Self portraits.

1. Why did you pick these three inspiring pieces? 

A. Nude self portrait w palette- Richard Gerstl 
I chose this image because I liked that he wasn't not afraid to depict himself naked and I also like the style of his painting. The brush strokes have a great sense of texture as well that really adds to the painting.

B. Paul Guillaume, Novo Pilota by Amedeo Modigliani

I chose this image because it is really interesting to look at. It really is not all that detailed but to me, it is really realistic and i love the chiseled look he has. The way the whole face was executed is really good. Definitely is one of my favorite portraits.

                                   

          

  C. Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with small monkey 1948                  

I chose this image because Frida is the QUEEN of portraits. Her portraits have really good meanings and everything about this woman i love.

2. Why did you select the media you did to create your self-portrait? Ii chose pencil because it is the easiest media to manage. It does not create a big mess and it does not require a lot of effort to fix mistakes.

3. What challenges did you face in creating your self-portraits and how did you overcome them? The main challenge I had and will always have when creating a self-portrait is trying to make them realistic and to be honest, I will never overcome it. I am too much of a perfectionist to ever be satisfied with a portrait.

4. How does this piece represent you? The only way it represents me is because it has my hairstyle and piercings. It shows some of the qualities that I have.

5. What elements and principles did you use in this work? I tried to use proportion and minimal value to show separations and shadow.

6. Did you enjoy working on this project? It was alright. I am not a huge fan of portraits and would rather have just used one from the past but I guess that would defeat the purpose of the project. However, I think I did an okay job.

7. What did you think of your final artwork? It definitely isn’t as realistic as I was hoping it would but it’s alright. It is not the greatest of the many portraits I have done but not the worst either. 

                          

Questions about the course.

1. Which assignments did you enjoy working on the best? Why?  Ii enjoyed working on the gallery visit #1 project because a lot of the pieces provoked a lot of thought and some even resonated with me on a personal level so Ii am lad I had the chance t talk about it. 

2. Which assignments did you enjoy the least? Why?  The assignment that I enjoyed the least was probably the one where we had to make the mask. I always have a hard time coming up with good projects that have to be 3D. I definitely would have enjoyed drawing the mask rather than creating it especially because my final sketch was way better than my final mask outcome. 

3. How did you enjoy using Blackboard?  Blackboard to me is great because it puts everything so perfectly into select categories so that you know exactly where to go and what to do. 

4. What is you opinion of the discussion groups in this course?  To be honest, I didn't really enjoy all of them. I feel as though they required just as much work as the actual assignments and with it being in another file, I found it hard to remember to do them. 

5. Did you participate in any of the extra credit projects in previous modules? If so, what was your opinion of them?  I thought that the extra credits were really good and they were good topics. I really wish that I had realized there was one for a mandala because I would have enjoyed that one a lot. 

6. If you had the opportunity to change this course: 

A. What would you keep? I would keep the art projects, it made the course fun even though  I had a hard time with some of them. 

B. What would you remove? I would not completely remove but just limit the amount of art projects that we are required to watch. 

C. What would you add? I don't think that I would add anything, to be honest. 

7. Would you recommend this course to your peers? I definitely would. Especially because it not only is a writing class but an art class as well. Having both in one is way better than just having one.

8.  No questions or comments. 

Reflection of AED 200.

1. What were your expectations for this course and were they met?  My main expectation was to enjoy this class considering it is the first class I am taking in Art Ed. I can honestly say that my expectations were met because after taking this course I have finally made the choice to switch Art Education as my major, Yay!!

2. Now that you have been through this course, what is art? How would you define it now compared to your initial posting?  I would say now that "Art" is definitely way more than showing you capabilities but more so now a way of life, in which one can show the way they think and express who they are at heir own free will, a way of expressing yourself more as an individual rather than just an artist. Your art is more of a visual representation of yourself.

3. Who was your favorite artist in your original posting? And who is your favorite visual artist now? My favorite artist at the beginning of the semester was Gustav Klimt and to be honest, it has not changed at all. This is because Gustav has a specific way with his art that no other artist really has. His work is just so appealing to me and I have a weird connection with his work that I haven't been able to feel with any other artist.

4. Now that you have completed this course, how do you feel about taking an online course? Is your answer the same as it was in your initial posting? How is it the same or different? Now that  I have taken this course, I definitely would take another. It gives you the chance to move at your own pace and to be more hands on and although, it may have been a lot of work, in my opinion, it was still pretty doable.

Art Analysis Project.

1. Describe the artwork in detail. The painting is in tones of white, grey and black, It shows a woman in agony holding what i assume to be her dead child in her arms, a bull and a horse that are dis-mangled, a man that is also dis-mangled at the bottom of the painting holding  sword in his right hand, a woman that is on the top right that holds a lamp up to a light bulb. And a man or woman in the top right flailing their arms up above their head as they stand in a building that is full of flames. The painting not only shows mass destruction but a sense of situations that follow it.

2. What processes where use to create this work?  The beginning process was just a series of primary sketches that were reshaped multiple times , he had then stretched a canvas and began laying things out. He also initially added color, pattern and texture that was later removed because color took away the impact this work needed to get the point across.

3. What is the relationship to this work to the time and society in which it was created? Describe symbols used to express this relationship. The painting is a visual representation of the bombing in Guernica  in northern Spain.  This painting helped bring world wide attention to the Spanish civil war. Symbols used that described the tragedies of the bombing are burning buildings, a mother holding her dead child in agony, many wounded and dismembered humans and animals. A huge symbol in this piece is a woman holding a lit lamp up to a light bulb which is meant to symbolize hope.

4. Identify elements in the work that evoke a persuasive or emotional response. Be specific about what those responses are and why.   The use of white, grey and black are meant to evoke the mood of pain and chaos because if the piece had color, you wouldn't think of it as being a sad or depressing time in history. If you look closely on the painting, there is news print toward the bottom middle of the painting that express how Picasso learned of this disaster.

5. Evaluate what you perceive as strengths and weaknesses of the work.  I feel as though the execution of the painting is a very huge strength to this piece. The fact that it has hidden symbols and is disorganized to symbolize it's chaos is what truly adds to the meaning of this piece. I honestly don't think it has any weaknesses.

Project 4.

All of the pieces in my Art Exhibition project fit the theme of symbolism because they all have a specific things going on in each that represent something, that mean something to the artist and potentially, the viewer as well.

This project was fun actually. I expected it to be much more difficult than it was. I tried to arrange the images in a way where, the colors and the styles were all very similar so that way, although the artists may be different, they all could come together to be seen as one. Same thing with the similarities in brush strokes and value or constant. To me my exhibition seems to go fairly well together but at the same time can probably be seen as two different Exhibitions combined. However I guess that's is up to the viewer to bedside if they see that as well or if they see it as a whole. Over all, I really enjoyed this project.

Module 13 and 14 - Video review

The lowdown on lowbrow: West Coast pop art

1. Key concepts learned: I learned that lowbrow means a person regarded as uncultivated and lacking in taste. I also didn't know that lowbrow involved pinups, porn and hot rods.

2. Does the video relate to the creation  of your Art Exhibition project? Yes, no, why? This video doesn't relate to my project in any way because my project doesn't involve anything that would be considered "Lowbrow" art.

3. Opinion on the film: I found it very interesting that Artist Robert Williams "invented" the term but he doesn't care for the meaning. I almost wonder if that's what he intended for it to mean.


BBC Culture show , Tate modern is 10. 

1. Key concepts learned: I honestly did not know anything about Tate Modern or it's existence so this was all fairly new to me but some key things that I learned were that this museum is usually filled with live performance and interaction. That it is for a more standard society.

2. Does the video relate to the creation of your Art Exhibition Project? Yes, no, why? This video relates to my project because many of the images, like in this film, can be misinterpreted if the artist can not really get their point across without an artist statement or explanation of the work.

3. Opinion on the film: It was interesting when they kept referring to "Tate" as though they were referring to a human being rather than a museum. I just expected to see more in the museum since they say it's so popular but there really wasn't much. However, some of the explanations they gave from some pieces were really mind blowing and I, myself, wouldn't have even known some of their true meanings.



An acquiring mind; Philippe de Montebello and the metropolitan

1. Key concepts learned: I can honestly say the whole video taught me something. I didn't know about anything in the video or anything about this museum either.

2. Does the video relate to the creation of your Art Exhibition Project? Yes, no, why? This video didn't really go along with my Art Exhibition. The topics in the video were very different than the topic in my exhibition.

3. There were a lot of pieces that I found very interesting that I have nvere even seen nor heard of. The video was very good, I also find it interesting that one individual says "Knowledge is what makes a museum work, it is what's most valuable. I am not sure if I would really agree with that.

Module 12 - Video review

Hockney on Photography: 

1. Why'd you chose this video? I chose this video because Photography has always been a huge interest of mine and I happen to know nothing about Hockney so I am just interested to learn what the video has to teach me.

2. Key concepts learned: I learned that Hockney uses Photography as though it is painting because the decisions usually made in his photography are the same for painting. Ii learned about his unique style in gridding his portraits and creating images within images which i thought was super creative!

3. To me, the only way the text really related to the video was by the term "photo-realism." I say this because the term means you're painting or drawing from a photograph. In the video, instead of continuing to grid portraits and add images to images, he began painting his photographs and incorporating both into one image or piece of art, which was also really cool.

4. Opinion on the film? His ideas are quite different than anything I have ever seen. I haven't seen someone take a photograph and do the things that I have now seen him do. His explanations were also very interesting to hear. His imagination is one that i have never seen before and for that, he is an amazing artist. I also lie how he said that an image or painting can make you feel a specific way when in reality, your idea can be warped and the meaning can be something totally different.

Andy Warhol: Images of an image:

1. Why'd you chose this video? In high school, everyone seemed to love Warhol and I never was really fond of him so I chose this video to see if it could change my mind now that I am in college.

2. Key concepts learned: I never knew that he didn't have the dream to be an artist, he had the dream of being a tap dancer. I also didn't know that the screen prints of Marilyn made him famous.I also didn't know that he used specific events from mainly, important women during that time for his work.

3. Both the video and the text talk about his love for screen printing and how he turned his home into the "Factory" where he spent a lot of time creating these works,

4. As silly as this sounds, I didn't know Warhol's work was done by screen printing. I had just learned to do it before Ii graduated high school and I absolutely loved it so it was pretty cool to see Warhol doing it in the video. The video honestly showed me new ways to screen print. The video has honestly made my change how I feel about Warhol.