Final Blog Post

     This semester, I studied the work of Pierre Bonnard. I first saw his work on our trip to the Baltimore Museum of Art and have continued to research it since then. Pierre Bonnard is known for this focus on light,  human and natural beauty. He painted over 300 pictures of his wife Martha throughout their fifty years together and none of the images aged her or revealed flaws.  He only painted with oil on canvas.
      In order to change the medium, I create a three dimensional picture using tissue paper, paint and cutouts of people. My response project followed the triad color scheme and used pastel shades of blue, pink and yellow. Many of Bonnard's pieces were painted with pastel shades so I took that into consideration when choosing my color scheme. Out of his pictures of Martha many were in a bath tub, my piece also contains a central bath tub. It displays the irony in the many baths you take over your lifetime. The progression of aging can be seen with the number of baths you take. The evolution of one person aging through  a bath provides juxtaposition to the way Bonnard presented baths. He viewed baths as a rejuvenation that kept woman young. The bath tub serves as the focal point of my piece. My eye path goes to the people in the bath time and spirals out to the other people. Actual texture comes from the tissue paper that forms the bathroom tiles, while implied texture is in the painting of the bath tub and floor.
     This past semester, I enjoyed my experience taking 2-D design. I can use the skills I learned from this class and apply it to my future experiences. For example, learning to use photoshop will help me in my marketing class next semester. Instead of just coming up with an idea, I can execute it. One thing that might strengthen this class is more examples in class before projects are assigned. This would help students understand the directions better with a visual representation.

 

#LuminousLoyola

     Tuesday night I attended Loyola’s contribution to the City of Lights. It took place in the Student Center ranging from Cold Spring Sushi to McManus Theatre. There were also a few exhibits outside. I found it very cool to see the correlation of lights and sound. There was a variety of visual representations. I have attached pictures of a few images of my favorite exhibits below. Many of the presentations were complex. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the word Loyola that was lit up. It allowed me to focus on the individual lights twinkling and notice the pattern of the time. I was not distracted by constant motion and noise. As I enjoyed the first exhibit so much, I found that attraction inside of McManus theatre to be sensory overload. As a whole it was very pretty to see and the dimming of the theatre lights to focus on the stage was a nice touch. However, the moving people and yo-yos made the stage background do unnoticed until I was going through my pictures today. Outside the exhibits were very different. They glimmered in comparison to the dark sky. I found it very cool the way the short clips were projected off of the windows and students going by could observe without entering the building. Additionally, I found the giant light up L in front of Humanities to be very symbolic of the importance of the City of Lights at Loyola. It was very cool to remind community members where this exhibit came from. On my way back from the exhibit, I was surprised to see that they even lit the library up. Overall, the City of Lights was very cool. It made me stop and think about all of the amazing things that light can do. It started off as an invention by Thomas Edison to see at night and evolved into videos!

Modernism Notes

Post Modernism Introduction

• Cultural mixing displayed on brochures because life contains many different realities 
• People in the post modernism world are a combination of many cultures, races and beliefs. This is unique from the past were different cultures did not mix.
• A world of interconnected differences, creates diversity among art
• Technology has allowed the world to both shrink and expand
• Unrestricted growth
• Post Modernism proceeds Realism and Modernism 
• Pop culture creates hyper reality 

Jean Baudrillard

• Disney is an ideal model of hyper reality 
• Plays withl illusions to create imaginary world 
• Reveals characteristics of society and American values 

Frederic Jameson- Postmodernims

• Different cultural impulse
• 2 ways to read Van Gogh's painting -- symbolic vs. raw materials 
• Paintings (pair of shoes) reveal status of the world 
• Waning of affect 

Kubler Article Review

     Kugler brought up an interesting analogy when he compared individual artists to train tracks. Although each artist is their own person, when we look at their work we need to examine their lives and skills as part of a bigger image. This concept is similar to individual train tracks they way they all connect to other tracks. If we only examined one artist's work there would not be any context. To better understand the image, I think that we should look at both the artist's personal life and their cultural influences. Every artist has their own biography, but comes from a broader movement and time period. Perhaps their piece ties into propaganda about a current event. Kugler brings this up by saying that when an artist enters into a culture he or she needs to make a big entrance or they are "in danger of wasting [their] time." If the artist tries to blend into the other tracks they will be a minimal part of a movement. If an artist makes a bold statement they can become more of an individual. According to Kugler, depending on their entrance we can determine whether their work is temperamental or apart of a train track like sequence. 
     Another analogy that I found to be thought provoking was that two scientists with different specialties could not learn from each other or talk about their research together. It immmedialty made sense to me that amount scientists they could be doing very different work and not understand the other's perspective and methods. Kugler connected this to two painters in different schools. I have always generalized painters in one broad category assuming that they all use similar techniques and ideologies. This article served as in intervention to my previous notions.I began to think about how I can use the different projects we used in class to understand this analogy. All of the projects we have done with different materials take a period of adjustment to understand the characteristics of the tools. If I was sitting in class next to someone who was using water colors and tried to give them the advice I used for my acrylic paints they would not be able to understand what I was saying. They are two very different materials that create drastically different experiences for the user.  Kugler's article helped me arrive at this conclusion. 
FileFile

The Art of Data Visualization

     In the beginning of the Youtube video on data visualization it is said that "every single pixel should testify directly to context." This quote seemed very important to me and the the clarity of images in visual arts. In Computer Science class I learned that the each pixel can only be one color. The three colors are red, green and blue. Each pixel's colors range in intensity from 0-255. So if an image has low resolution, or less pixels, it will be more obvious when a single pixel denies the content of the image. If an image is 10x10 and one pixel goes against the image it would be very obvious.
     Another topic I found to be interesting was when they described data visualization as a linear process of decision making. I understand the concept but have never put much thought that the designer, reader and data will ultimately inform the truth. Two artists can have the same data and different readers but come up with totally different visual representations. Evolution of the human brain allows for each person to create their own product. This can alter the presentation of the data.   Also each person's brains will get something else out of the data and a offer a new interpretation.
     One last topic that stuck out to me was respecting your audience. Changing visuals to see how to learn and not how to confirm was a new concept for me as an audience member. It made lots of  sense to me because visuals often contain data, that audiences like myself are expected to internalize and accept. This video brought to my attention the importance of questioning what is presented and learning more about it. I can see when I have used this concept in Economics class. When presented with the GDP what else can we learn about a nation? What is the happiness in the country? Although the GDP does not say it we can infer about the country and learn more about the people in the country .

Whitescapes

     The picture on the left is a picture taken from above of a Starbucks cup on a desk in the studio art room. The picture to the right of the original image, is the same two objects in the precise location with new lighting. In the second picture I turned the long over head lights in the studio art room off. Comparing the two images side by side it is apparent that the right one has a creamier tone, while the one on the left has more of a gray tone. The right image looks warmer than the left image which is cooler. I feel like neither of these images are pure white why they are both of white objects. 

Sub Advertisement

The original Samsung advertisement. 

My version of the ad.