Reflection of AED 200

1. What were you expectations for this course and where they met?
I expected this class to be simple, since I had taken several courses like this before, but I expected to get some good experiences with other materials. I think with the last self-portrait project alone, the expectations were met. I got a cool semi-abstract portrait, and a review of art concepts, styles, and periods.

2. Now that you've been through this course, What is art? How would you define it now compared to your initial posting?
In my initial posting I described art as a way of expression. Anything that you create could be considered art. Now I would say it is anything that is aesthetically pleasing. Anything that catches your eye, even for a second. The most interesting art would have principles and elements, and contain some type of underlying meaning.

3. Who was your favorite artist in your original posting and who is your favorite visual artist now? If there is a difference, why do you think so? If you have the same favorite artist, why do you think so?
In my original post I didn't give a favorite artist, and I don't think I have one now either. There are several that I'm interested in, but I like each one for different reasons, and as times change, and styles change, I find more new inspirational artists. I definitely took more of an interest towards abstract and conceptual art during this course though, so those artists are a central focus right now.

4. Now that you've completed this course, how do you feel about taking an online course? Is your answer the same as it was in your first posting? How is it the same or different?
I had taken a few online classes before, but never with Angel, so it was a little different. I enjoyed it. Everything was easily accessible, and the work was a reasonable amount for the time we had to do it. The only thing I feared was getting behind, but it wasn't a problem at all.

I didn't feel inspired by many pieces at the gallery. I chose the self portrait with a monkey, by Freida Kahlo simply because I liked the color palette and the interesting composition. After the gallery, I searched some abstract self portraits online. I found a few that I really enjoyed. I really liked the simplicity of the third portrait and the monochromatic color scheme. The first composition would be fun to recreate if I was using a digital program, but I chose paint.



I chose to do the portrait in paint. I desaturated the my picture using a photoshop program, then inverted the colors to give it a more abstract look. I debated between using paint and cut paper and decided on paint, using the white of the paper, and one other color.


I had a hard time with the paint at the beginning. I kept smearing it, and started over three times. I was referring to my computer as a visual aid, and painting from that. I think it would have been easier to print the picture out, and paint from that, but it worked out okay.

My piece was an abstract representation of my face. I liked the way it looked because if you look vertically in the center of the piece, you can almost picture it as an eye and a nose of another figure looking to the left.

I knew I wanted to use one color, and have high contrast in the piece. I think it is very well balanced, and instead of having one central focal point, the piece draws attention as a whole. It was fun to break the image down into shapes, like the triangles in each corner and as the highlight on my cheek, and the watch the shapes in my lips create a feeling of shading and value.

I enjoyed the project. I had a short period of time to work on it. I wish I had more time, and I wish I could have found more inspirational pieces at the museum, but it was still an interesting project. I have done self portraits before, but I usually tend to be very realistic, and it takes me a long time to complete it. I knew with the time restriction I would have to be abstract, so I was able to try something new.

I think my final artwork was successful. I knew what I wanted to do right away after deciding I didn't have enough time to be a perfectionist and put every detail in. I now have a piece of work that is different from my normal works, which are very detailed and realistic.

Art Critique Review

1. Which projects did you review?
I looked at Kim Will's exhibit on Waterfalls, and Alicia Meisner's project about Change. Both projects were interesting and had a good overall theme, but I also viewed Sarah Bojaks project on Children and Impressionism and it was very well done.

2. Why did you select the Exhibit you critiqued?
It was colorful, and playful, and the subject matter of children was one of my options when I was creating my own. I thought it had a lot of strong points that I could talk about in my critique.

3. What challenges did you face in writing the critique article and how did you overcome them?
I had trouble with where to start when creating my critique. I actually went on Yahoo! and searched for a quide to critiquing an exhibit. I have critiqued artworks before, but the only other exhibit I critiqued was one from the Alrbight, for this class. I think it was easier critiquing an actual exhibit than a powerpoint slide.

4. How do you feel about critiquing your peers work?
I like it. I was afraid of being too critical, and offending someone, but the three projects I viewed were well done and I chose one that I had a lot of good things to say about.

5. Would you like to read the critique your peers wrote about your Art Curation Project?
I would love to. I think it would be helpful, and I'm very open to criticism.

6. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your finished article and why?
I would rate it a seven out of ten. I would like to read other peoples articles to see how they approached the critique, and if they referred to it as slides, and a slideshow or pretended it was an actual exhibit they viewed...

7. Did you enjoy working on this project?
I enjoyed it. I think after creating my own project, while critiquing others, I was comparing it to my own, and I believe it helped my knowledge of exhibits greatly.

Six Video Reviews

In the video, Greenberg on Art Criticism, he discusses the important things to remember when critiquing art. In his opinion, visual art is the hardest to critique. He states that he has a hard time not being biased or expressing his own preferences, but you have to be open and receptive when critiquing. Greenberg tries to focus on being relevant, and having good reasoning. When viewing works, we've been reminded to be receptive, and open, and this video reinforces those points.

In the next video, Clement Greenberg discussed the art of Jackson Pollock. He talks about how he knew Pollock was going to be a great painter, and when Pollock painted his first drip painting in 1947. He discusses the nontraditional works of Pollock, "outside of the box". He gives Pollock a lot of credit for his works, and even talks about how Pollock rejects criticism of his works. I think this applies, because some people may not take the advice we have to improve their exhibit. They may think otherwise and completely reject what we say.

The third video talks about the Renaissance and the renewed enthusiasm for art. It includes information about works by many famous artists, encompassed in Visari's book "Lives of the Artist". They discuss how art is changing and each artist learns something new from the ones who came before them. It doesn't give suggestions for critiquing like the other videos, but it does contain some criticism of works in the Italian Renaissance. The text accompanying the video stated that Vasari's book has been the basis of art criticism since the 16th century.

The video, The Critics: Stories from the Inside Pages, features several critics talking about their own criticism and opinions of others. It starts by talking about what criticism does, and how it is a good thing. It has input from book critics, music critics, and visual art critics. Critics are people who are willing to make an argument, and often act as reporters. It makes me think mostly of movie critics. They put their own opinion on movies, and persuade other people to see things in their way. Some artists don't see critics as helpful though. Some think they send out the wrong message, and are too critical. The video encourages us to see all of the possibilities in artworks, and to really think about works which we see and hear everyday.

I found the video about The Colonial Encounter boring, and not very informational as far as art criticism goes. It talks about Colonialism and The Worlds Fair, and the woman is discussing the different cultures and art. There technically is criticism in it, as she describes it, and interprets it, but its difficult to understand and not a good video to learn from.

While Pollock was praised and admired in the video with Greenberg, the last video notices him as a great artist, but discusses how he brought negative comments to Modern Art. Michael Freid and T.J. Clark discuss his work Lavender Mist and both show their different approaches to critiquing art. One focused on the power of it at the time period in which it was created, and one of them discussed it strictly based on the way it looked, and the beauty and aesthetics it had. I think this is an important video because you get to see two different views, and how they took in each others opinions and combined it with their own. It reinforces the fact that each person has a different opinion and interpretation of art, and each critique would be different.

I think the first two videos and the last video were the most helpful. The last one with the two critics going back and forth about Pollock's paintings was interesting to watch. Each one had their own way of seeing it, but wasn't opposed to hearing other views. After the first video with Greenberg, he seemed to really stand his ground, and think his opinion was the only opinion, but the two in the last video seemed very open and reasonable.

Art Curator Project

I found the art curator project to be very challenging. The hardest part about it was finding the works. I was looking to make it a more broad theme, but then struggled with finding sufficient works. At first I considered doing something with works where the background outshines what is going on in the foreground, because those works intrigue me and it would make for an interesting exhibit. A good example is Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom. In the foreground the animals lay together, but the men in the background and William Penn become the spotlight. How I would search for works like those was the problem. I decided to go with a theme of death, and try to work in elements of nature and abstract works as well. I think it turned out okay, but I'm not completely satisfied with it after viewing a few other students projects. I still think my theme is too specific, and would have liked to do an exhibit with a more broad, interpretation based theme.

Film Review; Week 9

The first video, Lowdown on Lowbrow, introduced and discussed the Lowbrow genre. Lowbrow is similar to pop art, but is generally surreal, and often includes television characters. It often included naked women and automobiles, and animated art that didn't fit other categories. Some people argue that it should be named Lowbrow Surrealism, and it reminds me of the surrealist paintings in the book. This helps with our project because these are works that didn't really fit into other categories. With the choosing of our works, we're arguing why they should fit into our theme.


The second video discusses the approach to displaying modern art in the Tate gallery. Art of the 20th century was displayed chronologically. They broke their works up into four groups, or exhibits, which each piece is carefully categorized. The movie focuses on grouping of artworks and the job of a curator breaking up the works into groups and themes. This relates to the project and trying to categorize our works, and the overall understanding of a curators job, and how the works should be displayed.


The video about Native American Archaeology features a woman making a stand for the protection of Indian burial grounds. They fought for the protection of bones and remains being dug up, and for the ones being held in museums around the country. The remains tell a great deal about the past, and should not be destroyed. By researching the bones, and where they lay, a lot was determined about the past and Indian culture. Research about skulls and brain size in relationship to intelligence were done based on these remains. The video was interesting, but not as strong of a connection to our Art Exhibit project as the rest.


The last video is about the George Eastman House in Rochester. It discusses his creation of the first camera, and the collection the visual history of photography. It talks about the thousands of different kinds of cameras and lenses, and works from over 14,000 photographers. I could relate this video back to the Exhibit project, as we could be using photographs in our made up exhibits. It talks about the actual house, and the rooms in which the works are exhibited, which is an important part of how the works are portrayed.


I thought all of the videos were interesting. I think the second one was definitely the most helpful as far as the project goes, but the video about Lowbrow art was very informative as well because I was unsure what it was, and I think a few of the works I looked at while searching could be in that category. Overall, very informational, but I felt the Native American one was very repetitive and not well related to the project.

Video Review; Week 8

The first video I watched was Matisse and Picasso. Gertrude Stein was the first to realize the potential of Picasso and Matisse and suggested that they meet. They met and exchanged artwork to show their respect for each other. It echos a lot of stuff stated in the book in the biography section for each artist. It uses Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and compares Picasso's cubist beginnings to the work of Matisse. Matisse and Picasso arrive at similar results in their artwork, but Matisse's work is organized and well planned out, while Picasso's work is impulsive.

The second video was The Dance at the Moulin de la Galette. I chose it because it gives an insight to the painting, and the work behind the masterpiece. The video discusses the setting in Paris and the place where people gathered on their day off to relax and enjoy themselves. Renoir enjoyed capturing people in their everyday lives, doing leisurely activities. The video also touches on the lighting, and brushstrokes used to capture it. The book tells us that Renoir liked to paint optical sensations such as the lighting coming through the moving foliage on the trees, as he did in this painting. I find it interesting that they discuss the figures in his paintings, and how they reoccur in other paintings and were sometimes reluctant to pose.

The Sunday on la Grand Jatte was the third video I watched. I wanted to know more about the piece and was hoping it would say how long it took him to complete it, using pointillism and color blending, as opposed to a normal brushstroke painting. There is a lot of mystery behind this painting that I didn't know about. It was discovered by x-ray that the monkey was a last minute add on, but a monkey behind out on a Sunday stroll is very mysterious. Maybe his painting wasn't as mysterious as he planned it to be, so he had to add something in? Seurat's figures were solitary figures, which cast shadows, and often had hidden faces. The Grand Jatte was known in Seurat's day, as a place for prostitutes, and the riverbanks were often covered with couples making love. In the painting, there are several women alone, maybe suggesting that they were prostitutes.

The video about Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art covers a wide array of artists and information. It talks about Pollock, Warhol, Lichenstein, Klein and several other artists discussed in the chapter 22. The beginning of the video is spent describing Klein's painting C&O. It discusses the color qualities themselves and the nonrepresentational approach. Each color expresses a feeling or idea. Different uses of lines and , like the flowing lines in DeKooning's work can also be used to express feelings. Like the book, it discusses the element of energy in the work, whether referring to implied movement or the brightness of colors. I like looking at the contrast between the abstract expressionism and the elimination of recognizable objects to pop art and the use of popular objects in art, often repeated, like in Warhol's Campbell's soup piece.

These videos were very educational. I chose the ones that were semi-biographical to get a glimpse into the life of the artist, and their opinions on their works. Knowing their comments on their own work helps to interpret it as well. The chapters, especially 22, which covered the two opposite styles of abstract and pop art, were filled with information, so watching the video and seeing the works described and the intentions behind it helps out.