Extra Credit - Group 1 Line Project Photo

Here is my line project that I did for Group 1's project.

Public Art First Impression - "Duel Nature"

      While I was on my drift project I came across "Duel Nature" by Kate Raudenbush. Upon first seeing "Duel Nature" I was uncertain of what exactly it was. I didn't know what it was supposed to be, if it was art, if it was supposed to be pretty or ugly, who put it there, or why. I had no idea what to think of this very interesting piece, but as I got closer and looked harder, I found the piece to be very unique. I had never seen anything quite like it. When you are near "Duel Nature" it sort of leaves one speachless for a little while. All you can say is "wow." I found it very interesting that the inside of the art was a very intense red and it had mirrors inside of it. I saw what looked to be lights in the middle of it, and would love to someday go back to "Duel Nature" in the evening when the lights are on. I can't even imagine how neat it would looke with the red and the mirrors and the spotlights. "Duel Nature" was really fun to just stand and look at for awhile. I am still not sure what exactly Raudenbush was trying to say when she created this unique work, but I do know that it has something to do with DNA. When observing this art, I didn't even really care what it meant, or why it was where it was, it was just really interesting to look at and appreciate.  

Drift Project Photos

Side of old building downtown

Sid of an old building that is deteriorating

Side of an old brick building in an alley way.

A corner of a brick building that is falling apart

Side of old dorm room building

An aging side to a shop downtown

Deterioration of building side

Wall along river being washed away by water

Old and dirty building side

Bricks falling off of old building

Comparing John Taylor and Howling Wolf's art work, "Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek Lodge," p39

Though they depict the same event, John Taylor’s work, Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek Lodge, is very different from Howling Wolf’s work, Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek Lodge. I find Taylor’s work more representational as it contains natural objects in a form that I can easily recognize. On the contrary, Howling Wolf’s work appears more abstract as the objects in the piece don’t appear real, one can definitely tell that his work is very two dimensional and are just drawn on paper. The two art pieces are very different in form as well, as Taylor’s is a sketch possibly produced with pencil or maybe a pen, and Howling Wolf’s work is more like a child’s drawing done with crayon. Howling Wolf depicts the landscape as more of a bunch of Indian tribes’ campgrounds, and Taylor depicts it as more of a meeting setting in the woods.  I think that Howling Wolf depicts the confluence of Medicine Creek and the Arkansas in his drawing because he wants to show his viewer how big of a deal this meeting was and how people and tribes from different places came for this one major meeting.

I think that Howling wolf has a view of the meeting from above, opposed to Taylor’s view inside the grove, because he sees the world with a wider view over Taylor’s narrow view. In Taylor’s drawing, it is easy to assume that he is more focused on the meeting itself than the world around the meeting and how it will affect the world around the meeting; whereas, Howling wolf is more concerned with the bigger picture and how the things discussed and decided at the meeting will change the outside world. Howling Wolf’s drawing shows distinct characteristics from all the tribes that were present, while Taylor’s drawing just shows that some Indians were present, but it is unclear as to which ones are from what tribe and which Indians are even in the same tribe. Taylor’s art work is very ethnocentric as he doesn’t see the Indians as being important to the meeting. If he did see the Indians as being essential to the meeting then they would have been more clearly drawn and given more space in his drawing.

The presence of women in each artist’s painting also varied. In Taylor’s drawing no woman could clearly be pointed out; whereas in Howling Wolf’s drawing the majority of the people drawn in his work are woman. This definitely points to a difference in the societies of the white man compared to the Indian. In the white man’s society women’s opinions and decisions were not valued and so they were not necessary to the meeting, but in the Indian tribes’ society high value was placed on their women and so it was important for Howling Wolf to place women in his drawing. Although the two drawings have the same subject matter – the treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge – they both have very different meanings and viewpoints backing them up.

Judy Baca

Judith F. Baca is an incredible artist known for her murals involving political landscapes. “The Great Wall of Los Angeles” is Baca’s greatest work. It is 2,700 feet long and is created along a flood control channel in the San Fernando Valley. This immense landscape took Baca seven years to complete, and it displays a variety of different cultural, political, and racial pieces. Baca prefers to put her personal views on top of landscapes.

            Baca is one of the many artists who has helped to bring street art to the surface. She has  founded The Social and Public Art Resource Center, also known as SPARC. This center creates an environment for an artist to express his opinions of social issues, cultural references, and civic dialogues into public art. SPARC is a very successful center that has been involved in the creation of many different artistic works.

            Baca was born in Los Angeles in 1946 to a couple of Mexican Americans. As she grew up Baca got an education and soon learned to speak English. She got into art by trying to get the class that she was teaching to get along and work together. She had her class start a mural on the school wall, and before long the entire class was interested on working on it. Because it was such a big project everyone had to work together, and by the time that it was finished her class knew how to get along. A few years later Baca was fired from her teaching position due to being part of a school protest. The next job that she received was as an art teacher for the Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department. From there Baca became very involved in painting murals and doing street art.

            Baca’s murals are extremely impressive, especially “The Great Wall of Los Angeles,” which holds the record for being the world’s largest mural. She has changed countless numbers of lives through her artwork and continues to inspire artists from all over the world. Baca's role as an artist is definitely to give form to hidden or universal truths, spiritual forces, and personal feelings; and she does an outstanding job accoplishing her role. Although Baca still is working on her murals, she is also teaching art in the UC schools.   

Here are some links to more information about Judy Baca; as well as the links that I received my information from.

http://www.judybaca.com/now/index.php
http://www.chavez.ucla.edu/jb_bio.html

 Here are some pictures of Baca's "The Great Wall of Los Angeles"

flickriver.com

map.ais.ucla.edu

sparcmurals.org

Crooked Timber

            In the “Crooked Timber,” displayed in the Nevada Museum of Art, Chester Arnold paints a crooked tree that has fallen. It appears that this tree has fallen from means other than the human hand. There seems to be an old shed or house that has been destroyed; whether it was destroyed by the tree, a storm, or of old age is not made clear. The colors of the painting are very appealing to the eye, and the grand scale of the painting is incredible. This painting was one of Chester Arnold’s paintings that I continued to stop in front of while viewing his creations.

            It is evident from Arnold’s paintings that he is environmentally friendly. His artwork expresses anger in over consumption, cutting down trees, littering, and mining. Most of his works involving trees depict man chopping them down. The “Crooked Timber” painting did not however, and that is why I found this painting to be so intriguing. The fact that the tree in the “Crooked Timber” died by natural causes was so different from all of Arnold’s other art pieces.  

            In my opinion I believe that Chester Arnold’s intent of this particular painting was to show viewers that sometimes being different from everyone else can be a good thing and can give one a longer life. I thought that Arnold was possibly implying that because the tree was not straight like most of the other trees man did not want it, and therefore man did not cut the tree down. This then gave the tree a longer life than the trees surrounding it, as there weren’t many other trees is the painting. I wasn’t sure exactly what Arnold was trying to say with the debris of the shed lying near the tree. Possibly it was meaning that even though the tree was different people still liked it and lived near it. I wasn’t sure about what the shed meant, but I did appreciate the color that it added to the painting.

            My interpretation of the painting was that it is not always better to be just like everyone else. Being different and “crooked” in your own individual lives can make one more interesting, as it made this particular painting more interesting than the ones with the trees being chopped down. Being like the world and giving into the pressure of your peers to be like them can be very harmful to someone. It is much better to be your own individual with your own thoughts and ideas, and in the end living a little “crooked” can yield a longer and more fulfilling life.