Gallery Visit

The first piece that impressed me was a bronze statue named Man Walking (Version 1) created by Alberto Giacometh. There was something about the way he was posed, I almost wondered where he was going and why he was so calm. I could almost feel the texture of the bronze, he looks successful and knowledgeable.

 

Nomad painted in 1963 by James Ronsenquist, American, born 1933, Oil on canvas, plastic and wood . This painting caught my eye. I love how it resembles a collage, all types of things from the 50s. This just had an advertising feel to it that I enjoyed. 

 

The Liver is the Cock's Comb 1944 by Arshile Gorky, American, born Armenia 1904-1948, oil on canvas. This painting seemed to grab hold of me. I'm not sure what the artist was trying to convey but I loved the colors and use of space that seemed to balance the piece. 

The Marvelous Sauce by Jehan Georges Vibert French 1840-1902 Oil on wood panel. This painting grabbed me and was the very first painting I took a photo of. I guess I feel a connection because I love to cook and want everyone to try what I am cooking. The colors in this are fantastic and the realism made me think I was looking at a photograph. It looks as though the Cardinal? seems to love the sauce but the chef doesn't think the Cardinal knows what he's talking about. The depth of the painting pulls you into the whole schene. 

 Neglected Lands  ca. 1900 by Francis J. Murphy, American, 1853-1921, oil on canvas. This piece almost looks like the cabin we use to own. It was run down but it was ours and that's all that mattered. The stream balances nicely with the trees. 

Hotel Lobby 1950 by Max Beckmann, German 1884-1950, Oil on canvas. Something drew me to this painting, I'm not sure if it was the darkness or maybe the fact that the man in the center seems so tall (I'm 6'8"). He looks alone and overwhelmed as though no one will help him. 

I love this next painting, Indefinite Divisibility 1942 by Yves Tanguy, American born france 1900-1955, Oil on canvas. When I first noticed it I thought immediately that it was a Dali. I would like to view other works by this artist. I love how imaginative it is and how there are no limits.The shadow of the two pieces draws your eyes to the background. Just a very cool piece. 

The Wolves 1913 by Frank Marc  German 1880-1916, Oil on canvas. I loved the sharp lines and angles of this work. The three wolves look like they are taking charge of some situation. Other than a sense of dominance I don't know what more there is to this painting. This piece just feels very strong, are the three leaders or vanquishers?

Tow-Path at Argenteuil ca.1875 by Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926, oil on canvas. This is a great piece, its a Monet and I just love his work. The two on the tow path looks as though they could have been strolling the Erie Canal right near my house in Lockport. I wonder if these were random people or maybe friends of his family. 

I really enjoyed my visit to the gallery. I decided to take my wife and daughter with me (7 yr old get bored easily). I haven't been to the gallery in about 3 years and I was a little disappointed. It seemed as though half of the museum was closed for construction but in all fairness they did give us free passes for a return trip some other time. I had a great time and viewing art with my family.

The Search for a Logo

This has to be one of the more stressful assignments yet. I had to look at myself and try to develop a logo that would describe me just by looking at it. Trying to describe yourself through an image was hard enough but to design something is what was really tormenting me. I thought about a few things when I went out to design my logo. I thought about my initials, MRF, my background, Irish, my interests, hunting, fishing, cars, guns, smoking cigars, the list could go on and on. When it comes to drawing I was pretty good at it when I was in my teens. I usually had no problem looking at a picture and copying it. The problem I always had was the creative end, for some reason my brain just isn't wired for creativity. I think I blame my mother for that one, the drawing skill came from the old man. I sketched out a few different ideas but they all seemed to revolve around a universal theme. Here are my attempts.

This is my first sketch, I liked the fish but I just couldn't seem to tie him in with anything.

The next two sketches were of my initials. I thought if I could draw them using some Celtic Font and maybe some sort of Rune behind them, that I would be satisfied..no go on those either.

I then decided to revisit the fish theme. I thought a fish catching himself, smoking a cigar with a clover tatoo. Yeah, it came close but wasn't going to cut it. He was cool looking but just seemed too busy.

Since I thought this one was too busy I decided to go simple and came up with the next sketch that actually ended up being my logo. This wasn't the last sketch but the one that I ended up using. I actually think this sketch ended up looking better than my final logo. Once I inked my logo there really wasn't anyway to go back.

 

I went back to my initials and just made up my own font and stuck it above a cigar. This again was my attempt at keeping it simple. I didn't much care for this one either. The thought behind it was big guy, big initials, cigar with a touch of Irish. It wasn't horrible but I finally decided on the previous sketch.

I tried to combine everything into this sketch. I left out the fishing but kept the cigar, pistol, Irish and initials theme. I tried to keep everything pretty balanced and included a little movement using the smoke.  I wasn't sure how to balance out the negative space between the clover and the smoke. As you can see, I'm not much for using color and shading. This is a rough process for me but I pushed on. My daughter decided to help herself to my colored pencils so what you see is a colored pencil/crayon hybrid. Looking back I should have rounded the clover leafs a little more to resemble the initial sketch. I think when I was drawing up the final logo I forgot to look at the sketch. 

I guess creating a logo wasn't as stressful as I thought.  The whole process was pretty cool and I took some cues from the videos that did help a bit. Adding the smoke at the very last minute was something that I took from the one video. I wanted to take something and give it movement.  Keeping it simple was another concept I learned along the way.  I actually enjoyed watching the videos, the creative process is great to watch. Taking an initial concept and moving along to an end result that for the most part didn't really look like the initial at all. The Marmite video was interesting, to think it took them months to come up with a new container much less a logo. Trying to keep a brand the same but updating  and modernizing it doesn't seem as easy as I thought.

Color and Value

1. Discuss what you thought about creating the Value Scale and Color Wheel.
I enjoyed working on this assignment, I haven't picked up a pencil in so long I don't remember. The paints were something entirely new, I think other than painting my living room that would be a first since 9th grade.

2. Which media did you enjoy working with the best and why?
I think I actually enjoyed working with the paint the best.  The colors are so deep and the paint was so easy to work with that I didn't have much trouble. The one problem I did have was the magenta, it was very watery and I think it was old.


3. What was the most important discovery in the creation of these studies?
Lets see, I discovered that I still can't shade for $@#!. I always had a problem with shading, everything ends up being too dark, charcoal is my nemesis.


4. What is the most important information you learned from watching the videos for this project? What is your opinion of the videos?
I had not idea about the primary colors. I remember from 2nd grade, probably working on the same project but starting out with blue, red and yellow. It amazed myself and my wife that the cyan, magenta and yellow were the true primary colors. I liked the videos but I thought the Value video could have used some more explanation about different pencils etc.

1. Describe Color and it's effects on emotions. Use the appropriate vocabulary of color in your posting.

Objects will always either absorb or reflect light. Color is the light that is reflecting off of an object. When light strikes a surface some is absorbed by the object and the light that is reflected back is the color that we perceive the object to be. Color has a big affect on emotion; the color of an object can make us feel a certain way about it. A person’s mood or the way they view symbols can be controlled by color. For example, the color red can symbolize danger/anger or also could portray the mood of love/joy. You could have two identical drawings but once painted could mean entirely different things. You can’t get away from color depicts the mood of any picture. Reds orange and yellows are considered warm colors and blues, purples and greens thought of as cool.

2. What is a theoretical aspect of color that most intrigues/fascinates you? Why?

I enjoy thinking about how colors have such a profound effect on how people view objects. The colors of a room can make people feel or even work a certain way. Red rooms can evoke aggression and hostility where as blue tones can make people more relaxed and agreeable. This could very well be why I picked a certain color for my blog.

3. In the Color video, what made the biggest impact on you in regards to color and it's effects on emotions?

Hearing about how Van Gogh was the first to use bold colors to express emotion was pretty fascinating. Van Gogh painted a small café which he believed was a horrible place “where a man can ruin himself”. Instead of just painting what he saw he used off colors of red and green that contrasted each other and gave off the mood that he was feeling about the café. He hoped that by doing this, the viewer would not only realize that this was a picture of a café but they would feel like they would never want to visit one.

4. In the Feelings video, what made the biggest impact on you in regards to color and it's effects on emotions?

In this video, Francisco Goya made the biggest impact. His use of dark ominous colors and shadows seem to make his work almost hellish. With this use of color there is no doubt about what he is trying to depict. Some of his works are very disturbing on their own but brought together with drab, fuzzy, dark color, they grab the imagination and bring out what is wrong with the world.

Elements and Principles of Design...

Starting to stress about this project early on, I took the elements/principles and tried to study them as best I could. It almost seems that there is at least one of these tools in everything around us. 

I decided to look for these objects around my own home. My daughter in the driveway set me on this journey, seeing her lying there drawing and having all her toys set up around her, it was just perfect. The video games I just stacked and attempted to fan them out into form. The bee bees were from my son's room, I set them into a glass bowl and zoomed in tight to obtain that shot. I know I wanted to use my dog for texture but trying to get her to look at the camera was a chore to say the least. I think she got tired of me following her around the house and taking her picture because she finally relented. 

I know everyone is looking at the grill and saying, why the heck does he have grass in there? I forgot to put the cover on my grill and haven’t used it for a month or so. I open it up and discover that some bird decided to make a nest. The grass was piled inside all the way to the top of the cover, so I just had to take a picture of it. I then had to clean the mess that was inside and around it (I cropped out what the birds left me around it) ha. The other photos were just things that I had hanging around. 

I had a good time going through the list and attempting to match the elements and principles to each photo. Here is the finished product:

Through my eyes. 

Philosopher's theroy on aesthetics.

1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts

This video conveyed many concepts about Aesthetics from philosophers such as Plato who had a low opinion of artists and poets, whom spoke about things they had no idea knowing about. Baumgarten, felt that art and beauty belong into middle ground between sensitivity and reason. He influenced Kant who thought sensitivity and reason are brought together by imagination. There are three ages within the history of art:

1. Eastern art is symbolic art, expressed through allegories.

2. Classical art, dates back as early as 500 BC.

3. Romantic art, material things are spiritualized and art is no longer needed to define human life in statues.

Twentieth Century art is full of innovation, dadaism, cubism, serialism and pop-art all changed the notion of art. The idea of beauty was nearly forgotten. At this time art did not have to be beautiful, almost anything could be conveyed as art. 

CARTA: Neurobiology Neurology and Art and Aesthetics

 

This video was about two scientists, Jean-Pierre Changeux and Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran.  

Changeux conveyed that both conscious and the non-conscious brain have an impact of how you view art (Aesthetic experience). The brain is so complex there is an explosion of possible representation in an artists brain. A piece of art has a restriction of combinations which restaint his possible representations which lends to what is known as the style of the artist. There are rules, acquired patterns of connectors stored in the long term memory.  These rules are:

1. Novelty, the constant search for the unanticipated.

2. Consensus Partium, the universal search for harmony.

3. The exemplum, the artist attempts to share his conception of the world.

4. Symmetry, aesthetics within the brain function similiar in both cases.

5. Empathy, art makes us aware of oneself as another.

Ramachandran discussed the eight laws of artistic experience:

1. Grouping or Binding, takes parts of a work that can be seen as a group, this gives a boost when we see the final picture.

2. Peak shift Principal, taking what makes a work unique and exaggerating it.

3. Contrast involves eliminating redundant information and focusing attention.

4. Isolating, Isolating a single visual cue helps the organism allocate attention to the output of a single module, less is more.

5. Perpetual Problem Solving, the very act of searching for a meaning in art which is more pleasing ot the eye, rather than the art just shown.

6. Symmetry, this can be found in other species throughout the world.

7. Abhorrence of unique vantage point and suspicious coincidences. The brain likes a generic viewpoint.

8. Art as metaphor, a mental tunnel between two concepts that appear grossly dissimilar on the surface, but instead share a deeper connection.

 

2. Which philosopher's theory on aesthetics do you feel is most important? Be sure to mention the philosophers name, era (time in history), and contribution to the aesthetic theory in your response.

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher around the end of the 18th Century.  I feel Kant’s theory about aesthetics was most important.  Kant states that sensibility and reason are brought together by imagination and anything can be presented as beautiful. The only thing that cannot be beautified is the disgusting.  Disgusting cause’s pain, therefore beauty cannot happen.  He felt that there is no exact science as to why something is beautiful. The artist is not just a skilled craftsman but a super sensitive individual.

3. What do you think about Changeux and Ramachandran scientific view of aesthetics and art? What was the most interesting fact you discovered from each speakers lecture?

I liked their views on art; I guess because I am an Engineering Major and seem to favour the left side of my brain.  Changeux had a great point, that the conscious and non-conscious parts of your brain have an impact on your aesthetic experience.  Ramachandran was probably my favorite of the two videos, his form of lecture was enough that I would probably listen to more that he had to say. I liked that he expressed the goal of art is to manipulate, distort and image in some way to produce pleasing effects on the brain. It is not to convey a realistic picture.

4. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

The two scientists give their view of aesthetics but from a scientific point of view rather then philosophical.

5. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the topics in your reading?

The first film although very informative was also very boring, it was tough to listen to. I had an easier time following the second film, especially Ramachandran. They both seem to bring  the actual science and explain how the brain physically looks at aesthetics rather than the philosophical aspects.