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Masks and More...

Masks and More...

Videos

This week we had a choice of the videos we could watch, I chose to watch the Chinese Art: Treasures of the National Palace Museum videos. I chose this video because I felt as though Chinese art and culture was not something I knew a lot about. In this video I learned that the most popular medium for art was ceramics. And that pale colors were often used in their works as they were favorable in Chinese culture at the time. However, tea bowls were ofter glazed in black to better show the pale color of the teas they were served. Details were very few and far between on many pieces as simplicity was viewed as more beautiful, however the details that were included were very well constructed and refined exquisitely. 
I also watched African Art because it was another culture I felt I didn't know much about. I learned through this video that the most popular medium was ceremonial art. This mainly consisted of statues and masks. The most common materials used to construct the masks were wood, and straw, which is why many great woks are lost to us today. African art is interesting to me because of the high value they put on conceptual subject matter, rather than realistic portrayal. 

Masks

I took my inspiration for this project from an astrological position. My key inspiration came from a Venetian mask that depicts Capricornius. 
But I was also interested in these other masks
 

During the researching process I made some thumbnail sketches of ideas I liked. 

I then developed it into this mask.
It is based off of my astrological symbol the Taurus. It includes symbols that represent it, and its properties. On top its glyph, then below it the symbol for earth, then below it a symbol for the sun. I enjoyed creating this mask, but I enjoyed the research on it much more. I found it fascinating how different masks from different cultures looked. And how many different purposes masks served. 

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