Artist # 6 Gian Lorenzo Bernini

I'm taking art history 102 and we just learned a little about Bernini's sculptures. We were first shown this picture and asked what it was we were looking at.
People in the class were saying, a thigh, an embrace, a hand, etc. and then someone said a sculpture. When they said that, I was thinking, "no it's not." Then we learned it was in fact a sculpture by Bernini. I was amazed at the detail and realness of it. What amazes me the most is that these artists could make such masterpieces in the 17th century. Back then the artists would study under someone starting when they're young and then develop their own styles. Art is their entire life. It's so different now. We study art, but i'm sure it's nothing like the way they studied it to make what they made. They were so talented and could make these sculptures with what they had. Everything else develops as time goes, but this kind of art hasn't seem to have gotten better. We're still studying art from thousands of years ago, it was so good. Anyways, here is the rest of this sculpture.
The title is The Rape of Proserpina. Bernini is famous for the moments he chose to depict in his sculptures. He chose the moments that were most dramatic. Here you have Proserpina struggling to try and get away from Pluto. Bernini is also famous for his movement in his sculptures. Here you see the twisting and moving in the struggle between the two. Some other sculptures by Bernini are shown here.


This is Bernini's version of David. It's much different than Michelangelo's version. Again Bernini chose the moment that shows the most drama. David is winding up to throw that first rock at Goliath. It gives so much movement that it is not only contained in this small space, but uses the space around it. When I look at it, I just imagine him to throw the rock and picture him releasing it.

Here is Apollo and Daphne

Bernini also did some architecture as well. His architecture incorporated sculpture as well. In St. Peter's cathedral he constructed this giant Baldachin for the main altar. You look at it and can't really tell how big it is, but it's about eight stories high. It's huge. Bernini was so talented and anyone can see when viewing his work. It is argued whether or not he or Michelangelo is the master of sculpture. I haven't learned enough to really have an opinion, but I do like Bernini's work.

Progress

I was excited to get going on my book today in class, but I forgot to bring pictures to look off of to draw. I need certain pictures of a truck, train, house, etc. so I can draw the different things I need for La Grande. I was able to plan out how I want it to look and the order I want everything in. I tested my white pencil and marker on the black paper to see how it will look since i'm drawing it all white. I will add red to the chair of course, and I figured out how I can do that as well. After that I couldn't really do anything so I went and looked at the artwork in the library then went home to look at the pictures. I drew some outlines of everything so I know how to draw it onto the actual paper and as of now I'm ready to start making it. The drawing is what will take the longest I think because i'm trying to use one continuous piece of paper so all I will have to do is attach it to my houses. I think it will turn out how I want and I'm excited to see the finished product.

Japanese Student Work

Some of the Japanese students who are visiting have a display of their work on the second floor of the library. I walked up and was expecting a room or something to display the work, but it's right in the hallway. At first I walked right past it, then noticed there were pictures up on the wall. There was also a weird "sculpture" (i'm not sure what to call it) set up before the hallway. It was what look like some kind of mop sculpted hanging on the wall, then I think there was a chair or a desk with the legs painted pink with a little tv painted pink and a pink cord plugged into the wall. I didn't get it at all.

I really liked the drawings. If I remember right there were two series of faces. Both done by Takeda Hiroki, with no title. It said they were done with watercolor pen. They are drawings of different faces making different expressions, but because of the watercolor, they are done with color. It gave them a really cool effect. They were all very realistic, but colorful. All of them had some kind of nature incorporated into them as well. The first series had vines or something like that with heart shaped leaves I think. That's what I saw anyways. The second series all had a small flower somewhere on the face. I really liked the one with the flower on the tongue. I have never seen drawings like those using the color so I really liked it.

Book

The class got the new assignment last Thursday, (I think). We might have been introduced to it before, but really got into it on Thursday. In lab we were able to look through books and try out the accordion fold with paper. I didn't really know what I was going to do yet, but once I started making lists I started to get ideas. In the handout we got in class, there were ideas of what you could go off of. We were to make three lists from those prompters, or ones of our own. Here are the lists I made:
Creation:
-The World
-Oceans
-Mountains
-Heaven and Earth
-Man
-Woman
-Plants
-Animals

Things That Are Round:
-World
-Clock
-Coins
-Color Wheel
-Ball
-Smiley Face
-Sun
-Moon
-Eye Ball
-Marble
-Hole

After I made those two lists I began to look through the 500 series book of books. I saw some that I liked, but I was drawn to one that opened up and was a city skyline. I tried thinking of a way I could do that. Boise isn't that big and doesn't have much of a skyline, and nothing else would really mean anything to me, so I thought of La Grande, my hometown. The only thing was that La Grande is way smaller than Boise, so it definitely doesn't have a skyline. I couldn't really think of anything in class, but over the weekend i remembered a list about La Grande that was made.

Some friends made a list on Facebook titled: You Know You Lived in La Grande When... I thought that I could use pieces of this list into making my "skyline" of La Grande. Here is the list:
1. You hang out at Denny's and know your waiter personally
2. You watch ads for churches before the movie at the movie theater
3.You can hear the train from your house
4.You've wondered what it would be like to sit in the Red Rocking Chair
5.You've walked from one side of town to the other without much difficulty
6. You've gone swimming in the river
7.You went or have taken classes from EOU
8.You've been to more than 1 church service in a day
9.You've seen random parades downtown
10.Half of your friends own a truck
11.The stoplights start blinking after 11
12. You've driven to Cove, Elgin, Or Imbler because you have nothing better to do
13. Your wardrobe consists of JC Penny's or Maurices?

...there were a few more, but ones I knew wouldn't work for the assignment. I decided that I was going to take certain things from this list and make it into an accordion fold like the skyline book I saw. I decided on doing Denny's, Ads of churches (or just churches in general because there are a lot of them for how small La Grande is), hearing the trains, trucks, and stoplights. In between I might at trees (because there are also a lot of them) and houses, (because La Grande is so small there are houses in the middle of everything).

Today I went to the dollar store to try and find supplies. I wanted to use black paper as my pages of the book, then use white pencil or something to outline these things. I want to do it that way because that is sometimes how skylines are portrayed, and I want this to portray La Grande. I know that no one else in the class will really get it because they're not from La Grande. It's more personal to me and my background. Anyways, I couldn't find any regular black paper, but there were big black poster boards. They were really thin, almost like card stock, so I thought they would work. I'll just cut them to whatever size and shape. I was walking through and isle with picture frames and came across ones that would work perfect for my cover and end of my book. They're picture frames in the shape of a house. I thought it was perfect for making a book about a town. I can put the title, or picture, whichever I choose in the picture frame also. The trick part is going to be attaching the paper to it and having it stay and not look messy. I still need to try out using white pencil on the black to see how well that will look. I think the only color I want for it is the yellow in the stoplight, the red rocking char, and the green in the trees. I'm not sure if the green in the trees is necessary or not though.

One thing that i've been debating is whether I should add the words or not. Just looking at it you won't get the exact words out of it if you don't know La Grande. At the same time, if you were from La Grande and saw this book, you would think, oh exactly! That's La Grande. I need to decide exactly what I want the book to say. If I do add the words I think i'll add them on one side. (I'm planning on having this book double sided. So you see the same thing on both sides). With the words on one side, you would read exactly what came from the list. On the other side, you would have just the image. I kind of like that idea, it will just depend on how much I can do in the time we have. This project is due on Tuesday, which doesn't give us much time. I hope it turns out how I pictured it and everything works.