Vincent van Gogh and Cuno Amiet

This week, we had to find an artist (or artists) and research why that artist made the art that he or she made. Then, we had to create a piece of art to accompany how the artist made their work, but do it in our own way. That is, do it in a way pleasing to ourselves, not the artist who would have made it. I chose to do a combination of van Gogh and Cuno Amiet. Here is a very brief description of my PowerPoint presentation on the two artists: Vincent van Gogh was unsatisfied with academic art and created many paintings that portrayed realism, but not shown realistically. Instead, he emphasized realism with his color choice. Also, he used color to portray his own mood and emotions about things. Then, I transitioned to Cuno Amiet, a Swiss Expressionist painter. He was inspired by some of van Gogh's and Gauguin's work when he attended the Pont-Aven school in France. Amiet was inspired by their use of color. Thus, he got very excited about color and learned to use it freely and for his own happiness.

Naturally, I decided to do a painting for my accompanying art work. I painted my maternal grandparents. I used more naturalistic faces and everything else had broad, not naturalistic strokes. I wanted to emphasize realistic faces because 1) I prefer naturalistic painting of people because I love the painterly quality of something that is shown to be realistic and 2) I wanted to emphasize the importance of their face imagery by not having them be made of blurred strokes of any sort. Then I used colors that I like and that show my own mood/emotions towards them. I used pink for my grandmother's shirt because she has breast cancer, yet she is beautiful and vividly bright in life. My grandfather has a green shirt because I think of him as a pretty tranquil man and it went with the mood of the garden scene I set for them. This garden scene is a memory of them in my grandmother's garden at our dacha (Russian summer home) in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The surrounding color is a bright yellow, which I think of a happy, sunny summer day-- like the many I enjoyed during my visits there over the years. Then it sort of fades out to a darker shade of yellow to show that they are distant to me.

Grotesque/Under the table

For this Surface Research project, each student picked from two piles of random cards. One card contained an adjective and the other a location. Mine were grotesque and under the table. Using the words on our cards, we had to create a piece.

I cut a wooden panel to the size of the space between a table in an AFO classroom, painted it black (because when I think of grotesque, I think black), and drilled holes in it. This board created a peep-hole space under the table. Then, I creeped on Facebook and took all the images of my classmates' faces and distorted them on Photoshop (to make them grotesque). I printed the new images on photo paper. Then I attached the images to a large piece of cardboard that I also painted black. This final cardboard piece, combined with my wooden panel, created an enclosed space for my images. I attached Christmas lights inside the space to illuminate the images in their totally dark space. My final product was people approaching my piece to peer into the holes to see what they might find inside-- grotesque images of themselves.

Complete work viewed from outside

Uncovered piece

Uncovered piece

View inside of a hole

Another view inside of a hole

Whole piece uncovered

Project Based on College Major

For the latest Surface Research project, I had to create something for the major I plan to go into. My major is Fashion Merchandising, so this project was more of a challenge, but I really enjoyed it. I created a bulletin board that a possible fashion merchandiser would have, while incorporating my own organizational  tactics and specific areas of interests in the career. I included a style board because many fashion merchandisers work as magazine editors who make magazine pages like that. I also included a personal invitation to a Versace fashion show. I handmade the envelope and designed the card. I also included fashion illustrations of latest trends that a merchandiser may have if they work as a stylist as well to plan outfits. Both were done in drawing inks. I would have included more, but I feel that didn't fit my character as a merchandiser at all. Personally, I already keep fashion inspirations in folders and my computer, and would not hang them up. I also always only have a couple of Post-It notes of tasks going. I hang only important things, in this case: an invitation to a big fashion show, my style board, and newly made styles.