Blog Post #4

In the first half of the semester we started off doing a lot of reading and then transitioned into actually drawing and having art projects. Most of the articles we read had to do with time. There were a couple from What is Time, which gave some very interesting perspectives on our perception of time and how it affects our lives. Some of the points made were pretty difficult to grasp but overall it was an interesting read because it did make me think about how our perception of time affects us. It made me look as time as something different than it just being there because our time was created. We had many small drawing exercises, some having to do with time, some having to do with the study of form, and some having to do with synaesthesia. I thought that the drawing exercises were challenging but fun. I had an especially hard time trying to draw what a song sounded like, but I liked the challenge and it was a different way to think about what one hears. Overall, I found the drawing exercises really helpful.

The topic I found most interesting was the portrayal of motion, and with that the development of film. This goes with our current project of making a flip book or an animation because we are creating the illusion of movement through still frames. I was really interested in the early films we watched by the Lumiere brothers and especially the ones by Georges Melies. The incorporation of a modern song into The Infernal Cakewalk made it more fun to watch and actually fit well with the choreography. I watched several other of his films and I found them mesmerizing. The costumes and creepy masks and the style of the films are intriguing and I love that his films had a lot of fantasy and magic in them. I also found the different effects he used to trick the audience amusing. One of his other films that I watched was A Trip to the Moon and I immediately recognized it from the music video for “Tonight, Tonight” by Smashing Pumpkins, because their video is based on the film. I was always fascinated by the music video when I was young because it was so magical and the look of it was like an early film because its supposed to look like an early film and I think thats why I am so interested in his films. 

  The three artists that I am interested in researching are Chuck Close, Alexis Rockman, and Robert Rauschenberg. In my art class last year, we looked at some of Chuck Close’s work and learned a bit about his life. Even after being paralyzed, he continues to make art and his process has changed so much over time. Like Close, we did large-scale fingerprint portraits of ourselves in the class and in a way, it felt like I had a lot more control over what I was doing. I became interested in Alexis Rockman last spring when I visited the Smithsonian Art Museum and there was an exhibition, A Fable for Tomorrow, of his work. I was immediately grabbed by the intensity of his color and the subject matter. Many of the paintings addressed environmental issues and nature. I especially loved his paintings of weather. I am interested in Robert Rauschenberg because I like the kind of hectic look to what I’ve seen of his work and I don’t really know anything about him or his work. I’ve always thought that what are called his “combines” look interesting.