Caroline's Updated Proposal

Initially I had chosen a broad theme of "horses" in my first proposal. Although I am still using horses/equestrian as my overall theme I have decided to focus on equestrian apparel and riding equipment rather than horses themselves. I like the idea of cropping specific pieces of equipment/riding apparel on the picture plane in order to draw the viewers attention and possibly question what the subject of the piece is (if they are unfamiliar with riding equipment/apparel). Rather than using oils and charcoals as I had first stated in the prior proposal I think I am going to explore the use of graphite in my drawings (although I may use some charcoal as well.. not sure). Even though I changed my proposal theme for horses to riding/equipment and apparel I still remain passionate about the subject matter (as long as it has to do with horses I love it!).

Wilcoxon, Caroline Photoshop

brookes second edited photoshop picture

first edited photoshop picture

photoshop. yay

Photoshop Shadows

Response to Painter's Painting

One of the most interesting things I found in the film we watched in class was hall all of the artist's from the different periods after World War II in the 1900s interacted. When studying the different periods of art, it almost seems like each artists functions in isolation of all of the other periods. In contrast, i think the film did a good job of showing how each artists worked within his own movement but also knew and commented on other artists from different movements. For example, some abstract expressionists would claim that they were not a part of the Dada movement. Additionally, when looking at art I tend to assume that the piece was done entirely by the specified artist; however, I found it really intriguing that this was not the case in many of the movements discussed in the film. For example, a good portion of Andy Warhol's work was not actually done by him, and many artists had many extra helpers to complete the piece. Seeing this aspect of the art making, made me wonder whether the other people involved in the work deserve credit? Why do they not get any recognition. I suppose we can think of it in terms of an architect. The architect designs the house, yet does not actually build it; however, he gets the most credit for the building.

Response to "Painters, painting."

Most of what I found interesting about the movie was not part of the movie itself, but rather things in the movie that related to things outside of it. I found the clips of Andy Warhol very interesting because when I was really little he was my favorite artist so I would hear rumors of how he was crazy and didn't actually paint his paintings. The only image I had seen of him was his famous self portrait with the crazy hair, so now being older, seeing him, hearing him talk, and observing how he related with others has added a whole new dimension to his work for me.
The artists themselves were the most interesting things about the movie. The way they talked, acted and thought were all very interesting. Usually all you know about an artist is what you see through their work, the little plaques of information beside the work, or if you're lucky a picture. So seeing the artists as real people along side their work was different and refreshing.

Brooke's updated and altered proposal.

I did some thinking about my past proposal and decided that it wasnt very meaningful to me, and so i thought a little deeper about my theme, and what i could do to make it a little more compelling and meaningful.  Going alone with the "fears from childhood" theme, I suddenly remembered I had completely forgotten about my biggest one- carwashes.  I have memories of sitting in the backseat of my parents car strapped in my carseat as we drove through a carwash.  I can clearly see the car slowly moving through a dark tunnel with the giant brushes swifting back and forth and suffocating our car- blocking the view from every window leaving remains of colored soap in its track.

The thing that scared me most was the movement.  The way the long strips of fabric swayed back and forth as the bristles rotated; it was almost as if it was slow motion.  I felt like the bristles were going to  suck me in and swollow me.  I had nightmares about it forever, and still to this day thinking about it gives me the chills.

For my project I want to keep the idea of installation by making two giant car wash bristles, about 7 feet or hight tall.  I want to position them side by side very close to eachother, and install them right infront of the corner of a room.  That way when it is on display, one can walk inbetween the two bristles and get the feeling of claustrophobia i felt as a child.  Once they squeeze through, they will be trapped in a corner that will display 2 video projectors, one of a child in a car seat crying while going through a carwash, and the other of the bristles in motion at a car wash.  The volume will be high, and the screams will be very loud.  I want this to be complete censory overload; to be able to feel how overhwhelming and scary an experience like this can be. Positioning my art in a corner will allow the viewer to get the sense of trapped-ness I felt while going through a carwash.  Being overwhelmed by something scary completely thrown at you, and not being able to run away from it.  You're trapped.

I have a few ideas of how this might work.  First for the easy part, I am going to research on youtube different videos of children going through carwashes and crying.  I've already found a few good ones.  I'm going to make an iMovie of a collabaration of youtube videos that will be displayed on one of the projectors, and for the other one, I'm going to take my car through a carwash and film the experience.

For the two giant bristles, I'm going to take two of the thin tall wooden poles that are laying around the woodshop and make that the base structure.  I havent decided how tall they might be because first i need to decifer the space they will be in.  I am going to build a wire structure off of the pole and then put plaster mesh around it.  I am then going to buy felt and cut millions of strips out and attach them to the structure to give it its bristle look.  I really want the image of sway to be prevalent so i might put a substance on each felt so they stand on end.  I haven't decided if the giant bristles will be movable or not when somebody walks through them.  Either i'll do that or i might even get people to go inside the bristles and make the movements to make the art seem more real.  Also if i do that then the people inside can use their body to make the bristles seem much scarier- possibly grabbing or squishing the person going through.  The whole idea of this fear themed project is for the viewer to get a real feeling of sensory overload just like i did as a child.  I think my idea will portray that perfectly.

Photoshop/Shadows Project

Miss Missy

Missy McCullough is an LA based illustrator with a knack for super-sweet print portraits. After several years in the fashion and toy design businesses she began illustrating full-time. She uses indian ink (for those of you who like me have not heard of this, indian ink is a jet black soot based ink, commonly used for comic strips and drawing) and water color to create the techniques displayed in her work. She sells much of her art commercially but also is down create a custom portrait for those who so desire. Collecting inspiration from fashion to traveling her art exudes personality, color and gentle precision. I love her portfolio because unlike many artists these days who create very morbid pieces, her work has a refreshing innocent quality to it!

Photoshop

Photoshop Images

Jack Anderson Photoshop

Lauren's photoshop-ish things

Kathleen's Images

Shadow Drawings

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 (#2)

 (3)

 (original photo)

My attempts at photoshop....

Call for Entry fyi

Rising Eye of Texas--Call for Entry

Hi all,

This is an opportunity for you to submit your work to an upcoming group show of student-artists in Texas. Check it out!~

Kristen

Painters Painting

Painters Painting was an interesting film to see for it's inside look at the artists perspectives on their works. Normally, when you see an artwork in a museum you have very little idea of the artist's original intent and it is more or less completely left up to the viewer's interpretation. However this movie shows you the other side of the story which is refreshing and intriguing. For example Frank Stella would give much more meaning to his paintings then what the average viewer would be able to draw from it. It is also interesting to see what he thought about the response to artworks. He mentioned that people thought some of his works were cold and calculating but he disagreed and told of his influences and where he was coming from with it. This is almost more interesting than the artworks themselves. Another interesting part of the movie was hearing about how the artists interacted and influenced each other. It is easy to think that they are all isolated but this movie reveals that they were not and would often interact. Listening to the artists speak and hearing about their inspirations and processes gives a lot more meaning to the artworks.

Painters Painting

This film, for me, was less about getting to know the styles of abstract expressionism, color field, and others mentioned, but more about getting to know the personalities of the artists behind the paintings. Based on their individual interviews, I ended up gaining greater appreciation for certain artists and losing respect for others.
I very much appreciated the way that most of the artists carried themselves in a very dignified manner, spoke directly from the heart (excuse the cliché), and most importantly gave good reason for the art they created. Some artists, like Johns and Rauschenberg, seemed to just want to see how far they could push the concept of art and media used to create it (like Marcel Duchamp). I liked hearing their very innocent ways of thinking because they didn't try to create some deep, convoluted meaning behind the work, but they still succeeded in creating thought-provoking pieces. I loved Johns' pieces before seeing this, and now I love them even more knowing the savvy artist behind them. On the other hand, it was quite irritating how Warhol wanted to make art commercial, because in my mind, that carries the notion that he wanted to devalue the artist, making us seem like selfish, money-nabbing hippies instead of true innovators. I used to have a lot of respect for him, and while I still love Warhol's works, I cannot help but dislike his attitude and "artist persona."
I don't make a habit of trying to make more meaning out of what the physical piece presents, so it was relieving to know that some of these artists didn't have any specific meanings in mind either! Knowing that they were similar to me in the aspect certainly made me appreciate abstract expressionism more than I had prior to viewing the movie. I suppose that's where the whole idea of "abstract expressionism" came from, but I hadn't realized the true meaning of the phrase until viewing this film last week.

Painters Painting and Letters To A Young Poet

Painters Painting was an interesting film that explained many different types of art and artists, how they got started in America, and the high's and lows of each.  However, the overview of pop art caught my attention right away.  I have always seen pop art throughout my life and appreciated it for its cartoon-y style, use of color, and just its uniqueness in general.  I am always attracted to pieces of art that are different from the rest.  One piece of pop art that I have always admired is Andy Worhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans."  The fact that something as banal as a can of soup can be turned into a fun and interesting piece of art really excites me.  I would have never thought such a simple object could create such a beautiful piece of work.  I think the fact that it's duplicated so many times makes it that much more interesting- something I would have never thought could be cool.  I guess my attraction to pop art has to do with its eclectic style and its fearless attitude towards the traditional art world.  Many pieces of pop art are made of collages, a type of art that has always appealed to me.  One of my favorite pieces is by Richard Hamilton titled "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different so appealing?"  In this piece I can see a twist between old fashioned and modern- the paintings on the wall and the man and woman sitting in the picture seem to be old fashioned, but the bright orange sofa, shag rug, and lollipop give it a modern twist.  Maybe old fashioned and modern aren't the words I'm looking for, but I guess what I like is that those items give the piece a pop, it shows pizazz.

At first the book was a little hard to understand, I didn't get who was writing to who, and it took me a while to figure out that it was just Rilke writing the response letters, we never saw the letters from the "young poet."  However once i got the hang of it and understood what was going on I found this book to be really interesting.  I like how that even though all of this advice was directed towards a poet, it could be used for an artist as well.  It reminded me that all art comes together in some way.  The biggest points I took from the letters were to always be confident with your work, and let yourself be the hardest critic.  Never let anyone else judge your work otherwise.  And he stressed how important it is to be able to take risk with your art and never be afraid to just let go and go for it.  Even though these were directed towards the young poet, I took it as good advice for myself too.

Thoughts on painters painting

Even though the film did seem a little long winded, it did give us an honest look into a past generation that we've simply had very little exposure to. We often read of the past or see specials on T.V. and in documentaries that references the past but rarely is the window opened to us to experience the past as they would have seen it, as to say from their perspective. For me, looking through this window into the past, it gave a since of already having an answer but to questions I never realized were asked. In the documentary, an arching theme was the question "what is american art?" With the early artists striving to find that identity and separate themselves from what was considered western modern art. I found the progression of the variety of differing styles interesting and the fact that there were multiple types of art all evolving at the same time. In my opinion it is this variety that becomes the identity of american art, something not limited to one style or theme but an expression of diversity. It is only fitting that american art is a reflection of america itself being defined by its variety and diversity.