The Art work I liked at the Albright Knox Art Gallery

I must first start out by saying that I have never been to the Albright Knox Art Gallery so I was unsure if I was going to like it, and it did. I enjoyed walking through and really taking my time to look at each individual work of art. I really liked most of the pieces but the one’s I like a lot were the new exhibits that unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures of and I could not get any image of them off the website . I did how ever find pictures of them on the internet so I was excited to be able to use them for this blog post in a new section that I call one’s that I loved.

The three art works that made an impression on me were:

Pablo Picasso (Spanish) 1881-1973 “Harlequin” Project for a Monument 1935 (Oil on Canvas) Contemporary art.

The reason I chose this one was that it stood out to me and I could not take my eyes off of it, the colors and shapes are bold. I also like how he placed the shapes overlapping each other.

  

Fernand Leger (French) 1818-1955 “Smoke” 1912 Oil on Canvas. Contemporary Art

This art work made an impression on me because I thought his uses of the elements of art were great and I liked how he combined the puffs of smoke with the buildings.

Jackson Pollock (American) 1912-1956 “Convergence” 1952 Oil on Canvas. Abstract 

This one stood out to me because I really loved the use of color and all the movement that this piece has.

The Three art works I felt connected to are:

Oretta Pecori  (Italian Born) 1909 “Maternity” ca 1950 Painted Plaster.

I felt a connection to this piece because I’m a mother and just looking at this sculpture made me think of my children and my love for them.

George Seurat (French) 1859-1891 “Study for Le Chahut” 1889 Oil on Canvas

I felt connected to this one for two reasons: one I grew up as a dancer and I will always remember my dance recitals and what a big deal they were also my daughter has been dancing for three years and she loves them and enjoys the recitals.

Arthur B. Carles (American) 1882-1952 “Still Life with Flowers” Ca 1933-35 Oil on Canvas

I felt a connection with this one because the flowers reminded me of when I was younger and I use to collect flowers for my mother from the field we had behind our house.

The three artworks that I would like to know more about are:

Pablo Picasso (Spanish) 1881-1973 “Artist and his Model” 1964 Oil on Canvas, Contemporary Art

I would like to know about this only because this one struck me as odd, I know this is usually how he created his work but I just didn’t understand this one. I have seen a lot of his work but the way he created the faces on this one is just strange to me.

Fernand Leger (French) 1881-1955 “Untitled” 1952 Glazed ceramic on wood base

I have never heard of this artist before and I have never seen any of his art work. I looked at this one and I questioned how this one was created with the 3D effect of the pieces that come out of the art work.

Yves Tanguy (American born France) 1900-1955 Indefinite Divisibility 1942 Oil on Canvas

I liked this one but I questioned where this artist came up with the items that are in this art work because to me they are very random and I don’t understand them at all.

 The one’s that I loved:

Sonja Brass (German born) 1968 “The Quiet of Dissolution, firestorm 2008 Color Print edition 8/8

This one stood out to me because of the use of color, it’s mainly black and white but then there is this pop of reddish orange and spreads across the horizon. It’s beautiful and to me I see a city and in the back ground there is a fire blazing.

Leon Albert Golub (American) 1922-2001 “Infvitable Fatvm” 1994 Acrylic on Linen

I loved this one again because of the colors but also I saw a battle between achievement and death that one might have within them self.

Matthew Ritchie (British) 1964 “Morning War” Oil Marker 2008

I could not get the entire art work but this one spreads out across the wall and on the floor I saw many different art elements used in this piece and the 3D effect was very cool.

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Creating a Logo

To be honest I was very unsure about this project for a few reasons. The first reason is that I really don’t like the way I draw even though it’s not bad I always feel that it could be better. Second is because trying to think of design is very hard because there are many things I feel that I stand for. Most of my creative thinking was done through brainstorming, drawing, and a searched the web. I really put a lot of focus on my logo being something that represented me and what a stand for. Those two were the things that really stood out in the readings. So I sat down with paper, pencils, colored pencils, markers and started to draw. I decided my logo would be about family and the strong bond that they have, in my first sketch I created a tree with hands because the tree represented family and the hands stood for they would always catch me when I fell. My second sketch was I pictured when I think of family, the third sketch is the Chinese symbol for family, the forth sketch is the Arabic symbol for family, the fifth sketch is the Spanish symbol for family. My sixth sketch is a shamrock because my married name is Milligan and my husband and his family one hundred percent Irish and every time I see or think a shamrock I think of family. My final sketch is my finished product and I incorporated all the symbols of family into the shamrock because to me no matter who you are and what your back ground is family is a strong bond that is hard to break. The elements of art that I used are shape, line, color, mass, and value. One major discovery and what I learned are the same and that is it’s not as easy as it looks creating something that represents you because good or bad it reflects you. Also that all the elements of art play an important role in creating a logo because too much or not enough of something can ruin the whole thing. I thought both the videos were good but I can say that I liked the second one better.
http://www.coolchinesesymbols.com/chinese-symbol-family.html
http://www.symbols.com/pics/big/41b/41b33.gif

Colors and Value Scale

When I was creating my value scale and color wheel I really didn't see the point of either one especially the value scale. I had a lot of fun creating the color wheel for a few reasons, I love to play around with paint,in my future job I will hopefully be a preschool teacher i will be having paints out all the time because I feel painting is a great way to express one's feelings. Also I have three young children so we paint all the time. The most important information I learned from this was that the primary colors I learned as a child are worng. Even when I asked my ten year old son what they were he told me red, blue, and green, what I don't understand is if these are wrong then why are we teaching our children these colors. Iliked both the videos and I think they helped me out a lot with creating both of these projects. The one thing I didn't like about the color wheel one was that it was too fast.

Elements of Art

Photobucket can be alot of fun

At first i was unsure of what i was doing and it actually took me a few days to figure out what types of photos i would use and for what element. Some of them gave me some trouble because i just could not visualize what i could or should use for that element. After a got started it was like a light turned on because everything i saw i was relating to this project. I found myself switching pictures because i found something i liked better. Also my camera was like an extra arm for me every where i went so did my camera my husband was laughing at me, because i would take pictures in random places. When it comes to being creative i just really tried to capture pictures when ever i thought they would work and also just making sure i had enough shots so i had one than one for each. I also found myself playing with the flash of my camera and taking pictures at different times of the day so that the lighting would be different. Also i found myself trying to use different angles to shoot the picture. The only down fall is that i had a lot of trouble getting the phots embed onto my blog

Who knew that our emotions played such a strong role when looking at color

       I knew that color and emotions were liked but I never knew they had such a strong connection. It's not just the color you use it's also about how you place the color. It’s been said that colors deliver more symbolism and have a greater affect if they are used in larger areas. Certain Monochromatic harmonies will have different affects because it depends on the value and intensity of each color. Complemenentary harmonies can affect new emotions due to cultural upbringing's for example (red/green) in our cultural they make us think about Christmas and they makes most people happy but in another culture it could evoke a feeling of sadness or anger.  For example Van Gogh created a painting with red and green to create an intense atmosphere when men would go crazy. After reading chapter I learned something that I never knew which was that in 1666 Newton passed a ray of sunlight through a prism he observed that the light refracted into different colors and from there he proved that colors are components of light. I also learned about tertiary colors and that they are primary color and an adjacent secondary color. While perceptions of color are somewhat subjective, there are some color effects that have universal meaning. Colors in the red area of the color spectrum are known as "warm colors" and include red, orange and yellow. These warm colors evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility.  Colors on the blue side of the spectrum are known as "cool colors" and include blue, purple and green. These colors are often described as calm, but can also call to mind feelings of sadness or indifference

I would say the theoretical aspect that I’m the most interested in would be the psychological aspects of color. All the different types of emotions that color brings out in people are amazing. For example they say your favorite color and its meaning is said to have an internal represtation of you. Which has made me really think about myself because my favorite color is red and red is said to invoke anger, irritability, and raise your blood pressure? Another example is the color green it's said to create feelings of comfort, laziness, relaxation, and calmness. It helps us balance our emotions. Some attribute this to its connection with nature and our natural feelings of affiliation with the natural world when experiencing the color green. On the other hand darker and grayer greens can have the opposite effect. Olive green colors remind us of decay and death and can actually have a detrimental effect on physical and emotional health. For example: sickened cartoon characters always turned green. Orange has shown to have only positive effects on your emotional state. This color relieves feelings of self-pity, lack of self-worth and unwillingness to forgive. Orange opens your emotions and makes a terrific antidepressant We usually associate the color blue with the night and thus we feel relaxed and calmed. Lighter blues make us feel quite and away from the rush of the day. These colors can be useful in eliminating insomnia. Like yellow, blue inspires mental control, clarity and creativity. However, too much dark blue can be depressing. Purples have been used in the care of mental of nervous disorders because they have shown to help balance the mind and transform obsessions and fears. Indigo is often associated with the right side of the brain; stimulating intuition and imagination. Violet is associated with bringing peace and combating shock and fear. Violet has a cleansing effect with emotional disturbances. Also, this color is related to sensitivity to beauty, high ideals and stimulates creativity, spirituality and compassion. Psychic power and protection has also been associated with violet.

After watching the video about color the only thing that really stuck in my mind is when Mark Rothko tried to evoke huge emotional responses through color alone. He created works of art that were supposed to hung in a hotel lobby just in reds and maroons and he wanted to them to create madness and anger in the customers and make them feel like they are trapped inside. I just can't get over how much anger red is supposed to create. Another thing that I learned from this video was that a long time ago the color red paint was made from crushed bugs.

After watching Feelings /Emotions and Art the things that stuck with me the most was when they were talking about perspective and its not God's perspective about the symbolic realm any more it's about man thinking about his own perspective. Also about space becoming a huge thing and during the renaissance art the use of space seemed to heighten feelings and before this the paintings were flat and now the take on more human like roles with shapes and colors. People saw feelings in all the different lights and shades it was a very powerful tool.

Art is really in the eyes of the beholder

In the video “Philosophy of the Arts” the key concepts was aesthetics and how it was developed. There were many different philosophers who had some input into developing this area. Each philosopher had a little something to do with how we view aesthetics today. Plato felt that beauty was an erotic attraction while Aristotle says there has to be some rules and guidelines that must be followed. Kant placed much of his research on the how we as individuals viewed art and it was through our own thoughts and feelings that one would describe beauty. Schiller came up with what’s called Aesthetic Education and he said it’s what makes us more human. According to Schiller when it comes to aesthetics he says that it's “when we develop our aesthetic capacities we develop our moral capacities as well”. He is trying to say that our moral judgement is connected to how we veiw things.

In the video Neurobiology neurology and Art and aesthetics Changeux discussed four main points: Works of art=artifacts, human, production, distinct. From language=non verbal communication of emotional state, knowledge and experience. Esthetic efficiency staggering effects on emotion and reason mobilizing conscious. Art in constant evolution=art history and he explains that art and aesthetics may just be a product of brain evolution.  Ramachandran talks about how science and art have a common interest and that is within the brain. He discusses eight universal laws about aesthetics and they are: Grouping and binding, Peak-shift principal, Contrast, isolating a single cue to optimally excite cortical visual area (attention), Perceptual problem solving, Symmetry, Abhorrence of unique vantage points and suspicious coincidences, and last Art as a metaphor. He talks how there are universal laws that cut across cultural influences and help determine art and its beauty. Ramachacdran also goes into detail with these laws that every act of perception involves some sort of judgment and choice made by the individual who is viewing the work of art.

 In the 18th century a German Philosopher by the name of Alexander Baumgarten created the word Aesthetics. This comes from the Greek word aisthanomai meaning perception. Aesthetics refers to and is centered on feelings that a certain person feels such as sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell. It is one's response to the natural world and how we view it. Aesthetics also looks into a person's understanding of making art, Baumgarten says we must take a work of art and look past its beauty to be able to value the whole process and not just the product.

The philosopher's work that I feel is most important when looking into aesthetics is Kant. Kant was a German philosopher from the 18th century who placed a lot of emphasis on our interest in art rather than the art work itself. Kant wrote about Observations on the Feelings of the Beautiful and Sublime and the Critique of Judgment. In these works Kant focused not on art itself but on the beauty of art. Kant like others thought that beauty and the sublime was not the property of the object but the ways one would respond to the objects. Kant said that judgments of taste are both subjective and universal. They are subjective because they are responses of one’s pleasure, and they don't essentially involve any claims about the properties of the object itself. On the other hand aesthetic judgment is universal because it’s just not a personal interest. When looking at an artist work one does not see it for the money its worth or look at the art because it’s a piece created based off of someone they know. One must look at the art using "taste" which is to see the work for pleasure for one’s self.

When it comes to Changeux and Ramachandran views of aesthetics and science I found them both very interesting. With Changeux I liked when he was talking about and comparing pictures of a person’s prefrontal cortex. The test was about empathy for suffering and each brain did light up when they were told about something but the person who was viewing a picture of something empathetic their brain activity was greater than the person who just heard about it. When Ramachandran was talking what really stuck out for me was when he was talking about visual areas and he said that there are dozens of visual areas in our brain that deal with visual processing and that vision is a complex process. Ramachandran also says that art works by stimulating all of our visual areas in the brain and that they work together by grouping and binding to create a visual reward.

I think that the videos helped me understand aesthetics and also become a little confused at the same time. After reading the chapter I kind of thought I knew what they meant by aesthetics but then I watched the videos and they went deep into the meaning of aesthetics one through philosophers and the other through a scientific approach. I didn’t really know which one I favored because I agreed with some of what they all had to say. I have to say that after chapter 2 and the videos I did look at chapter 3 differently because I was really thinking about my feelings of each work of art.

I like the “Philosophy of the Arts” video and I learned a lot about the history of aesthetics but I thought it went a little slow. While I was watching “Neurobiology Neurology and Art and aesthetics” I thought this one was full of information and I could not take my eyes off the screen. The one thing I didn’t like was it was hard to understand them both at times. Both of these films along with the chapters helped me understand and learn about aesthetics and I feel that I would not have learned or understood as much with all the materials provided this week.