Project Two times the charm...

Ornament... the subject of our second assignment. When I think of ornament, I automatically think of home or interior decoration, or elaborate details on furniture or architecture.

For this assignment, I wanted to do something less obvious or literally interpreted. When I was at home a few weeks ago, my dad had brought home from work an accordion file folder full of artwork he had saved since I was old enough to hold a crayon.

These drawings got me thinking about art, what constitutes as are (art that's worth saving for twenty years) and how it's not about the content or the composition sometimes as it is about the sentimental values attached.

I found out my dad brought home all of his drawings he had saved (which I'm still not entirely sure why) but I figured his corner office must be pretty bare now. I wanted to draw something for him.

Content

I was inspired by my childhood when I looked at the drawings my dad had collected and I thought about the days when my mom would take us kids downtown to visit Dad at work and have lunch with him. The city always felt so big and foreign compared to a comfortable home in the suburbs. The darkness casted by the skyscrapers never felt scary or intimidating, but more adventurous and special since we only went downtown on special occasions. I wanted to capture this feeling in my drawing. It's small in scale to contradict the mass of the buildings. I feel like most everything else is pretty self-explanatory after stating that.

Process

At first I wanted to try and capture the feeling of standing at the floor-to-ceiling windows in my dad's 16th floor office, looking down, with nothing but the street directly below. It was hard to do for memory though. I attempted to, but the finished product looks better upside down from the way it was intended....

My first project is posted on Flickr, but I thought I should probably post it on here...

Our first assignment for Drawing III was Art and Science. As long as it fit into this category, any project seemed to be fair game. I say "project" instead of "drawing" because I have a very traditional view on what constitutes a drawing, while many of my classmates seemed to have a broader definition. There were some very interesting and creative projects presented that made me question whether or not any form of art can be categorized as a "drawing".

It was hard for me to get started on this project because of the generality and vagueness of the assignment. A lot of people feel spelling out the criteria restricts creativity. Being an Interior Design major, I'm used to projects that require certain deliverables that are particular dimensions... I thrive on a well laid-out set of expectations.

This is my interpretation of Art and Science... I wanted to draw (with charcoal because it's my favorite medium) something that interested me. I chose a chair because of the various sciences it represents: the science of ergonomics, or how the body interacts with its surroundings, and the mechanical sciences that went into manufacturing. But also that art it represents as well. The art that is behind every design, whether it's intentional or not.

Content

The drawing itself is representative, but loosely. I wasn't trying to convey a message with a negative or positive connotation. Instead, I just thought about my chair, in my apartment. It's my chair and I like it because it's comfortable and I own it. Once I thought about this, I realized that the fact that I own this chair is the only thing that makes it different from the thousands of other identical Ikea chairs in the world.

All of the chairs in the background are identical, just facing different directions and rotated. The little chairs are simple lines because I know they exist but have never seen them. The large, detailed chair represents my chair. It's drawn realistically to represent that it is my chair, one that I have looked at, can touch and sit in.

Process

I began this project by doing a line drawing of my chair. I focused on getting the drawing down to its essence, with one line to outline each curve and shape. It was a large drawing... 18" by 24". I traced it with a black Sharpie and Xeroxed it, scaling it down to the size of the large chair in the finished product. I then scaled that down to get the right size chairs for the background.

Once I had all of this done, I used a transfer marker to transfer the smallest chairs in different directions and rotations on a piece of paper I had crumpled up. I wanted to add texture variance. I transferred the larger image on a similar piece of paper and rendered it with charcoal. I cut it out and spray-adhesived it onto the background paper to achieve my finished product. I feel my drawing's end result was about what I had hoped it would turn out to be.

Gallery Assignment: Art Observations

Our assignment was to visit a gallery and observe three different pieces of art for one hour, without saying things like "I like...". I visited the Furlong Gallery where Manifesto of Messy Design is being showed. It is the Stout Department of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition. I like these shows the best because, in a sense, it's the professors proving they know what they're talking about. It's one thing for a drawing professor to tell you how to draw, but when you're able to see that they're right and that they are following the same guidelines they have you follow, it feels a lot more legit. The faculty at Stout are really talented, so it's interesting to see what they work on outside of teaching.

Below are my observations. I left them in the form I jotted them down. We were also supposed to take pictures of the art we observed. I did my best but there was a lot of glare on Paul De Long's photographs. I worked with what I could.

Burnt Arrangement Series 1-7
Paul De Long
Ink Jet digital Photographs

Monochrome, all black, matte, like they were painted; burnt, reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe
Objects seem related in each photograph-
Right to left
1. dishes, circular, curves, repeated, interesting background, like peeling wall paper, light source from left, adds to dark, eerie quality
2. vertical objects, vertical composition, a little more color compared to first image
3. looks like an alter after a fire, probably the goal, much more horizontal composition, little eye circulation throughout the piece, very centrally/right sided focal points
4. close-up, shows interesting variety of texture, lots of twisting, contour lines
5. my favorite: view from overhead, recognizable subject matter (more concrete than just vases)- bird salt and pepper shakers, flowers with the most color of all the objects throughout each composition, shows more destruction than other photographs… broken shards could tell a story but at the very least adds visual texture, contrasting the smooth textures of the vases/pots, etc.
6. Another vertical composition, similar in content to number 4, same contents different orientation, this orientation works better with the vertical content. Peeling wall paper brings eye throughout the piece
7. Darkest composition with light from the right, possibly from below, glare of the frame and darkness of the composition make it hard to see much of the photograph



Untitled
(Broken Cat)
Andy DuCett
Found Image on found photograph

The cat has a big brace on its leg, before I noticed that I didn’t understand the title
Lines throughout move your eye through the photo
Making the arm and sponge an off white helps to make it stand out a little less so the viewer can focus on the image as a whole

Untitled
(Oh My Goodness)
Andy DuCett
Found Image on found photograph

Probably “makes sense” the least
Somehow still feels appropriate because the traffic lanes , with their perspective, could be similar to bowling lanes
I wonder about the bowling ball be in the exact center, we were taught to avoid this unless absolutely necessary or with good reason, I think this is good reason because the bowler lines up with the lanes like he were actually bowling, and it shows more movement/ gets the viewer involved

Untitled
(Elusive Photographer)
Andy DuCett
Found Image on found photograph

Again all relative to the time the picture was take- hair style, camera model and drawing style all congruent with the era this photo was taken
Interesting play on the shadow in the photograph, the shadow was obviously facing the other way when they took this actual photo, but doesn’t contradict the placed image facing the viewer
By not adding the entire body, the image feels lighter, not weighing down the photo at the bottom, but adding to the overall effect

January 29th Class Discussion

1. Make a list of what drawings have been used for in the past. Compare and contrast with present time.
Past
- Maps
- Communication, cave drawings hieroglyphics
- Signs, story telling
- Medical/anatomy
- Diagrams
- Understanding anatomy/botany
- Learning
- Recording historical events/life
- Blueprints
- Entertainment
- Decoration

Compare:
Drawing is still used for all these reasons in present time, but there are a lot of other methods of recording, drafting, communicating and decorating.

Contrast:
Drawing used to be more crucial; people depended on it for survival and communication where as today, since we have so many other means of communication and decoration (for example), it has become mostly expressive. Drawing became less important as communication and other ways to communicate developed.


2. Talk about how each of us has encountered drawing as a viewer.
The way you encounter art is personal, and something that differs person to person. Your interpretation of drawings depends on personal taste, your background, passions and the criteria you want met.

3. How have you experienced drawing as a maker of art? How have you used it to make what you have made?
To make sure that the finished, 3D project turns out the way that you had planned 2 dimensionally on paper sketching, drawing diagrams, practicing accuracy to scale are all equally important. This is crucial, especially when it comes to scale, to ensure the finished project turns out the way it was supposed. Drawing is to make sense of ideas and to plan them before putting them into action.

4. When has drawing been most interesting to you?
It’s always interesting to look at different styles from past and contemporary drawings and compare them. I was the most interested in drawing my first semester at Stout, coming in with little high school experience and being taught at a college level. Survey of Art helped connect what we were working on in Drawing with the past and world around us.

5. What should drawing be used for? How should it function?
Used for: Expression, representation, learning, planning, therapy and communication: drawings should not have a limit on what they are used for.
Function: Assigning a way drawing should function could limit its uses. There shouldn't be a single or set use for drawing.

Found Drawings: Group Discussion

It's harder than it seems to define drawing in a way that is not too vague, but still specific enough. Our group read a definition of drawing, something along the lines "of a graphic representation by lines of an object or idea; a delineation of form without reference to color". While this may be true, we felt a definition like this was limited in many ways. I think the definition of a drawing is influenced by how much the definer knows about composition, techniques, media, etc.

Here's our definition attempt:

drawing- a visual way of communicating an idea; a way to express, show understanding and reflect. The means of drawing are broad, utilizing a variety of media and techniques.

Our group discussed our found drawings in class, determining the definition of drawing as well as what makes a drawing a drawing of "excellence". A drawing of excellence would show above-average understanding of the subject matter, techniques, composition and materials used. While there are exceptions to every rule, the drawing's components would be intentional. Any criteria more specific than this used to determine what makes a drawing exceptional becomes too exclusive.

Our First Assignment

The first thing we were supposed to do for this class was create a blog. I've never blogged before and probably won't get hooked, but it will make it easier to see what others are working on. Once we got our blog up and running, we had to take 20 pictures of found drawings. I'm still not 100% sure of how strict or lose the definition of a found drawing is, but I took pictures that I would like to draw, so I think that counts.

(The picture above is a link to Flickr)

Most of my pictures are actually aren't very focused, but I did that on purpose because I like to draw with charcoal and pastels... I have most of my pictures up but will add the rest when I have some that I like. Not all of my pictures turned out the way I planned.