Baltimore Museum of Art

As soon as I saw this sculpture my eye was instantly drawn to it.  I knew exactly who the artist was, Edgar Degas.  When I was 14 I went to the Smithsonian Art Museum and fell in love with his art work.  I, myself am a dancer and was drawn to his focus of ballerinas.  I love this sculpture because it depicts the character, posture, and persona of a ballerina.  Degas is able to capture the mood in this sculpture.

 

When I walked into the modern art section of the museum (to be honest not my favorite) this sculpture caught my eye.  My eye was drawn to the color and size.  I thought the idea of lips was an interesting idea to try and bring to life.  I appreciated this piece of art because of the ability for it to change as you walked around it.  Depending on where you are standing no one has the same point of view or same experience.

One of my favorite types of art are paintings and more specifically landscapes or paintings that tell a story.  What I liked about this painting is the calming feeling it gave me.  I think the colors chosen: blue, green, and purple give that affect of a relaxing scene.  I could tell the detail precision, and detail the artist put into this peace.  This painting had me absorbed into it and made me feel like I was in the painting and experiencing it.  

Senior Art Gallery

Overall, I was excited to go to the senior gala, especially as a senior, to see the creations my peers had come up with.  As soon as I walked in the room the first piece of art jumped out at me. What caught my eye was the artist literally thought out of the box and her piece jumped out at you.  She didn't let space restrict her idea.  I loved that she utilized the floor and the color scheme of the project.  I thought she had a super unique idea.

 

Similar to our first day of class where we observed a movie that matched the sound in the background, an artist had the same idea with her project.  I loved the video that matched the music and sounds in the background because it completed an image in your head.  It wasn't a typical piece of art that I would think of.  The artist was super creative and used sound and vision to create a work of art.

  

Visibility

I found this article to be very profound in that it tries to capture what can be thought, yet not always put into words.  The idea of imagination is one that is very hard to grasp and bring to life.  Our imagination is something that our mind creates from words and ideas in order to give a visual representation.  Calvino gives examples through Ignatius Loyola and Dante to show how imagination can vary from person to person.  When we try to project or convey an image in real life from our imagination it typically is the initial image that comes to mind.  The idea of carrying us from our outer world to our inner world is an interesting concept that I have never thought about before.  It is trying to understand this world that is going on inside our minds.  Through art we can try to portray the inner world in our minds.  This is why art continuously keeps people guessing, because we will never truly understand the thought process or imagination of others.

The Whole Ball of Wax

We can't physically see the gradual changes and impact that art has on a society as they are occurring, however we can look back and see how art has influenced our thinking and captures the history that was being made.  In this article, the focus of how art can't physically change the world, rather can encourage deeper critical thinking is fascinating.  It's interesting to see how art can spark creativity in a society and make people view things from a multitude of perspectives.  In the article, Oscar Wilde claims, "The moment you think you understand a work of art it's dead for you" which is a bold statement, but absolutely correct.  Art is what ignites our creativity and can make people see so many different things.  If you placed 20 people in a room and told them to look at a piece of art, you will get 20 different responses.  So may be similar, yet no one ever experiences anything the exact same way.  Back to Wilde's point that once you stop thinking and believe to understand a work of art, that piece no longer is alive to you because you don't believe there is anything else to be found or thought about.

 A point very interesting in the article was comparing art to the relationship of a human and a cat.  When calling for a dog, there is a common language and acknowledgement of what is asked.  A dog will come running up when its name is called.  The comparison was made that a cat leaves space when asked for and that is art.  When looking at art there is an unspoken language, and connection we can try to understand it from afar.