Project 1 for 2D Foundations

      The first project for this foundation class is, as expected, time consuming.  This photo shows the first stage of the project. The first stage is to lay down the base composition from which to build upon later with greater complexity.  My plan is to go into the composition with numerous shades and saturations of blue. I will also collage in cut-outs of fabric textures from different shirts that I made xerox copies of.  I rather think it works as a finished piece as it is, but my professor would almost certainly disagree.

A Visit to the Penn Museum

      This past Sunday at around 11am I made my way to the Penn Museum in order to complete an art history class assignment, which was to choose a piece from the Ancient Egyptian collection to write about. I chose a remnant of a life sized statue of the goddess Sekhmet. This statue was in the corner of a darkly lit room. At first, I couldn't help but stare at it. It seemed ominous and frightening without being monstrous. It was beautiful and terrible. I'm starting to sound ridiculous.
      Sekhmet was a protective and warlike goddess. Her image often accompanied the Pharaoh into battle, and she was invoked to ward off or cure disease. She is depicted in this way because she annihilates her enemies in the guise of a lioness.

Freshman Lecture Feb 22

The subject of this weeks lecture was printmaking and graphic design.  The speakers talked about the possibilities open to students with each major.  I am very interested in printmaking and have worked with linoleum and woodcuts in the past. Woodcut prints in particular are to me very exhilarating. The anticipation and element of uncertainty one feels while the first print in being made is one of the most exciting experiences I have had so far in art and I will definitely like to pursue an education in this field.
The MOMA website has a great source of prints made my the artists of the Brucke from the early 20th century. i find the work by these artists fascinating. moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2002/brucke/

Layout of my room

This is a map of where the furniture and some other things can generally be found in my room.  My room is rather large but sparsely furnished, allowing me to spread out and have enough space to work on projects for various foundation art classes.

I find it easy to be skeptical of old paintings and in general see them as old fashioned and out-dated. I have many memories of being bored senseless in galleries displaying dozens of antique landscapes like this one, and it is likely that there are hundreds just like it.  Even still, I find this one fascinating. It is almost irrelevant what the subject matter is.  The shapes and composition seem to put the world into focus in such a sublime and simple way.  I suppose, then, that simplicity and directness is what makes this piece so fascinating to me.

http://www.stephenfry.com/dongle/painting1dl.html

Type Drawings and Pattern

  

The first three images are done using mostly unaltered text and the last image is a pattern made from the letter Y.  The fonts used were Myriad Pro and helvetica.