Final Layout

Cartier Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yaBNjTtCxd4

This is just way too cool!

The Nature and Aesthetics of Design

David Pye argues that what culture has come to see as  ‘good’ and ‘better’ is in truth  the opposite of their definitions. What we find good, is actually cheap. We are a culture of consumers, and institutions such as a Wal-Mart, and Costco have only ingrained this sense of buying big ,buying in bulk, buying for cheap, as good. In truth, the opposite of cheap is often better. The more expensive something is the more likely it is to last, to be durable, and to have worth later in life.

Similarly, it is this same twisted sense of’ better’ which leads us to many of our innovations. Pye states that our happiness cannot be bought, but it can be formed. This phenomenon is due the fact that creature comforts mean the same thing to everyone.  People want to spend less time doing housework? Then create rugs that don’t get dirty or self-propelled vacuums. Make things so they can “be redesigned so as to be cheaper, easier to make, easier to wash…” and continue to feed our cultures need for what is ‘better’.

Black Walnut Box Photos

Not much time to write, got stuck making Easter dinner while the Fam is out golfing, but I've got the time to post some photos. So here you go.

Inspiration 2/22

I have always been a fan of the Art neveau movement, and one of my all-time favorite artists is Alphons Mucha. I love the way he depicts women, fabric, and backgrounds. I hope with enough practice I can be as talented as him.

Final chair pictures

Some photos of my final chair.

Duality

In truth I do not feel that I can accurately state that I ever met my grandfather. He met me of course, but at two weeks old I can hardly say I was in a state to carry on a civil conversation, or to put it more realistically, to even remember him. This however does not stop the fact that I feel that I know him. Eighteen years of stories, some continuously retold, others gained during late night discussions over coffee or even the last few bites of turkey after a holiday dinner. You get to know a person, or at least, get to know what a person was. My grandfather was a father, a husband, a golfer, a waiter, a football player, a soldier. But for me, he is a mixture of stories. A key player in the events of some of my father’s childhood memories, often involving a golf course, or Marrettis, the Italian restaurant he was a waiter for, which still leaks out a story or two of him whenever we go back to my dad’s home town to visit my grandma. Or more often than not, the hero of the war stories my dad begged from his as a child. War stories that always turned out ok in the end because Grandpa didn’t want to talk about the war. But then again, who could argue with a man who turned an entire German army into coleslaw, or went AWOL to have doughnuts with his brother.

My grandfather has become something of a living legend over the years, made interesting by the fact I never knew him, and yet feel as if I know something of what made the man. I suppose it is a case of ‘you always want what you can’t have’ but then again it may be more than that. It may be that every person deserves to be remembered for what made them them, and not be allowed to sink into the miasma of those who went before them.

Kendal Buster

I find Buster’s interesting and industrious due to the fact she has created a city scape from what seems to be plastic and mesh and I cannot help but be impressed by the level of detail that went into creating each building. This work may be communicating the need to incorporate the old and the new in regards to building structures, or a nod as to how building practices grew over the years.  Overall I like the work  but do not have any strong feelings regarding it besides  the fact that I appreciate the skill and craft that was obviously put into creating such a piece. Buster is using these forms and materials to create a likeness between the architecture of old and that which has form from our later attempts. This can be seen as the coliseum is compared to the more industrial forms of the other ring shaped buildings.

MOMA-Puryear

Overall I found Puryear’s work to be interesting but not exactly intriguing or extremely inspiring; I do however find his use and mixing of materials to be interesting. Personally, organically formed sculptures such as the ones in Puryear’s gallery have never left a large impression in my mind. I have trouble and truthfully skepticism regarding works ability to communicate something when it has no emotion to do so. For example, these sculptures have no expressions as could be found in the Hellenistic sculptures of the Mediterranean or paintings and pictures for that matter. These sculptures are just forms, which possibly can describe some sort of whimsy, or solidity but in my opinion little beyond that. I will admit to being amused by Puryear’s decision to build this expansive form atop a small wheel barrow, the differing planes from the straight edges of the barrow to the busy, interconnecting bars of the sculpture give the piece and interesting texture, which sort of reminds me of a hedgehog. I feel as if the sculpture would be quite large, and I feel as it would continue on with the hedgehog metaphor, and create a rounded egg shape in back. The artist may be alluding to the fact that he’d need a wheelbarrow to be able to carry all of the ideas that come into his mind over the course of the day. This can be surmised by the fact the large white object in the middle of the wooden planks is shaped like a light bulb and some of the planks radiate outward from it like a halo, or light screams bursting from the form.

Errol Morris's veiws on photography

Errol Morris states that photographs are connected to the physical world, which I believe we can all agree with. You cannot make a photograph of something you imagine in your own head. The images you see were at one time real, before they were taken into Photoshop and the like and adjusted. Even so they still are real. There is, and will always be a physical element to the photo. Even so, photographs still dictate what the viewer is shown. You see only what the taker wanted you to see.  For example, a picture of a pair of wolves running in the snow but leaving out the fence that caged them. This posing makes photographs untruthful because you cannot see the entire picture, only whatever rectangle the maker decided to share with you.

Masters of Illusion

This video explained the importance and discovery of perspective in art. The use of such technique allows for a realistic, and visually correct work of art, be that in drawing or in use with photography. This video was important to this project because it would not do to have a traveling focal point when trying to capture the lines of a building, or in contrast, helped direct the photographer when changing views.

Roland Barthes' 'Camera Lucida'

Barthes states the amazing thing about photographs is that they do not lie. They capture a snapshot of a moment in time, and whatever was occurring at that moment is what is transcribed to an image. Photographs are special because they create a sense of wonder within the viewer, be it the questions of ‘I’ve been to this place, was I in the shot?’ or ‘is this person still alive?’, photographs allow for an endless number of questions, and often very few answers. However, the brilliance of photographs is also their downfall. They can be taken so spontaneously with little care that one may never remember the circumstances regarding the image. Overall, I find this reading to be tiring, a well worded mess, too focused on its own ostentatious poetic verse to get the point and give any fact besides the artistically written mind spew of the author.

Susan Sontag's 'On Photography'

According to Sontag the magic of photography and the photographs that it produces lies in its accessibility. Anyone can take photos; anyone can enjoy and appreciate them. Photographs allow the viewer to experience a sight they would never have a chance to see otherwise. Like a native in a South American rainforest who lays eyes on Buckingham palace without ever traveling there themselves. This accessibility and the fact that unlike paintings photographs are not cheapened by their printing in books, allows for humanity to learn and experience, as well as create still pictures of their own to document their own experiences.

Inspiration Feb1

One of my favorite things to do is scour Tumblr for celebrity photo shoots. They always put out crisp images with fun poses, and classy outfits. As I've always had problems with creating poses when I draw I like to reference them. Here are some examples.

Way of Seeing

The Ways of Seeing video speaks of how the reproduction and distribution of paintings has cheapened the experience of viewing them. This is due to the fact that outside factors can play into how one feels when viewing the image. Be it the music they are listening to at the time, or what one previously viewed before looking at the work. In museums the viewing experience is carefully monitored, and how one views the image is relatively uninhibited. This information is important to me as an artist because in creating an image I’d have to take into account the outside factors that may be playing on my audience. Be that music directly opposing the message I’m trying to send, or precognitive notions already held by the viewer.

John Szarkowski's 'The Photographer's Eye

Szarkowski charges that most photographs are less art, than a fleeting desire that even the untrained can capture with a click of a button. At the same time however, he says that photographs have a beauty of their own, which can be expressed no matter how much thought or training when into producing the final image. In spite of a photograph’s seemingly readymade finality, there are problems that one can encounter with them. One of the problems of photography is the subject itself, and the fact that as a natural creation the photographer must take into account how it is best captured. Along with this, photographs make it difficult to pose something as an artist of paint would; there is an amount of detail which is captures within the photo that does not allow for one to cover up mistakes. Be that of the imperfection of the subject itself or that of the artists own making.  Despite these shortcomings, photography is a medium that was created in its final form, it leaves little room for improvement, and unlike most inventions never truly need to be improved upon.

A few pictures of strong