Drawing Guest Speaker

I felt that this guest speaker had a very interesting approach to his artwork.  His art bridged all different types of media while keeping the strong theme of African American art throughout them.  His work in video took scenes from movies like Foxy Brown and distorted them using a mirror filter on them.  This created abstract images while keeping the general theme presented in the clip intact.  The emotion for the Foxy Brown piece was fear.  This was supposed to symbolize the fear after the 9/11 attacks in America.  His paintings used digital photography in an interesting way also.  He took images of famous African American figures and created their silhouettes in bright yellows, reds, oranges, and purples.  These colors help to relay the concept of African culture.  Another series of paintings he did had printed out black and white images of Famous black figures with the same yellows reds oranges and purples, painted lines leading to the figure.    This created an interesting composition because for the most part the figures were fairly small compared to the brightly colored lines, creating an interesting juxtaposition.  Also the fact that the rest of the canvas was a stark white created a jolting and sterile feeling surrounding the figure and the lines.  His third series of paintings took out the colorful lines and had a much more ridged and docile feeling to them.  They usually were comprised of a white canvas with a single black line only turning at 90 degree angles.  Then somewhere in the painting there would be a black and white print of some historic African American moment.  I recall one that had a picture of a Black Panther meeting.  I personally felt that these were the most developed of all his paintings.  The images were very carefully placed on the canvas.  The pictures were in theme with the line in that they were about the same thickness as the line and would match up with an angle of the line somehow.  However, the line as an entire mass was considerably larger than the picture.  This created an unusual dialogue between the two subjects.  There was one massive figure that was simple and monotone, and then a much smaller figure that had a wide range of black whites and grays and was very detailed. 

2 Altered Photos

Online Gallery

egon schiele

egon schiele

Jeremy Fish

Retna & El Mac

David Choe

Pose

Pose

Sam Flores

Swoon

PMA Part II (Soothsayer's Recompense)

What drew me to this painting is how it is executed and the context in which it is displayed.    The room is filled with paintings abstracted by cubism and brought to life by a wide range of vibrant, highly saturated colors.  A perfect example of this it Pablo Picasso’s Three Musicians.  The bright color pallet and jagged geometric shapes are in stark contrast to the muted colors and comparatively simplistic composition of Soothsayer’s Recompense.  When compared to its neighbors, this painting kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.  Like I said before, this painting has a very muted pallet.  The yellows seen in the arch way, the shadows cast on the ground, and the train station in the background have all been brought down in saturation to a very dark mustard color, in some areas nearing gray.  Even the highlights on the white statue have been brought down with some yellows.  Meanwhile the shadows cast on the statue are a yellowish brown.  The horizon is also a yellow towards the bottom and then as it progresses towards the top of the canvas it turns in to a deep greenish blue.  I think these colors had a major role in attracting me to this painting.  Not only does this pallet stick out among its counterparts, but it also created a strong and uniquely subdued mood and tone for the painting.  This painting reminds me of when I would visit my granduncle down in San Antonio with my Grandparents.  When I look at this painting, I see a similar pallet to that of the desert area in San Antonio.  I am also reminded of the vast emptiness of my granduncle’s ranch, I see this mimicked in the barren space in front of the train station and surrounding the statue.   The room does not really smell like anything. There is probably a dehumidifier or something to keep the paintings from being damaged so the smell is not really having much effect on my interpretation of the painting.  While in the museum I did not hear any conversations about the piece from other people however, I feel that there was a conversation between me and the piece.  When looking at it, I wonder “Where is that?” the piece responds with the palm trees and what appears to be clay buildings native to south western America and Mexico.  I also ask “what’s going on with the wind?” If you look at the flags on the top of the building and the smoke from the train, they are both being blown in opposite directions.  I wonder “What is going on with that clock and why are there only 11 numbers on it? Is this some type of dream world or a real place that has been tweaked by Chirico’s mind?” As far as scale goes, this painting is a similar size to the other ones in the room (about 50 inches X 70 inches).  I feel that the painting benefits from being around paintings of the same size.  That way the subject matter is what makes the paintings stand out as opposed to how large or small a painting is.   

PLace

Fair Use

Does using another artist's work alter the value/meaning of the original?

Does reproduction of an image matter if its not for personal profit?

Does copying an image and posting it illegally make it more powerful?