Learning

Through this course I have found certain types of art I really enjoy and others I could go without seeing much of again. I have discovered that minimalist art is probably the most appealing to me at this time. It is so simplistic but can represent so much, depending on who is looking at it. Areas learned in this class have really helped me out in my art 107 class as in with creating styles of art for projects.

Take down

We took our final projects down last week, which was kind of a bitter sweet experience. Knowing that this class is over is a relief in terms of the semester of school ending, but this class was definitely one of my more fun filled ones. I really hope to see some of this people next semester, the creativity and fun attitude of the whole room made this class enjoyable.

Thursday April 26th

I have no assignments left in art 108 so I will tell you about the work I am doing in Art 107, it is a rainy day so I might as well finish my final project early. I am currently looking for an appropriate size box to create my self portrait sculpture. As I was researching Joseph Kosuth, I began to develop a idea for my project as seen above. His use of neon lighting made me think lighting would be a nice touch to my dark box.

Piet Mondrian

Composition in 

Red, Blue and Yellow

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Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was an influential artist in the style known as De Stijl, within this style primary colors as well as non-colors are used, meaning black and white. Horizontal and vertical lines are used to create rectangles and squares as well, this style is striped down to the basics of art. It functions as a means to observe negative and positive elements as well as provide a non-objective lines and shapes.

Joseph Kosuth

It was it

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Joseph Kosuth

Joseph Kosuth is a conceptual artist who focuses on the fringe of art rather than producing art itself. He says, "The 'value' of particular artists after Duchamp can be weighed according to how much they questioned the nature of art." The piece above is a definition with a neon sign in front, he often used neon signs to create a stark contrast in his pieces. 

Judy Chicago

The Dinner Party 

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Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago was part of a handful of feminist artists that pioneered the expanse of females in the art world. She even taught a class that was specifically for women. She is known for large installation projects like the one above that examine women's role in society. She includes stereotypically feminine art means as in needlework, but also contrasts that with the stereotypical masculine work; metal work, welding, etc. 

Guerilla Girls

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Guerrilla Girls

The Guerilla Girls are an activist group that we have discussed in class before, they began in the 1980s in response to the gender inequality displayed within visual arts. An exhibition was held at the museum of modern arts which featured 169 male artists and only 17 female artists. The unequal representation prompted the formation of this anonymous group of women that wore guerrilla masks and preached for equality within the arts. 

Jean Arp

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Jean Arp

Jean arp aka Hans Art was a French sculptor, painter, and collage artist.

"He was a pioneer of abstract art and one of the founders of Dada in Zurich, but he also participated actively in both Surrealism and Constructivism. While he prefigured junk art and the Fluxus movement in his incorporation of waste material, it was through his investigation of biomorphism and of chance and accident that he proved especially influential on later 20th-century art in liberating unconscious creative forces."*

*Source: Oxford University Press

Museum Critiques

We critiqued all of the museum projects not only from our class but also others. I believe our project was relatively successful in comparison to the others, what really threw ours off was being placed to the Red Museum because it was so well done and had many artifacts. I think that the Red Museum, Sharpie Nation, and the excavation museum were the best overall. Ours was nothing to sneeze at though. I did notice most groups needed larger fonts or tidier cuts on their plaques. 

Final Project Musuem

Art 108 Final

This project was a collaborative effort, my group consisted of Megan, Jeff, Ashley, Chris, and myself. Our initial concept was a post apocalyptic world where all the silly theories of the end of 2012 would bring. Well that idea changed when our project was chosen but then drastically revised into a whole other project. It became Earth 2060, the Last 38 Years. We each provided a piece to add to our museum display , I contributed the Baby Bjorn instructions which simply put,  showed what it is used for now and what the future inhabitants would use it for. 

Adrain Piper

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Adrian Piper

Adrian Piper was one of the first women in the boom of woman as artists. Her conceptual installation pieces create a meaning behind the thoughts of the artist rather than just what is represented within the work. Her early work was very psychedelic called LSD paintings, these were done while she was still in high school. She then moved on to self conscious awareness works which inspired her short lived street performance career. 

Final Project

 Art 107 Final 

I am currently taking another art class thought by the same teacher. I have been assigned to create a self portrait with a cardboard box as the canvas. For this project I have been inspired by some works and arts found in art 108 as well as my art history class. I am in the process of constructing it currently using photoshop as well as copper piping and recycled box material. Above is my rough sketch that has kind of a deeper meaning to it. My father passed away right before I was suppose to go to college and the gradient within the piece represents my family and friends pushing me to quickly move on. The bars represent the painful memories fading away then re-accuring.  

Donald Judd

Untitled 

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Donald Judd

This work by Donal Judd was one of the earliest out of the minimalist movement. I highly appreciate simplistic art like this due to its clean structure and varying sizes. I have even been inspired by this particular piece for my own work as my final in Art 107. The main purpose of this art is to show off the construction of the piece as well as the space it provides.  Judd began his career as a painter through surrealism then moved onto working with woodcuts.  These woodcuts went from figurative to very abstract, then the concentration of the work was as stated above the construction of the piece rather than a particular representation. 

Salvador Dali

Persistence

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Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was one of the most well-known surrealist painters, his painting Persistence as seen above is widely well known. "He took over the Surrealist theory of automatism but transformed it into a more positive method which he named `critical paranoia'. According to this theory one should cultivate genuine delusion as in clinical paranoia while remaining residually aware at the back of one's mind that the control of the reason and will has been deliberately suspended."*

*http://www.duke.edu/web/lit132/dalibio.html

Museum style art

In class we learned about our upcoming project where we have to create a museum style project. Apparently there is a whole community of artists that use techniques similar to ones in museums. One of the artists even went so far as to put himself within the glass box and create plaques to describe himself and his life. We have chosen to collaborate as a group on this project; Jeff, Megan, Ashley, and I. One idea we have come up with thus far is the evolution of the hipster. I even may have found a create display case we could borrow/snatch from the geoscience building. It's just sitting under the staircase so I figure its up for grabs.  It might be pretty comical to put one of use in it with all the hipster cliche items on as part of the exhibit.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

Garden of Eden on Wheels

The Museum of Jurassic Technology focuses on the history of obscure objects and a strange sense of art. We watched a video of it today in art 108. The museum features exhibits like the one pictured above all the way to an x-ray bat story. The bat was supposedly able to switch the echolocation sense most bats have into x ray waves allowing the bat to fly through objects. On display is a thick lead slab that they used to capture the bat. You can see the print of a bat on the front side as if it is encased within the slab. Other displays include tiny sculptures on needles, mice on toast to show that mice used to be considered a dietary aid, and even a human horn. 

Jim Hodges

Buoyant Monoliths

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Jim Hodges

Jim Hodges is an artist in New York currently but was born in Spokane Washington(right up in my neck of the woods). Hodges explores many types of media not just installation pieces like the boulders above but also graphite drawings, and photographs. Buoyant Monoliths is a piece created from using gigantic boulder and covering them in reflective colored metal to give off distorted mirror images.

Chris Fraser

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Chris Fraser

When I stumbled upon this artist I was instantly intrigued. Chris Fraser uses light to create installations that are precise and vary on the light spectrum. The roots of his work date back to when photography was being developed; it is photography at it's basic elements. Fraser aims at creating living photography; reflecting life. As stated by Fraser, "The camera is not a device but a situation; and rays of light that we walk into, wear, and change. Even the smallest of gestures have aesthetic consequences."

Tamir Sher

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Tamir Sher

Tamir Sher is another artist who uses discarded outdated items to create beautiful works of art. He is a photographer that takes famous paintings and iconic cultural figures transposing them onto records. Photo taken at variable speeds on a record player give the swirled effect as seen above. These works are not just blurs but they are recognizable. Not only repurposed records are used but also the images themselves are taken to another level.

Gerhard Lentink

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Gerhard Lentink

Dutch sculptor Gerhard Lentink carves wood into almost puzzle like figures. The complex woodwork is very detailed yet provides a see through effect with the intentional blank spaces. The work is suppose to represent society and how we carry certain loads, and adapt to our surroundings. The wood grain to me is very beautiful and if painted it would distract from the raw nature of humans and the piece. 

Amanda Skibska

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Anna Skibska

Skibska is a glass artist who uses thin glass filaments to highlight the object underneath, but still allow for an airy sense to come across. The objects are suspended to allow for the glass to catch light creating a shine for the viewers to see. We learned about Skibska in class very early on as an example of a skeleton and skin project. 

Louise Burgeois

Maman

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Louise Burgeois

Louise Burgeois is a very famous sculptor known for contemporary art. We learned about her early in the semester in art 108 as we were introduced to various famous artists in the 3 dimensional art world. A French-American woman who made great strides in the art community, and in the American art world.  

Richard Serra

Sequence 

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Richard Serra

Giant metal installations are Richard Serra's speciality; another artist that was presented to me in art 108.  The walk through installations aren't only visually appealing but as stated in class the smells and textures help make the experience even better. They are made from iron and other metals which change in color and smell with different climate changes. The huge metal sculptures are very impressive to me, the sheer scale is mindblowing.

Rita Ternes

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Rita Ternes

Rita Ternes is a well known ceramics artist that was introduced to me in 108 earlier this semester. She is cuts out shapes from clay as most people cut shapes out from paper, using these shapes to create 3 dimensional objects. She also paints the forms with lines or other geometric shapes to mimic the overall shape of the piece. This particular piece is very appealing to me due to its non-representational concave slopes.

Andy Goldsworthy

Broken Pebbles

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Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is an artist we studied in class, we watch an Art 21 video on him. He is a european artist who lives in Scotland that uses nature to create artwork. His art is usually photographed due to its ephemeral nature. He creates pieces of work out in nature away from humans, creating large egg like sculptures is one of his favorite types of work. Stacking rocks to balance them into a structurally sound piece.

Chuck Close

Lucas 

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Chuck Close

Chuck Close is an artist who has gone through some extreme medical conditions, he has been paralyzed since 1988 and suffers from prosopagnosia, even with this he continues to make enormous portraits using photo realism and pointillism. I really admire his artwork and am so impressed by it and him. 

Book Project

Book Project 

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Morgan Braun

For this project I wanted to use a political approach to create meaning. I bought a used John McCain book then carved a Republican elephant out of floral foam and painted it red(the color of the republican party). I displayed the elephant holding a cross to show how Republican ideals are christian based, that the Republican party hold religion above other things. I made the elephant carving thrusting out of the page to show how in our faces some Republicans are with their beliefs.

Sketches Page 2

Assignment 3: Book Project

Sketches page 2

Sketches page 1

Assignment 3: Book project

Sketches page 1

Sketches page 4

Assignment 1: Sculpture project

Sketches page 4