Final Exam January 5th 2016

For the postmodern principle project, I chose to do appropriation as my art piece. The way I incorporated this principle was by putting my own colorful style into a painting of a famous monument, the Taj Mahal. I used a variation of colors, textures, and values in order to make the painting look bright and appealing. One contemporary artist that I'd taken inspiration from for this project was Leonid Afremov. Afremov's paintings are especially appealing to me because he chooses to use extremely bright and colorful paints, making the painting look even more attractive. The other aspect that I took inspiration from was his use of texture. In almost all of his paintings, Leonid Afremov has a certain technique that he uses for either the trees, sky, people, buildings, and roads. This technique creates an interesting visual effect for a painting that is just depicting an ordinary scene in a park or the streets of a small town. I somewhat demonstrated the same stippling technique for the sky and grass. In fact, many viewers have already told me that the Taj looks like it's on fire. I purposely wanted to create a completely different outlook for this project because it brought more interest for a monument that people are so use to seeing; and with the colors and textures of the painting, I was successful doing so. I grew as an artist by taking inspiration from Leonid Afremov. I not only took inspiration of his use of colors, but I made my own style for the stippling technique that he uses in his paintings. In most of Afremov's paintings, you will see how the brush strokes are vertical, almost square-like shaped. However, in my painting, I adapted this technique into my own style and used a circular motion with the paintbrush; therefore, making the background look more "explosive-looking". My growth as an artist is mostly centered around discovering my own style. I realized that I really enjoy colorful paints, and therefore made another project with various colors as well. My other project was the Teens-Inspired piece which had us take inspiration from a piece in the art museum. I again used my colors, however now I used them on a face. The important aspect of this painting was the geometric-look of the face. Instead of doing the same smooth and stippling effect I used in the Taj Mahal painting, I chose to use the colors in a different perspective. I realized the face looks more "futuristic" with the geometric shapes painted throughout the face. I also played around with the colors for the hair and eyes, making the whole theme of the painting to be abstract. Although I still used Leonid Afremov's colorful aspects, I didn't use his paintings as a big reference or inspiration for this project. However, this artist certainly allowed me to discover my style of painting in the first place, eventually making my projects more unique and personal. Therefore, my understanding as an artist has changed from taking simple, basic inspirations into very large and creative adaptations.

Printmaking project

One thing you've never got the chance to say?

-I am extremely proud of my brother, and will forever stand by his side. 

My project was based on my feelings for my brother, and therefore I chose to make a heart of infinity signs. I used the linoleum block to carve out the infinity sign, painted it black, and then made the shape of a heart using printmaking skills. I also wanted to do a silhouette of some sort, so I decided to paint my brother and I. I made it a point for my figure to be a little ahead, and with my head turned towards him because I wanted to represent the guidance I give for my brother. This project was less of a technique-based project, and more of an emotional one, that I think is respective towards each person's personal feelings; so I made sure I did something that was more personal and mysterious for people to be unknown to. 

Art Museum

1. I liked this piece because it reflects a lot of rush, confusion, and color. My personal style is based on lots of bright colors and emotion, therefore I was most attracted to this creative artwork. I also like how the majority of the splashes of paint are concentrated on one side of the painting. Also, the bright, neon background adds emphasis to the emotion and color. I admire the numerous types of brush strokes that vary between thick and thin lines of paint. Although this piece is just splotches of paint, there is something unique and beautiful about the aggression of how the paint is applied.













2. I particularly didn't see anything in this painting that could be interesting or creative. I admit that the technique was interesting since it was done through his "soak-stain" paint style, however the design itself was very ordinary. I feel if the artist made a unique design through his soak-stain technique, then the piece would appear much more impressive and impactful.











3. "Eh Piece": I liked this piece because the color pink contrasted nicely with the tan shade of the pots. I also liked the shapes of the pots considering that these were made a long time ago. However, I felt that they were very common or ordinary looking. I wouldn't have been attracted to it even now because I'm used to seeing theses traditional pieces from various countries. I feel that a common pottery-maker could easily replicate this design, therefore making this piece a little boring and common.

Best Art Store Doesn't Sell Art Supplies

I felt that this article was helpful in learning how to incorporate different, natural materials into art. I initially was never really interested in creating art that was made out of non-traditional materials like pennies, stones, seeds, etc. because I always thought it was hard to come up with a unique idea. However, after reading this article, I'm now more exposed to different and random materials that could actually end up being a fantastic art piece. Also, I always felt that a lot of artists who choose to do art with non-traditional supplies tend to make art pieces on a much larger scale. But with the examples of the smaller-scale materials, I started to understand different uses for these projects. I thought the hardware and garden store materials really helped in triggering art students into recognizing unusual resources for artistic uses. 

Postmodern Principles

My project was a painting of the Taj Mahal based on the principle of appropriation. I took a famous monument that is actually completely white in real life, and made it my own by adding a a
variety of colors such as purple, pink, yellow, green, blue, turquoise, black, orange, red, etc. The medium I used was acrylic paint, and was painted on a 3ft by 2ft canvas. I used appropriation by adding more colors for the sky, building, and landscape, which makes it my own colorful way of perceiving the Taj Mahal. The reason I chose appropriation was because I needed to work on creating ideas of my own with my own with no inspiration whatsoever. Therefore, I took the painting as my own and randomly splattered color on the canvas thinking that it'll eventually look somewhat like the Taj. This was a tedious and long process, but I enjoyed doing something different and took it as a challenge.

Olivia Gude

I feel the use of postmodern principles is important to know as an art student, however I don't agree that you have to study art textbooks in order to make great art. In that way, art is one of those subjects that doesn't require a specific curriculum because it's eventually up to the artist and how they would want to interpret their artwork. There are many art pieces in the world that have no connection to any one of the postmodern principles yet still worth millions. Also, I feel that artists have these principles within their artwork without even knowing it. Therefore, I believe that these principles are known to be just general ideas rather than specific vocabulary words for a student to study and be tested on.

My favorite postmodern principles would be appropriation and layering. I feel with technology advancing its way into works of art, many artists have adopted different ways of making art a lot more interesting. For example, with appropriation, there are tons of ideas you could create since it's just a combination of multiple types of art styles; therefore your options are limitless. I also agree that a lot of people create art based on their environment like with the example of living in the woods, which can also be an example of appropriation. I also like layering because it's more technological-based. I like the fact that you can layer piles of different art styles on top of each other to eventually create a whole new piece. It's also a fun way to incorporate photography into art. 

Essential Question Project 10/2

For my project, I chose the word "beauty". At first, I wanted to do a portrait of a young, beautiful woman but eventually changed my idea to do something completely different. My question changed to "How has beauty evolved?"; so I decided to do an evolution of makeup from the 1920s to the present day, 2015. There were 4 distinct looks that I chose to do on my model, Carissa Ayers. We then took photographs of each look and I put them on a powerpoint slideshow with descriptions of each look.
    I wanted to do this project because a lot of people underestimate makeup, or cosmetics, to be a kind of art. Many techniques we learn in class can also be applied to the human face; like contouring, shading, value, lines, color, etc. By researching about the different styles of makeup, I applied certain eyeshadow colors, foundation colors, and variations of lines on her face.

1990s

2015

1970s

1920s

The 1920s look: Flapper

• Bright red lipstick
• Defined, thick top eyeliner, minimal bottom eyeliner
• Long eyelashes
• Thick, dark eyebrows
• Heavily white, powdered face
• Rosy pink cheeks
• I also pulled her hair back and teased it in order for hair to have the '20s "puff look"

    The 1970s look: Disco

• prominent blue eyeshadow with bright purple eyeshadow on the creases
• winged eyeliner; heavy mascara 
• hot pink/magenta lipstick with pink lipgloss 
• lots of pink blush on the cheekbones 
• added a glittery hairband to represent the colorful, shiny look from the 1970s

    The 1990s look: Grunge

• fully covered black eyeshadow above and below the eyelids; silver eyeshadow in the creases
• thick, intense black winged eyeliner on top and bottom
• minimal mascara
• thick, dark eyebrows
• lots of concealer for bright, white skin
• Dark lips: dark maroon shade 
• No blush; just a little bronzer for contours on her cheekbones
• septum piercing; beanie; choker
• pin-straight hair

     The 2015 look: Modern

• Heavy contouring of the face: tan-colored foundation used on cheekbones, jawline, forehead line, and nose
• navy blue and orange smokey eye 
• thinner eyeliner
• heavy mascara
• nude lipstick/lipgloss
• bronzer and minimal blush on cheeks
• tight, high bun w/ shiny silver earrings