Artist # 4 Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen

I only heard of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in class when we saw a slide of their work. I decided to look at more of it and see what I thought. Their work is large scale regular objects, clothespin, tools, umbrella, spoon, balls, etc. I don't really get it when I see it. I think a few of them are interesting because of the placement.

The spoon is over water, and I think it's actually titled Spoonbridge and Cherry. The cherry is really random to me. You don't eat cherries with spoons, so why did they place this cherry on this spoon? Also why did they place it over the water? Many of their other pieces are just in fields so why this one over water? I don't know if it was named first or after, but if they're like me, it would have been named after. It is very possible that it was named before, so then the water would be a significant part. At least that's what I think of when I hear bridge. I think of a bridge over water.


For some reason I like this sculpture. It's such a nothing object, but the size of it makes it interesting. I've seen clothespins before, but this one looks way different just because it's huge. When it's standing up like this it also seems to give it a different meaning and actually just looks like a sculpture and not a clothespin. The placement is interesting also, because it's in the middle of office buildings.


I really didn't like a few of the sculptures. I didn't get them at all, and they didn't really intrigue me to get to know them and the meaning behind it. One of them is the piece of pie on top of a ball. It's pictured here:

This sculpture doesn't look that realistic, it looks more shiny and plastic. I'm not sure what they were going for with this one, but I just don't like it. I also don't like the ice cream cone on the corner of a building. It's the same thing. Not too realistic, which I don't think is what they were looking for because of the sizes of the sculptures. They are much much bigger than the real objects. So there is definitely some emphasis or meaning on the sizes they choose.

I couldn't make anything like these sculptures though, so i'm not saying their bad, I just don't see the meaning. Is there even supposed to be a meaning?

February 10, Randomness

So this entry is going to be just a lot of random thoughts and pictures. Today I was eating a kiwi, which I love, and I always cut them in half first. While I was scooping out the halves I was looking at it and realized how much I like how kiwis look. They're so pretty, and natural. I think that nature and it's natural beauty is so wonderful. I love the color of the green with the little white circle and black little seeds surrounding it. Here are a few pictures from google images that I like.



Aren't they pretty? I love the colors, and they're a little transparent when sliced. I never would have thought I would be examining kiwi like this, but hey i'm an art student!

Awhile ago I talked about the drawing I had to do for another class. I had to copy another drawing and I said I would put them up here, so here they are. The original first, then my copy, obviously.


I wasn't very happy with how my drawing turned out. We could only do a line drawing, so it looks off just because I couldn't add in the value. I couldn't get the head shaped right for some reason and couldn't figure out how to make it better without completely starting over. I had also put way too much time into it by the time I realized it was off to start over. If I would have tried to erase it all I would have had even more eraser lines than I already do have. I have to turn this in today along with other drawings. I'm nervous to see how he's going to grade us and what kind of grade i'll get. The thing about this class is that everyone is on different levels and so I think it would be really hard to grade consistently. He said that he will grade by how much we improve over time and follow the assignments, etc. I just finished a couple of the drawings and have that class tonight. It's really hard to spend a lot of time drawing during the day, then have to go to class and sit and draw for another 2+ hours. It gets tiring, and draining just sitting and drawing for so long. I do like that we have freedom as to what we draw. We can bring in our own objects, or choose from the cabinets filled with odds and ends. Every once in awhile we'll have to draw the same thing, such as a self portrait..yikes!

My roommate got this little card from a magazine and I really liked it. It's another very random picture that i'm going to put on here.
I like the branches and the leaves a lot. The birds are okay, but oddly not what I was attracted to. I do like them, but mainly just the look of the tree. It's a cute little valentine picture, which is coming up this weekend. I'm so excited because i'll be somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean Sea! I seriously cannot wait, i'm so antsy to leave! I am also getting stressed thinking about everything I have to do for school and little things to get ready before I leave. It's a bummer that we're going during school, but kind of a blessing at the same time. It will be really nice to have a break and get away, then have spring break about a month later. I feel so blessed to be able to travel to the places i've been, and barely have costed me anything. This trip is free for me! When and how does that happen!? Anyways because i'm going to be gone next week, I won't be able to blog because I won't have internet. I was thinking I'll just write everything down whenever I can and date it that way and take pictures then upload it all when I get back. Hopefully that will count as next weeks entries.

Artist # 3 Georgia O'Keeffe

I've heard of her name, and must have learned about her sometime, but didn't really know anything about Georgia O'Keeffe. I decided to research her because today someone in class said that they really liked the colors in her flowers. I love flowers and colors so I wanted to see these. I don't want to say that I was disappointed when I looked through some pictures, but I wasn't blown away. I was expecting really beautiful paintings of flowers, and honestly I don't think that Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers are that beautiful. They are colorful, but something just isn't connecting with me and her paintings.

I enough to see that there is controversary whether or not there is female sexuality meanings behind her paintings. I didn't like that, but I also read it's not true. Georgia O'Keeffe liked to paint things, such as her flowers, larger than life to bring emphasis on the object. She wanted the viewer to see deep into her subject. If I never heard about the female sexuality then I would never have thought that when I look at her flowers. I like the colors she uses, they're bright and eye catching, but at the same time they're typical. Maybe i'm being a little too critical, but sometimes you just don't feel anything when you look at pieces of work and that's how I feel when looking at Georgia O'Keeffes flowers.

I came across a painting that was different from her other subjects (I just searched images on google). It was this painting.
I thought that this painting was much different from the others that I saw. I noticed that it did have a flower on the scull, so that was similar, but nothing else. I wondered why she would paint this scull with a flower. It seems complete opposite to pretty colorful flowers, to paint a scull. I read that she really like the desert area, because of where she lived and would paint sculls that she found on her walks through the desert. This is still a little weird and different from her other paintings, but I understand why now. I guess it's just like painting anything you find. Here are a few more pictures of paintings that I liked the most.





I'm not saying in this that I don't think that Georgia O'Keeffe was not talented, because obviously she was very talented. I just didn't really get emotion out of the paintings, and I think that you should get an emotion from a piece of work. I know that others really like her paintings and style so I don't want to disrespect that. I will end with that.

Critique

Today was our first critique in class. Let me just tell you how it all started for me. I was at my house for lunch before class and I felt like I had more time than usual. I'm looking at the clock thinking, "hmm I still have 30 minutes." So I stayed home until about 1:30 and thought that I better leave, just to be safe and get to class a little early since our projects were due. I'm in the car driving and realize that class starts at 1:40 and it's 1:30! I was thinking that class started at 2 for some reason. So now i'm rushing to get to the school. Luckily I found a good parking spot and I dash off to class, which is about a ten minute walk. I get halfway and realize that I left my artist statement in the car, ugh! So I had to hurry back, grab it, then hurry to class again. The good thing was that I really wasn't that late. I had time to set my project up and get to all the other classrooms to see everyone else's creations.

I'm really happy with the way that mine turned out. I did title it Triangles because the triangle shape is what I emphasized. I really like that from the beginning I had no idea what it was going to look like in the end. I've never done something like that, and I always like to have plans and go by those plans. I'm not much of a big risk taker, or a spontaneous person. So in that way I feel like I was out of my comfort zone for sure. I used plastic wrap as my skin, which was pretty difficult and I attached it by using clear finger-nail polish. It dries clear and it hardens, so it worked perfect as glue. I only filled in true triangle shapes. Once I had the plastic wrap secure in the triangles I actually painted them with silver finger-nail polish as well. I just painted my finger-nails with this color and looked at them and wondered what the plastic wrap would look like with that on in. I practiced on a little scrap piece and really liked it. I painted it very messy, so it gave it almost a pearly, stained glass look to it. I think that it changed the look of the plastic wrap and at first you might not even know that is the skin I used. I'm actually just going to add my artist statement here. It explains my sculpture a little more.

Triangles
By: Jillian Nightingale

Triangles portrays geometric shapes and repetition with emphasis on the triangle. The armature is made out of found wire for the structure and purchased wire for the “joints.” It’s linear qualities are geometric, while also being a bit organic. I was inspired by Andy Goldsworthy when I saw him putting together twigs in a similar pattern. The wire that I used is sort of mimicking how the twigs looked. I wanted to stick with straight lines and not use any curves for that reason. I also didn’t try to have the wire perfectly straight. I straightened it to the point where it was straight, but still has some bends in it to give it more of that organic look. The wire that is used for the joints is also messy for the same reason.

For the skin I wanted something that would be transparent so you could see all the lines and shapes that the wire makes. So I used clear plastic wrap. To apply the plastic wrap to the wire, I actually used clear finger-nail polish. I used this because I knew that when it dries it hardens and I knew the plastic wrap would stick to the wire that way. I also used the clear nail polish on some of the joints as well to keep the wire in place. I pulled the plastic wrap somewhat tight to the wire, but not extremely tight. I wanted some little crinkles and what not so it wouldn’t look extremely neat. The armature is the same way, not perfect and neat and that’s why I wanted the skin to be this way. To me it gives it the organic feel, by the materials just coming together how they are and not being perfect. To give the plastic wrap the look it has I also used a silver nail polish. I painted it on in uneven and messy strokes to give it this look.

I arrived at my final structure without even knowing what it was going to look like. I didn’t have a set plan I was following and so I could use trial and error to put it all together. I had my original sketch of just putting wires together however I felt they looked the best and I just progressed as I went. I started with pieces, then connected them and realized that the triangles made were the easiest and most sturdy shape in the armature. So I decided to make the whole thing one triangle. I also liked that I had this strong shape in my piece, but the sculpture as a whole is quite delicate. After I added my skin to all complete triangles, and painted the plastic wrap, I was finished. It can sit on any side and be moved around to see a different view each time.

Okay so that's mine. I was really impressed with everyone else's too. Everyone's looked different. I really like how all of us had the exact same assignment and not one person came up with the same idea. It just shows how different everyone thinks. I noticed in my section, everyone mostly used curvilinear lines instead of geometric shapes. There were just a few of us that used the geometric shapes. I thought that was kind of interesting. Almost everyone also used wire as their armature, but a few used other things such as glass, wood, aluminum, that's all I can remember.

I thought the critique went well. Everyone just commented on how they liked certain aspects of the person being critiqued's structure. We did have a little lecture about being polite and saying positive comments due to someone at Ellen Scott's lecture last week. Everyone seemed to genuinely like everyone else's too so I don't think it was hard to come up with nice things to say. I can't even come up with my favorite structure because I thought they were all really good and very different. Everyone had good qualities that I liked. One thing that was different, or hard, was to talk about my own piece. I really don't like talking about my work in front of people because I become self-conscious and worry if everyone will like it or not. I realize that everyone is not going to like everyone's and so that is okay. I am still going to have to get used to this part of the class though. I guess it's good to have to do it, if i'm going to be majoring in art.

January 7-Superbowl Sunday

So today was the Superbowl...obviously. I'm not a huge football fan, but my boyfriend is so inevitably I have to watch it. Because he loves it and I like it, but am not crazy about it, I end up going for the same teams that he loves. Unfortunately his team, Greenbay, didn't make it, neither did his favorite player's team, The Vikings. Because of that we didn't really care who won this game, but I started rooting for the Saints, in the beginning, because it was their first time being in the Superbowl and I always like that. They ended up winning too! (My team always wins). We made some yummy guacamole, delicious chocolate cupcakes with the confetti frosting (my favorite!), ordered some pizza and had soda...this day is meant for unhealthy food!

This last summer I worked for APX, it's an alarm company that my boyfriend works for, and we actually get to go on a cruise with the company leaving this next Friday! (Eating unhealthy reminded me of this, because we'll be doing a lot of that on the trip and need to work out a lot this week!) I'm sooo excited! It's a free cruise to Jamaica and Haiti. I know, I'm going to be one of those vacationers on the beach in Haiti, that didn't get ruined, while there's so much devastation going on there. Our trip has been booked for a long time and so there was nothing we could do about the earthquake situation. We're cruising with Royal Caribbean and one of their port-of-calls is Labadee, Haiti. There was a lot of controversy whether or not they should keep going there with everything that happened, but they decided to keep going. The cruise line has helped by bringing supplies, people and money to the country. The leaders of the country encouraged them to keep coming to help stimulate the economy there, and if you think about it there's suffering in all poor countries, it's just that Haiti has suffered more because of this natural disaster. I still feel kind of guilty for going, but it's a free cruise and so what can we do!? I think we actually got an e-mail saying that if you want you can help with relief work somehow while we're there, so that would actually be really cool. Labadee is also on the north end of Haiti, away from the capital and area that was completely ruined. I'm really interested to see what it will be like and what kind of experiences we'll have there. We're also going to Jamaica, which i'm very excited for. I've honestly been craving these beaches!


This will be me! haha..


..and this will be one of my favorite parts, watching the sunset go down over the water every night! Whether we're on the beach, or on the ship, it will be amazing!


On a different subject, i'm getting really close to being done with my structure for class Tuesday. I started adding my skin, which is a lot harder than I thought. I'm using silicon and it's not as easy to work with as I imagined. I think the way i'm using it is going along with my whole structure though. It's kind of messy and "organic" in a way, even though i'm using metal and what not. I want it to be that way though. I usually am a perfectionist and like things very neat and not messy at all, but with this assignment it's different. It's been really hard for me not to just change to something that will be perfect looking, but it's been a challenge to try something different, and I like it. I need to write my artist statement still too. I think i'm going to title my piece either, "Triangles" or something along the lines of that. I made different triangle shapes, not really on purpose, but there ended up being quite a few of them in my structure, so those are the shapes i'm using to add my skin to. I'm leaving everything else empty. I hope it all works out and i'll have to put a picture on here of the finished product!