BMA

Last Thursday, our class visited the Baltimore Museum of Art and we were asked to choose three of our favorite paintings. The three paintings that I chose were the two Shadow paintings by Andy Warhol,  Pine Forest II by Gustav Klimt, and the print Flayed Figured, Male, 3277 1/2 square inches by Jason Salavon. My favorite work was Pine Forest II because of the different ways I viewed it. As i approached the picture from far away, it looked like a large brown square with not much to it. As I moved closer, I began to notice the dark vertical lines that ran from top to bottom of the canvas and depicted the tree trunks. The green foreground that was made out of short, medium-width brush strokes created depth in what I now realized was a forest. There were countless tree trunks ranging in color from the darkest browns to colors of burnt orange and dark reds. I also noticed that off to the left side, between the trunks were speckles of light colors that appeared to be light shining through the trees. I also noticed that these specks of bright color were raised above the surface of the other paint and added another dimension and texture to the painting. I think that this was my favorite painting because of the way I was able to gradually discover more about it for the longer I looked at it. 

Visibility

This article about visibility was one that was very dense and full of information. I found myself needing to re-read each section or paragraph several times in order to grasp a strong idea on what was trying to be said. One of the points in the writing of Loyola Ignatius that caught my attention was that the point of departure and arrival are already established, but in-between the imagination is able to take over. I think that this relates to the idea that theres a starting point and a motive or destination in almost everything we do. When he says that this stories start with an image or a collection of images that the story weaves itself into the sequence of images.  I find this to make a lot of sense and relate to the way I tend to think, especially in the interconnection of things on two different levels. Although I had a hard time interpreting a few parts of this article, I was able to gain a few overall points and fragments of what the writer was trying to say.

The Whole Ball of Wax

This article presented an interesting and refreshing aspect of the role of art in our world both today and in past times. Like art itself, it triggered much thought about art's role on a grand scale and also in daily life. I like to think of art as a trigger, especially a trigger of thought. Works of art are incredibly stimulative to the senses, mind, and person as a whole. While an artist can attempt to captivate their emotions, reactions, thoughts or many other things in their work, he or she is also creating a chain reaction of inspiration, thoughts and feelings for any person who is given the opportunity to view their work.
I had a hard time understanding he cat and dog analogy that was used to describe art at the end of the article. I had an easier time relating to several other  points that Jerry Saltz made. I strongly agreed with the statement that art cannot drastically change large aspects of the world overnight, but rather that it will do so incrementally. I also enjoyed reading about how the furniture from the 70s and 80s eased the mans mind from his emotions of September 11th. The designer of that furniture had no intentions of that furniture ever being able to do such a thing for a person twenty or thirty years after its creation, but that is the power of art.