Self-Portrait

                                                                    Inspirational Portraits:

My media picture and self-portrait:

1. Why did you select the inspiration pieces?

-I went to the Burchfield Penny Art Gallery and found a few portraits but nothing that I could relate to because I did not know what these individuals looked in real life. I then decided to look online at the website provided and found a ton. I enjoyed these ones because it was people that I knew and was familiar with.

2. Why did you select the media to create your self-portrait?

-When drawing I usually prefer to work with charcoal because I think it is much smoother and blends nicer but for the portrait I decided to use pencil. I think drawing yourself is one of the hardest things to do so I knew I would be picky and erase a thousand times and want to change everything so I chose pencil. It is much easier to erase and is not as dark so the lines are not as visible when you do erase.

3. What challenges did you face in creating your self-portrait and how did you overcome them?

-The hardest part about drawing the portrait was the mouth. I did it at least five times and it never looked right. I am not a very good drawer but am very picky so when something does not look the way it should it drives me crazy. The mouth did not seem to look right no matter what I tried but I finally overcame this problem by taking a couple other pictures and viewing my mouth a few different angles. It still is not perfect, nothing about this portrait is perfect, but it is similar and looks realistic now.

4. How does this piece represent you?

-This piece represents me because it is me 100% natural. I have no makeup on, my hair is not done, and I am not really dressed to impress. I felt this is the way to do a portrait because it shows the true individual. It also has my favorite necklace drawn in and this is something that is very special and meaningful to me so it represents me well.

5. What elements and principles of art did you apply in this work?

-I applied line to the hair and texture, shading and lighting to make it look 2D, and chose to only do it with a black and white value to make certain features really stand out.

6. Did you enjoy working on this project?

-I enjoyed working on this project but it was very difficult. I truly think drawing yourself is one of the hardest things to do and it took a lot of time and patience. Made me realize how much work goes into every self-portrait ever done.

7. What do you think of your final artwork?

-My self-portrait is far from perfect but I did my best. I took my time, corrected the parts that looked completely unnatural, and really put a lot of effort into it. For someone who is not a talented sketcher I think it turned out pretty good!

Project 5 Reflection

1. Which projects did you review?

- Love Finds You Happiness by Nick Sagliani

-Art in The New Age by Kathy Rondinelli

-The Perfect Day by Claude Monet by Lauren Mallo

-Faces in Art by Katie Mooar

2. Why did you select the Exhibit you critiqued?

-I selected the exhibit done by Nick Sagliani because I chose a very similar theme and so I was very interested to see how he set up his exhibit and how mine was similar to his.

3. What challenges did you face in writing the critique article and how did you overcome them?

-The challenge I faced was trying to figure out how to describe and analyze the exhibit. With it having so much included it was hard to describe it as a whole because it was so big. I overcame the problem by separating his exhibit into three different “topics”.

4. How do you feel about critiquing your peers work?

-I really enjoyed it. I know that these individuals are very similar to me with the understanding of art and we have all learned the same thing so it was neat to see how each one of us went about it and how we described and set up our exhibit.

5. Would you like to read the critique your peers wrote about your Art Curation Project?

- I would be interested in reading what other wrote because it would make me realize how to improve my work and what they thought of it.

6. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your finished article and why?

I would rate my article a 9. It included everything that needed to be included and I went into depth with many of the parts. The only thing I am unsure on was the analysis and description part and that is why I took one point off.

7. Did you enjoy working on this project?

I thought this project was a lot of fun and made me realize what professors have to do and how much work it is. Also, makes you realize just how much time is spent on an exhibit and this was only the beginning steps.

Art Criticism Video Blog

1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T. J. Clark

-TJ Clark discusses art criticism and the issues with modernist painting

-Clark interviews Clement Greenberg on many topics

-Clement Greenberg’s career and where his work is located

-His work focuses on art theory, art journalism, and aesthetics

-not a very serious individual

-Very intelligent and insightful about the common characteristics of art and history

-They discuss America’s Post WWII boom

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

-Another interview done by TJ Clark dealing with Greenberg’s career

-Focused more on the working methods and money

-Brings up a lot of older work done by Pollock

-Greenberg observes Pollock’s studio

-They consider Pollock an outsider but looks as his work as a practical approach

-Views many of Pollock’s works

An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance (Giorgio Vasari)

-The life of Giorgio Vasari

-Discusses how many artists used Vasari’s methods and grew off of them

-Vasari and other discuss many artists and discuss their work

-They select a few pieces that relate to the Roman Renaissance

-Talk about balance, perspective, and realism

-Shows many examples of many artists

The Critics: Stories from the Inside Pages

-Discusses the travels of Dr. Dwight DeWerth – Pallmeyer

-he interviewed many along the way

-Interviewed fill critics from Good Morning America, Time Magazine, Nashville Scene, and Fresh Air

-He studied the form and value of others art work

-Looked at how careers began

-All the passion and love that goes into each carreer

The Colonial Encounter: Views of Non-Western Art and Culture

*This video was a bit confusing and hard to understand*

-Starts off discussing the World Fair

-Shows many pieces of artwork including pictures, films, and posters from the fair

-These pieces make up collections all around the world

-They show the Western Prejudice and art consumption over the years

Jackson Pollock: Michael Fried and T. J. Clark in Conversation

-Focuses on conflicts between TJ Clark and Michael Fried

-Both had views on painting and sculpting

-The two argue over works of Jackson Pollock

-They see some similarities but also many differences

-They suggest Pollock switch to more abstraction

-Both very intelligent and make great points

-Show many great pieces of art work done by both artists

2. Do the videos relate to the creation of your Art Criticism project? If yes, explain how. If no, explain why not.
-These videos really related to the art criticism project because many of them gave examples of how to view art and how to analyze it. They gave examples of how others view and look at art work and gave me a great understanding of how I should look at art work done by others.
3. What is your opinion of the films? Do they add depth to understanding of art criticism?
-I really enjoyed these videos. They were very beneficial and gave great examples for our next project. I was a little bit nervous on analyzing others exhibits but these videos gave me an understanding of what I would be doing and also showed me how to view others work. They added depth because they explained many artworks and argued/criticized many artworks. Great videos!

Project Four Reflection

When starting this project I was a bit concerned about not being able to find a theme I enjoyed or paintings to the theme I picked. I started by browsing the web and jotting down different paintings I liked that could fit into different themes. I narrowed my option down to nature and romance for the themes. I found many paintings that I really found interesting for both but decided to stick with romance because I can connect with that one much more. I started by just going through many websites and saving pictures I liked. I ended up with about 100 pictures but many were very similar and some were very farfetched. I found one website that I loved and ended up using it for almost all of my images. The images that this website had were all clear, unlike many others, but also had a lot of a similar style and lay so nicely next to each other. I then separated all of my images on slides and decided how I wanted to set it up. Figuring out which order I was going to put the images in was the hardest decision. I wanted to lay them out so that it flowed and did not want any images that were really similar to be right next to eachother. I ended up putting them in order according to date (past - present) and then all the unknown ones were put at the end. I then decided I wanted all of the horizontal images on the right and the vertical images on the right. I am a very organized personal so I like to keep things simple and would have them all flow nicely, rather than sporadic and different for each slide. After I decided on the theme, images, and layout I moved to interpreting and describing each image. This is where I had the most fun because each picture was so different that it kept me interested and excited to write about each. After finishing all the descriptions I moved to the background and colors. I originally was going to go with a light red background color to match the love and romantic theme. After testing it out I realized I hated it because it took so much away from the images. I then moved to a few other colors before trying out black. I found the background as one of my last options. I tested it out and loved it. The black makes all of the paintings pop and stand out and the design on the lines pulling to the right makes the eyes want to keep moving to the next slide, similar to how an exhibit would be. I had a lot of fun with this project and found it to be very interesting and very beneficial.