Blog #7 Assignment

Contemporary society's value of an artwork, can be both fair yet unfair. Fair, for the ancient artwork, unfair for the random or dull paintings that can cost millions of dollars. I agree that ancient artwork does deserve it's given price however, the newer and strange artwork doesn't deserve to have a price so high, and honestly some of the works don't even deserve to be in a museum. I feel like the amount of notable effort and uniqueness that a painting has or if it's an artwork from long ago, those deserve the highest prices. I've seen artwork of a some canvas and a big dot in the center and a curved line passing by it, costing up to 3 million dollars, and that's sheer insanity.

Neo-Surrealism. Expiatory Temple.This is modern art. THIS is artwork I'd pay thousands, if I have to, for. If I could choose an appropriate price I'd go for 2-9 thousand, or maybe even 10 thousand, course if I had the money for it, I'd pay that price for something so perfect to me. It'd look perfect for my home and it just feels like something I would never get my eyes off of. It gives off a cooling and peaceful sensation.

Blog HW #6

The cause of my choice is the Wildlife Preservation. A fitting monument for this cause is a two-headed animal that are endangered in two different sides of the world, the head of a wolf representing their endangerment in North America and the second head; a tiger, which are highly endangered in Asia. The message this monument shows is that animals, just like humans co-own the planet. They live here. And the reality is, we're living in THEIR planet, not the other way around. And the only way for us to co-exist with such exotic animals is to leave them be. The way I view it, if we can hunt them, then they can hunt us. So the monument shows as if the wolf and tiger are scaring away any intruders of their territories, and the intruders are humans. Both ferociously growling/roaring. The wolf faces forward, his paw dominantly standing on one part of the globe that is beneath them, with endangered species written on it from around the world, not all correctly placed. Meanwhile, the tiger faces towards his left, roaring. It'd be made of bronze or something that could make it last a long time. I feel a statue like this should be placed in a popular place like in NYC, so I suppose Manhattan would be a nice choice for it's placement, mostly for the tourists to see. This monument is for those that support the Wildlife Preservation Organizations and just about anything that goes against the slaughter of wild animals for whatever reason.

(Chose not to color it in, didn't want to ruin this with my horrible coloring, also the drawing was far too big to fit in the lower half. Not entirely good at drawing the rest of the animals written on the globe so I decided to write their names so that it's known that the wolf and tiger are not the only endangered species that are to be concerned about. And also some species are misplaced because I could not draw in the rest of the earth to put them in the places that they are known for becoming endangered.)

My Museum Essay

My Museum would be titled "L'Ascensione di Natura Spirituale" (Italian for "The Ascension of Spiritual Nature") and it is located in Venice, Italy my dream vacation. It's mission is to interact with those who don't normally connect themselves with the beauty of this humbling earth on a deeper level and the privileges it gives us. A target audience? Well, anyone who appreciates nature like I do, teens, kids and adults alike.

One of the many privileges are the animals that roam the earth; which paintings and photographs of majestic creatures would definitely be an art found at this museum. Art like this is important to me, so that the viewers see these beautiful "beasts" in a whole new light. I for one, adore the wolf and all its beauty and glory. Looking at this, makes me want to create my own museum to collect art like this whether it'd be from the most well known artist to the unknown.

This, a photograph of a mystic forest, is just as important as the animal art for many reasons. Most people would find something like this, mist covered forest filled with dying trees, creepy, ominous, maybe even Gothic-esque or just unsettling. I, am not most people. This is just gorgeous. I'd kill to be in a place like this. I feel as if more art like this was on display, more and more people would become attracted to such rarity and mystery. A reason I believe people misunderstand a setting like this is because of horror movies, where the killers in white masks chase down their victims to a similar atmosphere as this, which causes many to think of a horror/thriller scenario rather than a mysterious beauty. I want this kind of art, dark, mysterious and gothic-like; to show the people that beauty can also be found in the darkness.

 A snowy mountain. Similar to my previous picture, with being a landscape and all but given a different meaning than the other. Many love and hate the snow. It's cold, it can get us sick or it can entertain us and be perfect for a photograph. Weather art is another type of art that would be seen in my museum. It fascinates me to no end. Not many countries get a chance to have snowfall, some are glad, some are not. However, the goal here, is to put aside love and hate and just appreciate the art the snow can do for us.

One thing I've noticed was the lack of sun in all three of these art pieces. Some may think the sun is what shows nature's true beauty, but I believe it's not the only thing that shows its beauty. Beauty can be found in the dark as it can be found in the light. This all relates to my museum, and its title, to give the spiritual connection to people, to wake up a part of them they've never felt or fully grasped before. Through the art in my museum, I want you to ascend your connection with mother nature on a level that not many experience.

Blog HW #5

Can graffiti be considered art? Of course it can. Art is a person's escape from reality or expression of emotion or creativity. Graffiti is just an art that is misunderstood, perhaps it's like the "anti-hero" of art. It's not really different but its not really similar to other arts seen in a museum either. Graffiti, which is technically considered "illegal art", which would be one of the few yet main differences; is used to express the artist(s) who made it, which is a main similarity to museum art. It's purpose, other than expressing oneself, from what I've seen is used to mark where you have been and put your name out there even though it's just your street name, you still become known, people will remember your street name. And of course to mark your territory; as I've seen some gang graffiti do, mark what "theirs". Graffiti should be in a museum that is specifically made for that type of art and not in a regular museum like the Met or Guggenheim. My reason for that is, graffiti can be found anywhere you go, its not something entirely unique. Perhaps its design or style is unique or the message it was meant to give but it's not something that deserves to be put in museums for ancient art. Just for museums that are made for urban art.

Museum Review #2

This exhibit of Carrie Mae Weems fascinated me to no end, her photographs make a person see something as simple as a blurred picture of a woman in a whole new view, especially with her descriptions of them. There were two in particular that caught my eye.

One of them titled "Roaming Broad and Expansive Sky", which I literally stood there staring at it for about a good fifteen minutes. I got this overwhelming sensation of how our existence is rather insignificant in comparison to what's really out there. I found it absolutely enrapturing. Practically sent chills down my spine. I felt like I was the one standing on the shore, staring off into the never ending distance. I could not get enough of this. Even as I write this, I can't stop staring and contemplating about the world. I adore the achromatic color scheme, it adds a nice effect to the picture, and gives off a bit of an ominous sensation to it. I believe this one is my favorite of all the images I've seen in the exhibit.

The second one titled "Boneyard" was another that gave off an odd feeling. The reason why this caught my attention was, not only for my fascination in morbidity, but because where my family comes from in Colombia, we believe in some of what is said in the description. One for example, is the death by voodooism, if someone is killed by such, then they are to be buried to a cross in one hand, and lightly pour holy water on to them so that their spirit can peacefully pass on, and whoever got them killed will be punished by having a loved one taken away from them.

In the exhibit, there were two pictures that I've seen that had involved stereotypes. Perhaps there were more but I didn't get a chance to see them One of them being a black woman with a chicken drumstick and the caption said "Black Woman with Chicken". It is well known that one of the many stereotypes for the black community is that they love to eat chicken. Carrie uses that to her advantage to bring the stereotype to life, however in the picture the woman is unsatisfied, kind of giving off a bit of an attitude to this.
The second image is a black man holding a large watermelon and a notable stereotyped hairstyle for black men. The picture is titled "Black Man holding Watermelon". Just like the woman, the black man here is giving a look of unsatisfactory.







Photography is an easier yet slightly more challenging medium in comparison to paintings, drawings etc. The reason why I say easier is because it doesn't require as much talent as painting and drawing needs. (Not that I'm saying photography is for the untalented but I feel like it doesn't have as much effort as a painting/drawing does since the camera is really what does all the work, not the person behind it.)  Now the reason why it is challenging is because it does need as much focus and perfectionism as a drawing. A photographer needs to get something at a perfect angle, the right camera focus, at the right time otherwise it'll just seem like any other photo and not have as much meaning as it was meant to have.

Many of Carrie Mae Weems' most famous work is her appropriation of historical photos, such as this one on the left captioned "And their daughter". I'm not exactly sure what that means. But she takes old photos, mostly from the era of slaves and has them reddened with a caption over. Some others I've noticed in the Guggenheim have some edits on certain pictures. One of them had a white man with something edited on his face. (I can't remember what it was.)







My experience at the Guggenheim was definitely an unforgettable one but in my honest opinion, the Met was better, only because I felt that there was a lot more space to venture out and different forms of art to check out. I kind of felt as if the Guggenheim was more limited than the Met. The Guggenheim had way more photographic art while the Met had more sculptures, drawings and paintings which are more of my taste.

Blog Hw #4

Accidental Art -

1) Chasing the White Line

The photo was taken on 94th St, 34th Ave. Its the wall in the corner of the living room that has the darkened walls connected by the bright white corner. I've always found it odd, how the white line remains untouched. The walls have its color due to a small fire that had happened years ago, and because of the amount of items around this corner, we're unable to paint over it. It's always given off an ominous sensation and with my phone, the white had enhanced giving off the effect of being the white line at the far end of the seemingly endless, dark tunnel. The picture has a strange pattern on its right, little specs of white trailing after one another leaving almost the same exact amount of distance between each one. The implied texture is smooth and flat looking. The walls are actually bumpy, but smooth. The picture is achromatic and I'm not entirely sure if this would be consider representational.





2) The Horizon in the Blue

This picture was also taken on 94th St and 34th Ave. As well as being in the living room. However, the story with how the wall is like this is because of the furniture scraping against it for many years. This stood out to me for a while, because it's the only part of the living room that has scraping on the wall despite the many times we've moved out furniture around. We always tried our best to not make a single mark but this wall always took a hit. The way the line, although different sizes on opposite ends, still goes straight across the navy blue wall. So far, I don't detect a pattern, the texture of the blue wall looks smooth while the horizontal line shows roughness. It is non-representational, and is monochromatic seeing at the only colors here are white and blue.

Blog Hw #3

This painting I chose is titled "Danielle" by Jeremy Lipking. This depicts a sad or even miserable looking girl around her teen years in a very somber toned setting. At first glance, I thought this painting was idealized because the features of the girl were far too perfect. The typical flawlessly skinned girl with rosy red cheeks to add on to the "innocence" of a teen girl. However, analyzing the painting carefully, I noted some flaws on her face, such as the bags under her eyes. It looks as if she had her eye make-up smeared from tears. Another detail I noticed was her hair was seemingly damp and lifeless. John Berger in, Ways of Seeing states, "The social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man" (1). I agree with this quote, I feel that had this been a depiction of a teenage boy, it wouldn't stand out as much as "Danielle". Plus it would look rather awkward to see a boy in this state.

Blog HW #2

From the Metropolitan Museum's gallery, I chose "Ancient Rome" done by Giovanni Paolo Panini in 1757. It's an oil painting that is clearly two-dimensional. From the looks of the lines and the way they are directed, it seems to be vertical, showing some assertiveness within the painting. The painting depicts the use organic shapes, seeing as the people are drawn like normal human beings instead of block like form. There seems to be no negative space, the entire canvas was painted over, making it all positive space. The style of the drawing shows just pure realism, which makes the painting representational as it is not abstract in any way. The light within the picture is not actual light, it's artificial light, the painter added in the effect of it's brightness. It's hard to determine whether or not the painting has dominant warm colors or cool colors, but I'd go with warm, seeing as the red and yellow in the painting is what stands out the most. I've also noted that there is a pattern that goes on in the background hall of the painting. The frames are in a rectangular shape following one after the other until reaching the main room in which the painting shows most of. A quick note about the painting that I couldn't help but notice is that the painter Giovanni Paolo Panini, depicted the many important works of art during his time, showing the sculptures and the framed pictures in the back are of different architectures that were built in Ancient Rome.

Blog HW #1

Growing up in a graffiti filled neighborhood, as many others here in NYC. Graffiti can not only be depictions of faces, characters, certain important life events etc. But it can also be just pure words. Although art is usually expressed through drawings, words can have a similar, if not equal impact on just about anyone who comes across it. It's also used to leave marks showing where one has traveled off to and just felt the need to leave a little bit of "themselves" behind through their art.

The picture above is of graffiti on a longtime popular neighborhood deli that was recently closed down. I, myself am not so sure what is being said here but when it comes to art, do we really need to know specifically? Before the deli closed, this graffiti was never there. In fact, the owner was strict on graffiti but now that she's gone, people feel the need to leave their marks on. Perhaps it's a sign of missing the deli. Or maybe even trying to be disrespectful. It's unknown to the world but the artist themselves. This can be found in 94th street, Junction Blvd. The picture was taken at night to show off the slightly glow affect of the graffiti.