Blog #5 for AVT 395
The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation is one of the granting organizations that I found to be interesting. This foundation has no deadlines for applications and therefore accepts application throughout the year and each grant is $10,000 in Canadian money. I found this organization interesting because this grant is for artists that are in their early stages of their careers working in painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. However, the only bad thing about it is that that artwork must be representational and they do not accept abstract art. To get this grant, I have to “have already started or completed training at an established school of art and/or demonstrate, through past work and future plans, a commitment to make art a lifetime career”. For more detailed information on what information and paperwork I must provide in getting this grant, I would have to call or email them.
Another art grant organization I found to be interesting was the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. I found this foundation interesting because they accept visual artists who need financial need, whether it is professional, personal or both. This foundation also has no deadlines and accepts applications throughout the year and is intended for a one-year period of time. The grant amount that I might be eligible is unknown, but it says that since 1985, this foundation has awarded 3,080 grants totaling over 46 million dollars to artists. To apply for this grant, I would have to submit a cover letter, an application, and slides of current work.
In addition to the two mentioned above, another grant I found interesting is the Puffin Foundation. Puffin Foundation offer an average grant amount of $1,000 to $2,500 to artists and art organizations that are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy. This is grant is only given to people who are permanent or citizens of the United States. I found this foundation interesting because they offer grants to a variety of different types of artists working in film and video, fine arts, photography, public interest, music, and theater. For further detailed information for this grant, I would have to send a self addressed stamped envelope to this foundation to receive a application packet for the 2009 cycle starting in September 2008.
West Collection is not exactly a grant, but I found this to be interesting because they have this award called the West Prize that is awarded a total of $125,000 to ten international emerging artists in 2008 working in painting, sculpture, photography, and installation. This award helps the winning artists through the platform of the West Collection – public tours, traveling shows, loans, publications, and website. To apply for this award, I would have to fill out an application and submit a profile including a brief description of myself, my work, and images of ten works
Add a comment June 20, 2008
Blog #4 for AVT 395
What is Art?!
Art to me is something to look at like a painting.
Art to me is something that you hear like music.
Art to me is something that you touch like a sculpture.
Art to me is something that you smell like a chocolate wedding cake.
Art to me is something that engages your senses like Ann Hamilton’s Tropos Installation.
Art to me is something that evokes an emotion like Barnett Newman’s Vir Hericus Sublimis painting.
Art to me is something that speaks out loud like Barbara Kruger’s You Body is a Battleground installation.
Art to me is something that has a deep meaning like Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled (Portrait for Ross in L.A) Installation.
Art to me is something that is meaningless like Jeff Koon’s Rabbit.
Art to me is something that is traditional like Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii painting.
Art to me is something that is futuristic like Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space sculpture.
Art to me is something that is abstract like Jackson Pollock’s Full Fathom Five painting.
Art to me is something that is figurative like Edouard Manet’s Olympia painting.
Art to me is something that is peaceful like Claude Monet’s landscape paintings.
Art to me is something that is crazy like Carolee Schneemann’s Interior Scroll performance.
Art to me is something that is pretty like Georgia O’Keeffe’s fower paintings.
Art to me is something that is disgusting like Damien Hirst’s A Thousand Years installation.
Art to me is EVERYTHING!
Add a comment June 9, 2008
Blog #2 for AVT 395
Looking through the blog links listed, I discovered some to be interesting and useful to me. Particularly in the first link, Daily Campello Art News, I liked it how he uses his web blog space to post up gallery and exhibition dates, times, location, and a little information about them. This can be useful for some people, like me, to see what exhibitions are up and such. In another web blog I looked at, Eye Level, functions differently from the first one I looked at. Unlike the Daily Campello Art News, this blog doesn’t have just one person writing the posts. Eye Level is a blog that is created by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and therefore it is written and created by a collaborative team at SAAM. This web blog for the most part, has one piece of art work for each post, and discusses them with their own personal experiences with the piece. The art works discussed are from the Smithsonian American Art Museum for most of the time. In a way I think this web blog functions to get people out to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. After looking at all the web blogs listed, I think overall these blogs function as a place for these artists or people to state their own opinions about anything that is related to art, and in some to promote art shows and museums.
I don’t think I will be using this blog outside of this course, unless it’s for another class, because I really don’t have anything interesting and knowledgeable things to say like in the other blogs I have read. However, if I ever become successful or somewhat successful in this art world, I would like to use this web blog space to promote my work and say my thoughts and opinions about them. And if I were to have exhibitions going on I would have all the information about the exhibitions on the blog and etc.
Add a comment May 28, 2008
Blog #1 for AVT 395
The questions were: What is it you do in your studio practice? What issues or content interests you most? What sort of work do you create? As a graphic design student at George Mason University, I find it kind of difficult to answer these questions because in graphic designing we usually work for a client and don’t really get to create work that are related to issues or content that interests us. In my case, my clients would be my professors that I have had in my graphic designing classes. In addition, having taken only three graphic design classes (typography, graphic design methods and principles, and editorial design), I am still trying to discover myself as a graphic designer and trying to figure out what kind of graphic designing career I would want to do in the future. However, last semester in my editorial design class, where we were required to redesign a poorly designed magazine, I found it fun and found myself being interested in designing magazines. I feel that I still have a lot more room to learn and improve about graphic designing, but designing magazines is something I am thinking about.
This is just one example of my work that I did in my editorial design class. In this assignment we were suppose to choose a magazine that we feel is “broken” and redesign it througout the semester. In the example shown above is my new cover design (bottom) for the Small Business Opportunites magazine (top). In my new cover design, I wanted this magazine to have more open space and easy to read because in the original cover everything is very cluttered and hard to read. Its kind of hard to see because the images are so small, but in my new cover design I have pretty much all the same information as the original cover.
Add a comment May 22, 2008
National Mall Photo Essay: War Memorials
Memorials are something that is designed to keep remembrance alive of somebody who has died or an event in which people have died. A good example of this is the war memorials. The capitol of the United States of America, District of Columbia, has these war memorials on the National Mall. For this assignment I have visited the three war memorials, the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I choose these three because these were the only war memorials on the National Mall and I wanted to see how each of the three wars were designed to remember and present history. As I visited each of the war memorials I got a different feel for each of the different war memorials. The World War II Memorial gave a very positive and joyful feel whereas the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial gave a negative and gloomy feel.
The first memorial I visited of the three was the World War II Memorial. When I got to this memorial it was very open and grand. It had a very tall entrance in to the memorial with some eagles and a halo on top of the entrance way. Once I stepped in to it I can immediately see the fountain in the middle squirting up high and around the memorial there were these column types that represented each of the states in the United States of America. There were also encouraging quotes by presidents that were engraved on to the stones. This memorial definitely gave it a victorious experience that glorified the war. The visitors at this memorial seemed to really enjoy the view I saw many people taking pictures of the memorial and of each other.
After visiting the World War II memorial I made my way to the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The location of this memorial was definitely different from the World War II memorial. The World War II Memorial was in a very open area where everyone can see it even if they were driving by but the Korean War Veterans Memorial was in a corner almost where it was not easily seen as the World War II Memorial. When I got to this memorial I got an opposite feel from the World War II Memorial. What really struck me were the facial expressions of the solider statues. This one solider statue had a very exhausting and terrifying facial expression. And there was this long dark black wall engraved with all the war veterans of the Korean War. Unlike the World War II Memorial it was not open and bright with a large fountain in the middle squirting out water, rather there was only a long black wall with image engraving and a bunch of the solider statues. Also, here I did not notice many people taking pictures here, rather everyone seemed sort of serious.
The last memorial I visited was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This memorial was pretty similar to the Korean War Veterans Memorial, but much more plain and simple. This memorial has this long, even longer than the Korean War Veterans Memorial, black wall that was slightly angled in the middle and had engravings of all the veterans who have lost their lives in the Vietnam War. Although this memorial is much more plain and simple than the Korean War Veterans Memorial, this memorial gave a more serious and depressing feel. I got the same sort of feeling here like when I go to my grandparent’s cemetery. I think this is because this memorial focused mainly on the veterans who have lost their lives in the war by having their names engraved where people can come and find the names of their lost ones. I saw visitors here getting more emotional than the other two memorials by leaving flowers and photographs and getting a piece of paper and pencil and tracing the names from the wall. Unlike the World War II Memorial I did not notice people taking pictures of them at this memorial; I think I was the only one taking these pictures.
After visiting each of the three war memorials I began to think about how the design of each memorial reflects on how our nation wishes to remember and present history. And from what I know about each of these wars, I know that America won in the World War II and in the Korean War there was no winning side and in the Vietnam War the other side had won the war. Therefore I think that the design of each memorial represents these. The World War II memorial is very victorious and glorifies the war and the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is very gloomy and serious and reflects on all the veterans that have lost their lives fighting in the war. Especially in the Vietnam War, since the other side has won it would mean that more soldiers on this side have died so in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial it just has a list of all the soldiers who have lost their lives in the war.
For Photos from the World War II Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial click here.
Add a comment December 14, 2007
Post #6: Women Cooking in the 50s and Today
The way that women are characterized and represented has come a long way over the times from the post World War II to today. In the short video clip “Cooking Terms!” on YouTube, women back in the 50s are depicted as unintelligent and stupid whereas in the short clip from the “Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee: Sunset Clambake” show women are depicted today as intelligent and confident who knows what they are talking about.
In the “Cooking Terms!” video clip, the woman in the film is shown as a stay home wife cooking for her husband. In this film she is depicted as unintelligent and stupid because she misunderstands a cooking term and messes up. Also, they use a man’s voice to narrate this film instead of having the woman talk. The man who is talking talks as if he knows everything whereas the woman in the film does not know what she is doing. This depicts men as being more intelligent and knows what they are talking about while the women are not and does not even know what they are doing. Another part in the film that depicts women being unintelligent and stupid is towards the end when she discovers the glossary after she messes up.
On the other hand in the short clip of the “Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee: Sunset Clambake” show, women are portrayed as opposite. Women are intelligent and confident who knows what they are talking about. In this video there is not a man’s voice describing what she is doing, rather the women in the video talks to the viewers describing how to make a meal throughout the video. Unlike the 50s video clip of the women in the kitchen, in here she is not in a house kitchen cooking for her husband, instead she is out on the beach doing a cooking show. In addition, she does not have a cook book in front of her to help her cook; she just cooks from memory and talks like she knows what she is doing.
Although in both the video clips we see women cooking, they are represented very differently. In the 50s video clip “Cooking Terms!” women are depicted as unintelligent and stupid who misinterprets a cooking term in a cook book and messes up and has a man’s voice pointing out her mistakes and how to cook right. However, in the “Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee: Sunset Clambake” video clip, women today are depicted as intelligent and confident who knows what they are talking about without the help from a cookbook and a man to narrate. Rather women today have their own cooking shows to teach the viewers how to cook.
Add a comment December 10, 2007
Post #5: Beauty Magazine Ads
Most women are always trying to look younger and have beautiful skin complexions. Even dating way back to the 1920’s we can see by the advertisements that women back than were also very concerned with facial aging and wanted to look younger. Nowadays when flipping through a magazine for women there are tons of advertisements on facial creams to make women look younger and have beautiful skin. Comparing a 1928 Vogue magazine advertisement on an essential cream for women faces titled “…Pretty faces may still be hungry faces” and an advertisement in a 2005 Instyle magazine on an anti-wrinkle firming cream by Chanel, there are some differences and similarities.
The first thing difference I notice is that this advertisement has less text than the 1928 advertisement where it has way too much information about this product. I feel that this modern advertisement is more appealing because of the less text used. However, I understand why they had to use so much text in the 1928. It is probably because there was no internet back, so they cannot just put a website on the advertisement to learn more about the product like this modern advertisement does. Also throughout the text the use of hierarchy in the text makes it easier to point out the most important facts about this product without reading everything whereas in the 1928 advertisement there is not much text hierarchy in which and you have to read everything.
Unlike the modern advertisement, this 1928 magazine advertisement uses an illustrative image. This photographic image used in the modern advertisement makes the product look more real which gives real results. The illustrative image in the 1928 advertisement makes the product look kind of fake and is not as convincing as the photographic image.
It is obvious in both the advertisements that the facial cream is the main focus. However, they both take a different approach in advertising it. In the 1928 advertisement they have placed the jar of essential cream at the spotlight with a women looking from the side at it giving more emphasizes on the actual cream rather than showing the results of using this product. In the modern advertisement the jar of cream is the only thing that has color which makes it stand out and the right half is a confident woman’s face looking out at you. This advertisement is more concerned with the results of using this product saying that you can be confident and beautiful like this woman because you can have this young and wrinkle free face if you use this product.
Visually the only similarities that I notice in both of these advertisements are that they both have a large jar of cream and an image of a beautiful woman with text. Otherwise, the layouts of these advertisements are very different. The 1928 advertisement has a very strong diagonal composition and with the amount of text at the bottom it seems more like an article rather than an advertisement. The modern advertisement has a very center composition with very little text and image dominant which looks like most nowadays facial cream and beauty product advertisements.
In both of these advertisements, it is clear in what they are trying to sell, but the approach in how to advertise the product has changed over the many years. In the 1928 advertisement they were more concerned in the product itself with a lot of detailed information. Nowadays we are more concerned showing the results in using the product with a photographic image of a flawless woman and just a little bit of text with the most important facts about the product.
Pretty faces may still be hungry faces 1928 Vogue Ad
Add a comment November 13, 2007
Post #3: Women during the American Civil War
When most people think about the American Civil War, the men are portrayed as playing a huge part in the war, and the women are not as noticed as the men. However, during the American Civil War women also played a large part in contributing to the war. They held a variety of jobs in supporting soldiers from nursing the wounded to manufacturing goods for the soldiers. Approximately 5,600 women served as nurses during the American Civil War [9]. Some brave women even served as soldiers during the Civil War disguised as men and performed the same jobs as the men. It is estimated to about 400 women who served in the Civil War [3].
To view images of women during the American Civil War click here.
[1] AAS Online Exhibition: A Woman’s Work is Never Done
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Womanswork/waryears.htm
[2] A Timeline of Benevolent Giving and Humane Goodness
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/photos/philanthropy/html/timeline2.htm
[3] Civil War History Women Soldiers
http://www.hallauerhousebnb.com/history-package_mom.html
[4] Civil War Lady
http://www.geocities.com/civilwarlady1861/why.html
[5] Major Belle Reynolds of Peoria
http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1994/ihy940227.html
[6] Pictures of Fredericksburg 1862-1997
http://departments.umw.edu/hipr/www/fredericksburg/pictures.htm
[7] Sarah Low
http://www.dover.lib.nh.us/DoverHistory/sarah_low.htm
[8] Winslow Homer Civil War Prints: 1861
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/Winslow_Homer_Civil_War.htm
[9] Women Nurses in the Civil War
http://www.dtsk8.org/6_8/8/Civil%20War%20Webpage-RS/indexcivil.html
[10] Women of the American Civil War
http://americancivilwar.com/women/women.html
Add a comment October 30, 2007
Post #3: Happyville
Are u tired of all the chaos in the world? Want to live in a quiet area surrounded by nature? An area where u can be “happy” and not think about the outside world? Well than Happyville is the perfect place you are looking for. Happyville is a religious community where everyone has such good faith in God that everyone is happy and very kind to one another. This does not mean that you cannot live here if you do not believe in God because everyone is welcome. You will be surrounded by people who are very kind and caring and have good faith in God, that eventually you will have good faith in God as well. Also, right in the center of Happyville there is a church to help everyone not lose their faith in God and keep their faith strong.
The church also serves as a community center where every Sunday after service everyone gathers and distributes the goods gathered throughout the week from the farms and orchards. The farms in Happyville are located across and alongside the river for easy access to the water needed in cropping. And a little further down are the orchards. How this works is everyone ages 12 through 40 in Happyville must work equally where everyone take turns doing all the different jobs in running a small community. People who are over 40 have the choice of working or not. However, everyone here is very kind and caring to one another that no one minds working around here. Also, if you are sick and/or not in a condition to work, you would not have to work because everyone here is understanding of your situation.
Other than attending church on Sundays and working everyone here is free to do whatever they want around here. The homes are surrounded by the forest to keep the chaos in the world out and to give the people a feeling of living with nature. There is a peaceful park close by for everyone living in Happyville if they want an area where they can feel even closer to nature. Therefore, since this is a religious community surrounded by nature and natural things there are no factories or mills.
In Happyville, there is not one single person in charge here. If anyone was to be in charge, it would be the Pastor. However, everyone here has to equal right to say whatever they want. And since everyone here has such good faith in God and is loving, caring, and kind to one another there is hardly ever a problem around here. Therefore, there is no need for a rule and law around here. How much of a more perfect place are you looking for than Happyville? Hurry and come to this perfect and wonderful place if you want to be “happy” without hesitation since everyone is welcome here.
To view a map of Happyville, click here.
Add a comment October 11, 2007
Post #2: Patriotism
The Patriot is a movie written by Robert Rodat and directed by Roland Emmerich filmed in 2000. This movie is about Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a former war hero owning a plantation with his family in the late 18th century South Carolina, who gets swept in to the American Revolution when the war reaches his home and the British Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs) destroys his home and kills his son, Thomas Martin. The central historical message of The Patriot is how the Americans won the American Revolution and gained independence from the British through patriotism.
The first character we see portraying patriotism is Benjamin Martin’s eldest son, Gabriel Martin (Heath Ledger). From the vary beginning of the movie Gabriel is eager to join the Continental army although he’s father is not approving of the American Revolution. When Gabriel returns home wounded, he still wants to go back fighting. And when Benjamin tries to stop him from going back to fight, Gabriel says, “I’m going back. I’m a soldier, it’s my duty” [1]. This quote is a good example of Gabriel’s patriotism for the nation.
We also see patriotism from the main character of the movie, Benjamin Martin. Although in the beginning of the movie he is against the war because of his family and personal reasons, he ends up being patriotic. After the death of his second eldest son Thomas Martin, he joins the war, but at this point he is fighting for the hatred and revenge of the death of his innocent son. However, towards the end of the movie, his eldest son, Gabriel is also killed and as he sees the American flag that Gabriel has been carrying around, he finally finds the Patriotism that has been with him inside all along. And in the last war scene, he is fighting for the death of his sons and family, but also for the love, support, and defense of the country. He says in the end, “I take measure of what we have lost and what we have won. My hope and prayer is that the sacrifices born by so many will spawn and fulfill the promises of our nation” [1].
Another minor character in the movie that illustrates this patriotism is Occam, the African American slave. In the beginning of the movie he fights with the promise of freedom, but even after his tweleve months have passed in serving, he still ends up staying. As one of the men fighting says , “its october now…. it’s more than 12 months, you are a free man” Occam replies, “im here now on my own accord”[1]. This short conversation between them shows his patriotism for the county.
With the Patriotism shown by the people and with the help of the French, the Americans were able to win their independence from the British. Although the characters were fiction, i believe that there were people like Gabriel Martin, Benjamin Martin, and Occam who were patriotic to the nation and fought. In addition, eventhough the American Revolution maybe not be correctly exact historically, i think that they got the main idea of the war and how they won the American Revolution correct.
[1]The Patriot. Dir. Roland Emmerich. Perf. Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, and Chris Cooper. DVD. Columbia, 2000.
Add a comment September 25, 2007
Eunkyungan's Weblog 