Probably Not What He Was Going For . . .

Last Thursday, we made the wonderfully confusing journey into Minneapolis and the Midway Contemporary Art gallery. While at the gallery, our assignment was to find a piece that was on display that sparked our interest and to analyze it here, on our blogs.
As I'm sure you've noticed already, I am horrible at analyzing artwork. However, as this is being graded, I will keep trying!

So, the piece I chose was Jeff Elrod's Hopps. It is a 36x24 inch acrylic painting on canvas made in 2001.

According to the packet that was given out by Midway, it belonged to the Remes' private collection before being featured in the gallery. But that's not really important. What is important, however, is that this piece gave me very little insight to the life of Mr. Elrod. Looking at Hopps, I'm going to say that he is an abstract painter. The image looks computer generated, though it is very clearly done in acrylic paint. Judging by the fact that there is no obvious subject, Elrod could have made it so that the viewer would then be forced to find their own subject in the piece, as well as their own subject matter. What is this piece about? What is it saying?
. . . . .
To be perfectly honest, my first reaction to this, and many other abstract art pieces, was that my four-year-old cousin could have made this, what a waste of canvas. Even so, it was the piece that piqued my intrest the most. Upon coming home and doing some research, like any good art analyzer should do, I found that Elrod has done a lot of these abstract works that look like they're computer generated. When looking even farther into his work and at the process by which he creates it, I found that this was much, much more complicated than it originally appears to be. Elrod uses a time consuming process of outlinging the shapes he wants in his composition in tape of varying widths and sizes - definitely not something my four-year-old cousin could do.
So I had found some information about the artist, but I had nothing concerning the title. While Googling Elrod, a Walter Hopps popped up - he was a curator. Perhaps Elrod admired Hopps? I couldn't find anything to back that theory up.

Now, rewinding.

Back in the gallery, before I did any sort of research, I stood staring at this abstract, supposed waste-of-canvas piece of 'art'. I was trying to figure out what in the world this thing was about. And then I learned about the title, and honestly, I giggled a bit. Hopps, in my mind, did not bring forth the image of the curator who popped up on Google, but rather a tiny tidbit of information I had learned a couple of years ago.
Now, I am no beer drinker, but I do know that beer is made with hops, and, of course, that was what my mind immediately focused on. Then it just took off running with that idea. Perhaps this painting is really of some poor guy who drank too much at his buddy's party the night before? His whole night had been a blur. Just a bunch of squiggles like the ones at the top of the canvas. He passed out on the couch after a long night of partying and drinking and his mind and the thoughts in it were all just alcohol-induced squiggles and this was a portrait of him and his after-party, pre-hangover condition.
Poor guy.

Once my mind had gone that far, it was impossible to look at the piece in any other manner, even after research and finding Walter Hopps on Google.
My mind works in very strange ways.

EDIT :: Abstract art, in my mind, is art that has no strictly expressed form. For instance, a painting that features a woman sitting on a chair has a clearly defined form. The woman and the chair are both forms. Abstract art, however, is about line and color and how the two interact, much like Hopps, which is why I call it abstract art. The lines and the color don't make up a clearly expressed form, but rather leave it to the viewer to try to find one in the piece.

Mining the MIA

Following after Fred Wilson's Mining the Museum in chapter three of Describing Art, our assignment was to choose 3-5 items from separate areas of the MIA (Minneapolis Institute of Arts) and describe an installation we might create. The installation is meant to challenge the viewer's assumptions about those works of art.

Here goes.

The pieces I am choosing are the Allegory of the Four Elements by Cornelis Jacobsz. Delff, the Virgin and Child in a Landscape by the Master of the Embroidered Foliage, the The Resurrection of Christ by Giovanni di Marco, and the Lamentation with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Catherine of Alexandria by the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy

I would place all of the pieces inside a large, plain white room - four walls. The room would have no lighting, save for three spotlights shining on Virgin and Child in a Landscape, The Resurrection of Christ, and the Lamentation with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Catherine of Alexandria. These three pieces would all be hanging in the middle of the room so they are the first things you see when you walk in. Behind them, hanging on the wall in the dark, would be the Allegory of the Four Elements. It would only be slightly visible from behind the three hanging in the middle of the room, and the details of the painting would not be clear in the low light.

My idea was to show the way that religion, specifically Christianity, is always battling against science. I mean, think of the argument alone between the two when it comes to teaching evolution or creation in schools. Eesh. Anyways, I wanted this installation to show that overall idea of war between the two and how most people focus directly on the religious aspect of the argument and don't give much thought to the scientific side. That is why the Allegory of the Four Elements is hanging on the back wall in the dark. The scientific side of the argument does not get as much publicity.

This is probably really confusing and the idea itself is rather controversial. It's more clear and defined in my mind, but of course, it is nearly impossible to form into words. So, rather than trying to explain it further, I'm going to leave it up to you and your opinions of it. I'd love to hear them. [:

Postmodernism

I'm not entirely sure if I understand this, but I'll give it a go.

The assignment is to select a work of art and write at least one paragraph about it from a postmodern standpoint using ideas from chapter 2 in Terry Barrett's Criticizing Art.

Alright.

So the work I have chosen is this: Werewolf Nesting Dolls

This is a set of nesting dolls created by missmonster on deviantART. I would say that these art definitely postmodern. missmonster took something that can be seen in many different cultures (Russian and Egyptian) and applied it in a new context. This is something that postmodernists are known for doing. The nesting dolls were not made based on their utility, but rather reflect the artist's interests and thoughts. The werewolf nesting dolls allude the the form of the Russian nesting dolls, however, much unlike them, they do not emphasize the formality that they had. Postmodernists strive to work away from the formal elements that modernists valued so highly in their work.

The definition of postmodernism from dictionary.com is 'any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism, esp. a movement in architecture and the decorative arts running counter to the practice and influence of the International Style and encouraging the use of elements from historical vernacular styles and often playful illusion, decoration, and complexity.' I believe that missmonster definitely accomplished the latter of the two definitions in her piece. The Werewolf Nesting Dolls refer to the nesting dolls of Russia, and are playful and decorative in subject matter.

interior crocodile alligator . . .

So I didn't explain very well. This blog is for my Orientation to Art and Design class ( OAD ) at the College of Visual Arts ( CVA ). In this particular blog, you, my humble viewer, will find my thoughts and comments on readings were do for class, museums and galleries we visit, and other miscellaneous art things that I dub interesting.

Sound good?

Good.

HALLOOOO

FIRST POST! WOOT WOOT.

ER . . . YAH.

PS: Yay for caps lock.

So. My name is Ashley Masog. I have three cats. One is named Chowder. He is cute.

The blog is for class.

I've never had a blog before.

Yup.