Guernica

Guernica + Me

Pablo Picasso's piece Guernica was created in 1937, as a reaction to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Upon first viewing the piece it appears to be a greyscale painting, but when view with a more careful eye, grays become blue, and shed light onto the sadness Picasso felt about this tragedy. But the piece did more than shed light onto how Picasso felt about the war, it exposed the world to the war as the piece went on a brief tour to bring publicity and hopefully aid to the war. This piece grand scale also speaks to how heavily this war affected not only Picasso but the public of Spain. It also happens to be painted in oil paints, which wasn't unusual for the time period, but it speaks to the effort that Picasso went into painting this piece, as oil takes an extremely long time to dry and therefore is quite precarious to use.

The other assignment we were tasked with this week was creating a self-portrait.

Spring is coming. Self-Portrait, Viktor E. Popkov

Self Portrait with Small Monkey, Frida Khalo

Self Portrait, John Ruskin

The above are the inspirational photographs I found on Google Arts and Culture, however I didn't see a lot of representation of photographic self-portraits, and as a photographer I was disappointed by this. Because unknown to a lot of people photograph self portraits can be very moving. As the camera already offers realism, photographic self portraits usually speak to more of a conceptual value of who a person is and can most times not even feature the person in the photograph, or the feature slivers of a person depicting the parts of them they feel are the most crucial to their identity.

So for my self-portrait I focused on my eyes as my sight is my everything. It is the passion I have for photography, which led me to want to teach, and has changed how I saw the world and the diptych I've created represents the fear of losing that, and the reality that certain things are already (and will always be) lost to me.

Comments

Logos + Fine Art

Logos + Fine Art This week we had two projects, the first one being an exploration of logo design. For this project we learned about what goes into the designing and editing of logos. We then had to go through the process of designing a logo for ourselves. I found this to be a rather enjoyable project as learning about the different aspects of logo design was quite interesting, andI am pleased with my final design of a personal logo. In my initial stages I decided to try a series of designs featuring a J or my middle name, Jade, spelled out. I have been introducing myself and going by my middle name for a few years now and I feel it resembles my identity better. I played around with combining this letter J with the color yellow, with the design of a bee, with the words; honest, homemade + simple, as well as a strong feature of circles in my designs, as I felt all these components related to who I identify as. In my final design, I utilized aspects from the...

Exhibitions

Exhibitions This week we had our choice of videos we could watch. I chose to watch The Impact of Cubism. Which talked about the Cubism movement and how it impacted the art world, and the backstory of how Pablo Picasso was a mentor and inspiration for the artist Gris, as well as was Paris and it's many influential artists and creatives at the time Gris was creating. I also chose to watch Matisse and Picasso because I felt I didn't know much about their relationship and that it was a crucial thing to understand in this field. I was surprised to learn that they were such different people, they had very different views on art and its creation and the meaning it could hold, as well as having vastly different personalities. However; they seemed to have a mutual respect for each other and often traded their works. We were also tasked with visiting an Art Gallery. For this I chose to visit the Albright Knox again. Step 1: The Exhibition Questions about th...

Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE) Blog Posting

Visual Cu lture Art Education (VCAE) Blog Posting: In your own words, what does Visual Culture mean to you, how would you define it? Visual Culture is the collection of imagery that we as a society hold in regard as important. What are the most important things discussed that are still relevant today in regards to Art Education and Visual Culture? I think the idea of sharing personal experiences with students was an important issue discussed. Because not only can students "learn from your mistakes", I think this also helps ground you as a human to your students. Have you heard of "Zines" before? Yes, they're frequently talked about and respected in the photography community. I actually own a few, including a great book called "Making Stuff and Doing Things" which is a collection of zines. What do you think about the Zine Library? I think its a good idea, they show an excerpt of a culture, traditionally of alternative group, which wil...

Balance + Contrast

Search This Blog