Week 11: the final final blog posting

Okay so I forgot that we had to blog about our self-portrait so this will be the official last blog of the semester. 

First we have to upload a picture of our self.  Here I am in all my glory:

We also had to select three inspiration  pieces for our self-portraits. 

I selected this image because I like the way it looks.  I love the geisha make-up and how the focus in on her one eye.

I selected this image because it's obvious that she is having fun at her own expense.  Even though she is distorted you can see she is beautiful.

I love how the the self-portrait is made of up individual camera shots.  Very clever.

So what media did I choose to try to make my self portrait.  I chose soft pastels.  I thought they would be fun to work with.  I started by doing my hair (brown and curly).  This was the easy part.  Then I tried to do eyes.  They were horrible.  Looked like an alien and I couldn't get them erased so I had to start over again.  The hair unfortunately didn't come out as well the second time and then I sat looking at the blank face (a look I'm told I give my husband on many occasions) and couldn't come up with a way that I could get a decent looking face on it.  Then it hit me, I chose to cut eyes (hazel), nose and mouth from the internet and then paste them to the picture.  Does it look like me?  Not one bit, well...except the hair. 

I always think the projects are going to fun until I sit down and try to accomplish them.  Growing up I left the artistic things to my mother.  As for my final project...at least I'm happy to say it's done and now I can enjoy a couple of weeks of down time before the next semester starts!

Week 11: The final blog posting!

As the final blog entry, we were asked to reflect about the slideshows put together by our fellow classmates.  I chose to review Nicole Bossert’s “Snapshot Reflections”, Samantha Ramsey’s “Time” and Lauren McGowan’s “A Worlds War”.  While each was great, I ultimately chose Samatha’s to write about.  I selected her project because I liked the pieces she chose.  She didn’t just decide to show 20 pictures of clocks and say they represented time.  Instead, she chose pieces that represented time, had time in the title, showed progressions of time and such.  Most of the pieces she chose I had never seen or heard of either so that made it more interesting.  I am not the best writer.  I was unsure what direction I was to take.  Should this be written as if I was writing a magazine article to convince the reader that they should choose to see this exhibit, or was I supposed to critique the art that was chosen to represent the title of the exhibit.  In the end, I decided to combine the two.  I don’t like to critique or be critiqued so I found this assignment to be challenging.  I love the fact that we got to see what our classmates put together.  I would have just enjoyed that.  Having to say what one I like more than the others and why I like it was difficult.  I really don’t want to know how my peers felt about my project.  I think if I was in a studio class, I wouldn’t mind the feedback but this type of critique is subjective.  Since I have to rate my finished article myself, I would say it’s about an 8.  I can honestly say I did not enjoy having to write a critique.  The curator project was hard enough. 

Week 11: Video Review

This week the videos we watched were about art criticism.  We had to choose three to watch.  I chose Greenberg on Art Criticism:  An Interview with T.J. Clark, Greenberg on Pollack: An Interview by T.J. Clark and Jackson Pollock: Michael Fried and T.J. Clark in Conversation.  I enjoyed this weeks videos and learning about art and art criticism.  Since Pollock is my favorite artist, I enjoyed the discussions about his work.  I found Greenberg to be an interesting individual and have started doing internet research.  I am debating on doing the extra credit on him.  Prior to this weeks videos, I hadn't thought much about how to be critical of art.  I'm not sure that the videos helped in my art curation project because I didn't get as good of a grade as I would have liked.  I think I got off track in finding the most bizarre artwork.  I know that I am more critical of myself and my work so I'm not looking forward to critiquing a classmates project.  I did however like watching the videos.

Week 10: Project #4 - Art Curator Exhibition Slideshow

I was so over my head with this project.  Even though the unit was opened early, with a project that counts for so much of our grade, it would have been nice to have a couple weeks to work on it.

I settled on my theme and concept pretty quick.  I chose surreal art because the entire semester it is the art that I've been drawn to the most.  I think because it's so "out there" and that it is open to interpretation by the individual viewer.  I also knew that I wanted the exhibit to be different as well.  I chose to have the rooms different colors. 

I spent several days searching the internet for the most bizarre art and saved them in a file on my computer.  I chose probably 75-100 pictures.  My family kept telling me I was nuts but I found myself getting so intrigued by the art.  Why would an individual produce that type of image?  I was also stupid and didn't keep good information while I was finding them.  I had to go back and find the required information.

Once I was able to narrow down the art,  I am a power point novice so it took FOREVER for me to get the slides in a format and get the information into the slides.  When I say forever, I mean it.  I probably spend 15-20 hours working on the slides.  Again, I had my family teasing me all the way.  Even as I type this I can hear them saying...aren't you done yet!

Week 10: Video Blog

According to the professor we're in the home stretch.  This week we had four videos to watch.  Since we had finished the textbook last week, these videos were geared more towards our project this week which is to curate and art exhibit.

The first video is called The Lowdown on low brow:  West Coast Pop Art.  This video was very interesting.  It gave us a glimpse into the definition of "low brow" and what it means to individual artists.  According to the video, the definition of low brow is "a person regarded as uncultivated and lacking in taste."  I don't see that this applies to this type of art.  It may be off the beaten path and the artists may be unique but I don't see that the definition fits. 

The next video was really helpful for the project this week.  Displaying Modern Art: The Tate Approach showed how Tate Modern sets up an exhibit.  Instead of chronological like most museums, Tate Modern uses themes.  This makes sense to me. 

The video I was really interested to watch is Bones of Contention: Native American Archaeology.  This video talks about bones that have been removed from ancient Indian burial sites and housed in different museums.  It talked about one women's, Maria, fight with Iowa to get bones release.  I have ways been interested in native american culture and have the opportunity to visit Mesa Verde and other indian ruins.  I understand the need to know about their culture.  I was unaware of the 1976 law that protects indian burial sites.  I want to do more research about this.

The last video is about the George Eastman house which is located close by in Rochester, NY.  Entitled George Eastman House: Picture Perfect it talks about Eastman and the large collection that is housed there.  I was totally unaware and I would love to add this to my agenda of things to see in NY state.

Overall the videos this week were good.  I know I'm getting antsy to get this course over with.  It seems like it's been forever and this is only week 10.

I think the video that helped me the most for my exhibit was the one on Tate Modern.  My concept is to have 4 rooms with the walls painted and a statue in the middle.  I'm doing it on surreal (or bizarre art) vs. modern art but the concept is kind of the same.  I haven't decided if I want each room to represent a different color, different artist or different theme.  We'll see what the project is finally done.

Week 9: Modern and Post Modern Video Review

I chose Andy Warhol: Images of Images and Abstract Expressionism and Pop: Art of 50's and 60's as the videos to blog about. 

I have always been facinated with Warhol.  I was a fan of the Velvet Underground and I knew that he discovered them.  What I really enjoyed about this video was watching the silk screen process in action.  They took a photograph of Warhol and explained how he created his work.  It was also very interesting to have the Ten Lizes analyzed.  After having things pointed out, I wondered why I hadn't noticed them in the first place.

The video on the art of the 50's and 60's was a bit dry but I liked again how it was broken down into the individual artists so that I could watch each as a separate segment.  I really liked De Koonigs work.  I think I like the colors.

I also was embarassed to know that the Girl with Hair Ribbon was done by Lichtenstein, not Warhol.  I don't know why I always thought it was him.

Week 9: The Modern World 1800-1945 - Video Blog

...and we're in the home stretch.  This week we finished reading the text book and to support the reading, we are doing two video blogs.  This first blog focuses on two videos of our chosing about the modern world.

The first video I chose was a comparative video of the artwork of Matisse and Picasso.  The video was aptly named Matisse and Picasso.  I loved this video because it included actually footage as well as first hand insight.  I love the contrast between the two artists.  Matisse being more rational where Picasso was more impulsive.  I loved learning about their style and continued to do research by checking several sites on the web.

The second video I chose was about Expressionism.  The video focused on the works of several artists and the way the video was set up, you could go back and just watch the parts about the individual artists you wanted to focus on.  This video was a little dry but I did enjoy seeing the work of the different artists.  I found it interesting that Anselm Kiefer called his "Interior" a work of mourning.  This picture depicts the Mosaic Room (in Hitler's Reich Chancellery) merged with the room from Davinci's  "Last Supper."

I wish the videos had been a little shorter in length as I start to lose interest at about the 40 minute mark.