Essay #5

Kari Forinash

Dwayne

Digital

March 1, 2012

Sam Webber

Sam Webber is a contemporary artist from Deep River, Ontario. Webber was born in Alaska and was raised in different provinces in the country of Canada. Webber’s artwork reflects an obsession with science fiction which fits into pop culture today. Webber describes making art as being a director and a producer because the artist is in control of what the artwork looks like.

After completing his M.F.A from the School of Visual Arts, Webber worked for the New York Times, which only added to his reputation in the art world, which uses dramatic editorial illustration work for his clients.

Webber’s art ranges from humans, animals, magical characters, and abstractions that seem to have intricate and small details. The artist usually at the end of drawing uses Photoshop for a good image finishing.

Webber’s inspiration comes from the natural world, his father who was a forester and a Canadian painter.

Webber’s artwork is often illustrated book covers. Some seem to have a photographic sense to the cover such as on the cover of Fairy Tales. It seems that Webber also illustrates for a number of well-known books such as Lord of the Flies, and Fahrenheit 451.

In most of Webber’s illustrations, he seems to use color to set a certain mood. In Lord of the flies he uses a deep dominant red with perfect white and round eyes stare straight at the viewer. In Fairy Tales, Webber uses a more feminine color scheme which the fountain and girl goes with the soft pink, the flower and what looks to be handwritten writing. This all seems to contrasts with the skull in the middle of the subject that backs up the title even further.

Webber also is active in design arts as well as graphic design, mixed media, and painting.  Most of Webbers works seem to be involved in his subject seems to be fanciful and surreal. 

Essay #4

Kari Forinash

Dwane

Digital

April 30, 2012

MFA Exhibit: Josh Brinlee

Every time I enter the MCA graduate building located down town on trolley night I immediately get overwhelmed. People are everywhere. The large gallery space makes the smallest voice sound ten times bigger. All in all I can say it is a bit chaotic. What most people like is the bustle of the artsy scene, while I like more quiet places where I can think. Brinlee’s works absolutely did not help my anxiety in the least. Here I am looking around at other artist’s works that are large in scale and others that are in the round. A lot of the works seem to be about connectivity, fragility or city life. But when I made my way around to Brinlee’s work I couldn’t help but feel more anxious and more overwhelmed.

I stood in front of what looked like renaissance paintings of a type of aristocratic portraiture. The artwork is pretty big, wider than me and placed up to the level as if the people in the frames were looking down at me. The frames were huge and white, it reminded me of a relic or a picture of Kim Jong Il. This made me think that the series represented dominance and power. The works seem to be a more modern conception of the renaissance time in the sense that the paintings seem to have a more unique aspect of women than just as second-class citizens. Maybe this is a reflection or a contrast to how women were really viewed back then. I know that often in historical paintings women were only painted in a profile view and never faces forward such as men were. Historians call this the “gaze”. I feel that “the gaze” might have some connection to do with the work as well. The feeling I get from viewing the works is belittling, I get the feeling that these people in the overly fancy frames think they are better than me.

The name of the works also gave me some hints such as “Self Portrait a Cut Above the Rest” where a woman is holding scissors as if she just cut the flowers below to put in her hat. I think that maybe I am at the level of the flowers and this person above me is taking her pick of the best flowers to kill and wear as a fashion statement.  I felt as if I was the flower, and I connected to this painting in that way. The flowers meant to be looked at as an object and I was placed as such in the painting.

I know I probably have not exactly stated all of the ideas that these pieces represented but I think that I can appreciate how I personally can connect to the works and also appreciate a work that gives me something to think about and to wonder about other than just speculating a minimalist work. I think that their works have a strong aesthetic, which I like especially for the regal qualities of the characters in it. I admit I would be scared if my teacher Brinlee really showed up to class like this, but I love the idea of placing yourself in your own work without being an everyday average portrait.

Essay #3

Kari Forinash

Dwayne

Digital

April 3, 2012

Visiting Artists Lecture Rahema Barber

Rahema Barber is a teacher at Memphis College of Art. Barber didn’t mention any specifics about her besides the fact that she is a manga fan and just came back from Japan. I wish that she did spend more time talking about more of her interest, and why exactly she went to Japan and what her interests are here as a teacher. Barber based her lecture over her trip to Japan and how the contemporary art movement in Japan inspired her and what she took from that coming back to America. The lecture was interesting for me because I did learn a few things about the art culture in Japan.

Unfortunately I didn’t find too much that could help me in class. I don’t find manga in range with my personal interest but it’s relieving to learn about something that I don’t know a lot about. I was surprised to learn there is a museum that only has manga art in Japan.  Barber told the audience about manga and the museum, showing us pictures of manga and talking about the cultural references and types of manga she saw. At the end of her manga part of the lecture, she continued to tell us how manga is an art for everybody. I found myself disagreeing with this statement. She told us a lot about Japanese culture, such as names of current time periods or groups I was confused when she brought these up because the names are so foreign and she never really explained what some names or ways of doing things meant. She really didn’t tell to much about the artworks either. I think that she read a lot from references on her laptop. This left me uninvolved in the lecture. I found my mind wandering because she kept stumbling over the words she was reading. I also wish she gave more insight of the artworks she showed, a lot of her descriptive words were “cool” and “I liked it” I think if she explained more of what the work was about and not about how popular or “cool” the artists was, I would have taken more away from the lecture instead of leaving a little bored. I did find how a Japanese museum was built was interesting, she told us about how they built in circular and out of glass to convey a sense of community for the people inside the museum. Another interest I had in the lecture was when she mentioned the artists YoYo Kasama. Although I wish she had the names on the screen so I could know what she was saying or how the artist’s name was spelled, I learned about an artist that did interest me.  Barber explained how Kasama uses circular sculptures and patterns to relay a topic of how infinity can be controlled.

Over all I found the lecture to be a little lack luster. I know I am not a lecture critic but I wish I could have learned more from the artists in aspects about learning about her as an artists and learning more about her topic of contemporary Japanese art. I wish she came more prepared with her presentation and lecturing. But inpite of the fact that I disagree with her opinion of anime and manga, I appreciated the chance at learning something new and out of my comfort zone.

Essay #2

Kari Forinash

Dwayne

Digital

April 9, 2012

Essay #1

The Baroque periods of Europe from the late 14^th and well through the 16^th centuries were important because of the characteristics the Baroque period had and how they changed art. One of the main characteristics of Baroque painting is the use of tenebrism or the exaggeration of light and dark. Tenebrism along with other qualities from the Baroque era changed art by how the painting told the viewer a story using the light and dark for not only effect but composition in paintings from all over Europe like Italy, Spain, and the Flemish area of northern Europe.

Italian Baroque was in every type of painting including still lives. A famous Painting known today from the early Baroque period is Still Life With Quince, Cabbage, and Melon by Juan Sanchez Cotan. Cotan used unusual composition of the objects to create movement, which was an important trait of baroque. The Still life also uses tenebrism to create that same effect of dramatic movement. The painting also includes phallic symbols such as the melon to create a provocative and interesting still life. The importance of this painting would probably show the commissioners wealth of food that they had at leisure.

Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish Painter who is known for his work The Raising of the Cross also uses Tenebrism to show the main subject matter who is Jesus being martyred on the cross and other important figures. The use of diagonal lines also show stong subject matter. Rebens uses diagonals and the use of triangular compostion to create perspective and make some people in the painter larger and stand out against the other people who are just providing subject matter. The painting is shown as Jesus is being raised on the cross, which is another common feature of Baroque, which is subject matter, being shown in the moment or in the midst of the action right before it happens.

Another use of Tenebrismused for strong composition is Rembrandt’s the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicoles Tulp from the Flemish Baroque in 1602. During this time paintings were often commissioned by several people who were often workers together. This painting is just that only the students of the doctor commissioned it for him to as a commemorative piece. In many paintings such as this tenebrism would be used to show the importance of the people in the painting. The main subject is well lit, Dr Tulp, as well as Dr. Tulps work the dead body. Other commissioners faces appear more or less due to how much they paid for the work or even the status of the person.

French Baroque took subject matter and tenebrism to another level in the late 1600’s. An important work of art from that time was Magdalene With a Smoking Flame by Georges de La Tour. The painting uses light and dark or tenebrism to contrast light from the candle with magdalenes face and the skull under it. The strong use of tenebrism in the three subjects draws the eye to all three and creates a dramatic compilation of symbolic references. The candle often is seen as the holy spirit or the smoke being a flame put out with the skull as a reminder of Magdalene’s mortality which she is often associated with.

Tenenbrism is a quality in Baroque that makes it dramtic, the strong light and dark creates a strong use of composition along with other characteristics from that time such as composition, subject, dramatic lines, and the use of action or being in the moment. By looking at all of the qualities, one can see how the painter meant for the painting to be viewed and how it told a story.

FINAL 5!

Final Animation

This is cool