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Breakthrough Contemporary Artists

The two art lessons that inspired my artwork were Earth Art and Your Art Voice. I chose to paint a landscape that shows the top part of a tree that has flowers blossoming, and a sky with clouds. I was inspired by Earth Art because although I chose to paint a landscape, I thought that choosing to capture a portrait of nature still helped to embody this lesson that we did this semester.

I also chose to use the lesson Your Art Voice as inspiration for my painting this semester. I used this lesson as inspiration because I followed a video of a painting tutorial by another artist. In doing this, I was inspired by that artist. I thought it was similar to this lesson because in that lesson we chose two pieces from classmates to draw inspiration from. The tutorial that I used was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udrqgGfMykU

Overall, I'm really proud of my piece and think that I developed a lot as an artist over the course of this semester.

NYC 1980s Assignment

I did this assignment with Brooke Cicoria. We drew chalk art inspired by Keith Haring on our driveway, so we had lots of space. We looked up drawings of Keith Haring's and recreated the ones that we thought were the biggest embodiments of peace, love, and harmony. We also added in peace signs and hearts, as well as an Earth. We made the Earth the "O" in the word "Love." Doing research for this assignment, we found that a lot of Haring's art work demonstrates peace, love, and harmony, which I thought was super cool. I included some close up pictures of some elements of our master piece so that everyone could see them in more detail.

Attendance Prompt:

This is a song that came out in 1988, called The Fairytale of New York by the Pogues, an Irish band.

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Earth Art Assignment

For my Earth Art assignment, I decided to create a triangle. I used sticks for the border of the triangle, and outlined that border with pine tree needles. I also included various objects I found outside in the center of the triangle and made another triangle within the triangle. The objects I used include leaves, rocks, and a small pinecone. I also picked a leaf off of a cool looking tree and had that be the point of my triangle.

The triangle is a shape that has been around since ancient times. It first gained popularity in ancient geometry, in civilizations such as ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and more. Egyptians most notably used triangles in their construction of the pyramids, while Pythagoras of ancient Greece made the right triangle popular from the Pythagorean theorem. Since ancient times, triangles have been essential in designing buildings and architecture due to their structural stability. Triangles also have various symbolic, religious, and psychological meanings associated with them. For example, in Christianity the Holy Trinity is represented by a triangle. In psychology, a triangle helps to represent Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Symbolically, an equilateral triangle can represent harmony, balance, and equilibrium.

For my background, I used a coloring sheet that a group of me and my female friends each received and completed when we went to get ice cream together at Friendly's. I was excited to use this as my background because I think us all being together as young women also embodies the feminist movement, which is the topic of this week's assignment. I chose an advertisement that is a retinol body wash that is meant to "renew skin." This advertisement thrives off of people's insecurities regarding their skin, whether that be blemishes or signs of aging, such as wrinkles. Because of this, I chose to end a line from the actual advertisement slightly differently. I chose to make it into the phrase, "Rev-up your head to toe skincare routine with self love." I think that this phrase emphasizes that a product can not always solve all of your tiny concerns surrounding your appearance, which in the grand scheme of things don't matter to who you are as a person. For this reason I think self love is so important.

Attendance Prompt:

For a song that is significant to the feminist movement, I chose I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. This song is important to the feminist movement because this song emphasizes empowerment and independence. Specifically, it was released in 1978 when a woman was often seen solely in relation to a man. This song flips the script to say that a woman does not need a man to thrive. This song came out at the height of the second wave feminist movement in the United States, which focused on workplace inequality, reproductive rights, and freedom from traditional gender roles.

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Minimalism Project

For this week's assignment, I decided to experiment with light and creating shadow puppets. My team and I were traveling all week, so we decided to experiment with shadow puppets in the hotel room. I used one of my teammates, Kiley, my phone flash light to create the shadow, and a third teammate helped to capture the photo from afar. I also decided to take the photo near a dim light source that was in our hotel room, a lamp. I thought the lamp added a nice ambiance to the photo. I also decided to keep my teammates hands in the photo to emphasize the theme that things are not always as they seem.

chloeszot

I chose Josh Allen jumping over Cunningham because every time Josh jumps over defenders it’s always iconic. Josh shows what it’s like to love the game and do anything you can do to win. Including jumping over people.

I always enjoy watching these moments of Josh jumping and leaping to get touchdowns. His grit and love for the game is something he shows in his playing. I enjoy watching the Bills games just to see moments like these.

Arte Povera Project

For my arte povera project I took an old prosecco bottle that I was going to throw away, and decided to paint on it and repurpose it into something cute. I painted flowers and vines on it. I also took an old flower from a bouquet I had an stuck it in it. I thought that using everyday materials that I found around my house helped to represent the arte povera movement, instead of buying new items or using expensive things to create art. The way that it looks handcrafted and emphasizes nature with both the real and handpainted flowers also helps to emphasize themes central to arte povera, which is art that is more down to Earth and not mass produced or necessarily polished. As well, I thought it was cool how there are eternal flowers painted onto the bottle which look fresh, but these flowers juxtapose the dead rose in the bottle itself. I think this juxtaposition helps to highlight how the prosecco bottle could have went and sat in a land mine and decayed like the rose, but instead is now repurposed and eternalized for the purpose of art, like the painted flowers.

torinascimento

Midterm Project

I picked this post of Kim Kardashian as it is very obvious there has been photoshopped used. The biggest giveaway that editing has been used is the un-natural looking car in the background. This unfortunately is not the first time the Kardashians have been called out for their poor photoshopping skills. Looking at this photo I feel sad how people go to extreme measures to make their bodies look more appealing and fit to societal standards. In my drawing I replicated this warped image, by highlighting the distorted car and bumps in the road/curb. With the painted lines on the road going inwards instead of their normal direction.

I think with AI becoming more popular, there are going to be more tools at our disposal to use. I also believe it is going to be harder to tell when someone touches up their photo, with new technology. For the outside viewer, thinking celebrities have no imperfections will only create a negative example for younger females. This can negatively affect any viewer's mental health as they may compare their body, face or appearance to a fake photo wondering why they do not look like that.

Ultimately photoshopping will never be stopped. We will find this tool being used across many social media platforms for a long time. I do believe society will never stray away from photoshopping. Although the extreme may die down, it will become less obvious to notice when people use certain apps to change how they look. As of recently I have noticed facetune and AI technology being used to touch up photos.

Pop Art Assignment

One product that I kept seeing in the advertisements in my magazines, which kind of surprised me, was eye drops. In 2022, the global eye drop market was estimated at $15.6 billion. The growing eye drop market is predicted to be because of increasing cases of dry eye and visual strain, which is hypothesized to be linked to digital strain put on the eyes in the ever increasing technological world we live in. One fun fact about eye drops for dry eyes is that they work by lubricating the surface of the eye and mimicking natural tears in this way. I think that some eye drop advertisements can lead to unnecessary purchasing of eye drops. People when using eye drops can develop a dependency on them, and advertisements can normalize daily use of eye drops. Eye drops could also prevent people from going to and speaking to their doctor about persistent dry eye, which could be a sign of other deeper, underlying medical issues.

Sources:

The global OTC dry eye drops market size was estimated at USD 3.40 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.70% from 2023 to 2

Nearly everyone gets red or bloodshot eyes at some point. Redness-relieving eye drops are one way to return eyes to their normally clear con

These are my two abstract pieces. For my digital piece, I used an app that I normally use to take notes. I hadn't previously used this app before for anything besides taking notes, so I appreciated its versatility. I was able to create my own specific colors that I wanted, which I appreciated because sometimes I feel like my box of colored pencils doesn't have the exact color that I want. However, I didn't feel it was as satisfying as shading with an actual colored pencil or marker.

I liked creating physically. I used colored pencils for the majority of my background, and I decided to use paint for the black lines and red punctuation marks all over the painting. I found that painting was more calming and satisfying compared to creating digitally, but because I was copying my digital art, I found I couldn't be as free flowing. Overall, I would say that I felt more in control digitally for the sole reason that I was able to click the undo arrow and fix any mistakes without leaving any trace behind.

Your Art Voice Assignment

This week, I was inspired by Hana and Keegan's artwork. I think that these two pieces of art share conceptual and aesthetic characteristics. I think that these two pieces give off a darker sort of aesthetic which I thought was interesting. I think both of these artists strategically drew their backgrounds to enhance their piece as well. Additionally, they both made use of larger magazine scraps when they collaged on their work, which I thought made them similar as well. From Hana's work, I was inspired to draw an eye and make my work partially in black and white. She has eyes in her art, and her black background also stood out to me which is where I got the inspiration to do more shading with just a pencil. From Keegan's work, I was inspired to draw a spiderweb and a spider, because his background reminded me of that. Additionally, I was inspired to have my highlight colors be red and green, which you can see in my magazine scraps and highlighting the spider web itself. Overall, I thought both of these artists did an amazing job with their pieces and tried to combine their similar styles when creating my own piece.

aidanboyle14

For my art piece #1, “All Great Artists Steal”, I decided to focus on the Ye album by Kanye West. The album cover itself has multiple tones of blue with a bright green saying on the front, juxtaposing the blues. For my take, I decided to focus more on the state of New York to make the cover pop. I included clipping from the Enchanted Mountains magazine of Cattaraugus County, NY. I also drew in some iconic New York features such as the Empire State Building and Niagara Falls. To finish it off, I made the main focus of the art piece, New York’s iconic saying, “I❤️NY”.

fionamcgovern

I chose to reblog Aidan's art from last week. I think he did a great job of taking inspiration from the original album cover. I loved how he included both rural and urban elements in his album cover, which shows the diversity of land in New York State. I also like how he included text in the middle, just like the original album cover.

smorfin5

Homework #1

I chose the album "I Told Them..." by Burna Boy. I chose to use magazine clippings, colored pencils, and markers. The inspiration I took was from the general layout of the album cover. I have the human subject in the middle, and then I also took inspiration from the text style. I put a "bread" spin on the album, replacing "I Told Them" with "I Made Bread". The subject of my piece is also wielding a bread knife, and a slide of bread can be seen with a sad face to his right. I enjoy cooking and I love food, so I felt that this was an appropriate and funny way to make the album cover my own.

My favorite song from the album is:

fionamcgovern

I chose to reblog Sean's piece because I think he did a great job of not only recreating the album cover, but as taking it as inspiration to create an original art piece. I also thought that it was super funny. Great job, Sean!

Formal Elements Assignment

For my artwork this week, I chose to make the background with the complementary colors yellow and purple. For my fashion outfit I created something that combined football player with school girl. I included legs with a plaid skirt and a football player with a bengals jersey. I decided to be creative and make the head a cute little snake. I also decided to be creative in making the character throw a loaf of bread instead of a football. Overall, I think my character is very fashionable and athletic.

Viewing Art Assignment

For my artwork this week, I took inspiration from the album cover of the album "How to: Friend, Love, Freefall" by Rainbow Kitten Surprise. My favorite song off of this album is called Painkillers. I chose to take inspiration from this album cover because along with enjoying the album itself, the cover already has elements that reminding me of collaging, so I thought it would be perfect for this assignment.

I recreated it by including all of the same elements of the cover, which I cut out of my magazines. Like the cover, I included two chairs, a table with some items on it, and I included a chandelier as a source of light (couldn't find a good standing lamp to cut out). In the cover, there is a rip in the seemingly normal room which leads to what looks like space. I took inspiration from this, but instead of space, my rip in the middle of my art leads to a beautiful sunset over the water.

#Youtube

Hi everyone! My name is Fiona and I am super excited to be taking ARTH-332 this semester. I am a senior at Saint Bonaventure, and I am a Health Science major with a biomedical concentration. This is going to be my third art class I've taken so far at Bonaventure. I love taking an art class along with my regular course load because it sets aside time for me to be creative and imaginative.

In my free time I like to read, hike, cook, and spend time with my family, friends, and pets. I have a dog and two cats at home. I am also a member of the Women's Lacrosse team here at SBU, so that also takes up a lot of my time. Overall, I'm excited to start creating pieces that help me to learn more about art in the process of doing so.

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Final Piece #2

Materials and Title: For this piece, which I titled Life is Love, I used my sketchbook, magazine clippings, and colored pencils.

Complementary Colors: For the complementary colors I used I used blue and yellow. I would have used blue and orange, but I wanted the colors I used to be a bit more subtle since it ended up just bordering and enhancing my piece, instead of being the main focus. That is why I used light blue and yellow as the complementary color combination. The viewer can find my combination bordering the center collage piece, and accented around the Life is Love on the left side.

Inspiration: I took inspiration from Joe's final piece. I liked how he left the edge of his magazine jagged, which I also did in my piece. I also liked how he put in letters on the blank space left on the side of his piece, and used writing elements to fill blank space, which I also did as you can see on the left side of my piece.

Visual and Conceptual Goals: I used collaging in order to create a visual of the concept that I wished to convey in this piece. This piece builds off of my first piece's message, which was that life is not about material objects. The message of this piece, is that life is about love. I included this concept visually by including scraps of people spending time with family, friends, and other loved ones. I also tried to visually emphasize that love can also include doing things on your own, such as things that you love which I also ensured to include pictures of (such as someone going for a walk or cooking by themselves). Lastly, I made sure to sneak a photo of a pet in there, because I think pets are a huge source of love in our lives. Overall, through strategically picking photos from my magazine that I thought would visually show the concept of love, I was able to effectively demonstrate the concept that life is more meaningful when full of love.

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