Hello All,

Exhibit: One Another Spiderlike, I Spin Mirrors

Theme:  This exhibit showcased women artists that expressed different relationships that people, in particular women, interact with their surroundings.

Gallery: Albright-Knox Art Gallery

·        Types of lighting: There were skylights, hovering lights in the center of the ceilings, and even light that was directed right toward the pieces at angles depending on where the art was. Also, there were sections that used screens to stop the light from overbearing the room.

 

 

·        Colors on Walls: All of the walls were white. This let the artwork stand out for itself and allowed the light to reflect off of the walls, contrasting with the darker colors of the artwork. This focused attention on the pieces and made sure there were no distractions.

·        Interior Architecture: The gallery was very open due to the choices to use marble pillars and high ceilings. The floors were white and represented a very clean atmosphere. Also there were many sets of stairs both large and small allowing you to enter a newly themed area.

 

·        Movement Through Gallery: The walkway through the gallery was based on a linear and angular design. This made the gallery very easy to navigate and give the viewers a straight path to follow, but also allow the freedom to make different choices and even circle back.

Artwork:

·        Organization: The main collection consisted of the downstairs area. It was separated by types of art. There was a series of paintings when you first came in that were more realistic and less abstract than the rest of the gallery. Then as you circled the downstairs,  you saw themes of color, lines, sculptures, and even a wallpaper exhibit that were all separated by a few steps or a doorway that led to a new section. The main exhibits were located upstairs and were separated by rooms or hallways and the two main visiting exhibits were separated by a large open room that clearly divided the upstairs into two distinct sections

·        Similarities: No piece in the gallery was the same by any means, but each section shared similarities. For example there was a section that was purely pieces that incorporated lines and color, but there was another section that showcased the human connection to its environment. The other exhibit consisted of landscapes in a large scale and so on. Each section related to one another, but it was clear when you were changing sections that the theme has changed from room to room.

·        Differences: As I stated before, there definitely were no duplicate pieces and the art was unique in every section. The pieces may have been similar in ways, but each had an individual message and also designs. There were pieces that were abstract and ones that were not.

·        Frames: Some pieces had traditional frames, some were just sculptures on the ground with no frame, and some were in glass cases. The framing varied a lot, but it fit each piece.

·        Piece Identification: Each piece had a plaque that gave the name and description of each piece of art in order to further describe each piece.

·        Proximity: There was a lot of space between each piece, but you could still tell there were groups of pieces that were themed together.

 

Piece 1

 

Title: Born

Artist: Kiki Smith

 Media: Bronze

Date: 2002

1: What’s Good: This piece clearly depicts a woman and a deer. It is also clear that the deer is giving birth to the woman. The details and textures clearly depict the situation.

2. Subject Matter: There is a baby deer giving birth to a fully grown woman.

3. Formal Analysis: This is a bronze sculpture of a woman and a young deer. The color is bland and dark with no variety. There is a clear linear motion depicted based on the angle and location of the woman’s legs that allows us to comprehend that the deer is giving birth.

4. Bracketing:  The deer in this piece can represent a number of things, but in this case it represents nature and the “birth” taking place represents the life that nature provides us.

5. Personal Interpretation: This piece obviously shows a young deer giving birth to a grown woman. I think this represents the dependency that human and nature share. We are gifted with life by the natural resources that we have available, such as game for food and even natural resources that make our lives seem resourceful. We take it for granite that we are provided with such a miracle.

 

 

 

Piece 2:

 

 

Title: Inhabit

Artist: Janine Antoni

Media: Digital chromogenic Color Print

Date: 2009

1. What’s Good: The woman in the center grabs your attention and you follow the lined to figure out the hidden meaning in the photo.

2. Subject Matter:  There is a woman in the center of this piece that is suspended in air by mysterious white tope type things, which is an attention grabber. There are bright colors and it there is a lot going on in this photo, which allows a lot of observation and intrigues a lot of curiosity.

3. Formal Analysis:   There is a center focus of the woman suspended in the center of the piece. There are primary colors that seem to be purposefully chosen. Also, the white straps create a line of direction that forces your eyes to follow to see what is holding this woman up.

4. Bracketing:  There is a spider, and the white straps resemble a web. Other than that, there was just a common understanding of a household with a child.

5. Personal Interpretation:  This piece clearly was modeled a mother and her relationship to the house and her family. I think this woman felt overwhelmed or trapped in this house. I believe that woman is either a single or stay at home mom and is stuck with the normal routine of raising a family and can never get everything together as a spider has to recreate its web constantly, the mother has the endless cycle of housework and a family to care to.

 

 

Piece 3:

Title: Barefoot

Artist: Alison Saar

Media: Wood Bronze, Ceiling Tin, and Tar

Date: 2007

1: What’s Good: This piece is simple, but it definitely grabs your attention when you see a person with roots as feet.

2. Description: This is a basic sculpture of a person lying on the ground with roots as feet.

3. Formal Analysis: This piece is a sculpture made up of wood, bronze, ceiling tin and tar. As the previous sculpture was represented, this piece lacks color as well in order not to lose focus. There is a clear grabbing point in the branches that are linear with the path that brings you to the circular shaped fetal positioned body. The lack of color creates simplicity and you see a person with roots attached to their feet.

4. Bracketing:  The only thing two things that I can pull from this is that the roots represent life and the person in the sculpture is young and may represent youth or innocence.

5. Interpretation: I feel that this piece represents person’s life. I feel that the branches are the part of a person’s life that can either hold this person down or allow them to grow. This person is going through  a struggle, thus the fetal position and if they do not get up and face their issues, they will not be able to plant their roots in the soil upright and continue to live a healthy and strong life.  

 

Going to the gallery in a purposeful way was definitely a different experience. I became a lot more aware of the organization and atmosphere of the gallery itself. Also, I learned that there were “exhibits” and a permanent collection, which would explain why some parts continuously change. I never realized the importance of the color scheme, architecture, lighting, and even organization of the gallery itself and how it enhanced the experience of the art displayed. It was definitely an experience that will change the way I look at art galleries in the future in a positive way.

Module 11 Video Reviews

Honestly I chose the Cubism and Expressionism videos, because I did not quite grasp the concepts of the styles from the text. It was nice to have an animated explanation of these styles and it furthered my knowledge of these subjects.

This Impact of Cubism video was very educational. I liked how it had a story line and gave specific examples of the content being provided. It was a well designed video and definitely went hand in hand with the text. It described the concepts of cubism as the text did and then compared it to a piece of real world art. This gave cubism a more definable identity and allowed me to make the connections of the pieces to Cubism.

The key concepts that I took away from this film were the way cubism evolved over time and even impacted other industries in the world. I liked how the video described cubism as abstract objects representing real life scenarios. It showed that the artists did not depend on realism, but did depict every day life experiences that could be easily related to another person's life. Also, the video talked about how cubism made its way into the designing world and supplemented the art form by entering a new industry.

   The Expressionism video was also easily related to the book. I feel like this video did not further explain the concepts, but it did provide a bunch of new examples that could be related to the text. Overall I think it was an educational video. It did have a lot of repetition as per the text, but it was reinforcing and provided many more examples to help understand how Expressionism came about and what its intentions were.

   The key concepts of this video that I think were most important were the descriptions of the expressionism art style. I liked how they described it as real subject matter that was majorly distorted with shape and color in order to provoke strong emotions. There were examples of the relationship struggle between a man and a woman, everyday scenarios. and even religious background stories.

Thank you,

---Michael Ushman

Hello all,

    Reading up on African tribal masks, it was said that people, animals and spiritual beings were represented in the masks used in ceremonies. Also, it was said it could represent a person in death in another form rather than their human body. I recently had my grandfather pass away and I thought it would be a cool way to connect with him through the use of a spiritual mask. My favorite animal is a tiger and his is a wolf. I thought it would be cool to try and fuse the two together using content and color. That is why I chose a few tiger masks and one wolf mask to see what styles differentiate them.

   Just looking at this piece, it is an obvious potrayal of a wolf head in the form of a mask. There is a symbolic moon depicted in this mask and the base color of blue is depicted. The artist used depicted a moon on this mask with the combination of the color blue in oder to create a sense of night, which in this case can be associated to the wolf, as it is often seen as a creature of the night howling at the moon in the distance. Also, the artist used a combination of symmetry and color in order to create the eyes of the wolf the focal point of the piece. Overall I believe this artisd was successful in conveying a creature of the night, but also introduced a sense of tranquility within the wolf, because of the soft strokes on the mask almost creating a false texture.

   This is more of an abstract representation of a tiger head. It is elongated, has short strokes to represent stripes, and has a very rough texture. There is still symmetry in this mask, but it is not proportioned. There are only two teeth, but they are represented much larger than they would be in reality, along with the animals tongue. I believe the artist was trying to create a fierce and aggressive nature to this mask, which in my opinion was partially successful. Everything in this piece if fierce, except for the tongue; which reminds me of a dog. I feel that lost its aggression and mane the mask a little less intimidating.

   This piece is a realistic representation of a tiger in the form of a mask. It meets all of the basic qualities that a tiger does. The artist used basic color and symmetry, which was intended to maintain the idea of reality. Also, there is a clear texture in this mask, which I am not quite sure what it represents. Overall the artist made a basic piece and was simply successful in clearly depicting a tiger, but in my opinion, not much else.

 

Here are my sketches:

 

 

And here is my final mask:

 

    Okay, so as I stated before in my inspiration description, this mask is meant to be a mixture between a tiger and wolf in order to pay tribute to my grandfather who recently passed. I started with a basic tiger stripe design, I represented the tiger through the color orange and had gray lines to represent stripes on the tiger. The stripes however were gray to build into the transition of a wolf. I then added the yellow markings. The large circle on the forehead is supposed to represent the moon and the little dots on the side of the head are the stars. There are lines on the nose that are supposed to be representational of whiskers. I then added the blue/green color to the mask in various places to represent the night sky.  Finally the stripe on the chin to represent goatee, in order to relate to my grandfather while giving it a human touch. I wanted to keep the mask realistic, so I created balance by utilizing symmetry on this mask.

 

   Overall, making this mask surprised me. I put a lot more thought into it than I thought I would. I made a deep emotional connection within this mask and it only makes me wonder how other people feel about the masks they make. Every marking on my mask has a symbol and there is a reason why it was included. I used to think the masks just consist of random markings and just were accepted to give the tribal feel. I also lived in the moment whilst creating this mask. My sketches all looked similar, but it is funny how different my final mask was. I highly enjoyed this experience and would definitely do it again!

 

Thank you,

 

---Mike Ushman

 

 

 

Module 10 Video Review

Hello all,

    I decided to watch the African and Hinduism videos this week. I decided to watch the African video, because in past assignments the African art culture intrigued me. Also, I chose the Hinduism video, because I do not really know much about the Hindu culture.

   In the African video I learned that they use art as a way to communicate with the spirits. They do this in the form of rock paintings, but most of all in masks. They use art in personal expression through pottery, clothing, and even their homes. I was very interested to learn that the masks they used in their rituals were not considered representations, but the mask itself was considered a spirit. It was also interesting that the art is within the last 200 years, because it was made from materials such as wood that decompose and wither faster than if they were to use rocks.

   In the Hinduism video I learned a lot on how art was used in the every day lives of the culture. There was a large amount of representational sculptures of Gods and Godesses. Hinduism is has a strong belief in reincarnation and the judgement of Brahma. There were also realistic representations of people of all ways of life in the same wall sculptures as a particular God or Godess to indicate that each person was being judged based on their personal actions in their specific life circumstances. Often the poor and rich were demonstrated in the same sculpture.

   Overall the videos were great in furthering the understanding of the culture and how art was involved in the people's every day lives. It was nice to have a different perspective and a more interactive visual experience. It was a further explanation of the material in the book and went into much more detail. It was a nice tool and both videos did a good job in further describing the impact art had on the Hindu and African culture and way of life.

Thank you,

---Michael Ushman

Module 9 Video Reviews

Hello,


Leonardo Da Vinci:


   This video discussed the entire life of Leonardo Da Vinci and his relations to the renaissance. He was a perfect representation of this time period and in my opinion played a crucial role in developing a new light on art according to this video. His work is full of emotion and expression. You can tell there was deep thought put into each of his paintings and it wasn't just painting anything. His work always had meaning even in its form. I learned about the balance of work in this video. Seeing the paintings divided up to show its balanced form helped me visualize the concept. My favorite example was the balanced piece containing the wolf. If the lines were not shown in the video I probably would not have understood. I also learned about the hardships and self doubt that Da Vinci went through in his early years. I could not imaging not being recognized as highly as he should have been due to his talent. Also, the video allowed me to see the importance of lighting and explained a couple of pieces in detail so that I understood the emotion. the video was very similar in content when compared to the text, but the visualization of the concepts were much better in the video. I enjoyed this video, which is weird, because I usually don't like documentaries. I think the difference is that this video was much more focused on Da Vinci and it was much more personal. It did show the same concepts, but reinforced them with demonstrations and vocal explanations. It is crazy how much more emotion was understood when I watched the video.
The Drawings of Michelangelo:


   This video was more focused on solely the process and technique of Michelangelo's art as opposed to the previous video that included more information about the time period. Michelangelo was a perfectionist and took pride in pristine detail and beauty. He developed a lot of paintings that included the nude male, which he considered beautiful. Adding the element of nudity expresses more emotion and vulnerability in Michelangelo's work. He clearly defines texture, mass, proportion, and emotion in his pieces. I learned a lot of how long and detailed the process is in making such a piece. I never understood the time and precision he took in his art. The video definitely went into more detail about Michelangelo's views and his process. It was a new view on his life and accomplishments. I now have a much better understanding on his views of art and his process. This film was okay, but i honestly felt it was a little repetitive. I think I got the point early on and I felt that it kept repeating his passion for perfection in the details of his work and how he expressed himself.


Thank you,


---Mike Ushman

Hello,

    So making the line sketch of my hand was kind of difficult. Using my hand as the subject matter was convenient, because it was right there, but it was more complex that I had thought. There were many crevices that I tried to capture with different shaded lines, but it did not turn out the way that I had hoped. I chose pencil, because I have used charcoal in the past and it tends to bleed into the rest of the drawing and I wanted to capture the lines in my hand with precision. It was interesting drawing with my non-dominant hand, because it was a challenge. The funny thing is it looks like it was done in an entire different style by a different artist. I think I would consider experimenting with my non-dominant hand in the future. I would like to see how I could grow with that portion of my skill set. Overall, although the end result was not as realistic as I would of liked, I put a lot of effort into it and I think it was a success for my personal use.

 Thank you,

---Mike Ushman