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.