Collegiate Level writing is expected in this course. Below are samples of excellent work for this course. Note the style, the content and the format of each document.
My friends and close acquaintances know me as (name), I am 19 years old and am starting my second semester at MSJC. I am a framing apprentice in a local art store and hope to turn an abstract art interest into a tangible craft. I plan to transfer to UCSD next semester as an Art History or Studio Art major (still haven't decided!) My goal in life is to become an art teacher, marry my girlfriend (a 22 year old high school English teacher) and spend our summers together in various picturesque locations around the globe. Its a daunting task, but I am up to the challenge. I really look forward to the assignments and what this class has to offer me. I have no problem with on-line classes and hope to help the other students.
Criteria for excellence:
1. You get to know something concrete about the student.
2. He shows a positive attitude about being here, a KEY to success in anything, and
3. He's able to put words together in a coherent manner.
(Student Name)
Artists of Brucke
A theme in German expressionist prints is particularly interesting because of the type of art they represent. The exhibit presented by the Museum of Modern Art in New York is wonderful and very interesting. The artists that have their work on exhibit include:
Ernst Ludwig Erich Heckel Emil Nolde
Max Pechstein Otto Muller Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
As I was going through all the artists and their works I found two that fascinated me right away are:
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
(1884-1976)
http://cs.wcsu.edu/upb/rottluff.html
Die Brücke or "The Bridge."
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff is a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group. He was a prolific printmaker, with 300 woodcuts, 105 lithographs, 70 etchings, and 78 commercial prints. I was drawn to this woodcut because of the straight and curve lines, his eyebrows, the shapes of his eyes how they are placed, the long nose, and the very strange shape of the hand. To me this is a very interesting piece of art.
Hermann Max Pechstein
(German, 1881-1955)
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2002/brucke/
While surfing the MOMA site I found this particular artist very interesting because he was so influenced by Henri Matisse. The piece that I picked out from his works is the Dialogue 1920. Here he used the woodcut medium in colors. A fine, bright impression in black, ochre and blue on laid paper with full margins, signed and dated in pencil. Old tape stains at the edges of the sheet along with minor nicks and small repaired tears, all away from the image. The subject is two nude female figures, full length, in discussion on a stylized beach. Many of the lines and design are reminescent of Matisse's use of flat styles in his paintings.
Criteria for excellence:
1. No cutting and pasting, but written from the first person ("I" sentences).
2. Descriptive terms from the first chapters of the text on design elements and principles.
3. Links (active in the actual document) to the images.
(Student name here)
Multi-Media Sunday
As my wife and I readied ourselves for a beautifully planned day of multi-media viewing the sun was rising from the east revealing a beautiful contrast of beauty which consisted of: lush green velvet carpet hillsides with a mosaic overlay of white, yellow and purple spring flowers, a crystal clear blue sky and the surrounding mountain ranges (San Jacinto, San Ingornio, Palomar, and Big Bear) outlined in the horizon which revealed their majestic beauty with their snow-capped peaks. The storm on Saturday not only dropped snow on our mountain ranges, but wreaked havoc in the desert with gusting winds, as we found out from the art exhibitors at the La Quinta Art Fest.
We departed from our modest gentlemen’s Mountain View Ranch early with the temperature in the low forties to begin our winding journey down St. John’s Grade to the cities that were displaying an abundance of art enrichment by multi-media presentations. Upon entering the cities of Hemet and Beaumont we could see how low the snow level actually was which provided a splendid back drop of the houses with snow on the roofs and hill side with just a mild dusting on the ground.
Reaching Beaumont we decided to have breakfast at Denny’s with its big logo of a sign (yellow backdrop with red letters) restaurant, which is normally where we have breakfast before resuming our travels. We entered the semi full parking lot and found a place to park easily. Emerging from our warm vehicle we were greeted with a cold blast of air that chased us into the warm restaurant. My wife and I had a great breakfast while chatting with each other and listening to the chatter and bustle around us. We finished our breakfast and it was time to get back on the road and head to our destinations. Leaving Beaumont behind with its mid- thirties temperature we departed on Interstate 10 to the warmth of the desert.
The traffic was very light and allowed us to proceed without any difficulty. As we started to descend to the vastness of the desert we were first greeted by warming fifty degree temperatures along with the awesome windmill farms which are utilized for production of electricity. There are row after row of different sizes and shapes of these mighty machines with their propellers spinning which presents a new type of artistic desert subject matter. I wonder what type of an impression this would have made upon Artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Our travels have now brought us to the outskirts of Palm Desert and the new construction of commercial buildings that have utilized a color scheme of light sandy brown and green so as to blend with the landscape (sand and green shrubbery).
We are now entering into La Quinta and the Arts Festival looking for the free parking, but are unable to find the location. I spotted a parking area close to the Festival which cost five dollars which put us close to the exhibition. The only drawback was that the lot was slightly muddy and rather lumpy and bumpy in spots. As we left the vehicle with slight traces of mud on the bottom of our shoes, I was thinking; hopefully this mud is dried up before we leave, because if not, I will be vacuuming my wife’s car out. (It was)
My wife took a picture of me near the entry booth to the festival (attached picture 01- Festival Entry) before we paid our entry fee of $10.00 each. We were both very excited about what was forthcoming and having the pleasure of viewing along with the opportunity of speaking with the artists. Upon entering the festival, I was taken back by all the white tents and art work that provided a visually stunning setting. There were many different types of art displayed such as: Drawings, Fine Crafts, Jewelry, Mixed Media, Paintings, Photography, Print-Making, Sculptures, and Textile. I was overwhelmed as where do we start? I remembered your advice about starting slow and above all enjoy yourself.
We decided to start walking down the pathway and let the artwork of interest dictate to us which artist I would like to interview about the media that was utilized. The media of interest was Textile, Knife Painting, Sculpture ( Rock, Paper, Scissors), and Drawings in Graphite Pencil.
A Textile item by Artist Philonese Baisden of Black Canyon City, Arizona was one of the first to draw my attention (attached picture 02-Textile Item) the medium was deer skin that went through a special process (would not give up secret) with fringes that were hand cut, and the designs were drawn using acrylic paint thinned out. I was also curious as how she decided as to what design to use. Her response was; the designs come to me spontaneously and sometimes I will look through books with designs. I was curious of how long does it take to finish an item? Her response was; there is no time table, it’s completed when it’s done. A time table would take all the fun out of being an artist. On the back of one of her larger cards she writes the following: “The art created, be it a painted canvas or a six foot soft sculpture, comes from a place larger than life; much larger”.
It was hard find a link for artist Philonese, but this one I believe gives up her secret with the processing of her fiber Medias.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:JjTOoeZ7Hb4J:www.acnv.org/documents/press/ImagesAZ%2520-%2520December%25202006.doc+Artist+Philonese+Baisden&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us
Our next artist of interest was Linda Lee and K. Kinman that produced unusual art work by using painting knives to transfer acrylic paint to the canvas instead of using a brush. This type of painting is referred to as Canvas Transfers which is a lithographic poster image that was chemically removed from the paper. This allows the image to be transferred to canvas allowing the artist to add color and texture using painting knives.
The painting knives come in different shapes and formats. The biggest difference is the bend in the handle which helps to prevent the artist dragging their knuckles into the wet paint. The flat edge of the knife is normally used to scrape in shapes of color and the point is great for scratching in detail or laying down tiny bits of color.
Kinman Studios: www.kinmanstudios.com
Wet Canvas: http://www.wetcanvas.com/Articles2/30792/514/
Painting Knives: http://painting.about.com/mbiopage.htm
We were very fortunate to only have to take a couple of steps to admire Artist David Bjurstrom magnificent usage of Graphite Pencils. He was using this medium to fill in a horse leg of one horse that was with a group of three others in an open field. He also allowed us and others to take his picture, (picture attachment 03- Artist David Bjurstrom) as long as the picture didn’t break our cameras. He was very humorous and willing to explain what his procedures were. Just for the short time we viewed his artistic work; he must have used at least three different shades of pencils for an area of approximately one inch on the horse’s leg.
David Bjurstron: www.BjurstromStudio.com
Last, but not least the sculpture Rock, Paper, Scissors was the favorite for my wife. The media used for the rock was bronze, paper; it appears that the scissors media was copper. What attracted her to this sculpture was the size of the scissors. At first, neither she nor I could figure out all the subject matter, but as we read the explanation plate below the sculpture, it all came together. (Attached picture 04- Rock, Paper, Scissors)
Kevin Box: http://www.outsidetheboxstudio.com/
http://www.nationalsculptorsguild.com/artist_box.htm
By this time it was close to noon and getting warmer so we decided to visit the refreshment area and get something to eat and drink. We then found a table in the Entertainment and Rest Area to relax and enjoy our food and drink. From our table we were allowed a gorgeous view of the pond with coy fish and ducks that were being fed by Festival patrons. We were also entertained by the wonderful violinists Malcom Watson. (picture 05-Violinists Malcom Watson)
It was now time to leave this beautiful Art Festival and head to our next destination, which was to view the Artwork of John Lennon in Palm Desert. His artwork was presented by Yoko Ono “Come Together”, and was being shown to help benefit The Desert Aids Project.
The studio was easily found without any parking problems. Before we entered we made a donation toward the purpose of this showing. When we entered this gallery my wife and I were very impressed with what we saw. John’s primary medium was line drawing, either pen, pencil, or Japanese sumi ink. The artwork in this exhibition consisted of lithographs, serigraphs, Beatle Lyrics, Solo Lyrics, and copper etchings hand reproduced from the original drawings. We were not allowed to take any pictures of the exhibition. Now it’s time to move on to the Palm Springs Museum.
John Lennon: http://www.johnlennonartwork.com/lennon_art.html
The Palm Springs Art Museum was easily found and again the parking lot was rather empty which provided no issues with parking. My wife Carol took a picture of me in front the museum with a beautiful water landscape behind me. (Attached picture 06- Ed sitting in front of museum)
The admission was $12.50 each which was well used during our visit. As we started our tour my wife mentioned to me that it smelled rather musty. We finally figured out the smell was coming from, The Patrick Dougherty, Second Sight 2007. This smell was generated by the assembly of willow and poplar saplings, sticks and braches. (Attached picture 07 – Carol and Second Sight 2007)
Patrick Dougherty: http://www.stickwork.net/
We then focused at interest toward the Western and Native American Art. The Cahuilla baskets were of particular interest and the medium of which they were constructed. One eye catching design was the black swastika which stood for good luck and it symbolized the circle of life: birth, growth, parent and death. There are three different types of basket forms used: the flat basket which held food and was used to gamble in, the round basket held grain, fruit and seeds, and the last type was more spherical then the last form and was used mostly as a gift basket.
Cahuilla Baskets: http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/indian/basketry/Cahuilla.html
We were fortunate to view paintings by Pablo Picasso (pictures not allowed) that numbered approximately ten. This is the first time that I have ever seen paintings by Picasso and I was rather taken back by the style he used. Heads and hands were overly large and out of normal character, but it was an honor to stand in front of paintings of such a famous artist. The paintings that drew my attention were Spanish 1881-1973 which was an etching edition and Spanish 1881-1973 Head of Man which was oil on canvas.
Pablo Picasso: http://www.picasso.fr/fr/picasso_page_index.php
Pablo Picasso: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso
I was also drawn to The Blown Glass (End of the Day #2 – 1996) with Steel Armature that was constructed by Artist Dale Chihuly. The multi-colors fascinated me and how they all came together. What really amazed me is that all the glass was configured and blown by one person. (Attached picture 08 – Blown Glass)
Dale Chihuly: http://www.chihuly.com/glass.html
It’s now time to head home after a very busy and exciting day spent viewing Artwork of so many professional Artists. Upon arriving at home we were greeted by a beautiful sunset that ended our Multi-Medial Sunday journey. (Attached picture 09 – Sunset)
Criteria for Excellence:
