Art Gallery Visit #3

Title: Self Portrait as my Sister Jane Wearing
Artist: Gillian Wearing
Media: digital chromogenic color print
Year: 2003
Size: 55 1/8 x 45 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches 























Title: Self-Portrait with Monkey
Artist: Frida Kahlo
Media: oil on masonite
Year: 1938
Size:19 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches


Title: Portrait (R. Eisch)
Artist: Thomas Ruff
Media: Chromogenic color print
Year: 1999
Size: 82 5/8 x 65 inches
























1.) I selected the inspiration pieces that I did because I found them the most interesting to me. I enjoy Frida Kahlo's self portrait the most because she has weird features that make her painting fun to look at.
2.) For my self portrait I did photo editing because it's what I'm most good at. I like the edit that I used because I like how the blue and pink looks together.
3.) I didn't really face any challenges.
4.) It represents me because I really enjoy taking pictures and editing them to look good. So it was really easy for me to do this project.
5.) Color and value
6.) I did enjoy working on this because it was super easy to complete
7.) I really liked my final artwork because the colors make it look really nice.

Project #4 Reflection

The title of my art exhibition is Vincent Van Gogh: Landscapes
The theme of my art exhibition is Vincent Van Gogh's landscape paintings. I chose this to be my theme because Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists and I think that his landscape paintings are some of the best around.

My exhibit contains many of different artworks by Van Gogh that are of landscape areas, most of them having a focus of the color blue, or having at least some blue incorporated into it. I chose his landscape paintings to be the focus of my theme because it seems like he wanted to get them all to relate to each other in some way. I enjoyed that they all could have many different back stories.

I think that the viewers of my exhibit could relate to the way that I feel about this exhibit because of how straight forward I am in my interpretations.

Module 13 and 14

The first video “The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art” discusses how Pop art was known as “Lowbrow” to the artists who were familiar with it.

The second video “New Tate Modern: Switched” explores the importance of Tate Modern’s Switch House and how it influenced contemporary art in London. The Tate Modern’s Switch House holds various modern art exhibits.

The third video I watched, “An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art” discusses the important role that Philippe de Montebello had as the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he acquired over 80,000 thousand pieces of art that were considered outstanding works.

The videos do not really relate to my project because my project is just a general overview of the artwork. 

In my opinion, the videos are very informative and add more depth and understanding in choosing art for the project. It helps a lot with my ideas for the project.

Module 12

- For this assignment I chose to watch "Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the 50's and 60's" and "Andy Warhol: Images of an Image". I chose both of these videos because I find Andy Warhol very interesting and I felt that the abstract art video would go along with the video about Warhol because that's his style of art.

-The first video, "Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the 50's and 60's", basically just describes how the trend of abstract art began and where it originated. The video also gives examples of different abstract/pop artists including Andy Warhol.

-In the second video I watched, "Andy Warhol: Images of an Image", talks about Andy Warhol and the beginning, middle and end of his career. Andy is the world's symbol for abstract art and many of his artworks that are known worldwide.

-Both of the videos were very similar to the book in the way that they both describe each topic the same way but the book is more in depth.

-I enjoyed both of the films and how they described each topic. I liked learning about Andy Warhol and seeing his different artworks.

Module 11: Art Gallery Visit

Step 1: The Exhibition
-Picasso: The Artist and his Models
-The theme of this exhibition is Picasso's use of models in his artwork and how he uses them. It shows the ways that Picasso used his models to create his art in ways that imitate reality. He usually had his models be his friends or lovers which helped his easily use their energy to create art using various different mediums, converting them from three dimensional objects to two dimensional paintings. 

Step 2: The Gallery
-All of the lighting in the exhibition is shining directly on the artworks and only the artworks, really showing their features and details. 
-All of the walls in the exhibit are different colors, mostly being darker colors so the paintings stood out, and if the paintings were created out of mostly dark colors the wall would be brighter colors to contrast each other.
-There was nothing really around the floor of the exhibit so it was very easy to move around freely to wherever you wanted to go.
-There were some small sculptures around the floor here and there but nothing major so it didn't effect movement around the floor.

Step 3: The Artwork
-I didn't notice any special organization for the artworks seeing that they were all on separate walls, all located somewhat far away from each other.
-The artworks are similar in the way that most of his subjects in the art displayed were women, most likely some of his old lovers or friends.
-The artworks are different in the way that they are all abstract looking. Some of the artworks by Picasso are hard to tell that the subjects are women because of how abstractly shaped their bodies are. The style of these paintings compared to Henry Matisse's painting called "La Musique" which also is an artwork of two women, is completely different because in Matisse's art you can obviously tell that they are women. 
-Some of the artworks are in more dramatic frames, some are in more subtle looking frames and then some artworks don't have frames at all.
-All of the artworks relate in the style, mostly being a woman standing facing the artist.

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Title of work: Femme en vert (Dora)

Media: Oil on canvas

Date: 1944

Size: 130 x 97 cm  

Source of picture: https://www.albrightknox.org/art/exhibitions/picasso-artist-and-his-models

Description: The painting shows the body of a woman with the face of what seems to be a cow sitting on a stool. The painting incorporates a lot of greens in it and then the cow's face and hands are blues and reds most likely to make it stand out.

Formal Analysis: The principle used in this painting that stood out the most was emphasis. The color of the woman's face and also her hands is really emphasized by the color of the body and the walls behind her. 

The elements used were color and shape. Color is shown by the woman's whole body, face and the walls behind her, one emphasizing the other. Shape is used by the abstract shapes that the woman is created from making her unique. 

Interpretation: Picasso is using this woman's body to express maybe what he really thinks of her as a person or maybe even what he thinks of women as a whole. 

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Title of Work: Rape of the Sabine Women

Media: Oil on canvas

Date: 1963

Size: 195.3 x 131.1 cm

Source of picture: https://www.albrightknox.org/art/exhibitions/picasso-artist-and-his-models#special

Description: There is what looks like two women laying on the ground screaming and it looks like they are being attacked or are about to be attacked by two men on horses. The men also appear to be fighting. One of the men maybe could be trying to defend the women.

Formal Analysis: The principle used in this artwork is balance. Half of the art is focused on the two men on the horses and then the other half of the art is focused on the two women on the ground. It makes you look throughout the whole artwork.

The elements used in this artwork are shape and color. The objects in the painting are all abstractly shaped drawing your attention to them and then the women are in red dresses really emphasizing them to our eyes with the color.

Interpretation: Picasso is using the women's body language to show that they are really in fear maybe of one or both of the men who seem to be fighting. 

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Title of work: The Women of Algiers (after Delacroix)

Media: Oil on canvas

Date: 1954

Size: 65.1 x 72.7 cm 

Source of picture: https://www.albrightknox.org/art/exhibitions/picasso-artist-and-his-models

Description: This is a painting of multiple women who appear to be sitting on the floor maybe inside a building or even outside so they could be homeless. They are also painted naked so maybe Picasso is trying to get a point across that they are poor and in need of help.

Formal Analysis: The principle used in this painting that stood out most to me is rhythm. There is a lot of rhythm throughout the walls and on the women's bodies.

The elements used in the art is shape, color and line. The women are once again abstractly painted creating an interesting shape to them. There is many different colors throughout the painting making everything stand out. There are also line throughout everything in the painting drawing your eyes in all different directions.

Interpretation: He is trying to show the struggle women of Algiers had to once face, being homeless and poor. I think he emphasized the situation by making them naked and made them blue and grey to show sadness. 

The gallery visit's purpose of me carefully looking at every artwork in the Pablo Picasso visit made me appreciate artwork more than I did in my last art gallery visit. I really paid attention to all of the little details in the art and I really like what I got out of the experience. I hope for my next gallery visit I can say the same thing and get even more knowledge out of the things I am going to be viewing in the future.

Module 11

-For this assignment I chose to watch The Impact of Cubism because cubism is something that I've never seen before and it sounded interesting to me. I chose Surrealism and Dada for my second video because it is also something that I would like to learn more about in the future so I figured it would be ideal to watch it.

-KEY CONCEPTS
        The Impact of Cubism: Cubism art is art that is straight and has harsh corners and lines that are        very defined. The titles of the art often define the subject matter of the artwork. Most of the time the art can be taken apart and put back together again.

         Surrealism and Dada: Surrealists are ofter artists who like to believe in fantasy and dreams and most of the time stay away from real life. Dada expands what art could be combining objects together to create something better.

-The video on Cubism mostly talked about Cubist artists and each of their different artworks and why they created them. The book also talked about the same thing just a little more in depth. The book also gave a good definition of what Cubism is and how it is used.
The video on Surrealism and Dada went into depth about the artists and their artwork, more so than the book did. They also talked about the history of this compared to how it is today and talked about the differences.

-I enjoyed both of the films very much so. I enjoyed how they both went into depth about the different artists there are and their different styles of art.  I wish that the videos would go just a little bit more into depth than they did so then we wouldn't need to use the textbook as a backup reference.

Module 10 Mask Making

I chose these three masks as my inspiration pieces because I wanted to create something that was colorful but also had the shape of a sun. The sun is something that is interesting to me, because of how far away it is from us but it is still so hot in the summer and can look super big sometimes, especially during sunsets and how it makes the sky so many beautiful colors. I wanted to incorporate that into my mask.

My sketch and final mask are inspired a lot by the first example picture I have in this blog post, shape wise. I tried my best to get it to look like a sun but considering I'm not artistic at all, I wasn't as successful as I would have liked it to turn out. I incorporated shape and color as well as value into my mask because I varied the different shades of red, yellow and orange into the mask to represent a sunset.

My opinion on this project is that it was okay. It's kind of hard to create such a unique mask after looking at so many different ones and then getting ideas from them and then branching off of those ideas. Not my favorite project so far this semester.

- For this assignment I chose the video about African art and Buddhism. I chose both of these because they are the ones that I had most interest in. African art is interesting to me because of how it incorporates animals into the art most of the time and I chose Buddhism because I would like to know more about it. 

-The video "African Art" shows how art is apart of the daily life in Africa. Rock carvings and paintings are usually animals, in the rock carvings the animals aren't as easy to tell what animal it is and the drawings are more specific and it is easier to tell what kind of animal it is. They also talk about how Zimbabwe's architecture is different than what is in Europe. This shows that the architects in Zimbabwe aren't as informed as the architects in Europe. Older images show a wider range of style. Each region or civilization had individual priorities or rituals that would translate into unique symbolism.

In the video "Buddhism" they talk about how the religion that is originally from India has spread all across Asia and more people are practicing it. Buddhism has inspired many different architectures throughout the world. One symbol of Buddhism that is very popular around the world, even in the United States, is the Buddha. There are paintings, statues and many different other types of things that display him. 

-The videos are both similar to the textbook in the way that they both are explained. The videos and the textbook both explain what Buddhism is and what African art is. The textbook goes more into depth than the videos but I liked watching the videos better.

- I liked both of the videos more than reading out of the textbook even though they didn't go as in depth as the book did. 

module 9 hand drawing

1.) It was easier than most of the other subject matters that we possibly could have had but I still had trouble because I'm not very artistic, clearly. You would think since we use our hands everyday we wouldn't have trouble drawing something so simple but I did.
2.) I chose to use pencil because I'm more familiar with holding and using a pencil rather than charcoal. I also couldn't find any charcoal to use to draw my hands.
3.) Drawing with my non-dominant hand was super hard because I never use my left hand to do anything. I use my right hand to do basically everything. It felt very weird using my left hand to draw and it made me feel somewhat disabled in a way.
4.) My drawing of my left hand isn't good but it is definitely better than the drawing of my right hand.
5.) I would definitely not use my non dominant hand to do more artwork in the future because it would most likely turn out to be a disaster.

module 9

For this assignment I chose to watch "The Drawings of Michelangelo" and "Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master". I chose these films because for this assignment I wanted to focus more on artists rather than a general type of art.
The first video I watched "The Drawings of Michelangelo" showed some of Michelangelo's first drawings that he created. Throughout the film they discussed how he drew, some of the techniques he used, and how his style or art changed over time. He started by drawing then evolved to many other forms of art.
The next video "Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master" showed how Durer used his artworks to express his religious beliefs. He mostly specialized in painting and he also did self portraits. People believed that Durer was very important to the art culture because of how he expressed religion through his paintings.
The videos are related to the readings in the way that they both talk about the artists, Michelangelo and Durer, and their importance to art. The reading emphasized how important they are especially during the Renaissance. The reading also shows some of each of the artists' works.
I like both the reading and the videos, but I would prefer to watch the videos over reading the textbook. The videos help you visualize the artists and their work and understand them better.

Module 8 Video Review

1.) I chose to watch the video called "Late Gothic Art and Architecture: England, 1400-1547" because it was the one that stood out to me the most out of all the videos, even just because of the name. The word "gothic" in the title really intrigued me in some way because most of the time, things that are gothic are interesting to me because they are out of my norm.

2.) Key Concepts
 "More Human than Human"
-Our minds would not be the same if we didn't have imagery and symbols to help communicate our thoughts. It helps distinguish us as humans and not animals because they are not as able to make out some images and symbols. We see these in real life as advertisements and as symbols on signs for example. This is considered art. Worship is inspired by the past, present, and future's art and architecture.
"Late Gothic Art and Architecture"
-Churches are what are inspired the most by gothic architecture and art. Gothic art is mostly focused in the churches' stained glass windows. The churches thought that if they had these nice looking gothic stained glass windows they would attract more pilgrims and which would therefore bringing more money.

3.) The textbook and both of the videos both state that art is so essential to human life and how fit shapes how we live our lives. The textbook goes more into detail about the essentials of art in our lives and the videos both have a more broad explanation on why they think the way they do about that subject.

4.) I enjoyed both of the videos  and howe they explained everything to you about the different art and architectures. I do though, wish that they would have went more into depth about these topics in the videos more because some things I had a hard time understanding what they were trying to get across. Overall they were both good videos and contained good information for the most part.

Module 7

In "Frank Gehry: Architecture is Art", they show how buildings and all the different types of structures that exist in the world are designed. They are designed around the fact that there are things such as wind, rain, hail, snow and all other weather elements that they need to withstand. Gehry experimented with different designs for the structures.

In the video "Prairie Style", Frank Lloyd Wright creates a new style of living called prairie style. It gave houses a whole new look and gave people more space. People enjoyed this and felt like this could change their lives. Everything was in a horizontal set up to make the landscapes seem wider.

The videos and textbook relate in the technical ways such as their use of vocabulary and explaining things to the reader/viewer. I got more use and understanding from the videos because its easier to understand because you actually have someone explaining to you what their theories are.
In my opinion I liked both of the films because of how detailed they are in the architecture of buildings and the history. I chose to watch both of the videos about the architects because I was interested in what they had done with architecture.

Module 6 video review

Through the Eyes of a Sculptor
-The sculptor needs to take into consideration before creating their artwork, what it is going to look like and what environment it is going to be in for the rest of it's existence. They need to have basically rough drafts for the sculpture and need to test out the different possibilities that can happen. The process of making a sculpture is actually very complex and requires many people, many different molds, and many holes.

Glass and Ceramics
-The methods of glass blowing and pottery making are very similar because they are both done by hand and are both very fragile. They both require a spinning motion of the objects to complete the artwork and in the end need to be fired to make sure that the final artwork is hard and sturdy.

The textbook and videos are similar in the way that they explain the process and materials for both art forms. The textbook is basically just a written version of the videos and the videos  just show everything visually more in depth.

I personally like the films because of how in depth they explain how to so these different artworks. The people telling you and explaining how to do all of these things really helps you understand more so how to do it rather than just reading out of a book.

Project Reviews

The two blogs I picked for this assignment were:
https://artbymoyi.blogspot.com         AND       http://kbartinquiry.blogspot.com

For Project #1 I enjoyed the photos that were chosen to go along with the elements and principles. You could tell that they all had their own special meaning and they had reasons behind why they picked that element or principle. I could see some other elements or principles that could have been used for their photos but overall I enjoy the ones that they picked.

For Project #2, Neither Moyi or Kelsi picked any of the same artworks that I picked that I had interest in or that I wanted to learn more about. I think it is almost impossible to pick some of the same artworks because there are so many in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery that it gives us many more options to choose from.
I was most interested in an artwork that Kelsi chose by Dan Flavin, called Untitled (to Donna). I really like the fluorescent lights that are in the shape of a square, using the primary colors. I would like know who Donna is though. Is she the artist's sister, mother, wife, girlfriend? Who is she and why did he dedicate this artwork to her.

The comments on my projects basically just agreed with how I viewed the elements and principles and also agreeing with me on why I wanted to know more about the last two artworks that were in Albright Knox. These comments weren't that valuable to me, even though I do appreciate them, only because they don't criticize me and try to make me a better artist.

Logo Design

-Creating my logo wasn't too hard. I incorporated my initials into the design and then just a basic outline of a flower. Recently I've been obsessed with flowers and I'm even getting a tattoo that has flowers. I think I liked doing the sketches the most because I was able to use a pencil and doodle what was going through my mind.
-During the process I was trying to think of something that I enjoy thinking about or something I just like in general. Flowers is what I came up with because whenever I'm bored I will doodle flowers on a piece of paper or basically on anything that I am able to get pencil to show up on. I then used my initials because I thought it would give a personal touch.
-The most important discovery I had was that I overthink about things too much, such simple design took me a while to think of because I couldn't really think of what would describe me the best. That is what took me the longest.
-I think the most important information was how they showed us the designing process of a logo and how much actually goes into making a logo for a company, because it needs to be original for copyright reasons and then how much creative thinking goes into that because it is hard to think of something without being tempted to go off of someone else's ideas. I liked that the video was very informational about graphic design. I hope videos in the future are more like this module's.

Albright Knox Art Gallery

For this project I went to Albright Know art gallery, and it was my first time every going into this place. I can't believe what I was missing out on. This art gallery is so big and there are so many beautiful pieces of art. One art work that made an impression on me was:

This artwork had an impact on me because of how big it was. This piece went from the floor to the ceiling and then across the whole wall which was cool to me. It made me think about how long it must of taken the artist to create this piece. I was thinking probably weeks or months. It must have taken a lot of patience for him to finish this.

Artist: Jackson Pollock

Title: Convergence 

Year: 1952

Media: Oil on canvas

This artwork also had an impact on me because of how different everything in the piece is. Everything in the artwork is super unformed and it looks like the instruments are alive. It is interesting to me because it makes me wonder if the artist was under the influence of something while she created this or if that is just how she likes her art to look.

Artist: Joan Miro

Title: Carnaval d'Arlequin

Year: 1924

Media: Oil on canvas

I feel like I had a connection with this artwork by Andy Goldsworthy because you can actually walk along with the artwork. I think it is cool that Goldsworthy actually carved into the sidewalk at the art gallery and is able to be interacted with.

Artist: Andy Goldsworthy

Title: Path

Year: 2012

Media: Granite

I had a connection with this artwork because I am so familiar with this portrait of Frida Kahlo. Throughout middle and high school we always have been taught about Frida Kahlo in art classes and have been shown many of her different portraits that she painted of herself while she was on bed rest. It was nice to see a painting that I was familiar with and knew some background on.

Artist: Frida Kahlo

Title: Self-Portrait with Monkey

Year: 1938

Media: Oil on Masonite

An artwork I would like to know more about is this one by Nancy Dwyer. It is pretty self explanatory why I'd like to know more about this artwork, it's because it is interesting to me as to why she painted the words "kill yourself" and as to whom she was directing this painting to? Also I'd like to know why she made all the bubbles around it to make it seem like a nice thing to say to someone??

Artist: Nancy Dwyer

Title: Kill Yourself

Year: 1989

Media: Vinyl Paint on Canvas

I would also like to know more about this artwork because I'm confused as to why it is good enough to be in an art gallery. I'm not saying that it is bad or anything but it is just lines on graph paper,something that literally anyone could do. I'd like to know what the artist did that made this piece so special.

Artist: Paul Sharits

Title: Frame Study 15: Study for "Specimen II"

Year: 1975

Media: Ink on Graph Paper

Color wheel and Value scale

I personally enjoyed creating the color wheel and the value scale for this blog post. I had a fun time creating all the colors and painting them all on the piece of paper. That was probably the media i enjoyed working with the most, the paints, because it's fun playing around with the 3 colors to make the many other colors that are possible. I was surprised to find out that red, yellow, and blue are actually in fact not the real primary colors and that it is actually magenta, yellow and cyan that are the true primary colors because that is not what i was taught as a child. I liked how the video explained why those 3 colors mixed together created a brown not a black and i wish that they would explain more in depth on how to get the black so black. Overall I enjoyed this project and creating a color wheel especially.

Photobucket Project

http://s1152.photobucket.com/user/Haley_Laskowski/library/?view=recent

Module 3: Color Theory and Emotional Effects

1.) Color os the way an object absorbs light and then how it is viewed by human. Color can be used to set a mood or theme for something, or to put emphasis on something. The most common thing color is used for is to make something look better or more interesting.

2.) Something about the aspect of color that interests me is the way that color makes something stand out or look so much better if it is vibrantly colored or even just a touch of color making something look so much more interesting. For example, if I'm looking to buy something, obviously I'm going to be more attracted to an item that has more color rather than something that's black, white or gray.

3.) In the color video, the way June Redfern had such a love/hate relationship with her work made the biggest impact on me. Even though her artwork, to everyone else, looked so amazing to her she always felt that it looked bad and always wanted to fix something on it, until she felt that it met her standards.

4.) The biggest impact on me from the feelings video was how such dark colors in a piece of artwork can show us how dark the artist was feeling inside at the time they created their work of art. Also, that applies to when the artist uses such vibrant colors it shows how happy they were at the time of their artwork being created.

Module 2 Blog Post

1.) In the first video they talk about how aesthetics is the philosophical study of art and the beauty that is presented through art. Picasso, Plato, Aristotle, Hutcheson, and others are all discussed in this video and how their works of art represent beauty, and aesthetics. Later on in the video it talks about modern art forms such as cinema, photography, comics, etc. In the second video Changeux and Ramachandran talk about aesthetics very in depth and how art effects our emotions and our everyday lives.

2.) I believe Aristotle's theory on aesthetics was the most important because he believed that order and symmetry were the "chief forms of beauty" showing how important they are in photography, drawing, and mathematical sciences. Aristotle was alive during the Ancient Philosophy era.

3.) Changeux believes in the scientific genetic envelope for the origins of art. Through the video, he continues on and goes very into depth about the human brain and how we are mentally effected by art. The most interesting thing about Changeux's speech is how he viewed the relation between art and science together as one. Rakmachandran also believes in the relation of the science between art and our brains. I also enjoyed hearing his humor throughout the video. The most interesting part to me was how he showed that a completely distorted Picasso painting was praised by critics even though it looked horrible.

4.) All of the stuff that was talked about in the article was also directly talked about in the 2 videos. The videos just talked more in depth about every point that the article had, making it easier to understand everything being discussed.

5.) I liked how the films were very educational, even though they were definitely on the more boring side. I liked watching the videos better than reading the article because I am more of a visual learner than by only reading an article.

First Blog

1. The process of setting up gmail and the blog was fairly easy since I have made many gmails before and use it on a daily basis, the blog wasn't as easy to set up since I've never done it before but I managed.

2. I expect to learn about art and how to create art. Also, I expect to be visiting art galleries around the Buffalo area.

3. I'm sort of nervous to be taking an online course because I hope that I'll be able to keep up with all of the assignments that will be given, since we don't get to meet with the teacher face to face.

4. The more I study something the more I understand it as I keep going on, I get frustrated along the way of studying trying to adapt to these new things I want to become familiar with, I was nervous coming into college but once I met people and opened up to new friendships I felt fine.