Creative Blog #10 - Art In My Life

According to our course text, this photo image shows many the visual elements and design principles, including color, line, shape, space, texture, balance, and unity, etc. The architects who design museums use space within the interior to create a dynamic visual that gives definition to the exhibitions displayed in the galleries. (Getlein 106).

This photo is a view of the interior of The National Museum of Women in the Arts. It seems to have a calming effect as it shows basic design elements of shading and contrasting geometrical forms in the beamed ceilings and the circular design pattern on the floor. The image is symmetrically balanced and very inviting. As a female art student, I found the photo interesting and hope to visit this museum in the future. Originally, I read this interesting and enlightening article in Washington Post newspaper's Sunday Section: ART N3. Online photo caption: Courtesy: WashingtonPost.com (link below): "The National Museum of Women in the Arts: Will progress make it obsolete? (The National Museum of Women in the Arts)"

WORKS CITED

1. Getlein, Mark. "Living With Art." Eighth Ed.New York, NY McGraw-Hill (2007). 27 April 2007.

2. Hornaday, Ann. "A Place of Honor, or of Confinement?" The WashingtonPost.com. ARTS N3. URL at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042000389.html. 22 April 2007.

Peace

Gwendolyn

Creative Blog #9

The Petronas Towers (1998)

I found the movement, style and period of these interestingly connected to the early 20th Century Art Deco art period between 1920 and 1939, as the architect, Cesar Pelli, created the floor plans for the Petronas Towers in traditional Islamic design.

They are considered one of the tallest buildings in the world, 10 meters higher than the Sears Towers, USA. Completed in 1998, the 21st century buildings are identical with 88 floors, 1,483 feet high, shaped like an 8-pointed star, and at the 42-floor, a bridge connects the two. They have tall spires on top and have been called spiral pillars that point heavenward. They are located in Kuala Lampura, Maylasia. (Courtesy: Architecture Pictures - World's Tallest Buildings - Petronas Towers: http://architecture.about.com/od/skyscrapers/ig/World-s-Tallest-Buildings/Petronas-Towers-.htm. Photo: Copyright. iStockPhoto/Robert Churchill

These heavenly visions evolved from the geometric forms of the 20th century Art Deco period - Paris in 1925 where it originated. According to our textbook, one of the first skyscraper's (buildings over 1,000 feet) of the 20th century was William Van Alen's Chrysler Building that was completed in 1930 - the height of the Machine Age, modernism style. (Getlein, 336)

Peace,

Gwendolyn

Creative Blog #8: The Van Gogh Museum

The Vincent van Gogh Museum

My artist of choice in ART101 is Vincent van Gogh and our recent assignments relate to purpose and function of a building's architectural design, style and movement. Here is my brief presentation of The Vincent van Gogh Museum located in Amsterdam.

It is housed in two separate buildings, the main one was designed by a Dutch architect and completed in 1973. Its modernistic style has many wide open spaces which lets the natural sunlight into an atrium and the museum galleries.

The Exhibition Wing was designed by a Japanese architect and opened in 1999. It is known as a delightful combination of West's "rational geometry" and East's "Eastern asymmetry." "Visitors enter through a passage under the Museum Square (Museumplein), and step into the Promenade of the Exhibition Wing, which forms an ellipse around a shallow, enclosed pond. The result is stunning."

Photos: Bottom photo image view. Courtesy: Amsterdam - Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam Museum at: www.amsterdam.info/museums/van_gogh_museum/ ; and, Top photo image view. Courtesy: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam at: www.aviewoncities.com/amsterdam/vangoghmuseum.htm

Peace,

Gwendolyn

Activity #14: Write About It! - RE-EDIT

Movement, Style, and Period

The first work, "The Harvest" (1890) Pen drawing over graphite, was created by Vincent van Gogh during the Post-impressionism period (1880-1910) in France. Van Gogh, along with other artists sought new forms of expression in the wake of the pictorial revolution brought on by the Impressionism period. Van Gogh employs pointillist style in dynamic brushstrokes, thick application of straight lines, and dots and dashes. "Harvest" seems to reflect a style shift - from from his darker manner to a style heavily influenced by divisionism or, pointillism. Van Gogh's style also include emotional intensity as he sought elemental truth through the inner world of the psyche. While post-impressionism period cannot be called a movement, it did provide the vital and creative link between the impressionist revolution and the emergence of all the major art movements in the 20th century (Getlein).

The second work, "The Emperor Moth" (1889) Oil on canvas, 33.5 x 24.5 cm, was also created by Vincent van Gogh in France during the post-impressionistic movement or period. "Moth" is a realistic style that seems similar to the first art movement in the 19th Century known as Realism. It depicts "the everyday and the ordinary, rather than the historic" as Van Gogh seems to escape the abstract in his tortured mind. It seems that Van Gogh employs his famous style of dynamic brushstrokes in the content and form of the subject matter along with thick applications of paint to create a lively image. His style of expression is representational and naturalistic as seen here in atmospheric perspective, view from above. Van Gogh employs a pure pallatte of complementary color harmonies of red and green to capture a fleeting moment in time in the life of this beautiful nocturnal creature.

Thus, the artistic style of both pieces by Van Gogh is characteristic of the Post-impressionism movement. Vincent van Gogh's style is dynamic brushstrokes, thick applications of paint, and use of a special pallatte in composing his works of art.

WORKS CITED

1. Amsterdam - Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Online. URL: http://www.amsterdam.info/museums/van_gogh_museum. (2007).

2. "Art Periods: POSTIMPRESSIONISM in France" at URL: http:www.discoverfrance.net/France/Art/postimpressionism.shtml. (2007).

3. Getlein, Mark. "Living With Art" Eighth Ed. McGraw-Hill 2007. (2007).

4. The National Gallery of Art Online. URL: http://www.nga.gov/. (2007).

Peace,

Gwendolyn

Reverse Ekphrases

Reverse Ekphrases by Gwendolyn (2007). Crayola on white paper.

Pieter de Hooch's "The Bedroom" (1658-1660) Oil on Canvas. Courtesy: National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C.

Fawn's Ekphrases

This painting focuses on a mother and a daughter in a room. The doorway to

the inside of the room is centered along the vertical axis of the painting. The

medium is oil on canvas and was created in 1658/1660. It was painted by a

Dutch artist. There are uses of primary and secondary colors. Such as a red

tablecloth on a brown table with dark color vase sitting on top. The chairs are

dark brown with yellow diamonds. The walls are gray and tan. The mother is

wearing a red shirt with a dark color skirt and a white bonnet. The young girl

is wearing a dress that is brown at the top and yellow at the bottom. The floor

is a reddish-orange brick color in a square formation. The young girl is

standing in the doorway holding the door handle and is glancing at her mother

(I assume) while smiling. The mother is folding a greenish-yellow cloth and

smiling back at her daughter. Above the doorway there is a small painting,

with a brown frame and the picture is blurred. If you look through the

doorway you can see another door leading outside and a window to the left

of that outside door. That door has two parts(top and bottom opens

separately)and is open allowing sunshine into the house along with the light

coming through the windows. The balance of this painting is asymmetrical;

the left side is fuller than the right.The mother is standing on the left side and

little girl is slightly to the right of the vertical axis. The sides are brought

together by the light shining in from the right and through the doorway. The

theme of the painting is of human experience and is representational;

descriptive of a work of art that depicts forms in the natural world. The artist's

style is from the Dutch genre; French meaning scenes showing people at work,

play, or rest. He popularized the style of painting. Some describe this style as

cinematic people.

Creative Blog #7 - The Arcosanti Project

Our current assignment relates to periods and culture in architecture. This subject reminded me of photos taken twenty years ago when I visited an innovative cultural community for the purpose of being environmentally responsible. The unique experimental city is called Arcosanti. Construction on the Arcosanti Project was started in 1970 and is an ongoing process. It is designed on the concept of Arcology (architecture + ecology), meaning that the building and humans interact as organs in a highly evolved being. This unique twentieth century cultural system works together, with efficient circulation of people and resources, multi-use buildings, and solar powered lighting, heating, and cooling. "Arcosanti Project - 1987: Construction site" Photo by Gwendolyn Lane. (1987).
Arcosanti is an example of responsible environmental preservation in today's culture as seen in one of the completed residential units (the top photo) taken in 2001 compared to the same building under construction in 1987 [see the mesa at the right in both photos]. (Arcosanti: Completed Building - 2001. Photo image: Courtesy of www.arcosanti.org/ (2007).

Ekphrases - Edit

"The Harvest" by Vincent van Gogh. Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 103 cm. (1890)

This work is created by a Dutch artist. It is a vast landscape composition

painted in Auver-sur-Oise in late nineteenth century in 1890, the second

decade of the post-impressionism period. The medium is oil on canvas with

a theme of art in nature based on the content of this famous symbolic

piece.Many believe that this work was the last painting in a group of 13

narrowhorizontal canvases. This style characterized by an intense, dynamic

asymmetrical composition balancing massing elements on scale consisting of

a vast landscape, a turbulent sky, and crows. his work and others by the

artist has wide appeal and importance in the development of modern art.

It measures 50.5 X 103 cm. and is a representational naturalistic work

created with an innovative palette representing the main title subject

matter which employs bright contrast with dynamic brushstrokes

in monochromatic yellow hues to depict a ripened wheat crop. One

content form is a pattern of straight and contour lines in monochromatic

blue hues mixed with bold black dynamic brushstrokes depicting a dark

dark urbulent sky. There are two circular circular clouds positioned

within, a small one on the left side of the piece and a medium-sized one

on the right painted in short circular brushstrokes of light blue-green

contour line. The grass is on scale in various dynamic brushstrokes of

straight lines in monochromatic green hues. Also, the ground around the

grass is painted in straight lines of brown hues positioned in front and on

the bottom sides of the piece and further, emphasized by a brown colored

worn path in contour lines curved to resemble a pair of tire tracks leading

up the center of the work, and disappearing into the center of the

horizon. The path is the center focal point and it divides the main

subject matter vertically, into two triangular-shaped wedges of the

ripe golden-colored crop. There is a flock of crows flying over the

golden-colored crop and out of sight, off the canvas. Often

interpreted as a dark premonition of the artist's death, this work

expresses "sadness and extreme l oneliness" as well as "the health and

restorative forces... in the countryside." This artistic style is known

as instrumental in "setting the world in the direction or many of the

expressionist tendencies in twentieth-century art." This work of art

portrays great anguish while intriguingly beautiful. I sincerely

hope you have fun with my ekphrases!

WORKS CITED

1. Amsterdam - Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. Image URL: http://www3.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=3343&collection=1282&lang=en accessed from: URL: www.amsterdam.info/museums/van_gogh_museum/ (April 23, 2007).

2. Getlein, Mark. "Living with Art," Eighth Edition. McGraw-Hill - 2007. (April 2007).

Peace,

Gwendolyn

Thanks and Credit for solving my paragraph spacing problem - Bonnie Calhoun: Blogger Help Group. 23 Mar 12:08 am.

Activity #11, RE-EDIT

Culture and Period

This first artwork entitled, The Harvest (1888) in pen and brown ink over graphite, was created in the late nineteenth century by Vincent van Gogh (Dutchman)who moved to Paris, France. He became thoroughly immersed in the bold, new Avant-Garde culture, changes in art through innovations and concepts of the Post-Impressionism period. According to our text, Post-Impressionism is the period of painting developed in France between 1880 - 1910 by a group of artists who believed in the idea of painting modern life from the artist's view. This was a time of change in art characterized by concentration on the immediate visual impression of the artist. In "Harvest," it appears Van Gogh used Seurat's style of Pointillism. (Getlein 514-515).

The second artwork entitled, The Emperor Moth (1889) Oil on canvas, was also composed by Vincent van Gogh in the late nineteenth century known as the Post-impressionism period. Post-impressionism is an art-historical term describing a generation of artists who sought new forms of expression in the wake of the pictorial revolution. In "Emperor," Van Gogh employs broad dramatic brushstrokes and expressive use of primary colors in this modern outdoor scene that is characteristic of the Post-impressionism period (Getlein). In conclusion, both of the Van Gogh artworks were created in the late nineteenth century in France during a revolutionary period of art known as Post-impressionism (1880-1910).

Peace,

Gwendolyn

WORKS CITED

1. Getlein, Mark. Living with Art. Eighth Ed. McGraw-Hill (2007).

2. National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C. URL: http://www.nga.gov/. (images only)