Stripes in Stilettos (Non-Western Art – Part II)

For my first post earlier, I knew that I wanted to pick art from somewhere in Asia because I loved the way they painted their ink pictures. For my second post, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do so I decided to start from square one and look through all of the art presented in this assignment. That was the plan. Until I got to this unusual set of paintings somewhere in the Africa section…
Now, many of these paintings were kind of… different… I guess, but this set really made me stop and smile.

"Bella Donna" - Dominique Thoenes -- Kenya, (year unknown)

The artist is Dominique Thoenes of Kenya and the work is from a collection, Zebra in Red Heels. At first, I was going to pass it on by after enjoying the smile it brought to my face, but then I noticed a poster at the end of the picture slideshow of the different zebras. The flyer read:

Kenyan wildlife is just all that!!

Pink, Stripy, spotted, and great. 

Where else in the world do you find such jovial beasts,

They really do deserve a crown..

….. They deserve bling

… wings….

… or even red things..

In fact they deserve it all…

But what they really NEED is trees..

So for every picture sold.. I promise to plant five trees..

Every little bit helps. 

"Zebra in Red Heels" - Dominique Thoenes -- Kenya 2010

After reading this, I knew that I should write about these interesting pictures. Because they meant something.

 Being a Wildlife Biology and Conservation major, I thought it was great how much Dominique Thoenes cared for her country’s wildlife as well as environmental state. And I love how she used her art like this to draw in audiences with whimsical drawings of zebras in heels and then use it to show that they, among other wildlife in Africa, deserve the best.

"Fruity" - Dominique Thoenes -- Kenya, (year unknown)

With a new interest in Thoenes as an artist, I looked her up to see what other works she has done. She is very quickly becoming a new favorite. She is a fantastic artist and her paintings are very fun to look at. They are types of drawings that shy away from seriousness and bring a smile to your face with their whimsical fun characteristics.

One of my favorites aside from the zebras is one titled, Two Hungry Horses. I just thought it was really cute. 🙂

"Dos Caballos Hambrientos (Two Hungry Horses)" - Dominique Thoenes -- Kenya, 2003

SOURCES:

http://www.bellamatata.com/

http://www.africancolours.com/dominiquethoenes.htm

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Non-Western Art – Part I

"Two Hawks in a Thicket" - Lin Liang -- China, 15th Century Ming Dynasty

For this blog I decided to chose Two Hawks in a Thicket by Lin Liang of China. As one of the most prominent painters of “bird-and-flower” painting of the non-western art world, Liang was famous for his hawk paintings and specialized in his bold expressive ways of presenting them.

In this painting, Liang illustrates these symbolic birds as “embodiments of heroism”. Whereas in his usual works, Liang presented his birds silhouetted in the air looking for a perch, through this depiction, he made the hawk into something new.

In Two Hawks in a Thicket, Liang presents his noble birds as away from the world; hidden as it were away from the sights of any human or other animal. In this piece the birds appear in their own world where “no one could possibly reach them”. Additionally, they are given new meaning. Characterized as “birds of prey” hawks are rarely seen as peaceful creatures. Liang changes this through this painting.

I just thought this piece was really beautiful. I absolutely love the detail Liang put into it and his ability to attract the audience even without any color to grab at you.

I also loved how he strayed away from the usual depictions of the hawks in flight and put them at ease and rest in their own isolation. It gives the birds this new way to look at them instead of them being solely portrayed as birds of prey.

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Art of the Earth: A Virtual Exhibit

The theme of my Virtual Art Exhibit is various forms of Environmental Art. Environmental Art is art that’s goal is to bring us, as humans, closer to nature and to improve our relationship with it and the Earth. Everyday, we take the Earth and it’s resources for granted without realizing it.
It seems kind of a silly concept in Alaska where you can find yourself surrounded by wilderness and nature everyday, however, having the chance to have traveled to many places and having met some interesting people, I have found that many people really don’t know the true beauty of the world. They are so stuck in their urban and city lives that they don’t notice the beautiful side of the world. The natural beauty.

Made in Taiwan

Jane Ingram Allen is an American artist known for her decomposable Environmental Art that “changed over time”.  As an artist, Jane has spent most of her time in Taiwan after receiving a Fulbright Scholar Award in 2004 for a research project involving handmade paper. With this biodegradable paper and natural found materials, Jane also utilizes the help of volunteers, local students and intrigued visitors to create beautiful works of art around the world. Jane has also been an art teacher/professor in New York from 1988-2004.

"Living Earth and Blue River" - Jane Ingram Allen -- Taichung, Taiwan Earth Day, 2006

In 2006, Jane and the students and faculty of Tunghai University in Taiwan created Living Earth and Blue River in celebration of Earth Day and to raise awareness about the environment and issues affecting Taiwan as well as the rest of the world.

Placing Biodegradable Paper Pulp for "Living Earth and Blue River"

I think this was an amazing idea and a great way to get younger generations involved in learning to appreciate the Earth. Jane Allen did a great job with this and definitely made an impact on this community.

~~~~~

Another amazing decomposing piece done by Jane Allen is Cocoon found at the Monarch Contemporary Art Center and Sculpture Park in Tenino, Washington. The sculpture represented an amazingly over-sized cocoon that changed over time to represent the life cycle of Monarch butterflies.

"Cocoon" - Jane Allen -- Tenino, WA 2003

The sculpture was made from vines and branches and then again covered in her own handmade paper that contained wildflower seeds embedded in it. As the sculpture decomposed, the seeds from the paper start to grow and thus created a changing work of Environmental Art that grew throughout the season.

My Pet… Mountain?

Vaughn Bell is another American Environmental artist. She is currently located in Seattle, Washington and has been featured in several journals. She studied in Massachusetts at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston as well as Brown University. Vaughn’s kind of unusual take on Environmental Art is definitely something that makes her memorable as an artist. Her art pieces show plants serving as companions to people, as if they were our pets. In some ways, she uses this art to add humor to our need for domestication, however, on the other hand in a way, her art tells us that we need to be close to nature and take care of it as we would a pet. 

"Personal Landscapes" - Vaughn Bell -- 2005-2006

Vaughn Bell’s Personal Landscapes give people the opportunity to have their own personal environment to take with them where ever they go, conveniently with a leash and wheels. There are even several landscapes to choose from such as Personal Forest Floor, Personal Farm, and Personal Cactus Desert. While in Seattle, Bell also paid tribute to Washington’s Mt. Rainier with the portable Surrogate Mountain which is a replicate of Seattle’s landscape mountain measuring to the scale of about 1:30000.

"Surrogate Mt. Rainier" - Vaughn Bell -- Seattle, WA 2006-2010

“The ever-changing patterns of clouds and weather in Seattle can often make us feel that a veil of mist is obscuring the world around us. The distant mountains appear undependable, here one minute and gone the next. The Surrogate Mt. Rainier solves this problem by giving you a controllable, stable view of the mountain, right at your feet”. – Vaughn Bell

~~~

I just thought that that was pretty cute. 🙂 … I’ve heard of pet rocks, but never mountains. Bell does a great job in bringing light to her audience through fun and quirky art like this. It is definitely one you probably won’t forget.

The Circle of Life

Daniel Dancer is primarily known for his ZeroCircle pieces which are circular forms created from found materials and represent the “hope” that they will be “Earth’s healing ‘medicine'” to what happened in that region or area in regards to the depleting environment. With the founding of ZeroCircles, Daniel Dancer hoped to help put an end to the careless commercial harvesting of our resources on public lands.
Daniel Dancer is a conceptual Environmental artist from Oregon who specializes in ZeroCircles and sky art (art involving people filling in drawings on the ground to form pictures viewed from the sky). Dancer as an artist emphasizes the importance of our Earth’s environment in showing the devastation that we are causing to it. Through his teachings, he shows that the world should not be taken for granted and we need to take care of it before we destroy it completely. 

"Bear Witness Circle" - Daniel Dancer -- Chugach National Forest, AK 1998

In the fall of 1998, Daniel Dancer, along with 12 students and 8 adult volunteers created the Bear Witness Circle after an devastatingly immense clearcut of part of the Chugach National Forest in Alaska.
The ZeroCircle was made up of several found materials and the group planted new trees to replace those taken from the clearcut. In the center of the circle, the group formed a life-size bear from pine cones and moss and then lined with ash to represent the trees that were now gone.

Dancer spread the message of how devastating the clearcuts were to the forest and the groups’ hope was to have the forest “rise again”.

As a conservation major, this piece definitely struck me. Although I understand the need for clearcuts, I just thought that this piece turned out really beautiful.

~~~

"A Crustacean Creation" - Daniel Dancer -- Vinalhaven School, ME 2008

Another form of art that Daniel Dancer was known for were his “sky art” pieces. Though it doesn’t directly tie into Environmental art specifically as far as Earth and nature, this art does bring people together to form works of art that are viewed outside from the sky. It brings people outdoors in order to form amazing art that is definitely worth witnessing. One of my favorite pieces of this type is A Crustacean Creation. In this sky art, Daniel Dancer with the help of the students and faculty of Vinalhaven School in Maine made use of tarps, seaweed, and of course themselves to create an amazing image only truly seen from up above.

Sea of Saffron

"The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City: Drawing in Two Parts" - Christo and Jeanne Claude -- NYC 2001

My last featured artist is actually a pair of artists; Christo and Jeanne Claude. These two artists are a married couple who specialize in Environmental Art that is very big and extravagant, but is only for a limited time.  Their works of art never tend to last more than a few weeks, not because they can’t but because that is how the artists want the works to be. They take pride in their work and it’s purpose of beauty rather than reason. The artists also take a lot of pride in their work by showing it off to everyone with no charge. The couple decides to make their living off of pre-designed sketches and designs of their art rather than the art itself. 

One of my favorite pieces done by Christo and Jeanne is The Gates, a installment of over 7,500 gates along the pathways throughout Central Park each adorning a beautifully bright saffron-colored flags.

"The Gates" - Christo and Jeanne Claude -- Central Park, NYC 2005

The Gates was displayed for only 16 days at the end of winter in 2005. However, it was originally proposed by the couple back in 1979.

As all art does, The Gates had very mixed emotions of hate and adoration. Many locals complained about them being a distraction and deterioration to the natural aesthetics of Central Park, however, many also loved the gates and welcomed them with open hearts and minds.

As the winter was drawing towards an end in New York City, these gates also brought a lot of bright color to the gloomy white of winter.

I love the fact that it’s art that doesn’t have a purpose or reason other than that it exists solely to be beautiful. That is definitely my favorite thing about this couple and their amazing art.

"The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City: Drawing in Two Parts" - Christo and Jeanne Claude -- NY 2001

SOURCES:

Jane Ingram Allen

http://www.janeingramallen.com/Janeweb-environment/Janeweb-environment.htm
http://www.janeingramallen.com/Janeweb-bio/Janeweb-bio.htm
http://greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-99.html

Vaughn Bell

http://greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-166.html
http://www.vaughnbell.net/resume.html
http://www.vaughnbell.net/personalenvironment/index.html

Daniel Dancer

http://www.inconcertwithnature.com/htm/participatoryart.htm
http://www.inconcertwithnature.com/htm/bio.htm
http://www.artforthesky.com/htm/zerocircles/alaska.htm
http://www.inconcertwithnature.com/htm/zerocircles/default.htm

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gates
http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/tg.shtml

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Modern Photography

"At the Time of the Louisville Flood" by Margaret Bourke-White, Louisville, Kentucky 1937

I knew that for this blog I wanted to pick a photography piece as that is my favorite type of visual art. This was the second photograph I looked at and I immediately knew that it was the one that would be displayed on my blog.

Margaret Bourke-White was a photographer during this era and was assigned to “document” life. She was a photo journalist and her job was to journal people and places of the Depression. This photo, At the Time of the Louisville Flood is one of her most famous photographs.
At the very beginning of 1937, a great flood flooded the Ohio river leaving  hundreds of people dead and about a million people homeless onto of the crisis of the Great Depression (Wikipedia). This flood left a major impact on the cities and towns affected.

I chose this picture for two reasons; first and foremost because it contains one of the biggest ironies of the time. As people, noticeably African American, line up to receive food from a food bank after the flood left many of them homeless and hungry, a huge billboard stands tall behind them depicting a happy white family living the “American way”. On top of that, once source points out another detail in that it “looks like the white family is so ignorant that they might run over the blacks standing in line, not even acknowledging they exist”. This was another thing she was great at depicting was the injustice to those “lesser” than the middle and high class whites (http://www.smartwomeninvest.com/peoplepics.htm). This picture shows the tragedy of people, especially African Americans, suffering from not only the Great Depression, but other injustices as well. Society, today and then, want you to conform and do things as “they see fit”, but the truth is that it’s not always necessarily right.

The other reason I love this picture because it is real. It is a candid shot of real life people un-posed and going about their lives (whether struggling or not). When pictures like this are candid, it shows the true events. No covering up or trying to make the picture better or worse depending on the reaction you hope to get… just real. It makes it, in a small way (despite the subject of the picture), more beautiful. That is why I love photography in general as well.

 

SOURCES:

http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/childlit/1930s/bourke-white_louis.html

http://www.smartwomeninvest.com/peoplepics.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_River_flood_of_1937

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Impressionism — Love it, or hate it? … Absolutely LoVe it ♥

Life does not stand still. And memories are never as clear as they were when they first happened. They are “impressions” lingering in our minds waiting to be remembered.

That is what this era of painting is about. The late 1800’s gave way to an amazing step outside of the ordinary that would greatly change the way people looked at art and how they expressed themselves.

Impressionist paintings are by far one of my top favorite types of artwork. I love getting lost in art and these paintings are definitely perfect for that. My favorite aspect of these paintings is the fact that they are very dream-like in the sense that they aren’t really “complete” pictures; their colors blend and they are blurry. How many of your dreams are completely solid after you wake up?

One of my favorites artists of the Impressionism era is Claude Monet. In his piece, The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil, Monet plays with the blending of bright colors to draw in his audience. The dabs of paint and quick brush-strokes as opposed to sharpened detail of previous artworks of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, give the painting that dream-like quality as if your seeing it through an almost faded memory. A blur, as it were. It is absolutely beautiful.

Claude Monet - "The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil", 1880 - Washington DC

Another aspect of Impressionist painting is the fact that it breaks away from the “traditional” themes of art that former eras such as the Renaissance focused on; Impressionists focused on the here and now of their time rather than historical, biblical or mythological stories and themes.

With the difference in techniques applied to art as well as the differing subject  matters, Impressionistic art really took a polar opposite turn in the world of art. Many people hated it (and still do), but some people saw the true beauty in it from the start and the feeling eventually spread and has become very popular among many famous artists.

However, I must say that I do see where criticisms come into play. Many people dislike this era’s paintings because they seem “messy” and “unfinished”. Monet’s piece, Der Rosenweg in Giverny (The Rose-Way in Giverny) comes to mind when I bring this up.
It contains all the aspects of Impressionistic art; bright colors, blending brush-strokes, non-traditional themes, etc. But what is it? To critics, they see nothing but splatters of paint that blend so much you can’t actually tell what you are looking at. Understandable. Because honestly, that is what it looks like.

Claude Monet - "Der Rosenweg in Giverny", 1920-22 - Paris

But isn’t that what art is supposed to be like? Art is subjective. You must relate to it in order to understand it. Art is one of the few things that you could argue could potentially represent several different ideas and feelings at once. It depends on what the viewer sees and how they interpret it.

To some eyes, yes, it may be spilled paint that has no meaning other than a bad piece of art. However, to others, when looked at closely and for more than a few seconds of a passing glance, this painting is a peaceful pathway lined with flowers and shaded by a canopy of trees during the spring.
Do you see it now?

Art can be whatever you want it to be and the Impressionism era definitely helped pave the way for that to happen more freely.

 

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Artist%27s_Garden_at_V%C3%A9theuil.JPG

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monet-_Der_Rosenweg_in_Giverny.jpeg

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Classical Music ♪♫

For this post, I decided to pick one of my favorite types of Classical music; string quartets. The piece I chose is Wolfgang Mozart’s String Quartet No. 14, which is also known as the Spring Quartet. This quartet was composed by Mozart in 1782 in Vienna, Austria and was the first to be part of a set of six quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn.

As the Baroque musical era ended, composers were starting to focus their music to be more simplistic and understandable. The middle classes during the Classical era wanted music that they could relate to and listen to more easily, yet have music that was still “serious”. Classical composers did just that; they took there music and made is less complex than those of the Baroque era. Melodies were a big part in this new music as well as changes in the music known as “movements”.
In this particular piece, as well as many other pieces from Classical composers, Mozart breaks his quartet into four movements. However, unlike his symphonies, Mozart slightly switched his order in which the movements were presented in the quartets.

Movements in symphonies generally followed the order of:

1) a tempo based in allegro (fast and upbeat, dramatic)
2) a tempo based in andante (slow, generally at a walking-type pace)
3) a dance-type tempo, like that in a minuet (lively, but not as fast as allegro)
4) back to an allegro tempo, but more lively and happy

In these pieces, Mozart switched the second and third movements putting the dance-like “menuetto” right after the first allegro movement.

These movements made the music appeal to everyone; there were fast upbeat tempos complimented by slower and quieter ones and melodies continued throughout the piece.

Like I mentioned earlier, I absolutely LOVE the sound of strings. These quartets are simple and I really enjoy losing myself in them. But I also really love the sounds of orchestras. The music during the Classical era is one definitely among my favorites because of the simple, yet powerful sounds. When you listen to these pieces of music, your mind wonders and you have the power to forget about what else is going on. That is the ultimate power of music.

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No._14_(Mozart)

https://classes.uaf.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_87189_1%26url%3D

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Baroque Art

Gloria di Sant’Ignazio by Andrea Pozzo
Rome, Italy 1685-1694

For my Baroque era blog I had to choose a piece that emphasized illusion. One of my favorite things in art is when it has the ability to play tricks on you and make you take a deeper look at it. I of course chose one of Andrea Pozzo’s ceilings to write about; Pozzo was an amazing artist during this time and he is best known for his illusionistic frescoes. The Gloria di Sant’Ignazio is the fresco painted on the ceiling of the St. Ignatius’ Church in Rome, Italy. The most memorable aspect of this piece of work is the “dome”. The 17-meter wide dome is actually a flat canvas, but when standing at the right angle (a marker on the floor of the church marks the perfect vantage point), the flat surface turns into a great dome lined with pillars and statues.

The dome fresco is said to represent the spirits of Jesuit missionaries and the expansion of Roman Catholicism after the counter reformation of the Council of Trent. Additionally, Pozzo also took a different approach in a way in creating this painting; instead of painting the normal expected evangelists, he chose to depict the warriors of biblical stories such as David and Goliath.
The other elongated part of the fresco depicts several angels and the clouds opening up to the heavens. Again, the ceiling is flat and has no dimension to it. I love this side of the painting because there is so much going on; the art is so detailed and every time you look at it, you see something new that you didn’t see the first time.

Quite a few things about this painting really stood out to me. First of all, it is absolutely beautiful. The colors just blend so well and make the painting stand out and make you loose yourself in it.  Second, as I’ve seen before, I love art that makes you look twice. The best forms of art are those that make you really look and lose yourself within them. Paintings that cause illusions are my favorite because it just makes you stare in awe over how the artist could make something look so real and so dimensional. When you look at this painting, you really have to look close to realize that it is indeed a flat surface, not a dome or the open sky. What I love about it is, you almost can’t even tell where the ceiling begins. The depth of the illusions give you a sense that there is no ceiling at all, just pillars and arches that reach to the sky.
Another thing that subtly stood out to me was the colors. Not necessarily the perfect blend of colors that I mentioned earlier, but rather the contrast between the dome and elongated ceiling. While doing the past assignment, one of the characteristics of the Baroque era was the contrast between light and dark. At first I didn’t really pay attention to it, but while taking another look at it, I noticed how dark the dome was compared to how bright soft the colors of the other half of the painting was.

Again, I just absolutely love everything about this painting. When I first saw it, I completely lost myself in it and spent several minutes just looking at all the finer details. It has definitely become one of my favorites.

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Pozzo#The_St_Ignatius.27_Church

http://www.initaly.com/regions/latium/church/gesu.htm

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Renaissance Art

 

Adoration of the Magi by Sandro Botticelli

Florence, Italy 1475

 

For my first art post, I decided to write about the Adoration of the Magi by Sandro Botticelli. There is slight confusion on whether the painting was done in 1475 or 1476, however most sources cite it as 1475. The painting was commissioned by Guaspare del Lama for the funeral chapel of Santa Maria Novella and features the admirers of the newborn Jesus and the Holy Family.

Like many Renaissance paintings, biblical reference plays a big part in the themes of art during this time. The Holy Family is set in the center with admirers around them. One thing that drew me into choosing this painting was the setting in which Botticelli placed the Holy Family and the “Magi”; the broken-down walls and pillars in the background are said to represent the fall of Rome, while on the other hand, growth of vines in the cracks may symbolize the rebirth of Rome as well as the birth of Jesus.

The main aspect that really drew me into choosing this piece was the fact that Botticelli chose to paint this scene non-traditionally in relation to biblical history. He presents the Holy Family and Jesus as the center of the piece, however the admirers are not the normal historical Magi; instead, many are actually members of the Medici family as well as Botticelli, himself.
The Medici family played a huge role in supporting (financially and politically) the arts during the Renaissance era and happened to be a great supporter of Botticelli and his work. I feel that through this painting, he pays tribute to the family and their role in the arts.

I enjoy art that defies the expected and that is what I liked most about this piece. I’m not necessarily a huge fan of Renaissance paintings, but I liked that the art had the Renaissance theme of biblical history as well as something more. I think that the fact that it has a great reference to the arts in general through the use of the Medici family gives it that extra draw that makes the painting so memorable. Botticelli’s portrayal of the Medici’s importance to this era paid great tribute to them and also put a twist on a historical event.

 

 

Sources:

http://www.historylink101.com/art/Sandro_Botticelli/pages/04_Adoration_of_the_Magi_jpg.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Magi_of_1475_(Botticelli)

 

 

 

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a picture is worth a thousand words…

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time…” –Thomas Merton

Such true words. My passion in the arts is in photography (and definitely not blogging, so we’ll see how this goes).

I’ve been a lot of places and I’ve had the opportunity to see some amazing sights along the way. I absolutely love taking pictures and here are some of my favorites.
(All photos were taken by me, Stephanie McClendon)

in remembrance for those who died

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