CoLoR

The three paintings above are done by a local artist here in the San Luis Valley, his name is Randy Pijoan. He is a master at color and achieving realism through paint. The three above are done with oil or gouache. His use of complimentary colors to show light absorption can bring the greyest of nights alive bursting with bright streams of color. Use of the perfect combination of warm and cool colors on the flesh of the face and body bring his characters to life. Although not evident through these pictures Randy uses texture to his advantage as well. Take the third lower painting above, the girl stares right out of the canvas as her hair is textured so precisely you want to run your fingers through it. Shadows in Randy's work are not boring greys but true first hand representations of what is seen with his eye as he renders himself to the natural behavior of wavelengths and frequency. It seems so intensely difficult to grasp this way of thinking about what colors to put where, but the way he describes his tactics is rather simple. I had a chance to have him come into a class and guest speak while doing a presentation. Randy instructed us to not paint what we think the subject should look like but rather what it truly looks like. For example when painting an apple the light reflects off of it and when you look into its shadow’s there is faint traces of green and magenta. It is these observations and subtleties that make the piece make sense and seem so real.

Space as an artistic element

Above are three pieces done by the artist Tin Salamunic. His use of proportion and overlapping to give light to spacial elements is quite effective in his pieces. His description of his own works are that he is trying to capture the beauty of what already exists opposed to gesture or conceptual pieces.  Looking at the first painting one can see his use of clean, precise line work and overlapping gives a more representational concept of space rather than getting the point across through realism. It also uses color to convey the concept of space.  What is meant to stand out at you or needs to be distinguished better because of overlapping is done in red opposed to black.  When looking at the second and third paintings his use of proportion stands to be the main element in creating space upon a flat surface. Although the last two lean more towards realistic proportion the line quality and color still give it a made up overall feel. In his second piece there is a horizon line and a vanishing point even though the vertical lines are not perfectly straight. The second piece also is a primarily vertical piece, again, even though the lines aren’t perfectly vertical and straight. The last one in particular emphasizes on proportion, having the foot coming forth being the largest element in the piece. The foot and a couple of the pieces of snow/ice even protrude out of the painting, giving it a more lifelike theme.  

Value in BW photography

When Light Prevails

This photo was taken randomly when water dripped on me while walking along campus. Naturally, I looked up and the sun was so bright all I could make out was the dense center of sun rays and as my eyes adjusted, the silhouette of the leaves and branches. The overpowering of the light was inspiring and this setting is why very little adjustment was needed in the final photo. This photo has an almost framed containment yet the main point of interest is the dense, bright center. At first sight, the viewer will gravitate to this center then the movement of the rays will lead the viewers’ attention out to the darker corners of the photo, to then analyze the silhouette of the beautiful tree.

Stairs into the Sky

This photo I believe has a great compositional balance. The darker rooftop spans from the bottom left corner all the way to the upper right and in the upper left is the sun, providing a nice range of highs and lows. It is an asymmetrical piece but because of the geometrical shapes it almost appears to be symmetrical. The Horizontal direction causes the viewer to focus in a linear manner. Also, the contrast between manmade material and the organic sun plays a game of conflict, hopefully triggering analytical thoughts in the viewer.

Florescent Skyzz

As for mood and feeling in this photo, it has a very hard edged, manmade, almost industrial feel. This photo has the most enhancements and this is also an attribute to the urban feel. It is a very symmetrical piece, not only in mass but in color distribution. There is an even amount of high and low values. The focal point is most definitely in the horizontal light. The pattern is very teasing to the eye, especially lying within the same piece with such an interesting, spattered texture.

Useless find

This particular photo was my favorite of the set. There is an eerie mood to it and a bit of a contradictory idea being presented. The photo is of a power outlet and the way I manipulated the contrast and levels, along with a layer mask made the photo appear to have been taken in the dark. The areas in the photo with the highest values are around the holes to the power outlet and around the actual plug. This makes it appear that there is a light being shined on it. I like this because to me the setting of the photo falls into place as that of a person looking for power in a scary dark room possibly because the power has been cut out. Yet if it is found it would be useless, thus the name.  The composition of the piece is set off to the side and there is a large amount of negative space in the piece, despite this I feel the piece is quite balanced.

Decipher Me

This photo is all about the texture. With just a bit of manipulation on the contrast I was able to bring out the cracks and grain quite well. Along with the various textures there is a full range of value. There is a small amount of tension created in the upper right corner because of cropping issues, this causes most of the visual weight to be in a C shape around the left side of the photo.  It is an asymmetrical photo, but the rhythm created by the movement of the grain will cause the viewers’ attention to cover the majority of the piece.

Circular depth

This photo has a nice rhythm about it. The repetition of the circular pattern draws the viewer in and causes the focus to be all around the piece, leading in towards the middle and into the background. The texture I obtained from playing a bit with the exposure adds a bit of visual weight to the outer parts of the photo, this helps it to balance out the piece. The leaves in the background are not the main focal point but give the viewer an interesting transparency aspect while following the circular patterns.

Above are two pictures by Hiroshi Sultan, a Japanese photographer. His works are mostly in black and white and focus strongly on the shapes created by the contrast. Most of his works tend to lean towards being more symmetrical than not. The Visual weight in his work is mostly to the center, yet some of his photos clearly demonstrate movement to a specific edge. His works, in my opinion do great justice to his overall purpose, which would be using the camera and photos as a time capsule and focusing on the conflict between life and death.

Sol LeWitt Style

Here are two examples of outcomes from sets of instructions for wall art based off the conceptual ideas such as those of Sol LeWitt. The top picture is one devised by another group and executed by mine and the bottom vis a versa.

assign1 Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt
An Artist whose works earned fame in the late 1960's, Sol LeWitt, specialized in wall drawings and structures. Although LeWitt specialized in these two areas he also did works of drawing, printmaking and painting. As an American artist LeWitts works were linked to the movements of conceptual art and minimalism.  

Here is an example of the instruction given by LeWitt for one of his wall drawings
(http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/softwarestructures/text.html)

Wall Drawing #85




The plan for Wall Drawing #85 defines four quadrants, each filled with different patterns of colored lines:



85. Same as 63, but with four colors.

63. A Wall is divided into four horizontal parts. In the top row are four equal divisions, each with lines in a different direction. In the second row, six double combinations; in the third row, four triple combinations; in the bottom row, all four combinations superimposed.





Implementing this description in software was an exercise in translation, simply converting the instructions into a format the computer will understand. Through this act, the decisions intended for the draftsperson were made by myself, the programmer. A few obvious differences appear as a result of this re-coding. Computer screens have a much coarser resolution than a wall and as a result, the finished work lacks the warmth of a drawn surface in a physical space. In addition, machines can draw lines with absolute precision so all the imperfections in a physical drawing are removed, giving the rendering different characteristics than those intended by LeWitt. Do these differences distort the result? If this is a work of conceptual art, the concept should remain regardless of the medium.