Expressionism vs. Cubism

     I chose these two videos because I like to learn about the different styles of art rather than about the artists themselves. I wanted to learn about how each movement changed people's ideas and thoughts on artwork. In the video of expressionism, I learned that artists emphasized mainly on color to express emotional properties of humans and environment. Also, lines gave off several emotions depending on how they were being used. For instance, in the portrait "Ashes" the wavy hair on the woman's head made her look like a predator, almost like Medusa. In the video of cubism, I learned that Pablo Picasso and George Braque were among the first creators of the movement. Cubistic artist used lines and shapes in an abstract format to create human characteristics in a non-human form. In the text, they also describe how Picasso began this movement and how critics felt about this movement and style.

Burchfield Penney Art Center

   During my recent visit to the Burchfield Penney Art Center, I was super excited of seeing Philip Burke's exhibition. The theme of his exhibit was called "The Likeness of Being" was based on a play on Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. According to the artist, it is about the deeper aspect or the spiritual aspect of what he was trying to do.

     As you was around the East Gallery of the center, you noticed the edgy, white walls where the artworks were mounted about 6-8 inches apart in a perfect alignment. The hardwood flooring gave warmth to the bright, white room, and the edgy walls popped out making you turn at every corner to find more brilliant works. There was a specific part where the room became circular and gave space to the environment. All of the works were on canvas, and they were labeled with his signature and date of creation.

     For the most part, each work was similar in the aspect of how it was presented, and the media used. His use of caricature and abstract expression was exhibited through every portrait. However, each one illustrated a different person in our pop culture and how their personalities are shown through their physical features. Here are my top three favorites by Philip Burke:

Philip Burke. Joey Ramone; oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

I love the Ramones, so this was definitely a bias critic. First of all, the lines and colors totally capture Joey's punk rock edgy personality and high spirit. The shapes of his eyes, nose, and lips are completely non-realistic and exaggerated.

 Philip Burke, Neil Young; oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

Neil Young was an interesting celebrity to capture; his rough and aged face his definitely portrayed in this painting. The timeless musical legend holding his guitar in all these vibrant colors shows the power of his music.

Philip Burke. George W. Bush; oil on canvas, 36x36 inches

First of all, the fact that Burke painted Bush with his mouth open is enough of an analysis of Bush's personality. The red background symbolizing the urgency or power Bush portrayed is enough to know he is interpreting all of his political aspects through physical queues. Making the head bigger than the usual proportions definitely symbolizes the high-power of his political term. 

     In this project, the biggest part about it was analyzing the environment rather than the artwork itself. It was definitely an unusual experience in the sense that I don't normally walk into an art gallery to check out the architecture and schematics of the room while there is a ton of beautiful works of art surrounding me. It defeats the purpose of appreciating the artists' works when you're admiring the hardwood floors or light fixtures on the ceiling. Sure the environment plays a role on how you perceive the artwork; however, in my opinion, it's not something I detail on a regular basis.  

Mask Making

From the Internet searches, these are the three masks that inspired me to create my own mask. The first mask (the circular mask) has two circular cut outs for eyes and a half circle for a mouth. These objects give shape to the mask which represents each body part of the face. The second mask (the golden masks) have a more in depth cut out of the face; however, it leaves the bottom half of the face exposed to show our mouths in motion. The third mask ( the colorful animal mask) shows an unrealistic representation of an animal with vivid colors. These colors express a powerful energy which give off excitement or being ecstatic. Even though these three masks helped me create a standard shape for my mask, I still didn't feel like it represented me. So I incorporated my own qualities to it to create the "day of the dead" mask.

     When creating my sketch, I thought of different elements that represented who I was. First, I created the diamond shapes for my eyes to represent the glory I see in life. The circles around the eyes gave depth to the eyes. The lines and dots not only showed where the eyebrows are, but it gave rhythm to the mask's symmetrical design.  the shading under the eyes made the "cheek bones" pop out, as well as the dark shadings on the sides. The flowers symbolized my peppy outlook and personality.

     And vuola! This is the final piece. The colors I chose are a mixture of strong, vibrant colors and neutral. The neutrals symbolize my independence from single-minded options. The pink flower on the forehead swirls clockwise representing time. The orange flower... well I LOVE orange so I had to add a little bit of me to it. It was pretty awesome making this mask, and it was only made with recycled cardboard! I can't wait to make one a little bit more sturdy for a masquerade party!

Exploring Lines

In my experience, I am terrible at drawing hands! Every time I had to draw a person I would either draw them hiding their hands or hand-less. This project really made me focus on the small details on my hands. I was so fascinated with the tiniest lines in each wrinkle or print that I couldn't even begin to duplicate it on paper.

I decided to use pencil not only because it is easier to control with both hands, but because if I made a mistake I could easily erase it. Drawing with my non-dominant hand (my left hand) was the funniest and most intense task I've had to due in a while. Even after all the concentration that went into it, the drawing came out terrible. Multitasking was not an option at all. The smallest things threw me off and I'd have to erase and start over.

Looking at the two hands, the results of my studies are simple: I am not ambidextrous! Drawing with my right hand, or my dominant hand, was effortless and I could do and think about more than one thing. I could even focus on smaller details that we take advantage of on a daily basis. drawing with my non-dominant hand, however, made me focus on just the general picture and making sure that it just looked human-like. I would definitely consider practicing painting with my non-dominant hand in the future to create an abstract, or non-realistic, image.

El Greco and Velazquez

There are two key reasons for me choosing the following artists: El Greco and Velazquez. One, these are two artists I was not familiar with and wanted to study them more. Two, the minute I found out their styles were to paint Spanish artworks, I was thrilled! I love Spanish and European Renaissance art. It's elegance and poise truly shows how there was a huge enlightenment in that time era.

Velazquez, according to the video, was a very well educated artist who did things at his own leisure. It would take him years to complete one paining, and he much rather have painted reality than mythology. El Greco was highly popular in Spain for his paintings that were religious in nature. His works from this period are seen as precursors of both Expressionism and Cubism. Both artists, being from the renaissance era, were very interested in observing the natural world and painting it as accurate as possible. Their religious symbolism stemmed from the Byzantine style.

These videos were small but detailed examples of artists in this time period and what inspired them to paint their works. The imagery definitely gives you a feel of how all these artists blossomed from the enlightenment. Both artists bloomed during a time when King Phillip III was in power, and they depicted life in that point in time.

More Human Than Human & The Measure of All Things

     In the Video "More Human Than Human", we learn the reasoning behind why humans are so obsessed with the human body in art. Also, we learned why we are so in awe when we see the human body in distortion. One theory explained by the video was how societies view structure. For example, the Egyptians run in an organized and strict society. If you look at all the Egyptians' drawings of the human body, they are all almost identical in form. This is because each form of the human body fits a distinct grid patter that align perfectly. Also, the images are distorted because they emphasize the important parts of the human body in the most important angles. Here is an example of the grip system they use to draw out the human form:

     Another idea they came up with is how many humans exaggerate the most important parts of the human body they think are the most important or the most significant to that person. For instance, if there is a sculpture or drawing of a person, and the head is ten times bigger than the rest of the body, this might be a representation of how the artist felt the brain was the most important part of the body. This video gave depth to the textbook about the workings of the minds of humans when creating these images of the human body.

     I chose the video "The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure" because Greek art, science, and philosophy has always intrigued me. Their logical way of thinking is simple and pure. In this video, they are explaining how Ancient Greeks were trying to deviate from the Egyptians two dimensional human view and started moving towards art that is three dimensional, and more human like. They incorporate all human features and emotions into the sculptor to make them look almost life-like.  Both these videos were truly helpful in understanding why so many artists have adopted the idea to create the human body through art in their own distinct ways.

     

Video Review

     I chose the video "Prairie Style" because I have actually visited one of the Frank Lloyd houses before and wanted to learn more about his general thought process during the creations of all his architectural plans. Towards the end of December 2014, I visited the Martin house complex right here in Buffalo, NY. Here is a picture of my fiance, godparents, and I in front of the complex:

A few key points I learned in this video was that his main focus when planning these houses was to make everything horizontal. The horizontal construct was to purposely make us look around and take in all the natural elements made in our surroundings. This video helps give substance to the article on page 305 on Frank Lloyd Wright and not only explain how he created the houses but showed images of the houses to give viewers an idea of what it meant to build horizontally. Wright helped many other architects get out of that single-minded way of building box-like houses and add more open space for natural light.

     I also chose to watch the video "Last Call For Planet Earth." This video was all about sustainable development and the awareness of our planet's global warming problems. They talked about how us as humans seem to forget that this planet does not have eternal supply and we are very limited on resources; however, we consume double the amount we should and don't giveback to our planet. Architects are finding several ways of using renewable resources and energy when creating their structures. I chose this video because I recently read the story "The Lorax" to my pre-k children and it reminded me of the morals and values we should be teaching our younger generations about taking care of our planet while evolving and finding new ways of inventing without leaving a huge footprint in our planet.