Post 8- Tomaselli

This is a piece (Expulsion) by Fred Tomaselli that is 84 x 120 inches. Fred Tomaselli seems to use a base technique for all of his pieces, usually combining a photo collage of images with paint and layered in resin. He had made other types of art, like his newspaper influenced pieces, but the majority of his work is photo collage and resin. This particular piece incorporates leaves, pills, insects, and acrylic. Technically, I didn't find this artist but his name was in a list of artists I could use in my compare and contrast essay for Art History. I didn't use this piece in that essay just so I could talk about it here in the blog. Everything seems to radiate out of that little vortex in the upper left hand corner of the piece. That vortex seems to be throwing out all sorts of debris like flowers, smiles, hands butterflies and even a couple of unidentified objects. The theme, though, seems to be that the vortex is shooting this stuff out as it shoots out Adam and Eve, or at least a man and a woman. All this goodness, smiles and butterflies, and flowers, seems to be lost to these two people getting expelled. The first thing I did when I saw this piece was say "Oh, hey this looks SUPER familiar." Of course that is because it IS super familiar. The figures walking away are almost identical to Masaccio's Expulsion of Adam and Eve which we looked at in Art History. What I like about how Tomaselli did his figures was that they were stripped of their flesh. That, to me, is almost making them more human. By comparing these two pieces, you can see that the angel in Massacio's piece is probably the vortex of goodness in Tomaselli's piece. I find it amazing that current artists can look back to earlier art, make their own interpretation of it, and then create such a beautiful unique piece of art.

Post 7-Arrested Developement

(Link to Video Clip)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/1340/arrested-development-christmas-pageant-mayhem

This is from the show Arrested Development. I heard people talking about this scene in Art History so I had to go look it up. Of course, it turns out Arrested Development is all over Netflix so I was also able to get hooked on the show. This show was created by Mitchell Hurwitz. The whole idea of the art in the episode is that they take famous pieces of art and incorporate live models in them for a Christmas pageant. This will directly lead to hilarity but this also shows art in the modern world. Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" is used with George-Micheal and the Dad. This is something that was created over 500 years ago and is still being used in modern types of art like media. When George-Micheal is in the piece, he is wearing shorts instead of being nude and the Dad who is playing God ends up getting tazed when he tries to escape. This is also used in an episode of the Simpsons.

It just shows that art from the past does influence our world and this is just one tiny example.

Post 6- Gloaming Born

This is called The Gloaming Born by Phil McDarby. Phil McDarby is a freelance digital artist who has been using digital methods since 1998. The majority of his art is an attempt to create a sense of wonder and magic in the piece. This was created in photoshop using over 200 layers and was designed as a mural for his daughter. Some elements and principles of design being used are balance, emphasis, and unity. The balance of this piece is created with the tree character on the right and the deer and creek on the left. The tree character is the focal point of the piece by how the lighting and colors are all more vibrant on the character/miniature baby tree. This creates an emphasis on that area. Every where else it is misty and a little fuzzed out but is perfectly bright and clear on the tree character. All of this piece looks like it belongs in a forest, creating a unity. Even with a tree coming to life, it looks as if it fits with the environment. I found this artist through Google Images, looking for a landscape to use in photoshop and when I found this I thought it had just been a plain old forest. This was looking at the image through a little 2 inch pop up so when I clicked on it to get it full size I was glad to find that it was no average forest. The tree character looks so serene as it creates this little baby tree. Even one of the deer seems to be looking at what is happening from the background. It's one of those scenes in nature that you would be privileged to watch (of course you couldn't watch this but it's one of those types of scenes). It's very calming with the babbling creek and soft lighting that you can just chill out as you enjoy looking at it.