Modern Art, I Get It Now!

This appeared in LiveJournal, but I thought I would post it again here. My final exam is on Tuesday and I wonder how I procrastinated without the internet back when I was going to SAIT in 1995-97!

The trouble with living in the future is that one can't fully appreciate the past - we're too sophisticated, too informed and too accepting now. It's easy to shrug and say "This art is crap!" but a lot of modern art, at the time it was created, was amazingly new and different. We've had about a hundred years of psychoanalysis, for example, but a hundred years ago it was amazingly revolutionary. As artists broke away from conventional art styles (or, like Salvador Dali, used them to display his bizarre imagery), each step was shocking in ways an audience these days can't appreciate. Jackson Pollack, for example, was hailed for his displays of individuality in a time when Communism seemed a threat. I try to put myself in the place of a viewer from the past, but the excitement and wonder just isn't the same.

Just one more lecture class and then the final. Our essays are handed back on Thursday. We've steamrolled through so many "isms" - Orphism, Expressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Surrealism - that I feel like I'm going to come down with some sort of "ism" myself!

Paisley Peacock ACEO

Just a little guy that I have been wanting to finish up for a while. Another Mission 101 thing done too! He's also for sale on Etsy. Click for larger.




June 6, 2009 ::: Prismacolor Marker ::: 2.5x3.5"

More School Stuff

I'm almost at the halfway point of my class and it has been so intriguing. I wish it could go on forever. There is so much to learn and I'm only scraping the surface. I was really surprised by how much of my second class was made up of Japanese art. One thing that people forget is that art doesn't occur in a vacuum. When the first Japanese prints were exhibited at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851, it ushered in the era of modernity and Western artists began to borrow Eastern elements depicting time and space. Similarly, Japanese artists gave perspective a shot as well as shadows and value. It was such a fascinating class - the differences are obvious, but sometimes one doesn't know until someone tells you!

Lately we have been looking at German art up to World War 2 with a brief detour to Soviet propaganda. It's fair to say that Hitler set the design world back a good few years. In fact, there was one class where Bozenna used the word "degenerate" to describe every work. San-serif fonts, anything modern and not like "the old way" was considered degenerate. As a result, many German architects and designers, like Mies Van Der Rohe, brought their style to North America as it was hard to find work in Nazi Germany.

I'm almost finished my research paper on Franz Marc. I think it's going to be quite enjoyable...I just need one last paragraph, then fix up my citations.

Me, My Mess and My Model Horses!

I'm having almost too much fun making movies now. Here's one from a few weeks ago as I aim to clean up my downstairs work area. I'm hoping that organized will equal productivity, especially as I have a contest deadline coming up. Eek!

Back to School!

I was a woeful ball of nerves today until I actually got to class. I was walking around in pointless circles trying to remember if I had forgotten anything, and then even catching the train caused some anxiety. As Calgary Transit is a relatively poor system of public transportation, I just couldn't trust that it would get me there in time. I work just down the road from the art college, but on Tuesday mornings I'm on the opposite side of the city.

I think I'm going to like this class! There is only one assignment, a research paper, and there were lots of good topics to choose from, but I think I'll take "Option 2" and pick a painting to write about. I could pick a Eugene Delacroix or a Franz Marc - they render horses so lovingly :-)

One of the reasons I'm so enthusiastic about this class is that I think it will answer a personal question for me - "How the heck did we get here?" Modernity spans 1851-1933, or perhaps even 1945. Although there really hasn't been a time when humans have not been under stress, this period was particularly stressful due to industrialization, war, political changes and changes to the social fabric. It's going to be a fascinating journey!

A little slice of my life!

Enjoy, and please don't make fun of my Canadian accent :-)

Just Ducky! (or, Foiled by Fowls)

Today my camera and I went for a walk up to the creek in hopes of finding some photogenic specimens. The creek's banks are relatively unsafe, so I positioned myself on the bridge. The bridge was the site of a shoulda coulda woulda moment a few years ago. It was duck stamp perfect - a male and female duck floating between snowy banks, with just enough grass sticking through to mark the coming of spring. Argh!

I was just about to move on when I saw a drake riding the swift current from the north, and then I realized his mate was just underneath the bridge.





This is the only shot of the female that I was able to get. Great camouflage, eh? She was so close and apparently too close for another male's liking. He shot out of nowhere and practically landed on her tail! She and her mate took to the sky and several times they tried to land in the same general area, but this male was not going to have any of that! It was absolutely thrilling as they flew over me :-) Maybe I'll have better luck next time. This is her mate below. I was able to get three pictures of him before the second male came back around. I didn't know ducks were that territorial.