Seven Deadly Sins

I viewed "No Country For Old Men" and "Supersize Me!" for the Seven Deadly Sins project. "No Country for Old Men" exemplifies the sin of wrath, and "Supersize Me!" portrays the gluttony of a nation and a corporation.


My final triptych involved the two sins of gluttony and wrath, as well as lust.

Color . . .

For my color assignment, I used a piece by Alice Neel, a painter, as my basis. The piece is a portrait entitled "Nancy Selvage" and was completed in 1967.



Using the Palette Picker found on Worqzx.com, I created the following color palette based on the most apparent and dominant colors in the painting.



Finally, using Adobe Photoshop, I edited a picture of myself. I based the palette of my own piece after the palette i created from Alice Neel's piece, and used various filters and brushwork to make the photo look more like an oil painting.

urban decay collage. . .

Urban decay -- based on a trip to an abandoned factory.

Value: Album Cover

For this assignment, I created an album cover for the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (score by Wendy Carlos). The music in this soundtrack is mainly electronic classical music, i.e. classical pieces performed with both traditional instruments as well as electronica such as synthesizers. This style was pioneered by Wendy Carlos (originally Walter Carlos).

The album cover uses both color and value as key components in its composition. The emphasis is created because of the chiarscuro on Alex's face. The viewer's eye is drawn to this area because of contrasting values and subtle gradations from light to dark, as well as the contrasting nature of this area to the rest of the cover, where value plays a smaller role. Other areas are flattened by the use of planes of color (or black) to describe the forms of the women's bodies, instead of the three-dimentional chiaroscuro of Alex's face.

Space Assignment

For my space assigment, I was inspired by this artist, Adela Leibowitz (below), whose work I found in the 2006 Northeastern edition of New American Paintings. She deals with with space in a fairly simple way -- The foreground is closer and more detailed than the background. However, I was also influenced by stained glass artists, and the way that light shining through the piece affect how it is viewed. In my piece, there are three layers of transparent paper that create the foreground, middle ground, and background. the piece relies on the influence of light to be successful, without light shining through it, you can't really make out the three separate depths that are present.

ICA Field TRip

At the ICA, I sketched two pieces that greatly interested me:

"Odessa, Ukraine, August 11, 1995" by Rineke Dijkstra
"Suzanne, Walking, Leather Skirt" by Julian Opie

To describe artwork and its form, subject, and content; to compare and contrast two works from different artists and whether the artists achieved their goals

The first piece, “Odessa . . .” by Rineke Dijkstra is a color photograph of a young boy holding two dolls. The form of the boy is placed centrally in the page, and the doll he holds in each of his arms gives the piece of sense of symmetry. This symmetry unites the entire piece, as does the repetition of the human form. The entire piece is based around the organic forms of the human body; the subject matter portrays both real and simulated bodies (ie the boy and the dolls).

The second piece, “Suzanne, Walking . . .” by Julian Opie is a digital animation of a “woman” wearing a leather skirt and walking in place. Her form is highly stylized, and is nearly geometric (Esp. her head – it has become a simple circle). The piece is monochromatic, and is given a sense of unity by its strong, simple black lines and shapes, which describe the form of the woman. The body of the woman, where the dress is not located, is represented by a thick black outline. Contrastingly, the dress is an actual digital image (black and white) of the leather dress that was being worn by the “real” Suzanne as she was filmed.

These pieces bear many similarities. They are both depictions of the human form, specifically a singular human form. The subject matter in the piece is located in the center of the foreground, which is the most straightforward way for the artist to show that it is the most important aspect of the piece. The pieces are also similar in that they are both seemingly related to time, although in very different ways. “Odessa. . .,” which is a static photograph, seems to represent a specific single moment in time, as alluded to by the inclusion of the date in the full title (ie “Odessa Ukraine, August 11, 1995). This title gives the piece the feeling of a true “snapshot.” The second piece, “Suzanne,” relates to time in that it seemingly shows the passage of time, because the subject matter is walking across the screen. However, in some ways, “Suzanne . . .” is just as static as the still photograph of “Odessa . . .” because the figure in the piece does not actually create any progress as she walks, nor does her manner of walking change in the least bit.

The pieces differ greatly, despite their similarities. The boy in “Odessa . . .” is a highly specific subject, whereas the woman in “Suzanne . . .” is stylized and generalized. The boy’s intense facial expression, and especially expressive eyes and mouth, contrast the empty circle that has come to represent “Suzanne”’s head.

Shape Assignment.

sHApE!






For this assignment, I created a piece with the intent of successfully describing the human face/form with flat shapes. I used various media to execute the piece, including pencil, india ink, and paint. By simplifying the appearances of my subject matter into different shapes with different colors/values, I was able to give depth to a highly 2-D piece. The image is unified by the use of this technique, as well as its overall graphic appearance. Additionally, the consistent use of large geometirc shapes in the background vs. the multitude of smaller, more complex organic and freeform shapes in the foreground develop a pattern and rhythm within the image. The use of shape in the piece is highly objective; these shapes are used solely to represent recognizable forms (people). The geometric shapes in the background, however, are more non-objective, as they do not really depict any specific subject matter, but aid in the composition.
In creating this piece, I was influenced by the work of Roy Lichtenstein, a pop artist, who used flat shapes of contrasting value and color to create dramatic, comic book-like images. (see images below)

Line Assignment

For the line assignment, I created a piece similar to Hannah van Bart's. I focused mainly on recreating the line quality of her piece "Best Wishes" in a self-portrait. The body parts of the figure in both her piece and mine are dark, somewhat "wobbly" contour lines; they describe the form by becoming thicker or thinner (I used India ink for this). I also used a series of smaller lines throughout the piece, such as the ones scratched into the skirt and the bottom of the image with a paintbrush. Additionally, the painted background of van Bart's original piece may at first seem devoid of lines, but when the viewer looks more closely, he or she notices the lines created by the juxtaposition of different hues, values, and marks from the actual brush. I tried to achieve the same effect in the background of my image.

The composition of both pieces are structured in the same manner-- a single figure on a shallow ground. The large flat hands produce areas of contrast, thereby attracting the viewer's eye and creating movement around the page. The face of the figure plays a secondary role in the piece.
Details

Visual Storyboard

The Story Behind: "Best Wishes!" by Hannah van Bart, 2005 (found in Art in America, Sept. 2007).

A Brief Bio of the Artist:
Born 1963, Oud-Zuilen, Maassen
Lives and works in Amsterdam
Education:
1983-88 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
1988-90 Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam


This piece is by Hannah van Bart, a Dutch painter. The man is depicted in a strange, almost childlike manner, with little importance placed on realism; more emphasis is placed on the awkward emotional content of the piece.

THE COMPOSITION:
The strong contrast of the whiteness of the hands compared to the rest of the piece makes them really pop out at the viewer. Additionally, the dark fur or material of the sleeves draws the viewer's attention to the pair of hands resting by the subject's sides. From here, the small fluttering ribbon on the left points upwards towards the man's third hand and face, where there is a second emphasis of sorts. The piece is somewhat monochromatic, and the line quality is very raw and unpolished. The figure is described with a combination of contour lines and outlines. This lends the piece a very fresh look; the artist has certainly tapped into her inner child to create this piece. Perhaps she was inspired by primitive art or children's drawings (examples below). It does not seem as though van Bart made a lot of preliminary drawings or sketches for the piece; it looks very spontaneous and unrehearsed.


The man has multiple hands, as well as multiple collars and ties. He is a little on the portly side, and looks like a tired middle-aged businessman.

Perhaps van Bart was inspired by the image of a balding businessman, perhaps he is someone she knows, or an image found in a newspaper or magazine.

Guerilla Art Assignment - Visual Language

Emotional Oxymoron Guerilla Art

For our first visual language assignment, we had to post non-destructive, non-toxic guerilla art on public property. Using washable tempera paint and a stencil, i created an image of a man frowning, with the text "smile." underneath it. It was meant to cause people to stop and contemplate this slightly ambiguous oxymoron.