My artists pick for chapter four

9/21/11 This week’s artists in Chapter Four:

I am fascinated by the techniques of implied light: Modeling Mass in two dimensions.
First, Manuel Alvarez Bravo: The visit (photograph):

Leonardo da Vinci: The Virgin Birth and Saint Anne with Christ Child and John the Baptist (Charcoal, black and white chalk on brown paper):

Being color deficient (not color blind), I have always been intimidated by art and color knowledge /color wheels etc…So when we are talking about dark and light, charcoal or very simple in color design or no colors, I get attracted to them believing that this may be where I need to go with trying my own artwork. The Visit has mystery with the illumination so close the robes, bottom more than top halves. It being a photo does not diminish its appeal or take- away lessons for other artists. With Da Vinci’s The Virgin Birth etc., there are also dark and light areas that highlight and create natural effects. There is the Charles White example of how to use stippling and cross hatching etc. These visual effects give me hope that my color deficiency may well enhance my abilities with these types of applications.

Raphael’s, “The Madonna of the Meadows” intrigues me for the same reasons I just mentioned.

I also work with refractive light theories in my occupation. The differences with how the light refracts off the faces as opposed to the landscape and clothing is a good way to highlight the subjects that the artist wants to stand out.

With Gericault’s, The Raft of the Medusa,

and it’s implied lines effect also have the light / dark contrasting appeal, creating mass and depth while the subjects and content highlight and produce movement and direction. I now see through these examples what art collectors and critics see that contributes to their favoring one artwork over another.

But the one of all of these that I would pick from them if I could would be Bravo’s, The Visit.

The subjects are both human and alien-like, and represent our human nature versus our spiritual nature. The spiritual side is the more illuminated side, and the human nature is in shadows. The light comes from without and above more than within, because we are created beings of a spirit being (in my view of life)...and we are all works in progress being transformed and hopefully becoming more peaceful in our nature which radiates out in appearance. I see waiting posture, possibly waiting for direction and guidance rather than moving and reacting. It is more realistic than the others, not so dramatic, and has a spiritual and quiet appeal. This is something I would put up on my walls at home.

9/20/11 Lecture
The thing that stood out for me most at this weeks lecture: The Statement by Gregg:
(Something like): Artists don’t always have the answers, what they are good at is
“Asking the right questions.”
That made me realize that I was always looking for answers in art, and wasting my time and energy.
The questions being asked are easier to speculate on, but there is some artwork like Marina’s that are controversial and not as easy to understand the questions unless she shares them.

I liked the Razor’s Edge theme about asking the question: are we going to follow to our own personal drum beat, or to the one we think we should have….
I began to ask that question of myself that night, and I can not conclusively say that I do, or that I don’t. I know that I was more free to follow my instincts when single, but as a married man, I now follow 2 peoples drumbeats that are overlapping and sometimes not too aligned at all. I know that I am not giving my God given resources like I would instinctlively give, and I am not going the places that I used to go frequently (i.e. dancing, poetry readings etc.). I have become another person since being married, so my wife says, and although I assume it is a complement, she disagrees. I know I am more flexible and less rigid in my thinking and attitudes, but I don’t think she can see that part. She has seen me become more lazy at certain home chores, which I claim is her rubbing off on me, but I regress….

I do think that art does something to me that feels like I need to explore and take a journey on my own.
While in Palm desert on vacation, I spent time alone going to many different art galleries, an outdoor wildlife type nature center / zoo, and I took a lot of photos with my camera phone that were…well, me letting my artistic self be creative and observant with the camera. I had fun. I got filled up. I needed that. I was inspired by all the creativity at those art galleries. I saw things I had never seen, and I want to go and get more of that. I do actually get that weekly now with our text. I love learning about the artists and why their artwork (better word could be artplay) is considered good art.

I wrote a poem today (too long to include here, and too personal anyways), so I know something is taking place in me..returning…changing…moving toward something more. I like Bill Murray’s character want more out of life than just ordinary and superficial…I don’t do well with superficial and small talk anyways, unless I am passionate, and the conversation goes deeper. I was always down on myself for being “Too” intense, but I am more relaxed with that as I read about artists and leaders who’s intensity served them and society well as a result. Whatever the journey has now become, it would be nice to stumble on a better sense of humor along the way.

Finally, I do believe that our society is the better for having citizens who march to their own drum, ie Georgia O’Keefe. They have inspired us and woken us up to social and political and moral causes that we need to address as imperfect and flawed human beings. Sometimes I need to be awakened, and sometimes, I want to inspire and wake up others too. Thanks to this class, I am learning how to do that better.

My video blog

Chapter three: Themes of Art

 What stood out for me in this chapter was the themes of nature and art, and the invention and fantasy section.
For Nature and Art and it's relationship to people, I picked up on the first sentence: "As humans we make our own environment.  And that is what I see Thomas Cole doing with: 'The Oxbow'

and Robert Smithson does with: "Spiral Jetty

.

I see that they both want to create something that they can somehow be a part of the creation, and I think the way Cole puts himself and the viewer into the art work is pretty cool:  He puts us in the same spot he painted the painting watching him paint it...

And Smithson gives us spiral jetty using the earth to create the art, and then walking out on his art work to watch it change and shift colors like a living thing that he created.  The differences are the material, and that Smithson has created the object entirely out of his imagination, while Cole both recorded something while creating something too.  Obviously there wasn't a storm that close at hand while he painted, and I assume he chose to add that part to say something about nature and possibly make an observation about humans as well.   

I wonder if the dark and the light, fury and the calm, the broken (tree) and the organized clean put- together crop fields all say something about the two sides of humans that emulates nature...the circle of life with the loop and how good and bad, sunshine and rain, ugly and beauty go hand in hand....

We have to respect the power of nature and the drive that makes us humans jump in and take on the rough stuff to put our smooth touches into the experience...embedding ourselfs, imprinting ourselves into nature.  We record it, but we also do try and make it our own, is what Cole might be saying...

The Spiral Jetty is a simple design on the surface, but on closer inspection, it is much more complex and ever changing like ourselves....we, like the spiral, enter into and grow / go deeper and further out as we travel and walk our walk.  We have a start, a long  journey which circles around to an end that is much like our starting. 

I would love to build sand castles and them walk into or onto them if I could...Smithson could do that with his creation, and I think that is really awesome.  He created the something that then begins to change and entertain him back, creating joy and awe...how cool is that!

And I would love to be a part of the nature environment I love the most, and Cole did that for himself and us the viewers...he shared the experience with us by inviting us in with him...I think it is ingeitalityniuous, and that is one of the things about art that I love the most...the unique and creative brilliance and aha moments that make art so much more enjoyable.  

What all this is doing to me is hard to explain, but by observing and sharing that observation and then adding a little of themselves... little more spark of the imagination...these artists are inspiring me to want to do the very same thing for others and share with them the beauty that surrounds me, and that is also within.

Okay...now onto more imaginative observations such as: Sandy Skoglunds "Radioactive Cats"

and Henri Rousseau's "The Dream"...

both fiction and fact in the sense that fiction is there..the imagination..but also the fact that desire and hunger are there which is their truth.  Both have woman and animals, both have the weird and the wild, both have the mystery and the alarming and both have the calm as well.   The differences are the color, variety and vitality....R. Cats speaks "The unfullfilled are going to feed the hungry 'It' .....and The Dream says"The hungry and going to get fulfilled by 'It'.   I wonder if Skoglund is telling us we are becoming desensitized and numb and old and dull to what should alarm us...I wonder if Rousseau is telling us: Hey, follow me into the wild unknown which is sexy and untamed, so stay alert, there is so much to see"!

I am only speculating as to what hits me about these, but I love their imagination and hard work they put into their art, each different yet speak about something that is the same: mystery.  All art is mysterious and I love this adventure.  My hope is that all people get the opportunity to enjoy and be made to think about what art might be saying and sharing with the world.  So far, this semester has been a thrill for me, and I wish this fun on all humans everywhere.

I missed the lecture, but got the lowdown just by reading others blogs on it. Reality, the Matrix and Inception all have one thing in common:  Reality is fixed, it is just that people can mix fiction with fact in their own heads.  I recall a dream I had as a kid about watching a 747 airlplane go down my Grandmothers street, and the dream was so real and repeated often so that I really believed I saw that. 
In these two movies, the main characters shed their denial and then learn that "What you believe you can achieve"...
And what reality and movies have in common also:  There are always good guys and there are always bad guys....and LOVE always motivates us to be our best.   And in my favorite movies, the good guys always win and the lovers always ride off together...but that is not reality 100% of the time.  

I believe that ART is a way to express who we are, while we learn what we are, while we search for the meaning of it all.  It is something I believe wired into us by our creator and we are all given the opportunity to find out what it is we were given to share with the world.  CREATIVITY  is in everyone and the kicker is:  There is no life that is meaningless or uncreative unless the choice is to take the easy way out and check out of reality.  Many of us do check out of our reality to watch someone else's supposedly true reality with REALITY T.V.     I checked out of reality for 10 plus years as an alcoholic,the reality is that I am still catching up after 23 years of sobriety. 

 How I see it is ...Reality is what artists are inspired by and how they tell the story of themselves and the world around them...what they observe.   Writers, artists, comics, teachers, and other types of creative types are just throwing out their spin on the same stuff:  Reality.  Sometimes you can make reality really funny as a comic, and lighten it up, and sometimes you can make it real sad, and how it is spun can have an effect.  That is what  artists hope to do I think:  Make an emotional impact.  What better way to cause us to think, than through the feelings!  ARTISTS tell us what is here and now (or reporting on what was here and  then).  IDEAS are what might be coming down the creative pike: Tomorrows reality.
I am sure there was more to the lecture and a lot more wisdom from Glenn, but the real truth is, I wasn't really there! So.. I will have to wait for the movie  

Chapter 2

This chapter is all about “What is art” and educates us in all the aspects of what makes art art… including the aspects of who the artist and the audience is, as a way of determining what gives art it’s meaning and purpose. 

In contrasting and comparing artists for Chapter 3, I would first like to compare and contrast the artists: Louise Bourgeois,   

and the Navajo man creating a sand painting.  

 We don’t necessarily know this Navajo man’s name, but we do know his intent and purpose as a Hataali singer, a religious specialist who calls upon spirit powers to bless and heal the patient who has an illness. 

I was fascinated by the drive and cause of both these artists to do what they do    it is the same product:  Healing of an illness.  For Louise Bourgeois, it is the healing of her own illness, and for the Navajo man, it is the healing of someone else’s illness.  Both driven to do art for the same product, but the reasons are different and the process is quite different.  I really believe that ultimately, all of us are driven to do art to either express and relieve ourselves of something for a positive result, and usually the product is either the helping of someone else first with a secondary byproduct and benefit of helping ourselves…or vice versa:  We are driven by our own need first, and in doing the work, somehow benefit others.  I believe that this is God doing for ourselves and others what we cannot do for ourselves and others.  This is expressed in the New Testament bible:   He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us               (2 Corinthians. 1:4 NLT).

I know that I am definitely carrying baggage from my childhood and past, just like Louise, just like we all are, that I am dumping or turning (my junk) into someone else’s treasure,  as I contribute and participate more and more in life whether it be work, hobbies or classes etc.  I am reminded of Gregg’s story of an artist finding a bullet-ridden metal barrel on the road side that he sold to someone for a mutual benefit.

I see many successful comedians who were shy, depressed and out casted kids find that making others laugh was their ticket to freedom from some of their pain.  I believe that I am in the same category as they are that Louise is, and sometimes, the Navajo man is in:  I want to create out of finding a solution to pain.  It doesn’t matter who’s…where you find pain, you will eventually find gain.  This is part of what makes us human, and what makes humans in the likeness of God.

This brings me to the next two artists that intrigued me: 

Joseph Beuys

and  Ann Hamilton. 

They are both performance artists who do the art to make a statement, implant a thought and maybe to effect a change, one viewer at a time.  Their art is temporary, as in the Navajo man’s sand painting, although there is no remaining photo recording for the Navajo man’s final product of his artistry skills.   The process is obviously worthwhile enough for them all to accept that the final product object to be mostly forgotten.  It is in the doing, the viewing and the contemplating that their work matters, not in the after effects of pride, prestige or price.   So I tip my hat to their principles as much as their product, as ingenious as it is.    

I am moved by their commitment to their ideals and respect the contribution that is directed for the greater good.  This is the artist I hope to be, if one at all.  I am not blind to the truth that I want accolades and material gain, and that I have to be careful not to let myself do art for purely the commercial and narcissistic reasons.  I am in Palm Desert area this week on vacation.  I was privileged to reconnect with my brother’s -wife’s -niece who has a job at one of the upscale galleries out here, and I visited not only this gallery, but half a dozen others.  I first viewed a $60.000.00 art pieces that seemed very easy to do and very simple in design.  I thought, ‘Wow…easy money’ and ‘I bet this is instant acclaim once just one of these artworks sells’;

(This shown was that piece).  

But I also have a side of me that I hope wins out.  The side that does art for the bigger reasons, more about using the God-given gifts and experience I have received to give back to my sphere of influence, as small as that is.  I never want to “Sell Out”.    And also I get concerned that I will lose my way, and not really produce anything that uses my true gifts and full potential.  I know there is something in me, in all of us, that is truly unique and genuine and authentically ours to give and present to the world.

As for what the actual artworks by these artists do for my emotions, enjoyment etc…I can’t really expound on them other than the principles because I did not witness the performances and the actual artworks as a whole.   In this chapter were artworks that stood out for me. 

Rebecca Purdum’s “Chin Up”

   

 intrigued me and made me curious to stare at it.  It invoked the detective in me, as did

Jan Van Eyck’s “Arnolfini Double Portrait”. 

Both have mystery in them and both make me wonder “Why?”  What did they have in mind?  Van Eyck’s was probably just recording the event, but why do the couple look so sad?   Maybe it is the spiritual moment that is causing a more serious appearance, or that is the artists feelings recorded.   And Purdum’s title causes me to wonder if the face I see of a man looking down to the left side is her telling us to keep up a positive attitude.  Why leave the piece as it is and not give more clues?   The amount of details given is very different when comparing both pieces of art, but both cause me to feel a little sad and melancholic.