Chapter 22

Getting caught up for Week 11
Chapter 22 Living with Art: 7th edition
Comparing and contrasting:
22.4 Mark Rothco Orange and Yellow 1956

With 22.5 Helen Frankenthaler The Bay 1963

Color field interested me for some reason. I am not sure why, since I am color deficient (I see colors, I just get confused and mistaken with some of them) and there isn’t much to look at with these two artworks in chapter 22.
I like the meditative aspect of Rothco’s art, and that simplicity is soothing. I suppose that my eyes can see the colors as well as anyone not color deficient, and the two go well next to each other. What is interesting to me is that the artist chose to use colors that are primary and secondary, next to each other as opposed to complementary colors opposite of each other on the color wheel. I don’t really know what the background color is, to be honest, but it helps to have it and I like that the orange is on the bottom and yellow on top , due to the nature of land being lower than the sun possibly.

I see The Bay has being water below land, below sky with a dark cloud or storm over it all…i.e. the lower grayish / bluish? green below..if I am right…and the land color (orangy brown?) upward to a pale upper atmosphere.
The dark color is blue or purple, or both (I am quite embarrassed right now even though I know this color defect thing is not my fault). I suppose that what I consider a cloud or storm might be interpreted as the bay overlapping land i.e. a view from above. It is soothing like Rothco, but more stimulating as well…contrasting I suppose. I also see a humanoid form i.e. a profiled head and neck in the dark blue or purple, and that may not be what the artist intended. We name hurricanes, so it being a profile head and a storm is not a stretch.

I also want to comment on Real, Super real, in chapter 22. I will compare and contrast
22.16 George Segal : The Parking Garage 1968,

With 22.17 Don Eddy: New Shoes for H 1973-74.

I like the idea of Segals setting up a scene with figures and props, much like the artist I presented: Sandy Skoglund and her same style. I like the Segal Garage one for the blankness of the figure compared to the color contrast of the garage area, and especially the work PARK. It reminds me of a Skoglund concept of putting the viewer into the shoes of the person or figure in the installation or artwork. I feel and think like the man Parked there thinking and feeling something when I see this. I interpret this as: We all need to stop sometimes, where we are, to stop and think. To contemplate, feel and experience the here and now. I appreciate the everyday environment used to get a viewer into the piece. The use of a word appeals to me as well. The conciseness and simplicity to say something with art, or just enable the viewer to begin their own unique internal dialogue appeals to my ideal style of art, and I needed to comment on this in my blog to say it, try and put what I like or want to do, into some kind of word description.

Eddy’s New Shoes also does something for me, as I am always out in the world taking photo’s with my camera phone of interesting views I have with nature, animals, insects and objects. I don’t know what it is that makes me do this, I just know now that I do, and it is obvious that others do as well. I am enamored at the approach of minimalism and photorealism, and I want to do this full time. It is so weird, and I am being very transparent right now and feeling a little embarrassed as I type this out. I like patterns and unusual situations that present themselves, like catching something happening that requires a quick response or thought. To me, it is like suddenly looking up and experiencing a falling star or rainbow, and wanting others to see it as well before it goes away.
Well, enough weird, and back to Eddy. I think he is basically just drawing our attention to something we all experience at one time or another, but just don’t verbalize or even recognize consciously.