New Earth Art Project

"Seaing" (Bark, Leaves and Blue sheet).

"Seaing in Dim Light"

"Seaing in the dark"



This is my Earth Art. I was out in the windy and rainy weather recently, and found an area that had some bark, leaves and stems from the trees scattered on the ground. I saw these two pieces of bark and immediately thought of whales, or some kind of sea creature, but did not plan to do an aquarium scene until I got all the stuff in the house and sat down to check out all my treasures I found on the ground.
I started with just colored paper as a background once I did decide, but then remembered I had an old blue sheet that would enable me to go bigger.
Experimenting with the phone camera in different lighting, I came up with these three different but similar photo's of the artwork I named Seaing. I haven't thought of a better name, and don't plan to, since it was seeing a sea idea in the bits of nature that signifies the name. I really enjoyed playing around with the different ways of arranging the leaves and bark on the blue sheet, and then trying different views, angles and lighting until I arrived at this angle, and these three different light backgrounds. I think the lack of resolution with my camera is a doing a disservice to the natural colors of the leaves and bark, but that is what I did before dismantling the whole thing, and I want to move on now. I hope you can get the feeling of motion when you look at this, because that is part of what I hoped the viewer would see. The time it took was consuming, I don't do this stuff very fast at all, but I enjoyed the process, have no cares about what others think about it, and feel good about this first Earth Art I personally have ever done.

11/22/2011 Lecture

11/22/2011

In response to this weeks lecture on beauty vs. sublime, realism vs. romanticism, I would have to say I like Glenn’s last comments in regards to balance. Romantic art or other pleasures that offer hope and motivation to achieve more in life is very important. I think the romantic and beauty in life are critical to making it through the sublime, mundane and ordinary everyday life stuff…But the Sublime and ordinary practical things in life are also necessary…the real stuff keeps my head out of the clouds so I can see where I am going and keeps me from falling down. There is a reason the romantic people tend to marry the down to earth types and vice versa. It’s easy for poets like Keats to recite “Beauty is all you need” or the Beatles to sing “Love is all you need”, but the real world is not giving out a lot of jobs for being romantic. So I agree with the idea of balance of both realism and romantic.
I, like most of us have seen Beauty become ugly, and Ugly become Beauty, and not just in the movies. I have been blessed to see ugly redeem itself and transform many times over with people.

I think Beauty can be all things, moral and good and lead to higher things, and I think it can be negative and drop to lower levels. In art, I have seen no unbeautiful things, if done sincerely and with effort.
Even Goya’s Saturn is beautiful in its own way.

It’s raw beauty at least.

If an art work depicts something in life I don’t like, but still has attractive colors, and is organized and thoughtful, then I personally don’t call it ugly. If an art work is both unorganized, too bland and also is not thoughtful and unattractive to many, I believe the artist can still find the beauty within it from their own perspective. That is the beautiful thing about art: It is subjective at its core. The art I like is the art that artists MUST do, whether or not critics rant or rave (Banksy the graffiti artist presented by Courtney comes to mind). Whether or not, art is beautiful or romantic or ugly and sublime, makes no bit of difference to me as long as it makes me stop and think, smile, gasp or causes me to be inspired. Those are the qualities in art that keeps me searching both within and around me for more of the same.

Chapter 14. Last text chapter blog of Living with Art: 7th edition

I hated having to end my text blogs with this chapter, as it was one of my least favorites…The Egyptian stuff pretty much bores me to sleep…the flat paintings.…but knowing a little bit of history to go along with the art always adds some caffeine to the sleeping pill. I chose to compare and contrast these two first:

14.14 Fragment of tomb of Nabamun, Thebes c. 1450 B.C.E.

and

14.19 Toreador Fresco from Palace at Knossos c. 1500 B.C.E.

I like more, not less usually in my favorite artworks, and 14.14. has a lot to offer. I like the details and the color, as well as the variety. 14.19 has much less variety and not much in the way of details or color.
I still dig its simplicity and graceful curves of the bull and acrobat, the abstract quality of the simple drawings and the way the color is used. Just the way the bull dominates and choice of shape and size compared to its meaning and importance to the culture is kind of cool.
The painting from the tomb of Nabamun is extra cool in meaning and adds a lot of extra to get this guy to eternity off right. The artist took care and time to do the details of the fish, the birds and placement of hierarchy of items painted in to this. The color of the reeds and plants / flowers to the left is repetitiously artistic and the fragment like quality makes this even more awesome. Not my favorite, just my favorite painting in this chapter.

Here again is another type of wow! and huh?:
Huh? first:



14.28 Aphrodite of Melos (AKA Venus de Milo) c. 150 B.C.E.

14.29 Laocoon Group 1st Century C.E.

I get that Aphrodite / Venus is missing arms and mirror and just staring at self beauty, so I shouldn’t judge its blasé pose doing nothing but staring. I just get bored looking at it, even though I can appreciate all those details in the robe and hair and such…The hair should be long in my opinion, and the face sculpted more perfect like it has makeup on, not so plain. Nice Body, okay, and the clothing slipping down is sexy. But not to much to hold interest.
On the other hand, I like the action and tension in the Laocoon group. Maybe its cause I’m a guy. But the rippling muscles of dad and the scared look on the sons holds interest. Not to mention mad crushing snakes.
I don’t like violence and tragedy, but this is a more interesting statue and story, so it’s worth spending time and effort on for an artist and it’s viewer.

Chapter 16. Living with Art: 7th edition

I really enjoyed Chapter 16. I learned some things about linear perspective and landscape composition. I learned more about many famous artworks that I have seen in the past, but did not appreciate until learning more about them and their details. I know a few of the classmates do not like this reading and comparing and contrasting from the text, but I really enjoy it, and will continue reading all the chapters. In this chapter, there were many artworks I would have liked to spend time on, including Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert. However, I chose to compare and contrast the following:

16.1 Donatello St. Mark 1411

16.9 Michelangelo, David 1501

I appreciate the skill it must take to carve marble with such details. Both statues are life-like and I expect them to begin moving like those actors who paint themselves white like statues and stand really still in Las Vegas Malls and them move when least expected. I think that David is more realistic in the facial features and I like the stance with the extended and bent forward left foot. The muscles in the neck and abdomen are very natural, and the way the right hand claws and bends fingers is also done so well. I really wonder if different lighting would change the appearance much, especially the shadows on both sculptures. These artists certainly knew their anatomy and the similar stances with right shoulder down, right hip out and left arm and hand forward are all signs of the similar anatomy lessons they had. I think both have their excellence in different ways: Donatello for the way he sculpted the natural and detailed draping and folds of the robe, and Michelangelo for the muscle tone and details of the nude body. I can see why they are both in the text. David is my favorite for the intense expression in the face and direction of eyes.


16.16 Giorgione The Tempest c. 1505

16.17 Titian (Giorgione?) Fete Champetre, 1511

Similiaities are in the details and the darkened faces, and tree trunks, but there are differences too in the grass and ground and sky, so I would say that the differences probably mean it was Titian who did the Fete Champetre. Both are detailed, well balanced and thoughtful. I lke the tall thin plant in front of the nude and baby in The Tempest. The greater amount of contrast in The Tempest between light and dark, is more attracting. Both use linear perspective and place landscape centrally, but The Tempest has the landscape more dominant than the people of the two. I also like the movement in the trees with The Tempest.

Hume Lake Deer

Had to share another Hume Lake photo taken by friend who was with me. The deer in the area grazed often near our cabin room at the place we were staying. Sometimes it was a group of 14 and other times there were different groups of 10 to 12, mostly female. We were amazed at how close they came up to us as we sat nearby talking quietly. This photo was so cool because of the one who looked up centrally among others who did not. It was such a great experience. Magnified and bigger, this photo made for a great screen saver on my laptop.

Chapter 18 of Living with art, 7th edition.

I would have to begin with contrasting and comparing,

18.6 Page from Quar’an 1307:

18.7 Bahram Gur and the Princess in the Black Pavillion, Bukhara 1538:

I both works are beautiful in their use of shapes within shapes, and colors. I like the spade like shapes attached to the left side of the former, and the contrasting layered colors. Such amazing details in both artworks! The former has calligraphy writing that also has complementary details. I also like the organized balance that makes up the page, all margins nicely framing the framed artwork. The Princess piece is also appealing for the same artistic balance, colors and details, however, the organized shapes connect and flow from one to another, adding more to look at and admire. I especially like the figure watching from the above window behind the curtain, and I think the artist was very smart in that choice. Both artworks are staggering in their effort at detail and colors, and without even knowing the details; I would have bought these if the price was right and hung them on my living room wall.


Also of interest in this chapter, were the sculptures:
18.14 Seated Couple. Dogon

18.15 Gwandusu, Bamana, 13th to 15th Century.

To begin, 18.14 is fun to look at the exaggerated bodies of this couple. How the legs attaches, the belly buttons etc. I find the male touches of genitals an interesting cultural statement, and the best part is the arm around her shoulder. Both have so many similarities and the differences stand out more. I think it is the kind of sculpture that I would want to do…realism exaggerated.

18.15 also has the same similar sitting position, length exaggeration, but less so, and the simple facial features. The boobs are the focal point with the hat, all very pointy. But there is continuity so that the entire piece gets admired and the way the child is carved onto the mother I think stands out more that the boobs. I can’t say I would buy this, but I think I would have stopped and admired the details, including the arm band decoration, and appreciated the work that went into sculpting this artwork, especially because it was made in the 14th century approximately.

Chapter 19, 7th edition of Living with Art

In C. 19, my 7th edition, I liked 19.30, The Descent of Amida and the twenty five Bosatsu,

where a Buddha, Amida, and his attendants coming down from heaven to welcome a soul to paradise. It's a subject I like, heaven, and the details, color, angles of lines and viewing are all done well, and balanced. I like the landscaping and think the artist catches the glory and the mystery of Raigo, the subject of the artwork.

Also favored is The Burning of Sanjo Palace, 19.29, also of the Kamakura period, late 13th century.

This Handscroll also has many details, but I like the emotionally charged action and motion. War and violence are subjects I distaste, but I like this artwork for the flames to the right, the balance of heavy and light and overall well done drawing of the details in the horses.

The other two were: 19.28 A Solitary Temple amid Clearing Peaks, hanging scroll.

It's also mysterious, like Mordor in The Hobbit books. There is motion and direction in just the details of the bridge, village up through the cool branches of tree's, past the temple and then the eye just wants to travel up the mountain. The details are to be admired and it is a place one wishes to go on an adventure.
It also speaks patience and solitude, and the higher spiritual side of me connects to Li Chengs masterpiece.

Similar in some ways is 19.23 Qui Ying, Golden Valley Garden.

Also a hanging scroll, on silk, it has a movement and direction from lower to higher, both in viewing and emotion. Apart from the other one, there is a garden of different people, who stand out in white, amidst the darker colors of folliage, and is a likeable contrast...but alike in that there is help for the eyes moving upward through the piece. Just as the group higher up feels like we are getting away from busyness and commotion to peacefulness, so the progression from nature to people to nature again with the trees taking us up to the mountains. Unlike the previous work, this one combines nature and people to stimulate emotion and identifying with it's human subjects, and how great a place this would be to commune. The details are again quite plentiful and agreeable to look at. Balanced and unique.