Monday, April 19, 2010

Type Visualization





Here's my treatment of the word "grow". I hope that it inspires some of you to go out and grow something when you get home from school! I enjoyed making this so much I did a few other logos as well. These treatments of "hyper" and "remember" were very quick ideas, but I thought I'd post them as well.











Thursday, April 15, 2010

Whitney Biennial



Both of the works I chose to compare from the Whitney Biennial were actually from the retrospective of past biennials on the top floor. Milton Avery's oil painting from 1956, titled Sea Gazers, was a perfect piece to compare and contrast with Richard Diebenkorn's Girl Looking at Landscape exhibited two years following. Both artists have been included in numerous Whitney Annuals and Biennials It was very interesting to see a very similar subject matter, namely a view of a landscape with figure(s), handled in two different painting styles as well as from two different physical viewpoints. While both paintings also have a human element, they, too, are treated uniquely.
In Diebenkorn's Girl Looking at Landscape we are intimate with the woman looking out the window, invited to share her view of the verdant scene beyond. In Avery's work, Sea Gazers,
the people are in the landscape and we are viewing them as well as the seascape they enjoy. Despite these differences, both paintings have a feeling of casual calm. The relaxed pose of the woman in Diebenkorn's work and the soft colors of Avery's piece each contribute this feeling of contentment.
The size of the two works also contributes to their varying impact on the viewer. While Avery's piece is somewhat small at 30" 44", Diebenkorn's is a much larger painting (approximately 3' x 4'). Becasue of this, I definitely noticed Diebenkorn's work first, but the soft colors and simple composition of Avery's piece drew me in slowly. While both artists tend to simplify the real world when they paint, they also succeed in capturing the essence of a scene. I am reminded of Florian Maier-Aichen's method of deconstructing the photographs he takes. Indeed, Avery is quoted as saying "I always take something out of my pictures. I strip the design to the essentials."

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Collaborative Presentation Exhibit: Landscapes of the Mind




How an artist's real world influcences the alternative realities in his art

This exhibit brings together three artists, Florian Maier-Aichen. Oliver Wasow and George Grie who each create alternate realities through the use of digitized media.

While Wasow and Maier-Aichen begin with a photograph, Grie starts with an image from his mind. Each artist has unique intentions about what he wants the viewer to take away from his images. This also varies the degree to which each artist's work compares to the real world.


Use the following links for more artist information:



Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Self-Visualization Project


This project shows three different activities that are an impotant part of my life. It depicts a close up image of an object that is symbolic of each activity combined in Photoshop with an image of myself. The image of me is extremely small in scale compared to the close up image. This serves to show the importance that the activity as in my life, as opposed to how important it is that I am the one doing the activity. My image is also interacting with each object in some way. I used Illustrator to augment the interaction between myself and the object creating a sense of movement. I also used Illustrator to hand draw the text, labeling each panel of the triptych in a playful way to go along with the mood of the images.