Image Essay #9

M.C. Escher was master of figure ground reversal. Figure ground reversal creates another kind of force, the positive and negative shapes fight for attention. What happens is that, when joined, each shape competes with the other. One is at first relegated to mere background and is hardly seen, while the other dominates as an object. Then the reverse happens: the object fades perceptually away to become for a time mere background in its turn.

This piece by M.C. Escher is an above average example of figure ground. The white birds seem to be flying out of the white checkers and the background sky. But if you look at the black birds, they also seem to be coming out of the floor and sky also. The figure ground reversal is very evident in here because the birds are suppose to be in the foreground, but make there way to the background. When the figure and ground are equally well designed, every square inch of the image becomes engaged. It makes the piece more aesthetic pleasing to the viewer.

Blog Assignment #5: SUE COE

SUE COE Even though Sue Coe is not in education, she has contribute greatly to my field of study. She makes uncompromising demands. She demands to speak freely. She demands viewers go eye-to-eye with the equivalent of road kill. She demands unflinching openness in full view of painful contradictions. Coe opens up the areas of art that were not okay to teach, for example, when my parents were in school. Back then, people with an "open mind" were considered going against religion and society. Sue Coe helped to cut those strings, and open up the mind to new ideas that are now okay to draw and teach.

Sue Coe stands out in this field because she dedicates her art to influencing individuals to change the world. The subjects she has focused on include animal rights, the meat industry, racism, apartheid, the AIDS crisis, the Ku Klux Klan, and rape. Coe's work is also directed at oppressive working conditions. She creates politcal artwork that maybe not everone will agree with at times.

The thing that impressed me most about Sue Coe is her confidence. Sue Coe is a keen observer, a 'graphic witness' to realities more often overlooked or avoided. She created art based on subjects that she felt were not being adequately addressed by conventional news organizations. She was brave enough to contribute to each subject argument with her art.

Glancing at Coe’s work, she uses dominance in a unique way. Her elements seem to all come together to make one big element, therefore, being the dominant element. At first I did not understand why, but then I can see that she is trying to send a message. If she would make one thing bigger than the other, it may give off the message that one is more important than the other. Coe believes that each subject she uses is all important.
I have been very influencd not only by Sue Coe’s work, but her spunk also. I need to be more confiedent in my art work, even if I know it might cause controversies sometimes. I need to take more risks in my art, so that people remember who I am because of my risks. She creates artwork that isn't easily forgotten. That's her goal. She's spent decades depicting cruelties and foibles--not to shock but to educate, influence and, she hopes, inspire change.

Sue Coe may use rape, war, and death for her subjects, but her art pieces are colored with bright blues, greens, yellows, reds, and more. She uses emphasis on color. The irony that the viewer does not want to look at the piece beacause of the horrific subject, but Coe uses bright colors so that you almost HAVE to look at it. She also uses sketchier lines to address the human form. It makes the people look not so realistic therefor giving off the sense that the scene was made up.

Blog Assignment #4: Stories

STORIES:

1.Some important stories that are told in society today and will be passed on our national and local tragedies, and history. Some national examples are the 9/11 attacks, the holocaust, the Columbine school shooting, Pearl Harbor, and the war with Iraq. I can guarantee that the story about the holocaust will be passed down to future generations because the massive genocide was one of the biggest in history, and it did not happen too long ago. The stories from the Jews on their journeys to the concentration camps are horrifying to think that they actually true. The way they were treated and how may died is unforgettable.

2.I think some stories are told, as opposed to others because it depends on the people it involves and in what country. Usually the stories are retold because they are tragedies, and no one can forget the details. For example, I can remember the bad things President Bush did while in office, but I can’t remember any good. A lot of times also, stories are overlapped by each other. If more than one story or event happens in the same period of time, then the “greater” one would obviously be remembered better than the other. That is how stories are lost; other things happen that are more interesting.

3.The artists in Stories use sketchbooks in their artistic processes for many reasons. Richard Stare used a sketchbook to keep the eye and hand coordinated with each other. The eye is a muscle, the more you use it the better it will be able to see. Kiki Smith uses a journal to sketch her inside ideas. You first have to think inside what your idea is, and sketch that idea into physical form. It is a way to think. I believe sketchbooks are works of art because they contain your ideas that make your final piece of work. You make a rough draft before you write the final to your paper. So a sketchbook is a rough draft of your final piece of artwork.

4. I woke up early this morning because Dad needed help in the field. I still think 6 A.M. is way to early for a kid trying to enjoy their summer. I am usually awake when most of my friends are still sleeping, and I feel that I am missing my childhood. After I get out of the field about 2, I am going to take a shower, and then go play in the creek with Emily. She and I are making a secrete club house. We are going to eat the vegetables out of the field for food, sleep in the tree house, and bathe in the creek. That would be so much fun if it were real, but I guess we can keep on imagining it instead. I feel really tired right now. I wish I could sleep in one day. But I work Monday through Friday, wake up Saturday for the farmer’s market at 5:45 A.M., and then Sunday morning for church. Thats my life in one sentence. I wake up every morning wishing it was school time, that way I don’t have to work in the hot sun. I think that is why I love school so much.


Looking back at myself at age 15, I can see I was very hardworking for my age. I had been helping my dad every single day during the hot summer, while most people my age were taking trips to the beach or Cedar Point. I see that growing up, my childhood was filled with work instead of play, and when I did play, I used my imagination to feel that it was real. When I first realized this, I was kind of upset and mad that my family’s farm stole my childhood away, but then I realize that it made me who I was today. I am full of creativity and imagination that shows in my art today. I can use my experiences of my farm life in my artwork, that no one else can use or tell. I can only thank my father now for dragging me out of bed so early.

Blog Assignment #4: Place

ARTL: 21-PLACE

1. Do we define a place or does a place define us? I believe a place defines us. Places are jumping off points for our imagination. Environments provide refuge and inspiration for many artists. Places are what begins the piece of artwork, and makes it what it is. We work around the environment, the environment does not work around us.

2. How is each of the featured artists influenced by particular places? How is this influence reflected in the artist's work?
RICHARD SERRA: Serra creates sculptures shape and stretch steel like rubber, carving intimate moments out of public spaces. He invents a new way of posing elements. He enjoys the engagement between his sculptures and the viewer. "I was surprised that people who had absolutely no information about sculpture were able to enter into these pieces," says the Serra "The experience for them was fulfilling because, in some sense, it was startling, it was new, because they couldn't locate themselves." Serra's pieces are bug enough for crowds of people to be inside them, and not look out of them. These realizes the theme of not knowing where they are at.

SALLY MANN: The farm where Mann lives and works becomes a meaningful place as her inspired process of capturing it by photography. Mann was greatly inspired with Southern farm life, sensory, clothing, her children, and anything natural. A basic dog bone has become her focus for many of her photographs. She films them in ways and direct lighting that make the dog bone more meaningful.

MARGARET KILGALLEN: Kilgallen uses place more literally than the other artists. She focuses on her artwork on the place you are when you view it. She spends a lot of time trying to perfect her line work. When you are close up to her work you can see the line waver, but when you stand far away the line looks straight. This makes the artwork more beautiful to her.

BARRY MCGEE: McGee focus most of his art on urban inspirations by graffiti. Local train yards and outside places is where he is inspired most. He is amazed at the history of some of the graffiti on the train because each person who painted that has a histoy of there own also. When McGee paints inside he feels his art is contained by only certain viewers. If he paints outside, is limited to only people of the world.

PEPON OSORI: In Osori's work he is influenced by his Puerto Rican heritage and experience as a social worker inform his staged confrontations between public life and private spaces. He believes if you can not come into one of his rooms( his art), then you must at least reflect on it.

3. How has the program altered your notion of how art expresses a place? I have always felt we define a place till I watched this program. I thought we as artists influenced a place and made it what it is. But now that I look deeper I see that the place actually defines our art and defines us. The place was there before we were, it is only fair to let it define us.

4. Which artist do feel most connected to and why? I feel mostly connected with Sally Mann because she cradles farm life into her artwork. With me being born and raised on a farm all my life, I really connected with her photography of her children playing in the creek and the items such as the dog bone.

5. Compare the media used by each artist and discuss how it affects the scale, composition, and accessibility of his or her work. With RICHARD SERRA's work, he uses steel beams for his media. This allows him to make his sculptures as big or small that he wants, and bend the steel anyway that believes. His usage of huge beams allows the viewers to walk inside his pieces, allowing them to be part of the piece as well. SALLY MANN uses media that is around her such as her children, dog bones, or the lake in her photography. Photography allows her to make the viewer see things different ways by manipulate with the light. BARRY MCGEE's media of graffiti allows him to work in spaces that you aren't normally suppose to paint on such as trains and brick walls. With it being outside, anyone is accessible for everyone to view. Lastly, PEPON OSORI uses walk-in rooms and everyday items for his media. It allows people to feel as if they were actually there when they walk in it, and if they can’t walk in it, they should stop and reflect upon it.

6. When you were young, was there a place that interested you? List five places from your childhood and use one word to describe them.
a. creek: thinking
b. field: isolation
c. woods: exploration
d.playground: creativity
e. barns: scared

7.What objects occupy one place? huge trees, creek, poison ivy. weeds, wild flowers and strawberries, leaves, deer, birds, tadpoles, turtles, crawfish, tunnels, pathway
What are the textures and sizes of these objects? rough trees that are broken in piles, and holes in them, crunchy leaves, slimy mud
What was the lighting like? light through top of trees and reflection off of water, it was a happy place where you could forget all the worries in your life and just have fun

Image Essay #8

VALUE IN ART
Value is the lightening to darkness of a color. We use value to create three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional plane. Without value, the world would be flat, our bodies would be paper thin, and our artwork bleak and static. Painters will use Values to create a sense of space and form in their paintings. Having different Values give a work of art interest The viewer will look at a work of art longer if it contains elements that that will invite the human eye to look and excite their vision.

In this charcoal piece by Lita Dawn, she uses value to achieve realism and depth in space. It seems as though you are really watching a women sitting down on a bench reading. The bench looks so real that you could actually sit on that bench. If you glance at the value from the bench closest to you, and then follow your eye to the back where the building you should notice the value gets progressively darker. Artists use this technique to achieve depth and illusion of space within the piece. Quick changes from light to dark values are used to create texture such as the rocks on the ground, and the bark on the tree. Lastly, darker or lighter values are used to show an illusion of color. If you look at the trash bags in the trash cans, they are shaded very dark creating a sense of the color black. The light shade of value on the benches give a sense of the color white or maybe yellow to the benches.