"Analyze That!"

For this analysis I chose Monet's Garden from Jessie Manzer’s Blog.

The orthogonal lines of this particular art converge at a vanishing point outside of the piece because from the artist's viewpoint the garden is seen from the lower left angle. The evenly planted rows of iris take the eye from bottom left to upper right towards the pond or lake. It is almost as if the iris are planted all the way up to the body of water surrounded by perpendicular trees and greenery.

The natural light shining onto the garden tells us that the sun could be either rising or setting at this time of day. Monet worked in the plein-aire style so as to view and paint colors as they appeared at the time of painting.The scale of the iris are larger in the lower half (front) of the picture and become smaller with details of plant construction almost disappearing. This demonstrates how mature the garden is. It is not a new planting as the iris are tightly compacted together.

There is a hint of a horizon in the upper quarter of the picture where the water meets the greenery. The horizon is then overlapped by a bend of the water line with it's own greenery. This provides a sense of spatial depth or space to the painting.

Natural light also defines these colors as well. By adding white to the flowers' color (hue) Monet tints varying hues indicating to us that the sun in shining. To create darker shades he adds pigments of black to indicate shadows where the sun is not. These flowers contain the cool colors on the color wheel as they fall within the "green through violet area" (p.133, text)

Due to the sweeping brush strokes (expressive line) this created a kind of textured look which was not at all like the smooth paint strokes of other traditional artists. Although a true textured look with paint is defined as layer upon layer; Monet's sweeping, expressive style has that kind of appearance. There is barely any indication of motion so the painting gives the viewer a calm and relaxed feeling which is why I have a preference for these types of paintings.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.monetalia.com/paintings/monet-irises-monets-garden.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.monetalia.com/paintings/monet-irises-monets-garden.aspx&h=387&w=450&sz=113&hl=en&start=29&tbnid=VJORvheMuLJrEM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMonet%26start%3D18%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Analyze This!

http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/gallery/gallery.html
Grandma Moses

Light and Color

These three pictures were taken before, during and just after sunrise.

Natural light helps us to define spatial relationships. In the photo where the home is enshrouded in moonlight alone the house is subdued. The color is not clear to the eye nor is the surrounding area. Details are not readily available. You cannot tell where the driveway is or that there is a beautiful panoramic view of most of Grass Valley.

(Yes, we can see downtown, the new hotel, Safeway and the Del Oro etc.... For nine years we have had a perfect view of the Fairgrounds fireworks every Fourth of July. We BBQ, view them, then do our own fireworks and have strawberry shortcake...)

1st Photo:

Being that color is a direct function of light (text, p 129) the absence of light (except for moonlight one) hides to the eye the exact color of the house. Light and sky are the greater features of the photo with most light.

2nd photo:

As the sun rose more light exposed the color of the home and details in the yard as well as the view of the ridge.This serves to create the sense of more open space and a greater view of the background.When looking at the house before sunrise there is not much sense of space as you cannot see the sky nor the view. (Not to mention that the driveway takes a dip down into the yard.)

3rd photo:

Here all is revealed to the eye.

If this were a painting you could say that some of the color choices were "analogous" because of the sky blue paint of the house and the blue sky it self. These are colors that neighbor each other on the color wheel. The photo has mostly "cool colors" as the blues fall between the colors green through violet (text, p 133) Because the blue is lighter it's a "hue". The color white has been added to make it lighter.This represents the additive process as is exemplified on page 130, figure 180.

I enjoyed taking these photos and am considering taking a digital photography class this summer.

Line and Space

On Valentine's day I prepared some oranges to eat.
My daughter excitedly said, "Look Mom! A heart!"
As I looked, she handed me the orange you see here.
Sure enough there was a "heart" in the orange!
Being the photo bug of the family I had to photogragh it.
See how the heart is right in the center
with lines eminating from the heart outward?
It's almost like the heart is beaming with the rays of a sun.

This reminded me of Andy Goldsworthy's "Reconstructed Icicles Around a Tree" and his "Hazel Leaves".PBS had done a special on his work last year sometime.
They documented his processes and the final works.It is a glorious mix of an artist working with nature and even science to produce and express something entirely new yet familiar to the eye.
The icsicles melted and the leaf structure moved in the water with the current so this is also an example of kinetic works as well as dynamic line. Nature contains much natural beauty and of course lines.The heart in the orange photo was created by the growth of the orange. All I did was slice and it was discovered. Goldsworthy goes beyond that and asks us to discover his work as well.

The top picture from my archives. The girls are my daughters walking down Hollywood Blvd. after one graduated from American Music and Dramatic Academy last year.

I remembered linear perspective-thought I would share it....

#4 Controversial Art

Controversial art and its benefits amount to several things. First, it gets us thinking about how others view life and secondly, it opens up discussion about it. Where people get hung up about it is when an understanding of what the artist is attepting to convey or allow us to experience through the art form gets lost in the "translation" of the observation.

From culture to culture this could be dispelled with the simplicity of Steven Covey's "Seek first to understand, then be understood" premise.When people feel understood they have been fully communicated with and are honored in the process. This opens up new avenues for a much finer communication process between thinkers within and outside of our culture.

For instance, the Madonna piece was pre-judged wthout even a view or factual research about it by Guilanni. I can see some communication opportunities here. If the artist wrote a type of "fact sheet" up for viewers to read prior to viewing perhaps people might appreciate the "back story" to the piece. It helped me a great deal to see the piece in a new light due to cultural information acquired from this class. Knee jerk reactions are not professional nor a positive, cultural bridge building behavior.

You have asked, "Would the world be a better place if all art conformed to predetermined standards?" No, that would be a crazy-making experience! Who would decide what the pre-determining standards are? How would they be applied globally? How would one decide what is art or pornograghy? If this were to be done, the only way I could see it is if a cross sampling of people groups from the community simply heard the artist speak or read something they had written, coming to an understanding of it and then communicating or introducing the work to their own communities. Just a thought on how to possibly build bridges of understanding without going the censoring pathway: If the work was seen as pornograghy, how would that be addressed? Too complex for me- but with the right people--I believe much good can be accomplished. (FYI- I do not believe that porn is a contempoary art form- it tears apart married relationships and families-- and is addictive. Art serves a higher purpose.

Personally, this week was interesting culturally. I was a bit aahamed about how we as a people at times tend to not "Seek to understand..." and was hoping that this might catch on both ways as I would like to be understood as well.

There's a first time for everything. The pictures are of my daughter when we attended the Art from the schools last Spring. More information coming about this.

"Week 2 Reflections"

Two week Reflection:

In the first two weeks I have learned to set up a blog, a "de.licio.us" account and attempted to do a voice thread. All this!!-- from someone who doesn't "text" or "myspace"!! I've come a long way baby!!
Things I need to learn:
--how do I put a picture from the text CD onto my blog or my voice thread?
( I put the CD onto my desktop but that didn't work...
--how do I put it on my hard drive?? anyone?? --really
--how to move around within the voice thread program--(I got lost a time or two--but it's fun!)

Most meaningful or relevant material/ information:

I appreciate the Blog #3 assignment being place in the Learning Unit Section.
(less to seek after and possibly miss?)

Once I had gotten my feet technically "wet" in the tech world
I was able to relax and enjoy the entire process.

Overall it's been a positive experience

#2 Critical Analysis

Smithson's spiral jetty in Utah is fulfilling the "fourth traditional role of the artist".
This fourth role of the artist is "meant to help us see the world in a knew or innovative way." This role is "designed to transform our experience of the world, jar us out of our complacency and create new ways for us to think about the world around us."(page 8, text)
Bierstadt's(Rocky mountains) Chen's (The Central Mountain) and Smithson's Spiral Jetty have commonality in that they are all working within the boundaries of nature and at the same time using their "tools" in a way that changes the way we might view a particular site through their art mediums in a new way. While they are each using the voice of nature, they are culturally speaking their own experience and reality through their works. For example, Bierstadt paints in oil on canvas a landscape which might exist in America. He had actually painted the Alps as he was a trained painter in Europe. He saw American landscapes culturally through European eyes perhaps as the text says : "even secretly longing for America to be Europe." (page 5, text) He works as an artist that wants "to record the world but only as he sees it "and he wants us to share that with him. (page 5)
Chen works in the second traditional role of the artist: "to give visible or tangible form to ideas, philosophies, or feelings." (page 6,text) In this way Chen and Bierstadt differ in their message but not their mode. Chen reveres nature while Bierstadt is ready to recreate what nature has wrought to recreate his own experience. The spiral jetty holds commonality with the Chinese culture's yin and yang and the Egyptian culture's spiral designating the"motion of cosmic forms and the relationship between unity and multiplicity." (page 9, text)
As each thread in a tapestry is woven to depict the artist's message or view I feel that each artist's work are all as intertwined with each other yet distinct from one another.They are intertwined culturally, historically and individually. Different in their world view culturally, yet similar in that they want to tell the world what they see, feel or believe through natural landscapes.
In dramas or written works or music there usually is a "back story". Had I not read each artist's "back story" their work may not have had much more meaning to appreciate. For instance, knowing the common threads between the Egyptians and the Chinese symbolisms and the "living" work that the Jetty is gives me more "meat" to chew on---something deeper than an appreciation for the scope, scale and living art.
M. Martino