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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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