Reflections for AED 200

1. My expectations were to learn about the elements and principles of art and I learned much more.

2. I define art as a way of expression and creative which is pretty similar to my original posting.

3. Leonardo Da Vinci is my favorite artist now because of portraits and the way he uses the elements of principle he really captures my attention.

4. I am very happy i took the course and would recommend it to others.

self portrait

Abraham Lincolm
1887
George Peter Alexander Healy
Oil on Canvas

Self-Portrait 
1889 (250 Kb)
 Oil on canvas
 65 x 54 cm (25 1/2 x 21 1/4 in)
 Musee d'Orsay, Paris

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN
“Self-portrait”, 1659

oil on canvas, 52.7- 42.7 cm., Edinburgh , National Gallery of Scotland 

Gina Giardina

Sketch

I chose these self portraits because they are either inspirational artists or men that have had a major impact on the world.  I found them inspirational because I know who they are and some background on them so they inspired me in my self portrait.  The challenges I faced are I am not the best artist but I just brushed that aside and did the best I could do.  It represents me because I am always happy and smiling so it is a great representation of my personality.  I applied shading for my hair, eyebrows, and eyes.  I used line for my hair and most of my face. I also applied balance and symmetry because I used the whole page and tried to be as symmetrical as possible.  I enjoyed creating this piece because it was fun to do and I got to be creative.  I think it is the best I could possibly do so I like the final product.

Art Curation Review

1. Which projects did you review?
The projects that I had reviewed were the Captured Moments during the 70s, The Queen City, and All about the Landscapes.

2. Why did you select the Exhibit you critiqued?
I selected Captured Moments during the 70s because I enjoyed looking at the photos.  It felt like I was experiencing a little piece of the event taking place.  I really enjoy realistic art.  I also enjoy history so I was very engaged by this exhibition.

3. What challenges did you face in writing the critique article and how did you overcome them?
The challenges I faced in writing was where to start and how to organize exactly what I want to say.  I overcame it by jotting down what I wanted to address in each paragraph and then just wrote how I felt about the photos and the exhibition as a whole.

4. How do you feel about critiquing your peers work?
I do not mind critiquing my peers because I think it is nice to get to voice your opinion on a specific work.  I also have no problem expressing my views and feelings to my peers.

5. Would you like to read the critique your peers wrote about your Art Curation Project?
I would like to read what my peers wrote about my project.  I put in a lot of time and effort, and would like to know what others had to say.  I enjoy constructive criticism because it helps me to learn from my mistakes and not do them again.

6. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your finished article and why?
I would rate it a 10 because I expressed exactly how I felt and touched on main points of the exhibition.  I thought I put a good amount of effort into my article and think it was the best I could do.

7. Did you enjoy working on this project?
I did enjoy working on this project it opened my eyes up to different areas and ideas of art.  It was also nice to get to see my peers exhibitions.  I think everyone did such a great job and it was nice to be able to view others hard work.

Video Review

Greenberg on Pollock: An interview by T.J. Clark

The key concepts/ideas are Greenberg was told in the 1940s that one day Pollock would be a great painter.  Pollock painted his first spatter-drip piece in 1947.  Although Pollock despised easel painting, his paintings remained until the end easel.  He knew that his paintings weren't murals but rather goes from the easel to the mural.  Pollock started to move away from orderliness although Greenberg believes that his paintings were orderly.  Pollock is associated with Dionysian.  Pollock refused some of his own works.  Greenberg states that this is because they were not appealing to the eye.  Pollock chose his way of applying paint because of the way the paint broke the plane.  His "drip" paintings can be characterized as Apollonian instead of Dionysian.  Pollock felt alone and isolated.  Artists wanted fortune and fame during Pollock's time.  Pollock only sold about one picture a year during that time.  Pollock at the end of his life wished he would have looked more at impressionists.

An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance

The key concepts/ ideas of the Italian Renaissance are the renewal of excitement for the arts.  Natural beauty was the center of ancient roman art until the Barbarians took over.  Giotto was among some of the firsts to give life back to the realistic style of the Romans by using perspective found in architecture and landscape.  Ghiberti was an apprentice under Giotto.  He created beautiful biblical scenes out of door panels.  Donatello created the sculpture of "David."  The figure stands on one leg and is considered beautiful in its nude form.  Uccello makes new ideals of animal and human figures.  Masaccio's figures portray psychological and physical depth.  Francesca experiments with, "The Madonna and Child," which contrasts light and dark value to add depth.  The Catholic Church conveys Christianity through art.  Da Vinci used science and math to appear natural in their context.  Raffaello is considered the master of composition.

I think these videos will help with the art criticism project because I think any information going into being a critic of someone else's work will be helpful.  It is a little more information than I had before going into the project.  There were many things I learned from the two videos therefore I think they will aid in my art criticism  project.

I enjoyed the videos they taught me more about the Italian Renaissance and I learned more about the life of Pollock.  They did add depth to my understanding of art criticism by giving visuals and ideas of how to be an art critic.  The videos were very helpful.

Reflections on Art Curation Project

The process I went through in creating my project was I did a lot of research before I actually began my project.  I researched different areas of art that I found interesting.  I wanted to do some type of theme of actors and actresses paintings of those who have passed away at a young age.  I was pretty passionate about doing it but found there were few pictures with the material I needed for my power point presentation. I then started thinking about family and how I enjoyed reading in the textbook about realism.  I them thought of combining the two.  The family impact on realism was what I came up with.  I chose this theme because to me my family means everything.  We do everything together and are best friends.  It only seemed fitting to pick a theme that was related to family.  I then started my journey to find art work.  I found much artwork on this theme and enjoyed searching for different pieces of art.  That is how I ended up choosing my theme.  It was a long process to complete this project.  There was a lot of looking at different artworks and analyzing, describing, and explaining why I chose each photo.  Although it was a long process I enjoyed doing it and finding and organizing different artworks that fit into my theme.