Last Extra Credit

I liked working on the mask project the most because it really gave me a creative idea of what i wanted to do. I liked the outcome even thought it looked a bit weird, but over all I liked it the best. I didn't like the last project of the self portrait. If i gave myself more time I might have liked it more, but i am a horrible drawer and I wanted to do a collage of pictures, but I threw out my magazines. Blackboard inst an issue for me, I have had a lot of experience with it in the past at my other school. The discussion groups were different from what I am used to and I think compared to most people in the class I put more work into mine. The responses were a bit hard because we were responding to questions we also answered, and if it was right or wrong we really gave our opinions. I didn't participate in any of the extra credit assignments besides this one because my grade were coming out well and I was swamped with other classes. If I had more time I would have because I could have done more research on things I wanted to know about.
If i had the opportunity to change this course I would keep the Blog postings because they helped me understand the information better. I would get rid of some one the videos and try and search for different ones because some of them were so hard to stay in touch with, but i liked the information in them so definitely not get rid of them all the way. I wouldn't add anything because I overall liked the structure and the assignments. Reading the chapters all at once was a bit hard because some of them were so long and had so much information in them that it was hard to figure out what you needed to know for the quiz and what you didn't. I would recommend this class to friends, and the grading was very fair from what I can tell. I actually probably deserved less that I put forward but my intentions and sincerity were there. Thanks so much for helping me get in touch with art that I left behind in middle and high school and showing me how much art is really around me. Art galleries are deffinitly stops on vacations.

Expectations

When I registered for this class I thought that it was going to be just like the other art history class I took at NCCC and boy was I wrong. This class gave me so much more information and a better insight on many different subjects of art. From the creation process to the critiques I really enjoyed myself. Now I would define art as something that is created by ones imagination know matter the piece. I considered art to be a painting or a sculptor, but when really so many things around us is art. I really liked learning about art in different cultures and the art gallery visits because it gave me the chance to explore things that I probably wouldn't have done on my own. My favorite artist this semester would have to be Vincent Van Gogh because I loved the different works and the history behind them. I also liked how his paintings looked and they really spoke to me. I didn't have a favorite artist in the first posting because i never really researched one artist for a reason and with this class I was able to do that. I have taken many online classes before, but not as intense as the ones at Buffalo State. I did register for one next semester and it is involved with my major so we will see how that goes. I very much liked this class and the projects that we had to do.

Self Portrait

This piece is from the Birchfield Penny art gallery and is a self portrait of Charles E. Burchfield 

This is a self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh located in the National Gallery of art in Washington DC

This is a self portrait of William Strang located in the National Gallery of art in Washington DC

I chose the first picture, because when I was at the gallery for the second visit, I seen the picture and thought that it would be good to use especially since the exhibit was all about him. The second two picture that i used i found on the link you provided us with and i pulled them out because they were different form each other and very distinct. 

I chose to use pencil for this because it was clearly easy to erase and seemed like it would be the easiest. My challenges were clearly that i can not draw at all for the life of me. I tires my best, but i definitely didn't concur that barrier. I wanted to add color, but the drawing was so bad that I didn't want to ruin it anymore. This doesn't really represent anything to me, but it is the only decent picture that i had to use for this project. I did a lot of lines because just drawing normally was not working well so I totally scratched the idea. I tries to add a bit of the background, but that was going terribly so i stopped and focused more on me. This wasn't my favorite project by any means, but if i could draw i probably would have liked it a lot more. I absolutely dis like everything about my art work. It sucks so bad that I was even ashamed to even post it. Just being honest. 

  

Module 13 and 14

For this module I watched 3 different videos and they were The Lowdown on Lowbrow:West Coast Pop Art, Tate Modern, and An Acquiring mind: Philippe De Montebello and The Metropolitan. These videos were very interesting to watch and had a lot of good information in them. Not so much did they have anything to do with my project I did because I chose something different from any of these videos. Yes in the last video it talked a lot about the conservation if images, which I am sure was done with the pictures that I chose, but nothing really stuck out to me more than that. I really liked the information behind the videos and it gave me a different outlook on a lot of the galleries that I could visit one day. Tate modern was especially interesting and different and I can see why many people would like to stop there as a tourist attraction.
In the first video: The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art, the interesting and important facts are:
-Highbrow wants nothing to do with gaudy things which they considered lowbrow.
-Lowbrow is more of a people things historical reference
- A lot of galleries and museums wouldn't show rock posters
- In 1967- Underground comics came about / crumb apart
- Tiki culture was brought back by the service men
- Lowbrow worked with Disney land
- Conceptual art brought intelligent through to the playing field
- Lowbrow is something that is learned
- Now low brow is any galleries or collections, but highbrow and pop are art
- Low brow took cartoon language and emphasized its statements and that is important in the art movement
- A lot of sexually driven pop culture art when it comes to artists, but became very common for woman because they thought they can make a woman better than a man
- In the 70's punk rock musicians had fine art backgrounds
- Became included in many shows and paintings became worth more now
- Now not so much work is considered Low Brow
In the second video: Tate Modern, the important and interesting facts are:
- Tate modern has 5 million visitors a year because of its size and reputation
- It makes you think theme park, mechanical and glowing sun
- did modern art change or did Tate modern change us? was one of the questions discussed in this video and I thought that was an interesting take on change.
-The scene at first was uncomfortable and intimidating
- Tate Modern was new art for a new society and was a sign of social change and elitism which caused it to be more popular.
-In May 2000, the Tate Modern Opened and the opening was a huge success.
- Feels casual and comfortable and gives people a good way to look at art
- Scale is a sign in this case with its size because it was so big and populated it is hard to see everything and get the full experience
- Tate Modern inspired a change to what society wants
- The sealed crack is a memory about memory and modern art was invented in France
In the third video: An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello and the Metropolitan, the important and interesting facts are,
-A museum is  never finished
- In 1870 the metropolitan opened with 174 European Paintings
-Under Philippe they now support and show art from around the globe.
-2 million objects are contained in the growing collection
- In 2005, the Gilman Paper Company collection was acquired and the picture The Woman Seen From the Back was seen as popular and inspiring. Some said mystery is better than reality.
-The board of Trusties decide what will be put into the exhibit or collection
- Curators pitch the art work to the board of trusties to be considered
- Storage is important / textiles brought for display/ and not all the art work is displayed at one time
-Not all works come to the museum in good condition or in one piece and the need to be conserved
-There are times when works are left untouched to the viewers can get the full effect
- Many art works were brought under Philippe and he played a big roll in getting the ball rolling with the Metropolitan.

Project 4 Reflection

Project 4 was very interesting for me. I did like doing this (not just because I have lost touch with power point), but because it was interesting to actually put art into our own exhibit in away with the theme of our choice. It did take me awhile to decide what I wanted to to and that is kind of why i posted it last minute. I can sit and contemplate for hours on what I wanted to do projects on. Once I finally decided I wen tot look at the art website we can locate on course resources and the link worked, but it wanted me to create an account even though Buffalo State had their own access it  wouldn't let me for some reason. With that being said I had to do a bit of my own research. I found it kind of difficult towards the end when it came to choosing what pictures i wanted to incorporate. I did chose a variety of different kinds of aspects of nature so I thought it would be a well rounded exhibit with an over view of a lot of the nature. When it came to Van Gogh, I liked a lot of his works for this but I didn't want to use too many so I think I went with 3 of his. I chose 2 paintings that are not famous and were on sale on the internet because I really liked how they looked, The Fall scene in Feast of Leaves was something that really opened my eyes. I loves this piece and it was not so clear like Van Gogh's work was but it definitely got the point across. I loved the color and the atmosphere that created and I can almost picture when in that season here the trees actually look just like that in peak season. I wish we had more time on this because I would have loved to make it more interesting and complex, but with everything else going on this is what I made of it.

Module 12

The two videos that I chose for this section was Andy Warhol: images of an image and Uncertainty: Modernity and Art. I chose these videos because I thought that it would be interesting to know more about the image of an image idea and the modernity of art because I never thought of it to be interesting.
For the first video the interesting facts that I chose was:
- Andy enjoyed a successful career as a commercial artist.
-collected photographs of celebrities and printed a series of Marilyn Monroe and this made him famous
- Elizabeth Taylor: made a silkscreen image of a childhood picture of herself
- To transpher her photo to silkscreen, it needs to be enlarged several times
- was silk but today it is a synthetic material used
- the screen could be used many times
- he wanted to work hard, but he realized anyone could do it for him, industrial assembly line of photos
- Shoes the viewer and image of an image with Elizabeth Taylor 10 images and he took an interest of the Mona Lisa and Kennedy.
- He moved into the factory and used it as his studio
- published his own magazines and became an international superstar
- began to add paint to his portraits and became a society painter
- cinema replaced painting
- In his portraits, only the basic traits survive
- Made himself his main model/ produced dozens of self portraits and was also a art journalist.
-Death was one of the artists main themes
For the Second video:
- We wonder what future civilizations will think about us by looking threw our art
- You don't have to make a cut into material for it to be a sculptor (the bricks)
- Modern art never stops changing
- In the early 1930's Nazism came about and it was total power, Hitler started degenerate art
- You had to be told what your looking at
- cubism fights anything recognizable- different way to approach truth
- abstract art is an experiment of what its telling you
- some people find it hard to like abstract art because involves a lot of thinking
- abstract expressionists- look into the void
- we don't have war men in our art galleries
- pop art after the 1950's early beginning moments
- finds civilization relaxing/ everything to be what it seems
- pictures re change for civilization today
I liked the first video because it gave us a good outlook on what Andy's ideas were and what he did that was important. The second video I did not like as much because of the way it was structured and how fast the guy talked. The ideas were nice though.

Art Gallery Visit 2

I went to the Burchfield Penny art gallery for something different than the one across the street that I went to last time.

The first picture i took was of the Untitled made by John. E (Jack) Drummer in 2004. The title of the exhibit was The effects of time and i am not sure what you would consider the theme, but all the pictures were bigger than usual and abstract. All the lighting through the exhibit was the same and had full lighting, but lights directed towards the art. White color was used on the walls with black trim.There was maze like walls to walk though the exhibit and allowed you to walk thought the rooms and get the full effect of the pictures. All the works are organizes on the walls and some kind of stacked on top of each other in away. This picture though was by itself on a wall and it really stuck out to me on the white wall. In this exhibit some of the pictures were the same regarding the size and the dark colors that were used, but the differences stuck out more with the difference among them. they all clearly looked different, but it was very unified all together. This art had no frame, but was stretched rubber and tar over 4 panels. The art was labeled to the right of it on a card that described who made it, when they made it, when they lived and dies, and what it was made of. Each of the pictures were around 20 feet apart from each other and at some points around a few inches apart. The use of texture here with the stretched rubber over the tar. The color and adding the white into the picture and the gray like tree that is coming from the sides made the picture pop. It shows a little movement with the tree like it was going somewhere and the lines of the rubber made it really stick out.

This picture is called Intersections made by Philip Clarkson Elliott between 1971 and 1973. The title of the Exhibit was R. Williams Doolittle from what I saw, but other than that there was no title anywhere. The theme was hard to detect, but there was a lot of bold colors and an abstract look to them which is what caught my eye. The lighting here was dim and focused solely on the pictures in the exhibit. There was nothing special about the architecture around the exhibit except the wall the painting was on did not fully touch the ceiling. Navy blue was painted on the walls and the flow of the room was a bit different because there were case in the middle of the room which would cause people to view off from the walls to the cases. The art work was mostly on the walls and adequately spaced out as well as some of it in the wooden cases. The art was a lot similar in the kind of similar used and the different abstract types and the difference was the total knowledge that it was something new that was painted rather than something that went along with the other picture. The art work was framed in a wooden frame and it was about 5 feet away from the other pictures on the walls and abut 10 feet from the cases on the floor. This picture shows a lot of color and that is what catches peoples eye. There seems to be a bit of texture the way that the picture is laid out and it looks like movement in away like the shapes are coming from the sides and moving up. There is unity surprisingly with all that is going on. 

This picture is called the Chinese Garden made by Charles Burchfield.The title of the Exhibit is The John R Oishei Foundation and the theme was all about Charles Burchfield and his life and art. There was very dim lighting and the light was only pointed at the art. On the walls there was some white on the walls and some medium gray. There was nothing special that was used in the space besides some of the walls did not fully go to the ceiling. The movement of the room was nice because you had a nice island case to walk around and the other pictures were on the wall besides those ones. This art work is organized very nicely and it two pictures that are meant to be one. This picture stuck out to me because of the springy feel and is the same of maybe three other pictures in the exhibit, but there was a lot about Charles and that was more pictures of him and his life than actual different pictures that he made. The picture was framed in a wooden frame with glass covering the picture The art work is labeled to the right identifying who made it, when they lived and died and how it got there. From this picture there was around 3 feet from each other, but other about 2 feet. This picture shows a lot of color with the birds and the trees and it shows unity with the two pictures into one. There is good proportion with all the things going on and the trees as we;; as emphasis on the birds and the tree on the left. 

Module 11

 
I chose Expressionism as a video because it is something that I didn't really know a lot about with art before this class and I thought that a video on it would be insightful. The other video I chose was The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19th Century. I chose this video because I never really thought of art as Spanish and I know that is like who made it and where it was made, but I wanted to figure more about the topic.
For Expressionism the key facts and important information that I pulled out was:
-Colors and Expressions tell stories about the art
- colors used symbolically for sorrow, innocence and passion -after the fall picture
- The self portrait from Mook showed dis-pair from childhood.
- Time and space are no longer necessary and forms became simplified to emphasize loneliness.
-works represented a constant and very pessimistic view of life.
- Frank Mark painted the Tiger in 1912 when he was 32 and thought that animals were cleaner and more beautiful
- All spares are simplified and made bold colors
- Forms are described in an abstract way
- Blue Reiter group Mark was apart of with other parties
- Cubism is a means of heightening realism and sentiment
- Marks paintings portrayed his fear of war
- Ernst Ludwing "Five women in the street" was made in 1913 and the way its painted it looked like they were here in a hurry
- The fashionable get up gives the 5 figures a ghost heir
- Visual language becomes more linear
- contains permissions on upcoming disasters
- Max Beckmann The Actors. In 1915 the self portrait you could feel the anxiety and terror of his experiences.
- not much mood in the picture with the king trying to commit suicide
- Every part of the picture has some sort of action and the meaning of the picture was partly personal.
- George Baselitz The Great Friends painted in 1965
- Baselitz is often associated with invert or undermine tradition
- Sometimes comic and tragic in the painting
- The body itself emphasizes is hope is all they have left
- Some patches of color show objects/ images from another reality
- Anselm Kiefer Interior- associated with Nazi Ragime
- technique is ruff with the flow of paint/ texture
- He has an obsession with dark colors and  geometrical perspective
- windows and doors are sealed to emphasize doom

The Mystical North: Spanish art from 19th century to the present

- Goya spent his youth painting for the Spanish court and the royal masters but his work changed to be dark and mysterious

- when  he became deaf he changed his work to a darker style

- he took the medium and gave you the last thing that you wanted to look at like the worst options

- he painted black paintings in his house

- Spain is one of the power houses

- Antoni Gaudi id the 1st great artist in Spain to emerge after Goya

- inspired by the gods and the natural world- famous building cathedral and was incomplete at his death and he saw himself as gods architect

- had abstract balconies and movement

- Picasso's works have coded messages

- draw inspiration from African masks and took on the Spanish past

- Picasso turned himself into the god he spent his whole life looking for

- Dail's portirait symbolizes death and how we are all doomed

- Dail's youthful visions were so morbid that he spent his life to get away from them

I really liked the idea of the videos in this section, but the Expressionism video was really dull and dragged on. The voice of the video makes it so inattentive and hard to want to pay attention to. The information in the video was good though. The second video was better and I really liked it. I liked learning about it because it is something that I never really looked into. All the videos in these sections help me with the text because I like to visually see what they re talking about besides pictures and having someone talk to me helps also. 

Mask Exploration Project

I chose this mask because it reminded me of something that was very symbolic in the past. This mask is the Mask of Agamemnon, a 16th century mask discovered by Henrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. This mask was made of gold and was created around 1550-1500 BC. The mask shows persistence of balance with the layout of having everything in its place. The lines on the mask bring out the eyebrows and the chin up to the ears. The gold color makes the Mask seem important (not saying that it is not), but i think that gold gives a scene of class in this case. This has a bit of unity, but there are some parts that seem to have a bit of tension. The shapes of the eyes, eyebrows and the ears come together well in this mask.

This mask seemed interesting to me because it looks so realistic. This is called the Noh mask. The mask in the picture is showing that when you move the mask the expression on the woman changes. For this specific mask, i can not find the exact information on it because the website is giving an over all aspect on the type of mask the time it was made. These were created around the 14th century and is a major form of classical Japanese drama. This mask shows proportion complete with things being in the exact spot needed. The color of the mask being an actual skin tone and the look of the lips and the hair make the mask come together and because of the mask being moved to show different emotions it can be categorized as in motion in away. This shows balance as well and kind of goes hand in hand with proportion. The space between the eyes and eyebrows is equal on both sides. The Value of the face with the hair and they eyes popping out with darker colors and the forehead and the nose being a bit lighter (this might be the light that the picture was taken in) was interesting. 

This mask is something that I do not like personally, but it is definitely very interesting. This also did not have information on just this mask, but it was done in the 19th century made of wood. It is called the Fang mask and it is used for the ngil ceremony. This mask shows line with the way the forehead and where the eyebrows would be are aligned. The shapes around the eyes all the way to the bottom of the face by the chin emphasizes shape for this mask. The way I see the mask I can see a bit of texture when it comes to the wood used. 

The mask that I wanted to make was something that stuck out to me for many years in different art classes. I love the pop of the sparkles and the rhinestones on almost anything, but I thought that it would be interesting to make a mask with them incorporated on it. My sketch is not very realistic to what I actually made, but I do have to say I did have a lot of fun making this. I used a hot glue gun to glue the pieces on, the glitter glue for the eyeliner and the eyebrows and the feathers to symbolize hair in two ways. I used more rhinestones than I originally thought I was going to do, but I think that it looks different and mysterious. I used color with the different color rhinestones to make certain areas pop out.  rhinestones can also be used as texture because it gives a sense  of that. The feathers help with balance as well as the whole mask and how it comes together. Form is big here because the three-dimensional mask  with all the shapes portrays this. The size of the mask and the feathers show proportion with the adequate size of everything to the mask. The colors and different textures that I used helped realizes the emphasis on the piece. 

I definitely thought the mask could look better if I thought it out more, but it did take a lot of time and cost more money than i thought it was going to. Like i said, I did have a great time doing this project and I think it is a good assignment to do to help people better understand the mask aspect of art. 

Mod 10

I chose the two videos, Buddhism and Hinduism because they are two aspects of art that i never thought about. I wanted to look at something from a new perspective and learn about something I did not think I would be interested in.
For Buddhism the important facts and interesting facts that I thought of:
-Began in India
- The gateway to the temple was made of granite and hung was the teachings of the Buddha
-The key to Buddhist teaching is Thanh
-The mission was to share his enlightenment
-The last lesson before the Buddha died was all compounds wear out, walk out your own way with dignity.
-About one hundred years after he died, Buddhism split into two groups 1.monks 2. manana
-3rd to 7th century AD Sanchi became the center of Buddhist art and architecture
-Great Stoupa-
-Stones that were on the building each had a message
-Buddha disappears into symbolism
-The art is supported by the skill of the architect
-The walk way around the Great Stoupa had amazing woodwork.
-The largest Buddhist shrine in the world was Borobudur in Indonesia.
- In the 8th century, the king built a mountain temple made of 60 thousand square meters of lava rock
-The whole structure is in the form of a lotus
-14,000 carvings to walk through with the teachings of Buddha
-Borobudur took almost 100 years to build and lasted just 30 years as a pilgrimage
-Volcanoes erupt and covered it, but it was restored int he early 1900's
-This is now the standing proof pf the spread of Buddhism through India
-Chuang Yen Monastery is in upstate New York and is s bunch of buildings dedicated to Buddhism,
-Was completed in 1985
-There is an architecture of simplicity in all the buildings
- You must leave shoes at the door to respect the sacred place.
-They used a glue lamb structure that reflects the spirit of Chuang Yen Monastery
-The focal point is the statue of Buddha that took 8 years to make-the building had to be built around it
-Buddhism is in every Asian country besides India where it was created.
In the second video Hinduism:
-To the western eye Hinduism seems exotic and mysterious
-Varanasi is the oldest inhabited city- holiest city of Hinduism
-The great Ganges is a great symbol of Hinduism
- Hindus can worship anywhere and had a great number of gods and goddesses
-Hindu worship invests their tome into elaborate decorations
-At the end, Hindus believed that we all arrive at the same point and they all hope to die in Varanasi
-Mamallapuram where the Ganges turn to stone
-they start turning the underground into cave art
-In the 7th century they turned the wood architecture into stone
-Ancient shore temples is a tiny treasure house that contains a stone Phallus
-Recovered from Bay of Bengal in Khajuraho, 9th century Kandriya Mahadeva temple
-was the golden age of Hinduism art and architecture
-They wanted to get the impression of a mountain and was most famous for its erotic panels
The videos help me always better understand the text because it gives you a bigger visual outlook onto what is going on rather than just the pictures even thought that is kind of what we see in the video. Watching someone tell you what is going on is easier to understand at times than  reading it and having to think about what something might actually look like. I actually really liked these films and was very interested in them, If it wasn't for this class i probably would have never looked into the Buddhism and Hinduism of art or even the religion itself. The videos gave us a bit of insight on both and the art was amazing to see.

Line Assignment

Drawing this took many many trys. I thought that it would be easy, but it took me awhile to actually look like this. Even though it was lines i felt that it was difficult not using my dominate hand. I chose pencil because that is what I am used to using and it is what I had at home. Using my hand as the subject matter was interesting because i have never just drawn my own hand with looking at it and trust me what i drew dies not look like my hand. The one hand was difficult, but my final try i think i did a decent job with trying to make them look good. I didn't want to post the others because i was a bit appalled by the way that they looked. Just because of how annoying it was to actually get the picture to look like that, no i will not be using my non dominate hand to draw things ever unless it is absolutely needed.

Mod 9

The first video that i chose to watch was Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master. Some important facts and information that I pulled from it was:
-Gothic art ideas were opened up to new ideas from Italy (Renaissance)
-At 15 Durer made a self portrait with silver point
-Durer enjoyed painting
-In his pictures he emphasized aging
-he became an apprentices of Michael Wolgemut at age 15
-his work began to have a bit of narcissism
-his journey over the Alps gave him an inspiration of landscape
-he was the first true landscape artist in Europe (Rose garden)
-painted a chapel in Italy and made a decent commission, he used 4 to 6 coats of paint to give it a enamil like finish
- He researched art of prospective (wood cuts)
-He believed at home he was nobody, but actually it was the opposite and he was treated as an Nobel man.
-He could produce several hundred of his prints which reached out to more people.
-led to engrave copper (night,death and the devil)
-Emperor Maxamillion- Durer made portraits of him and decorated his prayer book

The second video I chose was Velazquez.
-Velazquez was born in 1599, in 1623 named court painter to Philip the 4th and he died in  1660.
-The king rewarded Velazquez with order of Santiago and we know nothing of his daily routines.
-He captured timelessness and only had one friend (kind) and one lover (his wife)
-he was interested in painting and was a man of good character
-he painted what the king wanted him to paint
-the theme in the myths is what interested him in painting them
-He painted slowly and painting things one at a time
-Velazquez  and his wife died a week apart and left a lot of works behind
-his works had a sense of spaciousness and abstractness
-more of an idealist closer to reality
-Velazquez paints what he sees without clarifying it.
I chose these two videos because they are about people that before this class i never herd of. I thought it would be good to find something different and be able to know more about it instead of watching a video on something I know a little bit about. I liked the videos, but the second one was a bit dry. They still did help me grasp the concept of what was going on with the text and all of that, but I would have chosen different movies if i knew it was going to be like that.

Module 8 Videos

For the main video that we had to watch More Human than Human, the important and key fact that I pulled out are:
- Pictures of the human body dominates us and became obsessed with the world's greatest artists.
-People rarely make images of the body to be realistic.
-The first sculptor Venus was a woman made out of limestone and it is worth 60 million. This was also the first finding of unrealistic human art.
-80,0000 years ago nothing was made that involves art and 30,000 years ago images started.
-They connected the study of seagulls to the study of the unrealistic human-exaggerations stimulate the birds and what mattered most to people to have toe exaggerate body parts.
-Egyptians were the first settled humans to use images of the to extensively in their art.
-Egyptian bodies in art do not have over exaggerated features, but rather have very realistic ones.
-They showed each art from its clearest angle.
-Egyptian style lasted 3,000 years without any change to it.
-Egyptian buildings and statues were made on a simply astonishing scale and they had an obsession with order which represented their culture.
-Culture is king and dictates how we depict the human body.
-Ancient Greeks were fixated on the body and what it should look like especially athletic men.
-Wanted to see images of realistic gods in their temples and they were filled with large life statues.
-Angles of the body changes with motion and physical perfection
-Ancient Greece created bronzers
The second video that I chose to watch was The Greek Awakening: Art from the 5th Century BC
-Greeks gave us our sense of history and philosophy.
-Sculptors began being made more realistic
-The Parthenon symbolizes the emergency of western civilization and today it attracts around 2 million tourists.
-The columns look perfect, but are rarely any straight lines and would meet at the top they would meet.
-The Parthenon has been used as a church, mosque and a temple.
-The image we have today is difficult to maintain
-Pollution attacks the marble and that is why a lot of the older sculptors need parts replaced
-Art came about when Alexander the Great was around
-The pediment shows the battle between Poseidon and Athena

I chose this video because I am taking another class that is focused around this time period. It is Western Civilization. I find this time period interesting because of all the information that was of that time with the romans, the Greeks and the Egyptians. I think that the videos worked well with the readings because it gave you a better understanding of the types of art and the sculptors. The temples were really interesting and how the columns were made and proportioned. The video gave a lot of depth to the readings and it helped me understand the information easier.

Module 7 post

This chapter of the book was a bit far from what I am interested in, even thought this is something that I should think about more about because it is extremely important.
The first video that I watched was Prairie Style and some of the key concepts that I pulled out are:
-Wide open horizontal living style changed American architecture. 
-Frank Wright wanted single family homes to represent time, place and landscape.
-He felt this helps the architecture grow out of the land. 
-He built his first promo type in 1904
-He built his homes with wanting the unique experience of walking inside. 
-Working with the nature and the sun to make the home have more of a comfort feel to it. 
-His concept of the house was different, reorganizing and changing. 
-He had a direct influence on other architects and
they started to incorporate his ideas in their work. 
-Writes influences sun orientation and the natural environment.

The second video that I watched was Architecture: The Science of Design:
-Buildings were built on slabs of reinforced concrete bigger than the actual building to support the living weight. 
-A big issue is that wind increases proportion to the buildings height and can also make the buildings sway back and forth. 
-If buildings have poor architecture/were built poorly, wind can ruin the structure. 
-Data can calculate types of weather building can stand in an environment that they know they are going to be built at and can further decide how big and the other aspects of building it can be. 
-Wind tunnel testing can detect hoe much snow will accumulate on the tops of buildings.
-Intelligent houses connect to a computer and can control many aspects of the house with a phone, computer or any device. 
-Architecture has become a social art form
-Architects are constantly changing the materials and requirements that they work with to further help them build the best structure. 
-Concrete is in all forms of architecture and is used as a hydrolic binder. 

The videos that I watched explains more in depth the process of building a structure and both the book and the videos emphasize the importance of where buildings are build and what they can withstand. With the first video, the book said some about the placing of the buildings in the environment and I liked that connection. I kind of liked the films. They seemed a bit old, but they worked out and did the job that they needed to. I did feel like the second video i watched was a bit dated. I am not going to lie i choose these films because they were the shortest and i wanted to get done faster, but it worked out good for me because I had a hard time reading this chapter and the information in the second video helped me realize what I might have missed or touched up on it a lot more. I did like the end of the chapter when they talked about more of the newer architecture and it really made me realize the things that can be built and how much they impact our daily lives. 

Response to videos

I found the videos very insightful. I had a hard time reading some of this chapter because I was just not that into it, but the videos helped me get more involved. The videos and the readings together help each other explain more about it with seeing the process. Watching them make the sculptures got me a bit more interested especially the clay process and the molding.

In the video Through the eyes of a Sculptor I for a lot of things interesting. 

-It is important for artists to know who they really are so they move away from home like Emmanuel did. 

-Stone Cory is always 12 degrees Celsius and their is no climate change. Every stone has a different smell. 

-Sculptors must use feelings to put life into the sculptor and to keep ideas fresh Emmanuel worked on more than one sculptor at one time. 

-They make molds of clay for a negative

-Pours plaster in mold to cast the plaster model. 

-Michelangelo work still inspires the nation

-Try to put themselves in the sculpture to really feel the movement you want to express.

-Not just 1 person works on a marble sculpture many people do. Something like 5 to 7 people because they all specialize in different areas. 

-The stone is the canvas for a sculpture

Marble is 99.9% calcium carbonate 

Glass and Ceramics

-Glass is made from said, but the properties are different and glass is not a true solid.

-Fusion occurs at 1500 degrees Celsius

-On contact with air, the glass gradually hardens as it cools, but it can be re heated to form a different shape.

-Final firing gives it strength and protects it from thermal shock which can weaken it. 

-There are many types of ceramics, but the difference in it are the raw materials that are used.

-Clay is fired at 1100 degrees Celsius  and is used to make bricks or floor tiles

-Dry firing is the most important part because it determines the final characteristics

-Glazing also makes it water proof and can also give ceramics color when substances are added to them. 

Peer Responses

As per instruction, I tried to look at the student above me and evaluate their work, but they did not have the elements slideshow so I just picked two different people I hope that is okay.

The first person who’s blog I used was http://ashleys-art200.blogspot.com/.

Project 1: She did not have the pictures labeled to what one went with what element and principle, but it was interestingly obvious what one went with what. I do agree with the pictures that she chose because they are close to mine. I chose a lot of the outdoor type of things as I had limited time and I was trying to find ways I can get things done at work. I also used the rug as one of my pictures and I am pretty sure I used mine for texture.

Project 2: I really liked the art and the pictures she chose for this project. I chose one of the same as her and that was Winter by Charles E Burchfield. We both were wondering why the artist decided to paint that winter scene and how it made it look a certain way. I did take pictures of a few of the ones that she had posted, but I chose not to use them. We both liked the same type of pictures, but I cannot speak for her as to why she liked them, but I just have a fascination with canvas painting.

The second persons who’s blog I chose was http://jayczuba.blogspot.com/

Project 1: When it came to the pictures that he chose had me very interested. He had gone to Disney in the past and used the pictures form that. The picture that he used for space and form really stuck out to me and made me wonder more about the pictures that I chose. I do feel that he had a better idea than I did when it came to the connections to the elements and principles and the connection to the pictures that he chose. I think that he did a very good job with it.

Project 2: James and I had only one picture the same and that was White Flag by Paul Fagerskiold. He thought the flag meant surrender, which it might, but I just thought it was a mystery. I was interested in this painting because of how it was made and what it might represent because in the description it said that it was a gift. I liked the pictures that he chose, but you can definitely tell that we have a different taste in the art that we like and that is completely okay.

I did like the pictures that my peers chose for their projects. The way James used his pictures from Disney and how Ashley used pictures from home really caught my eye. I liked Ashley’s because they were close to the things I chose and I liked James’s because they were farthest from that. I did like reading the things that my peers had to say about their projects. It was good to get someone else’s point of view on things when it comes to projects that I also participated in. I do find this very valuable and it gave me a better understanding on some of the art I chose.  

Art Gallery Visit

I went to the Albert Knox art gallery by Buffalo State for my visit. In these pictures you will see that I took a huge interest in oil on canvas. As i have been reading our book, I have become fascinated with painting again and find myself trying to find ways to get back into it and look at examples. 

These two pictures were very interesting to be because of how they were painted on canvas. I love the colors and how they show emphasize the meaning. The first picture is interesting. This is called the Silhouette, two sticks 2016 courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. The second picture was made by Mickalene Thomas also made on canvas and involves wood panel. I think I would like to learn more about the oil and enamel on canvas type of art work closely related to the second painting. I feel connected with the first painting because it makes me think about what It could potentially mean.

The first image by Charles E. Burchfield in 1927 Winter, is oil on Canvas. This painting I like because you can take a lot from it and really try and think about more than winter but why it has the things in it that it does. The way the street looks and the buildings leave a lot up to the imagination. In the second picture by Paul Fagerskiold White Flag 2013, is oil paint, sand, and gravel on canvas with a frame. This has outlines of the way the American flag looks but in white. It was a gift, but i feel like it is a bit mysterious.  Once again I am fascinated with the paintings on canvas mainly oil. The first picture is very interesting to me because of what it leaves for the imagination. I would like to know more about this because it is something that I am interested in and would maybe like to do sometime. 

In the first picture, Jim Hodges created the Marquette for loom and see 2004, This is interesting because I do not see a lot of things like this around where I live. Actually it was the only thing like it at the gallery. It stuck out not only because of how big it was, but that it was reflecting the sunlight so it kind of blinded me to catch my attention. The mini models are also shown in a little case near the door to go out and see it. In the second picture by Walter Gay Interior of Chateau du Breau 1910, is oil on canvas as well. This is something that I don't usually like because it is older. I like a lot of newer art mostly but this is interesting to me. Why have an empty room with no people all clean and set up. I mean why actually paint it. There must be a reason to it. I wouldn't know what it is and it being up to me to decide my take on it really interests me. I would like to know and see more of sculptures like the first picture because like i said i do not see much of it. 

I wanted to go to this exhibit, but it was sold out for the time I was there. I kind of peeked inside but i didn't get the chance to go in and get a better look. 

Logo

While creating my logo I found it a bit difficult to make one about my personality. This assignment really had me thinking what was important enough to incorporate into a logo that represented me. The first few drafts I created were things that I liked or that represented my name or heritage, but that is not exactly the way I wanted to go. I thought about the symmetrical balance that is needed to be so it looked correctly. This may or may not have worked out because of the type of logo I chose to use. I discovered that the element of color was something that made a difference and the type of figures or items that are put into the logo make a huge difference with making sure that it looks correctly. In the videos I was fascinated by how much work was put into making a logo look perfect for that company or product. Many drafts were done and re done to try and grasp the image that the company portrays. I never really realized how much different logo’s caught people’s eyes and how they provide information that company offers. Logos like McDonald's and ups were things that have changed overtime, but still emphasize the same thing. In the book, when they were talking about the Campbell’s soup and how it was painted on, this has changed thought the years but it still portrays the same image and the logo is emphasizing the same thing. This is the order that I created my logo drafts. I realized that I was going off of the idea of what a logo actually was. And I went back to my original design.

Value Scale and Color Wheel

Making the value scale, I never really realized how annoying it was to try and make a different kind of shade with a pencil. I honestly can't remember the last time I had to draw or shade anything. This was interesting thought because it is something that you don;t do every day and it can be helpful to those that like to draw.  When it came to the color wheel, I was very interested. Ever since I started reading the text book and looking at art, I have wanted to attempt to start painting. I only used to paint in school when i needed to and with my sisters when I watched them so this color wheel kind of inspired me to try a bit of different things. I loved learning about painting. The painting video was very inspirational because I did not know a lot of that information and with me wanting to learn more about paint it taught me a lot of things I needed to know. Videos like the painting and printing are videos a lot of people probably say that they don't need to watch because they know all of that type of information, but for me it was very insightful.  I would have to say that the most important discovery in this section of the class was learning about the different types of printing and how that all worked. It was very interesting especially  when I work in a printing store and never knew so much of this information. The videos were very interesting and useful for this class and was definitely the highlight of the module. 

Slideshow/blog

court2825ourt2825's library on Photobucket
I have tried many times to embed this into my blog, but it just wouldn't work. I watched the power point and tried it many different ways and still nothing, so this will have to do i guess.

I took these pictures because I am either at work or doing school work so why not take the pictures of what I deal with every day. I tried my best to connect the pictures to the elements and principles and I hope you understand where I am coming from with them, I had a bit of a hard time with this just because I am used to looking at the pictures in the book and trying to find ways to connect them to the pictures I was taking was a challenge for me. I watched the student sample and that was very interesting and I liked how it was connected to her life. I feel like a lot of those pictures were previously taken which is good and then transformed into this project. The way I did it was different and tried to create in away a picture that displayed the elements or principles.

Module 3

I am sure we can all relate somehow to color and the effects it may have on us. Like our text says some people will always relate the color reed and green to Christmas or pastel colors to Easter and so on, but there is more to it than that. On page 96 in the text it says " Color affects us on such a basic level that few would deny that we have a direct emotional response to it. The problem comes when we try and find universal principles, for we quickly discover that emotional responses to color are both culturally conditioned and intensely personal." With that being stated, I myself can say that I like colors mainly because I grew up liking a color someone else might have liked. Now I can think for myself and know what I like (purple to be exact) I can realize what colors mean to me. When i think of red or orange even yellow sometimes I think bout the sun or a fire to stay warm. That also pushed me toward family and the feeling of closeness. When I think of blues, greens, and black i feel cold and think of ice or water maybe even loneliness. 

Color properties stuck out to me. I always seen art with different shades of a color that eventually go to the darker version of that color or the opposite way. Tint is something that I used a lot when I was in high school either with watercolor paints ( I didn't do a lot of painting then) or colored pencil. The effect of shading really is nice while drawing which I did not really ever do, but I definitely like how it looked. 

The color video really showed me what goes in to planning a painting and getting the exact color that you want. I never painted something that the shade in particular made a huge difference, but it might have bothered me to the point I wanted to change it. In the beginning of the video showing how the wet plaster had the picture outlined for what the artist wanted to paint and that there was no way to change that after it was finished. When the paint is slightly dry they put another coat on to change the tone which was interesting. When we watched the woman (I forgot to write her name down) be able to splash water on get canvas and in a way fix what she didn't like, I really liked that. I never knew that was a thing that could actually be done. Colors really effected how she wanted her painting to be and it took her longer than I thought it was going to for it to be exactly the way that she wanted it. 

The feelings video was definitely interesting to me in many ways because I never really looked at the way other people might have viewed a painting and how it made them feel. I am always the one looking at the picture and usually I am looking a them alone so I never got someone else opinion. The renaissance and the pagan world had a lot of art that expressed feeling and in a way showed the depth of what they wanted you to see. The Popes Library with the Greeks on one side and Christianity on the other. These were once rivals i guess you could call it, but this shows a togetherness. This picture also displays space from our view or distance. The Mona Lisa is a very unique picture from this time period with the smile that clearly represents that she is human. The piece of art shows a compelling scene if individuality and at the same time possesses a mysterious glow. 


http://s1053.photobucket.com/user/court2825ourt2825/library/

While reading the CNN article and watching the two videos, I found a lot if things interesting. 

Some key concepts from the article:

-The brain seems to respond especially strongly to certain artistic conventions that mimic what we see in nature.

-The individual cells in the visual system that pick out the light-dark edges also happen to respond to lines. 

-Patrik Vuilleumier figured out that the amygdala, apart of the brain involved in emotions and "the flight or fight response", responds more to blurry photos of faces depicting fear than unaltered or sharply detailed images. 

-Artists often play with luminance in order to give the illusion of three dimensions, since the range of luminance in real life is far greater than what we be portrayed in a painting. 

-To trick the brain into thinking something looks three-dimensional and lifelike, artists and elements-lighting and shadows- that wouldn't be presented in real life but that trap into our hardwired visual sensibilities. 

The key concepts I chose I feel really gave me a better understanding of artists and the reason things are made and how the brain processes the images the eyes see. 

From Aesthetics: Philosophy of Art

-In the middle ages there was no aesthetics and the foundation for aesthetics were laid in 18th century England. 

-Plato mistrusted poets because he felt they often spoke about things that they couldn't know. 

-Neoclassical aesthetics is aesthetics of proportion, symmetry, harmony and order. 

-Fredrick Non Schiuer (i think is how his name is spelled) was apart of aesthetics education. This is designed to imbue students appreciation for and understanding for the arts. 

-In the 19th century, few would have doubted Romanticism was the last word in aesthetics. 

-Music embodies the will to live.

-The expression theory is the expression of emotion with expression and emotion defined in ways particular to the theory.

-Aesthetics is always linked to a society as a whole. 

From CARTA: Neurology and Art and Aesthetics

-The beginning of this video was very hard for me to hear and understand, but some of the things that I got from it was the 4 definitions that Changuex listed (art,distance language, aesthetic efficacy and art history)

-30 areas of the brain concern with visual processing

-Artists create hypro stimuli to help the brain process images. 

Aristotle was the philosopher who's theory on aesthetics that I feel is important. Aristotle (4th century BC) analyzed tragedy. He inferred scientific rules of composition-the three unity's-Action, time and place. Unity action is when each tragedy should represent a single action with no subplots. Unity of time is the time frame of the plot and that it should not exceed more than 24 hours. Unity of place is the action of the play should take place in the same location. 

Changuex and Ramachandran sure had an interesting view if aesthetics and art. Changuex  described aesthetics as a discreet mental synthesis if multiple parallel and distributed process. From external perception and from internal memories, stored emotion is the aesthetics experience.  Once you really think about this it becomes extremely interesting. 

The interesting fact from Changuex was when he said selection and storage of an efficient rule most often implicit for top-down restriction of the number of possible representations-creates style of the artist. 

Ramachandran had the eight laws of aesthetics. 1.Grouping 2.peak shift principle 3. Contrast 4. Isolating a single cue to optimally excite cortical visual areas 5. Perceptual 6. Symmetry 7. Abhorrence of unique vantage points 8. Art as a metaphor

The interesting fact that he stated was the point of art is to deliberate, exaggerate, alter the image in some way to provide pleasing effects on the human brain. 

The videos I think co inside with the readings. The videos give you a better insight into how the brain processes images and pieces of art that we see and how we might decide that it is something that we like or not.  The texts gave us an overall outlook on what the history of art is and the different philosophers had a part in history, but I think the videos gave us a better understanding of why and what philosopher believed. The videos did help me further understand the readings more as well as did the article. I personally would rather read and pull information from reading and be able to watch the videos and understand what I am watching.

Introduction to Blogging

Setting up this blog account was very simple due to the fact I had previously created one for another course. At first I did not like it very much and felt it was a waste of time, but it definitely became a huge resource when it came back to reflecting on the semester for finals. I do think more classes should have students create blogs to help reflect and understand things they might have forgot or over looked.

In this course I expect to learn about art in all aspects. I never really thought about the whole art history idea and how I can really understand and learn when,where, why and how art was created , I am pretty excited to learn more about the influences artists had and reasoning behind the art they created. I have previously taken a art history course at Niagara County Community College, but I can already see just from the outline of the course that this is going to be extremely different.

I have taken many online courses thought my college career, but I am a bit nervous because this is my first semester at Buffalo State and I am not used to how things flow here. I like to try and get ahead so I do not fall behind and the online courses really help with that because the information is always there to reference when needed, I am confident that I will be able to do my best in this online course and many to come.