Cold and wet, I finally stumbled into Woods Hall to begin my English 101 class. The trek was a tedious one, involving much drifting and time wasting. When the rain began to really pour, I began to contemplate skipping class. When I realized that I lacked an umbrella as well, I seriously considered turning around. But, being the determined student that I am, I kept hauling my soaking wet body. Upon arriving, I begrudgingly waited for my hour and fifteen minute class on art to begin. My enthusiasm for this class overwhelmed me; “Yippee“, I thought sarcastically. Yet, during a brief discussion on a piece in which I had no particular interest, my eyes wandered on two very fascinating works that required further inspection. Both were extremely abstract, which peaked my interest. After several minutes of staring, I was stumped without ascertaining their meaning at all. My brain would not allow this mystery to go unsolved, so I began looking desperately for answers. While there were obvious differences from each other, one large, tilted and wordy, one small, straight, and silent. However, it was apparent to me that their meanings were similar in nature. There was a distinct anti-propaganda theme in both. My analysis follows thusly.
The first painting to catch my eye was Kevin Wilson’s “Untitled“, a large painting with engravings of human figurines. The dark, somber colors set a deep gloomy tone. The blue-grey colors were similar to a cloudy stormy day offset by a jet black strip along the bottom and jutting up the side. The center outlined a profile view of a man’s torso. The most provocative detail was definitely the exposed grey brain set against the man’s black head. Located directly above the eerie brain was a lap top. At his neck, the color scheme returned to grey and funneled into two sacks of blue that dragged to the bottom of the page. The man’s neck was punctured by two lines, leading to smaller distorted men on each side. Throughout the painting a black-grey fog flows from a cloud into the figure’s nose and travels throughout his body and ends at the bottom of the picture. Beside the smoke, a horizontal man was sketched, except his head, which resembled a sun. In between this man and the torso, a television-like box was laid sideways and had an x in the middle. From the box, two black lines led to red boxes and eventually to two more boxes, one black with white dots and the other a purplish blur. The right half of the painting had a large black circle. At the bottom of the circle had a man with deer antlers as well as a beam leading to the bottom right corner. At the top of the circle another distorted man appeared to be opening a trap door, revealing a torso in a grey light, which formed a triangle, which had eight men with TV’s for heads inside of it. At the far right of the circle was a man with a box on his head and the left side of the circle had a man with a shadow below him.
The men with television heads convinced me of a possible resistance to the news media. The sun-like horizontal man seemed to start the beginning of a story. To me, the black fog represented all the men’s stories that had been edited and polluted with lies. As the smoke enters the brain, it changes and seems to go beyond the rational, the calculated, and filters into the rest of the body. The multiple blue sacs seem to show how the story is manipulated and what manipulation, in turn, affect everything in your body. Crooked like the media, The black TV above appears to portray messages that get blocked by the red brick wall leaving only static and a blur. This image seemed to make a connection between how crooked the media may be and the crooked TV is. The black circle on the right hand side have people that are products of listening to the mass media. The man with the antlers is just blind sided by lies, the man in the box is completely in the dark about the truth; the man with shadow is only a product of what people tell him. The tv heads floating are representative of the large amount of propaganda in society. This painting oozed of symbolism that demonstrated a distaste for society.
The other painting, James William’s “Strangers”, was almost consumed its competition to the left. About a sixth of the size, it seemed much more to the point. It was black with grey outlining the words, “Strangers on this road we are on but we are not two, we are one.” A white face, outlined in black, took up the top right corner. Portion of the face has a red intricately designed floral pattern bearing resemblance to wall paper. The “strangers” are the strange ways that propaganda ease into society. “We are one” makes a firm stand that you should form your own opinions and not be influenced from outside sources.
Class ended with no finite answer, only assumptions; however, there was still hope because two artists were coming to class Thursday to discuss their pieces. My questions could haunt me no more. Unfortunately, neither of them was the artist of my piece, and I could not obtain the answers I craved, although during her discussion with a fellow classmate, one of the artists helped alleviate my desire for answers with three simple words: “art is provocative,” those words say more about that painting then my detailed hypothesis. It was meant for some over analytic individual to form his/her own opinions. Some might be more readily proved and others more abstract then the painting itself, but at least the on looker is forming some opinion. Knowing that, I feel I have a better understanding of the real definition of art as opposed to my misconstrued one. The ability to provoke thought is what makes it art.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Revisions to paper 2
Jim McKenzie
Racism during the 1960’s was at an all-around high. The Vietnam War was the perfect situation to start a huge racial dilemma. Not only was racism still apparent in society, but the thought of the draft and having black people fighting next to white people was terrifying. Both of these portraits depict thoughts of unity and freedom during the 1960’s.
Muhammad Ali was without a doubt one of the best boxers of all time. He was also a deeply religious person. He was very persistent in letting people know that he did not support the Vietnam War. He was even arrested for refusing to go to Vietnam when he had been drafted. He also frequently spoke about the horrors of racism during the Vietnam War. This piece of art is magnificent. It reminds me of seeing old fights of him on television and whenever he knocked someone down he would stand over them and scream. In this piece Ali is standing over a broken down monkey machine. The fact that he knocked out and completely destroyed a monkey is key. One of the most commonly used terms for racists is monkey. People loved to call blacks in that time period monkeys. I think that Ali is knocking out racism. The artist wants to let his viewers know that racism in no way, shape, or form should be tolerated. The monkey is screaming in agony as he now realizes, just as society realized, that racism can be defeated if you work hard enough. Ali was the perfect candidate for this piece because he was one of the hardest workers that society has ever seen. The monkey machine is huge, almost twice as big as Ali. This lets us know that no matter what size you are you should always stand up and look adversity in the face.
The entire piece is actually done in black and white. This is screaming to me that his intention in this piece was to show us that this piece is completely about racism. The artist also made a key point in letting us know the characters are both black and white. This makes the piece much more exhilarating since Ali is both black and white and won the fight. This lets us know that we, as a society, can live in a world with different ethnicities.
The next piece that caught my attention was a dark picture with a black man’s face at the upper right hand corner. This piece also had a quote on it saying, “STRANGERS ON THIS ROAD WE ARE ON BUT WE ARE NOT TWO. WE ARE ONE”. When I saw this quote it touched me. It let me know from the get go that this piece was about racism in America. As I said in the beginning of the paper, racism was extremely apparent during the sixties and Vietnam War. Some Whites hated the fact that blacks were going to be living and fighting together. Not all but a good majority of Americans thought that blacks did not have the right to die next to a white man. This artist is making a crucial point with his quote. He wants his audience two see that even though many blacks and whites who did not know each other were ultimately going to have to fight a war together, and possibly have to give the ultimate sacrifice together. If they did not stop to realize the fact that they are fighting together, as one nation and as one society then they would never be able to win a war. One reason America could not win the Vietnam War was because of problems that racism caused. The reason the painting is dark is because the artist wanted his audience to know that this is, in fact, an extremely sad piece. The black man in the picture has his head down with a distraught look on his face because he knows that some people will never be able to except the fact the blacks and white can, in fact, live in a society together.
In my mind I think that both artists were trying to make almost the exact same point. They both illustrated their pieces perfectly to let their audience know that blacks and whites should be able to live in a society together. I love how they both instantly made me think of the difficulties of racism that our nation faced during the time period of the Vietnam War. To me it almost seems like the two artists talked before they made their pieces and discussed how they were going to tell the world about the problems of racism during the era of the Vietnam War.
These two pieces with, a doubt, truly inspired me. I myself even have some racial conflicts. Even though I have some conflicts these two pieces remind me of the fact that we are one nation. We should in no way be separately just because our skin colors are different. My brother is in the armed forces and he always tells me that if we can fight and die in a war together then we should not have any problem living together in society.
When I first saw the exhibit I thought I was going to be screwed. But when I saw these two pieces I was ecstatic. The fact that I was going to be able to talk about a problem that has haunted our society for centuries and share my views on it was an amazing feeling. I would not recommend the other pieces in the exhibit. I am not saying they are bad they just did not touch me in any way, but if you get a chance to go see these two pieces than I would say you would defiantly leave with a different aspect on life.
Racism during the 1960’s was at an all-around high. The Vietnam War was the perfect situation to start a huge racial dilemma. Not only was racism still apparent in society, but the thought of the draft and having black people fighting next to white people was terrifying. Both of these portraits depict thoughts of unity and freedom during the 1960’s.
Muhammad Ali was without a doubt one of the best boxers of all time. He was also a deeply religious person. He was very persistent in letting people know that he did not support the Vietnam War. He was even arrested for refusing to go to Vietnam when he had been drafted. He also frequently spoke about the horrors of racism during the Vietnam War. This piece of art is magnificent. It reminds me of seeing old fights of him on television and whenever he knocked someone down he would stand over them and scream. In this piece Ali is standing over a broken down monkey machine. The fact that he knocked out and completely destroyed a monkey is key. One of the most commonly used terms for racists is monkey. People loved to call blacks in that time period monkeys. I think that Ali is knocking out racism. The artist wants to let his viewers know that racism in no way, shape, or form should be tolerated. The monkey is screaming in agony as he now realizes, just as society realized, that racism can be defeated if you work hard enough. Ali was the perfect candidate for this piece because he was one of the hardest workers that society has ever seen. The monkey machine is huge, almost twice as big as Ali. This lets us know that no matter what size you are you should always stand up and look adversity in the face.
The entire piece is actually done in black and white. This is screaming to me that his intention in this piece was to show us that this piece is completely about racism. The artist also made a key point in letting us know the characters are both black and white. This makes the piece much more exhilarating since Ali is both black and white and won the fight. This lets us know that we, as a society, can live in a world with different ethnicities.
The next piece that caught my attention was a dark picture with a black man’s face at the upper right hand corner. This piece also had a quote on it saying, “STRANGERS ON THIS ROAD WE ARE ON BUT WE ARE NOT TWO. WE ARE ONE”. When I saw this quote it touched me. It let me know from the get go that this piece was about racism in America. As I said in the beginning of the paper, racism was extremely apparent during the sixties and Vietnam War. Some Whites hated the fact that blacks were going to be living and fighting together. Not all but a good majority of Americans thought that blacks did not have the right to die next to a white man. This artist is making a crucial point with his quote. He wants his audience two see that even though many blacks and whites who did not know each other were ultimately going to have to fight a war together, and possibly have to give the ultimate sacrifice together. If they did not stop to realize the fact that they are fighting together, as one nation and as one society then they would never be able to win a war. One reason America could not win the Vietnam War was because of problems that racism caused. The reason the painting is dark is because the artist wanted his audience to know that this is, in fact, an extremely sad piece. The black man in the picture has his head down with a distraught look on his face because he knows that some people will never be able to except the fact the blacks and white can, in fact, live in a society together.
In my mind I think that both artists were trying to make almost the exact same point. They both illustrated their pieces perfectly to let their audience know that blacks and whites should be able to live in a society together. I love how they both instantly made me think of the difficulties of racism that our nation faced during the time period of the Vietnam War. To me it almost seems like the two artists talked before they made their pieces and discussed how they were going to tell the world about the problems of racism during the era of the Vietnam War.
These two pieces with, a doubt, truly inspired me. I myself even have some racial conflicts. Even though I have some conflicts these two pieces remind me of the fact that we are one nation. We should in no way be separately just because our skin colors are different. My brother is in the armed forces and he always tells me that if we can fight and die in a war together then we should not have any problem living together in society.
When I first saw the exhibit I thought I was going to be screwed. But when I saw these two pieces I was ecstatic. The fact that I was going to be able to talk about a problem that has haunted our society for centuries and share my views on it was an amazing feeling. I would not recommend the other pieces in the exhibit. I am not saying they are bad they just did not touch me in any way, but if you get a chance to go see these two pieces than I would say you would defiantly leave with a different aspect on life.
The Theme of War
Essay 3 Revision
Woods Hall contains an extraordinary art exhibit, SynaestheticArt Cotillion, filled with moving pieces by a variety of artists. The artwork is colorful, sculptural, and informative; details that make each artwork unique to its own theme. Using such vivid details make it easier on the viewer to clearly see the message the artist is trying to portray. Two pieces really stand out to me. Both use dark colors and unique symbols to portray specific emotions. Emotions associated with war. Mixed Media, by Kevin Wilson, and Strangers, by James Williams, are two extraordinary art pieces that tell a story of the hardships of war; however, the effectiveness of each piece varies. Mixed Media is a stronger piece of art than Strangers when it comes to clarity of dealing with the theme of war.
Mixed Media, by Kevin Wilson, is an endearing piece of art, which portrays an intense idea. An idea of hurt, anger, and hostility related to war is illustrated by the precise details. At first glance, it looks like a window with sixteen sections to it, but at closer glance you see that each section depicts an image of a person. The persons, however, are not identical to each other. All of them have their own distinctive characteristics, which add to the engaging complexity of this piece. Each individual represents a different part of war. Using the technique of dots and lines, Wilson paints of soldiers, prisoners, the deceased, and of Muslim women. Soldiers are illustrated by masks representing the masks soldiers wear in battle. Prisoners are depicted through their shirts drawn with the brush technique of lines. It shows the viewer the black and white uniform worn by most prisoners. The deceased have flames of red, orange, and yellow fire blasting over their faces showing the last moments of their lives. The images of women are painted with red dots on their foreheads noting they may be Muslim with the religion of Hinduism. The integrated details of these four characters prove Wilson portrays the people involved in war with clarity and precision. The emotions of hurt and anger are depicted through each character’s identity. For example, each Muslim woman is painted with soft, frightened, and sorrowful eyes representing the hurt and fear citizens feel during the occurrence of war. The deceased are painted with flames over face hiding their identity as an individual. Wilson hides the deceases’ faces to create an emotion of anger. When soldiers fight, they kill without conscience because that is how they were trained to fight; to kill the enemy at all costs. All these little details in each character confirm that Mixed Media is an effective piece in displaying the theme of war. Wilson does a marvelous job in remembering to incorporate parts of war like the people and emotions involved in the devastation of battle. It is truly an inspiring canvas of art.
Strangers, by James Williams, depicts the same theme of war. Its effectiveness, however, is not as strong as that of Mixed Media. Williams uses clear details, but the details are not precise. Williams’ main way of portraying the emotion of the artwork is through color. Strangers is painted in brown, black, white, and crimson. Not one specific color is bright or cheery. They are all neutral colors creating a gloomy and depressing emotion. This is the sort of emotion a soldier feels after battle. Within the small range of colors, Williams paints out a message, which is the focal point of the picture. The message emitted through a white fog reads, “Strangers on this road we are on but we are not two, we are one.” Strangers in this quote refer to the soldiers on the battlefield. Each army is made up of people from all around the country. They may not know each other, may be complete strangers, but when they come together to fight for their lives on the battlefield, the soldiers become one. They become an army. Williams incorporating this quote is the only effective part of the piece. Without it the artwork would be lacking meaning. The theme and message behind the art is in the quote. In addition, though, Williams paints a black masked out man behind the quote letting the viewer know this man is the speaker. Strangers is a very intriguing piece, and Williams did a very good job in displaying his message through neutral colors and through a quote. Soldiers of war is the clear theme in this piece.
Mixed Media and Strangers are two pieces of artwork that share common themes of war. Both clearly depict this message; however, Mixed Media is more effective than that of Strangers. Wilson uses more intricate details to display his message better than Williams does. Wilson incorporates multiple parts to his artwork including the characters, symbols, and technique of brush stroke. All these characteristics add to the clarity of the theme war, and they allow the viewer to get a deeper understanding of the main idea. Williams only incorporates colors and a quote in his piece, Strangers. He lacks that extra effort of using symbols and intricate details. The message that it deals with war is clear, but there is no extra interpretation to Strangers making it less effective than Mixed Media. Mixed Media and Strangers are two pieces that represent the hardships of war. SynArts Cotillion, located in Woods Hall, supplies these two complex pieces. It contains many more fascinating artworks that tell a story as deep as Mixed Media and Strangers do.
Woods Hall contains an extraordinary art exhibit, SynaestheticArt Cotillion, filled with moving pieces by a variety of artists. The artwork is colorful, sculptural, and informative; details that make each artwork unique to its own theme. Using such vivid details make it easier on the viewer to clearly see the message the artist is trying to portray. Two pieces really stand out to me. Both use dark colors and unique symbols to portray specific emotions. Emotions associated with war. Mixed Media, by Kevin Wilson, and Strangers, by James Williams, are two extraordinary art pieces that tell a story of the hardships of war; however, the effectiveness of each piece varies. Mixed Media is a stronger piece of art than Strangers when it comes to clarity of dealing with the theme of war.
Mixed Media, by Kevin Wilson, is an endearing piece of art, which portrays an intense idea. An idea of hurt, anger, and hostility related to war is illustrated by the precise details. At first glance, it looks like a window with sixteen sections to it, but at closer glance you see that each section depicts an image of a person. The persons, however, are not identical to each other. All of them have their own distinctive characteristics, which add to the engaging complexity of this piece. Each individual represents a different part of war. Using the technique of dots and lines, Wilson paints of soldiers, prisoners, the deceased, and of Muslim women. Soldiers are illustrated by masks representing the masks soldiers wear in battle. Prisoners are depicted through their shirts drawn with the brush technique of lines. It shows the viewer the black and white uniform worn by most prisoners. The deceased have flames of red, orange, and yellow fire blasting over their faces showing the last moments of their lives. The images of women are painted with red dots on their foreheads noting they may be Muslim with the religion of Hinduism. The integrated details of these four characters prove Wilson portrays the people involved in war with clarity and precision. The emotions of hurt and anger are depicted through each character’s identity. For example, each Muslim woman is painted with soft, frightened, and sorrowful eyes representing the hurt and fear citizens feel during the occurrence of war. The deceased are painted with flames over face hiding their identity as an individual. Wilson hides the deceases’ faces to create an emotion of anger. When soldiers fight, they kill without conscience because that is how they were trained to fight; to kill the enemy at all costs. All these little details in each character confirm that Mixed Media is an effective piece in displaying the theme of war. Wilson does a marvelous job in remembering to incorporate parts of war like the people and emotions involved in the devastation of battle. It is truly an inspiring canvas of art.
Strangers, by James Williams, depicts the same theme of war. Its effectiveness, however, is not as strong as that of Mixed Media. Williams uses clear details, but the details are not precise. Williams’ main way of portraying the emotion of the artwork is through color. Strangers is painted in brown, black, white, and crimson. Not one specific color is bright or cheery. They are all neutral colors creating a gloomy and depressing emotion. This is the sort of emotion a soldier feels after battle. Within the small range of colors, Williams paints out a message, which is the focal point of the picture. The message emitted through a white fog reads, “Strangers on this road we are on but we are not two, we are one.” Strangers in this quote refer to the soldiers on the battlefield. Each army is made up of people from all around the country. They may not know each other, may be complete strangers, but when they come together to fight for their lives on the battlefield, the soldiers become one. They become an army. Williams incorporating this quote is the only effective part of the piece. Without it the artwork would be lacking meaning. The theme and message behind the art is in the quote. In addition, though, Williams paints a black masked out man behind the quote letting the viewer know this man is the speaker. Strangers is a very intriguing piece, and Williams did a very good job in displaying his message through neutral colors and through a quote. Soldiers of war is the clear theme in this piece.
Mixed Media and Strangers are two pieces of artwork that share common themes of war. Both clearly depict this message; however, Mixed Media is more effective than that of Strangers. Wilson uses more intricate details to display his message better than Williams does. Wilson incorporates multiple parts to his artwork including the characters, symbols, and technique of brush stroke. All these characteristics add to the clarity of the theme war, and they allow the viewer to get a deeper understanding of the main idea. Williams only incorporates colors and a quote in his piece, Strangers. He lacks that extra effort of using symbols and intricate details. The message that it deals with war is clear, but there is no extra interpretation to Strangers making it less effective than Mixed Media. Mixed Media and Strangers are two pieces that represent the hardships of war. SynArts Cotillion, located in Woods Hall, supplies these two complex pieces. It contains many more fascinating artworks that tell a story as deep as Mixed Media and Strangers do.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Woods Hall Exhibit revised
After visiting an art exhibit put on by “SynArt” in Woods Hall and then speaking with two of the artist featured in the exhibit I am faced with more than the task of critically observing two paintings. It is my goal to feel what the subjects of the works are feeling. Can an observer read too much into a painting and miss a simpler message that the artist is trying to get across? I will analyze the two paintings with the goal of not over analyzing but to critically judge and attempt to perceive what the artist truly wanted to convey. The two paintings that I choose were ones that quickly caught my eye.
The first was a black and white photo by Johnathan Davis titled “Rufus Davis.” It is a simple portrait taken directly of the front of the subjects face. The subject is an elderly black man wearing a World War II veteran’s cap. The man’s eyes were hypnotizing; they drew your eyes in. They say that “the eyes are the windows to the soul” and this picture seemed to capture that. Staring back into this subjects eyes he seemed as though he was about to cry. I have to think if the man wearing the hat is truly a World War II veteran or if it is simply a cap. Then if the cap is really his I wonder if people treat him differently depending on whether he has it on or not, its not something that can be proved or shown in the painting but it is a though that I can’t help but feel it provokes. But no matter whether he is a veteran or not he is elderly and has obviously seen more than his fair share of hard days. Each wrinkle on his face represents an experience and from the number you know he is wise. The picture uses light to reflect against the man’s dark skin making his lines of wisdom even more clear. Though the suit the man is wearing is neatly pressed and perfectly white his unkempt beard and mustache contrast with it.
The next work is seemingly placed strategically within the eyeshot of the subject in the black and white photograph. This is a mixed media piece by Lauren Strain called “untitled” it is of a young woman’s face with her hair pulled neatly into a bun on top of her head, in a sort of bee hive shape. This piece is done in mostly red with only spare uses of blacks and yellow. It seems to use acrylic paint, pastels, and watercolors. Though the figure is fairly simple and two-dimensional she renders a feeling of grief like one that comes from a woman who has been beaten by her husband or lost a child. Though there is no specific proof that says she is a mother or a house wife her put together appearance and feeling of wisdom gives clues that it is a woman rather than a girl. The use of red leads me to believe that the artist wants the viewer to get a feeling of pain from the work. The use of yellow and black seems to show tears. Most of the detail is focused on the eyes making them look sad. It seems that the artist used water to make parts of the paint run further exposing sadness in the woman. The woman is not quite in the center of the painting but rather is set off to the right side. This placement makes her distant to the viewer. The woman seems to be hiding something, which the artist portrays by a solid red circle next to the woman. It seems to block her into that side of the painting.
Though the two works I discussed are done in two different medias with two different subjects there are some comparisons to be made between them. Both artists chose to focus on the face of the figure excluding their bodies from the piece. Both subjects seem to be focused straight ahead as to stare into the viewer and have the viewer stare back. The eyes of both subjects seem to hold sadness behind them. The artists seem to be making a statement about the sadness in the world. The veteran is disappointed in what has come of a nation, which he has fought so hardly to defend. Perhaps when he takes off his cap and clean pressed suit people treat him as another old man and judge him by his shaggy beard rather than the lines of wisdom on his face, treating him as a detriment to society rather than someone who fought to defend all of our freedoms. The woman is forced to wear her hair neatly up and make up to appear as though she is happy and the perfect wife. She is trapped in her own skin unable to tell anyone what really happens to her and how she is really treated. Both artists are making a statement about judging people from what they look like on the outside. Perhaps it is our jobs to look further into them. At first glance both works are simply a persons visage but by focusing on their eyes we seem to be able to learn more about the subject. We can feel closer to them by noticing the sadness in their eyes. While it is impossible to say for sure what each figure is thinking or feeling the sadness in their eyes is impossible to ignore.
The first was a black and white photo by Johnathan Davis titled “Rufus Davis.” It is a simple portrait taken directly of the front of the subjects face. The subject is an elderly black man wearing a World War II veteran’s cap. The man’s eyes were hypnotizing; they drew your eyes in. They say that “the eyes are the windows to the soul” and this picture seemed to capture that. Staring back into this subjects eyes he seemed as though he was about to cry. I have to think if the man wearing the hat is truly a World War II veteran or if it is simply a cap. Then if the cap is really his I wonder if people treat him differently depending on whether he has it on or not, its not something that can be proved or shown in the painting but it is a though that I can’t help but feel it provokes. But no matter whether he is a veteran or not he is elderly and has obviously seen more than his fair share of hard days. Each wrinkle on his face represents an experience and from the number you know he is wise. The picture uses light to reflect against the man’s dark skin making his lines of wisdom even more clear. Though the suit the man is wearing is neatly pressed and perfectly white his unkempt beard and mustache contrast with it.
The next work is seemingly placed strategically within the eyeshot of the subject in the black and white photograph. This is a mixed media piece by Lauren Strain called “untitled” it is of a young woman’s face with her hair pulled neatly into a bun on top of her head, in a sort of bee hive shape. This piece is done in mostly red with only spare uses of blacks and yellow. It seems to use acrylic paint, pastels, and watercolors. Though the figure is fairly simple and two-dimensional she renders a feeling of grief like one that comes from a woman who has been beaten by her husband or lost a child. Though there is no specific proof that says she is a mother or a house wife her put together appearance and feeling of wisdom gives clues that it is a woman rather than a girl. The use of red leads me to believe that the artist wants the viewer to get a feeling of pain from the work. The use of yellow and black seems to show tears. Most of the detail is focused on the eyes making them look sad. It seems that the artist used water to make parts of the paint run further exposing sadness in the woman. The woman is not quite in the center of the painting but rather is set off to the right side. This placement makes her distant to the viewer. The woman seems to be hiding something, which the artist portrays by a solid red circle next to the woman. It seems to block her into that side of the painting.
Though the two works I discussed are done in two different medias with two different subjects there are some comparisons to be made between them. Both artists chose to focus on the face of the figure excluding their bodies from the piece. Both subjects seem to be focused straight ahead as to stare into the viewer and have the viewer stare back. The eyes of both subjects seem to hold sadness behind them. The artists seem to be making a statement about the sadness in the world. The veteran is disappointed in what has come of a nation, which he has fought so hardly to defend. Perhaps when he takes off his cap and clean pressed suit people treat him as another old man and judge him by his shaggy beard rather than the lines of wisdom on his face, treating him as a detriment to society rather than someone who fought to defend all of our freedoms. The woman is forced to wear her hair neatly up and make up to appear as though she is happy and the perfect wife. She is trapped in her own skin unable to tell anyone what really happens to her and how she is really treated. Both artists are making a statement about judging people from what they look like on the outside. Perhaps it is our jobs to look further into them. At first glance both works are simply a persons visage but by focusing on their eyes we seem to be able to learn more about the subject. We can feel closer to them by noticing the sadness in their eyes. While it is impossible to say for sure what each figure is thinking or feeling the sadness in their eyes is impossible to ignore.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Revision of Syn Arts Paper
Emily Lloyd Art is Art. Everything else is Everything Else
As I walked into the SynArts exhibit, quite confused as to why I was there with my English class, an intense abstract painting caught my eye. I am not the type of person who likes abstract art. I normally think that most abstract pieces are just a bunch of crap with no meaning, put on canvas, and then sold for large amounts of money. The piece by Ben Harley and Aaron Gimmell was different than that. The piece was hung on the far left wall and was painted on what looked like a very large notepad that had a red binding at the top. In the bottom left corner of the painting there was a grey cube. From the upper left hand corner of the grey cube were black and white stripes running horizontally. To the left of the stripes, right next to the grey cube was a small yellow square and to the bottom right of the grey cube written in pencil was the words “are here”. Next to those words was an orange triangle and in the middle of the grey cube was a random orange figure which looked as if it was falling from the cube. Above the cube was a lot of dark black shading that took up about half of the painting, this is the part of the painting that caught my eye as soon as when I walked in. The first thing that I thought of when I saw the painting as a whole was that it was one of the world trade centers burning. One of the main reasons I first thought of 9/11 was because of the grey cube that looked like a building and then all of the black smoke coming out the top and billowing all around it. As I looked closer and saw the details it made me think even more that this was what the artist was trying to portray. The grey cube looked like a skyscraper and the black and white horizontal stripes looked like streets and sidewalks. The small yellow square looked like the “No parking” cautions spots painted on the side of the road and the orange triangle looked like the kiosk maps that show you where you are and the way to get to where you want to go. One of the really drastic parts of the painting was the random orange figure falling from the building which reminded me of a person falling/jumping from the building. All these little things around the building made it seem like the city. I think that Ben Harley and Aaron Gimmell made this painting to remind everyone of 9/11. I think they made it such an intense painting because everyone is slowly forgetting about 9/11. They wanted to make an impact on the audience so no one could forget what happened on that day.
After I was finished looking at the first piece I walked towards the back of the room. As soon as I turned the corner there it was sitting on the ground. The piece was not a painting, but a sculpture. At first sight the piece by Alon Wingard scared me. The sculpture was made out of wood which was stained a very dark brown. At the bottom of this sculpture it looks like a wooden boat that is in the process of being built. It looks like the wooden frame that make the core of the boat, except this had no outer shell or anything inside it. The frame went from the bottom of the sculpture to midway up the sides, and then the scary part starts. From midway up there are sharp wooden spikes that stick out from all over. Some of the spikes come out horizontally and in between those there are spikes coming our vertically. These spikes are all different sizes, some coming out further than other ones. At the front of the boat the spikes are shorter than the ones all around the boat. When I took a step back from this piece I had to think very hard as to what this meant. I put a lot of work into my thought about this piece and after racking my brain I finally thought of Noah’s Arc. The bottom, even though unfinished, looked like what I think the arc would have looked like back in that time. The spikes represented God protecting all of his animals and Noah’s family safe from the sinful outside world. The fact that the spikes in the front of the boat were a little shorter made me think that God knew the path they were going, so they didn’t need protection in that area.
It is hard to compare two completely different works of art. You could clearly see that Ben Harley and Aaron Gimmell wanted to get a certain feeling out of their audience. I am sure that not everyone saw 9/11 in that piece of art work, but I am quite sure that the viewers felt some type of anger or strong emotion. I think they made this emotion come out very well because of all the black coming from the picture. The artists had a purpose for their artwork when they were creating it and they achieved their goal. The second piece by Alon Wingard was made to be more of a brain buster. I had to sit and think real hard about what it could be. This was one of those pieces of work made for people to just sit and interpret what they think it is. I think that Alon made the piece not trying to get a certain emotion out of the audience, but just to see what they thought the piece was supposed to be. These two pieces were not only different types of art, but they had two completely different reasons for why they were made.
Although I am not the type of person to study and interpret a piece of art, the Ben Harley and Aaron Gimmell piece made me do exactly that. When I saw it and thought of 9/11, I immediately got angry, but then that anger turned into patriotism. The artists accomplished getting that anger from me; the piece spoke drama to me. I never thought that a painting could have gotten such a strong emotion out of ME. The second piece, although an interesting sculpture, was one of those pieces that are just made to make you think. When I was studying the piece I had to try too hard to come up with my interpretation of what I thought it was. I find this type of piece unsuccessful because it is impossible to interpret. You never get a certain feeling from a piece like this because you are too busy trying to figure out what it actually is. I think that if an artist puts one of their works on display it should be made for the audience, not for the artist. Although not all the pieces were as much as an emotion grabber as Aaron Gimmell and Ben Harley’s piece, I think that this exhibit was not a waste of time. Sometimes it’s better to branch out from things you wouldn’t normally do.
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