Phildelphia Adventure

The one place I have wanted to go in Philly for the longest time was Reading Terminal Market. So when I got my foundations computers assignment to go out into the city that we live in I knew within 5 seconds where I was going to go. Unfortunately the weather that day was not the best however I met my roommate in Center City and off we went trekking through the ice, sleet and snow. I was rather excited to get out the cold by the time we made it to the terminal. As soon as I stepped through the doors I was amazed. It was like this little hidden burst of smells colors and people. It was nothing like I expected. It was a Friday afternoon so it wasnt too terribly crowded. But the experience was just as amazing. I started walking around and I just couldnt even believe that all of the little shops and vendors could fit  into such a small little space. As I began to walk around I noticed the shops full of colorful candy and the fresh fruits and flowers. It was just so colorful. As we wandered  around my roomate pulled me into this little shop that was a spice and coffee vendor. She practically had to drag me out of there every thing just smelled so good. After that we wandered around and due to the fact that we we were wandering around a market filled with food we just had to grap some lunch. We grapped a soft pretzel and sat down and ate leizaurly while those around us wandered around the market. It took me a moment to reliaze but we had a little sound track to our lunch a man was playing the piano a few tables away. After lunch we had to leave and head back to campus. I was really sad to leave and head back out into the storm but overall it was a great afternoon.

Final Project

So  I was looking into art and mental illness. I then started to look at how artists are in their own little worlds. And how their disorders affect their work. I then stumbled across the link between art and attention deficit disorder. There was one article I found that I found quite interesting.
http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/aadd.htm
It talks about ADD and how it can help an artist or it can really hurt them. It talks about how people with ADD have a hard time focusing on things that don't interest them and when they find something that interests them they "hyper-focus" which basically means that they can't really do much else. They can forget daily responsibilities such as eating or returning phone calls. People with ADD are often highly intelligent and creative. Many aspects of ADD are extremely frustrating. I have decided to address this is my piece so I took a look at artists with ADD and how people manage ADD from day to day.
http://www.everydayhealth.com/blog/a-doctors-personal-take-on-adhd/managing-adhd-without-medication/
http://users.rcn.com/peregrin.enteract/add/50tips.html
 One of the main ways that people deal with ADD is structure such as making lists and reminders. And from there I transitioned to postits which are great reminders.

Final Assigment

So I don't know how the rest of my classmates are feeling about our last assignment but quite frankly it is making me feel like I am losing my mind. So I decided to look at the link between art and mental illness. This is a link that has always been an interesting one for me. Are artists better due to the fact that they aren't always in their right state of mind. Does medication dull their creativity ? Or does this link even exist at all ? How is their art affected by their illness if at all ?

 Some of the articles I have been looking at were
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-healing-arts/200901/art-and-mental-illness-stop-the-insanity
 One of the quotes from this article that I thought was interesting was
 "People with emotional disorders are not some defective subset of the human race nor do they differentiate disease and health. Human creativity is complex and ultimately, it is appreciated for its merit, innovation, and imagination."

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/art-and-mental-illness/
One of the quotes I thought most interesting  was
"Scientists have long studied the link between creativity and mental illness, and the lines between the two are often blurred. Studies suggest that creative people often share more personality traits with the mentally ill than “normal” people in less creative pursuits."

This next article was about an exhibit that explored the relationship between art and mental illness
http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/inside-the-head-art-and-mental-illness-explored/

From this research I began looking at artists who at some point had dealt with mental illness. One artist that was to have suffered from depression was Georgia  O' Keefe. Her work in my opinion is absolutely beautiful. A quote of hers really stuck with me "I have but one desire as a painter – that is to paint what I see, as I see it, in my own way, without regard for the desires or taste of the professional dealer or the professional collector."-  Georgia O’Keeffe. And a couple of her pieces did too.



One artist that I found was actually featured in one of the articles I read. Martín Ramírez was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He spent the last 30 years of his life institutionalized. All of his work was actually created while he was institutionalized. Two of the pieces that really stuck out to me. I think what really made me look twice was the fact that the two pieces were so different. There is something about the second one that I just love.
 

Another artist that supposedly dealt with a mental illness was Pablo Picasso. There are a range of Picasso's works that I find extremely interesting but the one that always catches my attention is Guerncia. I have actually had the chance to see this piece in person. It is absolutely amazing. The scale is insane. I remember I walked into the room in which it was housed and I just stood there staring.


One thing that I have gotten from these three artists is their use of scale. Scale can make something comforting and real or freakish and unsettling. I think I am going to experience with scale and my final piece will most likely use scale in a unsettling way.

Figure Drawings 1 and 2

Attempt Number One.

Attempt Number Two- Overall not the best but a good deal of improvement from the first to the second piece.

Quote Response

"The point is, that every piece of art changes your whole perception of the rest of the world for the rest of your life.

And it's not a joke! And if it doesn't, then it's not art, it's a commodity."

I feel that there are only certain life changing events that can change ones perception for the rest of their lives. I have only experienced two of these events. I don’t think I could handle a third just yet and that’s why I disagree with most of this quote. Art doesn’t have to in my opinion need to make you feel like you just got punched in the gut and just can’t stop crying. Art can just exist.

                Why can’t art just be pretty? Maybe not every piece of art has to evoke this deep soul searching feeling that makes us question ourselves and every decision we have ever made. I see nothing wrong with a pretty landscape that is just nice to look at. Meanwhile I don’t see anything wrong with a piece that can deeply disturb someone. I just think that there is a time, a place and a certain audience for both. And just because one is pretty and the other isn’t doesn’t make one or the other better or vice versa.

 I am giving art a pretty large category here but within that category everyone can have their own opinion. For example my roommate likes Jackson Pollock I however do not like it I don’t see the point. But isn’t that the whole point of art? Everyone thinks of things differently. No two people not matter how similar see and think in the same way. So one person may write off a piece of art just I have with Pollock but another person such as my roommate may really like it. My roommate is an art major as well but what happens when you ask someone who is not trained to look at art? If you stopped someone on the street and dragged them into the Metropolitan Museum of Art and dragged them up into the impressionist paintings and then asked them what they though I  am willing to bet if they didn’t have any artistic training they will either say it’s pretty or I don’t like it. Artist I think tend to get a self-absorbed. We think that everyone is looking at a piece of artwork with the same skill set. We think that everyone sees what we see and how we see it. That’s why critiques work. It gets you to take a step back and look at your work or someone else’s through a different set of eyes and circumstances. Everyone sees things differently so everyone is affected in a different way or maybe won’t be affected at all.

Although I disagree with most of the quote this is not part I do agree with. Art has become a bit of a commodity. Everything has these days. Technology makes practically anything accessible. For example I can go to the Temple website and then go to the library website from there and from there I can access Artstor, which pretty much gives me a high definition picture of pretty much any piece of artwork I could think of. Art is more accessible than it has been ever before. Art is no longer an activity of the rich and famous. It has become more of a commodity and more accessible to the public.  Also due to the advances in technology art is everywhere you look.  As I sit and write this response I am looking at the design of the desk I am sitting at, the design of Microsoft  Word 2010, the picture frame that my sister made for me  and not to mention the packaging on the two beverage containers that are sitting on my desk at the moment. Art is more accessible due to technology and that is never going to change. I am not quite sure if that is a good thing but I digress.

In the end this quote has many points some of which I agree with some of which I don’t. For example art is such a complex thing that can be broken down into so many pieces. I can be judged in so many different ways. It can be pretty it can be ugly it can be boring it can be interesting. It is all in the eye of the viewer whether that eye is trained or not.  Over time art has become more and more available to more and more viewers through technology.

3D Hard and Soft sculpture.

This is the final version of my sculpture hard and soft project. I wanted to contiue the duct tape onto the walls and the floor but I ran out of time. I think it turned out pretty well....

Reaction to Persona

Persona Response

 Last week in my drawing class our professor said that we were going to watch a movie I got rather excited. Usually when I watch a movie I zone out and it is a time for me to relax and take in the simplicities of a movie and its plot and characters. However Persona was not one of these movies where I could sit back and relax. Persona was by far one of the most confusing movies I have ever seen, as my professor could infer from my facial expressions throughout our viewing in class. I am quite used to the Hollywood way of making movies where there are plot lines that are quite easy to follow and the characters are easy to follow and understand. Persona was not such a movie persona was difficult to follow and every confusing.

            One of the main things that confused me about persona was Elizabeth’s condition. It really confused me as to what was wrong with her. Her one aliment was not speaking. I do not feel however that something was wrong with her. I believe that she made a choice to not speak and it’s really bothering me as to why she made that choice and why that appeared to be a choice to her.  This part of the movie really irritated me and that part of the movie really made me mad after the movie was over and I am not quite sure why it made me so upset.

            The next section of the movie that really bothered me was Sister Alma’s personality she was just a strange women. One of the scenes that I found to be really strange was the scene where she was throwing herself around in the bed. I just really had no idea what she was doing or the reason behind it. Also her reactions to many events that occurred throughout the movie where just really strange to me.       

Another section of the movie that really confused me was Sister Almas and Elizabeth’s relationship. In the beginning it was that Sister Alma was the nurse and Elizabeth is the patient.

Pretty simple right? Yeah not really their relationship was so much more complicated even at that point, but compared to the rest of the movie that was nothing. For example when they get to the beach house they are still kind of in that awkward stage of nurse patient relationship. As they spend more time and more time with each other they start to become a sort of friends. But it is a one sided relationship I feel because Elizabeth isn’t speaking and thus has very little to contribute to the conversation. As the movie goes on their relationship develops and they begin to trust each other but rather Sister Alma begins to trust Elizabeth. Sister Almas trust is then violated when she reads a letter that Elizabeth had written to her doctor that mocked Sister Alma.

            Then came in the most confusing scene in the entire movie for me, this was the “fight” scene. I couldn’t tell if it was really happening or not, and if it was what on earth is wrong with these grown women and why where they fighting like five year olds. It was by far one of the strangest and confusing things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was really that strange. Also the aftermath of the fight was even stranger, the make ups and the fights that happened again and again. At a certain point I was thinking oh goodness please get over yourselves and move on please.

            There was one point to the movie that I absolutely loved and that was the way in which the movie was shoot and how beautiful the entire movie was. I am a huge fan of very high contrast with very light whites and dark blacks. Every scene in this movie was thought out and each was paid attention to and I really loved that about this movie. I had never seen such art in a movie. I think the reason that I was really able to focus on the beauty of the movie was because after a while I gave up trying to understand the movie and really began to focus in on the beauty. One of the scenes that I though was beautiful was when Sister Alma was lying in bed and Elizabeth was standing at a distance back. Sister Alma was almost in complete darkness and Elizabeth was in complete light. It was absolutely gorgeous. Another scene that really caught my eye was the scene in which Sister Alma is standing up against a white wall with her very dark sunglasses. The contrast was beautiful and breathtaking.