The Ins and Outs of Art

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."

                                                -Aristotle

     I've been thinking about this for some time now. The beautiful thing about art is that no matter what a piece is supposed to be or represent, every individual is going to see something different. This reminded me of the Crit I just had in Design class. When looking at someone else's work, everybody got something different out of it whether it be Haunted Mansion rides or Lemony Snicket books from way back when lol! It only reinforces the idea that we don't only see what we want to see but perhaps more important, we see what we need to see.

For Those of You Looking for a Little Humor :)

Don't you feel cool because you get it? ;)

New Unit...eeeeh

     This is Heather introducing our new project. In this unit we'll be painting in gray scale. We're starting with collages. I'm not sure how I feel about the project yet. After being practically programmed to do one thing for so long, having to switch into a different thing is strange for me. Needless to say, I'm not quite feeling the collage thing.

This is my attempt at creating a bi-radial composition. I'm not totally in love with it and I feel like something is missing here but I'm not sure what it is yet.

As you can tell, I'm pretty much out of it right now. Doing work isn't exactly exciting me at the moment. Maybe its just today but it better move out of the way quick hahaha. Music is helping a bit I guess but Chris Martin can only help oh so much :/

I Dream in Color

     So in class my professor Heather, is having us create 3 different concept boards. I decided to start with researching an artist. When I got to Beatriz Milhaze, I knew that I wanted to look her up for sure. Her work has been dismissed by art critics because her work is purely aesthetic and they say that she contributes nothing to the art world. Because she's somewhat of a controversial figure, that only made me all the more interested. She's been known to take her inspiration from the colors and festive nature of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival in Brazil. I love her work because it has a dreamy like quality to it.

Source: http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/beatriz-milhazes/

Paraquita, 2004

Acrylic on Canvas 

98 1/2 x 66 3/4 inches

Popeye, 2008

Acrylic on Canvas

78 3/8 X 54 3/4 inches

Mulatinho, 2008

Acrylic on Canvas

97 5/8 X 97 5/8 inches

Milhaze is also known for all of her site specific work. It kind of takes me back to whenever I went inside of Children's Hospital. The artwork inside is always so full of color and it can't help but make you happy :)

Gamboa, 2008

Iron and Mixed Media

27.6 in tall x 45.7 in diameter

Peace & Love, 2005

Gloucester Road Station Project

Platform for Art Underground

London, UK

Taschen Store, New York City, NY, 2007

Window installation as part of survey exhibit
"Beatriz Milhaze's Paintings and Collages"
Estação Pinacoteca, Sao Paolo, Brazil
September 6 - November 30, 2008

Outside View

Up Close View

Visionary Woman Award Lecture 2012

     Every year, Moore holds an even to honor Visionary Women and the Visionary Woman scholars. Visionary Woman Scholars are students who show potential and are expected to blaze a trail within the Art World as leaders. When I was applying to Moore, Erin Murphy one of the admission staff, encouraged me to apply for this scholarship. I talked to my Yearbook teacher about it and she agreed. It wasn't long after that Erin gave me a call and I found out that I had gotten it. I didn't think it was a big deal until after this interview. Interior Designer Victoria Hagan and Graphic Designer Ellen Lupton both sit down to have an open interview with WHYY radio. I couldn't post all of the 12 minutes I recorded but here's what I could put in here. Sorry that the quality isn't the best :/

I thought the lecture was really really interesting. It only proved that it IS possible to excel in the Art and Design world. I wasn't until after the interview that I decided that I was going to attend the dinner later that night. I realized just how important it was. 

I Like My Apples Big...O__o

     Just the getting to New York was a great experience. Here I thought I was going to get a little sleep but sitting next to Kimberly, I should have known better (love you Kim :) ). That was great. Had some sisterly bonding time with Kim and Maria and that was nice :) When we first rolled into Manhattan, it didn't seem like much special until you saw all the buildings that really do scrape the sky. Watching the people interact with each other seemed so...everything felt like a movie. There was something mesmerizing about the whole thing. Besides that, immediately I could see that everyone in New York was very fashion forward and had a sort of confidence that was different than the people in Philly. I like the atmosphere that New York has and there's something about it that makes you just want to get out and become more adventurous. Something in the air I guess ;)
     When we first got to the museum, I went inside and then had to go back outside again because you can't take food inside. Its kind of funny because when the guard asked what the long wrapped up thing was in my bag, he looked at me funny when I told him it was a hoagie. Immediately I remembered that New Yorkers say the word "sub" lol! While I was outside sitting on the stairs eating my lunch, a male quartet was just coming up about to perform. They were really good and made my day just that much better. I almost regret not getting a CD.

     Inside, I had to cross all of Egypt to get to the bathroom, which was interesting. Something caught me off guard. The Egyptian exhibit is dimly lit with all of the warm colored artifacts. I turned the a corner and instantly that was tons of light and something beautiful. It was strange because I had felt as though I had been there before. That's when it hit me that this was the exact place where Will Smith filmed a scene for the movie I Am Legend.

Will Smith sat right on that ledge there!

What was just as interesting as the artwork was the architecture of the building. Every corner held a thrill that I wasn't prepared for and I loved it.

Uuuuuuuhhh, can we say Perspective...? lol

Let there be...Light!

Can I just say that the lighting in here was amazing. Perfect for taking pictures. The Greeks really knew  how to create the ideal hahaha

This is on the 2nd floor coming right off the elevator. This has to be my favorite :) 

     Before we went to the Met Museum, I had one thing in mind that I really wanted to see and that was a piece by Tomas Saraceno on the roof. So towards the end of walking around and seeing almost everything, a friend of mine that I met up with at the museum, him and I ventured up to take a look. Wish granted!

The people standing around it look so tiny. Its a shame that you needed a ticket to climb the stairs they have inside.

Now grant it that it was a teeny bit humid but the view up there was still amazing...

Met Museum Assignment

     

(I'm working on getting the names and titles for these. In the meantime if anyone knows right off the bat, drop me a comment)

Besides the obvious difference of one piece being in color and the other in black and white, they both also differ in terms of context. The painting on the right has a rather apparent story line and its meaning can be seen as easy to decode. The picture on the right however, does not give the viewer a forward story but is allowed to be interpreted in many ways. In this composition's ambiguity alone, it is beautiful. Both of these pieces of art share a sense of unity. The oil painting is unified by way of contrast and the careful placement of the objects. For example, from the draping off the canopy in the background to the two vases at either end of the canvas, they create sort of an artificial frame. On the opposing side, the branches of the walking man extend to the upper right hand corner of the composition; opposite of where his feet begin. 

Guilty As Charged...Slacker :/

So I know I've been doing  a pretty bad- ok really bad job of keeping things updated on my blog. I've been putting all of my energy into one thing and that was my work for the Crit. I will really really try to do a better job. I promise.You're not up to date yet with my trip to the Big Apple and how the critique went but that's next on the agenda :) Read awn!

Here's aaalllll my work from over the course of the semester. Everything is finally finished and ready for the crit. I'm especially proud of my mirrored textile quadrants (seen on the far right) and my hand drawn ink lines (three non  objectives direct upper right of my fire and water panel).

My completed fire and water panel in all of its glory. This only took me forever. The middle section, with all the bubbles, took about 6 hours alone. It was well worth it though. I made a mistake along the bottom of the panel where i was unhappy with my technique but it eventually got corrected and i think it turned out well.

This took quite a bit of brainstorming. I love how a brand new shape is created though negative space and all the surrounding objects.

This is an abstraction of water overtaking  the ice. You could view it that way but I more so considered it to be storm clouds. No matter how you see it, there's definitely a lot of movement happening here.