Logo it...

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In my process of creating the logo it was fun trying to figure out what truly represents me. But, as a college student I already know what I love to do and where my love has lied for a long time. Softball is the one thing that I have always counted on for a release and it is one thing that truly defines who I am. I work hard and dedicate most my time to making myself the best athlete I can possibly be at this time in my life. What else do I really have to worry about other than my education right now? I will never have this opportunity. So, I thought creating the logo was interesting trying to narrow it down to certain things that show who I am and at a glance you could tell that it is me. 

The process I used, well that is similar to what I talked about earlier. I first tried to figure out what truly represented me and I knew it would have something to do with softball, but I am not just softball I also have my brain and education that stand out among other things. Then, I just had to figure out which direction I wanted to take it. I know that I needed to be able to show who I was through a quick picture and I think if someone was to look at the logo I created they would realize that it was me and describes who I am. The next thing I did was just start drawing, which is what they say is the way to write (free writing). It is a way to get ideas flowing and see what direction you want to go. 

The most important discovery I made while creating my logo was that I am not just softball or just education. I am a lot of things. I am a special girl who has come a long way in life and my path hasn't been the easiest, but I am not just one thing. I am more than that and when they say "substance over beauty" well I think I got lucky in both departments even though I am not exactly your Victoria Secret Supermodel, I am not ugly either. I am not going to lie that the biggest discovery I had made was about myself and not necessarily about art, but I think this goes to show that when an artist is creating something they learn more about themselves and who they are. 

The videos and powerpoint were interesting because a lot of it was stuff that I have learned in my marketing and business classes. I want to go into advertising and that is why this necessarily wasn't a difficult assignment for me. I loved being creative and being on the business end of things. The videos actually talked about how a logo has to be universal meaning it has to be able to be used on letterhead, a website, business card, or even a napkin, if need be. But, it has to make sense and show some type of image that portrays the business. I thought that was interesting to think about because when you look at Nike that swish is EVERYWHERE! You can put that swish anywhere and everyone knows what it means, "Just do it!" That is what intrigued me the most was that you really need something that can be used on any surface and any medium. 

Art Gallery Visit #1

 

 



 
 

 

 

 

 

  These two pieces really made an impression on me. At first, you question what the artist was trying to get across but then you read the description of the purpose behind the art and realizing the beauty and sentimentality behind the art. The first one is by James Drake painted in 1996 called " A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing." The artist used charcoal in the process of explaining the relationship between the convicts of El Paso County Detention Facility and their loved ones. Sign language was used to convey messages among long friends and family members.  The second painting is by Ursula von Rydingsvard created in 2003. It is currently untitled but the artist used graphite and methyl cellulose on vellum to create this masterpiece. It really left an impression on me in the fact that the artist tried to infuse her art with her emotional experiences from refuge camps. When it's really focused in on you notice there's a man sitting down and a young boy in a faded color.

 

 

I felt a connection with the next two pieces because of the mediums that were used as well as the color selection. The first piece was by Jason Middlebrook created in 2012 by steel and fiberglass. What drew me to the sculpture that made the biggest connection with me was the refracting colors of the fiberglass. The artist actually arranged the colors nicely that there are portions of brown, green, and blue all mixed together in spots. It was amazing to see. The second one is from 2006, Reed Anderson titled "Midnight Peacock Music." This piece was done with acrylic on cut paper. The thing that caused my connection with this painting was the beautiful arrangement of colors and the different pictures that are found throughout. You can notice the owls that are found throughout, the wings, and just all the technique. It is gorgeous to look at and appealing to the eye and the mind.

 

These last two images I would love to know more about. The first one pictured is by Sandra Cinte painted in 2009 on acrylic and permanent pen on a canvas. What made me want to learn more about this image was the waves that bring shipments in and shows the struggle that ships face on their journeys. It is amazing to truly see the beauty that is brought forth when you look at the painting and I would love to learn more about the artist and the inspiration.  The second painting shown is by David Hammons from 2001 on harlem earth on paper. It was intriguing on how the artist got the texture on the paper. He did this by rubbing a basketball in the dirt and bouncing it on the paper, giving the paper the texture. But, the overall meaning is related to the young black children that are growing up with psychological issues. I would love to learn more about how the artist came about this technique as well as more about the painting in general.

Exploration #1

 Exploring this idea of color and the way colors work was interesting. In completing this project I originally had thought how easy this was going to be. But, when I started and realized that I was learning something new that I was taught wrong my whole life it became difficult. I know personally I had a hard time creating the blue between mixing magenta and cyan. That was difficult for me and it may have been the colors or the amount of each  I was using but I couldn't get away from the purple. So, instead of sitting and spending more time than I already had and pulling my hair out figured it would be a good observation to talk about and explore in my reflection. 

I think I enjoyed working with the charcoal the best on the value scale. It was difficult to create the different shades of colors, but it was intriguing that so many colors can come from just one color. You don't realize that with the different amounts of pressure and strokes you can create anywhere from black to white. I did enjoy the paints because what kid doesn't like painting, but I  think the fact that my colors were off made it harder for me to enjoy what I was doing. I didn't see it transform as I wish I would've. 

The most important discovery with the creation of these studies was that colors are endless. One can create colors from other colors and so on and so forth. It also laid ground for the art world, mixing colors and layering them in ways that you can use one medium in various ways. Artists didn't have to stick with certain colors with painting. They had their own ability to create colors that they needed or were intrigued in using. It just opened up many doors for artists around that time and laid a framework for the future. 

The thing I learned from the videos in this project was the primary colors. Although extremely simple information, I have always been taught that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. That is what every child is taught in elementary art class and keeps with them until they are old and grey. To learn at this point in my life that those aren't the primary colors was pretty shocking for me. The primary colors are actually cyan, magenta, and yellow and the secondary colors are red, blue, and green.  Who knew that what I had known as primary colors would be the secondary colors. I was just extremely eye opening! I liked the videos in this module because they were shorter and they got right to the point they were trying to make and put forth. It was good. I think I got more out of these videos then I have the other ones just because it was easier to focus. 

Project #1

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The process of this project took a while to figure out what I wanted to identify for each one of the elements and principles. It definitely wasn't easy coming up with those. I think the one I had most difficulty with was unity and emphasis. I felt these two were harder because this is real life, it isn't something you can just paint to look a certain way. It's reality whatever you are looking at and you don't have the ability to change it unless you use an editor or manually do it through a website. What helped me was having the list right in front of me and slowly going down the list and if I found something that would work for something later on I would either take the picture or write it down just in case I found something better. Plus I do remember the text talking about how paintings can be more than one of the elements or principles and that most are going to be more than just one thing. So, that made it slightly easier but also more difficult because it made me question what I wanted to use certain photos for even though I could use them in multiple categories. 

Once I got the pictures all figured out, the most difficult part was getting them uploaded to photobucket and trying to figure out how to use the website because trust me it isn' easy. As anything though, with practice it becomes easier to use and easier to navigate it just took a long time to upload things and make sure they all were labeled with titles. There is no true rhyme or reason why I had picked these photos. I am just an athlete and my life revolves around softball so why not share my love with others in a way that they can find beauty in it on their own. I also love the outdoors and hiking at Letchworth, if you are going to do a project and have the freedom to choose why would you choose something that didn't interest you. The photos are all about what I feel and these are what I felt and what emotions came to me when I was taking those pictures and had seen the potential for the first time.

Life in Color..

Colors allow have the ability to be able to effect the viewer's emotions. Color can be how one takes cool color such as blues, purples, black, and other dark colors and mix them with brighter warmer colors such as reds, orange, pinks, and yellows. But how you see these colors is based on what is being reflected with the light. Colors are reflections of light and that is why the sky is blue and so is water. The water or sky absorb all other color rays, but they reflect the blue ones at that is why we see blue when you look at either one.  These reflections of light that we see can play with the viewers emotions. When using more dark colors the viewer gets the feeling that something dreary is going on and it brings feelings of sadness, depression, possible anger, etc. When an artist focuses on warmer and lighter colors provide the viewer with a happier image. 

The thing the interests me the most is the theory from the American painter, Mark Rafco, who was trying to provoc an emotional response from people using color and color alone. He used very intense reds and maroons that created paintings that brought forth feelings of captivity and anger towards those who were looking at them. Jane, the main artist in the video, uses his theories about trying to really bring forth emotion through her painting of Venice. This is the part of the painting with color that she is struggling with throughout the video. I like Rafco's view and purpose because he tried to use the colors he used to bring forth emotion and feeling. It was something he strived for even though the overall aspect of his painting would bring forth such feelings it would emphasize the emotion with the color scheme speaking for itself. 

The biggest thing in the color video that impacted me in regards to color and emotions was that painters really strive for the emotion to come from the colors they use. They push themselves to the limits and start over many times to find the right color schemes that bring the emotion they are looking for. The color and emotion is what artists feel can make or break a good painting and describes how they are feeling. That was a big thing also is that painters are able to show their feeling through the colors they use in their paintings. So, if you really look in depth into a painting you can probably identify how the artist was feeling at the time they had painted the work. It amazes me that we still view paintings that were painted hundreds of years ago such as Leonardo De Vinci's art, but to this day you can communicate with them through the after-life. It becomes visible how they were in that stage of their life, all through the language of colors. 

The feelings video was interesting and it drew a lot out of how the colors really impact that mind and how it moves through your brain. The thing that stood out to me the most was how when looking at paintings you can tell how emotions are being spread by the body language of those in the painting. In the Jesus image, you could tell that they were picking and bugging Jesus just by the way they were pointing and gesture while he had one tear rolling down his face. But, the bystanders bodies were not slumped and their faces had small smirks. The slopping of bodies and emotions on faces show the geometry and true gleaming of faces that would be coming. One can feel emotion just  through looking at how those people are sitting.

The Beginning of Art...

Journeying through the first week of this course and trying to take in as much as  I can about art. The first video "Aestheics: Philosophy of Arts" focuses mainly on the beauty of art and how it became to be. The video talks about the middle ages and how the idea of beauty was controlled by the cultures dedication to God. There were three laws that were created the first one of these laws was the  principal of formal order. This is a way that people can criticize and analyze art. The foundation of aesthetics was laid in 18th century England. The video talks about how nature is a big part of aesthetics. It helps unite sensibility and reason with means of the imagination. Nature is a natural beauty that artists can bring themselves to beatify and share with the world. Although there are emotions that go along with beauty, everyone has a feelin that is brought by with beauty, but there is no true science involving beauty. You can't make a complete scientific theory based on feeling and emotions, people can only make hypothesis's based on past experiences. The video also talked about a German philosopher believed there were three ages in art: Eastern or Symbolic art, Classical art, and Romantic art. Art is a way for someone to reflect and express someone's way of feeling or emotions.

The second video talked about the importance of the discovery of symmetry, symbolism, and artistic composition. These three important parts the make up art and have been noticed in the development of art. This video mainly focuses on the genetic and brain involvement of art. The first part talks about how the brain has developed and how we have evolved over the centuries. This relates to art because your brain processes the visual arts that you are seeing and needing to comprehend. Without the ability of your brain to visually comprehend and relate to the piece of art you are trying to relate too one can't find an emotional connection with the art. Focusing mainly on the brain and how it reacts to art is this videos idea of aesthetics. This specific video talks about how people's brains work with analyzing and gaining the emotions that one feels.  It was interesting to find out that if you are conscious or non-conscious your brain works in two different ways and processes this in different orders.

The article focuses on also how the brain functions and relates to art except it mainly talks about how the brain recognizes lines, colors, and shapes. Adding specific colors, lines, and shapes makes a two-dimensional canvas painting appear to the viewer as 3D or makes it become alive if it is something that the viewer has seen before. A good example they used in the article was that when you are in a room there are no black lines outlining anything, but if someone was to take black lines and draw them out on a sheet of paper you'd be able to recognize the layout and relate it to your home and it becomes almost a three-dimensional image in the viewers head because it is familiar. It was also informative how they talked about the Mona Lisa and that when you look at the eyes she seems to be smiling more than when you look at her mouth as well as she has a pinky look to her cheeks when you focus on her eyes. The article focuses on the idea of perspective and that your brain has it's own way of working, functioning, and relating lines, colors, and shapes.

Wittgenstein from the 20th century has been one of the most influential on the world of art and society. He created a new idea of language and that for a word to be a thing you had to consider the uses of that word. So, the example from the first video that was used was that fruit such as plums, oranges, apples, and fruits of this nature are a family with common characteristics. Wittgenstein brought the use of language into art and didn't just focus on the beauty, but he brought it into the regular world as well. George Dickie was also part of the 20th century and he believed that " a work of art could be anything that the Institution of the art world declared as much." This is a big belief because back in the day it used to be paintings, sculptures, and architecture were focused on as art. But because of the new beliefs they made it possible for some artists to be considered an artist. Just like the one who took a urinal out of its normal setting and set it in a new location and was able to consider that a form of art. Dickie created a new standard of art and brought a new idea forth into the art world.

The most interesting thing I had discovered from Changeux's scientific view of art was that when you are bored with something your frontal cortex isn't activated. So when you are looking at something that has no entertainment or meaning to you that is why your brain doesn't stay invested. But, when you are surprised and your frontal cortex is active you have created the pathway for the emotions to start flowing. So, the connections you feel toward art isn't  brought by an inner feeling it is actually a reaction brought forth by your brain liking the form of art, whatever form it may be in. Ramachandran starts by talking about how he prefers not to use the word 'art' because there are universal cultural meanings in which art can mean completely different things. So, he actually started just calling it visual aesthetics to make sure people can understand what he is talking about. He goes on to talk about how there are 30 areas in the brain that just focus on analyzing visuals and break them down into different areas. Our brain is actually capable of distorting the image and when an artist distorts an image it forces our brains to work in many different areas. A person's brain works as problem solving once you find the right image and it provides a sense of accomplishment.

The videos and article relate to the text that was assigned because the text talks more about the art itself and how aesthetics relates to art. The text also goes over specific artists and their type of art and what they focus on when they paint or create sculptures. But, the two videos and articles focus on how the brain functions and analyzes the art the those same artists create. With the text we read learning about the types or art and the in depth parts of aesthetics related to art, it was informative to learn about how the brain works with those aesthetics. This way you can identify not only the art but realize how your brain works when you are looking at the art and trying to figure out what that artist was feeling or what the purpose of the creation was.

For me personally, I like that idea of using the videos and article to emphasize my learning. It helped add on to what the text was trying to go over. But, I am not going to lie sitting through almost two hours of videos was not easy especially because they were very educational and informative. Your brain kind of wanders and you have to be able to keep yourself focused. I actually had to turn the captions on so I could understand what they were saying and trying to emphasize. They were not the easiest to understand during the presentations they were giving. But, the captions helped me stay focused and read along to what they were saying. In regards to the text, they went along with what we read very well and that helped me piece some things together that I may not have without them. It helped me realize why we were reading about the human experience and nature. You question at first why, but then as you get through and listen to the videos on aesthetics you realize that not only do the artist focus on how they can make their piece best seen by the viewers, but the viewer uses their brain in various functions just to figure out what the artists point was. So, in my opinion yes the videos and article were long, but they did help me understand where it was all coming from and the base line of what we are going to be focusing on and what I need to do when it comes to comprehending a piece of art.