2 Artworks I made a connection with:

 Jean-Francois Millet

Les falaisees de Greville

(The Cliffs of Greville) (1871-72)

Oil on canvas

Elisabeth H. Gates Fund, 1919

I felt a connection with this work for a couple reasons. 

First off, because I really enjoy painting landscapes myself, 

and I'm absolutely  obsessed with the way the water

meets the land.  Secondly, because I love when artists

create a landscape in their own style, meaning, not

completely realistic, but not completely abstract either. 

Claude Monet

Chemin de halage a Argenteuil (Towpath at Argenteuil, Winter)

1875-76,

 Oil on canvas, 

Gift of Charles Clifton, 1919

The same reason I had a connection with the piece above is

almost why I had a connection with this one.  I had recently 

created a abstract landscape of letchworth, with the same

type of brushstrokes here that Monet used.  I feel a connection

with Monet's work because he inspires me to make more

abstract, my own style-type landscapes.

2 Artworks I want to know more about:

James Ensor

Le feu d'artifice (Fireworks), 1887

Oil and encaustic on canvas

George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, 1970

I would like to know more about this work because of

the title and the colors.  I, personally, don't feel as if I've

seen any fireworks this color.  It's interesting to me that

they picked oranges and yellows, with the title being 

fireworks, because fireworks are often reds, whites,

blues and maybe greens too.

Gustave Caillebottle

Etude pour Le Pont de l'Europe 1876

Oil on canvas

Bequest of A. Conger Goodyear, by exchange, 1974

I got super excited when I seen this piece while walking through

the gallery!  I have recently studied abroad and I would love to know

where this bridge is located exactly because I walked along quite

a few bridges that looked just like this.  Especially the London bridge,

above and below the bridge had this pattern throughout.

2 Artworks that impacted me:

Marc Chagall

The Flying Fish, 1948

Oil on canvas

Room of Contemporary Art Fund, 1949

The reason that this artwork impacted might 

be odd, but this is literally what I thought when

I saw it:

    "Oh, this reminds me of my wedding day one

day in the future.  Farm like, with animals around

and making my husband, family and friends take

too many pictures with me all day."

Ben Nicholson

White Relief, ca. 1937-38

Painted wood

Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1960

This piece impacted me on a very personal connection.  I have

always been an artist for as long as I remember, and also for as

long as I can remember my dad has been a wood-worker.  We 

work very well together as a team, he builds a lot of pieces for 

me and then I paint, and finish them off!  We sell a lot of pieces

together, and I will never forget this bond.  This wood-made 

piece definitely reminded me of my father and I.

• Creating this logo was a super fun for me because I've actually been thinking about creating a logo for myself for a while now.  I've had lots of ideas go throughout my head within the past year since I started my own little business. 
• I knew I definitely wanted to create a logo that had to do with art and photography. Therefore, I chose photography, and I wanted to incorporate my name 'Lindsey Kotas'.  I placed my last name 'Kotas' into the actual camera form.  I used some of the colors in my logo that I really enjoy.
• The most important discovery I found in my logo is that there's so many options in creating a logo.  Therefore, I think the most important thing is that I should eventually try out different logos and see the feedback I receive from the public and clients.  Different logos may bring in different cliental depending on the theme and colors in my logo.
• The most important thing I learned is that when you create a logo for someone, you need to know all their expectations for you to have a happy client. The reading gives a ton of information on Graphic Design, making me realize it's literally always around us.  Graphic Design is how we can create logos, especially if we were to use Photoshop- it would possibly give the logo a more finished or professional feel due to the quality of photoshop. The Graphic Design: What's in a Logo video was very outdated I feel, but it still gave worthy information.  

• I enjoyed making the Value Scale, because I love graphite.  But, surprisingly I've never made a color wheel before, just always look at references for one, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to create my own.
• I enjoyed the Golden acrylics because I've never used that brand before and I really liked how smooth they blended together.
• The most important thing I discovered is that some people don't believe red, yellow and blue are the primary colors, and that magenta, cyan and yellow are the primary colors.
• Previously talked about above in the bullet point, I found it fascinating that red and blue are too dark to be primary colors, and with magenta, cyan and yellow can create blue and green.  I guess from the videos I believe that yellow, blue, and red will probably stick in my head as the primary colors but I do understand the concept of cyan, magenta and yellow.

1. Every single color affects how people feel when they see that color.  There's warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and yellow, and the cool colors are blue, purple and green.  The cool colors are seemed to be more of calming colors, and warm colors sense feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility.

2. Throughout my art education degree I've learned that there's a variety of people and animals that can see different colors.  Not every person can see all colors, and some can see hundreds more of colors due to the amount of cones that they have in their eyes.  Dogs only have two cones, and we have three as humans.

3. I really enjoy that green relates to nature and brings you comfort when you see it, especially because this relates to me personally.

4. I was surprised that orange brings feelings of food, warmth and physical comfort.  I never really thought about what the color orange brings to me, but I suppose I can think now that I know orange is a lot of spice colors, etc..

http://s350.photobucket.com/user/lindseykotas/embed/slideshow/Elements%20and%20Principles%20of%20Art

Module 2

1. Aesthetics: Philosophy of The Arts
A few different philosophers opinions stood out to me and took me by surprise.  One was that 'an artist copies a copy, their copy is an imperfect copy of a perfect copy.' You never really think that an artist gets almost all of their ideas from other artwork, and then they change it.
 Chanqeux & Ramachandran Video
I didn't know that the evolutionary origins of art and aesthetics were sexual selection, group selection, intersubjective communication, social bonding and by product of brain evolution.  This video really showed me that there is so much 'behind the scenes' of science in art that I didn't know about.
CNN Article
I found it very interesting that not only us adults, but babies can decipher a visual face due to coarse information being triggered by emotional response.  We are emotionally engaged when the detail orientated part of our visual system is distracted.

2. Morris Weitz is the philosopher that stood out to me the most, he incorporated family into his art, which is why I think I am most connected with his theory because I incorporate family and my personal life into my art, and that is not the only quality we share.  He also believes anything can be art, it doesn't have to be hanging in a museum, he still believes creations that aren't labeled in the art category can be art.  He believed that certain art movements fit into aesthetics, and the one that he related to most was anti-essentialist which was big in the 1950's.  "Art is whatever we may call it, no mater the object." -Morris Weitz.

3. Starting off, it was hard to understand Chanqeux at first, until you really focused in on his voice.  I loved Rakmachandran's sense of humor, techniques and way of talking about art that most artists and people wouldn't necessarily think is funny. The most interesting fact I think from Jean-Pierre Chanquex is that the discovery of symbolism was in Spain and the discovery of artistic competition was in France- Homo Sapiens. The fact from Vilayanur Rakmachandran that I thought was most interesting is how he had no interest in art 14 years ago but now he believes the goal of art is to distort or change art to have pleasing effects on the brain.  He is now doing research on pieces of art that he visited when he was younger with his family.

4.  The videos and the articles have a lot of content on scientific standings behind art within the body and the brain.  The videos discuss certain types of art, for example Indian sculptures, Picasso and religious pieces.  The textbook goes into great detail about themes of art and what art even is, therefore the correlation between the textbook and the reading and videos is that they all explain a lot of details that happen in the art world.  Meaning, not a lot of people think about the themes of art or even think about the science behind it, the only science I think I ever learned about art is the left and right sides of the brain, and what they do.

5. Reading the article and the textbook were probably my favorites out of all the choices.  The article was short and sweet but informative, along with the reading in the book.  I liked the way the book was wrote, it is an easy read for me (I usually don't comprehend much while reading.)  But I think this one as interesting enough for me to where I could focus and highlight etc..  The videos were okay- Hard to understand the one speaker, but got use to it eventually.  I like that the videos go into more depth about content in the book.  For example on page 13 in the Arts In Living textbook, theres a section called Creating and Creativity (pg 12.) but it talks about nerves in the brain, "Scans showing nerve traffic pathways though the white matter in the brain.  Arrows point to regions where nerve traffic slows in individuals identified as creative." quoted with a photo- which this photo and quote goes into much greater detail in the videos provided.