Art Gallery Visit

The first art work is by Giacomo Balla, called "Dinamismo di un Cane al Guinzaglio" in 1871, oil on canvas. This art work made an impression on me because it is a picture of a dog on a leash and I love animals, especially dogs, and I really enjoyed viewing this painting for that reason. The second art work is by Joan Miro called "Carnival d'Arlequin" in 1983 using oil on canvas as well. This picture made an impression on me because to me it seemed the picture was all over the place and there were a lot of things going on in the picture and sometimes I feel like that is how my life is. It was interesting to me to try to follow the picture and figure out what was going on. The third art work is by Henri Matisse called "Le Musique" in 1869 using oil on canvas. I felt a connection with this picture because I really enjoy listening to music and learning about music and in the picture the two women and playing and listening to music. The fourth work of art is by Edouard Vuillard called "The Painter Ker-Xavier Roussel and his Daughter" in 1903 using oil on cardboard. I felt a connection with this work of art because I am very close with my father and it was nice to see a picture of father and daughter spending time together because I try to do this as much as I can with my dad. The fifth work of art is by Edwin Walter Dickinson called "An Anniversary" in 1891 using oil on canvas. I want to know more about this artwork because it involved a gathering of people who seem to be having fun and celebrating an anniversary but what are they celebrating? Where are they? There's a lot of questions I had after viewing this work of art. The sixth, and last work of art is by Stuart Davis called "New York Waterfront" in 1938 using oil on canvas. I would like to know more about this picture because it's kind of hard to make out what the artist is really trying to convey in this picture. The colors helped me to understand and picture a water front a little better and I can pick out a picture of a boat in there but I would like to know what influenced this artist to create this painting the way that he did. One of the main discoveries that I noticed as I walking through the art gallery was that a number of the works of art I viewed were made using oil on canvas.

Logo

I thought that creating my logo was actually a fun experience. It gave me an opportunity to think about ways to describe myself on paper. The process of creating my logo started out with a few sketches of a few things that I thought described me. For example, I am a waitress so for my logo I chose to draw myself holding serving tray. Then I also took some time to think about some other things that described me or my interests. After some sketches, I decided to draw a picture of my dog and a picture of my favorite designer purse brand because those are two things that are important to me. I love to shop in my free time and I also love animals so I felt that drawing those on my serving tray would make a good logo to describe myself. The most important discovery I made while creating my logo was that there are so many different things a person could draw to describe themselves. It was a little difficult at first to come up with some ideas for my logo but after watching the video, PowerPoint and reading the material, I began to have a better idea of what to draw. The reading material also helped me realize how important a logo is to companies. A logo must be unique or it won't stand apart from other companies.

Art Making/Material Exploration

1.I thought that creating the value scale with the charcoal was very interesting. It was interesting to see the different shades that a charcoal pencil could make. It was entertaining to mix colors together to create other colors. I have never really understood the meaning and reasoning behind the color wheel so after reading and watching the videos and actually creating my own color wheel, I learned a lot about how it works. 2.I liked working with the paint because I had fun playing with many different colors to create new colors. It’s amazing how many different colors can come from one base color. 3.What was the most important discovery in the creation of these studies? The most important discovery of these studies was that the only colors used were different shades of black and white and now the use of the color wheel has brought about the use of color, starting with the primary colors. Now there are many different colors used in today’s 4.The color theory video was very informational because it helped me to create my own color wheel. I wasn’t sure exactly how and where each color went and the video helped me to start the project. I also learned more about primary colors and why they are the primary colors. The video demonstrating how to create a value scale helped me to learn the correct way to shade and distinguish between lights, mediums and darks. The step by step instructions helped me to better understand how to create this value scale.

Color Theory and Emotional Effects

1. Specific colors can have cultural or individual links to other things in life, better known as symbols. For example, the color red symbolizes danger and anger but at the same time it can also symbolize joy or love. The color yellow indicates sickness or ill health but it can so also symbolize a warm sunny summer day. Only context can provides clues as to what a color's meaning is or what emotional impact it may have. People's emotions change as well as the meaning behind certain colors. 2. The theatrical aspect of color scheme is something that fascinates me. Monochromatic color schemes have a unifying effect and are created by changing the value of one single color. It is very interesting to me that by choosing two colors on the opposite sides of the color wheel you can create a complementary color scheme. I didn't realize that there were so many different color schemes such as a split-complementary color scheme which is created by selecting a color and two hues on either side of the original color. The last thing that intrigued me about color schemes was the idea of a triadic color scheme. This is formed by colors that form an equilateral triangle on the color wheel. Overall, it amazes me the color wheel can serve so many purposes. 3. I thought that the color video was very interesting and informational. Colors and art allow people to put their fantasies down on paper. Humans moods are always changing, as well as art and colors are always changing. What interested me the most was the fact that the color red seemed to be most used in paintings. Whether it was used as the color main or just an added color, this color seemed to be one of the first colors used to express emotions and feelings. The color red can have many meanings behind it. 4. The images and reasoning behind the images of the church in this video is what was most interesting to me. There were many theories about different religions and such back then so by seeing all of the works of art including the church was interesting because they were images of what artists "felt" happened or what they felt looked like.

Project 1

For this project, I drove down to Niawanda Park in Tonawanda with a friend and took a walk down by the water to explore the elements of art and the principles of design. I spent a great deal of time exploring all different objects that I encountered along the way. For example, for the principle of movement, I captured a picture of the moving water in the river. The picture I took captured the rippling of the water which added a really interesting effect. I also noticed a lot of "pops" of color around me. The picture I took to demonstrate color was a picture of a red car in the park parking lot that was surrounded by yellow lines, green grass, brown and green trees and a white house in the background. I also captured an awesome picture that illustrated the principle of emphasis. The picture consisted of a white bird feather peacefully lying on the ground surrounded by bright green grass. As I was on this walk and searching for examples of these elements and principles, I realized how art really does play into everyday life, especially nature. Every little detail I noticed related to these principles and elements in some way. Some pictures demonstrated a number of these things. I have walked through this park a number of times before but I never stopped to notice all of the little things that make it truly beautiful. This project helped to me realize and understand the reasoning and explanation behind all of the beauty that I was seeing. Art has a way of allowing something so plain to be so beautiful and interesting at the same time.

Module 2 Post

1.  Aesthetics-Philosophy of the Arts
-discuss different philosophers views on aethetics
-Plato was the first, main philosopher who set the foundation for ideas about beauty and ideas behind aesthetics.
-Aristotle focused on the art form of Tragedy. Tragedy became a very popular form of art during the 4th century due to Artistotle's theories.
-Francis Hutcheson focused on and believed that "morality" was the main idea behind aesthetics. He believed that humans have a sense of beauty and harmony.

CARTA Video
-Focused on the link between science and art.
-Changeaux focused symbolism and symmetry and also believes that artistic ability comes from genetics. He believes that works of art are human productions and are a form on non-verbal communication.
-Creation comes from ancestor, evolution over time
-Focused on the "bottom up processing of visual images"
-He concluded with a quote that I found very interesting and that stuck with me, the quote was "Art makes us aware of oneself as another"
-Ramachandran created and followed the 8 laws of art
-The part of his lecture that stuck out to me was when he said that every act of perception involved judgement. It made me realize that people do judge people on a regular basis even when they don't realize it.

Art and Neuroscience Article
-Focuses on how art is a "lie" that makes us realize the truth
-Describes how lines, faces, and color all add to the end result of artwork and how the brain interprets all of these aspects
-Demonstrates the meaning behind pieces of art work from the past. For example, the Mona Lisa.

2. As previously discussed in my video reflection, I feel that Francis Hutcheson's theory of Aesthetics was very important. He believed that morality was most important and I agree with him on that aspect. I had a difficult time choosing between Plato and Hutchenson because I think that both philosophers had very important views on aesthetics but to me, morality is a very important factor in life and in art,

3. Changeux and Ramachandran both had very educational views on the link between science and art. The importance of symmetry and symbolism was demonstrated throughout both of these lectures. Changeux focused more on how artistic abilities is genetic and changed and developed with evolution. As I mentioned earlier in the blog, I thought that the most interesting thing that Ramachandran stated was that every act of perception involved judgement. I learned a lot about how perception and art are linked and that's why art can be so different and mean different things to different people.

4. The videos and the article all related to each other in a number of ways. The main focus of all three information resources was Aesthetics. Another common aspect among these were why art is created and why it is important to create art. After reading and watching these videos and article, I learned a lot about why it is important to study art and that art is more than just "pretty pictures and structures". I also never realized how science and art are linked to each other and each of these information tools tended to reflect upon the different ways that those two are linked to each other.

5. I thought that the videos were both very educational. I really enjoyed reading the article because I felt like I could relate and understand it a little better than the videos. I found it interesting to learn about all of the different views on aesthetics and more about how genetics could have a lot to do with artistic abilities within individuals. Before reading this article and watching these videos, I did not know how complex art and the history of art was. The first video on aesthetics really gave me a better understanding of how art has changed as the centuries went on. I definitely learned a lot from module 2.