Downtown Presbyterian Church!

Visiting the downtown Presbyterian Church was quite an expereince. To have a "themed" church or a church decorated in a certain theme for a certain purpose is an interesting and foreign concept for me.  We have been discussing and reading in class how places of architecture give off certain feelings. I deffinately felt dwarfed when walking into this church. There were high ceilings with clouds painted on top to give the illusion of the sky, as well as width and depth that gave the space a very open feeling. I could image that sounds of worship in this building would carry well throghout the space. The church was also very stimulating, there were lots of color and decoration throughout the architecture of the church. For example, the stain-glass windows were decorated in an Egyptian theme with symbolic representations of ancient Egypt, such as blue water droplets symbolizing the Nile River. Another example was the illusion that the columns continued even after the actual 3D stuctures ended because of the trompe l'oeil effect of the painting on the wall. The temples of ancient Egypt were massive in size and were filled with rows of continuous columns. There were many geographical shapes throughout the architecture as well, reflecting ancient Egyptian decor. The actual site for the church made the inside of the church more intriguing because from the outside the building has the characteristics of a church and sits in downtown nashville among towering skyscrapers. No one would know that inside the church is another world, reflecting that of ancient Egypt. As far as the colors go, there were many, including: green, yellow, blue, red and more. The lighting in the church was someone dark, since it was a large church with only side windows, which were stain-glass. However the light that did come in through the windows was very beautiful because it came through the different colors of the window, which included bright blues, yellows, greens and more. The preservation of the church throughout time has been done well. The man who was there to show our class around mentionted that some of the paint it the origional paint from when it was first painted. Overal this expreience was very interesting and intriguing to see. I am glad that we visited this church because I probaly would not have known this existed otherwise.

Art Review from New York Times!

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was an 18th century German sculptor who is said to have had mental disturbances which came through in his art. Fascinatingly 19 of his sculptures have been grouped together for a show at the Louvre and travels from Paris to New York. The title of the show is “Franz Xaver Messerschmidt 1736-1783: From Neoclassicism to Expressionism.” Messerschmidt was a sculptor from a young age and by the age of 18 was admitted to a Fine Arts Academy in Vienna. He specializes in busts and portraits of people. He has even done a few busts that are self portraits. His portraits have captivated many over time because of thier extreme expressions. When asked by an interviewer once where he had drawn inspiration he admitted that there were spirits that tomented him and if he did sculptures of them it somehow helped the "spirits" stay subdued. I picked this article simply because the faces captivated me and I wanted to read more and learn more about what the faces were. This artist was known to be a bit crazy mentally and seems to have had disturbances that could not be subdued or reduced to simply nothing or something everyone experiences. Whatever his interactions were with "spirits" or however he was feeling or whatever he was seeing he made amazing sculptured busts of human faces with expressions that draw a viewer in. There is deffinately strong form, line and shape in his sculptures. The expressions in some of them are simple captivating and fun to look at. I enjoyed running into this article about this artist because in fact I had seen the peice before that I put up here but did not know who did it or about the artist so I'm glad to know now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/arts/design/17messerschmidt.html?_r=1&ref=arts

Work of Arte: The Nana Ziggurat

We talked briefly about the Nanna Ziggurat and I was captivated by it in a way. I am interested in places of worship and places were people hold religious ceremonies and traditions. In ancient times they were very much one of the central places of which a community surrounded. The ziggurat is pretty massive in size. It is made out of sun-dried mud brick. This place was also intriguing because it was a center for administrative activities in the city. This place obviously had political and religious significance and was the supposed place where the mood god had chosen to dwell. As far as aesthetics go it was a very solid structure with a sturdy and strong look to it. The walls are slanted upward so that the rain does not pool on the brick and become eroded and damaged quickly. From the appearance it almost looks like a war fort or something of the like. What is interesting is that the foundation has been built upon many times. Over time due to erosion the community would rebuild right on top of the foundation giving it a layered effect. The last time it was built upon was to reconstruct what it would have looked like back when it first existed. I found this aspect of the ziggurat very interesting because when I went to Israel this summer that is what they would do to the stone buildings and community structures there also, they would build upon the foundation after the top part had eroded away. I find that aspect to be quite symbolic of old structures. There is a foundation which is never taken away or destroyed but built upon year after year, which is sort of how history goes, as well as art, there are foundations and principals which will never leave and will always remain, but one part of history or art may fade away or crumble overtime, or even perhaps get lost but it is build upon nonetheless.

Collage!

               My collage has a simple layout. I love simple things in life. I chose a path in some grass to represent a journey which I believe every person is on one. The 15th avenue house represents where Belmont is at as well as the street I live on. There is a house, representing community and the house I live in. There is a picture of a family with the order of birth that my family has and we always went to the beach so it was a good representation for family. There is also a plane which represents that I love to travel and experience new things. The sea creatures in the sky represent creativity. I am the parasailer off the boat and my friends are on the boat, having a good time with me. Everything is relative to history because over history houses, planes and boats have changed and are more relevant to today’s time. The tree also represents history, my history; it is growth over time as well as roots. The world today is open to creativity so I feel that is represented as well in my collage. Art is important to me so I feel it’s simply represented by my creativity and fun I had in creating this collage.




• Decisions: I chose to do a simple layout because it was the first layout that came to me. Also I like simplicity so it fits me well I think. A couple of decisions I made were to have a “sea themed” sky, for two reasons: that being I kept finding excellent sea images in my magazines as well as I love the sea and think the sky and sea are very similar in ways. I chose dirt from the ground to incorporate as well as a little house, family cutout and drawn 15th avenue sign to represent where I live as well as Belmont.

• Color: I chose basic green grass color cutouts for the grass, a painted light blue sky and a white sun faded out to yellow as the main color components. Obviously they work well together because these colors are often found in nature together naturally.

• Light: I chose the sun as my light source. I love the sun and feel it’s symbolic as well. It’s a constant in ever changing times. The light fades out from the sun into the sky

• Texture: Other than the texture found in the cutouts as well as the painted clouds, there is actual texture found in the dirt path. I used dirt from outside my house.

• Volume: There is weight in the tree mainly. I tried to find good tree cutouts that would give the tree texture as well as depth.

• Line: There is implied line between the people on the boat (friends) to the parasailer(me) as well as implied line from the sea turtle and other fish that goes off to the right as well as in the opposing lower corner implied line and direction from the plane flying off my poster to the left.

• Space: There is a foreground which includes the grass and path, which leads to the background which is divided by the horizon line. In the background the house appears smaller in relation to the path in the foreground

• Scale: The creatures in the sky as well as the sun are the largest objects in the collage. The sun is ever present it rises and falls everyday constants are important to me in my life. They keep my grounded. Also I put the sea creatures in the sky to be creative and I love creativity. It is really important to me and who I am.

• Symbolism: The four symbols are: The tree which stands for growth as well as roots, the house stands for community, I live in a community house with 5 other people and it’s important as well as shapes me, the path which represents a journey which I believe everyone is on one that lasts their whole lives, and the fourth is the plane which stands for travelling and being free to leave places as well as go places.

An Article on Dali and His Later Work

ARTICLE FOUND AT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/arts/design/03dali.html?pagewanted=1&ref=design

The article I read was from The New York Times website and it was about Dali and his later work. The article made an interesting statement about Dali and the comparison between his early work and his later work. The article explored the statement that is widely shared among the art world: that Dali's earlier work was a great deal better and included more genius than his later work. It stated that the comparison between his later and earlier work was like comparing apples and oranges. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has an exibition up of Dali's later work in order to try to show that although different, his later work is still entirely creative, interesting and worth while to look at.

I would have to agree with the article although over time artists and lose their initial creative genius in their work in order to please a higher instituion set in place by society such as fame, money, or the media I still think their talent is what got them there in the first place. He has impecable technique and skill in his work and that shows through in his later work as well. His work is interesting and often times has so many components to explore. If I was in Atlanta I would go to this exhibition.

Starry Night by Van Gogh

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh becomes more and more interesting to me everytime it is discussed. What is fascinating to me is that when he was a painter he was nothing, but now that he has come to past people consider his work as genius. One of the reasons why this peice has increasing interest for me everytime it is explored is becuase of Van Gogh himself. Put into context, he was a very poor, disturbed and depressed artist for his artistic career. Someone mentioned in class that he even ate his paints, which I didn't know before. In other words he was in a rut and somewhat desparate for the basic human necessities such as food. In earlier years of talking about this painting I learned that Van Gogh painted this while at an asylum in the 1880's. The painting includes a view of a vibrant night sky looming over a nestled village in the hills with a tall cypress tree to the left. With such a strong composition and vibrant use of color as well as Van Gogh's uniqueness it is not suprising that this peice has caught so many eyes.

There are so mnay strong elements, and that is another reason for talk and admiration in the artist world. First is his strong use of color. There is so much blue and darker cooler colors in this picture but Van Goghs use of accent colors as well as his placement of highlights (in the stars and moon and lower part of the sky) as well as his shadows (in the hills, a bit in the village and in the cypress tree) are quite complementary of one another and provide for a very pleasing aesthetic expereince. He also has a very strong use of texture. He has chopped brush strokes and thickly applied paint of various shades in one are. The texture is intriguing and creates almost a peaceful movement, often found at night. His use of line is well balanced with the horizontal skyline, and the verticle tree. The skyline is not boring however, but made interesting and full of motion with the swirls and curves. Space is done well with around 1/3 the painting being the village and land and 2/3rds the sky. The moon and the tree balance each other out as well as the stars sky are nicely spaced.

Overall Van Gogh is nothing less thank a very expressionistic painter. The peice is intriguing and so is Van Gogh as an artist.