Relative Height

My psychology professor lectured about a concept called relative height. To illustrate the concept, the professor showed the class a sidewalk chalk drawing of a girl swimming in a pool. her leg was sticking up out of the water. From one side of the drawing, it looked perfectly proportioned, but from the other side, the girl's leg looked 3 times longer than the girl herself. The artist had to draw the leg that long in order for it to look correctly proportioned when the picture was viewed from the other side of the sidewalk where the picture appears right-side-up. These pictures made me think about all of the strange ways that artists have to draw things in order for their artworks to look the way they want them to when viewed from the intended angle.

Autumn on the Siene, Argenteuil

I am writing my visual analysis paper about this painting by Claude Monet. It is entitled "Autumn on the Siene, Argenteuil". I love Monet's work, and I think this fits into his collective works very well as well as reflecting the techniques of the impressionism genre. I love the transition of color from left to right and the techniques that Monet used to create this painting. Impressionists use extremely small brush strokes, mostly dotting the brush on the canvas to eventually create the scene that they wish to portray. This technique is very difficult and requires lots of patience. I wish that I had the patience to paint this way, because the result is simply gorgeous.

"Speaking of Art"

I was looking through some art on DeviantArt and I came across a graphic design piece called "Speaking of Art" by a user named jmonzani. You can view the piece: HERE! I love his quote, which is stated on the artwork, "Speaking of art is useless if one doesn't feel anything." -Jean-Sebastien Monzani. ("Speaking of Art" © jmonzani.com Please respect copyright laws!)

The idea presented in this artwork goes well with Ways of Seeing by Berger. The very first sentence in the first chapter of Berger's book states that, "Seeing comes before words." It is more important for us to see a work of art for ourselves than only hear or talk about it. We need to have our own individual reaction to art. That's where Monzani's quote comes in. If we only talk about a piece instead of really looking at it for ourselves and developing our own feelings and opinions about the artwork, then we have gotten nothing from the artwork. Therefore speaking of art becomes useless.

Also, you can view my Deviantart page by clicking HERE!

Captivating

My favorite artist is Claude Monet. When I look at his paintings, I feel as though I am in the setting of the painting myself. I love how art an offer that kind of escape into another world- the world inside the painting. Although I especially love Monet's waterlily paintings, one Monet painting that I think illustrates this point well is La femme au métier (pictured below).

I love this painting because I feel it makes me feel like I am in the room with the artist. I want to walk up to him and see what he is painting. Monet's paintings captivate me and take me into the painting's world. They inspire me, and they invoke my curiosity.

Source: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/later/

Another painting that has the same effect is Las meninas by Diego Velazquez (pictured below). Every time I look at it, I feel as if I am in the room with the princess, her attendants, and the rest of the busy people and events going on in the room of the painting.

Source: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/V/velazquez/meninas.jpg.html

The captivating ability of art, to offer a short escape into another world, is my favorite thing about art. Many people find that books have this effect on them, but art can have the same effect. I love to sit or stand in front of a painting and just let it captivate me. Whether I fully understand its meaning or not, the painting can still have the ability to take me away from reality for just a moment.

Semiotics and Art

I recently read the article "Semiotics and Art History" by Mieke Bal and Norman Bryson. The article was very difficult to read because it was written for a knowledgeable audience, and I am not educated in art history. However, in my own words, from my understanding of the article, semiotics, in reference to art, is analyzing the signs and symbols in an artwork. Many pieces of art, especially religious artworks, use symbols to convey the idea of the painting. Many paintings contain metaphors, using one sign to represent something different. A semiotic approach to interpreting art can better help to determine how these signs, symbols, and metaphors contribute to the overall meaning we see in a particular artwork.

One of the most famous forms of art that uses these kinds of symbols very heavily are religious icons that can be found in Orthodox churches. The picture below is a picture of one such icon:

Sources:
Picture- http://www.ancientsculpturegallery.com/iconsproducts2.html

Art All Around Us

You can find art all around you. I like to think about the earth as one big work of art. For example, I am an amateur photographer. I carry a camera at all times just to make sure I never miss a single photo. Some of my favorite photographs are landscapes. Landscapes that most people consider to be the most beautiful are of things that you don't see everyday such as the Grand Canyon, but there are so many other landscapes that make gorgeous pictures that we all see every day. I may walk past a tree and take a picture of it. There may not necessarily be anything extraordinary about the tree. Anything you see, even something as ordinary as a tree can be seen as a artwork depending on your perspective. When I ride in a car on long trips to the beach, I like to watch the scenery outside of the car window. I pretend that I am looking at everything through the lens of my camera, and I marvel at the possible photographs that I pass along the way.

Just for fun, here is one of my photographs:

 This flower was on a tree in my backyard- something I saw everyday. Even so, I think that it makes for a beautiful photograph.

Photograph (c) 2009