Color...

http://anthonyfontana.com/AFImages/KyleColor_FlashBook.swf

The above is a link to my 2-D Foundations art project. Sorry I couldn't post the actual flash file but blogger doesn't seem to support the file format. Our guidelines on this project were to explore the mediums in which we use to escape reality with a heavy emphasis on color. So I tried to explain my point of view, how I see and understand color, through as many of these mediums that I possibly could. My original project idea was to make an installation piece, but difficulties arose. I truly feel that this version carries my meaning better, because I cover more mediums when this piece is on the internet and computer. We shot this in my room, because its green, it took use around 3 takes to get the take we used. This being the first time me and my friend used green screening we were not too sure what to expect. We learned a lot about adobe after effects, flash, sound booth. I really took time with this piece from the 2 week development idea, to the 33 or so hours put into production for this piece. And this piece only confirms that this is what I want to do for a living, as none of the work was to overly tedious. I had fun with this.

Artist Essay # 5

Today I’m going to talk Mark Dion as a artist and his ideas and meanings and how I see and understand them. Mark Dion is known in the world for his pieces that depict nature in a fleeting sort of way. By hanging rats on a tree he sees art. By hanging rats on a tree I can’t really see the meaning in it. And I can’t describe exactly what the piece makes me think of. It provokes questions of why are the rats covered in tar first before being hung on a tree. I know each piece of the art work has gone through sketches and books and all are there for a reason. But I’m having trouble formulating a single idea why anyone would want to look at that and take away some profound meaning. His other piece is a bit more pleasing to the eye and easier to unwrap. The tree in the machine controlled glass house is pretty neat. And I take away the idea that we are losing our selves to a world of machines and look at aging relics through glass windows such as a forest. Mark Dion is a unique individual, that’s for sure.

Artist Essay #4

Laurie Simmons is half an artist half an writer and actor in the development of plays inlayed with themes and ideas. The most well known of which is “The Music of Regret” a 3 part piece that tells numerous ideas and emotions. I find theater to be a bit ordinary when it comes to art, not that it’s a bad medium just that most of the ideas and meanings, themes, of most plays have been done. But Laurie Simmons only uses the medium to fully express her feelings and thoughts on time, and emotion by acting out various situations in humorous acts mostly played by hand puppets that she and a friend control. By having hand puppets in the act instead of people I take away the feeling that the situations she is depicting are childlike and not import the world around us. That most people should not be worried about trivial things in the world while wars and other global atrocities are happening. While theater and film is where Laurie Simmons is currently at, she started out in photography taking pictures of numerous things that depicted American life in a nut shell. I find her pieces to be reflective of American culture.

Artist Essay #3

Tim Hawkinson is something completely original. Hard to define and new his pieces represent numerous ideas an thoughts. My favorite piece of his is the uberorgan, besides having the coolest name I have ever heard it something that’s hard to fathom. A huge organ that takes up a massive space with tubes of silicon and plastic surrounding and intertwining all over the building, until all the tubes and plastic fix to a central point in the building. A huge conveyer belt running up and down with a system running on black dots as signs and musical note for when to blow what horn and at what force. This piece tells me that no matter how big or complex a piece is, or anything that people make or ideas that people come up with. All those ideas, thought, art pieces spawn from a central idea. The Emotor something that carries with it meanings and the same time being overly complex and hard to describe. A face completely independtly moving with the help of motors hence eMOTOR. But the face takes light sources from around the room and makes a face in accordance to the light of the room in that particular moment in time. what I get from that image is that, emotion is a central meaning in our surroundings.

Image Essay # 10

I’m not sure if this is a piece of art by an artist or if it is just an image from a shitty jewelry website, but none the less this object and the values it carries with it can all be derived from the shape of the object. Shapes can carrying colors, meanings, values and anything else a person wants it too. Shapes are in our everyday lives under our noses, underlying in every action we take or make. Just as I’m typing now on a rectangular keyboard on relatively square keys each one defined a value and a symbol so I can communicate on a square screen while looking at a gold ring. Shapes are almost too abstract to define, along the lines of the color I feel we can never fully understand shapes. For each person takes shape to a personal level. As a child one creates and takes particular shapes and colors and describes them as their favorites and most times those favorites last a life time. This ring carries with it different meanings from one culture to another from state to another, from one person to another. Each person my think of their wife or husband or a failed attempt at marriage. Once again each person takes and makes their own in art.

Image Essay # 9

BRILLO what could possibly be definined from this piece? The definition of any piece can vary from person to person its what makes art so special and unique and great medium of expressionism. In this piece by Andy Warhol we are presented with Brillo soap pads. Now I’ve used Brillo and find them to do exceptional cleaning of dishes and pots and pans, but I think Andy’s meaning in this piece is a bit more complex than a great house hold cleaner. Could he be stating something about contemporary American women in this piece. That women are currently locked in their world of dish washing as a means of escape they turn to brillo to get the jobs done faster. Could he be saying that the world is running low on the brillo soap pads. Could it be that women deserve more than a square box of brillo soap. Could he be saying appreciate the women in your lives because where every they come from most men of Andy’s time period used to deem them nothing more than common house maids that raised children and washed dishes while the man works. Could he be saying that the brillo pads are becoming more rare in the fact that times are changing and women are taking new jobs of importance, and brillo should be in a museum, remnants of a lost society?

Image Essay # 8

Unity and Varity is an interesting and difficult design choice for an artist. With the use of Unity and Varity comes many factors of decisions including balance, in all forms. I feel this piece is a successful piece on Unity and Varity in the fact that each mask and arm is completely different in shape and design but held together by the fact than a human can don this mask and arms. But what exactly is this piece trying to convey to us? I see it as somewhat as a costume design for a team. They all seem to position and poised to run or at a starting track. Their hands each designed differently to show each member of the team individuality and how they start the race. The colors might reflect the likes and dislikes of the team. Each person taking something special away from the team as well as giving color and meaning to team. In a whole Unity and Varity of the team is maintained through balance that were all a part of the human race we all give and take something away from the team. And all that matters is how we perform on the field of life.

Image Essay # 7

Balance is a delicate process, in the balancing act one must remember to keep things from getting over powered from one another. Those things include the color, the shapes, the flow, the ideas, and numerous other mediums and tools to keep in mind. In this piece, reflects and shows the ideas that balance embodies. Firstly the image doesn’t let us stop looking there seems to be almost no area of focus, except maybe in the color comet in the bottom right hand corner of the piece. But the piece mostly define fluidity and motion in the strokes and also in the colors. The blending of colors with the implied motion of the piece keep us looking and exploring what seems to be a colorful plane in in a colorful world. The crossing and mixing of colors suggest what might be a sky full of clouds with a comet soaring over the world enticing you to make a wish. All the while maintaining the balance of this world. This image reminds of something musical, like music seems to have played a part in the design of this piece. Balance can cover many mediums from painting like this piece to music and everything in between.

Image Essay # 6

What better way than to talk about Positive/Negative Space than to critique my own work on the idea, and examine my own personal strength and weaknesses. In the piece I was mostly trying to convey my likes and dislikes. I wasn’t going for a protect the earth feel that many people associated with it, but if that’s what they took from it by all means build a more complex meaning than what it really is. I feel that my strength in the piece is the use of composition, I feel I arranged the piece in such a way that the flow of the piece is continuous and un interrupted without leading the viewer off the page or to a area of focus. But my weakness is in the heads of Gabe and Tycho I wasn’t thinking about Positive and Negative space in the pictures themselves a dumb mistake on my part, but it was the first few weeks in class. And this piece lead to what I feel is my strongest piece in which we looked at and reinforced Postivie/negative space again. That piece is the second piece that was due for class, I forget the assignment name unfortunelty. But I feel I learned and grew from this piece.

Blog Entry # 4

Visual Culture, Art history, and Fashion Design can all be viewed in excellent detail: in a Movie. The Fifth Element.

1. The Fifth Element demonstrates a fully realized fictional world. The Movie was an idea that Luc Besson had since he was a youngster, taken his time to develop the world before he actually developed the story. With the help of Jean Paul Gaultier as fashion designer, they helped bring Besson’s Dream into reality. And what it was is a fully colorful mix of races, places, ships, wars, conflicts, lore, society, politics and marked an achieve in the movie industry for special effects.

2. Firstly the entire movie is set in the future, with a completely different society and trends. All the buildings were actually made and modeled to reflect the n eeds of a society in space. And with the movie being a futuristic society Jean Paul Gaultier designed clothing that Reflected the needs of and wants of a futuristic society. As well as adding additional layers of information into the clothing of the main characters, Like Corbin Dallas (Bruce Willis), who is a rough and tough typical ex-soldier who runs into/falls in love with a redhead alien women looking to save the planet. Jean Paul Gaultier Took that too heart when designing Corbin’s outfit with a orange tank-top and cargo pants his a hard and tough guy yet if you look close to the white tank top you can see and intricate design that is both delicate and romantic too reflect Corbin’s Soft Side. Movies seldom are original in today’s society, The Fifth element is original and fully developed, and that extraordinarily rare.

3. Luc Besson before The Fifth Element, was mostly into crime dramas Most notable was his piece Leon – The Professional. So in a line of Crime Dramas, The Fifth element seems kinda of out of place, but like I’ve stated before this was a dream of his since he was a kid. Jean Paul Gaultier is a world re-nouned fashion designer and make new and unusual cloths that carried meanings really wasn’t anything new for him.

4. Dominance takes the form as the story in the fifth element. A story so complex with multiple characters all focused on a central problem either to help it or destroy it. Love takes the cake as solution to the problem, which is corney as hell, and the solution is what they all strive for and what the story apex is, so Love is the dominance in The Fifth Element.

5. Humanity is seen as just another race in the galaxy with no real special identifiers. With both alien and human celebrities we all just fall into the world and what you make out of your life is what you work for.

6. I understand that huge tasks can be accomplished. Like carrying an idea for decades and developing and saving it for when I feel the world is ready.

Blog Entry # 3

1. B

PLACES

1.

Both. Places can define us or we can alter a place how we see fit. The only question is how you see it. Will this place define you with the surrounding area that you adapt to the area? Or do you alter that area and make it as you see fit?

2 and 3.

Barry McGee art is shown on his surrounding areas. He likes to do most of his art in the form of graffiti, his artwork becomes his surrounding area. Barry McGee adapts to his place. Matthew Ritchie seems to make his own world. Complete with meanings and ideals surround and encompassing in and throughout. Building to complex levels of understanding and meaning each line representative of an idea, and some end some continue but in the end he determines where those lines go,end,start,length,width,color,hue,angle,shape,crossover,crossunder… he makes his place.

4.

Tree hideout – Bright, Attic – boundless, Place under the stairs – Quiet, Tiny White Door – Mysterious, Randy’s Room - Smokey

5.

The place that most interested me was the same place that terrified me. On the Westside of our house there is a tiny white latched door in the foundation cement of our house. It could be that it’s a wooden door inlaid in cement, it could be that the lock on the door was open rusted and forgotten. The door pealing in white chipped paint and creaks and cracks revealed darkness behind the door. The door seemed to be made for a child coming barely up to the bottom of my knee know. When I opened the door the darkness so thick the floor above so close to the uneven crumbed dirt. I couldn’t see more than 2-3 feet inside I still have never gone inside.… I still wonder what I would find under the house that was made in the 1830s…

STORIES

1. I grew up with an unhealthy addiction to E.T. But that was more a sensational thing much like sponge bob is in today’s society. The one story that I’m sure everyone knows is that of Humpty Dumpty. It would stay in its story book form, much like it has been for centuries.

2. I have no idea. When we look at Humpty Dumpty it’s a twisted fucking story. Humpty a man made of what most believe to be an egg made of porcelain falls and dies, with no hope of reconstruction he dies, and the world keeps moving.

3. Sketchbook is the start of any idea, to be thrown away or developed. A sketch book is an idea sifter. Anything that expresses an idea or an feeling is an art piece, a sketchbook holds fragments of one days thoughts or years of development. A sketchbook is an work of art if the artist uses it for art proposes, to either: learn, express, practice, enhance, think, develop anything that helps one to explore and develop ideas about them and their world around them.

4. Young Self: Gonna play mega-man X, and Super Metriod and go see my friend Steve Whitenmier.

Self Now in Young Age: Gonna play mega-man X and Super Metriod, and save Steve from moving away where he gets a girl pregnant and moves out and files for bankruptcy at 18.

Artist Essay #2 Barry McGee

Barry McGee, aka Twist, is a well known graffiti artist. His is most notable known for his saggy, sleepy, eyed homeless man shown in the series of pictures above. Through his art he shows life on the streets, in this quote from PBS off of the Art 21 series, “He views graffiti as a vital method of communication, one that keeps him in touch with a larger, more diverse audience than can be reached through the traditional spaces of a gallery or museum.” Anyone can respect that. His art pieces are shown throughout the U.S on museum walls, homes, brick walls, and trains. His art captures a time and place most of us can not see or understand, through his art we see hard ships, story telling, and making fun of the government. His work seems to transcend the ghetto to the museums of Minneapolis and California in one flew swop of artistic skill, as well as traveling the train cars of all the major locomotive businesses. Contemporary Urban art is what PBS Art 21 labels him as, even though he’ll gladly take a paint can and sharpie over a paint brush and pencil or other professional artistic implement tool.

Artist Essay #1 Matthew Richie

Matthew Richie is almost indescribable, his work, from what I got off the PBS’s Art 21 website http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/ritchie/index.html, tries to embody the universe, from all forms of art including, painting, drawing, digital, sculpture, and metal works. I’m not too sure what to say about Richie’s art, it could be that I don’t comprehend it, which is most likely the case, but even in my ignorant state there is something on a semi-barbaric level that is utterly, intoxicating about his art work. The free form of simple lines draws me and embraces me with a wanting for discovery, and shows me a completely elaborate world with its own direction, all while following a simple black line on a white wall. I don’t understand what he is trying to convey through his art, all I see from his art is off the explicit surface of his pieces. The lines, colors, the simplicity, the two dimensions, the third dimensions, the wanting to understand his pieces, too know why that particular line cross over the other, does it tell a story, a narrative, is it of fiction or of history. I may not comprehend what Richie is telling me, but I know one thing… I like it.

Blog Image Essay #5

Movement and energy is the two main ideas that come to mind when the term kinetic is brought up in a discussion. How can a static two dimensional image convey the movement and energy, is it possible? Matthew Ritchie has found a way to show us that yes, yes it is. In his piece “Something like Day” shown above, the general feeling you get is well… movement there’s almost no way to take in all the energy without going up and just observing and standing and following the black lines. Lines are what you are seeing in black, the continuous and uninterrupted movement is something I’ve never quite seen. The gentle curves that follow other black line built upon by other black lines, gives a feeling of completeness and wholesomeness. Then as you follow the lines from the outside it all abruptly turns to color, and instead of mostly going horizontally, where twisted and thrown up down and every which way, possibly telling us that you can never predict everything in your life, that each and every day is unique. All this is taught through lines, black lines, and colorful lines, all on a static white non-moving wall. Kinetic can be shown very easily and yet be one of the most complicated items in a piece.

Blog Image Essay #4

The fifth element an astounding movie, most notable known for its incredible CGI work at the time, but today let’s look at the poster, which uses “area of focus” very well. There is quite a bit going on in this piece, flying space ships, three floating disjointed heads, and 5 very bright lights ranging in size going smaller and taller in a hill effect. The area of focus in this piece is undoubtedly is Bruce Willis’s face where not only is there something of a blue aura focusing around and behind his head. But his head is also the biggest out of the three. As well as the 5 lights hill effect the largest one leads us straight to his chin. The flying space ships add to the piece as well with their light tales that pretty much act as arrows pointing to the triangular hierarchy where Bruce is dominant in all shapes and sizes. The blue aura around his acts as a area of high contrast between the blue whitish, to the straight black. Yes with Area of Focus it is a very nice tool to utilize indeed, to point to something that you want the world to see.

Blog Image Essay #3

Ahh, Yes texture and its many various forms is a powerful tool indeed, one that can express a gamut of emotions. This is a desktop made by the fantastic artists at looking glass studio, and is a desktop for the game Bioshock. The large scale looking hand is one from a big daddy, who is the bouncer in the world of Bioshock. And the tiny clean, is from a little sister, a girl that pretty much once was a normal little girl but after a series of events ends up sucking the blood of the dead to produce a drug. It’s an original game for sure. Besides it being a remarkable achievement in rendering technology, what is the feeling this piece is conveying to us? I feel a dreading feeling like the pure has fallen to the dark; the righteous has become and joined forces with the twisted. The large, dark, brooding, slimy, dirty, hand, next to pale, innocent, small, makes for a very interesting contrast as well. Through the texture we learned all this, texture is a fascinating, and deep and powerful tool. One that when used properly can elevate any piece of art to new highs and extremes.

Blog Image Essay #2

Today let’s discuss Line, and to talk about line I have brought in our friend Rorschach, everyone say, hi Rorschach. Who can tell me about Rorschach and how he relates to line values… no well good, maybe you little shits will learn something today. Rorschach is a character in one of the most beloved comic books of all time “Watchmen”, which was created by Alan Moore, and is being made into movie as we speak by Zach Snyder.

Well enough history, LINE VALUES!!! YAY!!

Most notable first is Rorschach’s mask, which has blotches of ink on it. Which obviously refers to his name and how he got it, but what is the ink telling us? Throughout the book Moore uses the ink blotches to convey Rorschach’s feelings and emotions. In this particular scene we get the feeling of wondering, thinking and a touch of danger or possibly movement. We feel movement through the very thin and numerous horizontal lines that run behind Rorschach face. We feel wonder, and thinking in Rorschach face, the rounded blotches together with the four separated blotches almost like the main mass of blotches is reaching for the four lost ones. Like someone searching for answers.

Blog Image Essay #1

For my first assignment I will be writing about Norman Rockwell’s The Golden Rule. This piece really stood out to me first and for most because of the message it sends it viewer, which is obviously do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is a fantastic message about human peace, and loves thy brother. Now down to the elements of the piece. We are first and for most drawn to the little African American child who is placed very precisely in the center, contrasting the very bright cloth of the individuals behind him. He looks rather dirty and down trotted, which tells me he is in need of help. He doesn’t have a shirt own, so he doesn’t own very much, but yet he still holds that gold bowl like his offering it to us, wow humanity at its finest. Other aspects that stand out about this piece is the use of triangular hierarchy, in the contrasting white cloth wears. Not only is it contrasting the African boy by his at the base of the hierarchy which draws our eyes to him but also that the cloth wearers are also staring at him, which creates more invisible lines to the boy.

Blog Entry #1

My name is Kyle O’Brien and I am an aspiring Digital Arts major in Bowling Green State University. Art has always held a special place in me, in the way one can express their self, how you create your own world and manipulate it as you see fit, its enthralling. The captivity a white piece of paper hold is mind-blogging. It playing god in a sense, that I dictate what goes on in my own personal world.

My Influence stems from a pretty wide variety of artists and objects most notable: Comics, Video games, MC Escher, and Dali. Through all this things I have become a rather interesting individual and very interested in art.

I consider most forms of media art, Video Games, Movies, Books, Music. I consider these things art because there original. They’re a medium in which to express meaning, thought, or emotion.

The reason why I took a chance to learn art academically is because I’m not sure what I’m capable of… I did fail the portfolio for BGSU and am currently rounding up some more art for my second attempt. But you know what was interesting about me failing; I spent a solid week’s worth of work on that flash presentation and the professor flew through it, clicked, skipped the intro, complained that there was no sound, and tore my pieces of art apart that I presented… I still had fun. I had fun failing. I entertained myself by learning flash in a week and a half’s time, spent long nights online searching for help, and spending well over 500$ for both flash and a Wacom tablet… and I failed, with a smile on my face.

Currently the Smiths: Hatful of hollow, is in my CD player. Then on my MP3 player the most listen track is Madvillain: All Caps.

Blog Entry #2

This is Andrew's Composition

This is My 2-D Composition

Lets take a look at the different pieces, my piece in black, and Andrew’s piece in white.

Well first and foremost the biggest difference between the two is the obvious background color, Andrew stuck with the traditional white background, while I choose a black background because I wanted higher contrasts, because my images had a lot of white borders and it become difficult to distinguish where the image started and where the image ended.

Andrew went for a theme it seems like, he choose magnifying glasses, bulls head and seems like pen handles. While I stuck with the shapes, square, circle, and line and what was in those shapes is what I like. Andrew went ahead and said threw his piece that I am bull headed and stubborn, and that I have a close eye to detail, as for the pen I can’t quite place it. In mine I wasn’t really go for a theme besides all about me and what I like, it just kind of happened that the top of Morrissey’s head ended up under the world, and people general took it like an idea bubble and that he was thinking about the world and somehow they got protect the world from my piece… I wasn’t really going for that but to each his own.

What else is there to say?