Art of the Holidays

I feel like the holidays really can be an artful time, mainly public art. All the decorations everywhere spread the holiday cheer through art. One of my favorite art decorations that I see frequently is paintings in windows of restaurants and shops. They're really cute and a way for local, not actual artists to show their creativity. The way people use their lights is also a great form of art. They can get so creative with them. Many houses look similar but then you see that one that really shocks and amazes you. You can tell they just love decorating their house and had a great time with it. Here are some pictures that I found online that I really like...

Art Guide for Tech Students

I'm so pleased with our final website. Everyone in our group did such a great job. We worked so hard and long on it, and I'm really proud of it. My favorite part has to be just the general layout and design. The bar at the top with the different pictures for each page really gives each page its own flair while still continuing the overall theme and layout.
We worked so long on it but it was fun and I enjoyed doing it. It was definitely worth it. The most time-consuming part for me was the calendar. It just took so long to add each event separately and format it. Gathering the info was easy because most venue websites have a calendar already. I just wanted to make sure it was easy for the user and easy to understand what the purpose was.

Here is the link to the website: http://www.atlantaart.weebly.com/

I hope Tech students use it for their art ventures and that it really is useful.

End of Semester

Now that the semester is pretty much over, I was thinking about everything that we have done in this class. Going back to the first unit on analyzing works of art seems like forever ago. I also think about my progression throughout the semester. Having a discussion-based class like we did really helped me develop my skills and become a better speaker. And this is in addition to everything we learned. Hearing about other English classes, I am thankful that I got to be a part of ways of seeing. I greatly enjoyed it and will miss it next semester.

Website

Our website is coming along quite nicely. We haven't put in too much yet, but we have a good start so far. I think it will turn out really well. Seeing some of the other websites today made me excited about the other presentations too. I can't wait to see the finished products!

Guerrilla Girls

I really, really enjoyed the Guerrilla Girls article. I think their cause is great and the way that they portray their message is so cool. I wish that they could spread the word more and gain more attention. I had never heard of them before reading the article, and I don't think that is alright. Feminism may not be one of the more pressing, time sensitive issues, but it is still important. Yes, people aren't dying and there aren't any wars going on because of it, but many people still suffer. It's not as bad as the way African-Americans were treated before the civil rights movement, but it's pretty much the same. Women suffer because of discrimination and prejudice, and a lot of this mistreatment is hidden. It's not as public and apparent, but it happens. Even the little things can cause huge emotional and mental upset for so many women. It really needs to stop. It even angers me the unfair statistics of women in museums and the art world. Why should it matter who created it? It's beautiful art or not. It's just ridiculous. WE ARE ALL PEOPLE! I'm going to see what I can do to help the Guerrilla Girls and maybe get involved. If anyone else wants any information or wants to do the same, let me know!

Art Therapy

I found this website about a foundation called Art on Atlanta that supports local art and raises money for art therapy for those with brain and spinal cord injuries. They display a different artist each month on their website to support local artists. They accept donations to help people with brain and spinal cord injuries go through art therapy to stimulate their minds and bodies through art. They also have activities for just anyone to do to relieve stress and relax. Right now they have ways to relax during the holidays. Here is the link to the website. http://artonatlanta.org/ It's pretty interesting and cool. I know I will spend more time on the website checking it out.

New Project

I'm excited about the new Atlanta Art Guide assignment. Making websites can be pretty fun. I like graphic design, so formatting everything can be really fun. I can't wait to get started on it. Gathering information should be pretty easy, so overall I think the project will be fun.

Museums

The Hein and Weil readings on museums really made me think about the purposes of museums these days. It seems to me that one of the only reasons I ever go to museums is for educational purposes. Other than art museums, I only go to museums for education. And many of the times I do go to art museums it is for education. While some people might think that this shouldn't be so, I think it is perfectly fine. Museums don't have to just be for enjoyment. They are a huge tool in education and can provide so much hands on and visual experience for those who want to learn. There are museums for everything: art, science, history, politics, social issues, and so many more. You can learn about almost anything at a museum. Growing up, some of my favorite times were spent in museums on field trips.
Art museums can be an exception though. Many are not aimed at education, but still fulfill this purpose. I enjoy art museums more when just wandering around for enjoyment. Focusing on the educational aspects of the art takes away from the beauty of it, in my opinion. I'd prefer to focus on the piece as a whole and take it all in. That's just my preference though. I still think that art museums are great for educational purposes.

Visual Essay

I really enjoyed the visual essay project. At first I was really confused about what to do and what my topic would be. I had no idea what the assignment meant and how it was to be done. However, the discussions of pecha kucha in class were helpful to the presentation format. The biggest guidance was just taking pictures. As I wandered the Tech campus, I noticed things I hadn't seen before. As Professor Bremm explained, sometimes the easiest way to get started is to just go. As soon as I sat down and looked at all my pictures I noticed a common theme and picked a topic from there. I was still a little nervous about what I would say during my presentation, but then it came to me that I should talk about the progression of architecture and just use my photos to prove it, since that's what my topic was. Everything just seemed to fall into place for this assignment. It flowed really well once I got started. The hardest part was just getting started.
Overall, it was fun. I enjoy photography, so taking pictures was fun. I also love public art and architecture so getting the chance to wander around and observe them. I saw so many things I never noticed before, so it was a great experience. I liked this project more than the first assignment because it was more of an adventure. It took a little more time, but I was happier to be out doing things rather than sitting there writing.

Interesting Public Art

I was browsing some public art videos and found a pretty funny, interesting Japanese art demonstration. Not sure if many would call it public art, but it is such a broad category, so I guess it fits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZgD1am-SgQ&feature=related

Presentation

I'm a little worried about my presentation and project. I'm confident in my theme, but 5 minutes is a lot of time to fill. I feel like I'm going to run out of things to say! It will be helpful to see others' presentations and what they talk about to get an idea of what I should say. Not copy, just have an example. Also, it should be interesting to see what topics people chose and how they represent them.

Forgetfullness

I've really been neglecting my blog lately and need to get more on the ball with regularly posting. It's just with so much going on, sometimes it can be hard to remember.

On a more class-related note, I'm really enjoying the visual essay assignment. I love photography and public art, so a combination of the two is great for me. I also really enjoy learning about the concept a visual essay from the Mitchell reading and from actually creating one. Photography is a huge interest of mine, so seeing an essay in photograph form is just really cool to me.

Mitchell Essay

As I read my section, Spy and Counter-Spy, I just kept thinking about my own visual essay and how I would use text to guide the audience through the essay. In "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" Evans does not have any sort of caption, description, title, date, even numbers to go along with his pictures. Agee writes a "Book 2" that follows the "Book 1" of photos, but the reader has no guidance through the pictures, no help at all. This is somewhat of an extreme of describing that photography is and isn't a language. I would say that this case emphasizes the point that photography is a language because the audience should be able to "read" the photographs to "read" the essay. The photos are in no specific order. Mitchell says they don't tell a story, so what makes them an essay and not just a collection of pictures?

So, do I need text? Do I even need to talk during my presentation? Should I let the audience guess what the pictures are? Should I guide them through? I will put some sort of caption/explanation/description because my personal opinion is that context gives the audience more reality on the situation. They are guided and have an idea of where they are going. What they think of it and how they interpret the meaning is up to them, but context can help them form these ideas.

Banksy

Talking about the types of public art in class yesterday made me think about one of my favorite artists Banksy. He's a British street artist know for his political activism. He started as a free hand graffiti artist but picked up stenciling because it was much faster. His works usually involve rats, policemen, monkey, soldiers, and kids. They usually portray an idea of anti-capitalism, anti-war, or anti-establishment but in a creative and interesting way that really makes you think. There's a movie about him, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and a book of a collection of his work, Wall and Piece.
Here are some of my favorites of his...

And an interview...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxzsfZkH9Bw&feature=related
(Just a warning there's some profane language in it)

And a clip from a British culture show about him...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e0IJSOq0xg

WOVEN

As I'm finishing my visual analysis, I realize how important the WOVEN concept is. I research about the artist and his other works just to get to know it better, I write about how the title explains the work, I just write about the painting, I read the textbook about analyzing visual works. So many different ways of communicating are used everyday. It's everywhere!

Art of the Analysis

The more I write my analysis of The Avoider, the more I think about how analysis really can be an art as well. It may be easy to analyze a painting, but how you express it is very important. You can go through and just make a simple list of what is going on, but that would just be boring. It takes a lot to really create a beautiful analysis.

3D Street Art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SNYtd0Ayt0

Found a stop motion video of the creation of a pretty large piece of street art and what happens once it is finished. It really plays tricks on your mind.

Ga Tech Night at the High

Just in case anybody wanted to go... There's a Georgia Tech night at the High on Sep 30th. Admission is free and there will be food and drinks. Also, Stingers will be shuttling people from Tech Square. Here is a link to the facebook event. Sorry it isn't official but it's the only thing I've seen so far.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127640773954586

Visual Analysis

Analyzing the Baptism of Christ in class was a very interesting activity. It was great preparation for the rhetorical analysis assignment due next week. I began analyzing the painting I chose for my essay and found it was much easier to do after analyzing the Baptism of Christ and Las Meninas. Writing the last three and a half pages of my essay will go by very fast because for me it is easy now to analyze paintings. Also, the reading in the textbook provide great framework and guidelines to analyze artwork. I'm actually now excited to write about The Avoider by Michael Borremans.

High Folk Art

I went to the High again this weekend and spent more time in the folk art exhibition than I ever have before. I always just briefly visited this area of the museum, but yesterday I really took the time to analyze all of the art there and realized how much I enjoy it. The modern and contemporary art will always be my favorite, but I have a new found appreciation for one of the top five folk art collections in the United States. These two are definitely the ones that caught my interest the most.

Headed for the Higher Paying Jobs - Thornton Dial

                                        

Con[q]uest of the Moon #1 - William Hawkins

I love the use of color in the two. It really grabs your attention and the content really holds on to it for extremely long periods of time, as I experienced.

Las Meninas

The reading of Foucault's analysis of Las Meninas was a perfect way to apply the past readings to an assignment that we will do in the next couple of weeks. Foucault did an excellent job of analyzing and describing the visual composition of the piece. Because the image of the actual work of art was not until the end of the piece, I did not know at all what it looked like. I did have a very accurate idea of the content and composition thanks to Foucault's description. The explanation of the context and the people in the painting also helped to have a complete idea of the painting and what everything means. It is a beautiful work of art accompanied with a wonderful description and analysis.

Browsing...

I was looking at the collections that the High has on its website then wandered over to a few other museum websites. My favorite was definitely MoMA in New York City. I've been once or twice before but haven't been in a long time. It was interesting to see all the different pieces they have. I love the variety of all the works of art. Modern art is definitely my favorite genre, so seeing an entire museum devoted to it is great.
Looking at the pieces, my mind kept returning to the Sontag essay we read last week and the need to critique and make comments about every work of art we see. What I love about modern art is that it's easy to just look at without analyzing it or trying to find meaning in it. Yes, it is possible to analyze it and find symbolism in it, but it is also extremely easy to not do it.

The High Museum

My recent trip to the High Museum was not my first. In fact, it was probably my 20th. I love the museum, and I go all the time. I love seeing all of the new exciting temporary exhibits as well as my known favorites. Every time I go I'm able to go right back to my favorite works of art that I have grown to love. My absolute favorite at the High is in the modern and contemporary art exhibit. It is very hard to pick a favorite but The Avoider by Michael Borremans grabs my attention every visit. Its size and simplicity are the most powerful things about it. When walking by, you have to look at it and notice the man in the portrait. Its plain background and great use of colors just forces you to look at it. The modern and contemporary art exhibit is definitely my favorite in the whole museum and I always spend most of my time there. I could spend hours in there studying every piece over and over. I can't wait to go back to see it all again.

Art Definition

Art is not only a finished product but also a process by which the creative and imaginative minds are used by the artist. The artist produces a work that appeals to the audience’s emotions, intellect, and senses. A true piece of art must inspire at least one of these aspects in the audience. If it does not, he or she has failed. One might think of art as only visual; however, art takes many mediums and modes. There is no one true form of art. Art is all around us, and we see it everyday. While painting, drawing, sculpture, and other common forms of visual art are the most common, art encompasses many different processes, actions, and creations. Whether it be music, literature, film, cooking, or architecture, art is all around us, not just in museums and galleries. When considering the question “what is art?” one must be open minded and realize that it has many forms and does not always require a certain skill.