Sunday 21 June 2015

My Style

The four years of high school art have passed by fairly quickly and upon looking back at my artwork from the past It appears as though I don't usually have a clear conception of what to do until the due date has been passed by several days if not weeks. This unfocused attitude I have seems to come through in my work with results that have mixed results depending on the artwork or theme at hand. While having an unfocused attitude towards art seems like it would render no benifits it helps with scenic paintings like my art series painting and my painting from last year.Displaying IMG_0887.JPG
when I am creating an artwork my main goal is to clearly convey an idea or theme that I am set to show. The materials I use to convey a theme or idea usually revolve around painting materials with concerns to either pallet knives or brush if I'm trying to do an abstract painting with more scenery (pallet knives) or a painting which is focused on an object (brush). another way in which I use materials for conveying a theme or idea is through my color scheme andthe paints I use, for example in my art series I used darker colors in my container painting to show how the container was a negative part of the main character's experience I used darker colours, and for the other two paintings when the main character was aboard his yacht or life raft he still had hope and remained positive so I used lighter blues, yellows, and oranges.
Displaying IMG_0887.JPG

With regards tomy audience I want them to think and feel connected to the art as though they can relate to the experiance of being on open waters on a sunny day or being in a hazy dream like state that feels like home.

For this painting I wanted to show how I make art in a way that isn't necessarily accurate to what it looks like in real life while also showing the useof colours from dark to bright or bright to dark depending on where you look at it from.


Series Finish

For my series I had originally set out to do a series of artworks around the theme of isolation/ solitude but after reconciling the idea and finding its broadness to be to big to focus upon. I changed my theme to revolve around my first painting being based on the movie All is Lost. My first peice represents a constant throught the movie while my other two peices revolve around a before and after interaction between the object of focus (the container) in my first painting.Displaying IMG_0887.JPG


With regards to style Ichose pallet knives for the painting aboveas it provides an aesthetically pleasing look at with regards to scenery. Pallet knives also worked fairly well for this piece as the object of focus is so small being so far in the distance. This leaves most of the painting to the water and the sky making pallet knives ideal.

For the next two painings I decided to have a more graphic art style aposed to the more realistic first painting. I decided this as it puts contrast between the first painting and the other two as well as putting a different style on water and the texture accosiated with water. This painting in particular shows the setting of the main character in All is Lost before his boat crashes into the shipping container.
My final painting shows the life raft the main character takes to after his ship is submerged from the damage done by the crash with the shipment container. I chose this style again as I wanted to show the differences between the sea at dusk and thenat dawn in this graphic art setting withchanges such as darker water and the mist setting in on the sun.
Here are some photos of me working on my art project.





Wednesday 17 June 2015

Appropriate Stealing

Appropriation is a form of taking elements from one piece of art and then working those elements into a different piece of art and taking the credit for the piece of art produced. Appropriation has been called stealing, knocking off and has been frowned upon by many critics. Appropriation however can be viewed with a different mindset; it can be viewed as a form of remix with the intent to form something new from old material as the American journalist Ambrose Bierce said “There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know” what this quote means is while everything has already been done there are still many things which are new to us for example say I had never heard of johnny cash before, while he wouldn't be new he would be new to me as I had never heard of him before making his style of music new for anyone who has not heard it. 



If most forms of appropriation are acceptable then the bigger difficulty is knowing where to draw the line between appropriation and "ripping off". For me the acts of Richard Prince are undeniably acts of plagiarism which should be punished accordingly as there is no improvement or remixing done to the paintings which he has simply copied, pasted and sold. The difference between appropriation and plagiarism has to do with what the artist does to the existing piece of art and what they do to put their own individual style into it. The evaluation of art done in appropriation should be based on the improvements done to the base art and how these improvements compliment it whilst not giving the appropriation artist credit for the achievements of the original painting.

Appropriation is by no means a new form or technique of making art and dates back to Rome and Greece with the appropriation in late roman and christian art there are several examples of appropriation. Appropriation has also been used in some of the most renown periods of art such as the renaissance, Many examples of Appropriation may have also not been seen as appropriation as the term was only put to common use around the early twentieth century seen as having it become an actual practice of art around the time of popular cubism and dadaism.

although there are many so called "artists" such as Prince who use appropriation as a means to cover that they are actually blatantly plagiarizing. There are still many artists who use older paintings as means to help convey the message of their art and show previous styles in a new way. While stealing is something we actively associate as bad it is something we do with concerns to influences without it we would not be able to find our own style "Those who do not want to imitate anything produce nothing" (Salvador Dali)  

Sites:
www.academia.edu/
www.repository.brynmawr.edu/
www.artspace.com

Tuesday 12 May 2015

Canadian Coin Sketch

For my Canadian coin sketch I focused on the culture and geography of British Columbia as this is one of Canada's more iconic provinces. This picture illustrates an inukshuk overlooking a typical B.C mountain range from the distance of a cliff.Displaying IMG_20150511_125755757.jpg

Tuesday 5 May 2015

Who Decides if you are an Artist

Considering the diversity of art in modern times it is hard to think of a time when artists had to conform to certain style or artistic viewpoint. This is especially interesting when I think of art periods such as surrealism where the goal of such paintings were to push boundaries and what people perceived as art. I think the idea of HITRECORD is a very interesting idea as it showcases art in a way which is interactive to the viewer, giving them the ability to remix the artwork whilst the original still stays available for others to view. The comparison between how art was defined back in the 18th century as something which had to conform to someone's standards, as apposed to art in the 21st century where art which appeals to wide audiences and requires very little critique if any in order to
to be published on foru,s such as HITRECORD.

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Art Assignment Thoughts

The Art Assignment video I was shown, showed the hosts Sarah and John Green making imprints of various items including a broken up book (paper towns), lemons, and broken up toys. as they were making these imprints they discussed some artworks which were submitted made from much more impractical items one of which being a human being. As they showed these imprints they talked about how the different patterns of the same imprint over and over again were the most interesting parts of the artworks, and how Simple imprints of toy cars could make up entirely different pictures based on the assembly of said imprints.

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Juxtaposition in Modern Art

Juxtaposition is the contrast of two colors put beside each other in an art piece a good example of this is in these two paintings done by Sammy Slabbnick ("Uptown Girl" and "The Discovery of Modern Art") 
http://img2.archilovers.com/story/efce859338064e77b7bd93341900b4c7.jpg
These paintings show juxtaposition through the contrast between older style (black and white) photos and more modern (coloured) pictures.The juxtaposition is even more evident as the old and new photos are directly placed upon each other making it easier to see the comparison between the old and the new.




Art 21

For my observations on the art 21 video I watched the art in the twenty first century season 7.
 The first observation from an artist said she "didn't like to focus on the symbolism it puts to much meaning into it." "I like to focus on what it is in a concrete way". What I think she meant by this is if you focus on the symbolism of art you can lose focus on the actual art piece and the imagery. The next speaker suggests the best kinds of artworks are the ones which are at a point where " people are unsure if it is still an art piece" which implies that to her the best kinds of art are the ones which are boundary pushing and are truly unique.
 The next artists which spoke talked about the modernization of art in today's society with one artist using photography stating "we use machines to see for our machines". While he was making this statement it showed several shots of two balls (both the size of medium SUV) which helped show how many modern art pieces rely on machinery in order to get the perfect angles. Upon further review of this artist it showed him to be Trevor Paglen who often uses photography on landscapes as well as having very geography based artworks. This helped to put into context the extent at which machines help him with setting perfect angles and finding geographical patterns.
some examples of his work are as such:


Trevor also uses long exposure in order to capture light trails making shapes and circles.
The rest of the video goes on through various artists with them all answering what art is to them and why they enjoy it. The artist's answers are mixed in with pictures and video clips of their artwork effectively showing how the definition of art varies from artist to artist.


Friday 10 April 2015

Bus Art (ideas)

For the bus art assignment I have looked up some possible ideas with regards as to what type of style I would like to use. Whilst looking I saw two styles of artwork on buses both have a similar style with regards to brighter shapes on a blank white backdrop. i like this style as it brings out and compliments the brighter colours used even brighter shades of grey and black stick out against the white.

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Ideas for Theme Project

For my theme project i will be doing my paintings based on the theme of isolation. The first painting I will attempt to do will be the all is lost painting of a cargo container adrift in the Indian ocean with storm clouds coming into view. For my next Painting I would like to do a Lone Stallion or maybe a stag with a bright non textured background such as in these paintings (with regards to a bright low texture background).




this will have a big change from the previous painting which contains a single inanimate object. I also like the variety which this style of painting would bring to the project keeping variety whilst also keeping to the theme of isolation. A stallion or stag would also be a much easier animal to paint as my mother has experience drawing and

  My last art piece will touch on surrealism with a house being on a lone island with bridges being burnt around it.

Planning

I am planning on having a week period for preparation on each painting this practice week will be followed up by a working week in which I will actually be painting the draft and then the final painting it is highly likely this schedule will change to conditions but I am hoping to keep pretty tightly to it.  

Thursday 2 April 2015

Surrealism Art Period

Beginnings and Influential Members

The Surrealism art period started around 1924 with the publication of Le Manifest du Surrealism by Andre Breton.In the book Andre Breton describes "psychic automatism" which is a means of self expression through writing or art. Psychic automatism is when artists delve into subconscious thought which helps artists break the barriers of logical thought also freeing their works of other taboos and inspiring ones imagination. Paintings which came from this time period often use normal objects in abnormal ways changing the viewers perspective on said objects. The surrealism art period also had many influential and eccentric artists such as Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Pablo Picasso, And Man Ray. The surrealism era ended around 1950.


Common Themes

A common theme throughout almost all Surrealism paintings is abstract visuals to explain subconscious ideas and thoughts.
Another theme is to use very simple visuals  and objects but “stripping ordinary objects
Surrealism was often considered destructive of normal barriers in art.

The Paintings I observed

Son of Man

}Son of Man was painted by Rene Magritte who was a major figure in the surrealism art movement. When Magritte made paintings he focused more on the thoughts and emotions the painting would evoke rather than overall appeal of the painting Son of Man is no exception this painting appears to be a self portrait of Magritte with an apple in front of his face. The reason for why Magritte added the apple is to make the viewer think of what is behind the apple invoking a natural curiosity towards what we cannot see.  

Landscape with Butterflies




Landscape with butterflies is done by Salvador Dali and shows off his style of paintings with many oranges and bright reds. This painting has a major sense of juxtaposition between the colours of the “red wall” and the butterflies and sky, as well as the geometric lines of the landscape and the organic lines used to create the butterflies. The meaning of this particular painting seems is deeply connected with Dali’s connection between God and the double helix of DNA which were often found in his paintings showing a drab landscape depicting God in average life.

The Human Condition


The Human Condition is another thought provoking painting done by Rene Magritte. This painting is meant to create the illusion of reality in a painting which is often used by Rene to trick the viewers brain. Rene does this by making the viewer imagine the painting in the picture is of the outside however there is no proof the picture depicts the outside as it doesn’t really exist (the outside portion covered by the painting).


Effects of Surrealism on the World

Surrealism had some affects on society and the economy but because of bigger events which took place during this time period (such as the great depression and WWII) it is harder to see these effects. Surrealism had a big influence on other forms of art however, art forms such as film and fashion took heavy influence from the surrealism era having created dream like movies and fashion with nods to artworks such as "The Persistence of Time" and "Lobster Telephone".  



Monday 9 March 2015

Thoughts On The Walk a Mile Film Project

The racism and discrimination towards Native peoples is an extremely relevant issue as I have personally seen acts of racism towards people of all different races to the extent were some acts of racism  have become an almost excepted thing which is saddening to think about.
Walk-A-Mile Film Project Trailer from Thunderstone Pictures on Vimeo.
By Michelle Derosier
 It is amazing to see the people in this film who admit to suffering from racism and even to being controlled by the government "We'll (the government) make decisions on you'r house, We'll make decisions on what kinds of food you have access to, we'll make decisions" and are standing up to it with non-violent protests showing they have rights.

 All the talking of the racism towards people simply because they look different without considering who that person is reminded me of a TED talk I saw to do with stereotyping which I believe is very relevant to the racism towards many indigenous people in Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

Monday 2 March 2015

First Sketch

The first part of the sketch I started working on was the separation between the sky and the ocean and work my way through there. After finishing the horizon along with the container I moved on to the clouds and as plainly seen clouds are currently not my forte. Some mistakes I made while sketching that I realize now are I should have split my paper into thirds for the ratio of sky and sea and I also should have drawn the ocean currents before the clouds reflections.

Starting on Surrealism





while listening to Imagine Dragons I was intrigued by the groups album cover and their music video for their song "Shots". In the begging of the video the art for the music video is accredited to Tim Cantor an American surrealistic artist. I have always been interested by surrealism in art and especially after looking at some more of Cantor's paintings would be interested in learning more about this art style.    





Juxtaposition Sketch Idea

For my juxtaposition sketch I will be drawing a feather falling in front of a brick wall with a barred window. My idea for this sketch is the contrast between the organic lines of the feather and the inorganic lines of the brick wall. I also want to show a tone juxtaposition between freedom (the feather) and the brick wall (imprisonment).
https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/6135434/il_fullxfull.298448827.jpg

Friday 20 February 2015

New Beginnings

To start off the year I am going to do a sketch of the album cover for All is Lost's Soundtrack.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MrxWfy2U5LI/maxresdefault.jpg
I know this picture is past my capabilities as an artist but I am going to use it as a sort of marker for my progress. Through out the year periodically doing another sketch of this picture to see if my skills are improving.