Ornament and Pattern: In-Depth Project

To jump off what I was saying about my small works and how they pushed me Im really glad that they did because then I would've NEVER made anything like this without all of the transformations that the small works made me go through. I cant recall the last time I made anything this "clean." My work for several semesters now has been organic and I didn't think that I could make flat plains interesting, I hope I did. I kept saying to my peers that I wasn't going to be able to make anything because my patterns were bulbous and I didn't want to just make a funky shaped bag of cardboard that would sit or hang. Eventually when I stared at my wall paper long enough I saw it...diagonals drawing into space. My favorite part about this piece is that it doesn't have a front.

Just as a side note I want to make a pedestal for this from cardboard. Im going to see if it works with the piece.

Ornament and Pattern: Small Works and Exercises

This series of exercises just felt like...forced experimentation, which was a good thing! It kept taking me in and out of the worlds of 2D and 3D design and was trying to mesh them together into one. For the first time in a long time I felt like my 2D work was more successful than my 3D work in the sense that I could grasp pattern and ornament better. I couldn't wrap my mind around making such specific shapes and transforming them, instead I saw it as something flat and when I tried to bring it into my sculpture I didn't give it much depth. This really pushed me.

Pattern and Ornament: Outside Visit, Art and Design in the Modern Age &Visionary Metropolis: Tony Garnier’s Une Cité Industrielle

Maybe its from all of the reading that I've been doing but during this outside visit I felt bad for liking the ornament pieces more than the minimalist industrialized works. I find the craftsmanship in the ornament pieces fascinating and the other pieces just looked like factory work, which most of them were. I understand why art shifted into a minimalist design, Im just a sucker for fancy work I suppose. When I look at art I think to myself "Could I make that?" If the answer is a whopping YES then normally I don't appreciate the artwork as much but if it looks like something that would be nearly impossible for me to do I love it all the more. That is what kept running to my mind during my time walking through Design in the Modern Age.

I know that the part of the outside visit was Visionary Metropolis and that it is something for us to keep in mind for the future and I hope it gets addressed soon because it was a very small section but I have a lot of questions! I think I was expecting more of a Disney feel when they show you all of their visionary ideas of the future in Epcot. So I'm excited to learn more about it. The entire time I was looking at the pieces I just wondered if they were prints, drawing, or anything in between! It was less about the idea and more about the physical work for me.

Meta Assignment #1

This assignment made me think about the way I process how I process. I think I've always known that experimenting was my favorite part.

Ornament and Pattern: Readings, Why we need it, How we see it, How it works

It's strange for me to think that there was a time were ornament was looked down upon. I've always seen it as something that only extremely talented people could do and when I was younger I thought that those who made "simple" looking objects were the artists who were making "lesser art." Reading all these articles however made me feel that ornament is less about adorning something and more about just the market for artist. If an artist made an ornament that the majority could not afford suddenly that ornament was the best but if an artist made something similar that everyone could afford suddenly the object had no value. Still ornament but not treated as such. Quickly fast forwarding to the future ornament no longer was about it's symbols and meanings but we were heading into an age of design (brought to us by the Bauhaus.)

Vic Muniz took my breath away in this article! The beautiful ornaments made with trash? That was simply fantastic. It makes the viewer think about how many things we throw away when it's no longer wanted (reminded me of the the movie The Grinch with Jim Carrey) but it made me think about how ornament again just evolves and changes. Each artist had something to say with their ornaments whether it was about movement, growth, or just being playful. That was another artist that caught my eye, Jeffery Keedy. He didn't want our eyes to stop and appreciate the designs, he wanted our eyes to be running around looking for rest but not finding any. Ornament has changed but art changes constantly so why wouldn't ornament follow along beside it?

Pattern and Ornament: Readings, Ornament and Crime

Adolf Loos's article was very passionate about the destruction of ornament. Loos mentions serveral times that just looking at ornament makes him feel sick. He looks down upon it so strongly and it wasn't just about the ornament but the artist and the consumer had major fault in his eyes. He felt the artists were wasting their time but as long as there were rich people to buy it they would still make their art. For whatever reason artists create they create unto themselves.If they make ornament for money then fine but personally Loos has generalized every artist into that category without taking into consideration that some artists make ornament because it is their pride and joy.

Before I rant on Loos's take on the separation of classes I will say that I appreciated the fact that the woman who were making lace were mentioned as people who never got what they should've been paid. What they were doing was art but people did not see it as such. Shoemakers were also mentioned and how the holes in his shoes were his adornment...that is something I found kind of beautiful. Now back to the rant, Loos mentions several times how ornament separates the rich from the poor because the poor can't afford such luxury but this is a foolish statement because with or without ornament there will still be a division in class. Isn't it ok for someone who is poor to want to save up and buy themselves something that they find aestheticly pleasing? It is mentioned in the article that things that are adorned do not last as long as something simple and although that may be the case for most utilitarian  objects it doesn't have to be for everything. He even goes as far to say that an adorned plate makes him not want to eat his food. This man is clearly someone who will not budge on their opinion.

(All in all this was a very fun article.)

Pattern and Ornament: Readings, Ivins, William M. ""Ornament" and the Sources of Design in the Decorative Arts."

I don't think Im going to be the only one who says that is article was making me go back and re-read, re-read, and re-read again. It had so many layers of information with each new person, where they were from or where their art style came from,type of craft, it was just a lot to take in and process. To begin with I saw the pictures of each artist's work that was placed in the center but its just not enough for me to appreciate the intricate works that the article kept talking about. They spoke about engraving silver vessels, hand graving copper plates, how they did works on steel, and something as different as crafting a spoon. But the article itself drags on and on and repeats the same descriptions in different ways to get the point of the pieces across. It made me dizzy.

In the article it states how amazing Jacues Hurtu's work was and by the picture that they showed us in the middle of the page I did think it was pretty but not as "genius" as they described. It made me look up some of his works and although they were nice I think that the other artists mentioned, such as Pierre Marchant, did just as good of a job. While I was looking at Hurtu's prints for the most part they have a very similar lay out: something large in the center, four bold designs surrounding the center, and flower-like designs.

Honestly all these works remind me of those popular Zen Tangle books that have become super popular now. They're like coloring books for adults. The designs are intricate and use negative space and dark areas to bring the viewers eyes around the piece. I think I would've been more interested in the pieces if I hadnt seen flat drawings of the designs but rather how they looked on the plates and pieces of jewelry that they kept describing.

My favorite line in the article is at the end saying "for however much we may tug at the straps of our fashionable French boots, all that we do thereby is to prove the more conclusively the the process of certain logical types are alien to us." I believe that says a great deal on how they embrace their creativity. They're proud to think outside of the box.

Creative Impulse: In-Depth Projects, Searching

For my in-depth project I wanted to stay on the same subject of my nesting dolls since it was still connected to folk art but I wanted to push it further where the piece melded folk art and family. This piece was a bit challenging for me because normally I work in small scale, I like drawing people's eyes into my pieces by making them have to get close, maybe even a little uncomfortable. However for this piece to work (in my eyes) I had to change up the scale quiet a lot. I wanted her to have a presence that felt like it was in the background but still had a solid place in the room. Since I was still tying to achieve people coming close and interacting with my piece I gave her something small to hold so that it drew the attention into her. She is looking down at the object so I wanted others to follow her lead. I tried to use parallels between the emptiness of the figure and the emptiness of the doll which could be interpreted to many things.

My piece is about my Abuela who for several years had a hard time trying to get pregnant while both her siblings had several children. She's looking for her child or maybe at that point in her life, herself. My Abby is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet but she's also the toughest. I wanted her to look strong but delicate. Im a but of a brute and none much of my work has ever looked delicate at all so I was racking my brain for some answers. For a while I was going to present my figure without the shawl but I am so glad that I added it because I feel like it made her much more real and gave her the softness I was looking for.

Creative Impulse: Small Works, Approaching the Russian Nesting Dolls

When I was younger my brother and I would get dropped off at my Abuela's house during the summers when my parents had to work. Aside from a couple Disney movies there wasnt much to entertain myself until one day while I was exploring my mom's old closet I found an old box of knick-knacks. Among the old beenie babies, wildly colored telephones, and a strange amount of plastic frogs I found a beautiful little wooden doll. I remember running to my Abuela and asking if I could play with it since it looked like something I would get in trouble for if it broke. She smiled and told me that she used to love playing with them too and that I could go ahead.  It became my favorite toy that I kept at my Abuela's house. I loved stacking them, hiding things in them, and turning them into instruments.

As an adult I try to experience things with the same wonderment that I had as a child, it makes life more fun. When I began these small works I was planning to mimic the doll. But as I began to work with the material I realized that I wanted people to enjoy what I enjoyed about playing with the dolls.

My first figure was all about the human form that the doll took. I wanted to keep it a simple shape, giving just enough information to have it look human. The second piece was about the joy of opening the doll. I really want to work on this one more because although it is a container like the doll(which is another aspect of it) I wanted it to have more of a "pop" because I remember having difficulty sometimes opening them. The floor piece was about quantity and the fact that most Russian doll sets come in a set of 7 or 9. I actually became interested in what the numbers might mean so I looked at some numerology and felt like the numbers needed some attention. I tried doing that with the different colored tally marks but again this is a piece that I would like to look in to try and recreate with some better material. The hanging piece with the roses inside is probably my favorite because it made me have to explore my strange new materials and try to think of a way to have it talk with my already existing pieces. I looked up patterns on the shawls that the nesting dolls would wear and in almost all of them there were bright flowers(or patterns that resembled flowers) which contrast their dark cold winters. I wanted to imagine what the world inside of the doll was like, perhaps there was one that I couldnt see. I wanted to use negative space to make the viewer feel like that they were seeing something from the inside out. Lastly my threaded piece is the one that I had the most difficulty with. The idea changed several times but sometimes once you get into the art groove the piece will speak for itself. In this one I just enjoyed weaving the string and making patterns.

One thing I learned from the peer critique was that I wanted people to see the pieces in a way that was playful and would lead them through my Abuela's house starting from the floor piece up to the hanging piece. I plan on exploring different settings.

Creative Impulse: Outside visit, Ida Applebroog

Ida Applebroog's work was vastly different compared to Susan's but I still found her work to be interesting as well. Ida was a mother to four children and if that wasn't already enough work she also was an artist as well. As we all know being an artist is not for the faint of heart. I can only imagine the struggle this woman went through. Just looking at how even today people dismiss mental illness and that depression is something you can just "get over" is already enough to make me sick to my stomach for her. I applaud Ida for checking herself into Mercy Hospital, thats a big step to take. At least in the span of time that she spent in the hospital she was able to make work that in my opinion makes us question our own sanity.

I like that Ida had interactive pieces as well, those are always my favorite. Above all the pieces she made her two series of books were my favorite. They were playful but dark. They left me feeling empty and just a tad upset but not many things can make me feel that way so I was impressed. They were filled with simple drawing and short sentences but they were enough to leave an impact. I think her work impacted me so much because they were all..."hospital-esque." They made me feel like I was sick or that something bad was going to happen to me (maybe thats why I liked Susan's work more).  Ida had a story to tell and she also couldn't speak well so like Susan, she drew. In my opinion if her goal was to take me with her to the hospital and experience what she experienced then she truly succeeded.

Creative Impulse: Outside Visit, Susan Te Kahurangi King

As sad as it is to say, I don't visit galleries very often as I would like to because of work but I had a lot of fun with this outside visit. Now lets begin!

I think my entire assignment could've been about Susan Te Kahurangi King. Her art work was really fun to look at and just experience. The way she used color and repetition of characters was so interesting to pick apart. Im just a really big kid so I loved seeing all of the cartoons that she was using, it made me wonder why she chose them, I kept wondering why she was drawn to them. Her work was cute but also a bit scary to me. Some of the shapes that the cartoons took where ghastly, at least to me. However, I was still drawn to her pieces and was engrossed by her use of negative space. On a side note Im not quite sure who decided on it but I loved the way Susan's work was displayed.

Above all her story was what impacted me. A lot of my work has to do with silence and protecting those who cannot speak for themselves and then I come to find that Susan stopped speaking around the age of five...but she drew! How beautiful is that? She found her own way to communicate what she was feeling. I admire her parents for keeping her work so pristine. Susan used to be an outsider artist (maybe she is still considered one although I wouldn't agree) but I feel like now people are beginning to give her the attention she deserves.