Creating a website.

Creating a website is so much harder than we thought when we took on this assignment.  We wanted to make it amazing with maps, calendars, lots of pictures and slideshows, and it we definitely took on a lot.  It's finally coming together, but only after hours of trying to figure out technical things.  Also, the writing seemed like a lot less than it actually turned out to be.  Creating this website was deceivingly hard, but as soon as we're done, I know that it will be fantastic.  The four of us work very well together and we'll definitely pull it off and make the best website in the class.  I'm confident that all of the technical things will work out, though they're still being difficult...

Celtic Thunder!

Yesterday, I got to go see Celtic Thunder, a musical group from Ireland.  They aren't so much a band, as a group of performers, the kind that you might see on PBS occasionally.  I must say that they were absolutely spectacular.  The quality of their performance was beautiful, including everything from the lighting and sets to their perfect voices.  They sang songs to please everybody, from their traditional Irish songs, some even sang in Gaelic, to covers of popular American songs, including Viva La Vida by Coldplay.  Each of the men has a different style of singing and a completely different voice, so each of their solo songs were completely different and they were picked to suit that particular man's voice.  It was a fantastic performance that caused the audience, the majority of which was over the age of 60, stand, scream, and cheer as if everyone they were at a Beatles concert.  It was amazing, to say the least.  I wish that it had never ended.

Videogames as a form of art.

As you've probably noticed, many of my posts aren't really about conventional art forms.  Today, I was playing my Wii and I started thinking about how beautiful the graphics are on some of the games that I play.  I'm a huge fan of Legend of Zelda, and in Twilight Princess, the scenery looks almost real.  As your character swims underneath the water, the sunlight glances off the surface and ripples across the lake floor.  Sometimes I get so captivated in the game that I think I'm watching a movie.  The PS3 and Xbox are very competitive to get the highest definition in a game, and those really do play like movies.  The graphics are so realistic that it's as if you are talking to and often killing real people.  Many gamers get so sucked in that they will play for days.  Videogames are becoming more beautifully created with every passing day.  Soon, virtual reality will be a reality and people will not know the difference between a game and the real world, except that the game will be in HD.

Digital Artwork

One thing that always sticks out to me when I see it is beautifully down digital artwork.  Artists will take so much time and effort to create something like this, and many people may not see it as true art, but I do.  This piece is by Adelle Lorienne, a favorite artist of mine on deviantart.com.  Each painting that she completes takes her around 50 hours or even more, placing layer upon layer to form beautiful details.  It astounds me that someone can bring something like this to life by sitting in front of the computer for hours on end.  But in truth, digital painting is key.  There's no mess, it's easy to erase your mistakes, and everything is very simple to use.  As these technologies continue, we will have a whole generation of digital artists to emerge.

Titian Exhibit

Today I went to the Titian exhibit at the High and it was absolutely beautiful.  I thought it was interesting how Titian thought that sketches and drawings were a means to an end, so he never did much to keep them pristine like his paintings.  That is why there were so few sketches in the exhibit, and what they did have were faded or slightly crumpled.

My favorite pieces were the Diana paintings.  While I was there, there were high school classes visiting as well.  The guide for their group asked if someone could tell a story as to what was happening in the painting.  One girl suggested that they were getting ready for a wedding or fancy event.  As it turns out, a man had just intruded on Diana and her nymphs, and Diana became furious.  The painting was supposedly picturing the scene just before she changed the man's body into a stag and let him be ripped apart by his own hunting dogs.  The other painting showed her fury when she found that one of her nymphs that was sworn to a life of chastity had become pregnant by Jupiter.  Each painting there was based off of a religious figure or mythological figure, which I found incredibly interesting.

In the permanent collection, the High has a lot of statues that resemble traditional Roman and Greek statues of different gods, goddesses, and people, which were the subjects of many of Titian's paintings and sketches.  Also, many of the paintings are similar in a way too, with many of the same subjects, especially the religious ones.  

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibit, and would like to go back on another day when there aren't a million loud high schoolers there.

"This Is Not A Puppy"

This piece of art was something that I found in my favorite coffee shop, Jittery Joe's in Athens, GA.  When I saw this, I immediately thought about the painting that Mrs. Bremm had shown us of a pipe with the caption "This is not a pipe."  I thought it was interesting to find a modern day version of this famous painting, by a folk artist from a smaller town like Athens.  Athens has a large folk art scene and has for many years.  I just thought it was funny and interesting to find something from such a small time artist that reflects such a famous painting.

Visual Essay

Working on the visual essay was really hard at first, especially trying to pick a topic.  My theme changed about 5 times before Sunday night before I presented I settled on one in particular.  My photos changed constantly, and I started out with over 100 which was definitely too big of a number.  The actual presentation of the project was pretty fun.  I feel like I did well, and it was really interesting seeing everyone else's, especially the one about cars as public art.  I loved that one.  Except for finding the actual pieces of public art, it was a fun experience.  Finding these was so difficult, and one would think that oh, Atlanta is a big city, there's bound to be plenty.  But when you don't have a car and are limited to a very small area, there's next to none.  Overall, I enjoyed the project much much more than the first essay we wrote.

Furniture as art.

So, I went to Ikea earlier and I really enjoyed walking through and looking at the different pieces, trying to put them together to create a beautiful room.  Granted, I grew up with artistic parents, but it was really fun.  My boyfriend and I have already picked out everything that will go into our loft apartment that we'll probably never be able to afford.  There were just so many different options and styles to put together.  Some of the rooms that were set up were very modern, while others looked like a nice country kitchen, and some had a very retro feel to them.  The one thing that is so fun about creating a masterpiece with furniture is that the beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.  Each person's personality is different and they can choose many different pieces to go together to make a room work.  My style would be more modern, and it was so much fun going through the Swedish furniture store and picking out things to create my dream home.  I can't wait to do it for real.

Musical Theatre

I was watching The Producers today, and I realized how many different art forms musicals have within them.  First, there's drama, which is the main one of course, but they also include dance, which I've talked about in my blog before, as well as singing, and of course physical art when it comes to the sets and props in the play.  While watching it on film is completely different from seeing a play or musical on stage, they share the same elements of art within them.  The costumes, lighting, and sets are all part of the physical art aspect of the play.  Everything about a musical is full of art, and it is all pulled together beautifully to create a masterpiece.

Writer's Block

I know this doesn't have to do with a topic in art, but I'm having a bit of trouble with finding one.  We've written so many blogs now, over so many different topics, that I seem to be having trouble coming up with new and interesting topics to write about.  As the semester drags on, I feel work from my other classes piling up, so it's so much harder to find something to write about for English.  I've written about public art, museum art, dance, etc.  There's so much to talk about, but I can't seem to think of a new topic.  Does anyone out there have a suggestion?  Something interesting.

Netherworld...

So, I went to Netherworld Haunted House on Saturday night.  This haunted house was rated #1 by many magazines and is known nationwide for its terrifying atmosphere.  Really what I want to talk about is the theatrical make up.  These monsters are put together by professional Hollywood make up artists and it's just amazing how realistic, and scary, these guys look.

This image in particular has three characters I'd like to talk about.  The goblin guy on the left had a special talent.  He would run and drop down to his knees, skidding across the road and he would make sparks fly up at peoples' feet.  To me, he wasn't scary, just so cool.  The girl in the middle... Oh how I hate her.  As soon as we got to the haunted house, she ran toward me, and my boyfriend had told me not to show fear, or they'll flock to you.  I stared her right in the eye and she started toward me specifically.  The way she ran... I can't even explain it.  It was very jerky, and she was surprisingly quick.  It really was like a horror movie where you couldn't get away no matter how fast you ran.  I finally hid, and she got right up in my face with that blank stare and she shook her rattle at me, making me scream.  I hate little girls in horror movies...  The man on the right, the mad doctor, was in the second haunt called Dead Salvage.  I got so scared after going through the first one with vampires, gargoyles, and ghouls that I couldn't bring myself to go to Dead Salvage.  If it's anything that would really scare me to death, it's human on human things.  I don't mind demons and vampires, but when it comes to people mutilating other people and pulling guts out and things, I can't take it...

Overall, it was AMAZING.  Please go.  You'll love it.

Complaint

Taylor and I went all over a huge chunk of Atlanta, including the CNN Center, Centennial Olympic Park, the aquarium and the World of Coke and all the areas around them.  Granted much of the park was closed for a private event, but it is SO HARD to find public art in Atlanta.  Not even the graffiti is good, which is disappointing because we're in a major metropolitan area.  Besides a couple of fountains and a statue of the guy at the World of Coke, there was hardly anything.  We'll need to go again, because we couldn't find 25 things to get good pictures of.  Ugh... Why is it so hard?

Public Art Dawgs

I know this is GA Tech, and we hate UGA, but I figure the public art isn't technically part of the university.  In Athens, they put up different bulldogs, each painted something different.  If you've ever heard of the cows, I think they're in North Carolina, it's the same thing, just Georgia Bulldogs.  They were painted by different local artists around Athens, which has a huge folk art scene.  Many are sponsored by local businesses, including Jittery Joe's coffee (yum!) and Athens Regional Medical Center.  Each bulldog is unique in its design and they can be found all over town.

The Carmen Mirandawg happens to be my favorite, just because of her ridiculous eyelashes.  There were 36 dogs created in total, but many have left to go live with Georgia fans.

Dance

When I was little, I wanted to be a ballerina, like all little girls.  However, my mom was a ballet teacher and owned her own pre-professional ballet school.  I started taking lessons when I was 3 and never really appreciated it as an art form until I became a teenager.  Now, I see classical dance as an expressive form of art that takes true talent.  I realize that professional dancers train for years, working all day every day on perfecting their talent.  While I loved dance, I wanted to be an engineer, so I focused on my studies, but dance was always something that I loved doing.

In my opinion, ballet is one of the most boring things to watch as a dance style, unless it's an allegro.  However, when you see a ballerina doing something, anything, slowly, you see each and every muscle work.  It takes so much time and effort to hone the abilities needed to be an amazing dancer.  When you watch a ballerina perform, just the things she can do are amazing.  The flexibility and strength they must have is amazing.  When it is put together with choreography, a beautiful piece of work is created.

I love dancing and always will.  I love to perform mostly.  Something about being on the stage and getting to show off is more fun than you would think.  The more I write this blog, the more I want to go back and take a ballet class.  Also, I'm going to brag.  This is me when I was little.  Like I said, I've been doing it for a long time. I'm the one on the right.

And I'm on the left in this one:

Dance has always been a part of my life and with my mother as my ballet teacher, I grew up learning about the greats and going to the Russian ballet.  This art form has always been a part of my life, and it will be for years to come.

Teefury

I know a lot of people have already talked about how clothing is a type of art, but I just wanted to mention the best website ever, teefury.com.  At this website, they have a different design for a t-shirt every day for $9 and if you don't grab it that day then it's gone forever.  The styles range from anything you can possibly imagine.  Some are more thoughtful and artsy, while some are ridiculous and just fun.  In fact, most are ridiculous and fun.

 

 

Many of their artists make spoofs on Star Wars, videogames, famous bands, and many other things.  They are whimsical and fun shirts and I have to log on every day because I know I'll miss something amazing if I don't.

I just want to mention my favorite photographer that I've ever seen.  Her name is Rachel Loux and I've known her since she was a baby, so I know when I say that she is incredibly talented in many forms of art.  She always catches the perfect light at exactly the right angle to take beautiful photographs.  She also knows the secrets of editing, not to change the image completely, but to enhance the beauty that she's already captured.

I think this is definitely one of my favorite photos by her.  I was with her the day that she took this picture.  We were driving through downtown Athens after she had just bought a roll of film for her camera.  This one actually doesn't have any editing done to it.  The lighting was just that perfect.  I've always admired her work.  We've been friends for so long, so I'm sure that helps, but she's still an amazing photographer.

Too Much Time On Your Hands?

Today I would like to talk about a few ridiculous ways to use duct tape.  We all know that duct tape fixes everything, but did you ever think that you could create bags, flowers, even dresses and tuxedos out of duct tape?  I started playing around with it and I can make different roses and flowers, but I've always wanted to create an elaborate prom dress out of it.  After looking through the pictures, you'll see that they're simply amazing, but it must take SO much time.  I wish I could have a duct tape prom dress...  It would take me a year to make and it wouldn't look very good probably, but if I could have one, I would.  It would be a masterpiece!

Optical Illusions

I've always been fascinated with optical illusions, especially hidden image stereograms.  With these, if you focus your eyes a certain way, an image pops out at you.  They always intrigued me as a child and I would find the image then find the glitches in the pattern that would make the image pop out to me.  Here are some examples.

If you look closely enough here, you can see a dinosaur.  You have to get very close and cross your eyes before backing away slowly as your eyes focus to the image.

Here are some great illusions just like the one above.  If you can find the hidden object, you'll have a lot of fun looking at the ones in this gallery, just as I did.

Dali - Las Meninas

When I went to the High last week to find my painting to write an analysis on, I found a small painting at the beginning of the exhibit that caught my eye.  As it turns out, Dali idolized Diego Valezquez and Las Meninas was one of his favorite paintings by another artist.  He had painted his own portrait of one of the dwarfs in the original painting.  It was whimsical and strange, much like the rest of his work, but I was surprised to find something like that.  I also found that Dali was good friends with Andy Warhol and Duchamp, who famously placed a mustache on the Mona Lisa.  I just found it interesting.

Imitation

In Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag, she spoke of Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle and their views on art as imitation.  For Plato, art serves no purpose and is only an imitation of the representation of an idea.  You couldn't eat a painting of a bowl of fruit or sleep on a sketch of a bed.  It was useless to him.  Aristotle believed that it was useful in the sense that it could relax the mind and was pleasing.  I believe that art can be imitative and I agree with Aristotle in the sense that it is relaxing and therapeutic to enjoy a piece of art.  One brilliant artist comes to mind when I think of art as imitation.  Each time I look at a drawing of hers, I think that it's a photograph, and it amazes me.  I can't help but stare at her pieces for long periods of time.  Her name is Nicolien Beerens and she is from the Netherlands.  She has drawn many of her favorite actors and sent them her works and they've been amazed, which is expected, since she is, in fact, amazing.  When she draws, she captures every detail, including wrinkles and each hair in a man's five o'clock shadow.

Graphics

Last night, I watched the original Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time.  It occurred to me as I was watching it that in 1984 when the movie came out, it must have been absolutely terrifying.  The mass amounts of blood and Fred's burnt face were pretty scary back then, but now a lot of teenagers, including myself, have laughed at these graphics and animations.  When you think about it, people 25 years from now will be watching the Saw movies and laughing at them just like we today laugh at Fred Krueger.  I, for one, will watch a movie from 20 or 30 years and think it cheesy and stupid, but it almost makes me sad when I think that when I'm my parents' age, I'll show my kids something like Avatar and they'll think that the animation is jerky or poorly done.  Peoples' tastes, technology, and artistic styles will change very quickly and over the short time of just 20 years, some of today's most amazing films will be silly and outdated.

3D Sidewalk Chalk

Every child loves drawing on the sidewalk with Crayola sidewalk chalk, and so do a lot of people here at Georgia Tech that want to advertise for clubs and meetings.  The most exciting images I've ever seen on a sidewalk can only be looked at correctly from one angle.  They create three dimensional images and scenes when looked upon, and they are quite the sight.

This artist is Julian Beever and he has created many of these chalk drawings that are simply amazing.  When I think about how long it would take to create something like this, it blows my mind.  To be able to do it, he has to visualize what the piece would look like and have to draw it from all angles.  From the wrong angle it looks something like this:

But when you see it like it is meant to be seen:

His works are whimsical and entertaining and anyone passing by on the street corner can see them.  He does it because he loves peoples' reactions to his drawings, not for money or for fame.  My favorite thing about this is that he does it because he loves doing it.  His ideas are always so creative as well.  he does a lot with things falling into holes in the sidewalk and they're always entertaining.

Trip to the High

On Thursday, August 26th, 2010, my wonderful roommate Taylor Kavanaugh and I decided to have an adventure. We set out as soon as we were back from our morning class routine, heading to the MARTA station. We had spent almost the entire day beforehand planning out our route, figuring out which stops to get off and on at, and of course, figuring out where exactly the High Museum of Art actually was.

As ready as we thought we were, we still had some difficulty.  It started off decently enough.  We hopped on the Tech Trolley and followed it to the MARTA station after asking the wonderful bus driver where it would be.  As we drove by she yelled back to us that we were there and before we got off the bus she gave us plenty of information and an information hotline for MARTA which ended up coming quite in handy during the day.

As we stepped into the station, we tried going through the gates, only to realize that they wouldn't open without a Breeze Ticket, so we spent about 15 more minutes trying to figure out how the ticket machines worked.  After I was able to purchase my ticket, Taylor turned out to be one nickel short.  We both searched our pockets and wallets and purses and neither of us could find a nickel, though both of us had $20 bills.  Finally, I found a $1 bill and handed it to her so that she could pay for her ticket.  She now owes me one dollar.

As we descended into the bowels of the train station, we were mystified and terrified at the same time.  It was dark, dingy, smelly, and ridiculously hot to be underground.  We waited for about 5 minutes, constantly checking the map to make sure we would be getting on the correct train.  When we finally did get on the train, Taylor was also terrified that we wouldn't be able to get off in time, seeing as the doors were only opened for about 30 seconds before the train would zip away.  We made it to the Arts Center and nothing ended up going wrong.

When we left the MARTA station, I wanted to go one way, but Taylor insisted that we go out the opposite side, which put us on the wrong side of the station.  We had to rely on my superior skills of direction to find the museum, but they did not let us down.

We entered the museum and were stunned by the first room.  It had different lounges, chairs, and bookcases made from the most unconventional of materials and made into strange shapes.  We were intrigued and were dying to sit on at least one of the chairs.  One was made of glass and metal pipe pieces.  Another was made of nothing but scrap metal.  There was a lounge that was just a tube of metal, and another that was honestly indescribable. As we moved up to the next floor, the pieces became more playful.  My favorites included a chair made in Mickey Mouse's image, as well as a screen of algae to hang from the ceiling.  There were beautiful lamps made from feathers and a lamp that was a floating cloud that really moved and shifted form.  They were beautiful and, dare I say it, heavenly.  Many of the works had me smiling and looking in awe, such as the lamp that would inflate when the bulb was turned on, and deflate when off.  However, there were some things that were in the exhibit that were hard to understand as art, such as a toaster, a vacuum cleaner, two bottles of water, and an oil can.  While their designs were unique, they were hard to classify as artwork.

When we had spent our time in the exhibit, we made our way to the gift shop to see if we could actually purchase the things that we had seen.  While they didn't have any vacuum cleaners or alarm clocks for sale, the did have miniatures of some of the chairs that we had seen.  As much as I loved them, I wasn't going to pay $700 for something that could be Barbie dollhouse furniture.

What is art?

For me, art is about expressing oneself, whether that expression has to do with recreating something that exists already in the form of a still-life or portrait, or if it has nothing to do with the viewer and is just splatters on a canvas.  All art comes from what is inside a person’s mind, and all people are different, therefore art is whatever the artist wishes to express.  Of course, not everyone will agree or enjoy it, but it is still art if the artist was able to express his feelings, views, and life through the creation.

This piece of work is a perfect example of an artist's expression.  Why a fairy riding a magical bunny?  Who knows, but the artist known as "stressedjenny" certainly did express it well.

(As a note, this work is not mine and all rights go to stressedjenny)