Rhinoceros from Durer to Stubbs Response

On May 20th 1515, the Lisbon ganda  was the first of its kind to arrive in europe. Ganda is the name for rhinoceros in Indian (Gujarati). With its presence came its major impact on art. Inspiring Albrecht Durer's woodcut which later will be looked at to be a valid image in german schools in 1948.

Even though Durer had never seen the rhinoceros his attention to detail was on point. So much so that it was replicated and placed into future artists work. I found it interesting the different variations in style describing the same creature. Some of them were cartoonish then went to detailed similar to the original.

A People's Art History of the United States Response

The reading was interesting, history has been something i like. reading about how some moment of photographs can be staged/faked changed my importance of a photograph. It made me appreciate the sincerity of how it was taken.  To some extent i knew as far as manipulation its feasible, but not in the case of Edward S. Curtis.

Infamous to a certain extent for staging his pictures of Native Americans. Even though they were presented nicely, it was there mannerisms and positions that made them lose their life. However in Richard Throssel's case, his renditions had the aesthetic and movement in each picture. but if you were to see all three you could barely tell the difference,

What Is Comic Poetry Response

"..It is by their syllables that words juxtapose in beauty."
-Charles Olson

Poetry and comics go hand in hand, both being a walk inside of the artists/writers mind through there representation. Poets as Andrew Rothman writes about  are rooting around in the language toolbox devising ways to break and reinvent language. Comics on the other hand are just the visual version with juxtaposition. I loved the way Rothman used the army cannon to show how we put ourselves into the image, describing the fire off and reloading of the weapon.

Rothman uses his broad definition of both poetry and comics to sustain a openness of expression for the form as possible. His intention was to show how the cumulative goal of comic poetry, is to present itself as work that draws upon the expressive potential of visual language. Though illustration that is based on poetry is seen more as embellishments rather than comic poetry. The balance for comic and poetry is the tricky part the one thing that emphasized Duplication is dead weight.

Green Dreams Response

The garden is described by Robert Harbison to be built on the idea of contrast, originating as "a attempt to recapture something, but the form it finds for the act is that of a mental picture". The two forces go against each other with in the garden transforming it. Moving between the man made appearance and the natural, the eventual evolution is what is prized.

The most interesting garden i read about was the Stowe. The way Greek temples were thoughtfully placed for the viewer to have a mental road map.I liked how the scattered temples around the area open the viewers visual intake as well, like the Congreve monument was a little island that lured you to examine the terrain. The Grecian Valley is a rolling farm field built in the area closed off at the top with a Greek temple. It was nice to see the natural movement of a gardens evolution.

Ornament and Pattern

  One thing that I pulled from this article is that "patterns are essential" . This article introduced a complex yet accurate way of looking at ornamentation. Like the Oliver sacks suggestion that we are "hard wired" to see patterns.  The article gives great examples, I liked Ela Cindoruk's work the dollies with the newspaper clippings. The weirdest one which was the chair that looked like it was growing out. Those Brazilian designers killed it .

  The six themes that were explained in the article were : Amplification, Elaboration, The Everyday , Inheritance, Kit of Parts , and Fantasy. The toast with the delftware pattern was so cool. I liked how it meant to savor your meal. Now after reading this is paying attention more to the patterns and the way people use ornamentation.  "Orno means to equip or to adorn in Latin ".

Why There Is No Such Thing As "Outsider" Art (Response)

The separation of artist are touched upon in this article. Jerry Saltz shows that there are great artist that are considered "Outsiders". His comparisons to Bill Taylor and Picasso was something that stood out to me. I then compared the two and they share similarities for there training background. Jerry Saltz touches on how these artist are looked over when they hold some of the best artwork for years.

Saltz plead that the museums should change the separation and integrate the looked over artist. I was surprised to see the artist that we researched were in the article. Something that also stood out to me was how women weren't able to become "great artist" because of there lack of training. I thought it was dumb that women couldn't be great artist because of there view as being pure. When they got so much talent it blows my mind.

White Bird By John Berger (Response)

The wonder of the white bird is thought provoking. this piece holds secrets that can be connected to the nature around us. The author describes the soaking and sizing for the wood in such detail that you could see in constructed in your head. Our momentary sense of wonder is examined in this article. Looking into how a wooden bird can change a perspective through its mysterious creation.

Something that stood out to me , was the author's concept of beauty being dependent on the community. The author says "the range of what a given community finds beautiful in nature will depend upon its means of survival, its economy, its geography." I thought about how everyone's background changes there view on the world. how we can be different personally but we all retain that innocent sense of wonder. 

"The language of art is and attempt to transform the instantaneous to the permanent."

-John Berger

WARP First Post

WARP First Post (please title your first blog post the same as this one)

Hi Class, 

Please copy and paste the following text to use as your first blog post. It will also serve as a reference for you when organizing and labeling your blog posts:

Labels Help You Organize

All blog posts must be labeled with two keywords, which blogger calls Labels. When faculty visits your blog for evaluation purposes, we will use the labels to quickly find your work. If you do not use the keywords properly, we will not be able to find your work. Proper set-up and maintenance of your blog falls under the Research and Participation part of your grade which counts for 30% of the overall semester grade. 

Topical Keywords

The first set of keywords correspond to the module we are working in. We will refer to these as topical keywords since they correspond to the topic we are exploring over the two-week periods. Your first group of posts will be labeled under Topic: Creative Impulse since this is the first topic (Topic #1). Here are the topical keywords you will use through out the semester:

Topic: Creative Impulse

Topic: Pattern and Ornament

Topic: Rhinoceros

Topic: Narrative

Topic: Landscape

Topic: Zine

Categorical Keywords

The second set of keywords will organize your posts according to kind. Here are the Keywords you will use for Labels:

Exercises - tag for posts documenting all assigned exercises. The first one will be the paper folding exercise from the first class. 

Readings - tag for posts containing your two paragraph responses to the assigned readings. The first ones will be for "The White Bird" and the Jerry Saltz article from Vulture.com. 

Small Works - tag for posts documenting all assigned small works. The first blog post labeled Small Works will contain images and accompanying descriptions of the three small works you complete for the Creative Impulse Module (Topic #1). 

In-Depth Projects - tag for posts documenting all assigned In-Depth projects. The first blog post labeled In-Depth Projects will contain images (or video if appropriate) and accompanying descriptions of the more robust work you produce in response to the Creative Impulse Module (Topic #1).

Outside Visits - tag for posts containing your two paragraph responses to all required visits outside of the classroom. These include visits we do together as a class [during class time] or individually outside of class time. 

Please be sure to use both a topical and categorical keyword when labeling your posts.

Next Steps

1. After copying and pasting this text into your first blog post, create your labels from the keywords we listed above. In the Edit post window you will find an area titles Labels where you can add your own custom labels to your blog. This is where you will add the keywords we listed above. Please be sure to add all keywords to the Labels window for this first blog post. 

The easiest way to do this is by copying and pasting the following text into the Labels window for this blog post:

Topic: Creative Impulse, Topic: Pattern and Ornament, Topic: Rhinoceros, Topic: Narrative, Topic: Landscape, Topic: Zine, Exercises, Readings, Small Works, In-Depth Projects, Outside Visits

Here's a screen shot of what that looks like, and where to find Labels when editing a post

2. Now you are ready to create and label your first post. This will be the post for your in-class paper folding exercise. 

It should include a photo of your paper exercise and be labeled with the following two keywords: Topic: Creative Impulse, Exercises

3. Once you have complete all the above steps, please email a link to your new blog to me at: lambert.nwsa [at] gmail [dot] com. We will link your blog to the Art Unfolded blog. 

Looking forward to a great semester!

Don