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.