Scratch and Mix Project Responce

My first impression of the exhibition was that it is a great thing to do as it shows the artists' experiments, achievements, their stories and their challenges. I think by showing all of that through art is powerful way to convey how the artist feels, as each artist has different styles and techniques, as well as different pasts and stories. I looked at some of the artist’s websites that showed their work and I found all of them unique and interesting. For example, one of the artists named Oluseye has a style where he creates people in monochromatic colors with almost a geometric look to them. He uses materials like acrylic paint, pastels, charcoal, wire and graphite pencil on canvas. Overall, his work I find very unique and interesting. Looking at some of the artists' work that were put in links under their description i saw many different types of art. There were photographers, painters, etc. And what was most noticeable was how everyone had their own significant style. The exhibition is a wonderful idea, and the chosen artists' have amazing work that deserve to be shown to the public about their achievements, lives, stories and challenges!

Series in a series

So I have completed the next part of my series. What I did was I purchased four white canvases and then I researched online why cats always landed on their feet. This is a unique characteristic that cats have and it happens almost 98% of the time. I did a couple tests with my own cat to prove this theory and out of the three times I tried it, he landed on his feet. The cat righting reflex starts to become effective in cats at the young age of 3-4 weeks old. It has been proven that a cat with a higher drop may have the better outcome than that of a lower drop.  A test was conducted of a cat falling five floors and a cat falling two floors and the cat that fell from higher resulted in less injuries. This is because in the longer time of the higher drop the cat had enough time to re-position itself properly to land without as many injuries.

Alright back to the actual project now. After doing the first part of my series I decided I could not only do it on cats, but a certain cat, my cat. So with the next part of the series I decided to stick to two colours that go well together but are complete opposites - also monochromatic. I started looking at the different positions a cat fell in as they turn from upside down to right side up. Since I had only four canvases i had to decide on four positions of falling. I know i had to incorporate the first and last sequence and then i had to choose two from the middle.

SERIES UPDATE

So I’m pretty much done with my sculpture as I started to get mad with it. The clay in the box had said that it was air dry-able and that it wasn't likely to crack. Unfortunately with my luck, it did crack and it basically ruined the entire design. I tried my best to fill in the crack with more clay to fill up the space so much it couldn't crack but it wasn't very successful. Right now I’m at a standstill with that portion of my series and I’m trying to think of a way to fill in the cracks so that I can paint it and put a clear coating over top. 

So currently while I’m thinking about this I have started another part of my series which is a series within a series. I have bought four canvases and I have started to draw the images of cats on them. What I plan on doing is called the cat righting reflex. This reflex is when a cat can be falling upside down and he corrects himself mid fall to land on his feet. The cat rotates its body at the middle on an axis that is different for both the front and back end of the cat. A cat usually lands like this with no injury but that isn't the case 100% of the time. 

Canadian coin

For this assignment in art is was technically classified as a sketchbook assignment. The point of it was to create a coin that represents Canada. Fortunately but unfortunately, Canada is so huge and diverse, making it difficult to choose just one thing to represent it. I settled on the idea of the land shape because that's one thing that probably won't ever change. I then decided to incorporate a maple leaf as well as it is from the national flag. I know that the map isn't exact and the shapes aren't all correct but at a glance it looks to be Canada's shape.

Fauvism Art History

Overview

Fauvism- a time period in which it was referred to as a time where there were plenty of new possibilities for colour in art. This art era happened in the early 20th century and was out of the ordinary. Created by some French men, inspired by famous names like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin,etc., grew to be a very popular. The group of men who were well known for using this type of art style were called the "fauves" -meaning wild beasts. They were called wild beasts due to the way they used the pallet of colours wildly. Being part of this art group was almost seen as liberation. The man who led this group was named Henri Matisse. He and a bunch of other people formed a group surrounding this unique art form and brought it recognition to this world. Colour is used at a maximum intensity and the artists usually painted with the colours that they believed should be there. When first looking at this style of artwork you tend to think is doesn't follow any guidelines but if you continue to study it, you realize it uses a lot of visual elements. The main features this art had were distinctive brush lines, vivid colour, and the expression of feelings through artists in their paintings.

L'Atelier Rouge (The Red Studio)by Henri Matisse (1911)

This first piece is one of Henri's most famous pieces he's ever created. My understanding of this piece is that the artist painted his studio in the colours he saw it in. With the main colour of red, it colour possibly be showing the motion he felt while painting it. red. anger? love? happiness? Was he particularly angry that day with his studio/art? or maybe he could've been totally happy. This painting was done with oil paint on canvas as that was a typical way for paintings to be at this time. If you study the picture closer to the painted artworks you can see possibly inspirations to why he would want to paint this scene. The first thing you notice would have to be the most important though. As said before, red has a huge impact on this piece. Where a painter might’ve used black the artist for some reason used red and made it work. Without the black the painting has a very different visual effect. Using the same tone throughout, he was still able to include depth which I find very amazing. At the time of this painting there was lots of international stress going on, with the war to come in three years.

At the Circus (The Mad Clown) by Georges Rouault (1907)

So right away looking at this painting you notice the dark colour choice. I would assume this under a hidden meaning he painting has with the two characters in it.  So the name of the artwork “At the Circus (The Mad Clown)” you can pick out the clown character but it is still unknown who the girl is – viewer or performer? Another question that comes to mind is why the clown is mad and what his back story is. The painting is done with oil paints on a piece of cardboard. Cardboard is a very interesting choice of canvas and it makes you wonder why it was chosen to do the art on. The painter was a student of Moreau (a very popular artist) and a friend of Matisse. Two very well-known artists who helped inspire Rouault to create this painting. The artist was seen as someone in this era to do more quiet and physiological paintings – paintings with a background. Using some of the main elements like intense brush strokes and application techniques, he had a preference to darker colours which echoed ‘human suffering’. As I have learned, the artist has done multiple paintings of clowns and acrobats off stage, which is very important to know as a viewer needs to know who the characters are in a painting. Using psychological inspiration he was always able to display the characters in full circus makeup but also reveal the deep sadness within. 

Yacht at Le Havre Decorated with Flags by Raoul Dufy (1905)

When first glancing at this painting you notice what exactly is in the picture but that there are no outlines to it. This was a feature of the fauvism era and I find it to be pretty interesting on how an artist can have a lack of detail and still are able to form a picture which has lots of detail. So you can see that in the picture it is a beautiful windy day at the marina/lake side and that there are many coloured flags attached to the yacht. The artist Dufy, was very much like popular artists Claude Monet and Eugene Boudin, painting scenes of one certain place that was his favourite. With the many different types of strokes the artist used he is able to convey different textures and effects throughout his work. The artist’s expression through this painting might’ve been happy as it was a favourite place. Events at this time were when cars were being factored into cities and horses were becoming less common. This painting was done on canvas with oil paint.

TVO on the road - Walking With Our Sisters Art Installation

After seeing Mrs. Rose’s blog post I decided to look into the Walking With Our Sisters Art Installation a bit more as I was very interested in it. After watching the video, I followed the link to the website, reading the information about the project and taking a closer look at some of the pieces they collected that came with stories. Each pair of vamps collected represents one missing or murdered indigenous woman. All the vamps were beautifully crafted and I found it moving how the country can come together to show their respect to those indigenous women who went missing or were murdered. I think that this project is very important as it honours the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada and the United States. The project revolves around these pieces called Moccasin vamps, which are the top decorative pieces of the moccasin. The vamps symbolize the unfinished lives of the women whose lives were cut short. The vamps that are collected were then to be attached with Velcro to a red cloth path so viewers who go to see it can walk along the path of vamps. This project is a great way to raise awareness to everyone about this issue, and to pay respect to the women’s lives and existence. This link is to the project’s website (http://walkingwithoursisters.ca/) and I encourage anyone that reads this post to check it out and to see the work that the women of Walking With Our Sisters is doing.

Fourth Sketch Book Assignment

Juxtaposition 

Two things that are placed closely together which contrast each other.

With this sketch I chose to contrast the bird on where it can't be and how it's there. For this assignment I used value, space, and shape. Since I use graphite pencils in all or many of my sketches I tend to use value to show the different shades. For space, I have the foreground of the bird and the sign, the middle ground of the lighthouse and rocks, and the background of the ocean horizon. Finally with shape I used both geometric and organic. Geometric for the design of the lighthouse and the sign and organic for the rocks.