probably to show her expression. Her body language also speaks for itself as "impatient". The title says, "Awaiting his return" so I suppose that this woman is waiting for her husband to return home from where ever he went.

What I have learned:
In "Awaiting his return" a woman anxiously waits for her loved one from military service during World War II. The message is about the suffering and waiting of women and children who had fathers, husbands, and brothers go to war. White says that the half-covered star portrait in the background stands for the African-American Gold star mothers and wives in WW II.

Works of Art I Know

The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles
Faith Ringgold
American
1991

My First Impressions:
This quilt looks like it illustrates slavery, possibly in the 1800's from the style of the houses in the background. 8 African-Americans are sewing a quilt with pictures of sunflowers like those in the field around them. A farmer watches them while holding a bouquet of sunflowers. These slaves look too old for farm work, so I think that their work involves things like quilt making (like in this artwork). The clothing however confuses me, especially with the woman on the far left, because slaves did not tend wear elaborate clothes. It's possible that these people are not slaves.

What I have learned:
This is a quilt showing a group of African-American women who are displaying their sunflower quilt in a field of sunflowers. The man on the right is Van Gogh, who stand holding his sunflowers (paintings of sunflowers like "Obscurity" by Van Gogh show us his love for them). The buildings in the background belong to the village of Arles. Ringgold uses many blues and yellows for this quilt because they were Van Gogh's favorite colors.