Art 21 Reflection#3

Florian Maier-Aichen:
Is an photographer who spends a lot of time perfecting his work. He spends a lot of time with color and shading in his work. Maier-Aichen uses an older camera that makes his pictures have this sort of older look to them. He also adds his own drawings to many of his pictures by taking the picture first and then adding his extra details after. Maier-Aichen is very keen on color and experiments a lot with adding different colors to his work, as well as using different filters. He uses colored filters on some of his pictures, which adds different tints of color to the places he wants color to show up. Maier-Aichen loves abstract art and tries to add little things to his work that makes it abstract in their own way. I can relate to his work because I am a photographer and photography is a passion of mine. Maier-Aichen will wait all day and night just to get the right shot and picture that he wants. He sometimes has multiple steps to his work, such as taking a bunch of pictures with the filter and then putting all of the pictures together to create one good one. Maier-Aichen will sometimes add things such as lines or abstract objects to his pictures. He also does a lot of color changes and object things to his work on the computer.

Hiroshi Sugimoto:
Is a photographer who takes pictures of lots of objects as well as 20th century architecture. Sugimoto works at his loft and is able to control the light and backdrop when he is taking pictures of objects like fossils at his home. He photos aren't crowded, they are pretty bland, but there is something about his process and the thing that he takes pictures of that really stand out. Sugimoto develops his pictures at his home in his dark room. Many of his pictures are just black, white, and gray, but some of them have some brown tones, he plays around with a lot of the neutral colors. He collects lots of fossils, which he takes pictures of and shows some great detail. Sugimoto uses an old camera to take his pictures. I can relate to his work because sometimes I think that taking a picture of something in just a plain color can make something look very beautiful. I like how his art style changes, some of it looks more modern and other subjects look more detailed.  Sugimoto has math in his 3D work, he also tries to design the setup for his space for his art shows. His work has good details and show how he looks at the objects and things in different ways.

Process Reflection#1

This week in art I was able to finish my clay work. I was very happy with the way it turned out and with the fact that I finished it. I was able to start my symbolic portrait and draw a sketch for the idea I have to my independent project. I challenge I had this week was coming up with an idea for the independent project. I decided that I did not want to stick with my first idea, there for forcing me to come up with something new. Once I had my idea I was able to come up with a great sketch of what I wanted to do. Another challenge was finishing the clay project, I had trouble coming up with a scene or thing that could represent the person I was trying to make symbolically. My next steps for this coming week is to finish my symbolic portrait, work on my independent project, and finish the mural with my group. I plan to get most of these things, if not all done.

Art 21 Reflection#2

Ellen Gallagher:
Is and Artist who uses lots of collage, paint, and carpentry in her work. Her goal is to show the moods, feelings, and different sides of people and things through her art. I like the way she takes regular pictures from newspapers and things and adds paint, and materials to her work to make it look amazing. She talks about peoples emotions and feelings in a picture that she makes come alive just from adding more materials to her work. Collage is something that I enjoy doing, but the way she adds to much more to the collage is what makes it into something that I can relate to and want to try out. She has a lot of characters in her works the come up more then once. Many of her photos are from Ebony magazines from the 1920s. She has collected all of these photos from over time to use in her art. For one of her shoots she took many different black in white photos and added her collage and color to them. Ellen also does some paper carvings of designs, shapes, patterns, and objects. She does tattooing in medal works of photographs and paintings. Other collages and project that she does has more meaning behind them as well as lots of different materials to create one large amazing piece.

Cai Guo Qiang:
Is an artist who uses gun powder to make his drawings come to life on the page. His goal is to show his audience that art doesn't always have to say something to be great, it can just be something. Qiang's father was one of his inspirations. His father used to draw little landscapes on used matchboxes, as well as paint on silk scrolls. He says that when he first starts a drawing it is like falling in love for the first time. Qiang makes his work not knowing how it will turn out in the end. In the end his is either happy with his love or he isn't. I like that way his paints look with the animals and shapes in the middle, and the explosion around them, it reminds me of spray paint kind of. He first draws the animals and shapes on the paper and then he sprinkles the gun powder around them in a way that keeps the shapes and such in a form people can see in his art. I can relate to his art because sometimes art isn't made to be perfect, it is made to be something unexpected and amazing at the same time. Imperfections in art are sometimes what makes the piece better then it already it.

Independent Project Planning

For my Independent Project I would like to do some sort of collage with all different people (men, women, children) of all different ages, from different places coming together. I got the idea from my "Girl Power" collages that I was doing for a while. It was something in my sketchbook that I was making that I enjoyed a lot.  For my project I hope to accomplish something fun that uses many different materials besides collage. I want to make something with different material that all look good together. I hope to also make people think about all different types of people coming together and being able to be live in the same world. That is my idea so far, I may change it up or add different thinks to my final project idea.

Sketchbook Archeology

When I first started my sketchbook I didn't spend a lot of time working on it. I would make some picture that turned out messy on a page in pencil and say I was done. Once my teacher Ms. R told me to add more color in a comment on my blog process I decided to try something different and add paint, collage, colored pencil, and even quotes. Once I started doing all of this I started getting really into my sketchbook and looked forward to turning in my sketchbook to see what Ms. R said about it. I think my sketchbook has played a huge part in my artistic development because it has really made me think about the types of things in art I am interested in, like making collages, or painting an whole spread a pretty red purple. My sketchbook was also a great place for me to get my ideas out on paper and a way for me to try different things with different material that looked good together.

Materials:
-Pencil
-Colored pencil
-Pictures and words from magazines
-Paint
-Glitter glue
-Paint markers 
Themes
-"Girl power"
-Quotes and drawings
-Body part drawings
-Objects, such as fish bowl, shell, water cap, ext..

Inital Reflection

At the begin of art this year I tended to struggle with some of the drawings from observation. I had no idea where to start my pictures and it was normally a challenge. Now at this point in the year I am not struggling with drawing from observation challenges. A strength for me this year in art class has been doing the magazine collages. I have had lots of fun making the collages and I got many different ideas for them that I hope to continue to explore. Things that I will leave class thinking about is how art doesn't always have to be perfect, you can turn a paint splatter on a page into something beautiful. I have had lots of fun with the project that we have done, like the sculpture from trash. I never got to finish mine, but at some point I will. The brainstorming in the sketch books has been a very helpful thing that I will continue to use throughout my years in art classes. Just being able to look at what I planed to make before I made it was very helpful for me to be able to make changes and see what I was thinking visually. Art class this year has influenced my life by making me think about the project I do and how I am able to add different materials to a project and make it work. I would like to go to college to photography and I realized that I need to have different art skills to get me there. Art this year has shown me the importance of different types of art and using all of your ideas to make one big great one.

Artist 21 videos

Jeff Koons: Is an artist who uses many different materials and objects in his work. His work is different from other artist I have scene because he uses many different bold objects in his work that send a message and work with his style. He is a very exact artist, so many of the things that he does happen for a reason. I can relate to his work because I think that using different materials in one piece of art work can make a great piece for the artist. Jeff Koons is trying to get different messages out with each piece of at work. One time what he did was put a big blown up lobster in a room and said that if you looked at it for a long period of time you would begin to picture something being burned by the stake. 

Marry Heilmann: Is an artist who started to create art in hopes of getting some sort of response from the people who look at it. She was someone who wanted the artist to think about what they where looking at and ask themselves questions. She wanted some responses that would make her look at her work and make her think about what she was doing. She became an abstract painter. One thing she tends to think about with her work is scale, titles, and possible music that may be playing in the background. One thing I liked is that with some of her paintings she wants to tell a story. As apposed to Jeff Koons, who uses lots of different mediums in his work, she mainly uses paint. Marry Heilmann tries to get emotions across in her work. I can relate to some of aspects of her work, like choosing a title that fits, but other parts I can relate to because when I am making a picture or taking a photo I just do it and don't think about what other people may thing about it.