Are they just silhouettes.......

An artist that I really admire is Kara Walker. I found out about Walker and her work from my teacher from my teen book arts program. My teacher told me about her because she noticed my silhouette painting and said she knows of an amazing silhouette artist and printed me out information about her.

Kara Walker is an American born artist who is known for her room-size, black cut-paper silhouettes. Her work usually expresses issues such as history, sexuality, race, power, etc. I looked her up on the Internet and observed her work. I found her to be very talented and unique. She doesn't do only silhouettes, but I find those to be most impressive. I like Walker’s work a lot because I think if her pieces are stared at long enough, that there’s almost always a hidden image or something you probably didn’t notice in the beginning.

http://learn.walkerart.org/karawalker/Main/Biography

Illusionally Delusional

One of the pieces I found the most interesting during my trip and tour of the Walker Art Center had to be the piece titled "Flags". The brilliant piece was created by an artist named Jasper Johns in 1968. The piece of art was created during the Op Art Period. "Flags" was composed of a color lithograph with stamps, five stones, and an aluminum plate on paper.

I feel that if people were to see this piece in a museum or hadn't had any explanation to it, I believe they would just walk past it without thinking again about it. They would probably think it was just another piece of art hanging on the wall with no meaning to it at all. That's exactly what I like most about "Flags", it basically creates an optical illusion before your eyes, and I'm a fan of optical illusions.

In the piece there are two flags. The top flag is an Image of the American flag but not in the American colors. The flag is painted in orange, black, and green. The second flag underneath is just an aluminum plate. The first flag also has a white dot in the center. The clever and interesting thing about the flag being painted in the "incorrect" colors is that when you stare at the white dot for 30 seconds then quickly look away at the colorless aluminum flag, you'll see the aluminum flag in red, white, and blue for a few seconds. After a few seconds the colors go away. The American colors appear more clearly if you look at a white wall. This all has to do with the retina in our eyes shifting from secondary/ neutral colors to complementary colors.

I think that Jasper Johns was trying to say that everything is not what it seems. Or even that America and the world is not what it seems to be at all. "Flags" is a favorite of mine because it is highly unique.

"I am interested in the idea of sight, in the use of the eye. I am interested in how we see and why we see the way we do."--Jasper Johns

Dreaming freely

The piece of art that I really liked from the Midway gallery was an untitled C-Print. It was made in 2004 by Saul Fletcher. Fletcher was born in 1967, in Barton, England. Saul’s work consists of compressed issues of human existence on scaled pictures. He uses a variety of things in his work, such as religious symbols, objects, models to capture issues of sexuality, spirituality, redemption, and morality. Fletcher has a whole series of untitled images and in different sequences to let them each tell their own unique story. He pictures the images in his mind first, then he crafts and edits the contents before he photographs the setup. He takes most of his photographs in personal spaces and uses his family as models.

I really like this piece because it seems a little chaotic but calm at the same time. It reminds me of broken glass from a vase being thrown around during a fight. The flower is broken, sad, and also very hurt. The piece also reminds me of a very emotional mind and just expressing my feelings very freely, no strings attached because everyone needs a quick getaway sometimes.

I had two sets of stories that I feel could have been told through some pieces on display at the MIA. The first set consisted of "Kiss of Victory", by Sir Alfred Gilbert, and a small sword of England. When I thought about these two particular pieces I thought about a warrior losing his battle with life and being killed with a sword or some sort of dagger. I feel that even though death out numbered his chances to life that he still won in the end because he was embraced in his face of death with a kiss. A kiss that symbolized victory and great strength. He had to have put up a serious and note worthy battle.

My next set involved the piece titled "Roses", by Henri Fantin-Latour, a wheel lock rifle, and "The Father of Aviation". With those three pieces I developed a story. In the story there's a couple of "minoritized" young men doing everything in their will to do good in the world today and stay out of trouble. They are being chased by men with rifles and they are running for their lives. Because of the young mens race they are being generalized and seen as little thugs and crooks. That is not how they live their lives at all. People judge before they get to know people and it's really sad. But sad to say, everyone does it. But I think that the roses represents beauty and innocence, but all innocent things also have dark sides.

I was extremely confused with all the different ideas of postmodernism. I understand they were trying to come up with new ideas for the new time period. But I still don't understand it postmodernism. But, I really like the image that I chose because of the mixed media on a collage. I looks like a mixes of the 60's, maybe. This differs from modern art because they didn't do collages in the modern period. It's very illusional with objects flying all over the place. I feel like modern art doesn't really break any rules; and rules are made to be broken.

I'm finally 18! Yay! I had a very frustrating birthday at first, but I quickly became happy after all the phone calls and Birthday wishes on Facebook & Myspace. I finally feel the love <3!