Art 101-Week 3

This week we were introduced to Michael Salter, a well-known commercial artist. He started his presentation by telling us stories about his childhood and how those experiences lead him to the person he is today. One story in particular took place when he was in grade school. A new pair of Nike shoes came out and they were known as the  “it” shoes that everyone had to have. Michael did not come from a very wealthy family so he could not afford a pair of these shoes. Before going back to school with his old pair of Converse, Michael got the idea to make his shoes stand out by painting them. Sadly they ended up being a complete disaster and he still had to wear them to school. I think that this story showed the beginning of Michaels journey to becoming the artist his is today because even though the shoes the shoes did not turn out the way they were suppose to, he created a piece of art that was unique.  

I enjoyed how he talked about his career and showed us many pictures of his artwork. I was shocked to find out that he had such an amazing job designing images for huge boarding companies like Billabong and Quicksilver. I was also surprised to find that he quit working for those companies to do what truly made him happy which was producing images of whatever wherever he wanted. This to me makes him a very respectable person because he put his passion over money, which is rare to find now a days.

The reading we had to do this week was much more enjoyable than last weeks because it was in comic book form. It was titled “The Vocabulary of Comics” and talked about how pictures, words, and icons are literally the vocabulary of comics. It also talked about the idea that even the simplest icons such as a smiley face can be relatable to. “The fact that your mind is capable of taking a circle, two dots, and a line and turning it into a face is nothing short of incredible” (31). Which is completely true because our mind has the ability to look at something either familiar or unfamiliar and find similar characteristics within it so we can make it relatable to something we know and understand.

I think the idea of simplicity really relates to Michael Salter’s work. One thing that Michael stressed was that he loves to ask questions about things that he sees. He asks himself “What’s my relationship with the things I look at?”  With Michael’s work he tries to make them simple and leave the viewer asking questions such as “Who made this? What does it mean? How does this relate?” In “The Vocabulary of Comics” chapter, it says “By stripping down an image to its essential meaning an artist can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can’t” (30). I love this quote because I think it directly relates to Michael Salter’s artwork, especially with the collected of faces that he created. They are so simple and yet they make you look and think and relate.

I chose this image because I thought that it embodied both Michael Salter's and the reading ideas of simplicity. It really made me think about the photo and ask questions which is something Salter stressed to do. 

 This photo was taken by Lucy Ridges

Art 101-Week 2

This week in class we had a guest speaker named Laura Vandenburg who talked to us about drawing. She started out the class by saying that drawing is “a distinct human activity as a way of communication.” I thought this idea was very interesting because I had never seen drawings as a mode of communication until she brought this concept to my attention. Looking at maps and cave drawing for directions and story telling as modes of communication was a very new way of experiencing art.

I also liked how Laura pointed out that many ideas start with drawing and that drawing is a preparation process for almost any forms of art. Sometimes I like to paint, and before I start I always sketch out the shape of objects and where I want things to be. It turns out this is common with pretty much all artist. For example, Vandenburg showed us a few slides of some of Michelangelo’s sketches where he practiced drawing various body parts and angles before painting them.

Laura showed us many slides of drawings that ranged from doodles on notebook paper, to gunpowder on a wall, to barbed wire hanging from the ceiling. Now my understanding of drawing before this lecture was that it is anything done using graphite, ink, or charcoal on a surface. Boy was I wrong. What I learned from Laura was that drawing is basically anything that makes a mark in society.

The reading for this week Art Theory For Beginners was fairly long and a bit hard to follow. The main idea I got from it was understanding how the idea of art has evolved over centuries and how certain artists and movements have been responsible for those changes. The reading talks about the different periods of art such as surrealism, futurism/vorticism, expressionism, and modernism.  

My favorite part of the article was when it talked about Marcel Duchamp. I had never heard of this artist until this class and he has definitely become one of my favorites because he really has tested to boundaries of what art truly is and can be.  I love how he says that “choosing and presenting, rather than making, was the prime act of the artist” (P. 109). I like this quote because I believe that art is more intriguing when the idea behind it is unique rather than how the work is executed.

Looking at Margaret Kilgallen’s work, I really like the feeling that her artwork gives off. To me I get a retro vibe when looking at her paintings, which is a style of art I enjoy. A quote of hers reminded me of something Laura Vandenburg said in class on Tuesday. “I like things that are handmade and I like to see people's hand in the world, anywhere in the world; it doesn't matter to me where it is.” I remember Laura saying that she loved drawings because you can see how the human hand and body moved when making the pencil strokes and something about that made it real.

I thought the Art Theory For Beginners article easily related to Margaret Kilgallen’s work when it talked about Bells formalism of high and low quality art. According to him “High Art which was serious, complex, beautiful, and elite, and Low Art, which was frivolous, sentimental, cheap and popular” (P.116). Most people believe that graffiti follows the guidelines of low quality art due to the fact that anyone can do it but Kilgallen thinks of it as a beautiful way of networking.

This is a picture that I found online of graffiti artwork. It reminded me of Margaret Kilgallen when she talked about graffiti art. It’s very simple but still made me stop and think about it. It also reminded me of when Laura our guest speaker was showing us slides of drawing pouring onto the floor.