Critique

1. Which projects did you review? I reviewed Vernnon Sullivan's exhibit titled "The Dark side of Love" 2. Why did you select the Exhibit you critiqued? I selected this exhibit because I felt intrigued throughout the entire exhibit. I felt as if Vernnon did a great job keeping true to the theme throughout the entire exhibit. 3. What challenges did you face in writing the critique article and how did you overcome them? While writing the critique I didn't quite know how to relate it to themes from today, or memories from my past. I didn't want to put in my personal experience into the critique so I just kept a general view while critiquing. 4. How do you feel about critiquing your peers work? I did enjoy critiquing my peers work. I enjoyed seeing what others had accomplished and the themes they came up with for their exhibit. 5. Would you like to read the critique your peers wrote about your Art Curation Project? I would like to read what others thought about my exhibit. I would enjoy this because I would like to see areas they think I can improve in my exhibit, and I would also like to just get an overall understanding of what others thought about my exhibit. 6. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your finished article and why? I would give my article an 9. I gave myself this number because I felt I was straight forward and to the point. I was able to get my point of view across without sounding too redundant. Also, I kept a very general statement so my readers could assume I had a non biased article. 7. Did you enjoy working on this project? I did not enjoy this project as much as others. It was very tedious, and at points seemed to feel as if it was just busy work. However, towards the end of the project I started to enjoy it because I could see my whole exhibit coming together.

Self Portrait

Here is the picture I took of myself to eventually recreate: Here is my recreation of the picture above: Inspiration Pieces: "Portrait of an Unknown Lady" By Marcus Gheeraerts II This pieces was made in 1595 The size of this piece is 76x927mm This pieces is made on wood with oil painting Here is this painting: "A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling" By Hans Holbein the Younger This piece was made in 1526-1528 The size of this piece is 388x560cm This piece is made on oak with oil painting Here is this painting: "A Portrait of a Young Lady" By Nicolas de Neufchatel This piece was made in 1561 The size of this piece is 654x806cm This piece is made on canvas with oil painting Here is this painting: Questions: 1. Why did you select the inspiration pieces? I selected these inspiration pieces because they were women and had a similar facial structure to myself 2. Why did you select the media to create your self-portrait? I used a pencil because I think I pencil is the easiest when creating a piece of work. It is easy to fix mistakes that you have made and you can easily draw over pencil marks. 3. What challenges did you face in creating your self-portrait and how did you overcome them? I faced a few challenges when creating more portrait. One challenge was drawing my teeth in my smile. I drew my teeth a numerous times and I was never happy with them. I ended up just lightly sketching teeth so you can get the idea that they are teeth but I didn't have to make the exact shape. Another challenge I faced was drawing my smile lines. The first time I drew them they seemed to look like wrinkles and made me look at a lot older. So again I lightly sketched them and the final product turned out better than the first time. 4. How does this piece represent you? This piece represents me because it shows who I am. It is an exact picture and drawing of myself. 5. What elements and principles of art did you apply in this work? I applied texture throughout my portrait. I used texture when drawing my hair eyelashes and eyebrows. The lines I used when drawing hair gave my picture texture by setting my hair apart from my overall face 6. Did you enjoy working on this project? This was one of my least favorite projects I worked on in this class. I do not like projects where I have to draw because I am not artistic and it gives me a great amount of stress. I kept drawing the sames lines over and over just so I could get the right image. It took me a great amount of time. 7. What do you think of your final artwork? My final artwork came out ok. I'm sure if I was an artist it would have been better, but I think it represents me to the best of my artistic ability.

Extra Credit Opportunity

1. Which assignment did you ENJOY working on the best? Why? I enjoyed working on the logo the most. I enjoyed this the most because I was able to sit back and think about ways that would best describe me. I had time to self reflect and create something about myself. I enjoyed learning about logos and symbols and how certain symbols catch the viewers eye. Learning this basic fact made it fun and interesting to think about myself and what it different about myself that makes people see me different than others. 2. Which assignment did you ENJOY working on the least? Why? I did not enjoy the self portrait. I feel it is way to complicated of a project especially for someone who is artistically challenged such as myself. I am a perfectionist and my portrait was not coming out the way I wanted. I can not draw and I don't pretend that I can. So a project to this extent gave me great anxiety and distress. 3. How did you like using ANGEL? I enjoyed using Angel. I would like more of my classes to be more Angel focused. It is a great way to communicate with others in your class as well as the professor. 4. If you had the opportunity to change this course: What would you keep? In this course I would keep the video and book assignments. I feel those are what provided me with the most knowledge about art. The video and text are where I remember most of the information we learned this semester. What would you remove? I would remove the art gallery visits. Most people take online courses so they can complete the work in the comfort of their home. Most people take online courses because they work all day and night and have no time to go to campus. I had to rearrange my schedule numerous times and find people to cover my shifts at work just so I could go to an art gallery. I lost money (because I couldn't work, and had to pay for a ticket and parking). What would you add? I do not think I would add anything more to this course. The work we do is beneficial, and I don't feel anything else could work as well as what we have done this semester. 5. Would you recommend this course to your peers? I would not recommend this course to my peers. If I am being honest. There was way too much work for an online general education course. With an overloaded semester, I took this course thinking it would be helpful in lightening my workload however it did the exact opposite. I had more work in the course and more responsibility in this course than in any of my senior core classes. I would only recommend this class to someone if they were interested in expanding their career in the art field. But if someone was looking to take a class just to fulfill a requirement, I do not think this is the class for them. 6. Please list any other comments you would like to share. Minus the few things I said above, I enjoyed this class and the knowledge it provided me with this semester.

Blog reflection

1. What were you expectations for this course and where they met? My expectations for this class were to gain a thorough understanding of the art world. In the beginning I didn't know anything about art and I wanted to be able to look at a piece of work and understand different movements of a brush and why the artist chose to do it that way. I basically just wanted to be able to be better educated in the art world. The expectations were met and then some. There was a lot more work than I expected for this class however, it took me through every type of art there is! 2. Now that you've been through this course, What is art? How would you define it now compared to your intial posting? I still feel I would define art the same as I did at the beginning of the class. Art is a way one can express themselves. You can draw anything you want and however you want, and no one can tell you you're doing it wrong! 3. Who was your favorite artist in your original posting and who is your favorite visual artist now? If there is a difference, why do you think so? If you have the same favorite artist, why do you think so? In my first posting I did not have a favorite artist in particular because I didn't know much about art. I didn't want to say Picaso just because he was the only artist I ever heard of. I wanted to be able to give a truthful answer. Towards the end of class, after going through the book I feel my favorite artist would have to be Andy Warhol. I greatly enjoyed the chapter on Pop Art. His work I found to be most interesting and exciting. Personally I felt previous artists were boring and generic. However, Andy Warhol broke out of that stereotype with something new and exciting which I enjoyed! 4. Now that you've completed this course, how do you feel about taking an online course? Is your answer the same as it was in your first posting? How is it the same or different? I still enjoy taking online courses. This is the same answer I gave at the beginning of the semester. I took 18 credits this semester and this was my only online course. Since this course was online, I was able to balance the work load better and able to approach this class in my own time. I was very overloaded with exams and projects and studying this semester, so being able to time manage this class into my daily schedule when I felt best was extremely helpful

Reflection Journal

Coming up with a theme for this project was pretty easy for me. I thought I would be able to find pieces that represented my theme quite easily. However, more often then not I did struggle to fine the proper piece. I do believe the pictures I have chosen represents my theme "Beauty in Darkness" very well. The pictures I chose show how there can be beauty in darkness no matter what that darkness may be. I hope you guys enjoy my exhibit!

TJ Clark

1)I chose "The Critics: Stories from the Inside Pages" as my first video. This video spoke about the different types of critics and what they do as their job. Tom Moon informed the viewer that critics work specifically to make the viewer "move". Their job is to entice the observer to move from a neutral mindset to wanting to see the artwork and know more about it, which in the long run will help the sales of a particular object. Lastly, I chose “Jackson Pollock: Michael Fried and T. J. Clark in Conversation”. This video focused mainly on two particular critics talking about Pollock and the type of art he creates. In the video it stated that if the critics can't agree on characteristics in the art, then they can't depict it's specific insignificance. 2)I feel the videos relate well to my art criticism project. I feel this way because we are responsible to critique our peers gallery just like the critics had to do. We are responsible for finding certain elements in paintings and that is what was mentioned in the videos. The videos provide us with a great example of what we have to do for this project. 3)I believe the videos were very helpful because they were able to provide us with a basic example of what we have to do in our projects. Before I watched the videos, I was confused on what we had to accomplish overall in this project, but now I feel I have a better understanding of the overall concept. I was unsure of how to properly critique a piece of art and the videos provided us with numerous examples of how to do so.

Lowdown

1. In the first video titled “The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art” I found very interesting. Some information I found interesting was the actual definition of what a low brow artist was. The video stated that low brow artists tend to look outside the box. They are not your typical artists. A low brow artist does not like to have a category tagged on to their art style. They usually leave that up to their viewer. Another interesting point was that low brow artists tend to poke fun at other artists and/or galleries. The next video was titled “Displaying Modern Art: The Tate Approach”. One important fact was that the Tate museum was the most important (well-known) galleries in the world. world. This is known because it has the most traffic of people who enter and exit the gallery everyday. The third video was titled “Bones of Contention: Native American Archaeology”. The only thing I found interesting in this video was that one lady tried her hardest to get archaeologist to stop digging up Native American bodies. I found this interesting because it shows the importance of the afterlife to this culture. The last video was titled “An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan”. One main interesting fact about this video was how textile is a huge asset to the museum. The textiles are treated with such importance. They were made for Kings and only the kings viewing. 2. I had a tough time picking a video that would relate to my exhibit. However, after watching them for a second time I think the first video " The Lowdown on Lowbrow:West Coast Pop Art". I believe this fits my exhibit because I don't want all "normal"pieces of work. I would like to have a variety of artwork ranging from sculptures to live performances to paintings etc. I want my exhibit to be fun and exciting and interesting to all of my viewers and I believe this video really brings that out. 3. I feel the videos were very helpful. I was a little thrown off at the beginning of the Lowbrow video because it wasn't what i quite expected. The videos went into great detail about art galleries and the type of work they possess. Each video I believe was very different from the one previous. Each video displayed a different type of art in order to give us a full understanding of what kind of art is out there.

Module 12

1) Out of all the videos the two that I chose were “Uncertainty: Modernity and Art” and “Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of the ‘50s and 60s.The reason I chose these chapters is because it was one area in the text that I was very interested in. I am interested in modern art and I felt the first video would greatly expand on this also pop art has always intrigued me and since it started in the 50s that is why I chose the second video. 2) In the first video the sculpture of the bricks I found to go along great with the true description of modern art. It was incredible. The sculptor put the bricks down and let their true meaning define the work. This sculptor wanted to make a statement to the world that anything can be art. In the second video the definition of pop art was the main focus. The video talked about how pop art came to fruition. When the narrator began to talk about the movement, I found it to be really interesting. One interesting fact that the narrator stated was that this particular movement was filmed and documented better than any other movement before and after it’s time! 3) I believe the videos relate to the text very well. I feel this because a lot of the information that was stated in the book was stated in the videos. One example would be modern art and stating that anything can be art. Another example would be describing pop art in full and giving us complete examples such as Andy Warhol. The video tended to focus more so a particular pieces of work while the book provided us with more examples (I feel that is normal though). Both the video and text talked about how art began to thrive in New York and eventually left Paris in the dust. 4) I felt these videos had a lot more information than previous videos. I always enjoy the videos because they add a greater visual to what we learned in the reading. I was expecting to learn a greater deal on modern art in the videos however; I feel I learned more about this particular topic in the reading than in the video.

Second art gallery visit

Above are pictures from my second visit to the art gallery. Step 1: The Exhibition Questions about the exhibit: 1. What is the title of the exhibit? The title of this exhibit was Kelly Richardson 2. What is the theme of the exhibition? The theme of the exhibition was nature Step 2: The Gallery Questions about the physical space: 1. What type of lighting is used? The type of lighting that is used is darkness. That might sound odd but this particular exhibit was projections. 2. What colors are used on the walls? The walls are all mainly dark 3. What materials are used in the interior architecture of the space? The only materials that are used are screens, projectors, and a sound system 4. How is the movement of the viewer through the gallery space? The movement is very smooth and open to the viewer Step 3: The Artworce Questions about the artwork: 1. How are the artworks organized? The artworks are each in separate rooms 2. How are the artworks similar? The artworks are similar because they all represent some aspect of nature 3. How are the artworks different? The artworks are different because they have different sounds and represent different scenes in nature. The added sounds help the viewer to become one with the artwork 4. How are the artworks framed? The artworks are not framed but merely projected onto screens 5. How are the artworks identified and labeled? The artworks are identified and labeled on boards that have very little light shinning on them at the opposite side of the room so the light does not disturb the artwork 6. What is the proximity of the artwork to each other? The artwork is near to each other however, they are in separate rooms.As previously stated the artworks share a relationship with each other through various themes of nature, but nature nonetheless. Overall, I did enjoy visiting the gallery. I live in Buffalo and I never go to art galleries. However, I did not enjoy the fact that I had to pay a total of $13 (admission and parking) each time I visited. However, the next time I go to a gallery I know I will have more knowledge than when I first began this course because I taught it me the importance of space, lighting and other various elements. I feel I will be able to appreciate artwork better.

Expressionism

1) Out of all the videos, I chose “The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19th Century to the Present” and “Expressionism”. The reason I chose the first video is because I felt intrigued to learn about how the 19th century affected the way Spanish artist did their work. Due to my great knowledge in history, I also wanted to watch this video to see if any of the wars that were going on at this time affected what artists painted or created. In the second video titled “Expressionism” I remember reading about the term in the text and I wanted to understand it more and have a better visual of what the text was talking about. 2) “The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19th Century to the Present” carried very relevant and important information. One piece of information I found significant was the story behind Goya. His artwork in the beginning was happy and carefree but when he suffered an illness that left him deaf his paintings took a drastic turn. Goya began to express himself through darkness. His paintings became eerie and almost unpleasant. He seemed to forevermore have a negative view on life. One piece that I believe describes his dark side was when he painted women and children either being raped of murdered. This was during the time of the Spanish and French war, so he was able to show the true devastation of this time. As I watched “Expressionism”, Edvard Munch’s painting titled “After the Fall” greatly caught my attention. I found this piece to be interesting because it had to deal with the sexuality between men and women. This painting created great controversy when it was in an art gallery in Norway. The painting depicted the facial expressions of a woman after expressing her feelings to a man. However, this lead to her feeling lonely and empty (like her innocence was taken from her). Munch represents her pain through the colors white, black and red. 3) I believe both of the videos related very well to the chapter in the book. I feel this way because the book also went into detail on Spanish art and artists (how their works were affected by their time period), and also the meaning of “Expressionism” and what art or movements fell under this term. I feel the videos went into more detail and also made it easier to understand. I feel the videos were easier to understand because they gave a great amount of visuals to express the meanings talked about in the book. 4) As previously mentioned, I believe the videos were more helpful. The videos went into more detail than the book did. The videos talked about specific artists and went into detail about their life and struggles they encountered.

inspiration Masks

I chose these three masks because I believe they show a great deal of texture , form, space and emotion. The one mask shows more texture than the others because of the brown hair protruding from the mask. Also all the masks that I chose express space. The position of a mouth, nose, hair or any other facial feature that jumps out from the mask expresses space usage. The color used in a few masks show us that color was very important to that specific culture. Below are the pictures of the masks that I chose. Honestly creating the mask I thought was very irritating. I did not enjoy this particular project. I am not an "artsy" person and I do not intend to be. The fact that we have to keep buying materials in order to create our projects is not what I imagined for this course. Anyways, I found it to be difficult and almost to the point of impossible. Space is important when trying to make 3D objects. As I tried to use space, I began to become very frustrated. Pieces that I tried to pop up would not stay. I did use color to attempt to make some areas seem to have more depth. This was not a project I enjoyed at all.

Japanese Art

The videos I chose to watch were "The Great Wave" and "Buddhism". In "The Great Wave" it talked about how waves have become an artistic icon in Japanese culture. The wave symbol is now found in cartoons and politics as well as other various forms of life. In the second video the history of Buddhism is explored. The video goes into detail on how Buddhism relates to the art world. The reason I was drawn to choose these videos is because I am Christian and I wanted to see how Buddhism is reflected in art. Also, the wave symbol is often seen in Japanese art, and I wanted to understand the reason behind this. To further my knowledge behind the icon of the waves, the video stated that it originated as just a sketch. However, it did not go into detail on why. In the drawing M. Fuji we see a great expression of waves. Certain individuals believed the monks and Buddhists were part of a cult. The Buddhism video went along very well with the reading. It described in further detail the history of Buddhism. Both of the videos relate to the reading. In the text the history of Japanese art culture and Buddhism were covered. The videos were helpful because they put into visual perspective why was read about in the text. I did enjoy both of these videos more so than the text. I felt the videos went into more detail as I previously stated that the text. I also believe the videos were easier to follow. I believe the videos provided us with more examples than the book did.

My Hands

1. I felt using my hand as a subject of drawing was difficult. When I was little I always traced over my hand with crayons or pencils, however, sketching an actual image was hard. I did not feel comfortable with it. This could be because I am not an artist and struggle with drawing anything; it could also be because your hand has many curves and characteristics. Trying to get the image just right gave me much stress. 2. I chose a pencil to sketch my hands. I chose a pencil because charcoal tends to smear more so than a pencil. A pencil I feel is easy to correct your mistakes. Since I developed a great deal of stress over this sketch, I knew I would make a number of mistakes so a pencil seemed to be the better choice for me. 3. Drawing with my non-dominant hand wasn’t as much of a struggle as I thought. I am left handed and live in a world made for right handed individuals. I have had to teach myself how to use various instruments that are made for right handed people throughout life. So drawing with my right hand was not too much of a struggle for me. 4. My first drawing was a mess compared to my last drawing. I was very shakey and very uncomfortable. However, as I started to draw more and more I believe I improved from my first attempt. My first drawing and last drawing are both not perfect because as I have said before, I am not an artist these drawings aren’t perfect but they are the best I can do 5. In the future I would not consider using my non-dominant hand for any type of artwork. I am still too comfortable with my left hand. Even though in the future I most likely won’t do art work past this class, I can not see myself wanting to continue to do art just because of my right hand.

Module 9 Videos

1. The first video I chose was Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master. The second video I chose was Velazquez. I chose the first video because he was in our reading from last week and I wanted to be further educated in his work. I chose the second video because I have heard of Velazquez before from an art history I took back in high school. I enjoyed his works of art and I thought it would be interesting to learn more 2. The first video explained to us who Albrecht Durer was. He was a traveling craftsman and sold his work. He traveled to Italy and he became intrigued by landscape. He became known as the first true landscape artist in Europe. He was also known for producing excellent portraits of either himself or others. The second video explained to us who Velazquez. He was from Spain, and became a court room painter for King Phillip IIII. He was seen as noble by the king. In Italy, Velazquez studied Italian artists such as Raphael. He copied many of the well-known Italian artists art. He was never in a hurry for painting. Unlike most artists that work continuously on a piece of work, Velazquez would work on a piece, stop and take a break then come back to the painting a few days later. 3.The first video relates to the text because we are shown his famous works of art shown in a church. This also relates to the Baroque style of art. Baroque art is often bright colors and seen in churches and resembles a story being told as if to an audience. A perfect example of this is his painting “The virgin and Child”. The second video relates to the reading because of the time era Velazquez is born into. It seems to relate to the high Renaissance. He also seems to paint in Rocco era style A great deal of his paintings that we were shown I the video tend to be that of pastel color. He did not use bright colors in his paintings, and most of his paintings were hung in houses of kings. He also has very little interest in color. Most of his paintings were seen to have just plain and simple colors. 4.I believe the films give us a great visual to what the book has been teaching us. They put what we learn into great perspective. It was interesting how both of the videos talked about woodcut because we learned about woodcut earlier in this semester.

Black Death

The video I chose was “More Human than Human” because it was about the human body and society. It interests me a great deal to learn about the human body. It began educating us with Venus of Willendorf and how it has changed throughout the centuries. It was interesting to see how the human body is portrayed differently in every culture. Following the first video, I picked “Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany”. I chose this video because honestly I found the title very interesting. It seemed to have a sense of fear surrounding the title so I was like why not! How does this involve art? It was surprising to see how it was all tied together. The final video I chose was “Beyond the Classical: Byzantine and Later Greek Art”. The reason I chose this video is because we have learned about the Greeks in this class already and I feel more educated on them so I felt this would be yet another way to expand my knowledge in this particular area. From the first video I learned how scientist were comparing the statue of the Venus of Willendorf to seagulls. I found it interesting that this view was being taken on the statue however I wanted to continue learning more. After a great amount of detail was given I finally understood how they were able to relate this two total opposite things. In the third video (the one I thought to be full of fear) we learned about the black plague (also known has the black death) and how it hit Italy. The black death completely whipped out more than half of Europe’s population which forced Italy to take a step back from expanding their culture. These videos relate to the text because they deal with the Greeks and Romans. All of the videos talk about how influential the Greeks and Romans were to the whole world. The videos brought what we read this week to life. It provided us with a visual of the examples that were given in the book.I greatly enjoyed these videos. The videos always seem to provide me with a greater understanding of what we are learning in the text.

Architecture

Two videos I chose were “Prairie Style (Frank Lloyd Wright)” and the “Classical Architecture”. In the first video I learned that Frank Lloyd Wright wanted to have an open floor plan, and not the traditional boxed housing. The designs of his houses were horizontal and the roofs were shorter than the victorian houses that were common in the era. In the second video, I found it interesting that England had a great amount of architecture influences. England was influenced by the Greeks and Romans. A numerous amount of buildings in England had columns which take after the Greeks. The Romans influenced England through their arches and domes which you can also see throughout England. An example of this would be their churches. To simply answer this question, the videos relate to the text because they both talk about architecture. They both also include how the Greeks and Romans influenced architecture throughout today’s society. In the video and text, it was stated that columns and arches are used to represent important buildings. Architecture from the Greeks and Romans to architecture today continues to greatly change and represent different ideas, interests, and design.I personally enjoyed the videos more than the text. The videos I feel went into greater detail on how just one individual or culture (such as the Greeks or Romans) can make a huge impact on today’s modern architecture. The video educated me on the history of buildings here in the United States. It was interesting to me to see how a culture from so long ago, can still have an impact on how we build our buildings today. The reason I chose these videos is because I felt the Classical video related to the text more so than any of the other videos. It was the one that brought the reading and videos together with the Greeks and Romans architecture and how it influenced today’s society. The first video I chose because I found it to be the most interesting. Out of all the other videos it was the only one that I felt caught my attention the most.

Review of the films

In the installation video I learned was what site specific art was. I found that interesting because that piece of art cannot exist in any other place but the building where it is being presented. In the glass and ceramics video I learned that stained glass is not just simply pieces of colored glass placed together. It is much more than that. Careful painting and or cutting is used to give these remarkable pieces their beauty. In the last video titled “Through the Eyes of a sculpture” I learned the process of creating a life sized marble statue requires more than just sculpting it out of clay. This is a very detailed process that I have often overlooked. The videos relate to the reading in the text because the text talks about what falls under the categories of fine art and crafts which the book then lists ceramics, glass, sculpture etc. under such categories. The text also goes into detail about the topics in the video. The films go more into detail about these topics. It provides the viewer with a better understanding of these topics. What helps me is the visual aspect the films provide. I was able to see glass form and a sculpture come to life in these films which I enjoyed a great amount.

Peer Responses

Here are the two blogs a responded to: http://brandonsartblog3.blogspot.com http://maglekellie.blogspot.com For the first project we had to all complete, I agreed with both of my peers with how they chose to describe a certain element or principle. Throughout their pictures I could notice a great deal of them represented not only the word they were trying to define but also "variety". It seems as though no matter what you take a picture of, you can't avoid variety. I noticed that out of the three of us, for shape we each chose to have a circular object represent shape which I found pretty interesting. Also for myself and Brandon, we both chose flowers to capture different meanings. One image in particular I found very interesting was Kellie's picture of balance. It was an eery, yet fascinating way to represent balance and I loved it! I did enjoy seeing what others have created and posted! It made me feel connected to this class even more. I have yet to receive any comments on my projects, but once I do I'm sure I will enjoy reading what it is they have to say!!

Logo

Creating a logo was interesting however not my favorite thing to do. I felt it was very time consuming however, it was nice to see the final sketch. As I took time to think about the logo I thought, "What describes me?" MY name is Mary, however I go by my middle name which is Reagan so I felt it was important to make sure my first and middle name was in there. I also have a very strong relationship with Jesus Christ, He is what completes my life, what keeps my life flowing which is why I added the flowing line to signify without Jesus, my life is nothing. Underneath my name I added my favorite Bible verse. I live my life by that verse. It always encourages me and gets me through rough times, and struggles. Acts 2:25 states, "I see that the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken for He is right beside me." No matter what I do, no matter what situation I find myself in Jesus is always by my side. It was hard to create the logo. I had to go through everything in my mind that I could think would describe me. It was neat to see that out of all the things I could come up with that would possibly describe me, the most important was Jesus. Also, as I was making this logo it brought to my attention that I'm really not that great of a drawer and if I ever need a logo made for some reason, I will defiantly hire someone to do this work for me. Below are my sketches and final drafts of my logo ENJOY!

Art Museum Visit

Reading through all these questions that we need to answer about our visit to a museum, I can simply answer them all with video art. This video art (I'm not too sure if that is what you call it) made such a huge impact on me. I have never seen nor heard of such type of artwork. I almost felt as if the art was coming alive before my very eyes. I think I enjoyed this art form more because I am more use to the video form of life, I guess. It's hard for me to stand in front of a painting and try to understand exactly what it was that the artist was trying to convey. But with this moving art it reached all four of my five senses. How cool! I felt a connection with the video art. I think this is because it's the world I grew up in. My generation is all about graphics and technology. I found this type of art easier to understand, and more enjoyable than most other forms of art. As I walked through the Albrigt Knox Museum, I did not expect to see live art (or I guess you would call it video art). I thought the videos of a ghost like dear walking through a forest was very interesting. Especially since you were able to hear what the dear hears, it was almost as if I was in the forest with the dear. I felt very moved and intrigued by this type of art. I would LOVE to know when more art such as this is available to attend. Perhaps a whole night dedicated to this unfamiliar art form would be very interesting! Below are the pictures I took from the museum, ENJOY!

Module 4

This week was, to say the least, not my favorite. Creating the value scale I felt was very tedious, and I didn't quite understand the point. Creating the colorwheel I felt was pretty interesting. This is due to the fact that up until now, I always thought red, blue, and yellow were the primary colors. It was neat to see how the wheel brings all the colors together! I enjoyed working with the colorwheel the most because I found it to be the most interesting out of both projects we had to do. As previously mentioned, I learned the most from the colorwheel. I went into this class with a child-like mindset about art. The colorwheel I remember from my elementary days speaks how only red, blue, and yellow are the primary colors. This project brought my mindset of art out of my childhood and into my adulthood. I found these videos very informative because since they were shorter, I felt they maintained my interest until the very last second. My favorite video would have to be Color Theory 2: The Truth. As I have previously mentioned the color wheel was my favorite project and this is what the video spoke on. Below are pictures of my projects from this week. I'm no artist so don't judge! =)

Behind the camera

So this week of becoming a photographer was very interesting! I have a new respect for photographers. I thought this would be a simple task like, "oh hey I'm just going to take pictures." but boy, was I wrong! Here is the link if you guys want to check out my pictures! Enjoy! http://s1327.beta.photobucket.com/user/MaryBuffstateArt/library/#/user/MaryBuffstateArt/library/?&_suid=13610470552870610768418579321

Color

Color. What is color? Color is a function of light. Color is seen to evoke certain psychological responses.In color light theory states that light is refracted into different colors. We might know these colors as the color of the rainbow. There are different types of color such as primary colors, secondary colors, and intermediate colors. According to the text, color has such a strong effect on us that restaurants tend to paint,decorate in red because that color is believed to increase our appetite. Who know right?

A theoretical aspect of color that intrigues me the most is color harmonies. A color harmony is the selective use of two or more colors in a single composition. I find this interesting because I never gave much thought to the idea that different shades of a color can basically make or break a painting. Color harmonies are actually how an artist can use certain colors together to bring a certain effect to his/her painting.

In the color video, I never knew how much thought went into picking color for a painting. I always felt it was a pretty obvious decision. If you wanted red, you used red. If you wanted blue, you used blue. I didn't take into consideration the importance of different shades, and the outcome they could have on the overall painting. (This is perhaps why I like color harmonies so much!) Also, the fact that a certain color can elicit a specific emotion, I thought was rather interesting.

In the feelings video what stood out to me the most was how important light and darkness is in a painting. A painting that uses light colors gives the viewer a feeling of joy, or a heavenly feeling. However, a painting that uses dark, unwelcoming colors evokes a sense of fear, depressions, and sadness to the viewer. This whole week of studying art really made it apparent how important color really is!

Week two

1.  This week I found both of the videos and article told a similar story. In the first video we were educated on where art originated from, and how it developed further from there. The second video tied very well together with the article. The second video talked about the mind and how an artists uses their mind to create. Further, the video stated how there are specific brain passages which create the artists style. In the article It explained to us how the brain interprets the art. It went into great detail on how certain images or symbols represent a certain meaning to us. An Example would include this symbol:  :-) This combination represents to us a smiley face however, what is it that makes our brain see it as a face instead of a colon, dash, and parenthesis? That’s where the article broke down the visual aspect in our brains.

2. I feel Plato's theory on aesthetics is most important. Plato evolved in 300BC but it wasn't until later, around 360BC that his work started to become popular. To me, he seemed to set the foundation on what actually is. He stated "art is a perfect imitation of an idea". This statement to me means that there can be no art without an idea of what art should be. 

     3. When Changeux spoke I found a great amount of his information interesting. He stated there is a huge difference between symmetry judgment and aesthetic judgment. He also stated that artists try to convey a certain message throughout all of their artwork. Ramachandran introduced us to the eight rules of art. He also brought into his presentation the idea of realism and intimacy.

4&5.  These videos and article relate to the text because all together they are introducing us to the form of art. We are educated on the different types of art there is, and also brings to our attention how our brain really works when we are interpreting a form of art. For someone like me who is naive in a sense when it comes to art, I learned through the videos and reading material, there is more to art then what meets the eye.

AED 200

Here's to my first blog ever!


1. How was the process of creating the GMail account and setting up the Blog?

This process was easy and hard. Easy because I already have my Gmail account, hard because I have never used blogger and I am trying to learn my way around this website. I'm hoping I catch on pretty quick though that would be nice!

2. What do you expect to learn in this course?


In this course I am hoping to learn more about art in general. The only art I am familiar with is, well, musicals. That's as artistic as I get. All this drawing and stuff is like a foreign language to me. So I am excited to learn all the different forms and meanings of art that there is!

3. How do you feel about taking an online course?

I love online courses! It takes the hassle out of driving and I am able to work at my own pace (as long as it's within the deadline of course). An online art course seems interesting though, sending in pictures of what I have created will be a first for this girl.