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.