ARTC 2010 Section 3 Intro to Digital Arts

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.