Happy November!

Last week in class we learned about literacy. We opened with the movie The Reader. It really opened my mind about how the image of her being literate meant so much to her. Living in such a free and educated culture, we tend to take the "simple" act of reading and writing for granted. I learned that there are 4 different kinds of literacy. Text, visual, networking, and educational literacy are actively used by all of us. We watched video of Gerbner who talked about the influence of visual literacy on our generation. Today everything is being replaced with images, sound, and technology. Hardly any reading or physically writing is necessary. Interaction and speaking verbally is rarely needed either. Literacy is something that we are all lucky to have and don't put it to use until we are asked to. Reading and writing is becoming more and more abbreviated everyday. Our minds are too full with media and images for them to be thirsty for novels, poems, or fantastical stories. The other night I decided to turn off all the noise and busy stuff that usually distracts my multi-tasking brain and read a bunch of poems by Shel Silverstein. I realized how absent imagination and wonder has been from my head. I used to read so much more and now feel inspired to get back in to it. It led me to drawing a wonderful picture that I will post! So great class! I feel recharged!

Upside Down

Last week in class we discussed how the class should be run, and the lack of discussion we've been having. I agree that there is way too little discussion. Personally for me it is hard to pay attention in an art class that is mainly about reading and discussing. I thought it was going to be an art class where we were learning to draw or paint, and not write about art. Also meeting once a week tends to put the class in the back of my mind as hard as I try to not let that happen. Blogging is also something very new to me and remembering to do that isn't very natural. For the art projects I think we came up with a good amount of expectations and a good rubric to follow and totally approve of us grading each other. I think this will get us to focus a little more. As far as drawing last week, I loved it. I got a kick out of realizing how hard it is to draw once you realize you're not just drawing a series of lines in a row of boxes. I actually loved the way my drawing turned out and so did my friends. I really do wish this was more of an interactive art class. It's hard to read this art book because it vaguely talks about artists and we are supposed to compare and contrast them based on a few paragraphs and it's boring. As much as I have a passion and intrigue to art I am finding it harder and harder to sink my teeth into this book. I really need to get back on track with the readings, but I am curious to know if anyone else is having this problem.

Life Sin Electricity

Our first and last art project was assigned last week to challenge us to go from dusk to dawn without electricity of any kind. Living in a world where everything is powered by electricity this seemed much more daunting than it actually was. I got all of my studying, texting, facebooking, and driving out of the way before the sun set. I stayed so busy and went on a long run to ensure that it would be easy to fall asleep. To be safe I lit a few candles I found around the house to give me some light to draw and read. Not only was my cozy room filled with the scent of autumn harvest and vanilla orchids, the romatically dim area inspired to draw freely. Sitting in such beautiful silence allowed me to doodle whatever images or thoughts popped into my head without the scrutiny of bright lights. I am all about some alone time but with the use of so much electricity this was really alone time. Time to be completely submerged in my own feelings, ideas and imagination. I had a great time and was shocked that I didn't just sleep for 12 hours. This project made me feel inspired enough to consider doing this more often with changing variables and posting the artwork, writings, etc. that I come up with during that time. I might have to use electricity just for music though because that would create a whole other experience that I feel would be incredibly healing and fruitful. For anyone who just slept the entire time I would really recommend trying to meditate or draw by candle light in the silence. You will be surprised what comes up when you silence everything around you.

Mad Love for Graffiti

The graffiti movie last week was rad! I love graffiti art and have a few friends that are artists out in LA. I think it's a magical thing to be able to color the black and while urban world we live in using something as simple as spray paint. The documentary we watched was fascinating. I have watched other documentaries that highlighted artists that were in this video. I loved the color schemes of the graffiti and the acceptance of it in Sao Paolo. I thought it was all so beautiful and truly "wall art". I am not as interested in just looking at tag artist work because writing a name over and over is so repetitive. Artists adopt characters and little stories with their work to cover up the blandness of broken down buildings and walls is much more impressive to me. I really wish in Southern California we were more tolerating of graffiti art, living in such a cement society. I view the world as a canvas and all who inhabit it should be free to color it however they choose, be it with architecture, music, billboards, or graffiti. I do not agree with vandalizing personal properties or places of authority and meant for privacy but the areas the public pays taxes on to keep running are technically "ours" so who is to say we cannot paint some life into it?

The Razor's Edge

Last week we watched a large portion of the movie The Razor's Edge and I feel simply inspired. I have been wanting to take a journey of self discovery and say F&$# the "blue print" of the typical American dream. I loved what party of the movie we watched and made a netflix account just so I could watch the entire thing. Performance art really intrigues me and Marina Abramovic took my breath away. Her mental and spiritual freedom is something that I admire and wish I could acquire. I was fascinated by her interactive performance with the weapons and forms of pleasure/pain as well as the level she was willing to go to to test real people. I find week by week I am relating more and more to the art we are learning about and it is exciting to be in a class I feel so connected to. I am looking forward to the next lesson, and watching the Razor's Edge in full!

Missing the Potluck

Unfortunately I was sick for class last week. I so wish I could have been there for the potluck but even more so for the video blogging. It looks like a fun way to get your ideas out there and connect with people in a more personal way than always writing. Reading through Chapter 3 has opened a whole new interest for me in art. I love reading about the different ways to create detail in art besides just drawing on paper or painting on canvas. There is so much art that fascinates me, it's overwhelming to keep track of all the favorites. I love the work of Jacob Lawrence and Kathe Kollwitz because of their stories and motivation for expressing their struggles through beautiful art. To me that is what art is all about. I am excited to watch all the videos from last week and hopefully get some tips on how to do one on my own!

The Styles and Beauty of Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is my favorite so far. Learning about all the styles of art is truly fascinating. I have realized what an interest I have in paper drawings and etch work. To get more involved with specific examples I analyzed the work of Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Durer. 

Leonardo with a genius mind, and brilliant imagination was an introverted artist. There was not a whole lot of finished work done by Leonardo. The Last Supper being the most famous done for King Louis of France, he focused primarily on drawings. He sketched often of natural science, and used a lot of movement. While Chapter 3 discusses different forms of drawing he drew on paper. He sketched free hand and wrote a Treatise on Painting. He took hundreds of notes on things he saw in the natural world, simply walking around. In his treatise he suggests approaching art with a scientific mind,“... there is such an infinite number of forms and actions of things that the memory is incapable of preserving them...”. 

Being from almost the exact same time period, Albrecht Durer, had the same upbringing and scientific mind of Leonardo, however was a print artist and less of a drawer. Durer was not as introverted as da Vinci, and was prideful in himself as an artist. Albrecht emphasized in wood engravings and etching. His detail, and fascination with perfection and ideal beauty makes the prints exquisite. Like his fellow artist he ended up teaching art in a scientific way.

Both artists living during the same time and having very different personalities enjoyed the perfect and beauty of natural art in the same way. Their genius minds made art especially interesting. They both found a way to take their complex minds and put all their thoughts and ideas into very different art. “For from many beautiful things something good may be gathered”.

Two very different artists in Chapter 3, are primarily oil painters. Their styles are much more contemporary than the previous two painters. Living much more recently than both Durer and Leonardo, Jacob Lawrence and Kathe Kollwitz have many more differences than just their eras. 

Jacob Lawrence in a Harlem Renaissance artist that blossomed just as that period had reached its peak. Coming from a very poverty stricken family, Lawrence’s paintings had very deep themes. He painted in more series than single paintings using tempera which is a mixture of oil paint and water color. He surrounded his paintings with his personal experiences growing up in Harlem and his hardships being African American. They typically had very lengthy titles and a lot of narrative content, with very powerful violent images. He was a pioneer in the social protesting or reporting as fans would call it. Rather than a normal sketch or perfected drawing he had a contemporary spin to his figures.

Kathe Kollwitz, a female artist, was a pioneer of her own in the art world. She was less of a color artist and loved black and white. Like Lawrence, Kollwitz focused on specialized struggle between mothers and their children, cruelties of war, death and hardships for women during the civil war period. Unlike Lawrence, she was much more of a draftsman and focused on etching and woodcuts. She had much more of a political reason to do art. “I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate”. She spoke out for women during a male dominated time, just as Jacob Lawrence spoke out for impoverished African Americans during the same time. 

While having different motivations both artists had similar looking works of art with the same messages. With less precision and more meaning these two artists took more of my interest than both Leonardo and Durer