ARTC 2010 Section 3 Intro to Digital Arts

Here are my ten.

Heidi’s work is distinct that is for sure. Her style is detailed and blends classical style with more vogue, modern ideas. She’s not only distinct in her execution, but in her subject matter. Few artists can connect the present with the past like Heidi does. She has taken myths and history and blended a new modern look to them. Heidi’s compositions almost all look like they should have been made during the renaissance, because of their classical style, yet there’s no denying the difference between a work made in renaissance times and a work made in the modern world.

Heidi’s painting and style identify her with a more philosophical crowd. She puts new spins on old age ideas to provoke their  points once more. Throughout her work she shows inward attributes of characters outwardly, and this is what defines her style. In her artwork she is stating that the things we do we are. Perhaps not a philosophy I take part in, but it makes for great visual art.

I was attracted to her work, because of the detail and craft that she uses in her art. She not only expresses a point, but does it with precision and detail. Plus her creativity tips her over the edge of an average artist. Above all I am attracted to her painterly capture of her ideas especially the mechanical ones.

Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven’t time – and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.

If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself – I’ll paint what I see – what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it – I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.

…Well, I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower – and I don’t.
– Georgia O’Keeffe

While searching for information on Georgia I happened upon this quote on this website: “http://www.artcyclopeia.com/artists/okeeffe_georgia.html” and I think it sums her up pretty well.

Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings convey a feeling of deepest intimacy. Vibrant colors and beautifully abstracted flowers make up a bulk of her work, and the neatness that is in her work is enviable by even the best artists. There is an evident expressive quality that makes her work stand out, and an irrevocable beauty as well. Her compositions explode with energy and grasp the viewer, because of how incredibly expressive her style is.

Identity is a theme in her pieces, even though if anyone were asked to sum her work in one word the word would most likely be “beautiful”. However that beauty comes forth from a character in the artist. The quote I included at the top of this blog describes her trying to relate what she sees to the viewer. Artist many times try to explain who they are through their artwork, and Georgia does a wonderful job explaining herself.

Personally, Georgia O’Keefe’s work touches me, because of her intimate approach to her work. She is painting the delicacies of a flower, which is a very beautiful, elegant, soft, sweet smelling and fragile plant. When she paints a subject that introspective with such detail, cleanliness and emotion she figuratively makes my heart stop. There is such an emotional quality to her paintings that is not evident in any other artists, and I enjoy her paintings for that endlessly.

Above are the paintings that Guiseppe Archimboldo is best known for. His creative style uses the lighting that was familiar to renaissance paintings, while his creativity is unleashed by creating portrait faces out of foods, plants and in some cases animals or inanimate objects. These types of collages are entirely unique to him, and highlight his expertise, as well as creativity.

The earthly feel to his paintings convey nature, and mankind as a part of nature in a beautiful way. Instead of man conquering nature or taming it Guiseppe shows a harmony that mankind has with nature. Even though mankind may be top of the food chain hist paintings illustrate man as made up of many other parts. Vegetables and fruits as well as animals add to the point that man has a distinct symbiotic relationship with these items. Archimboldo embodies his portrait studies literately, as what they eat or things that sustain them. Taking the physical features of an item and translating them into similar parts of the human body clearly juxtaposes both parties that are being combined. Similar physical characteristics lead the mind to wander about asking, “What other characteristics do the two separate things share with one another?” In other words Humans and Vegetables combined into one work makes me wonder what do humans and vegetables have in common now that I see them as one being.

Guiseppe’s work intrigues my mind mainly because at first glance I thought he was a modern artist who worked with computer imaging or something relatively similar to it. Upon further inspection of his bio and his paintings I found out that he is quite old. Born in 1527, Guiseppe was a renaissance artist working in the old fashioned oils. Oil paint when used as masterfully as Guiseppe uses it translates worlds of “WOW!” to me. While most all his other contemporaries were working on simple portraits of people he was working away with creative juices that none had tapped before him. Archimboldo is probably one of the first artists to be defined by his creativity rather than his shear skill, as well as being one of the first misunderstood artists. The portraits that he painted speak loads more about himself than the people who are in the paintings, and that intrigues me to endless wonders about how his mind worked. I relate to him because of his style that breaks conventionality with grace, ingenuity, and creativity.

Morton Heilig was a cinematographer best known for his imagination concerning virtual reality. It amazes me that he thought up such a concept so early on in the century when computers were only beginning to flourish. He created a device that came pretty close to virtual reality called the Sensorama Simulator. Another one that he invented was the Telesphere mask. Both these devices immersed their patrons into a world that was sensuous beyond anything that had come before.

He interests me, because his inventions look so extravagant that they are almost laughable. However they look so close to anything that we might imagine virtual reality would look like. I’m peaked incredibly by his foresight.

Morton Heilig Died in 1997 at the age of 71. He didn’t pursue virtual reality any farther, because of the high costs of machines made them near impossible to sell. In 1971 he made an award winning film titled “Once”.  Also he wrote many idea books that focused on fantastical ideas. However he fades out of history after his Sensorama failure.

WWII hosted the first computers directing artillery fire with their computations of battlefields etc. Originally computers were a tool used only by the government for narrow purposes: Experiments, Mathematical Informational Tool, Quandary, Etc. Soon they were used to transmit information from one place to another in seconds, and later they were introduced into the art world. However it was the creation of the personal computer that made it a dominant medium in the art world. Many people saw the computer as a fantasy dream world where anything was possible, so they worked at making their wildest dreams come true through it. This view is completely different from the original view of the computer, which was as tool to achieve an end in the real world.

Art has always been a passion of mine, and has continued to be one to this day.  When I was young I satisfied my expressive urges with artistic bouts, that is until my expressiveness overflowed what art could contain. Gaping I was subject to emotional pains that I would not quench with a physical experience. After much fighting and dragging of my feet I came to find Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Similar to how C.S. Lewis put it I was, “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England,” minus the England part. Perhaps I wasn’t that opposed to Christianity, but I certainly wasn’t for it in my life.

Yet…

As I grew to Love my Savior and Lord and understand who he is, was and will be my conversion took on a new face. This new face could not help delighting in my God, and there was a distinct transformation that people noticed. In Acts 1:8 there is a scripture known as the Great Commission. The Great Commission is Jesus telling his disciples that after he leaves that Christians will receive power and be witnesses of Christ to the world. People noticed my conversion and bore witness to the change which bore witness to my God.

From that time on I decided that all I do should glorify God, and art is no exception. As I express myself I hope that it bears witness to my God to the point where I no longer express myself, but express my God. Art has always been at the heart of culture, and in many ways set the norms for society. Being an artist, I hope to add to the culture, and being a Christian, I hope to change it.

Jesus has long been the solution and I hope to point to him with every breath that I have.

My Portrait

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