Visit to the Albright Knox

Gustave Loiseau Bords de l'Eure, Normandie  1901, Oil on Canvas

Gustave Caillebotte Etude pour le Pont de l'Europe 1876, Oil on Canvas

These two paintings left an impression on me because they both just have a sense of peace and relaxation which I have been missing all semester. I love the one by Gustave Loiseau because its a beautiful scene. Also, while looking at this painting in person I loved that you could see the strokes and different layers that the painter made. I think this one is my favorite just because it seems like it took forever and probably took a lot of patience, but it turned out so well. I'm not a huge fan of art, but this painting I could look for a while and just enjoy it. 

With the one by Gustave Caillebotte, I loved how he incorporated the shadows from the fence/bridge and from the people. I liked how he painted a normal scene with people in it. The people look so normal and not out of place, which I like. I also like how you can see the different strokes in this painting as well. Just seeing the strokes theres a sense of how the painter created the piece that is in front of you.

Emile Pierre Branchard Winter 1928, Oil on Canvas

William James Glackens Jetties at Bellport 1916, Oil on Canvas

I had a connection to these two paintings because they incorporate both of my favorite seasons. I had a connection with the painting by Emile Pierre Branchard because I liked how he incorporated a winter scene and made it look like there was a slope. It isn't too complex looking but I could definitely imagine myself skiing down the slope there and enjoying the view, or even hiking or talking a walk and enjoying the day. It has a sense of a nice, winter day and I like that. It makes winter seem enjoyable.

I had a connection with the painting by William James Glackens because I like how his painting makes the summer time look playful. This painting brought me to the beach and I could smell the water and feel the sand in my toes. It is definitely a relaxing painting but at the same time you also get the feeling of motion and energy with the people running around, I like that about this painting because that is what summer is all about, its about relaxation and going out and doing something.

Charles E Burchfield Winter, East Liverpool 1927, Oil on Canvas

Henri-Joseph Harpignies La Rigole a St. Prive 1902, Oil on Canvas

I would definitely love to know more about these two paintings. With Charles E Burchfield's painting, I would love to know why he decided to create a scene from the winter, but also why he made it seem so not lively and mellow. I definitely like this painting but its dull. I want to know why he didn't want to incorporate any brighter colors or a vocal point to the painting because nothing really stands out too much to me. 

For Henri-Joseph Harpignies's painting, I want to know where this painting was created; if it was an actual place, or if it was all from his imagination. Its a lovely painting but I want to know if it is a real place or just by imagination. I also want to know why he chose few colors to work with. I like how there is depth to it though. It creates movement, proportion, and space.

My Logo

Attempt 1:

Attempt 2:

Attempt 3:

Black and White:

Final Color Logo:

1. & 2. While making my logo, I knew I wanted to keep my name in it. I tried different things and I wanted to incorporate what I like, For my first attempt I wrote my name in cursive because I've always liked how it looked that way. I then added mountains and a sunset in the background because I love to hike and I love the outdoors. For my second attempt I just played around with different things I like, running, SnapChat, etc. For the third attempt I was just going to do "ASH" but have the letters in different objects, but I didn't quite like that. So I went back to the cursive writing. I was going to keep it simple and just my name in cursive, but I wanted to add more to it. I added the flowers because they can symbolize growth and beauty. I'm growing every day as an individual and I'm becoming me. I didn't want something too overpowering because I'm me and I wanted my name to be the part that stood out. I chose purple for the flowers because it is my favorite color but also because purple can symbolize creativity. I wish the purple came out more vibrant, but I didn't have the right supplies for that and I wanted to use pencils. I used a pencil and a purple colored pencil for the flowers, and for my name I chose the charcoal pencil. I like how dark the charcoal is and I liked how it seems so bold, prominent, and emphasized in the logo which connects to how I wanted my name to be the main focus of my logo. Line is used in my logo because it creates organic shapes and my name. I also think my logo is pretty balanced. When I look at it, it doesn't seem to heavy on one side than the other. There is also space because I spaced out where I wanted the flowers, I didn't want them all in one area. Finally, I also think there is a sense of texture because you can see the strokes and the charcoal kind of makes a textured look. 

3. The most important discovery I made while creating my logo was that the charcoal pencil is a little bit difficult to use. I came to realize that I was good at smudging it without realizing it, so I had to erase a bunch of my smudges. I also realized that even though I can be a complex person, I didn't want my logo to be complex or too busy. I like the simple logos because they aren't too busy and I just don't like looking at the business in some logos. I definitely think my logo is easily transferable. I think it would be easy to place on anything or any size.

4. The most important information I learned from watching the videos, the power point, and reading material for this project is that it does take time to create a logo; you're never going to get it right on the first time.  I also learned that you don't want to make a logo that is too complex because you want it to be easily recognized and transferable. I tried to incorporate that sense into my logo. 

Color and Value Exploration

My Color Wheel

 My Value Scale

1. I thought that making the color wheel and value scale were pretty interesting. I haven't put too much thought on art lately, but with this assignment I focused more on it. It was also cool to use a graphite pencil because I can't remember the last time I had to. I also liked painting the color wheel because I haven't actually spent time painting besides painting my walls. Painting walls isn't as enjoyable. All in all, I thought that creating these two aspects of art was a good way to step into the concept of creating art. It gave me a sense of how to create colors and how to shade.
2. I think I liked working with the graphite more because I felt like I had more control. I like knowing that I can erase to get rid of something. With the acrylic paint I felt like I had less control because there wasn't that luxury of erasing something. But having the colors was something I enjoyed because to me color brings more into a work of art.
3. I think the most important discovery in the creation of these studies was that they do take patience. I always want to get things done as quick as possible, but with these two assignments I actually took my time and with taking my time it seemed to calm me. I forgot how drawing and painting could be calming, but I also remembered that I stress a bit while doing things like this because I like things to be perfect even when it seems impossible.
4. From watching these videos I learned that I'm never going to be able to make it perfect but that it can be perfect in its own ways. I also learned how to mix colors and how to shade better. I never really was one to be able to mix colors properly, I would usually come up with a brownish hue like that in the center of the color wheels that we each created.

Elements and Principles of Art

Picture Slide Show



I surprisingly really enjoyed this project. I wasn't sure on what to do at first because it was just so cold during the week, but looking around my house I was able to start to see different elements and principles that would be great to show.

Then today, on Sunday, it was nice and sunny out so I asked my friend to go to Chestnut Ridge Park with me. It was beautiful. We went to the Eternal Flame, which I have only gone to while in the summer, and it was an amazing thing to see with all the snow. It was beautiful. My some what creative juices started to flow and I was able to take some pretty nice pictures.

But even though it was such a great experience going out and taking pictures, I think my favorite would be the one I used for texture. Its a picture of my dog and I have never been able to get a good picture of her until today, and she was even letting herself be photogenic for the first time ever.

This project really opened my eyes up to different beautiful things that I live close to. I know the Eternal Flame is a very cool thing to go see, but I never noticed how beautiful and quiet things were there until today. I definitely think my appreciation for art and my surroundings is starting to grow.

Color and Emotions

1. Color and effects on emotion
Color an element of art that is produced when light strikes an object and is reflected back into our eye. There are 3 properties of color including hue, intensity, and value. Hue is what we call the color; for example, Blue, Red, or Yellow. Intensity can refer to how strong or bright the color is. Finally, value is meant to describe how light or dark the color is. Color has been suggested to affect wide ranges of mental and physical responses. Blue is recognized to be a calming color. An example that the book gave us was the blue lighting that was installed on the train platforms to reduce the number of suicide attempts. Each color has its own way of affecting our mental and physical states. The cool thing about it is that not everyone is affected the same way by color.
2. Favorite theoretical aspect of color and why
My favorite aspect of the color theory would be the secondary colors because my favorite colors happen to be violet and green. There's something about these colors that I'm drawn to. For instance, Violet can be a very calming color for me. Green is also like that in a way. I know that when I pick clothes out I'm more directed towards dark greens and violets because I like the way that those two colors compliment my green eyes.
3. The Color Video
From this video, the biggest impact on me from the color and emotions was that it seems to affect the artist in a whole different way than the observer. It took the artist June a while to finish her painting and for her it was a long, time consuming process. Towards the end it looked complete to me but to her it wasn't enough. They even asked her at the end if it was finished and she said for the most part it was but that she might end up tweaking some things about it. It was just intriguing that her emotional aspect through color was the whole process to creating her painting. If she didn't get the feeling she wanted from it, then she kept on going until it was what she intended.
4. The Feelings Emotions and Art Video
From this video, the part that stood out to me the most was when they showed how paintings could lead groups. For example, when David painted the propaganda for war, it was interesting to see how he used elements to make connections to people through it. It was interesting how he was able to connect it to religion, especially since it was a big part of people's lives at the time; it was something to unify the people with. I also liked how he used psychology to show how cruel and morbid the world could be. Its interesting how simple colors, elements, and connections can sway an audience to think one thing. The painting to me didn't seem like a propaganda for war, but I'm from a different time era.

Aesthetics, Philosophy, Neurology

1.
   Video 1 Aesthetics Philosophy of the Arts
      From the first video, I have learned that aesthetics is the philosophical study of beauty and art' the philosophical engagements with art that help us to understand art. One of the most important things that I have learned from this video is that there is no one way to create or interpret art and also no one theory or definition of art. In middle school and high school I would sometimes get confused in my art classes or English classes because when going over some material the teacher would say, "oh it means this..." but I would come to a different conclusion. Knowing that there isn't one correct answer makes it more versatile. I think that it is intriguing that there can be more than one conclusion on a work of art because it can touch more people which leads onto another key concept that I learned from this video, that appreciating art is by living with art, traveling to see art, sharing art, and buying art. Art has different connections with people and being able to share an experience like that with someone is quite special.
   Video 2 Neurobiology Neurology and Art and Aesthetics
      From this second video, I have learned that art is constantly evolving. I learned that it started about 2.5 million years ago with the creation of tools, then 1.5 million years ago symmetry was introduced, 300,000 years ago symbolism, and 100,000 years ago artistic composition made its way into our world. A key concept from this video was that art tries to make us aware. Art is a tool that helps us become aware of our surroundings and the world we live on. One of the last interesting concepts that I have learned from this video was that art works because there are so many areas of the brain that process an image and discuss it, and this interaction gets the brain going. This is interesting because I have looked at a piece of art before not realizing what it could mean or looking deeper into it, but the whole time my brain was working harder than I realized and creating something of it on its own. Its amazing that our brains can do so much more than what we expect.
    The Article What the brain draws from Art and Neuroscience
       From this article I learned that there is a reason for why art is the way it is. A key concept in this article was that our brains have a special attraction for faces and representations of them. Our brains are wired to spot faces and objects, even when its done just by a line drawing. It was intriguing when they made the connection to this with the "flight or fight" response. Our brain automatically can decide on its own whether its prey or predator. That's what evolution was all about. That's how our brains have formed over the years. Another key concept from this article was that artists will play with elements, like lights and shadows, to trick our brain into seeing a 3D image. It also went on to say how that the shadows might not be correct in size or darkness, but with its creation it can trick the brain into seeing the 2D image as a 3D work of art. The last concept that jumped out at me was the Peak Shift Principle, how animals are attracted to a particular shape but even more attracted to an exaggerated version of it. This connects to abstract art and why we find it so intriguing.
2.
   Plato (c. 428 BCE-c. 348 BCE)
     With the philosopher Plato, I liked how he described art as an act of treason, but yet beauty as the greatest good. His contribution was that art exposes every layer of the human world and natural world, that art is beauty that does the greatest good even if it goes against some parts in society. It kind of reminds me of the book, The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, and how he exposed the horrid truths about the meat industry to make change. Its the same kind of concept. his book was for the greatest good even if it was in a way a form of treason against the meat industry. That's the same kind of concept that Plato concluded from art. I liked how he also trusted poets the most because they let you form your own image in your mind instead of relying on the one that you see in front of you.
3.
  Changeux and Ramachandran scientific views of aesthetics and art are quite alluring. I found this video easier to engage in. One alluring aspect of it was when it also went to the Peak Shift Principle. I don't know why, but I'm curious about this principle. I found the study with the seagulls amazing especially when the baby bird went crazy over the yellow stick with the three red lines compared to the natural beak from its mother. That even though it wasn't actually a beak and couldn't do anything to help the baby get fed or grow, that the baby still wanted it the most. It's like going back to Darwin and the survival of the fittest. The more red the baby saw the more it wanted it because it seemed like the best option. This connects to abstract art and us. We as humans are attracted to abstract art because even though its distorted to the eye, the pleasing center in our brain has an emotional center to the brain. Ramachandran also connects this with the human silhouette. A women's curves an assets are exaggerated in art because that's what grabs the attention, our brains find it most pleasing even if it isn't realistic.
4.
  The videos and the article relate to the readings in the text because it expands and strengthens the text from the book. It helps incorporate a stronger understanding to why art is art and why there is not one solid answer to this question of art. They also give a different perspective than what the book could do. The book can't put in different moving object to give an example of art and why our brain is attracted to it.
5. 
  I liked the videos and the article because I'm not a fan of following along in a textbook and with the videos and articles, They helped give me a better understanding of what I had read earlier in the textbook. The only down fall about the videos was that with the second video, it was hard to follow along with Changeux because I couldn't understand what he was saying 100% of the time due to his accent. But I was still able to draw conclusions from what he was saying and explaining.