Why do people make art?

Let's put it this way, art is a very loose term, especially these days. From those arbitrary modern pieces we see in museums such as the ICA, which do not cater to everyone as art, to the famous more typical pictures we see in museums everywhere, such as the MFA or the Louvre, home to the Mona Lisa. Art can be anything. Art can be your old trash which when the light hits it, looks like people in the dark. Art can be your car pieces taken apart to rebuild a car again, or something completely different. People make art for so many different, intricate reasons. From the people who make darker art, to express their darker sides, to the people who take pretty pictures of flowers, just because they are pleasing to the eye. Art means something different to everyone; it is very open to interpretation because it speaks to everyone in a different way. I could see something as vague and you could see it as structured and meaningful. People make art to express different feelings they are having, such as anger, or euphoria. People make art to show people things that may be hidden about them or about what they are experiencing. Everyone goes through something different during their life and they all find different ways to deal with it. Some ways are more unhealthy than other, some are healthier. Among the healthier choices lies making art. Art is a way to let all your emotions flow freely without having to control them. It is such freedom it is utter jubilation. You can just let it all out to your paintbrush and watercolors, letting the paint seep into the threads of the paper, staining it for life. Of course these things can be altered, but your first creation is something hard to part with. In the end, people make art for so many different reasons. Whether it is to let out what you are thinking, or to relax and de-stress, the end result will always release unwanted tension.

The 4 Hour Project

The short project we just finished was very independent. While we have worked by ourselves during the year, this alone was our creation entirely. The other projects we always structured and we had guidelines, if loose, but we had guidelines. This project was all up to us. We could do basically anything we wanted to, given the materials and the time we had. I decided to take a very different approach to my project than I have with anything else yet this year. At first, I was totally oblivious and had no idea what I was going to make. I had wanted to do something with photography but with the amount of time that would have been difficult. So I started making lists and drawing ideas out in my sketch book. I ended up with a drawing of random sketches put together that looked really cool. At that instant, I knew that is what I wanted to make. I drew my design and loved it. But then I thought to myself, hmm there is a lot of white space I need to take up. Do I want to draw little things or big things? Immediately, I knew I wanted to pursue something intricate. I looked online for tattoo designs, especially henna tattoos done on hands and arms since those tend to be the most detailed. I found a design I loved and started free handing it on my page. It looked perfect. I wanted to mirror that image on the other side of the page but re drawing this detailed design was going to take forever so I photocopied it and pasted it upside down on the other side. This worked out very nicely. But then, my center image did not flow so I erased all my beginning work and had some trouble finding a center focal point. I messed around with some ideas and then found one that worked. I drew it in and then filled up the white space with random henna designs. Along the way, I found a way to collaborate many pieces of work together to make a whole drawing, and I definitely learned that changing my drawing is okay.

The Book Project... process and planning

My original plans for the book project were to make a story about a cowboy and his father. They would not know about each other until a mysterious phone call came about. Unfortunately, without words, this message would have been hard to convey especially because I wanted to have the son end up killing the president since the father works for him.. etc it goes on from complicated to more so. I liked my story line very much and so I was devastated when I had to part from it to make it more simple. The most challenging parts of the project have been deciding carefully what to put on the pages to show what story I picture in my head. Some of the things I wanted to depict are a bit more extravagant than what I was capable of doing without words so I had to break it down. Also my pictures didn't give me much to work with besides the people so I scramble to make the white on the page disappear. Some of the things that are going well are my first and last pictures because I really show the emotion I am looking for in these pictures. Something that isn't going well is trying to make the middle pages coherent to the rest of my story.

Drawing the human figure from the inside out

Today we drew human figures. We started at the hips since they are the center of the body and we went on to draw everything else from there. We made everything out of ovals so it was a bunch of connecting ovals. We drew from the general to the more specific. It was hard to shade everything in so that it looked like a person wearing clothes instead of a bunch of ovals. My challenge was when one of the figures we had to draw was lying down in front of me so the figure was at an awkward angle for me to draw. When a person was standing up, I found it easier to draw them proportionally correct. The easiest part for me was drawing the legs. I am not sure why I just found it so much easier than everything else. Normally my drawing was too large to fit in a head so I had an odd looking headless person.

Shades of gray

Today we drew from observation of a still life. We first colored the whole paper black then rubbed it down with paper towels to turn it gray. Then we started by using an eraser to take away gray and leave white. We had to use 5 different shades of gray to make this still life come alive. I think I did this pretty well because my shades were evident and my drawings proportions were pretty accurate. I did not really face many challenges with this exercise because it was pretty straight forwards. The only challenge was making things that were not gray into different shades so they seemed their real colors.

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper

Nighthawks

Edward Hopper

1942

American

Oil on Canvas

My very first impressions of this painting was that it was simple and ordinary. At first glance it just seems like a plain diner at the corner of a deserted street. Your eye is attracted immediately to the emphasis on the white inside the diner on the back wall, and the faded grey pavement illuminated against the darker shades within the rest of the painting.

Edward Hopper was the best known american realist during the war. He was born in the small town of Nyack, NY on July 22 1882. His family was very middle class and by 1889 he had already decided on being an artist but his parents were not thrilled about this and they tried to convince him to study commercial illustration because it seemed like it would allow him a more ensured future. He went to the NY school of illustrating but then transferred to the NY school of art. At the NY school of art he trained with Robert Henri and afterwards worked as a commercial illustrator for half of his life. Hopper sold prints and watercolors on the side but did not reach his actual artistic success until he was 43.

Nighthawks is Hopper's most famous piece of work made of oil on canvas. It is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. This piece represents Hopper as a painter of desolation and complete solitude which is conveyed through the thick contrast of dull colors of the night and the fluorescent lights coming from the diner. Hopper sometimes painted from his closest observations of places around him which mostly include NYC and Cape Cod. Nighthawks is said to be, in Hopper's words from "a restaurant on New York's Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet." Nowadays, although this diner no longer exists, the suffering which it has endured will always be depicted through Hoppers' picture.

If you look to the building behind the diner, the orange one, there is repetition used in the windows we can see. They are all the same shape, size, and going in the same direction. It also makes your eyes move from left to right or vice versa because of the leading lines of the windows. The orange building is almost symmetrical because if you were to fold or cut it in half, it would appear to be almost identical but if you look closely there are details that are not the same. There is also placement used within the diner because it is centered to the right and vastly in front of the other building which catches your eye. It seems to jut out of the painting so it attracts you to it.

The placement of the people inside the diner makes you wonder what they are doing there in the dead of night. There is only a couple, a solemn man alone, and the waiter in the diner. The waiter appears to blend into the white background which contrasts the rest of the painting since it is so bright. Where the man alone is sitting is much darker than the rest of the diner which fits his seemingly sullen personification.

Finding Images That Are Balanced

The first photo you see is considered "Almost Symmetrical." There are 2 buildings on either side of the man who is almost directly in the middle of the photo. There are small differences in the buildings that would not look much different except when you look closely. Then there are bare trees surrounding the area. The reason this is "Almost Symmetrical" is because if you were to fold this photo in half, what is on the right would not mirror what is on the left, but it is very close to being symmetrical.

The second photo you see is the epitome of "Radial Symmetry." Although this photo is intricately colored and designed, no matter where you were to fold or cut this piece, it would look the same on any side in which it was cut.

The third photo you see is "Symmetry" in its fullest. This building would be exactly 100% the same if you cut or folded it in half, making it symmetrical. The way the building shines down to the water is a very nice effect, and still, if you were to fold it in half it would still be symmetrical. The shrubbery is all the same and so are all the colors embedded in the photo.

The fourth and final photo is completely "Asymmetrical." Although if you were to cut or fold this photo in half, what is on the left would not mirror what's on the right, the colors and designs provide a unique sense of balance within the photo which does not take away from the fact that it involves no act of symmetry whatsoever.

Finding Images That Are Balanced

The Principles of Design

The Principles Of Design - Rules and quotes, hopefully made to be broken at some point, and help artists organize shapes, lines, forms and colors to communicate effectively. Helps us create a sense of unity in our work. This feeling is that everything works together somehow, that if you took anything out of the picture, it wouldn't feel complete. We don't want it to be boring so we want some kind of variety, you can have variety by mixing it up, small vs. large things, bleak vs. bright things.

Balance - Is when the visual weight of the artwork feels equally distributed. 4 different types of balance, symmetry, approximately symmetrical, asymmetry, radial.

Symmetry - Similar, the same when you draw a line down the middle of the shape, it is the same on the left as it is on the right.

Approximately Symmetrical - Almost symmetrical, not quite, almost.

Asymmetry - Opposite of symmetry.

Radial - Same left and right, doesn't matter where we put the line, same if I divide it anywhere.

Emphasis - Is when one element in an artwork appears to be more important or attract the most attention, we say it creates

Placement - Where artists place things matters, always thinking about where things go.

Contrast - When something is very different to what is around it.

Grouping - Creates a focus, when artists put a lot of elements and put the elements right around the thing they want you to focus on

Rhythm & Movement - Referring to how the artists guides the viewer through the work of art

Repetition - Same elements, alternating elements, progression

Leading Lines - Lines that help us travel through a painting

Implied Movement - Showing that something is moving although it really isn't

Optical Movement - When there is some repetition that tricks your eyes into thinking that moving is happening

Actual Movement - When something actually moves

Proportion - Size relationships of the parts to one another or to the whole. Words we might use like a lot, a little, many, few, big, small... etc. How the work looks, the possibility of creating a story or emotional component

Colors

Shapes

Forms

Unity - is the feeling that all the elements in a work of art belong together.

Variety - is achieved by introducing some difference into the picture to increase visual interest.

Reflecting on Found Object Sculptures

When I began, all I had in my hand was a old pink Converse shoe. Inspired? I think not. Trying way to hard? I plead the 5th. My inspiration was quite lacking in the creativity department. I hadn't yet let go of my senses to not see things for what they really are, and for what they really are not. Then, silly old me stumbled upon the silly old pot you see as the body and head in my sculpture, "Lincoln in his Prime." At first I wanted to make a clock, but it looked, plainly, way too clocklike! So then I trashed that idea and in popped the next. When I saw the wooden piece I have as the base of the hat, that just happened to be under the old computer hub, the light bulb went off in my head, "ABRAHAM LINCOLN", it screamed. The other pieces were easy to accumulate as I had brought in a lot of, "little stuff." When I saw the arm I use as a nose, I tried it out as a mouth at first then said, "No way, this has got to be a nose if I ever saw one." The wooden pieces I use as legs I cut in half so that was quite simple. To attach the hat to the head, I had to hot glue a nail and drill it into the skull of the pot. This was the hardest part in making this quirky little man. I think what makes my sculpture successful is the hat, and the huge head and small body, which makes it funny but it works. The huge eyes also add oddness to the face but highlight his features... haha. The pieces I found to make the rest of the body really work especially the spoon for a mouth because you use a spoon to eat and you eat with your mouth. I could have spent more time playing with my larger objects to make a real thing before just winging it because I could have ended up with a bad result, which I do not think is the case.

Reflecting at Mid-Term

As an artist in and out of the classroom, I think I have progressed to further more of my potential. At the beginning of the term, I had no idea what to expect of this class and therefore was a bit shy about creating things. However that never stopped me from putting forth my best effort and trying out everything that was offered to do. As I stabilized my confidence in my artwork, I began to breathe art in. I am very visually and audio aware. Everywhere I go I listen and look and take in things for what they really are, and for also the abstract. I have thought of myself as a creative person all along, but when asked to do things that are simpler, I tend to have more trouble. I like to get in detail with my work and make every line perfect. With the charcoal exercise I had to give up that notion of control and go with the flow. Somehow I was okay with that. Normally I am very protective of my drawings and make sure everything is good once so I do not have to go back and alter my piece in the process. I think one area in which I excel in is describing my work and how it feels to do this. Some parts I think I did very well in and grew in were my sketchbook drawings, not because of the way my drawings look, but about the thought and carefulness I put in my work. An artist is anyone they want to be and can be anyone. Everyone is an artist in some ways even if they do not realize that yet.

What's in the Sack?

In your own words, describe what the goals for today's drawing were.
How well did you achieve these goals? Give specific examples from your process and/or from the finished drawing. You might even describe what challenges you faced.

Today we drew from observation of plastic bags with objects inside of them. We started out drawing fast, just getting the gist of the objects and then worked slower, concentrating on shapes and coloring in and shading. This process was noisy and speedy at first, then quiet and meticulous afterwards. I think I did pretty well achieving these goals. Although I could have made more generic shapes rather than focusing in on the smaller pin point objects, my overall process went really well. One obstacle that I faced was I had a lot of black and no shades in between. When going back and being more specific, I shaded in and erased a lot of the black to make things seem real.

Changing Still Life

Today when we kept having things from our picture taken away, you had to be agile because you had to have eyes on your paper, on the still life in front of us, and you had to have good reflexes when Ms. Roberts would take away objects or add objects in. You had to not get attached to your picture and not make it realistic just get a basic idea of where the objects go. You had to be able to erase A LOT of stuff and be okay with the fact that your picture wasn't going to be pretty and very different from the way it started.

The Potential of Found Objects

I think that parts of objects have potential to become sculptures all have something in common. This is that they are things that all look like something else when put in many quantities. For example, the claws used in the first picture, I would not think of as a flower if it was just alone, but when put together they make an extraordinary flower. The artists could have just been going about their days as normal, when some object they come across just stands out to them. I know this is how I would find objects that I think have potential. For example, if I saw something shiny and silver sticking out of a recycling bin that didn't look like it belonged there, I might pull it out and examine it because it caught my eye. If I saw a stone that had the shape of an object, that would catch my eye. I am a very visual person, and I am always aware when I am walking of the objects around me. In the second picture, the artist saw a bicycle seat as a large behind and chair parts as arms and legs. You have to look at the world critically not just take it for what it is. You have to look for objects with potential in everything you do, every step you take.

Reflections about my first critique

Today I received feedback on my story collage. Some of the feedback I got was that my story was very funny and out there because of what it was about. Someone noted that my story was a bit random. Then I received some positive feedback saying that my lines were very intricate and I had a lot of depth and detail within my lines connecting all my people. It felt fine to get feedback because I knew my classmates wouldn't be too harsh on me and I like hearing their opinions on my artwork so I can know what they think of my work and how the react to what I created.

The Work of Ingrid Calame

The way the artist makes her paintings is similar to the way we have been, "finding" patterns and shapes and objects in real life over the past week or two. She does not paint from memory, or from still life, she finds things in the real world that intrigue her and she makes something abstract out of it. What Ingrid Calame does to create her pieces is to find a spot in the world where there are stains on the ground that grasp her attention, then she proceeds to copy these stains on to a large piece of thin see through copy paper. Then she takes the paper back to her studio where she rolls out the traces and puts them together with other traces. After that she colors in the lines with colored pencils and then starts painting with different colors wherever she feels like starting. Eventually she has made a large piece of art using found items in the world. Ingrid Calame is an artist who makes found images into art, like we have been doing. She sees the world for what it is. She makes her art the way she does because when she was little she wanted to make maps of the world and now she doesn't make maps per se but she makes a map of what she sees within these found images.

That piece of art up in the right hand corner is a piece of Ingrid Calame's artwork I particularly liked. It has various colors that caught my eye and there are many different thicknesses of lines and patterns that all come together beautifully. Then in the middle of the page there is this grey thick line that covers some of the colors. I love the way this part is added as kind of a bump in the road, but it adds to the rest of the painting because it gives some stillness and she worked around the grey matter to make something out of it.

Reflections about the week...

Here's what we've done over the past week and a half:

• describing a work of art (with the postcards...)
  

• collaborative drawings (with the penguin, remember?)
• pour paintings (remember the mess?)
  
• mapping the still life (draw, but don't)

What do all these activities have in common?
I think that all these activities have a lot in common. Well what they have in common is what they don't. All these projects are kind of not typical projects that you would expect to do. They are all analyzing art at a different aspect. They make you question the regular way to create art. I really enjoyed thinking about art in a jumbled way because I think thats a better way to learn how to make art, not just learning straightforwards because thats just plain BORING.

Re-visiting observation/description activity

Even though the picture that I received from Maggie was not the same as the original, there were various similarities. These similarities include the colors of some of the items she drew, even if the things she drew were not exactly what I tried to describe. Also, the placement of some of the things she drew were close to being on the money. If we had to do this over again I would try to give better directions because my directions were a bit unclear. It was very hard to be specific with directions without being able to use key words to help. Kudos to Maggie for trying to decipher my ridiculous directions!

Imagery in the pour

1. A person flying sideways

2. A spiderweb

3. A whale

4. An amoeba

5. A chairlift

6. 2 hands reaching out of a puddle

7. Cartoon character with huge nose

Giving up control: POURS

Describe the process of creating paintings through pouring paint you experienced today. How did it work?

We had to mix paint and water to make a water color-ish base. Then we just kind of let the paint flow down on to the paper and saw what shapes it made. We really had no control over the shapes or colors it would make, only by shifting the place of the paper could we change the shapes. It didn't really work out too well because it was rushed and no one planned anything.
How did it FEEL to give up some control over the shapes you created? Describe any surprises.

It was very odd giving up control of the shapes because we as people are used to having control over what we make but this was just the paint doing its thing. There weren't really any surprises, just that the colors all blended in weird ways.

Collaborative Drawing

Today, we made collaborative drawings. We were given a penguin to cut out and make a picture from. We pasted the penguin on to a blank sheet of paper and went on from there. We as artists started off with our idea and let our inspirations take us away. Then we went and added to a few more of our classmates pictures and also took away and edited. Then we came back to observe our own drawing and what our classmates had added or taken away from it. I was shocked when I saw my original drawing because it was obvious that some people understood the direction in which I was trying to go and others ABSOLUTELY did not. I think having other people work on your drawing adds and takes away from it. With someone adding to it, the picture can loose the original meaning but then you can come back to it and have a whole new fresh idea that takes you some where else, for better or for worse.

What's in a artist? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet

What makes someone an artist? (An artist is someone who...)

An artist is someone who creates using feeling, not using structure, not following guidance, and putting their own touch on everything.
What does it mean to be creative? (To be creative is to...)

To be creative is to allow yourself to let go of the educational side of the brain and allow something else to dominate, making that the most potent part of your body. Being creative is letting go. Being creative is thinking outside the norm, blowing stuff up with your mind.
Describe at least 3 or 4 things an artist needs to be creative and productive. (An artist needs...)

To be a productive and creative an artist needs to be in their own headspace, this allows them to concentrate

and be able to get work done. They also need ample materials to be able to create masterpieces. They need

to be able to work with the materials given to them, to be able to create things out of not just the typical materials.

Mystery of the Street

Umbo (Otto Umbehr) German

1928

First Impressions:

This photograph was intriguing because of the angle in which is was shot, clearly upside down, but then you see the shadows of the people cast behind them, almost larger than life, and then there is the sullen man off to the left hand corner, it makes you wonder what these people were doing, what relations they had to each other, and what the artist was doing to capture this moment.

What I've Learned:

This artist was trying to show an eerie world, where what is real and what is fiction meshes into each other and can not be seen with the blind eye, he is trying to make you confused and have to think about the meaning.