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