InfinityOnTheHorizonLine

  video taken by me at the base of the campanile  I've been meaning to post this for a while. Giotto features quite heavily in Dow, and his Campanile-- the bell tower he designed to stand alongside Florence's Santa Maria del Fiore-- was among the first things I remember being mentioned. Dow isn't kidding; it really is one of the most lovely buildings in the world. The tower means a lot more to me now than it might have otherwise: this summer, I was lucky enough to study at the Rome Institute of Liberal Arts, and after the program ended I stayed in the country for a while to explore. I heard many bells, but none so beautiful and thunderous as this. The 20-story climb to the top wasn't easy in the 112 ° heat, but it was so, so worth it. More to come.

  Hi All I think Salvador Dali has moved me in a lot of different ways he is a surrealist with hyperrealistic techniques, and after reading Kandinsky I think his art from might not be as vibrant as his, but still shares a form of abstraction, that's is I think beyond words. His work is very contemplative and I invite everyone to look at his work and or look at a short film he created with Walt Disney Destino.   I think a great way to approach the film is to visualize first what "Destino" means to you. Then watching the film. Then watching the film with the sound off. Lastly just listening to the music. I think it is worth it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIYH5XSSD2k -DH

KANDINSKY: "KLEINE FREUDEN" HOW DOES ABSTRACTION HAVE SPIRIT? Abstraction like the work of Kandinsky up above focus' on color and form. There is a balance of containment and movement with the use of line, and dispersement of color. At first glance the giant rock formation is what catches my eye first then I take everything else in. The lack of color in that center area makes my come out of my line of vision and come to the forefront of the painting where the figures appear bigger and with less detail. Going down to the bottom part of the painting I feel a sense of space, and as my eye is moved up agin with the almost clifflike figures looking up I see more distance and different selections of complexities, each differing in form. Such that some areas are painted with a thiner line and some spaces represented by an aura of color. After looking at the complete image I think what is drawing me in? What is the painting saying for itself, what is its spirit , and how does its ...

I used to be afraid of how I was with you. I didn't know what you looked like nor I. But now, now that I'm older, and wiser, and further. I see how beautiful that is. My dissociation from the physical was simply an expression of possibility. I just miss you.  I just want to talk to you. I didn't just lose a lover I lost my closest companion. We were everything! Totality and nothing all at once. But when I go to call you or write to you, I stop myself. It wouldn't be good for you, it wouldn't help you. So many things left unsaid. I just miss you. I just wish I treated you better. We were both not okay, acting okay. Nowhere near ready for each other. I just miss you.  I wish the forms that I feel within my heart could pour out of me. But they can't. I just miss you. When I was in it, I couldn't feel your love. I knew you loved me, but I didn't feel it. I can't imagine how painful and hurtful that was for you. I hate that I couldn't feel it. Because...

  Maybe better, maybe good, maybe bad. What if I walked into a jungle and tried talking to a bird today? Would that help? What if I put some push-pins on the floor and sit on them? Would that help? No…I’m scared of needles. I want to make garland. I keep wanting to cut out hearts and hang them in my room. I want to walk outside and feel the pavement from the courtyard steps scrape my feet in that way that tickles. It would be smooth and cold. It’s sparkly too. I want to push myself down the stairs and fall upwards. I want to glue a million tiny mirrors to my wall but then I’d have to cover them every night. I want to be meaningless and loved. Loved like nothing. I could hear my heartbeat in the pillow today, it scared me. I want to do something forever. I want to be a fish and swim in cement. I want to be a pretty box that only opens when someone sings to me. What if I make a harp out of my hair? I want to be so sad that I feel like I’m drowning in my bones and blood. When I imagin...

I never knew if I believed in soul-mates, or love at first sight, but I had a black bunny. He was not planned or sought-out, he simply happened. A single picture told me I needed him in my life, or perhaps more accurately, that he was already in my life, although I hadn’t met him yet. It was 8pm, I was not prepared to bring home something new into my life, but he wasn’t new, he was already apart of it. It was the easiest decision I ever made, and it was not a decision at all. His name, his place in my heart, was already there within me. When he needed someone else in his life I knew as well, dragging my mother to place after place on her birthday to find a companion. And after a whole day of seeing rabbits in horrible conditions, having given up and decided it wasn’t meant to be, in the last stop of the day, disheartened and exhausted I turned to see her. And once again there was no decision. While he was black with long floppy ears, she was glowing white, but not completely. She h...

  During our seminar on trees we discussed how they hold memory within them and later in our seminars on Kondinsky M. Crombie asked where the soul of a painting lies. I’ve always been fascinated by trees as silent observers of the world and how one can place so much emotion into a single tree. One could assume the memory of the tree is stored within, and only visible in the brutal act of destruction to gain access to the rings. But the external continues to fascinate artists and is often personified. So does the memory, or the soul (as M. Crombie asked) reside only within, or hidden beneath the surface in its roots, or is there something about the outside that speaks to soul while the inside only shows history.  I fell in love immediately with this tree outside my friends apartment because of the extent of its external personality. Blue beetles ran along its length, a fungus grew at its trunk (concealing many of the beetles from view), its bark peeled off in places like a no...

​ GO’K 112122(ii)   Colors that are important in a representation of this picture must necessarily include the turquoise-blue door contracted with the phthalo-blue sky.  I might crop the top of it to show less sky, depending. I’d probably also bring the frame in from the right to show less of the side and more of the  face but  leave the angle. The late autumn darkness of the junipers at the front will bring in contrast, which I feel is need ed for composition because otherwise the eye would get lost in the paleness of the adobe, and why delete them anyway? The roof is an opportunity to put in texture which will also bring a nice contrast with the style of using an ultra-flat monotone of the adobe – we barely if at all see any shadow or other demarcation of the building’s edges, so a fine linework will be the way to go to get in the detail of the gutter-line attaching the vestibule to the church. Otherwise, I would blur it all ou t, the wall facades,  using the ...

​ I’ll begin by telling you that I have made so many errors that I am quite magnificent in my mistakes. In this, I am not asking for your forgiveness in advance, but rather a request for your understanding when I cannot readily remember people’s names (ver-y un-Dale Carnegie of me; I’ve never been much of a salesman, never easily winning friends nor influencing people). Introductions be gone, I'd like to submit for your entertainment value a few thoughts on paint pigments.   The class will kindly recall that Mr. V. suggested that within the act of painting, that is, in the use of the paint itself, there is an earth element at play: the pigments are derived from minerals, which are “of the earth.” One can see this as a key to understanding a transformative aspect of painting from thought-imagery into material manifestation. By “material manifestation,” I do mean physicality – an object has a material reality upon which gravity exerts its weak but persistent force.    When ...

​ Art is when we take in the world around us, and answer back with something  beyond  ourselves.  This could not be a more different answer from the one which Kandinsky provides us with, which is that art is the expression of “an inner harmony” (Kandinsky, 15). This was an answer inspired by Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophists, who “seek to approach the problem of [art] by way of the  inner  knowledge.” (Kandinsky, 13). Applying this logic to art was the basis for Kandinsky’s critique of the Impressionists; they sought to take the impression of the visual world and apply that to the canvas, instead of seeking for an inner truth, and making art of that. It may be safely said, then, that the Impressionists represented an outward artistic philosophy, while Kandinsky and O’Keefe were concerned with the inward art. Kandinsky later goes on to applaud Picasso for achieving the final end of this in “the logical destruction of matter” in his paintings (Kandinsky, 18)....

 O'Keefe's work when she lived in New York gives a very strong message. I will try to utilize a few of her paintings to describe the end of the love affair between O'Keefe and New York's buildings, and possibly its culture.  When we look at New York Street with Moon, there is something ethereal about the painting. Firstly, the brown color of the walls gives them the appeal of being complete. The shade of blue used to create the sky also gives us a sense that this painting is comfortable in the way that it exists. The clouds have blanketed the moon in a way that it becomes a solid presence in the painting. The edges of the brown and black walls pointing towards the moon convince us to keep looking at the moon. The aesthetic of the walls and the way they are elongated gives them the identity of New York for me. They are well set up and the fact that they are elongated makes one want to become a part of the painting and experience these buildings.   We can also feel the...

 The beauty of an abstract painting is something that has intrigued all of us in class. There is something enticing about forming a piece that is totally at the mercy of one's thoughts and feelings. An abstract painting acts as a puzzle that can only be solved through discussion with oneself.  Now, in class, we have analyzed everything from Cezanne to O'Keefe and Picasso. Now Cezanne's work is excellent in its own right. However, most of the class has been feeling an internal connection with O'Keefe and Picasso's abstract paintings.  I have one question: Why?  If we look at this Picasso painting, our soul races to its depths to find answers, to conjure up what this masterpiece might be saying to us. Even though it might not be saying anything. It might just remain an elegant piece of stillness. But that is very rare in abstraction.  We cannot see a perfect bottle of rum in this picture but we can collect its pieces and call this painting a resemblance of rum. If...

 In Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art, the author creates a triangle that includes masterful influencers in Art and how they have come about. The triangle resembles a pyramid scheme that we might be used to in something like an economics class. The artists present on the top of the triangle are untouchable in the influence that they have had on aspiring artists and the masses.  Kandinsky believes that these artists at the top have attained the spiritual in art, which has allowed them the honor of being at the top. Their work has inspired the masses because they have gone beyond the material influences on art. They are not concerned with making money but are rather committed to listening to the real inner need, which is a term used to represent an intrinsic appetite that an artist has to fulfill.  The way that Kandinsky describes the triangle resembles how a pastor or imam would explain the hierarchy of prophecy in religion. His descriptions set an uncomfortable ...

 When reading the Painter's Lens, I was very intrigued to read the juxtaposition of photography with painting. Both mediums are considered an Art, one with a mechanical mother while the other birthed from the depths of human motion. Modern society and technology led to Photography, a form of art that might have resonated with the impressionists of the time. Just like Monet's The Garden of the Princess, a photo can capture a story that can have motion and yet remain still in its forms.  But, is the photographer providing the same sensation that someone like O'Keefe does?  Now, O'Keefe has been quoted saying that photography has not had the influence on her paintings like people thought it did. This creates a deeper sense of distinction between photography and painting.  Photography does have a connection with painting because it imitates perfectly what is in front of one's eyes. But the question remains as to whether it tickles the heart in the same way as O'Keef...

 One thing that I have noticed in my short career as a makeshift artist is the significance of Notan. Notan is basically a Japanese word for the distinctions between blacks and whites in a piece of art.  When sketching for the first time, I was mesmerized by the way dark and white parts of a piece of art interact with each other. They show you two sides of a story. In modern society, we are often taught to form opinions through a black-or-white lens. However, Notan (at least in m sketch) was used to emancipate such a process. Even in the distinction of black and white, one can find purpose, because ultimately they exist together. 

 According to Dow, the world of music is intertwined with the forms of art being produced. He mentions how a painting should resemble the rhythmic excellence of a brilliant piece of music in a few paragraphs across his book.  What does that mean? Is a piece of painting supposed to be the same as a piece of music?   Well, that might be the initial understanding. However, music's significance in composition should be a moment of inspiration for a painter to create something with immaculate composition. One can clearly find a difference between what soothes the ears against what soothes the eyes. But the feeling might just be the same.  In this O'Keefe painting, the premise was set that she had been inspired by one of Dow's classes and decided to paint something while listening to (and being under the influence of) music.  Even if this painting was not under the influence of music, we can infer that it might have been. If we look at the boundaries of the heart...

    I have had this painting for some time now, and I do not yet feel it is finished.  I am not satisfied because even though I know what it means for me, I know other people will not feel the same way towards it. I want the viewer not to know my every detail of myself but yet experience me through this painting, or at least me through the way I see, and feel the world . It is pretty but it does not yet have the depth I need it to be. This is not like the work of Georgia O’Keefe, but it is my style, and my form of truth. Yet through the study of the painting of Mt. Cezane and other artworks of O’Keeffe I recognize that I need to work through my painting carefully with intensity, intention, and decision, so that my painting invokes in me every time the feeling of what these mountains signify and what they embrace. The notan in the bottom half is too light and without dark , therefore it loses meaning, and it feels blurry, without perspective. The painting is of Atalaya mou...

​ What is art? The question that has haunted every art class I have attended. It lurks under the surface of almost every question or statement made about visual art, and it is potentially the fastest route to art block known to mankind. What is art? Am I making it? Are  they  making it? What makes something art and not, for example, a photocopy? What about shadows cast on a wall? The shadows themselves may not be art, but what about a photo of those shadows, even one taken in passing, or by accident? Is an artist simply the person who thought first to take that photo? Do those shadows not become art until they have been reproduced by the human hand, in paint for example? What about artists? When can you claim yourself to be “an artist”? When  you  spend enough time making art? When  you  care enough? When  you  decide to? When  you  make money off your products? Art is an infamously non-lucrative  endeavor,  I doubt that could ...

                    Georgia O’Keeffe—Hands and Thimble: 1919                         Thanks to the generosity of my essay-eager tutors, I have recently spent a fair amount of my time in the library. In moments of procrastination, I have been occupying myself in the art section, in which, since our conversation on the difference between painting and photography, I have been drawn to the photography collection, particularly the couple of books on the works of Alfred Stieglitz. We have known Steiglitz mainly as the shadowy figure in O'Keeffe's life who seems to have played the simultaneous roles of major influence and also somewhat of an impediment in terms of how her work was interpreted and received. However, apart from the glimpses of him we get in the essays that we've read, I had not really taken the time to look at his own art, for which he is also re...

​Is one of the main lessons of Dow the lesson that form is not technique? The forms in nature, for example -- spirals, rings, curls, branchings --are not technique, but nature doing its thing with innate harmony. Technique involves copying, to acquire a set of skills to "reproduce" something. Perhaps one of the wrong turns in Western art is to conflate form and technique. After all, for the longest time "art" translated "technē."     In Leonardo, nearly all the effort goes into technē: my, how he did the robes! the flowers! the perspective! -- But the whole seems to me didactic  and lifeless, a demonstration, leaving not much to the imagination and no room for the soul to enter. But those blurry forms in the background were always what interested me most as a kid, because they suggested a kind of infinity: Look at the perfection of form in these details -- yet undidactic, undemonstrative, just there! The modern artist ventures to restore to us this more pr...

  The question of whether the basic tenants of Composition as presented in our reading can apply to everything one does in life strains my brain each time I try to think about something else. “Everything” is such a word! It can swallow one whole! Yet, maybe I can jump into the vacuum for a minute or two to find out whether anything may pop out as an instruction to Future Me.   Despite trying to move on to our current assignment, the word came up this morning as I was finishing the sudoku puzzle I began in some early hour of the other night. I was trying to clear out some mental detritus remaining after yet another insufficient REM cycle, before I could properly write down my daily list of dreadful things I will surely fail to complete. The puzzle book is a simple level, called “sophomore” because quite frankly, my brain had fried out over the course of the last three years and this is all I can do anymore. At least, I can do it in pen and that is satisfying.  I was p...