Art Appreciation Blog

Printmaking Matrix

The original template or "matrix" i used to make the prints.

This was an attempt at a rubbing.

Green Acrylic Paint Print

Yellow Oil Print

Color Wheel

This is an original color wheel mandala designed and painted by me!

I chose Book With Wings by Anselm Kiefer as my piece. This piece combines the two common iconography pieces of a book, which represents knowledge and learning, with wings, which represent an ascent not just physical but metaphorically rising above situations or obstacles. This piece is made of Lead, Tin, and Steel which adds to the ironic value of the fact it has wings. I specifically like this piece because I have a little bit of a background in iron and metalwork and can appreciate the time and effort that went into this piece. each page and each feather on the wing are seperate pieces welded or attached on. the book is on a basic T stand used in common construction. The most obvious element of design used here is form. Kiefer chose to keep the mediums natural color which i think adds a cold hard feeling to the piece. The principles used are Balance (symmetrical) and unity. What I believe Kiefer was trying to convey was a two part message, that knowledge can help us soar to new heights, and that this piece was meant to encourage. This was part of a two piece series, the other book with wings have droopy battered wings which deliver the other part of the message that knowledge can also be a crutch and hold us down like when we become too cocky and closed minded. This is an example of representational art. I like this piece and think it is nice to look at and makes the viewer think. Kiefer was from Germany, and constructed this piece between 92 and 94 but I don't believe that added any cultural differences because these icons are used worldwide.

One Point Perspective: The Illuminati Descendeth

Miguel

This is Miguel. Miguel is a professional gamer, but it hasn't always been that way. He was born in the humble town of Mississauga, Canada. In high school he considered himself a lone wolf. Instead of belonging to a particular clique of people he was friendly with everyone and moved without conflict throughout ALL the high school tribes. Upon graduation, he ran into quite a conundrum. He had no aspirations to continue his education, nor did he have any REAL life skills (because that isn't the type of thing they teach in high school). He had but one passion: fast, intense, online gaming. Miguel decided he would make it his purpose to earn a living off online gaming or die trying. Counter-Strike was Miguel's game of choice, so he picked up his controller and he gamed his way to the top, but he didn't stop there! PlayerUnknown's battlegrounds came out, and now Miguel is not just another player of the game but the NUMBER ONE STREAMER ONLINE! "Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness" - Confucius

Irreversible Change/Selective Memory

At first glance at this piece in Terry Hays thought provoking "Irreversible Change/Selective Memory" it

just seems like a couple of burned up trees but as with a lot of art the more you look at it the more you see.

I looked closely and noticed that hays started off with just a black background and formed a pattern using

white dots. From there it seems as though he started putting circles and different shapes such as triangles and

even little cockroaches onto the pattern to make it more interesting and less boring. The way he created

depth into the piece with wooden cutouts of fire and even using actual tree branches added yet another

dimension to this piece. The little nuances he incorporated into the pattern on the burned up branches really

makes them pop.

I did some research on Hays background and influences and in addition to the obvious influence from

traditional art in regions such as Japan and Australia, Hays' was influenced by graphic novel artist Frank

Miller (one of my personal favorites). Hays states on his website that this exhibit was inspired by natural

disasters going on in the world at the time. He is interested in the way a natural disaster can wreak havoc on

lives and cause a sudden change. In a moment a person can go from having a life that is fine and peaceful,

to knowing that nothing will ever be the same again. This piece specifically seems to be inspired by the

California Wildfires of 2012. I believe because of that, that this abstract piece conforms to Richard's

philosophy of art that it is symbolic and conveys a message and feelings.

Look at this photograph!

This art conforms to the platonic philosophy of art because it combines the real photo of DeTavian, and then combines it with color filters to create an IDEAL version of the world: Colorful, bright, and happy!

This photo ALSO conforms to Richard's philosophy of language being an art. This photo is a lot darker, I used editing software to intensify the highlights and the shadows in this image. I like to think of this image as just a moment in time in the middle of a storyline where a man is rolling a die for his life, and has a brief moment of hope. All this man's hope, however, is shattered at the moment of this image where the die lands skull side up, which is obviously an indicator of his fate.

An avant-garde photo, where I edited with the details so all you can see is black figures and white spaces, edited contrast for little spots of color that POP! I was trying to create beauty, but also enhance my environment.

This photo conforms to the Aristotelian idea that art's main focus is to imitate nature. This photo of an empty classroom with light shining in from the outside found beauty with no need to add color lenses or any special effect. Life: beautiful the way God created it.

This photo lives up to Richard's philosophy that art is a language. This piece is saying "I'm Diego, and I'm a cute playful puppy licking' my chops!" I love the way you can see the little tooth hanging out on the top. Just one though, thats super important!

Dat painting doe

This is an abstract painting I have created. It was inspired in part by the piece "Owh in San Pao" by Stuart Davis. I decided I liked the word "owh" so I threw it in there to make my homage to Davis true and obvious. The bottom half almost reminds me of some minimalist art, the way the solid color trumpet stands out against the blue background. The top half of the painting, however, has a lot more going on, and I kind of like the fact that thats how it turned out. Almost like a yin-yang balance sort of deal where the top half has all this chaos, and a jagged transition between the two background colors and everything is uneven and distorted, while the bottom half is a lot more calm but not in a lame way. The bottom half almost demands your attention more than the top part because the trumpet is the origin of all the chaos. The other neat fact about this painting was that it seemed to paint itself. I started with the word OWH and everything came from that, inside at the last moment I decided I wanted to put a trumpet in so I did.

What makes art "ART"?

Lately the subject has been coming in conversations up in my daily life, "What is art?" I have to tell you, it's got me thinking. I've heard tales of cats and men painting with pee, people using elephant dung, performance artists of all sort, and shallow "pop-art" pieces.
To me, art is a lot of things and covers many bases. It isn't just painting, and sculpting! People make art for all different reasons, to relax, to make money, to vent emotions, to make statements, to persuade people, to break monotony, to 'stick it to the man', to make the world a little more beautiful, and sometimes just to see if they can!
When I start to consider all the different reasons it seems like it becomes even HARDER to decide what constitutes art. Me and a friend were talking about the Andy Warhol "Piss Paintings" where he literally peed on canvas that were primed with metallic ground. There is a lot of debate up to this day whether or not this counts as art, I mean, ITS ANDY WARHOL for God sake! OF COURSE ITS ART! Then again, WHY was he doing these things? Some sources say its experimental. Maybe so, and maybe he figured, if it happens to sell then so-be-it!
At the same time Jason Mercier is catching flak for making celebrity portraits out of everyday objects. But he has spent up to a YEAR making some of them, whereas Warhol's piss paintings could have only taken a matter of minutes.
When it comes down to it I believe it's pretentious to decide if someone ELSES work counts as art or just "craft." If someone pours themself into something, and spends that much time on it, if it holds that much meaning then it MUST be art! It doesn't make a difference whether it is Michaelangelo's David, or gimmicky pop art. What I WILL say is that there are different levels of art.
High art is what we think of when we think of "famous artists." Monet, Rembrandt, van Gogh, Raphael. These days it is a little more difficult to determine though, with so many different ways to make art! To me high art is the traditional mediums. Form sculpting, lifelike painting, abstract painting that still makes a clear image, art that the MASSES can identify with, that takes an incredible level of skill, a detailed eye, uses color to evoke emotion from the viewer.
Low art is a little more difficult to define. Anytime you get into classifying someone's feelings are going to be hurt, but in my opinion at the end of the day if you are making that art for the love of the game, and out of your heart it really shouldn't matter THAT much. Low art to me stems more from the motivation, and the technique than the finished product. People making "art" experimentally, or just to be weird, or different, for "shock value" is going to fall in the low art category. Lets revisit these "Piss Paintings" I mentioned. These to me would fall under low art. They were experimental, crude, don't SEEM to be making any sort of big statement, and just kind of seem like a shocking artist being a shocking artist. Now, I love some of Warhols work, but he put out so many different things, that they were hit and miss!
Someone should never be offended that their art be labeled as high or low, at the end of the day I believe true artists make art MAINLY for themselves, considering everyone else's responses second! With all these evaluations I've made I hope we never lose sight of that, because at the end of the day art is ever changing, and with it, these definitions. Technology is changing, we have new mediums to display our creations on. What isn't considered art or "high art" today, may be considered a classic tomorrow! With that in mind, let nothing hold you back, go out there and CREATE ART!