Self Portrait

1. I chose these pieces because the two are simple easy to follow, and the third is probably what my self portrait will look like, very abstract.
2. I chose pencil because I think that in the past I have had the most luck creating the image I wanted to with pencil. Also I can erase if I make a mistake or do not like the final product.
3. I am not very good at drawing or artistic so it took me awhile to get my picture to actually look somewhat like me. I just tried multiple times and had to erase a lot.
4. This piece represents me because it was modeled after my face and represents who I am to the world.
5. I used the elements and principles of lines, texture, value, and form.
6. I did like this project even though it was challenging. I tried my hardest to create something that looked like me, and I wish that I was a better artist.
7. I think that it is decent, the best I could do with my limited artist abilities. I went the more abstract route because I knew that I would not be able to create a realistic portrait that someone would actually think resembled me.

Art Critique

1. I reviewed "The Beauty in Darkness" by Mary McDonough, "Dimensions of Dance" by Bateson-Brown, "True Beauty of Nature in Darkness" by Pavel Belavus, and "Chasing Storms" by Megan Land.

2. I chose "Black Art" because I thought that the topic was interesting as well as controversial and I knew that I would be learning about art and historical events while I reviewed the project.

3. I did not always know what to say about the works of art or how to convey my thoughts and emotional reactions in writing.  I focused on listening to my inital reaction to each work and why I think that I felt that way.  Also, by using the descriptions that the creator provided that helped me to convey my thoughts in to words.

4. I think that it was a good learning experience because I could look at the work they created and their final product, in the eyes of an art critic but also in the eyes of a student.  By creating the project myself and knowing what the other student's went through helped me emphasize with them and see their project in a different light.

5. I would like to read what was written about my project because I think that feedback is always good and necessary for improvement.

6. I would say an 8 because I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to say and how to say it.  I could have used more elements and principles but I focused more on my emotional respones and the overall quality of the presentation.

7. I did enjoy this project.  It was a great way to find works of art and see how different themes emerge.  By looking at projects by my classmates I learned to look at art and descriptions in a different way, and through the eyes of others.

Reflection

1. What were you expectations for this course and where they met? I wanted to learn more about art and how to look at art in a different way. I learned a lot more than I knew before, I do not feel like I could go out and critically asses a piece but I did learn a lot.

2. Now that you've been through this course, What is art? How would you define it now compared to your initial posting? I still think that art is a way for people to express their feelings to others without words.  I do not still think that art is always meant to be visually pleasing, but that it is meant to convey people’s inner thoughts.

3. Who was your favorite artist in your original posting and who is your favorite visual artist now? If there is a difference, why do you think so? If you have the same favorite artist, why do you think so? I still like Salvador Dali because his works make you think. The objects are recognizable but still unique and they make you think about why they are created the way they are.

4. Now that you've completed this course, how do you feel about taking an online course? Is your answer the same as it was in your first posting? How is it the same or different?

I like taking online courses because you can work at your own pace and learn the material in the best possible way for you.  I do like a classroom environment though because even though it is hard to get motivated to go to class sometimes, being in class makes you pay attention and learn all the materials and do the work.

Reflection Journal

During this process I learned a lot about how to create an art exhibit and all that goes in to it. The color of the walls, the lighting, everything matters when creating an art exhibit. I learned a lot about looking at paintings objectively and explaining the materials used, and the style as opposed to simply saying whether or not I like a painting. I expected the slideshow to be difficult but it really was an easy process once I got going. ArtStor was an amazing resource and my presentation would have been so much harder without it.

Module 15

1.     Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T.J Clark: In this video Clark discusses how art criticism came to be and the issues that surround modernist painting.  Clement Greenberg’s career, his influence on areas of art theory, art journalism, and the philosophy of aesthetics are all discussed in his video.  The Colonial Encounter: Views of Non-Western Art and Culture focused on The Paris World Fair which took place in 1900 and ran for 8 months with 15 million visitors.  Half of the area was centered on French Imperialism and the other half represented other nations’ colonies.  I did not know much about the world fair or the extent of time that it ran for so that was interesting for me to learn about.

2.     The videos were informative for my understanding of the concepts but not so much to my project because the concepts really did not have a lot to do with my theme.  I would have liked to see more examples of art criticism and more areas of the Paris World Fair.

3.     They helped me understand somewhat more about art criticism but I did not learn an exorbitant amount from the videos.

Week 13 & 14

1.     Lowdown on Lowbrow: West Coast Pop Art, I learned that Lowbrow culture is a response to high brow culture, it is more of an artist created concept, there really is no way to define works of art that are lowbrow, and refers to people who have poor or no taste. 

In Displaying Modern Art: The Tate Approach I learned that the artwork in MOMA from 1929 on was displayed in chronological order and described different art movements.  Also, the entrance to Tate Modern was created in 2000 as a home for Tate’s collection of international modern art. 

Bones of Contention: Native American Archaeology: I learned that during the United States genocide against Indians their bones were collected to be studied and tens of thousands of Indian bones have been collected to be studied. 

And Mind: Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art: I did not even know who Philippe de Montebello was before this video but I learned that he was born in France and was the director of MOMA for 31 years, which meant he was the 8^th and longest director.

2.     The videos were not that beneficial to me because they discussed concepts that I did not choose to include in my project.  However, the style such as lowbrow and some of the techniques that were discussed on how to present artwork could be useful to me.

3.     I definitely learned a lot from the films.  I did not know about anything the films talked about before I watched them.