I have been working on the upcoming presentation. The posts on the blogger are very useful. I saves all of them in Word; 18 pages in total. I am also putting together artwork I liked in books, online, and art galleries; after all these works have shaped my work this semester. Come to think about it, it seems the artwork I saw in galleries have been influencing me since I started taking art classes a couple of years ago.
Book reviews we did, individual and group critiques, and critiques by Dan Hernandez and art students are very important assets to my work, too. Hopefully I can include all the sources to my presentation.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Tools
I am so happy that the art show downtown was so successful. Congratulations to Dustyn and all.
I learned how to use tools such as the drill and drill bits this time. When I opened the package from the American Frames, I just thought all I had to do was to lay the plexi glass, watercolor, mat board, and the styrofoam board in order. When I read the instructions, I learned I had to use a drill to put spring clips. I went to Wal-mart to find the drill, but I didn't even know what the drill looked like. I tried to find a store attendant who could help me in vain. Then I went to Home Depot where I could get a decent help. The attendant took me to the right place and started explaining the tools, so I said all I want is a tool to put the frames together. I got the drill; I asked him several times how to use it. He said there are two screws, plus and minus (of course, these are my terminology), so I said I need something to make a hole. Then he realized I need a drill bit. I practiced how to drill a hole on a board; the drill bit wouldn't go in, and eventually I realised I turned the switch to the wrong direction, so instead of making a hole, the drill bit kept coming out. After several trying, I could put all frames and pictures together.
Monday night we hang pictures; Dustyn let me know sawtooth hangers are pulling the frame; the frame will eventually snap. So I had to go to Home Depot and bought hanging wires and wire cutter. Even at Home Depot a female store attendant didn't know what a wire cutter looked like, and she took me to a metal cutter section. I said to myself if I had to use these huge cutters to cut the hanging wire. She asked for another help. Finally I could put all the wires on the back of the frames.
What a joy to see the pictures hang properly, and I did all by myself! I can order more frames for the artwork I have done in the past couple of years.
I learned how to use tools such as the drill and drill bits this time. When I opened the package from the American Frames, I just thought all I had to do was to lay the plexi glass, watercolor, mat board, and the styrofoam board in order. When I read the instructions, I learned I had to use a drill to put spring clips. I went to Wal-mart to find the drill, but I didn't even know what the drill looked like. I tried to find a store attendant who could help me in vain. Then I went to Home Depot where I could get a decent help. The attendant took me to the right place and started explaining the tools, so I said all I want is a tool to put the frames together. I got the drill; I asked him several times how to use it. He said there are two screws, plus and minus (of course, these are my terminology), so I said I need something to make a hole. Then he realized I need a drill bit. I practiced how to drill a hole on a board; the drill bit wouldn't go in, and eventually I realised I turned the switch to the wrong direction, so instead of making a hole, the drill bit kept coming out. After several trying, I could put all frames and pictures together.
Monday night we hang pictures; Dustyn let me know sawtooth hangers are pulling the frame; the frame will eventually snap. So I had to go to Home Depot and bought hanging wires and wire cutter. Even at Home Depot a female store attendant didn't know what a wire cutter looked like, and she took me to a metal cutter section. I said to myself if I had to use these huge cutters to cut the hanging wire. She asked for another help. Finally I could put all the wires on the back of the frames.
What a joy to see the pictures hang properly, and I did all by myself! I can order more frames for the artwork I have done in the past couple of years.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Sunrise
One of my four titles in my art project was the sunset. The sunset is often associated with death as Turner and many other artists imply. Just because I saw a beautiful sunset, I was going to use it as one of the themes, but I decided to try the sunrise instead as it implies the beginning of new life. One of the art students suggested I use the ocean since I crossed it to come to the States. I have seen both the sunrise and the sunset from the plane many times, but since my topic is "Big Sky" in the States seen from the ground, I decided to search an image of the sunrise at the Mississippi; I have crossed it many times. This weekend I am working on this sunrise, and hopefully it will turn out as I hope.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
The Sublime
The Introduction
"The essential claim of the sublime is that man can, in feeling and speech, transcend the human. What, if anything, likes beyond the human - God or the gods, the daemon or nature - is matter for treat disagreement. (Thomas Weiskel. The Romantic Sublime: Studies in the Structure and Psychology of Transcendence. 1976.)
Sublime in 18th century: "The concept of the sublime . . . was applied in relation to the art to describe aspects of nature that instill awe and wonder, such as mountains, avalanches, waterfalls, story seas or the infinity vault of the starry sky."(12)
Today:"The incredible power of technology is more likely to supply the raw material for what can be terms a characteristically contemporary sublime." (12)
Rosenblum, Robert. "The Abstract Sublime" 1961
Among all the articles under "Nature," I was most interested in Rosenblum's "The Abstract Sublime" as it deals with Turner's work. He quotes Kant's definition by saying the Sublime is to be found in a formless and boundless object. Then Rosenblum discusses James Ward and Clyfford Still's art. Both of them portrayed nature in large canvases; the one described in his article is 131x166 cm by Ward and 113x159 by Still. These are representative of sublime landscape which portrayed awe, terror, boundlessness and divinity during 18th and early 19th centrury; as a result the viewers were often awed by the void in such boundless and vast nature.
Turner, however, expresses Sublime by filling the void with cosmic energy such as steam, wind, water, snow and fire. The author continues to discull Turner's contemporary, John Martin (1789-1854). Then the author brings Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956) as the third master of the Abstract Sublime. "That brink is again reached when we stand before a perpetuum mobile of Jackson Pollock, whose gyrating labyrinths re-create in the metaphorical language of abstraction the superhuman turbulence depicted more literary, in Turner and Martin." (111)
AS the fourth master of the Abstract Sublime, the works of Barnett Newman (1905-1970) are introduced. He explored "a realm of sublimity so perilous that it defies comparison with even the most adventurous Romantic exploration into sublime natioe." Newman drew "Vir Hericus Sublimis," which is 114.5 inches.
Honestly speaking, I have not seen the real works by Martin or Newman; it is impossible to capture the impression of paintings which are just several colors of red and a line. But I try to picture a huge painting with only a few colors in front of me, I will just feel lost in its simplicity.
Marley Simon. Ed. The Sublime: Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Whitechapel Gallery. 2010.
"The essential claim of the sublime is that man can, in feeling and speech, transcend the human. What, if anything, likes beyond the human - God or the gods, the daemon or nature - is matter for treat disagreement. (Thomas Weiskel. The Romantic Sublime: Studies in the Structure and Psychology of Transcendence. 1976.)
Sublime in 18th century: "The concept of the sublime . . . was applied in relation to the art to describe aspects of nature that instill awe and wonder, such as mountains, avalanches, waterfalls, story seas or the infinity vault of the starry sky."(12)
Today:"The incredible power of technology is more likely to supply the raw material for what can be terms a characteristically contemporary sublime." (12)
Rosenblum, Robert. "The Abstract Sublime" 1961
Among all the articles under "Nature," I was most interested in Rosenblum's "The Abstract Sublime" as it deals with Turner's work. He quotes Kant's definition by saying the Sublime is to be found in a formless and boundless object. Then Rosenblum discusses James Ward and Clyfford Still's art. Both of them portrayed nature in large canvases; the one described in his article is 131x166 cm by Ward and 113x159 by Still. These are representative of sublime landscape which portrayed awe, terror, boundlessness and divinity during 18th and early 19th centrury; as a result the viewers were often awed by the void in such boundless and vast nature.
Turner, however, expresses Sublime by filling the void with cosmic energy such as steam, wind, water, snow and fire. The author continues to discull Turner's contemporary, John Martin (1789-1854). Then the author brings Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956) as the third master of the Abstract Sublime. "That brink is again reached when we stand before a perpetuum mobile of Jackson Pollock, whose gyrating labyrinths re-create in the metaphorical language of abstraction the superhuman turbulence depicted more literary, in Turner and Martin." (111)
AS the fourth master of the Abstract Sublime, the works of Barnett Newman (1905-1970) are introduced. He explored "a realm of sublimity so perilous that it defies comparison with even the most adventurous Romantic exploration into sublime natioe." Newman drew "Vir Hericus Sublimis," which is 114.5 inches.
Honestly speaking, I have not seen the real works by Martin or Newman; it is impossible to capture the impression of paintings which are just several colors of red and a line. But I try to picture a huge painting with only a few colors in front of me, I will just feel lost in its simplicity.
Marley Simon. Ed. The Sublime: Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Whitechapel Gallery. 2010.
Turner: The Fighting Temeraire
J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) named his painting as "The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up." But when it was displayed at a museum, the title was shortened. Turner painted this oil painting in 1838. The ship was made in 1798 and was dismantled in 1838. The art was complimented as "the most wonderful of all the works of the greatest master of the age," "a nobly-composed poem, very poetical conception."
Turner didn't witness this 2,110-ton ship being tugged to be dismantled. He painted the ship from imagination; however, he did paint four other works based on the Temeraire. The motif of picture came from a steam boat tugged on the Seine. The paint is 90.7x112.6cm, rather a large painting, but smaller compared to other landscapes during 18th century.
The Temeraire was in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, which brought the glorious victory to the Britain. When the ship was tugged, some of the equipment on the ship had been already taken out; only three bare masts without sail remain. Absolutely vacant space on the ship symbolizes the fact that the ship has completed its role. The ship looks almost ghostly. The original colours used for the ship were yellow and black, but there are no such colors left on the ship in the painting. The glorious looking sunset also symbolizes the destiny of the Temeraire; at the same time it relates to a death of human.
By the way, Turner is the first person to use "tug" as a verb according to the OED. "Towed" was used before Turner.
My comment: left side of the painting depicts the Temeraire tugged by a dark tug boat. The tug boat looks like a fate because of its dark color. Behind the tug boat are two ships with sails, which symbolized they are still active, but eventually they are going to follow the step of the Temeraire. Ont he right side of the painting is this beautiful sunset. It it stands alone, I don't associate it with a death of the ship/human. But, with two images together, however the beautiful the sky (ship) is, it has a straightforward message that the glory is going to end.
Egerton, Judy. "Making and Meaning: Turner-The Fighting Temerarire. London: National Gallery Publications. 1995.
Turner didn't witness this 2,110-ton ship being tugged to be dismantled. He painted the ship from imagination; however, he did paint four other works based on the Temeraire. The motif of picture came from a steam boat tugged on the Seine. The paint is 90.7x112.6cm, rather a large painting, but smaller compared to other landscapes during 18th century.
The Temeraire was in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, which brought the glorious victory to the Britain. When the ship was tugged, some of the equipment on the ship had been already taken out; only three bare masts without sail remain. Absolutely vacant space on the ship symbolizes the fact that the ship has completed its role. The ship looks almost ghostly. The original colours used for the ship were yellow and black, but there are no such colors left on the ship in the painting. The glorious looking sunset also symbolizes the destiny of the Temeraire; at the same time it relates to a death of human.
By the way, Turner is the first person to use "tug" as a verb according to the OED. "Towed" was used before Turner.
My comment: left side of the painting depicts the Temeraire tugged by a dark tug boat. The tug boat looks like a fate because of its dark color. Behind the tug boat are two ships with sails, which symbolized they are still active, but eventually they are going to follow the step of the Temeraire. Ont he right side of the painting is this beautiful sunset. It it stands alone, I don't associate it with a death of the ship/human. But, with two images together, however the beautiful the sky (ship) is, it has a straightforward message that the glory is going to end.
Egerton, Judy. "Making and Meaning: Turner-The Fighting Temerarire. London: National Gallery Publications. 1995.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Group Critique by Dan Hernandez
I was very nervous about what Dan Hernandez was going to say about my watercolor in his critique, but rather I felt his critique gave me a direction to complete my watercolor project. It was my plan to include a water tower with the stormy sky. I practiced how to paint the stomy sky many times, but I was not sure how big the water tower should be. When I was introducing my watercolor to him in the group critique last week, I commented on my first impression of the water tower when I came to the States; it was an out of ordinary shape and it looked like a space ship. I have seen many water towers since then, some look like a tin man from the Wizard of Oz, some just a ball (not scary), but the type I see in Beebe exit to highway 64 really looks like a spaceship. I think that is the type I saw when I came to the States (Iowa) first time. I was glad to hear when Dan suggested I should paint the watertower large. I was stuck with the idea of painting something very small and flat on the bottom of the paper, so with his comment I could finally free myself from the tedious drawings on the bottom of the paper.
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