Katelyn Fagan Art

Indianapolis Museum of Art

2012-06-18T14:15:00.001-04:00

I finally did - I finally went and walked around the Indianapolis Museum of Art or IMA. I went on Friday with my Activity Day group of girls and their dads. We invited them to have a special daddy-daughter date at the museum in celebration of Father's Day. And the girls loved it! The dad's also especially enjoyed it. Many of our group had never been before, which adds a nice touch.

I LOVED the 2nd floor collections. There was a large Renaissance/Religious art exhibit which I thought was really cool, as well as a collection of Dutch painters, and more. Seriously sweet. I was geeking out a little bit, not going to lie. We checked out the African exhibit and then all of the contemporary art exhibits, which most of the group "didn't get." And though I have studied some of the works on display there, like Donald Judd's Untitled, and Kara Walkers' They Waz Nice White Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another) or the type of media, like video and audio art, I too don't always "get" contemporary/modern art, because I just don't buy into the ideas that everything is art/beautiful/worth our study.

The museum was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be! I didn't even get to look at everything, nor the chance to explore the 100 Acres or the Lilly House.

I'm pretty sure that I will be returning to this museum again.

Prepped to Paint

2012-04-30T10:55:00.004-04:00

I have indeed been keeping up with doing art, though it hasn't been everyday. However, I now have my drawing mapped out onto my canvas and am just waiting for some painting supplies from Utretch to show up in the mail soon! I am very excited! Sorry about not posting pictures yet, there's just not much to see so far. But, I promise pictures will come! My reference pictures is this one:

Like it?

What have you been working on lately?

Starting up again

2012-04-21T20:53:00.000-04:00

I guess I've taken a break over the last few months from art. While I still have in my possession the painting on glass piece I still have yet to touch it, and I think it will probably stay that way. I do believe it's a goner, or at least I am not willing to learn how to reverse paint on glass when I'll have to repaint a whole big picture. It's just too much and not in my expertise.

And I'm supposed to be starting a drawing from an old friend from high school of her and her boyfriend, but we haven't hammered out all the details on it yet so I haven't started working on it yet (she wants it done by October). I still have the mixed media map/ship I redid for a friend in my possession as well because we haven't been in contact since the end of last year.

What it boils down to is that I haven't done much of any anything art-related in four months.

Until two days ago that is.

I got out some oil paints and painted! It's an abstract painting of different colored lines. That's it. And it felt great just putting something on canvas again!

And yesterday I picked out a photo I took years ago that I've been wanting to paint for months and started doing prep work for it.

And today I gridded it out.

And I hope tomorrow I might start mapping in the image.

And I hope the day after that I may start painting (or finish mapping the image).

Point is, I hope to do art consistently. If I am lucky my girls will take naps like they are supposed to and I can work uninterrupted for a good 2 hours. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

How do you find time to paint if you are a "part-time" artist? How do you find the motivation to do it consistently?

Reverse Glass Painting with Mother of Pearl - A Restoration Project

2012-03-02T12:44:00.002-05:00

A while ago (about two months now!) I was approached by a friend with a new type of work for me to do, something I don't have the first idea how to do - restore a painting done on glass!

While I told her and her mother that I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to such things, that it didn't really matter since at this point this just have to throw it out, so anything (we'll see..) that I do to fix it will be an improvement. Considering the fact there there are empty spots and flaking paints I hope that I really can't hurt it much more than nature already has.

The front of the reverse painting on glass with mother-of-pearl accents

The back of the reverse painting on glass with mother-of-pearl accents

Before I just start going at it, I figured I should probably do a little research! Here are some of the things I found:

A Helpful guide from Michaels Craft Store found HERE, including which type of acrylic or other paints to use. It also mentions baking the paint/glass. That sounds interesting doesn't it? Not sure if that would help make this painting permanent or not. Also taught me that I should make sure the glass is clean and what to clean it with. Makes me wonder too if the rubbing alcohol will help get some of the paint off that's there already?

On ehow.com they have several different videos and information on painting on glass, projects to do, and more (click HERE to see them all). I found this video to be helpful in knowing what painting supplies I will need:

Painting Glass: Choosing Glass Paints -- powered by ehow

On ehow.com I also found an article about Reverse Painting on Glass (found HERE), which is what this old painting is. You view the art from the front of the glass, but all the paint is on the back of it. It's kind of fun to read about the history of this artistic tradition.

Did you know there are still contemporary glass-painting artists out there today? At Paintingonglass.com Andriy Khomyk makes and creates hundreds of them! I found that what he said about technique and skill in regards to reverse painting on glass to be... well, daunting for a first time-attempter:

THE TECHNIQUE is not such complicated, as it appears to be. The image is carried on glass in exactly the same resulting in unique effects manner as on canvas, paper or wood; but when we look at the image, we look through the glass - which serves both as a support and a protective varnish. Everything is backwards from traditional painting. The working image is on the back of the glass. The viewer looks trough the glass on to the painted layers. Letters, symbols, and images are painted as the mirror image to how they normally read, in order to be correct when the glass is turned over to be viewed. Details or accents which would ordinarily be painted last, are painted first; the background, instead of being painted first, is last. All the details have to be correct as it is not possible to make corrections without destroying the underlying work. When the painting is finished the glass is turned over and displayed with the paint behind the glass. Therefore, three "reverses" take place: the paint is applied in reverse order, the glass is turned over when the painting is completed, and the design or painting is seen in reverse -- that is, the right-hand side of the pattern appears on the left-hand side through the glass. When painting on glass special care must be taken in the selection of the color palette due to the primacy of color. The synergy of paint and glass has a depth and luminousness unlikely in any other medium. Painting on glass is a very time-consuming and difficult handicraft operation. There is no place for a mistake because this what you first paint will always be in the front of the painting and you have no possibility to change it.

In fact I am a little hesitant to even start working on the piece at all because I feel like as soon as I touch it it may start completely falling apart! I found this message board (found HERE) that makes me feel even more that way, especially the last comment that says: "We had a similar piece artwork [an old reverse painting with mother of pearl accents that needed to be restored some] brought to our gallery for repair. I took it to the woman who does our restoration. She wouldn't touch it. She said once they are opened up to air they start deteriorating."

Reverse Painting on Glass close-up leftside

Reverse painting on glass close-up middle

Reverse painting on glass close-up rightside

I also found a painting (found HERE) very much like the one I was given, (maybe even the same artist? what do you think?) that someone had appraised at around $150, but the piece I have is much larger.

It seems that there are a lot of people (see THIS forum) where people are wondering what to do with their in-laws, grandparents old reverse glass paintings and don't know their worth.

I guess the question I have to anyone who might know about these type of works of art is should I even attempt to "fix" this piece?

The people who gave it to me have had it sitting in their garage for years (I believe) and the husband really liked it but now it's un-hangeable since it looks so bad, and therefore, I believe probably has no real value anymore. Should I just do my best? I feel once I start working on it, and getting in there I am going to have to remove more and more of the original painting... Will it be worth my time?

James H. Fullmer - Fellow Artist and Friend

2012-01-10T11:56:00.001-05:00

I find it a great privilege as a new, beginning artist to have a friend who is a professional artist. It's all he does and he supports his wife and four boys doing it. I have known James H. Fullmer, or Jay, for a long time, for more than ten years now I think! He moved to my hometown and was a member of my church. He taught early morning Seminary and did a fantastic job at it.

While I was home for the holidays, I asked him if I could stop by his studio and talk to him a little bit. He showed me some of the stuff he's been working on diligently for the last year for his latest project - The Other Heroes of the Book of Mormon. My parents had a copy of the book at their home and I only had a chance to peruse it during my stay there, but the artwork is of course phenomenal. The stories are exaggerations, but bring the stories and characters from the Book of Mormon into life.

Here's a trailer of the book:

While talking to him I asked him several questions about what he wants to do next, if he was planning on doing art shows, or exhibits, or make/sell prints of his works, etc. He said that much of his works are narrative, illustrations, and not necessarily fit for most people to simply display in their homes, and to get things ready for exhibition/sale (i.e. framing) costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time.

I him if he ever wanted to do stories from the Bible, or depictions of Jesus' life. He said no; he said that his calling, he felt, was to continue painting, depicting, and telling the stories of the Book of Mormon. He then told me how when he first began to paint and do art, he thought and felt that his calling was to paint landscapes and animals, which he painted exceptionally well:

But, later Jay realized that his love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as his love especially of the Book of Mormon, called him and his art in a different direction.

It was these statements that led to a discussion on what I feel my 'calling' as an artist is: and I don't know. Jay asked me if there were no limitations on time or resources, what would I paint or create, and I didn't really have an answer.

The problem I think is that
1. I do have limitations on my time and resources and
2. I often feel comfortable simply doing what I know best - drawing.

I have drawn since a little girl and have developed it quite a bit through the years. I also have always been fascinated with drawing people. I love doing portraits, but lately have enjoyed the still-lifes I have done as well. But, what kind of calling is simply copying a portrait and redrawing it for people all the time? Can you truly call yourself an artist on such grounds? Can you even make a living simply doing that?

Even if I continued to do still-life work, which I take my own reference photos for, and draw, which I enjoy, is there a career or a passion to that for me as well?

The thing about drawing, is that drawing is the fundamental skill of art. It's the first thing you learn. Generally speaking, if you can draw, and draw well, you will be a better artist in whatever medium you chose to create in. Which means, perhaps my future as a life-long artist is not simply in pencil and charcoal.

I really would like to explore mediums more, like paints, and really start to figure out what I enjoy. What brings me the most satisfaction? What is my calling as an artist, as a Christian artist?

When I think about art I would someday like to create and sell and be proud to call mine and that is original, I do think it would have a religious context, though perhaps not overtly religious (i.e. not Jesus hanging on the cross). I think creating works that depict human happiness, love, joy, and hope would suit me. I love families and marriage. I love children. I love the simple pleasures of life. I once had an art professor say that we should not depict the difficulties of life in our art, but the ideal, and I like that. We know what the difficulties of life are, what problems there are. Unless we are offering a solution in our work, we aren't truly doing our part of contributing to our society in a positive way. We are artists. We can choose what to depict.

I guess part of the reason I have this blog is so I can share my journey from graduate to artist. I hope everyone will bear with me and encourage me as I discover what I am truly meant to do.

Feel free to follow Jay on his blog HERE or HERE - great for artists!
Click Other Heroes of the Book of Mormon if interested in his new book.

Pencil Portrait of Parents/Grandparents

2011-12-20T23:08:00.000-05:00

I finished the commission for Nancy tonight! Just in time for Christmas! In fact a few days early. It took me nine working days and about 17 hours to complete (I kept track for the first time). This is the second piece Nancy has commissioned from me. Last year for Christmas I drew her daughters. This year she asked me to draw her parents. She sent me four different pictures in the mail, with requests that her mother's glasses be clear, and perhaps take off a few wrinkles.

I did my best to compose a good picture from the ones she gave me, doing a little editing on the computer using Gimp. I, however, did not want her mother to be as washed out as she is in the picture I ended up using for the composition. Flash is such a nasty thing and doesn't make for great portraits - drawn or not! So, I used the other pictures to help me fill in the blanks some. I hope her mom looks like her mother. I think her dad turned out excellent though!

But, what do you think? Do you think I did a good job?

Kids Art Coming to Life!

2011-12-08T13:04:00.000-05:00

One of my friends recently and randomly posted this link on his Facebook wall. Artist Dave Devries took children's artwork and then projected the image onto his canvas, faithfully tracing all the lines and then rendered them realistically. I think his renditions are so great! His collaboration of photos, paintings, and interviews have been compiled into a book called "The Monster Engine."

Here's some of what he's done:

Check out more about his project and art at his website: TheMonsterEngine.com.

Updated Heritage Art

2011-12-04T06:52:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to update this piece I did in high school for my old roommate.

I have been happily working on it and think it's looks much better! I made the watercolor background and sea more bold, and also more consistent. I added color (using colored pencil) to the borders of the map, retraced the ink, and touched up the charcoal boat. I also added a sea serpent and a compass to the map.

I think all of these details really help bring the piece to life. I really like it now and am happy to sell it to my friend. But, what do you think?

A New Commission

2011-11-18T07:20:00.000-05:00

My friend Nancy again wants to hire out my skills! This year for Christmas she wants a drawing of her parents. How sweet! I am excited to work on it and excited to do something for her again. She's also interested in making prints of it to give to her siblings, another awesome gift idea. (and again I need to figure out this "print" thing.)

I have about a month to complete the drawing, so let's hope my life settles down a little bit more so I can devote more time to art. I'm excited!

My Kid Could Paint That: Documentary on Marla Olmstead

2011-11-03T21:15:00.002-04:00

As I was browsing the DVD shelves at the library the other day I cam across the movie "My Kid Could Paint That" a film documentary about the little girl Marla Olmstead who paints abstract paintings and became really famous back in 2004-2005, especially with her 60 minute spotlight which put the authenticity of her paintings into the spotlight.

I remember talking about this little girl in a few of my art classes in college, specifically in my Art Criticism class. We talked about her because that class is all about "What defines art? What is art?" and all that goes along with those questions.

This little girl sold several pieces for thousands upon thousands of dollars by the time she was 5! Does this child really create works of art worth more than many other professional contemporary artists are fetching?

While this movie was not about the art world (which is what I originally thought this movie was about) it does make you think. The movie is really about whether or not you really believe this little girl did all of her paintings by herself or if her dad's coaching was more than "coaching." I have to admit I am skeptical. Some pieces just seemed too balanced, the texture too uniform, the ideas too complete for an innocent pre-schooler to put together. Plus, I get the feeling from the video that the dad is lying?

Here's a little glimspe into the video and Marla:

They have recorded Marla completing two different paintings on film, one that was featured on 60 Minutes, the other by her father at home. Here is the latter one:

It certainly looks like a painting done by a 4 year old right? And so do several of her other works like these:

But some are just too nice it makes us begin to question if they were really done by a 2-5 year old girl. Of course if they are indeed what they claim to be, they are awesome! So, take a look:

Remind you of Jackson Pollock in that one^? Or is that just me?

Don't they look pretty awesome? I mean they revel some great abstract painters of the past and present, like Pollock, Monet! The color choices seem direct, well thought out, planned. The patterns intentional and planned from the beginning (this one will be smudges, this one splashes of paint). The last one is very impressive with its precise repeated pattern.

If Marla did make all of these completely by herself, it is impressive. Makes me think we should give all children abundant painting supplies and pre-stretched canvases and see what they can create when they are uninhibited. I do think that we stifle kids creativity too much with boundaries and limiting assignments. I love that because she is so young when she began that she would not have those inhibitions that even slightly older kids begin to have, often trying to please someone, i.e. a parent, friend or teacher.

Also, if she did in fact make these pieces, what does it say about those currently creating abstract art as professional painters? This is the question I really wished the documentary would have addressed more thoroughly. Does the fact that a little girl can create and sell works at par with a professional artist lessen the work of thousands of artists practicing today? Or is art just art and who created it of no consequence? I believe the artist behind the piece is very important (see my post on Jackson Pollock if you don't believe me). Also, Michael Kimmelman gives a great lesson on modern art and contemporary art that is easy for everyone to understand and isn't so elitist about today's art, which I appreciate. It's in the bonus features.

One of the things brought up in the video (in the bonus features) which I think is important, is that Marla was not making her own canvases. She was not deciding to do a triptych. She was not deciding how big it should be or any of the dimensions. She may not have even selected her own paint colors or brand of paints, or what brushes or other tools she used. These things are important to art because of the implied intentions. While small, it does make a difference. She cannot engage her patrons with talk about her artwork adequately (or at all!). She most likely has help naming them too. Her father has at time even coached her (though I was "coached" frequently as a student in college, but I was still a student, not a professional artist) on where/how to paint.

I guess I bring up these questions to ask if she really is an artist? Or is she really just a little girl painting? Pretty much every working artist has a reason behind their work. A point they want to emulate, often profound, deep, emotional. A very young girl is naive, innocent, pure, uncomplicated. I think seeking deeper meaning into Marla Olmstead's works will have to come solely from the viewer. It is happy circumstance or her mood that day that made things appear the way they do in the final piece. Perhaps as she ages and continue to paint we can find more meaning and intention behind her work.

I really enjoyed watching this documentary and encourage others to watch it. It is very interesting. Plus, Marla is such a cute little girl! But, please tell me what you think about all this?

Finding out how to make a print from my art

2011-10-30T20:49:00.000-04:00

One of my old roommates contacted me about buying a print of one of pieces! It's great news! She really wants a piece I did way back in high school that I put up on my blog under the Paintings Tab.

This one:

It's a good piece, but I didn't want to sell it to her as is. I did it in high school, and don't want my name on a piece of art I am not currently satisfied with, though I do like the concept behind the piece. So, I am now in the process of making it better! I am updating the watercolors and adding a little more detail overall. I guess I wouldn't feel right about selling a piece I did so long ago that I do not currently love. I hope she'll be happy with my new touches. I'll post a picture of it when I have it completely updated.

I think it's a pretty cool piece, personally, with an old map of the United States/Americas, a large charcoal ship coming to the Americas, and bright bold colors and details to draw you in. The theme for the piece was "our heritage." This piece symbolizes my pioneering ancestors. One of my direct ancestors came across on the Mayflower. Many of my forebears settled new areas of the uncharted West (they were Mormons). This piece is emphasizes my heritage.
But, one problem I am running into is that she is interested in a print. I don't know much about getting prints done from original pieces of art. I would want to get a high quality print, or a giclee, I think. They are supposed to be the highest quality print you can get today. However, I don't know how to go about it!

I have begun searching the internet for different companies and their services and fees. This website provided some good tips while comparing printers. A company in Pennsylvania, Crimson Atelier, Inc, seems to have pretty reasonable printing costs, allows for small orders, will scan and proof an original piece at no additional cost, and will keep a proof on hand in case I want to order more. It doesn't seem like too bad of deal. The only big draw back is of course the upfront cost. Will I actually be able to sell more than 5 prints to make up the cost of printing (assuming I charge 2-3 times cost) and make a profit? Do you think this piece is something that several people would want to buy?

My friend is open to buying the original, but doesn't have a huge budget (she's my age after all) so she was interested in how much a print would cost, and so was I. Though I may not actually make a print out of the final image, I may be interested in doing so in the future with other pieces of art that I have created or create in the future.

If you are an artist, who have you used to make prints of your original artworks? Any other things to consider?

Charcoal - Add and Subract Method

2011-10-08T06:08:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share a little about the method I have been using to make most of my charcoal drawings lately. It's an add and subtract sort of method.

First I print off the desired image from my computer as the size I want it. Then I determine where I want the image to fall on my paper and measure accordingly.

Then I take masking tape, rip it to my desired length, and then de-stickafy it on my jeans, sweater, chair, blanket, whatever. But before I stick it down against the border of my paper, I rip a piece of paper to the desired length and width, keeping one side mostly straight. I then stick down the piece of tape right up to the border of my image, but place the paper under the majority of the tape so only a small line of sticky tape is touching the border of the image.

I do that to all four sides of the image. I do this to help me keep clean edges. I put the paper under the tape to protect the paper from being damaged. It seems to work pretty well most of the time. But, if there's better ways of doing this, I would love to know!

Once the border is in place, I shade in the entire area with a light charcoal layer and blend with my finger until even everywhere. I then mark off inch-mark ticks on the tape and draw a very faint charcoal line connecting the marks to create a grid. (I keep the lines light enough so that I can simply smear them out when I am done with the image).

After the grid is in place I often start just lightly drawing in the shape of the image. I like to block most of it out before fleshing it out. I usually measure the placement of the marks against the image I have printed and use my grid to make sure the image is as accurate as possible.

Once the shapes are mostly there I begin filling in the values. I generally work left to right because I am right handed and don't want to smear my work, but I try to keep a piece of paper under my hand while I work too. I like to flesh out an entire area with values and then move on to the next until most of it is complete, but sometimes jump around a lot. Sometimes I also like to start by filling in the darkest values first.

Then after the values, I readjust if areas are too light or too dark. To make an area white, I simply use my kneaded eraser and subtract the value.

Lastly, I add in textures and other small details to make it complete. Once complete, I sign it, take off the tape, clean up the edges if they need to be cleaned up, push down any damaged paper on the edges with a bone folder, and then spray with a fixative outside.

What is your favorite method when using charcoal?

Dry Erase Board

2011-10-07T07:08:00.000-04:00

I may not have a lot of time for art some times, so occasionally the art will show up like this:

A quick doodle of my family. "Daddy" complains that he has "bloody" arms in the drawing. Definitely not my best work, and has since been erased, but fun to add some art to my home and teach my children who's who.

Victor Martinez - Peruvian Watercolor Artist

2011-09-18T12:03:00.001-04:00

Victor Martinez

What inspires an artist? Why does he devote his work to a certain subject matter, depicted in a certain style? Often these questions rise first and foremost to an art viewer’s mind. For Peruvian watercolor artist Victor Martinez, his inspiration comes from the native Andean people of Peru, his home country. He loves how they are still attached to nature and have resisted cultural influences. As he says, they are “people who unintentionally resist being absorbed by the huge process of civilization and who fully exercise their humanity. That is what I try to convey in my work: their simplicity, their direct contact with nature, the peculiar clothes, attractive and full of color, of women whose faces still show candor and joy.” He realistically and sensitively paints these Andean people and their landscapes and seascapes.

Victor Martinez was born in 1932 and grew up in Arequipa, Peru and learned about art at a very young age from his artistic father, Victor Martínez Málaga, creator and founder of the Carlos Bacaflor School of Art of Arequipa, Peru. His father was an oil painter and taught Victor in his realistic, traditional style, always teaching him what an artist’s work is. He adopted his father’s dream of a loyal and academic road to truth and reality in art.

Victor Martinez began his formal education at the Regional School of Fine Arts, and then moved to Lima, Peru, where he took advanced courses at the National School of Fine Arts. Following his formal education however, he dedicated his time to graphic design and illustration until 1987, at the age of 55, when he returned to his first love, fine art. Annual trips to California continued to advance his career. He eventually permanently moved to the United States in 1998. He currently lives and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, traveling each year to different parts of North and South America with his wife Gladys, who he’s been married to for thirty-seven years.

Victor Martinez is a self-taught watercolor artist. He paints solely with Winsor and Newton watercolors, which he believes has a wider range of higher concentrated pigments, and he does not paint with white. He paints on unstretched Arches Cold Press paper in at least 300 pound weight with Princeton and Richeson brand brushes. He paints standing up, with his easel at a 90-degree angle, and tries to complete his paintings in one session. He paints in a very systematic way, always working in the same pattern of first doing a detailed drawing, then doing the background, painting the face, the costume, and finishes with the hands and feet. He uses photographic reference materials that he takes on his yearly trips to Peru to make his paintings. He also employs the use of mirrors, to see his work inverted, and a hair dryer to speed up the drying process.

He paints in a realistic manner because that is what he was taught since he was young. Even with the different trends of modern art movements, he never tried to vary the way he expressed himself. He paints that which attracts him: images showing man deprived from superfluous appearances, man in his daily work, living his life as he must live it, exercising his reason to be alive. He also paints the place in which that man lives. He finds that there is still yet something that he has not yet painted. He believes he is generating a body of work that for many reasons he had postponed, but feels great satisfaction to what he does, and that it constitutes his reason for living.

His high artistic quality, subject matter, and medium have made him internationally renowned. His paintings have been shown in numerous museums and are part of private collections in North and South America, as well as Europe. His watercolors have earned him professional national awards in the United States, including the “Best of Show” at the 20^th anniversary international exhibition of the San Diego Watercolor Society in 2000, as well as the most prestigious award in his hometown, El Diploma de la Ciudad de Arequipa a la Labor Artística. His works have also been featured in popular art magazines such as New Art International (Jan 1998), International Artist Magazine (June/July 1999), Watercolor Magazine (Fall 1999), Splash 6 (Jan 2000), Southwest Art Magazine (April 2000), Artist’s Magazine (December 2000, February 2006), American Artist Magazine (October 2004), and Watercolor Magic Magazine (June 2006). He is also in major collections including the Banco del Sur in Peru, and is collected by several Mobil Oil executives and a United States ambassador to Peru.

As well as painting, he also teaches private watercolor lessons from his studio in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has made some videos and often talks about and shares his watercolor techniques with others. He feels a great satisfaction when others gain an appreciation for watercolors.

While some artist’s inspiration and reasoning behind their works remain a mystery, Victor Martinez’s art is easy to see and appreciate. He says that to him, “capturing people and their environment in watercolor paintings is an irresistible challenge. Each time I pick up the brush I'm faced with a new adventure, and that's what provides the satisfaction that inspires me to keep on painting.” It is great that he keeps on painting these masterpieces for everyone to enjoy.

Bibliography

www.victormartinez.com

http://www.winsornewton.com/community/featured-artists/victor-martinez

http://www.allbusiness.com/services/museums-art-galleries-botanical-zoological/4354778-1.html

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/article/Victor-Martinez-Faces-From-Afar/

http://www.imcm.org/view.asp?ID=24&page=artistmain

Mary Henderson - Mirror, Mirror: Contemporary Portraits and the Fugitive Self.

2011-09-15T11:51:00.013-04:00

Note from the author: I wrote this in college for an advanced art history course. I have cited my references and hope you will always do the same. Copyright infringement is NOT good. If you click on the images it will take you to the website I took them from. Also, please do not use this as your own paper. Cheating is NOT good. Thank you.

November 19, 2009

Mary Henderson

by Katelyn Fagan

Currently in Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art is the exhibit Mirror, Mirror: Contemporary Portraits and the Fugitive Self. It deals with modern portraiture and self identity in the world today. It features a broad range of mediums and artists, one of them being Mary Henderson. Her works are small oil paintings of digital images she finds on photo sharing websites that she crops and edits. She paints them in a manner of historical painting and portraiture, like those of Ingres and David, but the figures are more modest, casual, and contemporary. They are ordinary people.

History is experienced today (in the digital age) through digital sources and images, increasingly blurring private and public experiences. We see digital images on websites of foreign countries and their wars, while at the same time can find digital images and information from these same countries on public sharing websites, like blogs, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, and Twitter, though from its ordinary citizens. Mary Henderson became especially intrigued in this paradigm when her brother was serving as a Commander in the U.S. Navy in Iraq from February to August 2007. She would search these public websites for pictures and news about her brother. She really liked how ordinary people, like her brother, find themselves caught up in our current historical moment (the Iraq War). She became fascinated with pictures depicting soldiers in uniform but not in combat settings. She loved the different emotions and expressions you could see on their faces, from boredom to bravado and fear. She likes to focus on the inward and profound experiences of individuals.

Henderson’s work is photorealistic and her paintings are not very large. She merges photographic qualities and historical painting qualities together to make a commentary on how we are experiencing history today. She often depicts soldiers and military personnel, though not in combat settings. Other works are often young adults at sporting events or people doing common everyday things. The merging of styles draws you into her paintings; because you feel like you’ve seen these images before, multiple times, yet here they are in a gallery, hung up on the wall. You can almost replace the faces of the people portrayed with people you know, or at least can image others in their place. Often the people are smiling or showing a definite emotion on their face. It humanizes them, makes them ordinary and common, like the viewer in the gallery. By painting these images, she makes them more public, permanent, and aesthetically pertinent.

Henderson has created a unique new form of portraiture in the art world. With her realism harking back decades, she adds an added dimension by capturing ordinary individuals, found in images off the Internet. It adds historical value to simple things people are doing every day, living their lives, and how they are using media to share it with others. With everything becoming more and more digital, it makes you wonder what physical evidence will be left behind for future generations of individuals, communities, and nations. What would happen if a person’s computer crashed, the Internet would stop working, or a website was deleted? Would there be enough evidence left behind to prove a person lived, what they did, and what they looked like? Also, it puts into question identity and privacy. With images and information readily available on the internet on almost any individual, where is the sense of privacy? Are a person and their experiences really unique? Henderson has created a dialogue about these questions with her pieces and has done so in a very aesthetically pleasing and artistic way.

Critical Analysis - Canadida Hofer's Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco Venezia

2011-09-13T11:36:00.000-04:00

Note from the author: I wrote this in college for an art criticism class. I have cited my references and hope you will always do that same. Copyright infringement is NO good. If you click on the images it will take you to the website I took them from. Also, please do not use this as your own paper. Cheating is NO good.

Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco Venezia

Candida Höfer’s five by seven foot photograph Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco Venezia captures much more than a spectacular shot of an ornate guild hall. As part of her exhibit Architecture of Absense, this present day museum is empty, allowing the viewer to take in the design and sculpture of the surrounding walls as well as the emptiness of the space. With grand, rich details this hall makes a statement about the classics. Jacopo Tintoretto, Vecellio Tiziano, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, famous Venetian painters, created the magnificent frescoes that cover the walls. The marble colonnades and architectural detail date back to early Greek influences. Through the art’s religious, historical, and artistic qualities, Höfer’s photograph compels the viewer into action.

Tintoretto, the main artist, completed more than fifty religious frescoes in the hall, hoping to create a spiritual and beautiful touch to the Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco Venezia, or Confraternity of St. Roch. The confraternity was a lay brotherhood of worship and charity. Tintoretto, having worked on the frescoes for more than twenty years, provided the confraternity with publicity. Soon, the confraternity became a shrine to the artist and continues to be unto this day. Tourists travel to this place to admire Tintoretto’s work and remember the brotherhood who once served in the confraternity. Value is laid on history and setting of the artwork. But, perhaps of more importance, is the message trying to be displayed.

When Tintoretto created his frescoes, they were religious in nature. For centuries frescoes, mosaics, and stain glass were created to inform the average person of religious matter because most could not read or did not possess their own bible. Portrayed subjects would include the creation of Adam and Eve, biblical stories, the Madonna (or Mary, the mother of Jesus), Jesus’ life and ministry, and also saints of the church. The artwork’s intent was to educate and create a spiritual connection to the viewer.

Captured in Höfer’s photograph is the message of worship. The artwork is religious and leaves a religious, spiritual feeling. But the grandeur of the artwork receives more focus than the other religious aspects. The lines of the photographs—created by the walls, ceiling, and floor—point to the central statue of Christ on the cross. But, unlike the illiterate public of the past, modern people know about Christ and other religious stories. The artwork does not inform in today’s world; it simply relates the viewer to the time of the artists and their skill. The rich details, humanistic portrayals, and Roman and Greek influences emphasize beauty and idealism.

Greek influence is definitely prevalent in the Parthenon architectural columns on the back wall. They also serve as frames for other works of art but they are art themselves. The tall columns emphasize the power and dominance of Greek culture. It is Greek culture that all of Western civilization is based. Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, Medieval, and Baroque periods all learned from Greek philosophy, literature, and art. Ancient Greece formed the foundation for which all of the following civilizations were built upon. The three separate columns could represent the trinity of God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. The sculpture in the center of columns also appears to emerging from within the columns in agreement with emerging from Greece.

The modern items in the room like the lights and chairs do not distract from the richness of the room but add to its message. There are two different lighting fixtures in the room. One set of fixtures are in the Gothic tradition. They are caged luminescence shapes. They look like lanterns and aid the viewer’s eye to the room’s details. They seem to blend into the background and become part of the architecture. However, the other set of light fixtures are more modern. They are bowls of up-cast light that can be viewed as the dishes that once contained the Olympic fire, an event dating back to Ancient Greece. These lights also aid the eye upward towards the detailed and ornate ceiling design. The light on the back wall plays a huge role in highlighting the dramatic artwork behind it, giving it more motion and interest. The viewer can’t help but be drawn to it. The person depicted on the wall is reaching for the heavens. It evokes a strong religious feeling. The lights help reunite different times of Western history—Greek and Gothic—yet they work together to create a lighting aesthetic that draws one’s eyes upward to the art and heaven, emphasizing the artist’s intent.

The chairs stand out the most in this historical room. Though the red of the chairs echoes the red paint on the walls, the style of the chairs is what makes them distracting. The chairs are simple movie director chairs. They lack decoration and do not have a connection to the past. So what do these chairs say about the room or the people who visit it? Why place chairs there at all? The museum did not place plushy, comfortable, period-aged chairs in this room for a reason. The art is meant to be looked at closely and appreciatively. One is not able to look at all the works around them correctly from sitting in a chair. Different lighting and angles make a difference on how one perceives a piece of art. Often it is necessary to take in the larger picture.

Upon closer inspection of the chairs, you will find a backpack and even shadowed figures with crossed legs and books upon their knees. These ghost-like people are sitting in this room full of wondrous artwork, design, and architecture. They sit down to ponder the majesty of it all. But, director’s chairs are not the most comfortable furniture to sit on for extended periods of time. The director’s chairs push the visitors into motion by their lack of comfort. These chairs are often used by movie directors, who make decisions based on their “vision” for the movie they are creating. Like these directors, the viewers of the hall, who sit in these chairs, form their own decisions and opinions of the artwork based on their personal tastes. The chairs, the one element that has least to do with the historical context of the room, are the one item that is pushing the viewer into the room, into the past. This room is not a place to come, relax, and read a good book. This is a museum, a monument to an incredible past, a past that has shaped our present civilization. Should not the visitor come to the museum to connect with the past and to gain something from the experience?

A little off to the left of the center of the photograph there is this ghost-like entity, perhaps representing a group of people who were once in that area looking at the wall but that have moved on. But, maybe the entity represents the spirits of all who have worked so hard to create art, sculpture, architecture, and a civil society. The effects they had are still living on and touching the lives of modern day people. It could be related to the spirit of Elijah. It turns the hearts of the people to their forefathers, the founders of Western Civilization.

Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco Venezia by Candida Höfer is an excellent portrayal of the grand past. Though her use of lines and light she creates a vibrant feel to the room. Aspects within it—modern lights and chairs—add to the movement. The uncomfortable chairs make the visitors rise to their feet and look around and the light makes the eye travel heavenward. The people, who are vaguely viewed in the photo, are misty and ghost-like. The room, though old and historic, lives and breathes never leaving a person the same.

The Penrod Arts Fair 2011 - Indianapolis

2011-09-11T21:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I had the great fortune of attending the Penrod Arts Fair at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). It was my first time at both an Arts Fair and the IMA. I went with my mother-in-law, her friend, and her friend's daughter who I met for the first time, though I felt I already knew her because I had stared at her face for hours drawing her picture.

Attending an art fair was a great experience for me, despite my frugality, absence of personal style, and general dislike of "arts & crafts" type objects.

There were people of all ages from newborn to aged great-grandmother in attendance. It was a very fun atmosphere. No one was in a rush, people were polite to one another, courteous, and friendly. It had a very nice community feel.

The park/grounds that the festivals are held at are beautiful! There are so many trees, walking paths, and flowers/gardens. It turned into a gorgeous day despite the rain and cooler temperatures of the previous week. The sun peeped out from the clouds for a little bit and warmed it up just enough.

As we strolled through the different "colored" sections, ate yummy food, listened to a family barbershop, saw dance routines, heard rock bands, and received flyers and freebies, we saw many things I had never seen before. I was impressed with the skills and talents of these artists and artisans. I am personally drawn to glass objects, shiny things, fine woodwork, modern stainless steel decor, and anything of high quality. While most things did not interest me since I don't wear much jewelry, I don't garden, and I don't have a budget for home accessories/decor, I nevertheless gave a good look at most of the items on display, mostly due to the company I was with: they do wear jewelry, shawls, garden, and have a budget for home accessories/decor. Some booths and objects were very similar to each other. I felt like the jewelry on display in one booth resembled the previous booth's jewelry to some degree. But, some had one-of-a-kind booths and items, like the booth with Nightmare Before Christmas-like dolls for sale, and the one with hand-made rugs.

One of my very favorite artists I saw was Michael Weber, a watercolor artist. I think he has immaculate skill at watercolor! I wanted a painting! He made prints out of several of his images at a much more affordable price, but for some reason I still didn't pick one up, but I kept checking out his booth. I am not much of a watercolor artist, but love finding works of art that are of a high quality and his fit that bill.

The art fair reminded me a lot of etsy.com. a site I have a shop on, and a site I haven't fully explored yet, but get several emails from them which are chocked full of hand-made jewelry, clothing, accessories, decor, and more. I liked the art fair. It made my creative juices flow and helped me understand a little more of the business side of selling art, though I do feel like much of my art doesn't quite fit in at this type of event. My art is more "fine art."

What art fairs have you attended? Do you like these types of events? Do you like arts and crafts? Do you like etsy?

Is Photography Manipulation Ethical?

2011-09-09T11:48:00.000-04:00

Is Photographic Manipulation Ethical?

By Katelyn Fagan

Much controversy has risen in the last several decades about the issue of photographic manipulation. Though photo manipulation has been around for over a century, in the recent decades advances in science, technology, and digital imaging have made photographic manipulation much quicker, easier, and more common. But the question that now arises is if photographic manipulation is ethical or not. Is it right to change a photograph? But what are ethics? Jaksa and Priteward defined ethics as “how we live our lives; what is right and wrong, fair or unfair, caring or uncaring, good or bad, responsible or irresponsible, and the like” (Wakefield). So is taking a picture or multiple pictures and adding, detracting, enhancing, or minimizing something ethical? As we explore both sides of this debate, we will see that there are strong arguments to both sides, but I believe that changing a photograph is ethical.

Since photography came into being, people have begun to experiment with this new medium. Cropping and placing images together, brightening, darkening, and changing colors have always been part of the experimenting. The new technology of today diminishes time and costs, all the while multiplying the visual strategies available to artists, photographers, and designers. So what is the big deal about manipulating photos? Manipulating photographs was and continues to be ethical.

Most Americans have a camera in their homes as well as a basic editing program on their computer. At home one can remove red eyes, crop, brighten, darken, and do fun artistic effect to a photo. A skilled editor can even use Photoshop to place people in exotic backgrounds, edit out acne and other blemishes, and place things where they do not belong in order to be funny. But why should changing a picture be unethical just because it does not capture reality? Artists and painters throughout the centuries have practiced this same technique. A painter selects what vantage point to take and what items to include.

Digitally editing photos has also helped with illustrators, film editors, and advertisers. Photo manipulation during film production can save time and money. Film crews can film a night scene during the day. They can add in drops of rain and lightning bolts instead of waiting for the perfect storm. Photo editing allows movies to have special effects. Without photo manipulation, Frodo Baggins and the rest of the hobbits on the movie The Lord of the Rings would not have appeared short.

Advertising can also be greatly enhanced with photo manipulation. Products can be added to photos, as well as backgrounds, and all sorts of visual imagery can combine to create the appealing ads we see today. Using photo editing processes, advertisers can have clear, artistic images that help to emphasize the product being sold. Selling a product and advertising are both very ethical practices.

Even though there are many benefits of photo editing, there is much alarm and concern to be understood about it as well. Photo manipulation gives way to unethical practices. It has the possibility of corruption, misleading information, lies, deception, fraud, and plagiarism. Any unwanted information in a photo can be erased or modified, and wanted information can be added in. This can lead to faulty evidence in court cases. This can also lead to false news photos and stories. An example of this comes from the recent movie Spider-man 3. A photographer faked a photo of Spider-man robbing a bank in order to get a staff job. American citizens do not like to be lied to, especially when it comes to their news. False news photos are unethical. False photos on the cover of newspapers and magazines can cause much controversy from the lies it portrays.

Artistically, photo manipulation can be unethical. The straightforwardness of photography is lost. What is real anymore? One used to be able to take a snapshot, a Polaroid, and let the picture speak for itself, imperfections and all. It was up to the photographer to edit and frame and try to figure out what he wanted to capture at the time the photograph was taken. Anytime a photographer is behind the lens, he’s choosing where he’s standing, what vantage point he’s taking, how he’s cropping what he sees even as he sees it (Abrams). Now with manipulated photos possible with every single photo, it can be hard to distinguish between the original, unhampered photos and the edited, manipulated photos.

It has become very popular, especially in women’s magazines, to perfect or correct physical flaws. The bodies of Hollywood stars and supermodels now become sculptured, curvier, leaner, and blemish and cellulose free, creating the “ideal” image of a human body. It is this kind of photo manipulation that is very harmful to society. It is unethical to have these fake female role models for young girls to emulate. It has also lead to false assumptions of what a woman should be. Exposure to pictures of thin-ideal female members of the media has been shown to reduce body satisfaction in women, which in turn has led to various eating disorders (Lin and Kulik, 117). In fact findings indicate that after being exposed to exceptionally attractive female images, males report less satisfaction for a current relationship, rate average-looking females as less attractive, and express less affection for their significant other (Yuko).

Though there are some strong arguments pointing to photo manipulation as unethical, I believe that overall photography manipulation is just fine. Manipulating an image only becomes unethical when it affects a group of people. For example, false news releases would be unethical, an edited model is unethical, and false and misleading photos are unethical, unless specifically designated that it has been tampered with. When done in the wrong context, photo editing is wrong. But, I am an artist and a photographer. Digital manipulation is commonplace for me, just as it is for millions of others. There is nothing wrong with removing red eyes, lightening up a dark picture, or cropping it down. In general it can be said “it is all right to adjust the brightness or color balance of the whole photo, but not to obscure, move or introduce an element in order to present false information, remove information, etc.” (Wade).

Sources:

Abrams, Janet. "Little Photoshop of Horrors: the Ethics of Manipulating." Print Nov.-

Dec. 1995. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Brigham Young University. 9 Apr. 2008 <Https://Www.Lib.Byu.Edu/Cgi-Bin/Remoteauth.Pl?Url=Http://Search.Ebscohost.Com/Login.Aspx?Direct=True&Db=Aph&AN=9609205279&Site=Ehost-Live&Scope=Site>.

Lin, L F., and J A. Kulik. "Social Comparison and Women's Body Satisfaction." BASIC

AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 24 (2002): 115-123. 10 Apr. 2008 <www.thompson.com>.

Wade, Nicholas. "It May Look Authentic; Here's How to Tell It Isn't." The New York

Times (Jan 24, 2006): F1(L). Academic OneFile. Gale. Brigham Young University - Utah. 9 Apr. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.

Wakefield, Robert. "Focus on Ethics." Brigham Young University. Communications

Lecture. Joseph Fielding Smith Building, Utah. 8 Apr. 2008.

Yuko. Media Exposure and Males' Evaluation of the Appearance of Females. Diss. Univ.

of South Florida, 2007. 10 Apr. 2008 <https://www.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/remoteauth.pl?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1320951691&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=9338&RQT=309&VName=PQD>.

Going "Beyond Art for Art's Sake"

2011-09-08T16:08:00.001-04:00

I was recently sent a newsletter from the McKay School of Education at BYU about a workshop they hosted. View the article HERE. I once upon a time was in the Art Education program at BYU and loved the little exposure I had in the classroom. I really do want to teach art someday.

I LOVE that the article talks about how important it is to integrate the arts into our classrooms. In a country where everything is about passing a standardized test, it's great to know that there are still many teachers who want to produce well-rounded, cultured students. I do believe that integrating arts with academia can be very enlightening and helpful to the learning process. Participating in a drum circle, learning a dance, dressing up in costumes, creating pottery, or acting out a scene brings the past (and the present) to LIFE. In the article it said:

...groups of participants demonstrated what they learned at the conference through performances using creative techniques such as dance, music, or theater. These performances helped educators understand how students in classes of all disciplines can do the same. “It’s important for students to demonstrate learning in a variety of ways, not just in written tests, so they can internalize the information and show the personal meaning of what they learned,” Flox explained.

I know that if something is put to a tune it is often easier to remember. If I view a live performance I remember the EXPERIENCE of it forever. Knowledge is most often brought to life through the arts. Isn't that amazing?

How do you feel about the arts? Does it help you learn other academia?

The Babylonian Marriage Market by Edwin L Long - Describing What I See

2011-09-06T11:25:00.001-04:00

Describing The Babylonian Marriage Market by Edwin L. Long

According to Katelyn Fagan

Featured in the “Paintings from the Reign of Victoria: The Royal Holloway Collection, London” at Brigham Young University’s Marian Adelaide Morris Cannon Gallery at the Museum of Art is found a painting of historical and political importance. This painting is The Babylonian Marriage Market by Edwin L. Long. This rich, colorful, realistic, and historically accurate painting shares a narrative of Babylonian women being sold as wives in a market setting. There are many wealthy and rich among the crowd, holding elegant fans, wearing costly apparel, and counting their monies. However, the story told is not from the view point of the bidders vying to win a pretty woman; rather it is the story of the women themselves. With soft glowing light shining down on them, we see twelve women sitting behind the auction table, on exotic animal skins, waiting in line for their turn to stand on the table in front of all those men. We see the women’s faces, full of their reactions, doubts, dreams, inhibitions, and fears. Some are handling the situation more cheerfully than others. One of these women stares into a mirror, looking down into it, not smiling, not seeing beauty there. The women who sit there behind the table are of variable looks, from their hair, to their body types, to their facial features. This painting is about the Victorian ideals of female beauty as well as the current European marriage market that was happening at the time. This work is a beautiful handling and execution of oil paints, as well as a powerful political and social piece of art for its time as well as now.

Courtship Scenes by Renoir and Vermeer - A Comparison

2011-09-04T10:31:00.003-04:00

Courtship Scenes by Vermeer and Renoir

Written by Katelyn Fagan

Love, marriage, and families are as old as time, and attraction to the opposite gender is as prevalent today as it always has been. Desire to be with the opposite gender has remained intact throughout the centuries, but the way and extent in which these desires are met can vary drastically from culture to culture. In Jan Vermeer’s painting The Girl with the Wine Glass (1659-1660) and in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting In the Garden (1885) we witness similar scenes of courtship, yet these two paintings were created over two hundred years apart, the products of two different cultures, painted in two different styles (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). Jan Vermeer was Dutch and Renoir was French. Different courting rituals and social norms of men and women in their different countries and centuries played a role in how courtships took place. However, both artists created similar unique works of art despite their different times and cultures.

Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) of Delft derived most of his income from working as an inn keeper and art dealer. He only painted around thirty-five genre paintings—art of the everyday—mostly of interior scenes of Dutch middle-class dwellings. He captured everyday happenings with naturalism and realism. Women were often depicted in the home—a women’s traditional place in seventeenth century Dutch culture.

At this time it was the Golden Age in the Dutch Republic. Holland had just won its freedom from the King of Spain. Because of their victory however almost every facet of men’s lives underwent drastic changes wrought by war. Holland emerged as an aggressive, Protestant Republic with a capitalistic economy and bourgeois society. [1] But, they experienced an abundance of wealth, and it was the first time in history that the majority of a country’s citizens were comfortable. Their protestant religion, Calvinism, did not allow for opulence in everyday life.

The Dutch Republic saw a huge population growth from 1600-1647, especially in the number of youths. Males were considered youth ages from their early teens to their late twenties, while females were considered youth aged from twelve to twenty-five. The increased number of youth led to an increased amount of tomfoolery. Early modern Dutch courting rituals allowed young men and women to be together without a chaperone, and to have physical contact with each other. They believed that teasing bodily contact between the sexes was an important part of the courting ritual. Unmarried couples were probably limited to kissing, cuddling, hugging, and perhaps heavy petting. The Dutch population was full of young, educational optimists. However, students in early modern Europe often lived in all-male environments with minimal exposure to women.[2]

Vermeer’s painting The Girl with the Wine Glass was created in 1659-1660 for the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Brunswick, Germany, and it shows a young lady looking at the viewer, drawing him in, making him interpret this scene of seduction. In the scene she is hesitating giving in to her admirer’s offering of a wine glass. Her expression is interesting, one of double meaning. She is happy to have a suitor, curious about his intentions, and excited for what is ahead, yet has a slight hesitation behind her eyes. Her smile is playful, yet knowingly aware of his motives. The suitor is intensely staring at the maiden, offering the wine glass, a smirk across his face. He is very interested in courting this young woman, in getting her under the influence. The man in the background seems out of place in this playful courting scene. He seems unaware of what is happening, perhaps because he is already drunk. One thing is for certain: he is in a sort of melancholy mood, pointed out by his profiled, dark shadowed face, and vague expression.[3] As a viewer to the scene, you would have to determine the deeper meaning. Is this a friendly offering or an aspiration for bedroom entertainment?

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was part of the French Impressionism movement. Impressionism was art of industrialized, urbanized Paris, France. The extensive industrialization and urbanization that occurred in France during the latter half of the nineteenth century can be described only as a brutal and chaotic transformation. This made the world seem unstable and insubstantial. Therefore, impressionist art tried to capture a glimpse of their ever changing world. Depicted subjects were often the busy streets of Paris, city life, and leisure activities. Impressionistic paintings were done with speed, abbreviation, and spontaneity. They captured an artist’s subjective and personal response to nature or their surroundings. In France Renoir’s works became an outlet for poetic forces for he knew that visual impressions were abstract communications to the spectator’s senses.[4]

Courting during this time was different than the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic. The courting ground was cramped and perilous. Social conventions restricted the number of places couples could meet. Often couples would seek secret spots to avoid the required chaperones and town gossipers. However, inwardly they regulated themselves by religious confines, family obligations, and restrictive social morality. Men faced dangers in the public realm, like war, religion, and politics which oftentimes would lead them away from love.

In a world where women had to make their way to marriage and motherhood by being sexually appealing, the line between seductress and victim was often unclear. By the 1860’s the distinction between good and bad women began to blur in France as a rising number of prostitutes moved into urban areas, servicing a larger range of social classes. A first meeting often played a decisive role in their relationship. A modestly clad woman unaccompanied on the street was a good indicator that she was not a prostitute, but a single woman waiting for a suitor.

In art women often appeared as sex objects. Renoir liked his women to be practical and simple, staying at home, engaging in physical work. He did not like intellectual and educated women, women who thought on their own and aspired to a profession. (15) Women in his paintings were never given an active role. A woman’s beauties were on display for the male eye, to be put at his disposal. Often his women were visual pageantry of the everyday world, either in fashionable dresses, or as objects of courtship. (16). His paintings were of earthly paradise and the mythic realities and its beauties. Renoir wanted to invoke within his male viewers the desire to stroke a breast or a back, especially with his nudes. His art was different than his contemporaries because his paintings were of interactions of real people on specific occasions, creating domestic realism. His art was paintings of love and love of painting.

Renoir’s In the Garden, created in 1885 as part of the collection in Gerstenberg/Scharf, Berlin, shows a woman’s eyes are connecting with the viewer as they are the center of the work and the center of attention. The woman is a beautiful redhead who is holding hands with a young gentleman, who is charming, and very much in love with this woman. His eyes and whole body lean in towards her. His arm is lovingly around her waist. Flowers lie on the table, perhaps ones he had just presented to her. This man’s whole persona screams of desire and love for this elegant and religious woman, designated by the cross she wears. Yet we find her facial expression to be a little bland. She is not smiling. Her eyes are void of real desire or passion, but perhaps it is because a bystander, the viewer, has intruded in on her moment alone with her beau. She is still leaning in towards the man, representing an intimate connection, but she is looking away from him.

These two artists, Vermeer and Renoir, came from two different countries, Holland and France, two centuries apart. However, common among their art is one theme: courtship. Both artists had different motives and different reasons for creating their art. Vermeer was unsuccessful as an artist in his own day, while Renoir was well-known. Though both artists participated in genre painting, painting scenes of everyday life, the styles in which they painted where vastly different. Vermeer was intrigued and inspired by the use of light, especially how is rested in a room and on the inanimate objects in the room. Renoir was preoccupied with color and light which made him avoid contours and solid surfaces. Renoir used large, visual brushstrokes, while Vermeer used smooth, clean lines. Both used women as their primary subjects, but each had a different view on women. Vermeer held women in a higher esteem than Renoir, who did not feel that women were equals, as many felt in Vermeer’s Dutch Republic. Women’s rights were being suppressed in France during the Industrial Revolution. Though both viewed women as desirable and seductive, Vermeer did not paint nudes like Renoir often did.

But both artists managed to do something remarkable in their times. They transcended above their contemporaries and created unique works masterfully. These two paintings give commentaries on the role of courtship of their era. Surprisingly courting was not all that different. Attraction to the opposite gender is constant. Women were considered beauties of both centuries and fine women of the highest quality. Both loved their sensuality. Men always wanted to be with the ideal beauties pictured.

Fig. 1. Vermeer, The Girl with the Wine Glass (1659-1660), Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Brunswick, Germany.

Fig. 2. Renoir, In the Garden (1885), Part of the Collection in Gerstenberg/Scharf, Berlin.

Bibliography

Free French Relief Committee. Renoir Centennial Loan Exhibition. New York: William

Bradford Press, 1941.

Hertal, Christiane. Vermeer: Reception and Interpretation. New York: Press Syndicate

of the University of Cambridge, 1996.

House, John, Anne Distel, Lawrence Gowing. Renoir. New York: Harry N. Abrams,

Inc., 1985.

Kern, Stephen.

Eyes of Love: The Gaze in English and French Paintings and Novels, 1840-1900. New York: Reaktion Books, 1996.

Koning, Hans. The World of Vermeer: 1632-1675. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life

Books, 1967.

Roberts, Benjamin B. and Leendert F. Groenendijk. “Wearing out a pair of fool’s shoes:

sexual advice for Youth in Holland’s Golden Age.” Journal of the History of

Sexuality 13.2 (2004): 139-156.

[1] Hans Kooning, The World of Vermeer: 1632-1675. (Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1967), 29.

[2] Benjamin B. Roberts and Leendert F. Groenendijk, “Wearing out a pair of fool’s shoes: sexual advice for Youth in Holland’s Golden Age,” Journal of History of Sexuality, 2004, 139-156.

[3] Hans Kooning, The World of Vermeer: 1632-1675. (Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1967), 56.

[4] John House and others, Renoir (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1985), 13.

Josiah McElheny - Island Universe Review

2011-09-02T11:00:00.009-04:00

Note from the author: I wrote this in college for an art criticism class. I have cited my references and hope you will always do the same. Copyright infringement is NO good. If you click on the images it will take you to the website I took them from. Also, please do not use this as your own paper. Cheating is NO good. Thank You.

Josiah McElheny – Island Universe

by Katelyn Fagan

Josiah McElheny stands apart from his art contemporaries as a trained hands-on artist who puts meaning behind his works. McElheny is a New York based artist who creates works of beautiful hand blown glass. His[1]the Lobmeyr designed The philosophical, religious, and political thought that influenced the production of this piece, and others, make McElheny different than his contemporaries. He reacts to art and culture of both the past and the present. McElheny’s glassblowing techniques and his stylistic elements create a unique venture from his contemporaries as he turns ideas into productions.

Josiah McElheny, a MacArthur fellow, [2] Ronald Wilkins, Lino Tagliapietra in Italy, and Jan-Erik Ritzman and Sven-Ake Carlsson in Sweden, honing his skills into that of a master. McElheny still prefers making objects himself to enlisting technically brilliant assistants, and he possesses a familiarity with methods that date back centuries. McElheny succeeds in making glass as relevant, as charged with as much intellectual and aesthetic inquiry as any other medium.[3]

McElheny uses his craft as he continues to explore what has become his primary field of interest in recent years: questioning the legacy of Modernism and probing the very function of art—its use in a world in which our relation to objects is almost exclusively that of consumers rather than of producers.[4] He himself often follows the Modernist idea that process and materials dictate form.[5]

One of McElheny's real strengths is creating visually enthralling pieces, as well as involving complex ideas about modernity, history, and science.[6]

[7]

Hans Harald Rath’s, of the famous Viennese firm J. & L. Lobmeyr, The chandeliers, just like the theater itself, seemed to have come from this weird transitional moment where Modernism became infected with other influences.[8] the New York Metropolitan Opera House’s architect, Wallace K. Harrison, rejected Rath's initial designs, preferring instead something more space-age. The revised design resulted in these glittering and intricate chandeliers that have a note of distant galaxies and futuristic space stations, but still evoke ornate mansions and gilded opera halls of the past.[9] in 1965; the year the cosmic microwave background was discovered and provided the crucial evidence needed to back up the Big Bang Theory. These chandeliers, already looking like a model of the Big Bang, caught McElheny’s attention. He wanted to remake these chandeliers into eye-level sculptures that would occupy the entire ground floor of the gallery and do so in a streamlined Modernist style—by eliminating their ornate sparkling quality—and incorporate the real science of the Big Bang into them. He enlisted the help of David Weinberg, an Ohio State University professor of astronomy, to help him research the Big Bang Theory as well as help him incorporate that theory into art.

Together they looked over diagrams of the varying theories, and discussed how a static object could represent the origin of space and time itself, an initiating expansion that occurs everywhere yet has no center.[10] The origin of the universe, as explored in the Big Bang Theory, holds that it emerged from a state of extremely high temperature and density in an explosive expansion 10 billion to 15 billion years ago. McElheny told Weinberg that looking to the universe for inspiration led to forms that were stranger, and much more complex and compelling than he could have come up with by mere invention.[11]

McElheny’s work was to be kinds of explosion of highly reflective chrome-plated aluminum, with a central sphere from which radiate rods of varying lengths. Each rod ends with either a unique cluster of objects—which include smaller rods topped by hand-formed glass discs and globes—or a single light.[12] In order to convert the chandeliers to a scientifically accurate model, glass pieces would represent galaxies and light bulbs represent quasars, the brightest entities known to exist in the cosmos. To represent the expansive time and nature of the universe, they would use the spatial dimension of the rods emanating from the center where one meter would equal 100 million years after the Big Bang. The center of the sculpture represents the primordial cosmos and the outer edge the present day, leaving the passage from one to the other to represent the 14 billion year history of the expanding universe.[13]

Photograph by Jason Schmidt in New York City

In their research they ultimately realized that the sculpture could make a correlation between two important things. One is that the history of the Big Bang is just that, a history, and although it is impossible to really draw a picture of the universe at any given moment, it is possible to ask what kinds of basic structures were being formed two, or seven, or ten billion years ago. To artistically represent this, the different arrangements of glass pieces at the end of each rod would show what kinds of galaxy formations were happening at the corresponding length or moment after the Big Bang. The second thing that the sculpture depicts in terms of science is the beautiful idea of the isotropic nature of the universe, which essentially means that any one place in the universe is just as likely to be as interesting or as boring as any other. To represent this they made it important that the rods did not come out in some kind of pattern but in a random formation.[14]

In 2005 after months of collaborating, McElheny created An End to Modernity, a twelve foot high, sixteen feet in diameter sculpture consisting of a central sphere with numerous radiating elements in glass and metal, suspended just above the floor. It represented the first of five chandeliers that would become part of Island Universe. This work was commissioned by the Wexner Center Residency Award program and was first exhibited at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.[15] The collaboration of art and science created a magnificent work of beauty and scientific thought, while addressing the affects of Modernism in the year 1965.

The five sculptures of this work are based on five possible models for the universe—Small Scale Violence, Frozen Structure, Heliocentric, Directional Structure, and Late Emergence—each with its own unique structure. His sculptures offer a three-dimensional map of the "Multiverse," an eternal expansion of possible universes accelerating endlessly into infinity. Along with the sculptures is a 19-minute film Conceptual Drawings for a Chandelier, 1965 where diagrams of the five structures appear.[16] The viewer lies on a giant beanbag to experience an astronomical journey through the Metropolitan Opera House where McElheny’s sculptures are featured, suspended in the black void, accompanied by an eerie soundtrack by composer Paul Schutze, an Australian ambient and electro-acoustic musician.[17] The music and the editing convey a rhythm that shifts, freezes and develops in relation to each model as well as the scientific speculations about other worlds.[18]

The highly reflective yet transparent nature of this piece lures in the viewer, and as he inspects, walks around, and steps towards it, the work changes. As a viewer, your reflection is found on the center sphere, or the center of the universe. As McElheny explains: "The central idea in the work is that we're isolated, and that we don't all come from the same place; we have different needs, different histories and different ways of thinking."[19] Many of McElheny’s pieces try to tap into central human questions of who we are and where we come from; what, if anything, is original about us—of our own aspirations in a confusing world, full of endless ideologies and competing influences.[20] “Politically, I’m against finding the single answer,” McElheny insists. “I’m more interested in what these questions mean to our sense of who we are.[21]

But regardless of how beautifully McElheny’s Island Universe creates a harmonious marriage between science and art, he is not the first glass blower to make scientifically accurate models. In 1936 Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, father and son partners from Dresden, Germany, completed a collection of 4,400 glass plants and flowers for the Botanical Museum at Harvard University that took a half-century to make. Their studio also made models of marine invertebrates that were sold to museums around the world. Also at the American Museum of Natural History, there is a series of single-celled protozoa completed in 1943 by Herman O. Mueller, a former museum staff member who came from a family of German glass-blowers.[22]

Josiah McElheny is not the only practicing contemporary art glassblower. In the Finger Lakes region of New York State is found the Corning Museum of Glass, the world's largest glass museum, featuring thirty-five centuries of glass artistry, and live glassblowing demonstrations. It is also home to the Rakow Research Library, which is the library of record on glass and glassmaking. It is also home to The Studio, a highly respected glassmaking school. While this school may not work on the McElheny’s preferred method of European oral tradition and craft, it certainly does an excellent job teaching glassblowing to the masses. Anyone can take a class, as well as view the museum that is full of rich glass culture and history of past and present artists.[23] Most of the artists featured in this museum work in abstract and organic forms, or mixed media, often not having the same simple-object feel that much of McElheny’s work contains. A lot of these works are beautiful and intriguing, but take a very different look at what glass can achieve.

One famous glass blower of the 20^th century, Dale Chihuly, focused on the materiality and color that can be achieved through glass blowing. Chihuly was the first American studio glass artist to travel to Murano to observe Venetian glassmaking techniques, which he would bring back to the United States, using them to build the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design.[24] McElheny owes much to this famous American glassblower that came before him.

But, I do believe that Josiah McElheny does offer something different than the others that have come before and those that are his contemporaries. He does not believe in being original, because all of his work is derived from some previous source, and what he’s doing is re-imagining something or shifting or transforming it slightly but always very much in connection to its source. He is interested in the past, especially because art is essentially a physical remnant of a moment.[25] His desire is to bring these objects and ideas and contexts into the modern world. The way in which he does so is by masterfully creating these seductive, reflective pieces that are so attractive to the general public. He believes that in today’s materialistic society that if something is to be of value then it has to have a kind of gravity and importance to it, or a sense of sumptuousness. He gets the viewer into his works with his highly or all-reflective objects, because the viewer sees himself in it. In other ways he tries to create a perfect, pristine utopian feel to his works.[26]

I believe his works accomplish all that McElheny sets out to do concerning his artistic methodologies. McElheny’s works are intoxicating to look at and to study. They capture and awe you. I am greatly impressed with his research and training. Very few artists today seem to care about expertise or craftsmanship, especially those who remove their hands completely from the production process. I personally think that art has been slandered and defaced by contemporary artists who love pushing the limits of art. I believe there should be a mastering of craft and skill. Because of McElheny and other 20^th and 21^st Century glass-blowers, glass-blowing can no longer been seen only as a craft or a trade. McElheny has emphasized the materiality of glass in a very Greenbergian fashion of Modernism, and done so powerfully.

Josiah McElheny’s works consist of thought: his thoughts, philosophical thought, scientific thoughts, artistic thoughts, and religious thoughts. These thoughts not only influenced Island Universe, but every piece made before it and every piece he will continue to make. This makes him different. His works are not about “sticking it to the man” or using common everyday materials in new ways just to make art. He creates legitimate, beautiful, stand alone works that aren’t about making art for art’s sake. They are about something. He reacts to art and culture of both the past and present, but does so with a real honed and learned skill. This makes him unique.

Works Cited

Browne, Alex. "The Big Picture." New York Times, September 26, 2008: MM64.

Corning Museum of Glass. 2009. http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=194 (accessed June 11,

2009).

White Cube. Josiah McElheny: Island Universe. 2008.

http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/josiah_mcelheny_hs/ (accessed June 11, 2009).

Eldrige-Ford, Ashley. Frieze Week 2008: The Gallery Recap - Josiah McElheny, Island Universe

White Cube, London. October 14, 2008.

Http://artcomments.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html (accessed June 11, 2009).

Hixson, Kathryn. "Glass, Apprenticeship, and Josiah McElheney." New Art Examiner, 2001: 72.

Ivatts, Rebecca. "Blowing the glass fantastic." El Pais, 2009: 8.

Art: 21--Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 3, Episode: "Memory". Directed by PBS Home

Programs. Performed by Josiah McElheny. 2005.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. January 28, 2009.

http://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/expos-pasadas/2009/josiah

mcelheny_en.html (accessed June 11, 2009).

Rothkopf, Scott. "1000 words: Josiah McElheny; Talks about an end to modernity and

conceptual drawing for a chandelier, 1965, both 2005." Artforum International, Nov 2005.

Spears, Dorothy. "The Entire Universe on a Dimmer Switch." New York Times, May 7, 2006:

2.19.

Tarlow, Lois. "Profile: Josiah McElheny." Art New England, Ag/S 2002: 21-23.

Volk, Gregory. "An Infinity of Objects." Art in America, 2006: 166-169.

Weinberg, David. "The glass universe: Where astronomy meets art." New Scientist, Dec 2008:

1-2.

[1] Lois Tarlow, "Profile: Josiah McElheny," Art New England, Ag/S 2002: 22

[2] Lois Tarlow, "Profile: Josiah McElheny," Art New England, Ag/S 2002: 21.

[3] Gregory Volk, "An Infinity of Objects," Art in America, 2006: 166.

[4] Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia,”Josiah McElheny-A Space for an Island Universe,” January 28, 2009; available from http://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/expos-pasadas/2009/josiah-mcelheny_en.html Internet; accessed June 11, 2009).

[5] Kathryn Hixson, "Glass, Apprenticeship, and Josiah McElheney," New Art Examiner, 2001: 72.

[6] Lois Tarlow, "Profile: Josiah McElheny," Art New England, Ag/S 2002: 21.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Scott Rothkopf, "1000 words: Josiah McElheny; Talks about an end to modernity and conceptual drawing for a chandelier, 1965, both 2005," Artforum International, Nov 2005.

[9] Gregory Volk, "An Infinity of Objects," Art in America, 2006: 168

[10] David Weinberg, "The glass universe: Where astronomy meets art." New Scientist, Dec 2008: 1.

[11]Rebecca Ivatts, "Blowing the glass fantastic," El Pais, 2009: 8.

[12] White Cube, Josiah McElheny: Island Universe, 2008; Available at http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/josiah_mcelheny_hs/; Internet; accessed June 11, 2009.

[13] David Weinberg, "The glass universe: Where astronomy meets art," New Scientist, Dec 2008: 1.

[14] Scott Rothkopf, "1000 words: Josiah McElheny; Talks about an end to modernity and conceptual drawing for a chandelier, 1965, both 2005," Artforum International, Nov 2005.

[15] Gregory Volk, "An Infinity of Objects," Art in America, 2006: 168

[16] Rebecca Ivatts, "Blowing the glass fantastic," El Pais, 2009: 8.

[17] Ashley Eldrige-Ford, Frieze Week 2008: The Gallery Recap - Josiah McElheny, Island Universe White Cube, London, October 14, 2008; Available at http://artcomments.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html; Internet; accessed June 11, 2009.

[18] White Cube, Josiah McElheny: Island Universe, 2008; Available at http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/josiah_mcelheny_hs/; Internet; accessed June 11, 2009.

[19] Ivatts, “Blowing the glass fantastic,” 9

[20] Gregory Volk, "An Infinity of Objects," Art in America, 2006: 169

[21] Alex Browne, "The Big Picture," New York Times, September 26, 2008: MM64.

[22] Dorothy Spears, "The Entire Universe on a Dimmer Switch," New York Times, May 7, 2006: 2.19.

[23] Corning Museum of Glass, 2009, “Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family Gallery of Contemporary Glass”; available at http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=194 ; Internet accessed June 11, 2009.

[24] Corning Museum of Glass, 2009, “Ben W. Heineman Sr. Family Gallery of Contemporary Glass”; available at http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=194 ; Internet accessed June 11, 2009.

[25] Art: 21--Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 3, Episode: "Memory," Directed by PBS Home Programs; performed by Josiah McElheny, 2005.

[26] Art: 21--Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 3, Episode: "Memory," Directed by PBS Home Programs; performed by Josiah McElheny, 2005.

Josiah McElheny - Glass Blower Artist

2011-09-01T07:57:00.017-04:00

Josiah McElheny – Glass Blower

Josiah McElheny stands apart from his art contemporaries as a trained hands-on artist who puts meaning behind his works. McElheny is a New York based artist who creates works of beautiful hand blown glass. His[1]He reacts to art and culture of both the past and the present. McElheny’s glassblowing techniques and his stylistic elements create a unique venture from his contemporaries as he turns ideas into productions.

Josiah McElheny, a MacArthur fellow, [2]honing his skills, and becoming a master himself, possessing a familiarity with methods that date back centuries.

McElheny uses his craft as he continues to explore what has become his primary field of interest in recent years: questioning the legacy of Modernism and probing the very function of art—its use in a world in which our relation to objects is almost exclusively that of consumers rather than of producers.[3] He himself often follows the Modernist idea that process and materials dictate form.[4]

One of McElheny's real strengths is creating visually enthralling pieces, as well as involving complex ideas about modernity, history, and science.[5]

[6]

Many of McElheny’s pieces try to tap into central human questions of who we are and where we come from; what, if anything, is original about us—of our own aspirations in a confusing world, full of endless ideologies and competing influences.[7] “Politically, I’m against finding the single answer,” McElheny insists. “I’m more interested in what these questions mean to our sense of who we are.[8]

He does not believe in creating “original” art, because all of his work is derived from some previous source, and what he’s doing is re-imagining something or shifting or transforming it slightly but always very much in connection to its source. He is interested in the past, especially because art is essentially a physical remnant of a moment.[9] His desire is to bring these objects and ideas and contexts into the modern world. The way in which he does so is by masterfully creating these seductive, reflective pieces that are so attractive to the general public. He believes that in today’s materialistic society that if something is to be of value then it has to have a kind of gravity and importance to it. He gets the viewer into his works with his highly or all-reflective objects, because the viewer sees himself in it. In other ways he tries to create a perfect, pristine utopian feel to his works.[10]

His works are not about “sticking it to the man” or using common everyday materials in new ways just to make art. He creates legitimate, beautiful, stand alone works that aren’t about making art for art’s sake. They are about something. He reacts to art and culture of both the past and present, but does so with a real honed and learned skill. This makes him and his works unique.

Bibliography

Art: 21--Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 3, Episode: "Memory". Directed by PBS Home

Programs. Performed by Josiah McElheny. 2005.

Browne, Alex. "The Big Picture." New York Times, September 26, 2008: MM64.

Hixson, Kathryn. "Glass, Apprenticeship, and Josiah McElheney." New Art Examiner, 2001: 72.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. January 28, 2009.

http://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/expos-pasadas/2009/josiah

mcelheny_en.html (accessed Oct 22, 2009).

Tarlow, Lois. "Profile: Josiah McElheny." ArtNew England, Ag/S 2002: 21-23.

Volk, Gregory. "An Infinity of Objects." Art in America, 2006: 166-169.

[1] Lois Tarlow, "Profile: Josiah McElheny," Art New England, Ag/S 2002: 22

[2] Lois Tarlow, "Profile: Josiah McElheny," Art New England, Ag/S 2002: 21.

[3] Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia,”Josiah McElheny-A Space for an Island Universe,” January 28, 2009; available fromhttp://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/expos-pasadas/2009/josiah-mcelheny_en.html Internet; accessed June 11, 2009).

[4] Kathryn Hixson, "Glass, Apprenticeship, and Josiah McElheney," New Art Examiner, 2001: 72.

[5] Lois Tarlow, "Profile: Josiah McElheny," Art New England, Ag/S 2002: 21.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Gregory Volk, "An Infinity of Objects," Art in America, 2006: 169

[8] Alex Browne, "The Big Picture," New York Times, September 26, 2008: MM64.

[9] Art: 21--Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 3, Episode: "Memory," Directed by PBS Home Programs; performed by Josiah McElheny, 2005.

[10] Ibid.

Upcoming Posts and New Ideas

2011-08-31T10:21:00.000-04:00

As I am trying to get this art blog off the ground as well as my art career, I know that I need to find interesting things to write about. You really don't want to hear me complaining about how I am frustrated by a painting I just worked on (seriously awful!) or that I don't make enough time for creating art. You want something more interesting. So until I actually have something to show you, I've decided to bore you to tears with some papers I wrote in college on various artists and things. I already posted one I did, about Jackson Pollock. And after re-looking at my sculpture post, I realized that I had wrote a paper on Josiah McElheny so why not share that and my other posts with the greater world wide web? Maybe someone will find them interesting.

I do hope to be creating smaller scale images of musical instruments as well as a really cool painting. I really feel like I need to start CREATING! I don't really have a large body of work right now, making it hard to enter shows and really sell anything. Most of my recent things have sold, and the rest is from college and not all of that is sale worthy. And I'm reluctant to want to sell my pregnancy drawings. I just love them so much!

So until someone hires me out, I will be working hard to create and find my voice!

Thanks for bearing with me.

United Art and Education

2011-08-29T14:15:00.005-04:00

My husband is a math teacher and I am an artist, so where do we shop when we need supplies? United Art and Education! My mother-in-law introduced the store to us last year and I loved it. There are so many great supplies and for good prices. Every time I go there I get a bunch of ideas of things I want to do, to create, to do with my children (when they are older). I find they have a very good selection of papers, which is the most common thing I buy.

My mother-in-law also took us down to a store down in Cincinnati called Suders Art Store. We went there last summer when to get bookbinding supplies and paper for when I was teaching them how to make books. The store is funny because nothing seems to be clearly marked and it's all piled up on top of each other, but the sales associates are really great and can help you find whatever you need and they actually have a great selection.

Other stores that I have shopped at in the past were Utrecht. My painting teacher took us all on a field trip up to Salt Lake City to get supplies there one time, and so did my drawing teacher. Good prices and great products available.

Of course there is also Hobby Lobby and Michaels. You got to love Michaels create your own sale coupons and deals that they have. I also think it would be fun to take one of the classes Michaels offers, like cake decorating sometime. In Utah I also went to Roberts, but they don't have them in Indianapolis. They are pretty much like Michaels.

What stores have you liked using as an artist? Which ones should I be made aware of?

*Note: I was not paid by anyone to write this post. I am simply mentioning the stores I have enjoyed using for my art supplies. That is all.