Artist Blog #1: "Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (1919)

What drew my attention to this particular image by Hannah Hoch, a German Dada artist, was its many images of men, women, words, and working machines colliding into one single political and moral issue: equality.  After doing a little research on the artist, I discovered that this image was a source of inspiration for the Women's Rights Movement of the 1920s.  The image combines men and women as equals in the world.  It also speaks out for equal rights for women through the images of wheels, representing the factories and mills.  In my opinion, Hoch is visually saying that work should be divided equally among men and women.  Women should also be educated equally among men as well.  In the image, I notice a couple of men's faces that have serious look on them, expressing their critical and educational thinking.  

In his introduction to New Media Art, Mark Tribe points out how "Dada artists began to experiment with radically new artistic practices and ideas that resurfaced in various forms and references throughout the twentieth century."  Hoch's image ties into this idea of expressing political and moral issues in a radical way using both images and text.  

To me, this image links to the pop art that emerged during the 2008 Presidential Election.  During that time, many artists were coming out with their own depiction of what the election meant to them.  It was very popular with Obama and still is after the election.   Each artwork contained specific issues concerning Americans such as the economy, education, the war in Iraq, healthcare, civil rights, etc.  Other artworks contained Obama himself as well as his messages of his campaign, "Hope" and "Change".  All of these artworks were a source of inspiration to the American people to get out and vote and become part of a big movement just as Hoch's image was an inspiration for women's rights in the 1920s.   

"Celebrating Animation"- NY Times

Here is an interesting article in the NY Times called "Celebrating Animation". It is a review on an exhibition opening called "It All Started Here", which is a combination of screenings, lectures, workshops, and an exhibition at the Arts Exchange in White Plains. Presented by the Westchester Arts Council, it revisits the history of early animation. Animated characters such as Betty Boop and Spider-man are in this exhibit as well. Enjoy it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/nyregion/westchester/11artswe.html?_r=1&ref=design

Placing Color

The three artists: Brett Baker, Kayla Mohammadi, and Carrie Patterson all do a tremendous and impressive job in expressing the world both public and intimate through color.  Carrie Patterson's work on experience in space and time relates to how I myself express and experience space through photography as well as 3D animation and modeling.  While reading her artist statement about the work, I was impressed on her process of turning a detailed space into a more abstract one.  During her small talk, she clarifies the relationship of each color to the detailed space.  In her 18 ft. St. Francis Xavier painting, each color is divided into sections relating to the separate sections of the church and its surrounding space.  In all, she is investigating the meaning behind experience space both public and intimate.  

In a quote from Vittorio Colaizzi's essay on Placing Color, he simplifies Kayla Mohammadi's work: "Mohammadi is more interested in enclosure and opening than strict measurement, so while her lines and planes hang together in a loose coalition, each seems capabale of defection." (pg. 9)  One of her paintings, Brown and Red Interior Space, expresses her way of using lines both thick and thin in her work.  When looking at this painting, you can see how each line looks unbalanced and ready to fall apart, especially the dark red line hanging from the second red line.  Another one of her paintings, Here and Now, expresses her interests in open space.  To me, this painting looks three dimensional through the visualization of a foreground, middle, and background.  When looking at this painting, you are being pulled into this open space and wondering what it is you are going to find there.  In her artist statement, she mentions how she was exposed to color and bright bold shapes as a child and how it inspired to paint.  I believe that her set of paintings expresses childhood memories through her use of color and bright bold shapes.  

Brett Baker's painting process in his work seemed interesting because of how he made several layers of paint overtime.  You can see that he has done this through the thickness of each painting.  Baker's work and interest are the opposite of Mohammadi's work: he examines intimate spaces.  You can see and feel this kind of intimacy in his paintings through scale.  In his artist statement, he explores painting as a place of reflection and interaction between the viewer and the painting itself.  I believe that his set of paintings accomplish this exploration because I feel a sense of intimate interaction between myself and the painting itself since I am confined to this small space and painting.