Julie Mannarino

[rileyknickerbocker]

Homework:

My piece shows that there are infinite combinations of people, and every feature on every human is unique. There is no perfect version of me, there is only me. The bottom line is that what matters the most is what’s in your heart.

[juliemannarino]

What a cool piece of artwork! I really like your drawing style—it's very clean. I also like the little designs you added in the corners of the boxes. Including images of people contrasts with your sketches nicely. It's a really creative and interesting take on this project!

[caitcull]

Breakthrough Contemporary Artists

My collage gives insight into the societal pressures to look a certain, and perfect, way as a woman in the digital age. I included a variety of images of women in portraits and several different mirrors. These symbolize how women have to be "picture-perfect" and how we always are looking into the mirror to ensure we look flawless.

In contrast, the piece could be interpreted as looking to many different women with diverse appearances and empty mirrors without expectations for a more positive outlook!

This assignment was very fun, as I liked putting together so many different gold clippings with elegant vibes. I also boiled down some pink flower petals to make a dye to paint the background.

[juliemannarino]

Your artwork is stunning! Boiling flowers to create a dye is so resourceful and creative! It gives the piece an excellent background that complements the gold frames and portraits well! You should frame this piece; it's beautiful!

[carolynschwab]

Final Project:

For my final project, I wanted to make a landscape. Instead of sketchbook paper I used a water color sheet. My first movement I tied into the piece was landscape impressionism. Impressionism involves making subtle changes to natural light. I did this by incorporating purple into my bushes. Impressionism also involves small unblended brush strokes. To incorporate this I made thin and small horizontal lines within the water to create texture. 

My second movement I tied in was naturalism. Naturalism involves creating art that looks as close to reality as possible. I attempted this by trying to make a focal point and adding depth to the picture. I wanted the water to look realistic as well so I tried to make reflections of the trees and bushes. In terms of class, I used the formal elements power point for inspiration for creating a focal point and complementory color combinations.

My third movement I tied in was landscape fauvism. Fauvism also deals with unnatural and unblended colors, so I used more purple in my trees than necessary to give it a bolder feel. Fauvism also uses defined brush strokes, so I emphasized that in my pine trees to give a bolder look to the painting.

[juliemannarino]

Carolyn, what a beautiful watercolor painting! The reflection of the trees in the water is such a nice touch! You did an excellent job with the highlights and shadows to make the landscape look realistic. Awesome work!

[juliemannarino]

Final

In my background, I used acrylic paint to blend a few warm-toned colors to create a base. Then, using cool tones, I splattered different splotches of color all over the canvas. This idea was inspired by our work covering Formal Elements at the beginning of the semester.

As for the focal point of the piece, I looked back into the Arte Povera work I completed. After finding a funky outfit in my magazine, I cut out an image of a bear to add a satirical aspect to the canvas. Also, I included phrases like "Parties close way too early in America" and "art project," similar to what I did in my Arte Povera collage.

When looking through my magazines, I found some abstract pieces that complemented my background well, like the money. These elements reminded me of my Abstract Expressionism artwork, which has a similar aspect of "randomness."

This was a fun way to tie together my artwork from this semester!

[juliemannarino]

Breakthrough Contemporary Artists

For this assignment, I used the April 2024 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, which featured a story on social media influencer Trisha Paytas. Although problematic, Paytas has been seen as "uncancellable," and her article featured many quotes about social media and its impact on her life. The quote I chose to highlight from this interview is, "With social media, I've never been the popular girl. I think I'm literally just the person who's there." This line reflects some of the pressure I feel around posting on social media. I have never seen myself as popular but as someone just there, trying to fit in with everyone else. As a woman in the digital age, it is common to feel that you must be the best, the most popular, which can be very discouraging.

[juliemannarino]

Favorite Songs Right Now

Since we don't have an attendance prompt this week, I decided to share some of my favorite songs right now!

[juliemannarino]

NYC Art

For my Keith Haring-inspired chalk art, I used a book about him that showcases many images of his work for reference. I was very inspired by the comic-strip-like design in some of his work, so I added a similar boxy pattern. I also enjoyed the embracing characters Haring created, so I tried to do the same, though they look almost like they're fighting. As for the "CHOO CHOO" and attempted train drawing, one went by with the horn on when I was working on this, so it sparked some inspiration!

[juliemannarino]

Attendance Prompt

I also found a Keith Haring Mixtape playlist on Spotify, digitizing the music he collected and enjoyed. Check it out!

[juliemannarino]

Earth Art

For this assignment, I used flowers I received as my natural element. When creating my background, I used the usual acrylic watercolor and added hydrangea petals to create imprints, almost like stickers. Then, I used the leaves from that flower and Mod Podge to paste them onto my background. After that, I incorporated some other flower petals for some color. This was a fun way to preserve one of my bouquets!

[juliemannarino]

Attendance Prompt

[juliemannarino]

Feminism

For this assignment, the advertisement I chose was for Olay body lotion. The phrase initially said, "95% had visibly smoother skin," after only a few uses, as many products promise. However, to make it sarcastic, I flipped through magazines to find negative terms like "the ugliest," "horrified," and "harmful," which wouldn't usually be used in an advertisement for skincare. Nowadays, companies try to sell anti-aging products to keep skin youthful, causing many people to worry about aging. So, I decided to flip the message to show how aging is viewed negatively and feared in the beauty space.

[juliemannarino]

Attendance Prompt

[juliemannarino]

Minimalism

[juliemannarino]

Attendance Prompt

[juliemannarino]

Arte Povera

[juliemannarino]

Attendance Prompt

[juliemannarino]

Pop Art

When considering the suggestions made during my midterm, I researched Trudy Benson's artwork further since I could not obtain any vintage magazines over the break. I was really inspired by the piece "Across the Net," and I used the color palette to create my background. Since we use different mediums, this came out very cool, and I recommend checking out her other work!

As for my images and words, in Rolling Stone magazine, which I use for all of my projects, many tobacco products are advertised. I had the picture of Julia Fox already cut out, and it went well with the image of cigarettes and the word "Warning," which is present in every ad. A drink mixer advertisement with repeated images of the beverages and Snickers bars also worked well within the piece.