Spring10 Reading2
Our second Reading Assignment is from David A. Lauer and Stephen Pentak, Design Basics. unity, pp.28-53
Leave your comment about the reading by 2/23.
In addition, please watch this interview of painter, Julie Mehretu and add a sentence to your comment describing the lines you see in her work. Is there any connection to our discussions or work with line this week?
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It was a bit of a long read- well; I found it to be very helpful. I did not think about unity and harmony before. It will probably improve my artwork by a lot now that I know that these are some things I need or should consider in my composition; such as repetition and variety. The lines I see in Julie’s paintings are patterns; patterns varied with a strong different line crossing them. The thing I noticed the most was one thick red bold line amongst so many thin black ones.
I found the reading very illuminating. I have always had an eye for the things discussed in the reading but have never been given language to express what I’m seeing or to understand what’s really going on. I am glad to have read about unity because it has expanded my understanding of design in a way that will influence all my art by giving me a more structured framework from which to work. This in turn will help me to sharpen my skills.
The video clip was interesting. I honestly found the art in the video to be very distracting. I thought it was interesting how she worked from a background in layers, much the same as one does in photoshop. But to me her use of line seemed to confuse my perception of the content rather than to help me grasp it. Hopefully that’s what she intended to accomplish…or maybe I’m just reading her work wrong. Either way there’s definitely a method to her madness and she has a masterful handle on her style of work. There’s no denying that.
I’m also going over variety and unity in my other art class, but I still found the reading very informative. I’ve always seen art with variety in abstract art and unity in modern art and both in Picasso paintings-mostly the weird ones.
In the video, it helped me appreciate seeing drawings at a distance becasue up close her work looked like a street map, but at a distance you begin to see more detail. It’s almost like a law of physics being turned on its head!
I thought that the way the vocabulary was described was very interesting. I know what the words meant and the definitions, but I never thought of them in terms of art before, especially unity. I don’t think I ever thought that the letter M, made up of circles, represented unity until I read the reading. I now feel that I have different views on the words that I already know and it’s pretty cool.
I think that the lines in Julie Mehretu’s works are used to create images, both abstract and real. There is a big connection between her work and what we are working on in class because we are also using lines to create images.
After reading and looking at the selected reading I learned a lot more about harmony and variety. Not only that but also about composition and how some pieces may not only be about a subject but about what the subject is forming. Julie Mehretu’s works include a variety of lines. I think these lines add depth and feeling to her work.
After reading and looking at the selected reading I learned a lot more about harmony and variety. Not only that but also about composition and how some pieces may not only be about a subject but about what the subject is forming. Julie Mehretu’s works include a variety of lines. I think these lines add depth and feeling to her work. Without the lines in Julie’s work, her drawings can be interpreted into something else. It definitely reflects what we have discussed about line in class.
the reading was very insightful. It gave me more understanding about harmony and unity and how I can use it to improve my work. Julie Mehretu’s work was very interesting. It is a bit distracting for me but I like how she cuts up the ground using lines and uses a lot of repetition and variety in her work. From far away, you can see the whole picture and when you look closer, you can see all the detail that she put into her work.
I enjoyed the reading because it was very enlightening. It’s interesting because whenever I’m working on an art piece, there’s certain things that I would do like putting things that goes well together but I never actually understood what exactly is going on. Now that I learned more about harmony and variety, it helps me understands what I’m actually doing.
Julie Mehretu’s work definitely grabs my attention. In my opinion, her work looks chaotic from a distance. But as I look closer, I start to see the different lines and the form of unity and variety that creates that effect.
I thought the reading was really informative I hadn’t known the terms of proximity, it made me think back on the figure ground reversal. how sometimes there was a sloating shape that connected to another because of them being so close. Though the reading was long it had alot of great works of art that really comunicated the concepts. the one i thought was sttongest was the tom friedmans untitled 1995 where its alot of little red angles that form a sphere. another one that stuck out to me was the tishgesellschaft of the emphasis on unity. identical maticulously placed lifesize statues at a long table and through repition is visually appealing.
Unity is one of those aspects that I like to focus on in art… its such a very important element. In the reading, it went to a lot more depth in that single element, and there are some things I’ve never thought of, or the ones that I readily consider have more depth in them. Art should look great as a whole when first glanced at, and then individually look through elements of the work that make it whole.
It seemed to emphasize on repetition. Most of the pictures I’ve seen do have a pattern in their own unique way, and unity seemed to exist in each. A visual “flow,” I guess would be a good term for this.
As for Julie, I thought her work was pretty interesting. A lot of her line work seemed to relate similarly to what we’re doing in class… I really like how she brings the line in so much unity and harmony.
In another of my art classes we are learning to have unity in our drawings. The secondary lines must not overpower, or be equal to, the primary lines. Just as the definition of unity is given in the readings. First, you must see the drawing as a whole, and the you notice the details.
The readings provided this week was a lot to take in. But even though it was it was quite a longer read, it was really informative. The readings really helped me to understand the word “unity” and what brings a piece together. I do see patterns, and harmony in Julie’s paintings. Her work really stands out and really go with the week’s vocabulary, which I like.
I think the reading is very specific in explaining the concepts of unity, harmony and variation. The pictures example really helped me understand the subjects more thoroughly. Julie Mehretu’s work is very new to me. I’ve never see something like that before. I like how she uses a lot of thin lines to complete the drawing. It is very neat.
The reading was quiet long but it also helps me to understand more about the unity, aspect in drawing because it was informative. In the video, Julie’s paintings impressed me in different aspects because her works are mostly lines, which look like maps and architecture type of drawing.
I never really had any structure to what I paint/draw/sketch/whatever, but after reading the required reading, it made me wonder what my art would look like if it had a little bit more structure. The thought of continuing an object in a piece would make my art flow easier. The interview of Mehretu was interesting. The way she made her art in multiple layers on that large of scale made me think, “wow.”
I watched the video before doing the reading and some of the paintings looked chaotic, but it was interesting to watch the video again after the reading, because I can see now that Mehretu’s paintings do have unity and control. Even the paintings with seemingly random color blotches and shapes are unified because there is continuity between the color blotches/shapes and the lines. There is also varied repetition in her more ‘architectural’ paintings. I really like the paintings and think it would be interesting to look at the paintings more closely.
I agree that the reading was a bit of a long read but the way they described terms of art was pretty interesting and informative. It was a very helpful reading indeed and made me recall some of the previous assignments that we did. Not to mention the new insight I have on art now. I especialy like the visual perception of unity, and how the letter “M” was made up of circles. I feel that if I apply what I’ve read to my artwork then I will improve it by a lot. In fact, these are concepts that all artists should always consider in their compositions.
Julie’s paintings are very impressive because they are purely made of lines. It’s facinating howshe uses lines to create images, both abstract and real. She uses mere lines to create patterns by varying the thickness and strength of each line and crossing them with other lines.
Julie fascinates me. I am not an art-based kind of guy. So it amazes me when she takes simple lines, position, thicken/thin them, and portray them as work. I never knew lines could hold so much importance.
Looking back at my landscape, it looks like I’ve unwittingly made a chaotic view of the scene. I believe that I unknowingly unified through proximity pieces that should have been separated instead.Therefore, I get a “What is this a picture of.” feedback to my work. (I am still fine with it though, I just wish I did the reading earlier so I could apply the concepts to my landscape).
It’s good that I now have these tidbits to chew on as work. Looking at the landscapes of others, they show unity through the repetition of curled lines. I will note that Joseph’s work has variety thanks to the different shapes at bottom of his landscape. Returning to mine’s, while I do not feel like changing it, I’ll keep in mind the idea of varied repetition.
Btw, the corporate picture on pg 47 is amazing. Through repetition, it makes people into a single identity. This is work I feel I can openly applaud for having an image more powerful than an already big message.