Sculpture

The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.     

 -Michelangelo

The Boxer bronze

  Sculpture is to me one of the hardest forms of art to master.  While each form has its own difficulties sculpture still takes the cake.  Personally, I have only made two different sculptures only because they were art class assignments in high school.  The only thing I let myself remember about the first one is the fact that it is impossible to make spheres and circles out of toothpicks.  Yes, I said toothpicks the worst idea on the face of the planet, ever.  The second time around was a more enjoyable experience seeing as I could use household items in this one and blocks of wood.  Although it was more of a success and not as frustrating as the first it still was not one of my favorites.  Now I only had to use household items imagine making beautiful sculptures out of marble or having to melt down bronze. 

Broze Disc Thrower

Bronze made extremely popular during Greek antiquity, was an abundant material used to make most sculptures at the time; through a very lengthy process I won’t bore you with.  It’s blossoming of art, literature, philosophy; sport and even architecture with a major use of bronze characterize Greek antiquity.  This is when some of the most amazing works of art the world has ever seen were created and then lost for hundreds of years until the Renaissance. 

Broze Eros or Cupid

Most Greek sculptures depicted great athletes participating in the Olympic games in Athens and major characters in Greek mythology like Athena, Zeus and Aphrodite.   And after the fall of the Greek empire in the 4^th century this very detailed and difficult art form was lost. 

Creation of Adam Vatican

Luckily it was found again and remastered during the Renaissance and was even reinvented using a new material, marble.  Most notable for his grasp on sculpture is the late great Michelangelo.  Michelangelo is one of the Renaissances greatest geniuses.  He was a master of sculpture, painting, and even drawing.  He started gaining fame for a piece he did when he was only 23 for the Vatican this piece is known as Pieta.  At first it said someone else during the time had done the sculpture out of anger Michelangelo broke into the Vatican and carved “Michelangelo did this”(roughly speaking) into the sculpture to make sure everyone knew who created this amazing work of art. And yes, this is the same man who create David and most of the paintings in the Vatican.  

piece of Michelangelo painting 

Pieta

Mannerist Sculpture

Personally, my favorite time for sculpture came right after the Renaissance and is known as Mannerism.  Mannerism is known for showing great dramatic emotion and and stretched hard to do stances.  Though the mannerist period lasted only a short while its sculptures still survive today and are revered for their intense emotion. 

                                                    

 What is the best sculpture you have seen in your life?

Mannerist Sculpture

Photography!

“All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”


–Richard Avedon

Lets start our first lesson with the most popular form of art.   And what form is this? Photography! As you know now, one of my personal favorites.  Not only mine but also most people’s favorite.  Now a days everyone believes they are a photographer and I guess I am too guilty of such a thought. 

Photography is a form of art that compared to others is fairly recent.  Since the camera was not fully developed until the 1800’s the idea of photography came later. At first photographs were used to just take portraits and gradually over time developed into the art form we know today.  Which even today is still be reinvented and developing technologically very fast and us photographers try to keep up. 

 

My camera and Olympus OM-1 was developed in the early 1970’s.  It is a film camera that is manually operated meaning that all functions like shutter speed and exposure are operated by me, not automatically by my camera.  Like previously stated it is a film camera so I can photos in black and white or in color.  But I usually prefer black and white. 

Now how this will usually work is that I’ll give a little background on the form of art I am going to talk about historical and personal and then some information on the person or artist I think does an amazing job at that form of art.  So basically, I’m going to talk about my favorite person in that form of art.   J

So who is my favorite photographer?? A man by the name of Richard Avedon! First and foremost know for his know for his fashion editorial shoots and later for his minimalist photos incorporating many well know political and social leaders.  Richard had a very successful 60 year career taking photos of Bob Dylan, MalcolmX, and even Twiggy.  Working both on his own and for such magazines as Harpers Bizarre and Vogue, Avedon established himself in the photography world as one of the truly best capturing both moments in time and formal images. 

I discovered this amazing man when I was 13 not wanting to go to the science museum with the rest of my family to see the body exhibit I excused myself to the art museum in the area and stumbled upon and exhibit showcasing many of Avedon’s great works.  After spend over 3 hours in the exhibit I was in love.  His use of only black and white and the words he seemed to be saying with his images called to me and said the most amazing things. They made me want to learn more about the people in them like Malcolm X or who Twiggy was.  They also said that anything I imagined could be possible in a photograph because I could make them anything I wanted, and it didn't necessarily have to be the truth or natural.  Therefore inspiring me for the rest of my days. 

What's your favorite Richard Avedon photo? Or what is your favorite professional photo?

My beginnings!

“Art is the most intense form of individualism that the world has ever known.”

-Oscar Wilde

What do you think of when you think of art?  Do you think of a popular painting like the Mona Lisa or a popular museum like the Louvre?  Do you get instantly bored or anxious just thinking about it? Or like me do you think of all the new and different ways to express yourself from macaroni jewelry to a new tattoo? Now what if I threw in history? I know I know I probably just lost you but if your still here I promise its not the boring type!

Watercolor- by me!

Art, something I have been in love with since it was forced on me in preschool. Art was the one time I had to do whatever I wanted and call it freedom of expression.  It later turned into something that kept me busy in all the classes I considered boring, then it became a hobby, one that I loved completely.  And what about history?  While others instantly fall asleep upon hearing the word history, I get immediately interested and cannot wait to find out something new. Then I found out I could combine these two loves of mine in art history. Amazing!

Monet oil pastel landscape

Now how did I get started?  I fell in love with art with great influence from my sister and my father.  My sister an amazing artist since she was young, helped me to develop as as I grew up.  Giving me input on projects even on color choices.  My father, an art major in college, gave me my camera and is responsible for my love of photography.  My camera, an Olympus OM-1, was my grandfathers and my father and I like to take off on photography trips all the time to places we find interesting and take pictures.  Since I honestly cannot draw to well, my sister got all that talent; I developed an interest with color, which later turned into painting, of courses with a lot of color.

Monet oil pastel 

I usually like to paint.  I of course, love photography and in high school thanks to an art assignment I developed a major liking for oil pastels and went on to do more than one all of which are copies of impressionist Monet’s paintings.  Now see only a tiny mention of history! And now a little more impressionism -popular in the late 1800’s mostly in France- is one of my favorite forms of painting, the other being baroque which is known for its extreme lighting contrasting between dark and light. 

Tempra painting

So there’s my story! There’s a lot more you’ll be learning and I promise to make it fun or at least a little funny more likely corny but hey that’s good to right?

Pop art!