Reflections of AED

1. What were you expectations for this course and where they met?

I didn't have many specific expectations for this course because through life I have learned through experience that it is best to not expect anything, but rather to just take whatever comes with each situation as it is. I did hope to learn about art, its meaning, terminologies and where they came from, what is considered art or what is not, and the various types of art. I was impressed by how much can be learned through an online art course, as well as overwhelmed by the amount of content and work was required. I did learn the things I had hoped to learn and more.

2. Now that you've been through this course, What is art? How would you define it now compared to your initial posting?

I now believe that art is many things, it is imagination turned into creation. It is an emotion or feeling you have when you are the artist, and can be a completely different emotion or feeling when you are the viewer. Art is both simple and complex. It is both functional and for enjoyment. Much of art is a visual creation and experience.

3. Who was your favorite artist in your original posting and who is your favorite visual artist now? If there is a difference, why do you think so? If you have the same favorite artist, why do you think so?

My favorite artist was Pablo Picasso in the beginning of this course. At this time I would have to say that he is still my favorite because I just enjoy his work. I love how abstract he can make things appear, but how complex and well thought out the work is. He doesn't just throw something together and make a mess, he puts so much meaning and care into everything he created.


4. Now that you've completed this course, how do you feel about taking an online course? Is your answer the same as it was in your first posting? How is it the same or different?

I was comfortable with taking an online course when I began this one. This is not my first online course and it will not be my last. I enjoy the convenience because I work full time and I have a family and kids so I can fit this into the little bit of free time that I do have.

Week 15 Art Analysis

Viewing the painting Guernica, by Pablo Picasso, answer the following questions to the best of your ability. Be sure the use citations if you are using references in your answers.

Be sure to review the rubric that will be used to assess your work.

1. Use the vocabulary you have learned in class to describe this artwork or performance in detail.

2. What processes were used to create this work? What social influences might the artist be responding to and why?

3. What is the relationship of this work to the time and society in which it was created? Describe the symbols used to express this relationship.

4. Identify elements in the work that evoke a persuasive or emotional response. Be specific about what those responses are and why.

5. Evaluate what you perceive to be the strengths and weaknesses of the work.  Apply discipline specific vocabulary and concepts when describing your point of view.

In this painting, Guernica by Pablo Picasso, you can see an abstract view of both animals and people. They are all running, crying, dying, severed, and in clear destruction and pain. The painting is all black, white and blue oil on canvas, which allows you to feel the darkness of what these people were experiencing. His abstract use of geometric shapes throughout is part of the cubism movement. It is such a large piece, that it is the size of a mural. It illustrates the mass panic of the people of Spain at the time of their civil war. In this piece he wanted to show the tragedy and suffering that war inflicts on innocent people. This political statement was his immediate response to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War (https://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp). Pablo Picasso used this painting to criticize Francisco Franco, who at the time made a treaty with Germany, since he himself was a fascist. In the painting Picasso is illustrating the mass suffering of the bombing by aircraft, that Franco allowed his own people to suffer in order to gain control of the nation. It has been said that Guernica is one the most complex, yet understood paintings to this day.  The bull head is representative of Spain because it is a traditional animal of their culture that is used for bull fighting and other cultural traditions. The mother holding the dead baby baby, a soldier disfigured, the various heads of different animals, all of these represent the parents losing their children and the children losing their parents, soldiers dying in a lost cause, the devastation of the town. This all symbolizes the upcoming WWII. This is not tradition art, in other words it is not a realistic painting. It looks messy and doesn't give you an easily recognizable image. That would be this paintings weakness. Although, it does clearly illustrate the chaos that was happening at the time and therefor, it is a very celebrated and well known piece of art. It was well understood for what it represents, while catching your attention because of its abstract and unusual style. The strength of this painting is its ability to catch peoples attention, because of how different it is, which actually made the world aware of the Spanish Civil War. 

Week 15 Self Portrait Blog

Inspirational artworks from Google Arts & Culture

https://g.co/arts/fh7xxwfjnw8ykt8b8

Self Portrait
Manuel Gonzalez
ca. 1954
35.5 x 20.7
oil on canvas

I selected this piece because I really love how the artist used so much detail to create the texture of the skin. By showing its aging wrinkles and cracked effect that you notice more as you zoom in.


https://g.co/arts/fh7xxwfjnw8ykt8b8

Portrait of Guilherme de Almeida
Dimitri Ismaillovich
1954
46.4 x 35.9 cm
pencil on paper

I selected this piece because it feels so realistic to me. Also, because I plan on doing my self portrait with pencil on paper, as well, so I feel like my piece will be similar in style to this one.

https://g.co/arts/fh7xxwfjnw8ykt8b8

Self-Portrait
Rosa Rolanda
1939
40 x 30 cm
oil on canvas

I selected this piece because I appreciate the combination of the realistic yet abstract style that I see when I look at the women in the self portrait.


I selected pencil and paper to create my self portrait because I feel like this is the best way for me to be able to get it as detailed as possible. I prefer to do it with no color as well, therefor pencil is the best option to allow for shading details.

The challenges I faced when creating my self portrait were getting the shapes and proportions appropriate and realistic. I wanted it to be as realistic as possible and that was a struggle for me.

This piece is only a visual representation of me, leaving the viewer not knowing much besides my appearance.

I used line, value, contrast, shape and proportion to create a realistic self portrait.

I did enjoy working on this project because it is something I have never done before and I was able to take the time to focus on the simple details of myself to attempt to create a realistic self portrait that I feel represents who I am.

I think my final piece is appropriate for my skill level. I am happy with the outcome and impressed with my work.

Module 13 & 14 video blog

1.For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

In the video, the Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art, it gives a definition that lowbrow means a person regarded as uncultivated and lacking in taste. The term lowbrow was founded by artist Robert Williams. The movement was created as a manifesto, which is considered to be part of the surrealism movement as well. The video, An Acquiring Mind: Philippe De Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is a documentary about the 8^th and longest director in the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His name is Philippe De Montebello and he took over as director in 1977. Due to his effort, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is known for their collection representing all of the continents. In the video, Tate Modern, it talks about the different processes and methods that an art curator has to use when they are putting together a gallery of paintings and other art work.

2. Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Exhibition project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.

Yes, the videos related to the creation of my Art Exhibit project because the videos included art curators and the process of putting together an art exhibit, which is what I had to do for the project.

3. What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to understanding of the art concepts you practiced while creating your curation project?

All three films are informative however, the Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art films it a lot different than the other because it concentrates itself in the surrealistic lowbrow movement. The other two films are more focused on the concept of putting together an art exhibition by the art curators and other staffs. They did add some depth to the creation of my own exhibit by giving me another point of view on how to go about the process myself as well as gave me different ideas on how to group things together for an exhibit.

Project 4 Art Curator Slideshow

I started out my brainstorming for my exhibit by thinking about what is going on around me at the current moment. By thinking of what I feel right now and what I see I got a clear view of what I wanted to focus on. Thanksgiving just passed, Christmas is coming just around the corner. People always say how easy it is to put on weight during the holidays because of all of the treats and meals and desserts being shared. It is quite ironic that even on a day where we are supposed to be giving thanks for what we have, people make it a point to over-consume. We get as stuffed as the turkey we cook and then move on to the next holiday wanting more. Gluttony/Greed is one of the 7 deadly sins, meaning it is a sin to take more than you need, to become gluttonous and greedy is not a good quality, yet it has taken over society now to the point where the more people have, the more they want to show that off and gloat at the idea. Being obese has become such a widespread problem because nobody seems to have control anymore. The title of my exhibit is going to be "HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO". The actual meaning of the original quote, "You cant have your cake and eat it too" is that you can not simultaneously have your cake and eat it as well, because once you eat it, it is gone. In this exhibit, my goal is to pull in the idea that people no longer understand that, they think "It's my cake, and I want it all!" and then some.
I began my search for works of art by exploring painting of cake, which Wayne Theibaud has many. I chose the one that I feel best describes my them to be the star of the show. This painting is an entire white frosted cake, topped with a strawberry, surrounded by 8 plates, which each have as slice of this same cake on them. This perfectly pulls my theme into the exhibit. There is your cake, and you can eat it too, without taking a single cut out of the cake itself.
I continued to search for paintings and other works of art that display an enormous amount of foods that can easily be seen as too much. I also included Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, because when I look at this, I see too much. There is 32 cans of soup, in all the varieties available, taking up quite a bit of space of a wall to be displayed. It may seem as though this piece doesn't quite fit in my exhibit, but when you look at it how I am, it should make sense to you. It has to do with the idea that one can of soup should be enough, but here we have 32, much more than any one person needs.
I end my exhibit with paintings and panels of art showing people experiencing gluttony first hand, rather than looking at the food alone, it is helpful to see the act of overindulging and what it causes.
I would put all of these pieces together in room with dark grey walls, and dim spot lighting shining on each piece so that they stand out within a dark space. The darkness comes from the idea of sin and greed. Red would be an accent color, for the title of the exhibit and some other minor details. Red representing death and negativity, which is a direct result of gluttony in food.
My hopes with this exhibit is to help people understand that you only need so much. There is no need to over-do it and be a glutton. If you have more than you need, give to those in need and you will be returned with the gift of a healthier, happier life that is much more fulfilling rather than simply overfilling.

Module 12 Video Blog

The two videos I selected were Andy Warhol: Images of an Image and Uncertainty: Modernity and Art. The reason why I chose two videos was because they portray and speak about a mass culture and the separation from it.

In the video about Andy Warhol we see an artist who wants to portray life in the 1960’s which was a lot of consumerism by the masses. Through the Ten Lizes, an image of the actress Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol uses an original photograph of Elizabeth Taylor and creates ten images of this photograph as if they were the negative of the original. He takes pictures of the picture. By doing this he created 10 unique images in a way because no image is the same as the one that came before. In the video, Uncertainty: Modernity and Art, the concept that modern art tells us that something broke 100 years ago cannot be put together again. This breakage has created a feeling of uncertainty. Art in the early 19^th century used to tell us the identity of a group or movement in society. The uncertainty started with us wanting to break away of mass culture, and in the process, we lost ourselves.

The textbook is different from the videos because it focuses on defining the different styles and movements that protested against consumerism. The videos speak more directly about human identity, where the book explains about the historical factors and other different movements.

The films were eye opener, specially the Uncertainty: Modern and Art. The reason why is because it really makes me think about why did we, as a society, and as individuals, break away from mass culture 100 years ago, as far as art goes. The reason why we lost that is because many artists refused to continue to master the basics of art, like how it was in the renaissance time. Everyone wanted to be their own person and create their own art that they forgot about where they came from and what used to inspire those before them.

Module 11 Video Blog

The two videos that I selected were Dada & Surrealism and The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19^th Century to the Present. The reason I selected both of these videos, is because some of the artists in them were alive around the same time period, however different movement/styles were being used.

In the video Dada & Surrealism, one of the movements that Kurt Schwitters and Hanna Hoch used among many other Dadaist was called Dada. Kurt Schwitter’s style consisted of collages. At first, he did not consider himself a Dadaist, however, around the 1950’s he revived the movement through his works of art. One of the reasons he used collages, was because with this he didn’t have any limitations as far as the kind of materials he used and how they could be used. Another Dadaist, Hanna Hoch, had an understanding that Dada was more of a state of mind and that it could be use as weapon to attack society. In the Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19^th Century to the Present video, it mentioned various Spanish artists, like Antoni Gaudi, Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso and others. The video speaks about the black paintings of Goya that he created after the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808. These paintings are known for the dark content in them. Goya, during this invasion, saw mass murder, rape, and torture, among many other things that would cause a psychological change in a human being. Antoni Gaudi uses the Familia Sagrada cathedral to portray his religious beliefs.

One thing that the textbook describes and made very clear, is the difference between the Dada movement and Surrealism. Dada influenced the creation of Surrealism, since it came out the movement. Surrealism is not a movement but a way of life. Surrealist’s focus themselves in the understanding and logic of dreams, the mysteries of the unconscious, the complexity of what is bizarre, irrational, incongruous, marvelous as well as the understanding of it. Dada is a form of an artist protest movement.

One thing that I noticed about the films is that each video contains a form of criticism, either to society or to the religious attachment to the work of art. The movements mentioned in the films are what appears to have some sort of darkness in them due to the notion of how they came to be works of art.