when I visited the Dorsky Museum, I looked at many of the pieces in the "Body, Line, Motion" exhibit. There were several interesting pieces, but the one that caught my eye the most was the "Portrait of a Man--Diego" by Alberto Giacometti. This piece was a drawing of a human head, from the shoulders up. What caught my eye the most was all the different lines that were used in the piece. There was more attention put to the face and the head than the shoulders and the neck. You can even tell that giacometti worked on the neck a couple of tiems, making it stand out. You can see the lines and the progression.
the face is definitely the boldest part of the piece. It stands out the most, especially with all the lines that were used to create the different parts of the face. I like how the lines used to make an outline of the circles for the eyes continues down into parts of the nose. This also put more emphasis in this area which draws the viewer's eye towards this area.

Museum

I saw Renée C. Byer’s photos. The pictures were very energetic. The pictures looked like they were sad or more like upset for some reasons. I felt little uncomfortable when I see them. Many of them were black and white. Also the subject and titles were shocking like ‘murdered parents’ and etc.

There was a picture that sick kid and his mother were hugging. It gave me uneasy and anxious feeling rather than peaceful or happiness. Its dark color, mother’s wrinkle and closed eyes were very effective. The child’s arms and position was making uncompleted hug and kind of diagonal lines. They were making it unstable. Its title is "The Sacramento Bee" by Renée Byer.

Panorama of Hudson River- Greg Miller

Although I've heard about Dorsky museum and lots of people asked me the directions of this building, I never been to Dorsky museum before. I was excited to see the artwork of the artists.

I went to Carolee Schneemann's section because it had many interesting artworks. I liked Caged cats 1&2 and hand/heart for Ana Mendieta but this photogragh caught my eyes. It is taken by Greg Miller in 2009. When I looked at this picture I could learn the historical differences between past and present times. I liked this piece because it shows the development of the hudson river. I know that Hudson river is really long and the artist must have spent many times taking this photographs.

Andy Warhol- 100 cans

I liked this pattern because it looks colorful.

He used oil paint in canvas. He created this piece in 1962.

This is an example of symmetrical composition because cans are placed in straight lines and if you divide the painting in half, you can see that each side is exactly the same.

This Week's Post

Hello All,

This week, rather than posting an image and a formal analysis on the blog, I would like you to visit the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art here on campus. When you visit, focus on one exhibit (there are currently three going on), then pick one work of art that you respond to and write a two paragraph summary detailing

-what exhibit you saw

-how you felt about it

-what piece most caught your eye

-a brief formal description of that piece

All in all, this should take you less than one hour. At 11am after Friday's class, I will be going to the Museum and I invite you all the join me. It will be a good opportunity to respond to some artwork in the flesh rather than simply viewing images online.

As always, please contact me with any questions/concerns.

Best of luck on your drawings!

Cezanne

http://www.expo-cezanne.com/1_3.cfm?id=-1656112551

This is "Still Life with Peppermint Bottle" by Cezanne. It is painted during 1890- 94, size 65 x 81 cm, oil on canvas. It has bluish color all over and apple's bright colors hold my eyes. The white clothe is also helping its contrast. Some interesting patterns are making it lively.

Judith Visker’s “Colored Rain” struck me as an interesting pattern painting. The droplets of ‘colored rain,’ which appear to swim like a shoal of brightly colored fish in a dark ocean, each contain their own pattern, at once just similar enough to another in the group to tie them all together, and just different enough to stand out against the darkness. The colors are vivid and intense, making the piece eye-catching, and the fluid motion of the group draws your eyes along the flood of droplets, adding a dynamic that is altogether interesting.

Thomlinson Park Court - Frank Stella (1959)

This piece was fairly boring to me until I started reading a bit about the artist. The absolutely amazing thing about this piece is that all of the white lines are actually thin sections of unpainted canvas. The black is house paint applied with a fairly large brush. The concentric rectangles make me feel like I'm either looking down a hallway or have an Aeriel view of an Aztec step pyramid. The focal point is obviously the center, the eye pulled to the center of the canvas. Still, more geeking out about the method rather than the result.

This is another piece by M.C. Escher called "Day Night." I have a book of his works at home, and I've always been fascinated by his precision and fell for morphing patterns. You can see how the black geese flying to the left materialize from the night and the white geese flying to the right side materialize form the day. And when your eye moves downward, they become part of the square of land. Both the left and right sides of this picture are mirror images...only the lighting is different.

Radial Symmetry Pattern

Photography art by Brian Auer, information is on the webpage here:
http://www.fineartphotoblog.com/nature/radially


The symmetry is clear and since the focal point of the photo is the lower right area, it is not perfectly balanced. It is a bit asymmetrical for that reason. the eye is drawn downward right and at the same time is drawn outward from the center of this plant.

Andy Warhol was one of the

20 th century most creative and influential artists. He is most famous for his multiple images of Campbell's Soup Can, dollar bills, celebrities or Coke bottles. He chose his images because of their simplicity and familiarity. I'm not sure why I chose this particular print. I like shoes and browsing the Internet this caught my eye.

"double T pattern"

http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/american_decorative_arts/double_t_pattern_e_l/objectview.aspx?OID=10019733&collID=1&dd1=1

this pattern looked really cool to me. It is a quilt that was made by somebody called E.L. The quilt is called "Double T Pattern". The blue line that borders the quilt is not actually supposed to be there, that happened when i copied the image from the website. I liked the quilt design because no matter which way you pick it up, there is something different to look at. The first thing that stood out to me was the black diamonds that are formed by the white diamonds that have the "double t" inside. An argument that can be made from this quilt is whether the white diamonds have fusion, creating the black diamonds, or vice versa. I like how the quilt is only black and white, and doesn't have any other colors. I think that if there were any other colors, the attention would shift, and not be on the double t's as the title suggests.

Pattern

This piece "Swans" by M.C. Escher is a great example of pattern. He uses different colors in order to make the shapes look different and as if they are going into a symbol resembling the infinity sign. All of these shapes, are in fact the same, and are considered by him to be swans. When in different colors though, they almost appear to be different shapes. This is a great piece by an even greater artist and in my opinion, represents pattern very well.

James Siena and Pattern

James Siena

Distorted Overlapping Grids

2004-2005

Enamel on aluminium

James Siena

Coffered Divided Sagging Grid

2005

Enamel on aluminium

James Siena

Boustrophedonic Recursive Combs

2004

Enamel on aluminium

Siena is a contemporary painter whose work is He is also very influenced by painter/sculptor Sol LeWitt (remember him from the first post on this blog? his work was posted again later on the blog). LeWitt's work is characterized as being coldly intellectual. He was known for writing out recipe cards for his work, then employing other artists to visually express his ideas from the written instructions. Siena by contrast is more romantic in his ideas about painting, rendering everything himself by hand. Like LeWitt, he also relies on 'recipes' for his work. He limits himself to geometries, and practices 'all-over painting'. This was a term invented by Jackson Pollock to describe the technique of completely covering a canvas and creating compositional equality by not favoring any part of the image over any other part. All-over painting was revolutionary in western art, which typically revolves around visual hierarchies such as clear focal points.

What's Due Tuesday, Feb 16th?

Hello all,

Just wanted to put in writing what's due Tuesday.

-Three examples of the rule of thirds, printed out with the lines drawn over the picture. The examples need not be artwork, but they must be found (by this I mean that you shouldn't draw an example of the rule of thirds)

-Your artist of the week should be posted by the beginning of class Tuesday

-The mock-up of your final composition for project #1

-The basic lines for your design laid out on your 18" x 24" piece of paper (remember to incorporate a 1" border around the edge, and to tape off the border before you start. be sure to use tape that won't tear the paper. white artist's tape should work well for this, as should blue painter's tape-- but check on a spare sheet of paper to be sure that it won't tear)

Let me know if you have any questions!

Paul Klee

I used a paul klee pattern painting. I couldnt find anything specific on this one, no matter how hard i tried. Im assuming it might not have been his most famous work, but i love it. It really jumped of the screen when i saw it. When i doodle (which i do often) i usually doddle in symmetrical shapes like blocks. I have seen many artists do this before, but the way Klee uses the apperance of light, he brings the effect of those specific blocks jumping of the canvas, or almost being raised above the rest. I aslo have noticed with using light he also seems to make the rest of the painting appear heavier, and it almost seems to seperate the two sides.

Radial Symmetry

Hello All!

Thanks for all your posts. There are some very interesting examples up on the blog. A few suggestions for future blog posts:

-Try and pull images that are identifiable (artist and date) so that everyone can use the opportunity to learn more about that artist.

- When you identify formal aspects of a work, make sure you define WHERE in the image those things are taking place. (For example, if there is fusion and continuity,where is it located? What elements are fusing?)

- When you use vocabulary words, be conscious of what they mean; brush up on the vocab by going over the powerpoint presentations about line and composition that I posted on black board to ensure that you have a good grasp of all the terms we have gone over in class.

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Below, I've included an example both of bi-lateral and radial symmetry. You can see that the canvas is divided in half, and that those two halves are symmetrical. Also, within those two halves there is concentric radial symmetry-- there is a clear focal point at the center of each set of squares. I pulled a definition of radial symmetry from the dictionary, which describes it as "the condition of having similar parts regularly arranged around a central axis". A good way to identify radial symmetry is to look for a centrally located focal point.

Frank Stella, Double Gray Scramble, 1973

Screenprint, composition: 23 3/8 x 43 1/8"; sheet: 29 x 50 3/4"

circle pattern

I chose this picture because it caught my eyes. I dont know who drew this but think the artist used compass to draw circles. I think the artist used fusion, continuity to complete this piece. I also think the artist used closure and radial symmetry.

Alex Grey

http://www.cosm.org/
http://www.alexgrey.com/

Okay, so, having been an adamant TooL fan since 2000, I've always wondered where their concepts emerge. The album art is always unique. When I bought the Lateralus album, I was blown away by the insert - it's a clear plastic flip book and each page is a layer in the human anatomy art by Alex Grey. He does use pattern in his art as well which makes it relevant to this subject. Anyway, Alex Grey also works with Tool on their music videos, which if you have seen you know are completely unusual and mostly consist of claymation and disturbing imagery.

As for how this art makes me feel, it makes me feel that there is more to the world than meets the eye, and that our human body and soul are somehow interconnected to the universe and its energy which gives a sense of belonging and meaning. The eyes with wings (seraphim, apparently) remind me of the seraph mentioned in a book by Madeleine L'Engle that I read as a kid [forget the name but it might be A Wrinkle In Time] in the description. It makes me think that this is some sort of god-like projection and it is hovering over the human being who is placed in the center but is much smaller in size -- the asymmetry is inherent in here and makes one feel that we [humans] are small in comparison to the higher being, but not worthless.

Quilt or Decorative Throw by Caroline Brooks Gould

I found this piece on the MoMa website. I really like the variation of color between the different hexagons. The black and red one towards the center creates a focal point, and from there the image collapse inwards onto itself. The light colors on the outside of the picture, to me, convey space.