Independent Project

Andy Warhol Poster

I chose to do the Andy Warhol poster exercise for my last project.

Headmaster- Karen Donnely 2002

I have never blogged about a piece that was done in ink and paper. So I decided to go back to the beginning of the book and look at what we first started studying. I also think this is a good piece to do because it is very simple with white and black and shows good contrast. I like this piece because it reminds me of some early older cartoons even though it was only done in 2002.

Henri Matisse, The Snail

I chose this picture by Matisse because I enjoyed his use of color and simple figures.  The painting was inspired by a snail's shell but yet is so simple.  At the beginning of the year i never would have appreciated such a simple design but after taking this class i realize the creativity and effort that went into such a work of art.

Misunderstood

Misunderstood
Man Ray
1966

Man Ray was good friends with Dali and obviously shared his views on art. This piece by Man Ray called Misunderstood is an interesting painting showing an exotic plant of some sort. In the background there are squares on the floor that lead to a door on the back wall. This painting almost seems to make a little bit of sense when compared to a Dali. But judging by the titlte "Misunderstood," Man Ray had his own bass-ackwards interpretation of his own work that not many others could second.

Mount Fuji In Clear Weather

This is a Woodblock Print done by artist Katsushika Hokusai.  It was done in the year 1830, and is part of the Thirty-Six views of Mount Fuji collection.  I like the contrasting colors of the red and blues as well as the vibrant green that dominates the bottom left of the piece.

Self portrait with straw hat - Van Gogh

I chose this painting because can Gogh is my favorite artist. I liked how you can see all the brush strokes and the layers of colors . It's made up of mostly lines and nothing is just one solid color 

Mistress and Maid by Johannes Vermeer

"Mistress and Maid" by Johannes Vermeer is an oil on canvas. It particularly caught my eye because of how distinct and real the figures appear. Their facial features, clothing, and actions in the painting are unquestionable and realistic. I like how the majority of the painting is of dark colors besides the girls hair and dress. This allows her to stand out and adds a significant amount of color.

Starry Night Over the Rhone

Vincent van Gogh
1888
Oil on canvas

Although this painting is similar in subject and style to Starry Night, I feel this one oftentimes gets overlooked. What I love most about this painting is the contrast between the royal blue and golden yellow reflections from the stars illustrated in the water. I never knew this until doing some research, but this painting was the view van Gogh had of the Rhone River from his rented apartment in Place Lamartine. Also, while Starry Night is more famous, this painting commemorates a happier time in his life.

Anish Kapoor- As if to Celebrate, I Discovered a Mountain Blooming with Red Flowers

Even though it looks easy to make, its simplicity is what matters for this art work. The two intense colors Kapoor uses, adds emphasis on contrast. Especially the yellow-this adds focus on the smallest part of his artwork. This is an example of value and color.

Vic Muniz "Sugar Child"

This is part of Vic Muniz's Sugar Child portraits. It can be seen at the MoMA. His "Sugar Children" portraits consists of photographs of drawings he made in sugar of children whose parents and grandparents have worked on the sugar plantation on the island of Saint Kitts. He uses a Polaroid as a reference then draws the subjects in syrup or sugar. For this one it was clearly sugar. 

Monet, Madame Monet and Child

I like this picture a lot because of his use of color, the flowers really stand out in the green background of the grass and leaves. It's really nice how he doesn't just use one shade of each color but mixes them with one another. I also like that there is such definition within the color of the woman's dress. The picture itself is very serene. This is a picture of his first wife when they had both lived in Paris, France.He made the pictures portray more of an artist perspective that the artistic structure of the picture was much more important than the portrait of the person in the picture. He used his wife Camille in a lot of his paintings most of the times. When it came to other women in his pictures it was often because someone had asked of him to paint a picture for them, otherwise it was Camille in his pictures.

Shoes

Lisa Milroy
Shoes
1985
Oil on Canvas

Milroy in this painting shows objects that are alienated from any context. It allows the viewer to focus on the positive and negative shapes that the shoes create rather than look at them like you usually do. By placing an ordinary object in this empty background it allows you to truly appreciate the shoe for what it is and the shapes that it creates all on its own. The way the shoes are placed represent rhythm and motion in a painting.

Leaning on head by Lee Miller, Guy Peirera and Peter Flemming

I chose to talk about this photograph because I thought it was really interesting that Miller used scale to trick the eye. It makes it seem that the tree is the same size(height) as the man. The other man looks smaller and underneath the tall man's arm. It's amazing how one can create such an interesting image just messing with proportion.

Marilyn

Audrey Flack, Marilyn (Vanitas), oil over acrylic on canvas, 1977
Marilyn: Still Life, Vanitas, and Tromp l'oeil

A vanitas alludes to "the vanity of worldly pleasures and to life's transient nature," like hourglasses and candles. The painting embodies "life, death, and the celebrity."

The space of the painting is extended, it does not all fit in the frame.

I loved the realistic-ness of the painting. It's actually a bit terrifying that it isn't real. Everything about it is magnificent, the reflections and highlights...it's amazing.

Annunciation St. Emidius

This painting is interesting because of all the motion going on in every corner. Even all the way back and from bottom to top there is something happening. The depth used in this piece gives it an impressive perspective in such a small amount of space. The colors are also rich and the attention to detail is what intrigued me the most.

The Complete Economical Cook

Mary Holland created her steel-plate engraving of The Complete Economical Cook in 1833. She used a steel plate which uses contour lines, cross hatching, and stippling to add shading and depth to her engraving. Her design has a lot going on and every time I look at it I see something I didn't see previously. I really like the way she captured the fire in the background and the way her hatching created such great detail throughout the entire composition. This design would be a good example of a line design.