Module 9: Exploring Line

1. What was it like using your hand as subject matter for a drawing?

- I thought that using my hand was a fairly easy object to draw. It was really difficult trying to shade in the correct places, even with both hands.

 

2. What media did you select - pencil or charcoal? Why?

- I used pencil because that's all that I could find in my house.

 

3. How did it feel to create a drawing with your non-dominant hand?

- Before I started drawing I thought that using my non-dominant hand would be a disaster, but when I was drawing it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

 

4. Compare and contrast your final drawings. Do you think they are successful studies?

-  I don't know if I'd say successful because I don't really have any artistic ability, but I think for an amateur the drawings look okay.

 

5. Would you consider using your non-dominant hand to create artwork in the future?

- I would consider using my non-dominant hand to create artwork in the future because it looks almost as good as the drawing that I did with the dominant hand and it could be challenging to draw something else other than a hand. It would be interesting to say the least.

 

 

Module 9: Video Review

Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master Video:

Albrecht Durer was born in 1471 in German. He was a Renaissance artist. He was very talented. He was an apprentice to his father that was a goldsmith. Durer enjoyed painting hands. Durer carefully showed the process of aging in his works. He had a truthful and ruthless eye for the process of aging. When he was 15 he became an apprentice and in 1489 he set forth on his own journey across Europe. He managed to turned himself into a craftsmen.  He was skilled at making woodcuts. A touch of Narcissism was evident in his works. He was summoned back to Germany to be married 4 years after he set forth on his journey. 2 months after he was married he set off to go to Italy. The appeal of landscape came onto him and landscape became present in his works. He was the first true landscape artist in Europe. He grasped the mood of landscape. Durer visited many studios in Venice as he could on both of his trips to Italy. He painted a work for a church. Venicican art had an impact on him. The work he did for the church was natural and had vibrant colors. He learned how to employ the finest strokes of the brush without color manipulating light. He searched for perfect form. In Venice he claimed he was a noble and in Germany he was a nobody, but he was somebody once he returned to Germany. He bought a house that fit his new status. The main source of his income was printings. He had a space set up in his home to do just that. Durer's success in woodcuts was giving the events of the time, Martin Luther and the break from Rome, dramatic feelings and distributing them to the people.

Velazquez Video:

Velazquez was born in 1599. When he was 24 he was named court painter to Phillip the fourth and went to Italy twice. He was awarded nobility by the king. He captured the moment, the light and the air, timeless elements. His paintings look like they were caught in real time, in a shadow. He balances light and color and uses his mind to capture the truth. He doesn't use extravagant color in his works.


I thought that the Velazquez video was not very interesting and certainly not as interesting as the video of Albrecht Durer. Durer, in my opinion, had a more eventful life. Not much information is available on Velazquez, so that made the video pretty dry. I selected these videos because I've never heard of the two artists before and I wanted to choose something different than Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

The videos relate to the text in that they explain some of the key characteristics of Renaissance art. Durer and Velazquez captured art in the more natural state. Both artists further what was talked about in the text and the videos show and tell how both the artists had an impact on Renaissance art, making it better understood.

Module 8: Video Review

More Human than Human Video:

The human body is captivating to everyone. The world is dominated by unrealistic images of the body. The nomadic people of Austria left behind a statue of a women's body, but it was very small, only 10 centimeters high. It is housed in Vienna, Austria, along with many, many other artifacts. This statues is the first clue as to why the world is dominated by unrealistic images of the human body. Statues of the human body were exaggerated all over Europe. Studies of the brain show that the brain was programmed to operate that way. The prime evil extinct to exaggerate the human body didn't carry out to Egypt. Rather than exaggerate, Egyptian artists chose to show each part from the clearest angle. Egyptian style never changed. Egyptians made statues and images of the body to last forever. Egyptians had an obsession with order. They created images of the body because of their culture, not because of the wiring of the brain, which could explain the human body exaggeration of the human world. Culture is king.  The seagull experiment shown in this video directly correlates to one of the previous modules and readings. I think this video was accurate in that culture is king. Culture dictates many things in our lives, and how we perceive the body is definitely one of them. The video explains the ancient perceptions of the body and the art that came with specific cultures, like Egypt.

Cairo Museum Video:

I chose this video because the title had caught my attention and sounded more interesting than any of the other videos. Egypt is a land of forgotten tombs and unsolved mysteries. It has many secrets. In downtown Cairo there is an Egyptian museum. There are tens of thousands of objects within the museum walls. It may be the best museum in the world because of all of the artifacts and you cannot see anything like it anywhere else in the world. There are many, many, more artifacts hidden within the basement. The museum was opened in 1902. There are many boxes, some that have not ever been opened before. There are remains from some of the most famous rulers in Egypt upstairs in the public part of the museum. 40 mummies of famous kings were found in the late 1800's in the desserts of Lexor. The bodies were then transferred to the museum in Cairo.  There is so much in the basement that it is hard to decide which objects should be chosen for exhibition. Conservation begins in the fields, not in the museums. I'm glad I chose this video because it was very, very interesting. Who knew that there could be so many artifacts that still exist from thousands and thousands of years ago. The video touched a point on what the funeral room looked like in the tomb of one of the ancient rulers, which is what the reading talks about as well. In the video, they show how they had to prepare one of the artifacts to prevent it from ruining and it looked very similar to the "Seated Scribe" that is present within the text, which is a common sculpture type from that time.

Module 7 Video Review

The Prairie Style (Frank Lloyd Wright):

No other architect in history was as influential as Frank Lloyd Wright in the way we live. He came up with the Prairie Style, for a more wide open method of living. This style was to blend buildings into their surroundings and not destroy them. He designed a lot of houses for the single family, a series and layering of horizontal bans. He tried to create a harmony between the client and the architecture. He wanted it to be natural. He opened up the spaces between the rooms in a house so they could connect with one another. The ceiling level is brought down to emphasize the horizontal aspect. I thought this video was informative. When it explained this type of living, I pictured many different houses to try to link them together. It adds depth because it explains a different type of architecture that I've never heard of, which is also why I chose this video. Everyone has different preferences when it comes to a house, such as the type of architecture they prefer. Some people like arches to be in their homes, connecting rooms together, while some people choose to have horizontal and level connections between rooms, which is what the video describes.

Architecture: The Science of Design:

The discovery of concrete and steel allowed for the construction of skyscrapers. The superstructure and the underground substructure are the basis for a skyscraper. The substructure holds the building's dead weight and living weight. Wind influences the buildings. Whirlwinds make buildings sway and heavy winds can make a 100 story building sway a meter in a different direction, which could damage the structure and cause faults within the buildings. Architects test the effects of wind on the buildings and know whether to put trees around it to help with the wind. This relates to the text by further explaining the creation of steel and concrete and how it works for the building. I like this video, I feel like this one is informative as well. I was not aware that architects measure how the wind could effect buildings and I was not aware that buildings could move that much just from the wind. I chose this video because I thought that it would be informative, as it was. Science imposes a lot of depth so I curious to know what the video talked about.

Module 6: Video Review

1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
In the sculpting video, I learned that many sculptors work on more than one piece at a time. Clay is sculpted and finished, then a life size plaster model is casted, then marble is carved. Many artist work as a team to create masterpieces. Each artist work on any given sculptor, all specializing in a specific part of it. In the glass video, glass is made from sand, but glass has different properties than sand. It is a liquid that stiffens when cooled. Glass is made with fire and components are added to improve fusion at high temperatures and prevent the glass from becoming too fluid. Molten glass then is taken out by the glass creator and the creator blows into the glass to mold it and glass is cooled by the air. It is then reheated.

2. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?
Chapter 11 from the text discusses the different methods and materials of sculpture, while the sculpting video explains the technical side of the sculptor himself. The video provides more depth as to how long it takes for a sculptor to be created and how many individuals it requires. Chapter 12 discusses glass to be one of the most fascinating of materials, which I agree. To see how glass is created is definitely a great experience. The text explains what glass is used for, while the video explains how glass is made and what it is made of.

3. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the topics: Sculpture, Installation, and Craft?
I thought that the sculpting video was interesting. I was not aware that often, more than one person took part in creating a sculpture. I had previously thought that only one individual was left responsible.  It does seem like a lot of work for just one person, depending on the size of the piece being created. I personally like the glass video a lot. I've been to the Corning Museum of Glass many times and I really enjoy watching how a specific piece of glass is made, so this video is not news to me. The videos provide depth because they take what the text provides and makes the material more in depth to understand how it is made artistically. Our eyes are opened to how long it takes to create sculptures and to how glass is made.

Module 6- Reviewing Peer Responses

1. http://smanthayorko.blogspot.com/ and http://sarahjacobsartblogging.blogspot.com/
2. When looking at Samantha's first project on elements and principles, I very much so enjoyed her slideshow and how she captured the pool for each element and principle. I found that each picture matched with the elements and principles that we were chosen to capture. I thought that every picture she used was full of the element color. My favorite picture from her slideshow was the one that showed line. Texture was also present in many of her pictures, such as, the pictures for value, line, contrast, and balance. When looking at Sarah's first project on elements and principles, I found myself enjoying every picture in it. Her pictures that she used for color and for pattern, also showed texture.
3. Samantha and I chose two of the same artworks for the second project on the art gallery visit, but Sarah and I did not choose any of the same artworks. Samantha and I incorporated Lee Bontecou's Untitled and Giacomo Bella's  Dinamismo di un Can al Guinzaglo.  Samantha chose Lee Bontecou's artwork because it spiked her interest, being two dimensional, which was different from her assumption that artwork is flat. I chose Bontecou's artwork because I saw it as bulging from the wall, which I connected to my life that is full of stress, ready to explode. Although similar, Samantha chose Giacomo Bella's artwork in remembrance of her friend's dog, but I chose Bella's artwork in remembrance of my own dog. I connected with the artwork because I instantly thought of my dog's crazy personality. Samantha said she chose this work because she was there for her friend whose dog had passed away and that she felt her life was going by quickly, which directly connects to how fast the dog is projected to be moving in the artwork.
4. Sarah had used John Pfahl's View from the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (#4), which is an artwork that I found very interesting. I connected to this picture because I love when it rains. I love having the window open just a crack, if the rain isn't too heavy or if there isn't much wind. Also, I love the way rain looks against a window. There weren't any other images from either Samantha or Sarah, that really made me look twice, like I did with Pfahl's artwork. I guess what I'd like to learn from Pfahl is what he felt when he was stuck in the hospital, having to watch the rain outside of his window.
5. I find that when viewing what my peers' took in from having to take part in the same project as me, expands my train of thought. When I read what another person thought on an artwork, it may be different from my own thoughts, but it then leads me to take another look at it, from a different perspective. I find that this is a great way to learn and to expand the brain's way of thinking.
6. Currently, there are not any comments on either of my posts from the projects, but when taking part in the discussion forums each week, I read what my peers think and sometimes I think to myself "I didn't think of it like that."

Comment for Samantha's first project:
http://smanthayorko.blogspot.com/2013/09/https1345.html?showComment=1380648679887#c8647702500669264829
Comment for Samantha's second project:
http://smanthayorko.blogspot.com/2013/09/module-5-art-gallery.html
Comment for Sarah's first project:
http://sarahjacobsartblogging.blogspot.com/2013/09/photo-project.html?showComment=1380648376350#c4011338919050959584
Comment for Sarah's second project:
http://sarahjacobsartblogging.blogspot.com/2013/09/albright-knox-art-gallery-visit.html?showComment=1380648058087#c7402561040486410408