Final Blog Post

For my artwork, I used Photoshop to mimic Sascha Braunig's techniques. Many of Braunig's pieces use oil and paint, but appear as if they were created digitally and that is why I chose to use Photoshop for this assignment. Her pieces use human figures and alter them through the use of color, texture and layering to create an unsettling feeling about normal attributes to humans. In a similar way, I used different line patterns to disguise and alter the basic human features of lips, hands, and feet. Braunig does not portray her work in sequence form and connect the pieces. However, I did this to show a new way to counter her work and add progression to it. The colors that I used helped to connect the pieces. As the pieces progress, the colors fade and gradually dull making the human elements less and less obvious and more and more ambiguous. I think that the portrayal that I used to present my pieces in a different way than Braunig typically does, highlights the unsettling feeling that Braunig aims for in her pieces.
I enjoyed working with Photoshop throughout this semester. In high school I took a digital art and design course where I got an introduction to Photoshop. With the work that we did throughout this semester, I was able to build upon the Photoshop skills that I acquired in high school. I have since been able to apply some of those skills to my work study position as a creative assistant for Messina.

I think something that could be approved upon for this class is clarity. There have been times where I was unsure of homework or what we were supposed to do for a specific project. Most notably, I never knew when we had blog postings due. Creating a guideline syllabus that covers the entire semester in the beginning of the year may help to clarify some of these issues as well as reminders at the end of classes.

On April 20th, I attended the "2017 Annual Student Exhibition" that was held in the Julio Fine Arts Gallery at Loyola University of Maryland. The exhibition showcased various students work from sculptures and African Art to drawings of pets. My favorite wall in the exhibit was the one that featured the drawings of dogs, insects, and a cat with wings.

On this wall that cat really stood out to me because of the imagination and the thought process that went into the creation. Many of the other drawings on this wall depict the animals as one would see them. The cat, on the other hand, has been altered from a realist depiction and has taken on a new character. The black and white coloring along with the appearance of a pencil sketch also made the cat stand out to me as opposed to the other images on the wall.

Light City at Loyola

On Tuesday, April 4th, I attended Light City at Loyola University of Maryland. At Light City, various students works were highlighted throughout campus using projection screens. The students' works ranged from various techniques such as moving images replicating outer space, to photo editing to make a video collage of a girl's face. Heading into McManus Theatre I put on a glow necklace and bracelet as well as a flashlight ring and entered the theater which had become mystified with flashing lights and an illuminated tree on the stage. Not sure if this was random students or if it was a planned performance but as I was in McManus Theatre a group of students went on to stage and using their light rings, glow necklaces, bracelets, and sticks the students performed a light dance. Check out some pictures and videos that I took at the event to see more of what happened.

Post Modernism

• "No longer is there one morality or myth or ritual or dance or dream or philosophy or concept of self or god or culture or style of art that predominates."
• Art placed into three cultural periods (Realism, Modernism, Postmodernism) and compared from one period to the next. 
• Art focused on consumerism rather than addressing social problems.
• Mass Communication
• "Images no longer bear any correspondence to the "real" world - but create their own hyperreality."
• More real than real

Escaping Flatland Reflection

This piece confused me quite a bit as I struggled to grasp the concepts and examples provided by Tufte. Using examples such as a travel guide and frog I was able to somewhat understand the idea of escaping flatland, in which artists attempted to have their images appear two or three-dimensional rather than as flat pieces on a page. However, where I got lost was when he began to talk about Galileo, the sunspots, and geometry. Working to earn a Bachelor of Arts, I am not a science or a math person. This made it difficult for me to grasp the concepts that Tufte was trying to get across and left me confused at the end of the piece. I took Introduction to Universe last semester so you would think that would help me in understanding the concepts but it did not. From the understanding that I did gain in this topic, it was the idea that we can turn a life image into a one-dimensional design on paper, but we can then turn that one-dimensional design back into a four-dimensional design. Like I said I struggle to follow the message of Tufte so I am not sure if my understanding of the piece is accurate and I was left with much confusion and unanswered questions when I finished reading.

The Color White

Table, Poster Board, Computer Paper, Paper Towel

Victoria Secret Digital Ad Remake

"All New Body" a twist on the controversial add from Victoria Secret. I combined different characteristics from various Victoria Secret adds such as color scheme and text.

Original Ad:

John Berger Reflection

The first thing that stood out to me in this article is the concept, "The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled." This made me really have to think and caused me to look back at my own life with some questions. There is so much validity in this statement, it reminds me of a quote that my history teacher always used to say, "The more you learn, the more you realize you do not know." The human mind is designed with curiosity and we seek to learn more and more and seek for answers everyday. However in seeking for answers more questions arise that we cannot answer. So can the connection between our mind and sight ever be settled. Probably not and as frustrating as it may be is is something that we may all have to accept.

The other concept with in this article that stood out to me was the idea of art changing over time. It is crazy to think of how one thing can represent a certain ideal in the present but as time progresses to the future it can be manipulated into something that the artist never intended its use. "The art of the past no longer exists as it once did. Its authority is lost. In its place there is a language of images. What matters now is who uses that language for what purpose." We cannot go back in time and talk to renowned artists of the renaissance or romantic period and ask them the meaning behind their work. Instead we use the knowledge we have to infer the meanings that the artist intended. However with political agendas, and misled information, we can be led to read the work incorrectly and will never be able to determine the true answers.

Baltimore Museum of Art

While at the Baltimore Museum of Art three pieces in particular stood out to me; Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Bibémus Quarry by Paul Cézanne, Head of a Woman by Alexei Jawlensky, and Chur by Sascha Braunig. From the section focused on modern art, I would like to focus this post on Chur. 

Using concepts that we are currently practicing in class, Chur uses the repetition of the same line to form an image that entices the viewer. While observing Chur in the museum I envisioned the piece as a brain centered on a background of the pattern that shaped the brain (I know that's kind of a confusing explanation). However when I went back and reexamined the image for the purpose of this post I saw a face in the construction of the object that I originally viewed as a brain and this captured my attention.

In class we looked at pieces from famous artist who were able to manipulate pieces to depict different objects. However, seeing this tactic first-hand was a much different experience than looking at the pieces on the computer. I was amazed, and thought it was interesting to get to see  first-hand different techniques expressed in class.

Visibility Reflection

Visibility distinguishes between the two types of the imaginative process. The first type starts at the word and arrives at the visual image. On the other hand, the second type starts with the visual image and arrives at its verbal expression. Writing or reading would be an example of the first type. For example, first you use the words and place them in a way to create a visual image that the reader creates in their head. Cinema is also a form of the first type. In cinema the director first establishes his/her ideas and writes them on the page and they are later turned into an image as the film is produced. The second type is a little bit harder for me to place. In one hand the visualization and creation of art could be an example but I think that the creation often begins with a word in mind. However, as an observer looks at the art they first see the image and then associate it with verbal expression to give the piece meaning.

"The Whole Ball of Wax" Reflection

"Art is a cat." A combination of very simple words to create a quite complex phrase. Still not entirely coherent in what the phrase means, I can piece together the idea that art is not as clear and communicative in it's pieces as a dog's behavior.

Always hearing about the complexity of art growing up, I never took the time myself to look into it. I have had history teachers pull up art pieces and ask the message behind it and by the end of the discussion they would always tell all of the students that we were wrong and would then tell us the "correct" meaning of the art piece. But is there one mean behind a single art piece? After reading Jerry Saltz, "The Whole Ball of Wax" I have now become skeptical of the previous understandings that I have come to know. "Art is often political when it doesn't seem political and not political when that's all it seems to be." So were the pieces that I was taught to be political actually political, or were they composed of an entirely different meaning? A question that I may never know the answer to, I look forward to further learning in this class and gaining a better understanding of the changed that is inspired through art.