Notes

So Others Might Eat

2010-03-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

Watch the video and read the article! http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/15/gif.empty.bowls/

Scott Campbell

2010-03-02T21:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.scottcampbelltattoo.com/

Kate MacDowell

2010-03-02T21:05:00.001-08:00

http://www.katemacdowell.com/index.html

Laurel Lukaszewski

2010-03-02T20:55:00.001-08:00

http://laurellukaszewski.com/index.html

Sit Knit Kit Fit Lit Pit Knit Knit Knit

2010-03-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellejorgensen/sets/72157594511765675/

Gisele Ganne

2010-03-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.giseleganne.com/

Jan Banning

2010-03-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.janbanning.nl/

Cupcake Head

2010-03-02T20:32:00.001-08:00

Go Against the Grain

2010-03-02T20:23:00.001-08:00

Somewhat Fair Trade Plugs! Buy them!!

http://www.againstthegrainwoodstudio.com/index.html

My Glass House

2010-03-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

Karen Lamonte is a glass artist I first saw at the James Renwick Gallery in DC. What you don't see is most of the dresses have impressions of a woman's figure on the inside as well as the beautiful casted dress on the outside. Her work is amazing! To see more of her work her website is http://www.karenlamonte.com/

"Fluted Dress" shown.

Pineapple don't Look like Apples.

2008-04-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

Pineapple is my favorite fruit. When most people think of pineapple they only think of yellow, but a pineapple comes in a few more colors and they work to a pineapple buyers advantaage. A pineapple goes through three phases. The Green phase, the Yellow Phase, and the Red Phase.

Many people think that the way to tell if a pineapple is ripe is to pull on of the leaves out of the top of a pineapple. This is extremely false. Looking at the color of the pineapple and taking note of the smell is the way to tell. A green pineapple, although may look pretty, is not the type that you want. Sugar in this fruit is how it ripens well. When a pineapple is green it means that the fruit is not getting enough sugar to ripen correctly. It is good however to have a little bit of green in the pineapple.

The sugar in this fruit comes from the bottom and ripens as it travels up. A ripened, ready-to-eat pineapple should be about half yellow and half green. The lower half should be pretty yellow. The more yellow the better on a pineapple. This means the skin is soaking up a good amount of the sugar and making the insides softer and juicier. A yellow pineapple with a little bit of green skin at the very op is in perfect eating condition.

Lastly there is the red pineapple. This is not the pineapple you want to eat under any circumstances. A pineapple with red skin usually will also have oozing cuts, and brown leaves. This is a rotten pineapple. Red pineapples have had all of their sugar sucked to the surface causing the insides to become white and mushy with a taste like vinegar. Many people do not ever see red pineapples because they are usually never in supermarkets or fresh produce stores because these are the pineapples with the mold.

Many people never know how to tell that a pineapple is ripe or not, they usually just take one that looks good and hope for the best. Truth be hold there is a serious science to finding the best pineapple.

Image found at http://swadofindia.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html.
Information found at http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-a-Pineapple-Is-Ripe.

Old Glory

2008-02-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

The colors of the American flag have been a sign of patriotism since day one. This is the most prominent symbol of our country in its whole history, but how did these colors come about? The three official colors are Dark Red, White, and Navy Blue.

Dark red is a symbol of many things. In our flag it stands for hardiness and valor. Since our flag was adopted from the Union Jack flag of Great Britain we need to dive into those colors too. The red in the flag of United Kingdom is from St. Georges Cross, which was originally the flag of only England, and St. Patrick's Cross-, the original flag of Ireland before the United Kingdom became one. The red signified the strength of England during their wars.

The white in our flag, many people just see as a filler color but just like the other colors it has just as much meaning. In the Union Jack flag it does not have any meaning but this is not the case for our beloved American Flag. In our country the white does not mean surrender, but it means Purity and Innocence. It shows the beauty of our country in the Innocence of the raw country, when it was settle by Pilgrims. However in the United Kingdom flag, the white X in the center is for the flag of Scotland, which was St. Andrews Cross. This one of the three main components of the British Flag, our father flag.

The last color is that deep Navy Blue. The blue, the most regal color I think, stand for Vigilance, Perseverance, and Justice, Three things that our country is in abundance of. This famous color dates way back. It dates back to the Blue Ensign of Britain's Royal Navy's historic "Blue Squadron". The blue in the flag of Scotland however was a much lighter blue, causing it to be not related to the color in the American Flag.

Many people think that the colors of the flags of the world are just picked at random. This is a huge misconception. They are carefully picked and have a lot of background behind them. Sometimes the color of its flag is what makes the country.

Information from Wikipedia.com
Image from GlobalGallery.com

If something is red but you can't see it, is it still red?

2008-02-26T17:24:00.000-08:00

Many people are misinformed on what color blindness actually is. People who have not had knowledge about this usually jump to the conclusion that it is when people can only see in black and white. That is a serious misconception. Color blindness, or color vision deficiency disorder is when someone is unable to distinguish between colors. Another misconception is that you can only become color blind if you are born with it. This is also untrue. Although the majority of color blindness cases do deal with genetics, it can also happen through damage to the eye, nerve, and brain. It can also be contracted through certain chemical exposure. One thing that is very true about color blindness is that it is most common in males. It is very rare to colorblind female who was born this way.

Color blindness comes in many different forms. The most common red-green hereditary photoreceptor disorders. The two different categories in the red-green hereditary photoreceptor disorders department are Monochromacy and Dichromacy. Monochromacy is the complete lack of ability to distinguish between colors. This usually happens gradually over a period of time. Another kind is Rod Monochromacy. Rod Monochromacy is a non-progressive ability to distinguish colors. Non-functioning retinal cones usually cause this. Light sensitivity and poor vision can cause this type of color blindness. The second type of this disorder is called Dichromacy. This is when one of the three basic color mechanisms in your brain is non-functioning or completely absent. The three types of Dichromacy Color Blindness are called protanopia, deuternopia, and tritanopia. Someone with protanopia sees mostly shades of yellow and blue in a standard rainbow.
Deuternopia causes someone to see tints of yellow and blue in a standard rainbow. Since the most severe of the three is tritanopia it has the biggest effect on the standard rainbow. This disorders causes the individual to see tints and shades of pink and blue instead of red, yellow, green, indigo, and violet. All of the colors seen in all of the types of color blindness are very similar and very hard to determine which is which.

How do you know if you have color vision deficiency disorder? There are many ways for someone to figure out that they are color blind, but the official test is called an Ishihara Color Test. Many people have seen these and I believe everyone has taken them in grade school. These test look like a bunch of colored dots. The dots have a hidden picture in them, usually a number or a letter. The picture or image is done in different color dots, making it easily recognizable for the normal, but for a colorblind eye it is almost invisible.
The Ishihara tests have strategically chosen colors to help identify color blindness. The colors chosen are ones that colorblind people often cannot distinguish between. These test are easy a painless and take less then a minute.

Color blindness is not a deadly disorder. Many people live functioning lives and have color vision deficiency disorder. Color is a beautiful thing and many people do take it for granted, but color blindness is not the end of the world.

All information gathered from different searches on Wikipedia.org.

Color, in a different sense.

2008-02-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

So much revolves around color. Whether it's color-coded or pastels or a vibrant color, everything has some kind of connotation in our heads. The biggest thing that sticks out in my head about color is race. I'm not a racist, but I can't help but notice how it is still alive in well in our society. I don't mean in the radicals with their shaved heads or their white sheets. Take a ride on the metro for instance at 7 or 8, a little after rush hour. The cars are still crowded but there are still not many people standing. Take a good look though. You'll notice when the middle aged to older women or men get on the train, if they are white and go sit or stand next to black male or female, the white person automatically clutches their purse or moves their briefcase closer to them. Many people will say "Oh I’m just moving out of people's ways", but there is a huge difference between being considerate and being ignorant. Any person who looks hard enough can tell. Also, the judgment isn't only on people with darker skin. The second a white person with nice clothes steps on the metro, most people automatically assume they are some stuck up rich suburban resident that has never worked for anything. There is so much racial judging on the streets that usually goes unnoticed. Even in the Asian and Muslim communities. On lookers automatically think that Asians are tourists or trying to sell you something cheap, and they think that Muslims are these poor martyrs because people think they are terrorists. Color can be good, obviously especially in the art sense, but sometimes it is the beginning of a lot of people's downfalls. I wish I could say racism is dead, but it is very far from it.

Colo(red)

2008-01-30T21:28:00.000-08:00

The color red has many different meanings. It can remind people of anything from cherries to Satan. The color red has many different social implications. On my journey through Wisconsin Ave on Thursday the 24th my group and I found almost ten completely different things that were significantly red. The first thing we found was a stop sign. This is the first thing most people think of when the color red is mentioned. Stop signs are basically the most common red object that people see. The significance of the color in this situation is to catch the eye and symbolize danger. Stop signs are often at busy intersections and placed where people could be speeding therefore endangering their lives, so the color red catches their attention causing them to slow down and take a look around. The fact that red symbolizes danger in this sense it makes people be more cautious.
The second color red we found was in the Party Store. It was a large Valentine card with a big heart on it. The Heart was completely colored red. In this sense the color red has a social indication of love. Love is almost always associated with the color red. It may be due to the fact that red is a very passionate and vibrant color and love is like a burst of passionate feeling. It also catches attention like the stop sign. The red in the Valentine was practically the same as the shade in the stop sign. Both grabbed our attention very abruptly. The color red is a true attention getter and when something is red it very rarely goes unnoticed.

Conceptual Intellectual

2007-12-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

The first Conceptual art movement started in 1967 and continued through 1978. The art form started, however, in the early 1900's. One of the most famous pieces of conceptual art was Fountain by Marcel Duchamp. This is a quinticential piece of conceptual art. In this installation Duchamp took an old fashion urinal and signed it R. Mutt. That was it. There was no embellishing or distorting or manipulating of any kind. This is basically what conceptual art entails.

It doesn't involve the physical activity of making an object, such as sculpting or painting, but rather putting "ready mades" together to create a piece of art work. Readymades are things that are already such as the urinal in Duchamp's Fountain or the chair in Joseph Kosuth's One and Three Chairs.

I feel that conceptual art let's your mind do the work. the definition of conceptualism is that the universe exists only in the mind and has no external reality. I think that is made very clear in the art of the conceptual period because the artists seem to just give you something to look at and let your mind go crazy with thoughts and opinions about a simple object that you see everyday but never really take the time to look at.

Pictures and information from http://en.Wikipedia.org

Dada

2007-10-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

The Dada movement in the 1920's was a very interesting movement. The visual art in the Dada movement was mostly surrealism. The artists that cotributed to this movement were Marcel DuChamp and Man Ray. Allan Kaprow also was a major part in the Dada Movement, mostly in the performance art section of the time. I really liked the findings of the activities in te Dada time period. They were very simple yet very entertaining. The one we did in class oday and another I read about where people would all have their hands on a flag pole and walk around it simultaneously. All the activities were so simple, yet gave a good laugh to myself while I was reading them or doing them. I'm no really sure what the purppoes of these activites were, but i do know that most Dadaism works were done in protest to World War I. Maybe the simple protest was laughing and enjoying their art work, because I know happiness and laughter was in abundance during the first World War.

This image was found at http://www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/hofmann.php

Mirror Mirror in my Hand.

2007-10-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

The activity presented to us today in class was to a) Find a partner, b) Go outside and take a walk, c) Stand back-to-back with your partner, so that you're able to see your partner's face in your mirror, d) As you slowly walk away from your partner, make a face (as children do); try to imitate the face of your partner, and e) Continue until you can no longer see your partners face. When my partner and I were actually doing the activity, I found it to be a lot harder than I imagined. When I first read the directions sheet, I thought this would be such a breeze. As my partner got further and further away from me I began to not be able to see her as well as I thought I would. The mirror was a small place to focus on and as it got further from it, it became even smaller. By the time my partner was about 6 feet away from me I was trying to utilize the colors in her face to imitate it. Instead of focusing on what she was actually doing, I tried to see if the lower half of her face was darker, if it was I could conclude that her mouth was open and I was looking into it. If it seemed like she did not have eyes, I could imagine that she was squinting. By the end of the activity I could only tell if her mouth was open or closed, besides that I could not see her inside of her blue mirror, and my green one.

Also, by the end of the activity I had reached a certain state of boredom. Today in class I was very tired and I'm sure that did not help my eyesight. When the class got up to venture outside, I got a little burst of energy because we were able to move and walk, but by the end of the activity, I was even too tired to laugh at the silly expressions on my partner's face. Overall thought I think it was a good activity, and maybe if I had stopped and gotten a cup of coffee before class I would have enjoyed it a little bit more.

Good Job DuCHAMP.

2007-10-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

This painting entitled The Bride Stripped bare by her Bachelors, Even but Marcel Duchamp had me utterly stumped. At first I thought it was some type of futuristic landscape in the top plane and then a sort of 1970's living room in the bottom half. The top half to me looked like a desert with a robotic bird in it and blank speech bubbles at the top. The blank speech bubbles made me think of an unfinished comic book. The second half seems to have a couch in the center of it with a propeller type of object coming out of the center. The mannequin looking figures on the left side of the painting is the only thing that could even remotely resemble what Duchamp meant them to be. The only way they do resembles the Brides Bachelors is because they have the shape of a human figure. Even though they are human figures, it seems more like it would be a walk in closet of some sort instead of seven or eight men. The circles in the upper right corner of the bottom also resembles a coffee table which convinced me even more that this was a still life of a living room. I was way off in that interpretation and I was just completely baffled when Pat read us the article and showed us the website of was Duchamp was actually interpreting in this painting.

Getting more into the physical traits of this piece, the only thing I really appreciate in it is the fact that it was done on glass; cracked glass. That makes me imagine that Duchamp found the piece of glass and thought out this elaborate story of what he could paint on it. If I were to find a beautiful piece of cracked glass, I would try to paint something that went along with the story of me finding it. I do not however, like anything else in this picture. The brown tones aren't terrible, but I think if it was done in a grayscale with one color added to certain spots to emphasize important parts than it would be much more appealing. Also I think that this painting is very unbalanced. In the top half the only part of the painting that is utilized is the left upper corner and top strip. The rest of the upper plane is just plain white, which causes the eye to get very bored very quick. The lower plane of the painting is less unbalanced but still has a lot of boring areas. The left side of the painting, just as the top was, is still where the majority of the objects are. It may be due to the fact that there are so many objects over there that makes it seem left heavy, but I think the bottom plane of the painting, the left side unparticular is very clutter. I think it is too cluttered for the piece. The composition and color of this painting could have been better.

Overall I do not think this is a successful piece. I look at it and it just frustrates me because it is confusing and an eye sore. The composition is sloppy, the color is not enticing and the planes really do not compliment each other. I do not like this painting and do not appreciate Duchamp's decisions made in it.

The above image was found at http://www.woestenburg.nl/dada/afbeeld/duchampverre.jpg.

Pattern, Pattern, Pattern.

2007-10-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

Patterns are a very unique thing. They can be made up of the simplest unit, but can create the most extravagant pattern I believe that the use of the corners in a unit is essential to the pattern working out. The corners will really bring each square together and almost create an optical illusion for the viewer. It makes it a little harder for the viewer to find the single unit that is being repeated. Also, there needs to be some kind of repetition with the way the units are turned in each square. This causes an overall uniform pattern that will create a nice composition. There are so many different ways a pattern can be formed. There are man made patterns and patterns in nature. Man made patterns include brick walls, quilts, and patterns on the bottom of tires.

There are also patterns that simply appear and the human race has nothing to do with them. These are patterns in nature, such as snowflakes, shells, in different styles of plants, and many types of animal prints. Nature and man have been creating patterns for years and years. They are something that dates all the way back to the beginning of time. They have stuck around for so long because they are used in so many different things. They can be used for identification, to tell stories and of course for fashion. Patterns have always been around and they always will be.

Can someone please pass the Gestalt?

2007-09-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

I have worked with the gestalt technique before so none of these images were really surprises to me. I do however have a great appreciation for it. The way the negative space and positive space is used to make two different elements of the picture give it a feel like an optical illusion. Gestalt always reminds m of M.C. Escher's drawings. I guess it is in the way that if you look at it a certain way you can see something completely different then before. I love this type of artwork that make your eye think before analyzing the piece.

This image was found at www.248am.com/ nat/fun/gestalt-game/

Critique Me.

2007-09-18T20:44:00.001-07:00

10-step Scale

2007-09-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

Creating this scale was nothing out of the ordinary. My art instructors in the past had us draw, paint, use whatever media we needed to do different grayscales and color scales. We usually did 12 step scales so it was a little different for me to have to shorten the scales to just 10 steps. It was a little bit of a challenge and a couple of times I found myself making too less of a difference in between steps, but practice does make perfect. After a couple tries I got it better. Making the scale was not too challenging, but it was rather tedious. It's not one of my favorite things, but I guess it is a useful way to explore shades and tones.

Tie Off

2007-09-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

The string thing we did in class on Thursday was a very fun experience. I was a little confused why Pat was throwing bundles of string at the students at first, but then when she told us what we were to do with it I started right away. I went across the room, over tables, under chairs, through loops, and around legs. At one point, when I was tying up a chair, Bart Lentini came at me with a bundle of string. He began putting it around my head, tying my arms, wrapping it around my neck, and weaving it through my shirt. So being the spiteful teenager I am, I started doing the same to him. As Bart and I wound each other up, Alex Garcia stepped in. she was tying us together, so we started tying her to us. At one point all three of us were just throwing string on each other’s heads, not even tying each other up. Finally all three of us were bound together and could not move more then a foot from each other. Then, just as Doyle's Law states, "what can go wrong will go wrong", everything became a lot harder. We had to untie the giant web-knot we got ourselves into. People started complaining the second it was said. I personally, like to untie things. I have never untied something on that great of a scale before, but I still actually enjoyed it. It took about 30 minutes just to get the three of us mobile again and then another 10 minutes to get the rest of my roll of string untied from everything. The funny thing about the big knot we created was it only took 3 maybe 4 people to create it, but it took about 8 people to get it undone. It is very true that it harder to clean the mess then it is to make it. This was a great experience though; I do believe it brought the class a little closer because we all had to work together to get everything back to normal. It also showed how lines could make shapes, because I noticed that while I was untying myself, that the knot was really a series of triangles, and circle, and even some squares. I was actually a little surprised at how much you can learn just by wrapping string around things in a classroom.

Line or Shape? That is the question.

2007-09-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

A. Shape
B. Line
C. Shape
D. Shape

What makes a line?
A line is a connection between points A and B. It has two ending points and only two ending points. A line can be straight, curvy, zig-zag, very think, very thin, or very random.

What is a shape?
A shape is made up of connecting lines that form an object. The lines that are being connected can be straight or curvy causing there to be geometric and organic shapes. Geometric shapes are ones such as a square. circle, or triangle. An organic shape is usually less angular then a geometric one, and most often found in nature.

Crit 1

2007-09-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

This piece is very spacious. Although it has the most going on in the bottom portion of the piece, the whole piece is full of duller colors and much detail. The people on the bottom are lying on rocks and set in a triangle pattern with the exception of the man to the right. It has a beautiful river in the back with dark shadows from the trees above. The picture has tremendous perspective and an overall peaceful tone.

It seems to be a religious painting due too the angels and the infant in the cluster of people. The depth between the women, angels, and man, and the city in the background seem as if the Madonna, Infant Jesus, and possibly Joseph are heading towards the town they will be finding safety at. The angels seem to be checking up on the family on their travels and making sure the baby’s in good shape. The trees and rocks seem to be setting a sort of sense of a hiding place for the family. It is as if they are in a safe spot to take a break and relax before they continue their travels.

I believe this is an overall well done piece of artwork. It is very balanced and done in great detail. You can depict each leaf in the trees and even the expression on the people's faces. The shadows are also done in great detail. The piece is detailed, but still simple enough to not be overwhelming. Also the symbolism of the shadows and the safety for the Holy Family and Angels gives it a very serene and peaceful feeling.