Awareness #8 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec5/28/2018 This post has been a long time coming. Toulouse-Lautrec is, in my eyes, one of the best artists to ever exist. You could call him my favorite artist. Toulouse-Laturec lived from 1864 - 1901 and worked as a painter, printmaker, draftsman, and illustrator of the vibrant yet sad theatrical life in Paris. He documented the rise of nightlife culture in the City of Lights in a personal manner, showing the lives of performers and prostitutes from a humanistic perspective. One of my favorite works by Lautrec is "The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge." There are many versions of this work but my absolute favorites are the prints. I love the vibrant colors that Lautrec used and the way he depicted the Englishman as a blocked out gray form. The primary color scheme is one of my favorites and Toulouse employs it excellently in the background of this piece. Toulouse relies heavily on contour lines which I am definitely a fan of and the way he was able to break down the form of the people in the print with just a few strokes is absolutely phenomenal in my opinion. My personal favorite is the eyes of the first woman to the left of the Englishman with the small eyes. Her expression is so expressive, and, when I saw it in person, I thought it was very amusing. The work depicts an Englishman seemingly coming on to a couple Moulin Rouge girls. He has an almost lecherous expression and the women seem slightly abhorred and uncomfortable. Probably the only things I dislike about this peace is the colors used on the dress of the woman to the far left. The spotty green and black accents, although potentially accurate to real life, just do not vibe with the overall colors of this peace. I understand that making her dress a vibrant color would have overpowered the other colors, but I feel that the semi-vomit color green was not the best choice. Similarly, I dislike the way Toulouse tried to capture the fluffy headband that the orange-haired lady was wearing. It seems very out of place in the way it is placed on her head and how he tried to make it seem fluffy and amorphous. I hope to one day achieve Toulouse's mastery in contour lines and color usage. The way he is able to capture forms so quickly and easily is something that I greatly admire. I want to use more of the primary color scheme in my work as I absolutely adore the look of it. Furthermore, coloring a person all one color is such a bold move and simultaneously a move that I want to master. It simplified the Englishman's role in the print, and I will definitely keep this method in mind in my future works. To conclude, I want to experiment more with printmaking as many of my favorite artists were printmakers and mass producing an artwork and being able to change the colors as one pleases greatly pleases me.
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Experience #4 - ICA5/28/2018 On May 24th, I went to the Institute of Contemporary Art with my art class. I was there for an hour or so and it was absolutely phenomenal. I loved the exhibits and the architecture and the overall feel of the museum as it felt very sleek, modern, and fresh. From the outside, I didn't think the museum would have much light, but I was shocked to find out that the walls were actually translucent and let natural light in without it being glaring. I think the museum would be absolutely beautiful at sunrise or sunset. The look of the museum and its connections to the concept of time travel really inspired me to look into modern architecture and how it can serve as a messenger or a commentary on a certain subject.
Since we were one of the first school groups to be given a tour of the ICA, we were treated a little like guineau pigs which I thought was very cool. The watercolor activity was fun, but I would have liked more time to finish my artwork although I understand that more time on the activity would have meant less time looking at the actual works in the exhibition. Potentially more instruction on what we were supposed to do would have been nice as, maybe it was just me, I was a bit confused when we began the exercise. I think it is very cool that the ICA is making an effort to have interactive activities that are contingent to the architecture of the museum. In regards to the exhibit, Declaration, I absolute ADORED it. I loved the powerful social commentary in all of the work, and I especially enjoyed the interactive exhibits. Women's Words was one of my favorite pieces. Not only did I love the aesthetics of the layout and the colors, but having such grotesque statements about women being so upfront and personal was wild. It left a really big impression on me, and I want to pursue something where I am able to incorporate a wide variety of people and opinions into my artwork. The record your own podcast station was super fun, and I loved the idea of involving one's audience and allowing them to be heard on a platform one creates. I actually visited the Estman radio site multiple times, and, although my podcast has yet to be uploaded, I listened in on other recordings that were uploaded and just hearing all of these people's opinions and dumb thoughts knowing that most if not all of them were in that room, recording at that table, makes me feel connected to them in a sense? In a way, I considered this project to be a way to unite the community. In terms of other works I liked, GWAR was pretty cool although it did make me feel a little nauseous, the Mending project looked absolutely amazing, and the video of scuba divers just breathing seemed odd but also a good way to provoke thought within the viewer. My visit to the ICA inspired me to genuinely pursue my dreams in interactive art. I desperately want to involve my viewer in my artwork and engage them in something that I think is meaningful and will help them understand my message. For me, letting my viewers see my art in their own unique ways and changing it how they want to is probably one of my biggest motivations to create art. I've been thinking a lot about: How can I achieve this goal? Where should I go about finding an audience that I want my art to interact with? How do I accurately transmit my message? How do I get people to engage in the first place? Progress Post #33 - May 25, 20185/28/2018 This week, I finished sewing on the burlap to all of the fingers! I took it home over the weekend to work a little on it and it was super rewarding. I was able to get a lot of it done, and, although some of the fingers are pretty loose, I appreciate what I have so far. It doesn't really look like much with just the burlap on the fingers, but I'm hoping adding it to the wrist and the non-finger hand section will make it look a lot better. I can't wait to start planting! Progress Post #32 - May 18, 20185/28/2018 .This week, I finally finished the armature! There was a bit of a struggle deciding how to put the dirt in the sculpture, but I decided to use burlap with the help of Ms. Mosley. I'm not too great at sewing, so I don't know how that will work out but I am excited to try. Art is all an experience after all. The fingers are a little crunk if I must admit, but they get the basic idea down and that's all that matters. I haven't attached anything as I realized it would be much easier to wrap the burlap and fill it with the moss if they are not connected but rip me when the time comes around that I do need to attach it. Progress Post #31 - May 11, 20185/28/2018 This week, we began work on our big sculpture project. I decided to use chicken wire to make the fingers and hands. Luckily, the wire was the perfect size to make the fingers. I made the sculpture a little small, but I think since I don't have that many plants and there's a limited time to work that the size is adequate enough. Next time, I will definitely make my sculpture larger. The fingers are okay so far; however, it is very difficult to wrap the wires around each other due to how thick and strong the wire is. I think the pliers may be a solution to this issue. So far I have a couple fingers and the wrist. I am hoping on finishing the basic armature by the end of next week then looking into how I can cram the soil and moss into the sculpture.
author.jacqueline. she/her. senior. virginia, usa. art v. archives.
March 2020
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