AED200 - Project 5 - Portraits

I selected the pieces I did because they all use an unusual way to depict their own self image.  You can tell the image is of a person and it is intended to be a portrait, what makes them unique is how they area actually portrayed.

Vincent Van Gogh - Self-Portrait - 1887

Juan Gris - Portrait of Pablo Picasso - 1912

Giuseppe Arcimboldo - "Summer"  - 1572

I chose to use a mosaic style digital image because I have always enjoyed these types of pictures.  Also my lover for technology and the 40,000+ pictures I have helped me make this decision.

My only real challenge was finding other self portraits that reflected the theme I wanted to incorporate into my project.  Van Gogh has a similar style that is present in many of his portraits and I did not want to use 3 of his pieces.

What made this project work for me is how I chose to re-create my image.  The mosaics are all of my family, mainly my children.  These are the pieces that make up who I am and they will be the image of who I am through their self interpretation.  For the rest of my life they will make up the entirety of my life and I will be a template for them to pick and chose which pieces of me they wish to accept as their own and which pieces to change and make theirs.  It is symbolic and I think it holds the essence of what art can mean when outside influence shapes the creation.

1500 images - My Favorite of them

 This is my favorite mainly because the images of my kids is so much more prevelent.  It is a little hard to see when not its intended 8x10 size but you can easily see that I am a blurred figure behind them.  The more pictures the clearer the image, true, but it loses the meaning behind what I was shooting for,

Mainly I had to tweak my original image and retake the image in many different scenes to allow for a touch of color that stood out from my image while keeping the detail present in my original image.

I really liked this project, it gave me a chance to explore a deeper meaning behind the creation of a piece and allowed me to use a few digital editing tools I have never had the pleasure of using.  I would totally recommend the software "AndreaMosaic"  it is a free program that allowed me to transform my image into something meaningful.  There are tons of options that can allow for complete customization.

The final outcome is actually what I wanted.  I used a library of just over 10,000 images of my family and it really came out nice.  I included multiple images for you to see that range from 1,000 to 10,000 tiles using both landscape and portrait images to recreate the original image.

Project #5 Blog Post

I actually looked at five different projects before I selected one.  I  was not looking for anything specific, or so I thought, until I realized the five I selected:

1. Melissa Dillion - Nature: The Real and The Surreal
2. Anil Akyigit - Nature is the Beauty of Earth
3. Kellie Magle - Trees of Life
4. Brandon Martens - The Beauty of a City
5. Jeffery Wilcox - Reality Unhinged

They all had to do with either nature or some form of surrealism.   Hey, I guess you know what you like and gravitate towards it.  I ended up selecting the exhibit by Jeffery, Reality Unhinged.  Mainly I chose it because my personal like for Salvador Dali.  I knew he would be there from the title and the exhibit did not disappoint.

The only real challenge I faced in this critique was finding the proper way to express my interpretation without being judgmental towards the pieces.  Trying to keep the review to style and its fit in the exhibit is what I focused on and that seemed to help keep personal taste from interfering.

I enjoyed critiquing the work of my peers especially since it was all done off site.  Trying to judge someone you do not know in person can be stressful and unless you are prepared for a rebuff it is hard to anticipate the reaction of a peer when being critiqued.

Reading the critiques of my own exhibit would be nice.  It would at the very least allow me to see if they saw my vision for the project or not.  I would not be so concerned with the review of which pieces I selected, I did not make them but if they felt a piece did not fit it would be helpful so see why they thought so.

I would rate my finished article a 9/10.  Mainly because I am no master of this craft and I cannot hope to be seen as perfect in this area.  I would however consider my article objective and not merely a thumbs up or down type of article.  I would like to think that after reading my paper that you could experience the concept of the exhibit without ever actually have been there.

This was an enjoyable project.  I did stress over the pieces I wanted to include in my own exhibit and really spent a lot of time trying to make sure my concept would work.  I am sure most students had the same reflection while working out the flow of their exhibit.

AED200 - About the Course "Extra Credit"

1. Which assignment did you ENJOY working on the best? Why?
I would have to go with the off hand drawing assignment.  This was something I have never done before and it was interesting to see how my off hand struggled to perform even the simplest of tasks.   It was by no means a difficult assignment but I enjoyed it more than I expected.

2. Which assignment did you ENJOY working on the least? Why?

My least favorite has to be the reviewing of others art curator projects.  I am a bit of a harsh critic and really find art to be taste driven.  These combined really just make me feel like I am being unfair or overly judgmental of others work but then having to suppress that to try and sound impartial to work that may/may not have been well thought out.  In short I do not feel like I am qualified to put down anyone's work on a technical level and am left to my personal interpretation while forced to suppress that instinct, was tough.

 

3. How did you like using ANGEL?

Navigation in ANGEL is easy and I have used it quite a bit due to the number of online classes I have taken over the last 3 semesters at Buffalo State and 2 other semesters at ECC.  I think it is buggy and has some issues with regards to user interface and speed but that is all knocks on the design side with no correlation to this course.

4. If you had the opportunity to change this course:

What would you keep?

The different tasks.  The discussion board, blog reviews (video and project), projects and art visits.

What would you remove?

The occurrence of all of them every week.  The reading and discussion every week then blog posts on videos based on the same content mixed with a project or similar every week was exhausting.  You can see it in the post people put in the discussion board and the replies to them as well.  They get pretty sub par pretty quickly.  Having one posting activity every week and a project or quiz is plenty in my opinion but I am not immersed in the art world and these things all take time for me to do.

What would you add?

Honestly I would not add anything.  There was so much content that additions are not needed anywhere.  The material was covered from 2 angles and was even reflected on from both those angles.  Any more content and this would be a graduate class for an art major ;)

5. Would you recommend this course to your peers?

I would only recommend this class to a few people I know that have a good work ethic and enjoy art.  Though that list is small, I would still recommend the course.  I would definitely warn them of the work load, to make sure they balance out their schedule to accommodate.  But, the class was not bad in any way, well I didn't like the quizzes but who does really ;)

 

Reflections of Buffalo State's AED200

I wont lie to you, this has been a long semester.  Five classes, an internship and 2 kids is something that should have been thought harder about.  This class was both what I expected and at the same time not.  As the class title suggests "Fundamentals of Art Inquiry" I expected the history and definitions, even the curator perspective.  What I was not totally expecting was the practical art that snuck its way in there.  Lets revisit my expectations:

• I hope to gain another perspective of the Art world out side of my previous teachings (High School and AP art classes
• With any luck I will get to see a fair number of students express their views on art and other related topics
• Lastly I hope to have some fun!  I have never ran a Blog and with my love for technology I am honestly surprised I have never dove into this trend

 I absolutely gained more perspective on the art world as a whole.  There were lessons that really opened my up to the development of techniques and the way the art world perceived the works of their time.
A few of the projects required the interaction of peers to review their work and even critique it.  This accompanied with the answer and response message boards really allowed for some close interaction with my fellow students.  It actually felt like too often to be honest but it was all a part of the process.
As for the fun, I did have some fun throughout the semester.  Agreeably the work load for this class got to be a little on the heavy side but if anything it drove home the material.

As for what art is, I still believe it is the same.  Anything that can be seen or thought of a creative and adding something of value to any given area of life.  My original definition really focused on the visual arts specifically but art is so much more.  The funny part is that art is what people make it to be.  There are women who made quilts out of old tattered cloths as a need to survive and re-use the resources they had.  This was nothing more than a blanket to them and now the world celebrates these pieces as art.  The makers had no intention of creating art and in fact it may have been the furthest thing from their minds when they made them.  As time moved forward and people started to see how spectacular these quilts were and what they were comprised of they shifted from blankets to art.  I have just gained a new appreciation for the styles and techniques that are used to define art.  New styles will crop up as time moves forward and they will always be compared to the styles of the past.  We look for connections and inspirational motivation from these past forms to better understand the new.  Some times clear connections can be made other times it is much more difficult for professionals to agree upon, but this does not make it any less of art then it was intended or not.

My favorite artist has not really changed at all.  I still enjoy Dali's work and if anything I have a better understanding of who he was as a person and his vision on art.  I would say this stayed the same mainly because this course did not alter my tastes but instead it allowed for me to make connections between different forms of art and the methods in which the artists created the imagery.  I still like what I like but now I have seen the development of who I like and even how his pieces would be incorporated into an art collection and curators vision of a museum.

For the reflection of taking an online course I would say my expectations were close to spot on.  I have taken quite a few online courses and this classes format was no different than any other before it.  What I would say is that this class carried a work load that rivaled every class I have ever taken, be it online or in class.  I liked each section of the class but to have 3 or 4 sections that really take a fair amount of time to divulge pertinent and viable information was more tasking than expected.  Without a doubt of the 5 classes I took this semester and my internship, this was easily the class I had to spend the most time on.  It was taxing and at times I felt like I was putting in too much effort while others may not have and I noticed every week on the discussion boards and project, hey I looked at every single one every week and some times I really had to search for posts that had enough insightful information for me to comment or respond to.  That was the only surprise for this online course.

Module 15 - Art Criticism Videos

We are closing out the course on the criticism of art and the way these critics come to the conclusions they have in there critiques on art.  This post will cover the two videos that I chose to watch from the selection that was offered.  Both actually co-featured the social historian T.J. Clark and originally I only picked the one because I had to chose one with T.J. Clark but then I picked a second to hear more on his views and form of questioning.  Clark used a very philosophical way of describing pieces and even showed no problem in questioning a peers view on a similar topic all the while keeping the conversation cordial and professional.

Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T. J. Clark
I think the focus of this video showed how a critic tries to be impartial when reviewing a piece and tries not to mix personal taste with the review.  The review of art for arts sake is a questionable method and hard to prove an opinion is being made without the influence of your personal taste.  What also seems to come to lite is how critical a critic is on there own work.  Greenberg constantly referred to his past work a too judgmental and controversial.   It is almost like time allows the critic to open up more and start to broaden the view by which they see art as art.
This interview had very strong relevance to art criticism and my up coming art project that is geared to directly critique a peers art exhibit.  The interview really covered how Greenberg tried to describe and relate a piece of art to the people.  This self interpretation will always come with some push back from somewhere in the community but getting the opinion out there and allowing others to see a side they may not have encountered when they fist saw the piece is what adds to the success of the critic.
I enjoyed the video and really wanted to hear the rant that must have followed after Greenberg literally started to grill Clark on the young people and their need for information.  When he called for cut, I thought it was a joke but it left me hanging.

Jackson Pollock: Michael Fried and T. J. Clark in Conversation
This video really centered around the difference in verbiage and lingo with regards to the description of a piece.  Though Fried and Clark both had similar views on the works of Pollock, the way in which they got there differed quite a bit.  Even the bit on the use of the word "master" of modern art was interesting to hear.
Here we had a direct tie into the world of art criticism and how people can agree on a concept but disagree on how that concept is derived.  The idea is almost political in nature.  How both sides want the same thing and agree about the good but completely disagree on how to arrive at the same goal.  I will use this critical appraoch im my reviews as well and try to be impartial but expect  that some will disagree with my interpretation of the work but may come to the same conclusions.
 The conversation between Fried and Clark almost requires a dictionary handy to make sure you are following the ideas and concepts that flow from their mouths as they speak to the qualities of the paintings of Pollock.  I think that alone made me enjoy the video.  The level of intellect they brought to their arguments where carefully chosen and never aimed to assault the other person.  It was well done and I would have liked to have been a part of the conversation had I actually been present.

The Metal and Stone Warriors of the World

This project took some time for me to think through.  I wanted something that I would actually go see and yet something not so boring and repetitious that I would never make it through the exhibit.  Taking the time to find pieces that fit the image you are going for coupled with the sizes and mediums you want really limit your selection.  I found myself pouring over thousands of images on ArtStor and Google to find more and more images.  Before I knew it I have over 50 images and details collected and had to start narrowing the pieces down.  This allowed me to be a bit more selective and open the door for some planning on layout.

Since I was going for pieces from all over the world I did not want to focus on the separation of the origination of the piece.  What I wanted to do was embrace the difference of how societies evolve in the same would during the same time periods.  This lead me to the idea of keeping the exhibit linear and this way I could show pieces from all over the world and how they compared at the same time.  You could pieces from Asia and the Americas then look over and see how different they all look from the works in Africa and then you realize the time line and how different each culture was in the same year.

I wanted to show a proposed layout for my exhibit but it was not coming across as a good way to show my idea.  What I would like is a perimeter that forces the viewer to either walk forward in time or backwards.  Thus the idea of my view of evolution and de-evolution in regards to the advancement of art form, expression and depiction.  This layout would be the best, I do not want people time jumping from 5th Century B.C. to the 1300's and then out to the 20th Century.  My vision is the progression and relation aspect of the layout.

Module 13 and 14 - Art Curator's

Our final stretch of this course leads us to consider the work of an art curator and the care need to build a collection in a museum.  We had four videos to review and they all are very different from one another.  The main idea here is to consider what art can mean to different parts of the community and how it effects more than just the buyer and seller of the piece.  Lets take a look at the reviews.

The Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art

Here we explore the clear separation of art from a high society standpoint to a less technical and less old style specific.  Lowbrow work was not considered art by the upper class of the art world.  The techniques they used and the unusual display they conveyed was not traditional and unclassifiable thus shunned.  I think this video opened the concept that any art form can be accepted and followed; you just need a place to show it off.  If you are not able to get into a prestigious gallery because they look down on your work, why would you want to go there?  Why not start up your own and rally together with your fellow peers to establish a network of like pieces and spread the word.  This was a really eye opening video because I have never heard of this art form or at least the name associated with the type of art.  I have seen and enjoyed pieces like this since I was a boy looking at music posters and comic books.  It definitely adds to my knowledge in art and the unfortunate discrimination of art and artists that did not conform to the acceptable forms of art.  I do not think this added much to my curation project in the sense that I was not given any clear incite on the practice of curation.  I gained more of the concept of open acceptance of any form of art.  Personally I would never reject a piece of art unless it was made to not fit in my gallery.  Personally, I would be a little to open with acceptance and would be forced to keep a structured organization that would allow growth without too much restriction.

Displaying Modern Art: The Tate Approach

The focus in this video was how much is involved in planning the layout of art that may have little to no ties to one another on a grand scale.  The amount of people involved and the amount of criticism was more than I had expected.  I know art critics will express their concern on pieces of art but to weigh the layout of the room against a piece to me feels like you are losing the point of the artwork and instead critiquing the flow of the room.  This video is directly in line with our project in the sense of how we must think about the flow of our exhibit.  There are a number of things to consider and this video covers them all.  The film was informative and added a number of perspectives, both positive and negative.  This really helped with adding to the considerations that must be made when trying to lay out a museum or an exhibit.  This will be in the forefront of my mind when considering the flow of my room and the feel I am trying to express as well a continuity that does not bore the viewers.

Bones of Contention: Native American Archaeology

In this video we focus mainly on the conflict between the Native American culture and the groups that are gathering their relative’s remains in the name of science and history as well as archeological findings being housed in museums.  The debate is on the scientists taking and keeping the remains of these tribes and then coming back to the tribes to tell them the relationships they think they have to one another is wrong and science can prove it.  Though I can see how the Native Americans can take offense to this entire process, I am not sure it this video is suited to the project.  There are some ideas and concepts that can revile the displeasure some groups may have when their heritage is taken from them and displayed in museums.  The video was very informative and well organized but a touch off topic in my opinion.  I took an anthropology class last semester that this would have been better suited towards.  Though the video was not really tied to my project directly I must consider the effect that displaying such material will have on people from this culture.  You can easily offend a person or a group by displaying something out of context and I think that this video tries to show that.  The personal link that cultures have with their heritage is strong and no one would like their history and story to be told it is false on the proof of science.  Science can offer a lot in the way of understanding the evolution of the past and the development of disease and other problems that trend in the heritage of the culture.  However to tell a group their history is false and the stories they live by hold little truth because of scientific research can cause nothing but controversy.  This is something you do not want in your exhibit, not on a scale such as this.

An Acquiring Mind: Philippe de Montebello and the Metropolitan

This was by in far my favorite video of the group.  It really was done very well and covered the concept of the project very well.  The focus is on the great curator Philippe de Montebello who is the top curator and director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The video does a great job at capturing the mindset of Montebello when he is considering the acquisition of art for the museum.  How the curator must leave behind the personal thoughts on a piece and open their mind to the contribution the piece makes in the world of art and how it rounds out the current collection.  Always considering the future of the museum’s collection and the potential expansion of a collection already present in house.  The process of acquiring a piece was very interesting and the amount of time and effort put into researching an acquisition was really intriguing.  This video really did open the door for the appreciation of an art curator and the love for your craft that you must have in order to appreciate the piece for its impact on art and forego the personal interest in the piece.  It’s not what you like about the piece personally but what that piece adds to the collection and the value of its presence.  This will add to the level of detail I consider when laying out my exhibit.  It will also expand my appreciation for the care and work that goes into the whole process of a museum.  I now have to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see this vast collection.  It was inspiring.