Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Portraits






NYC Art & Design Review

Collectors of Keith Haring Works File Lawsuit
Artist: Keith Haring
Article by: Benjamin Weiser


This picture is titled "unknown" it is by Keith Haring. This is one of the pieces of art that is being called "fake". Haring was primarily a graffiti artist supposedly, what people say. 
This article was mainly about the struggles Haring has faced with these trials, what it was mainly about the charges and the lawsuits. There wasnt much about his work in the article just a lot about what he is going through. 
In all the blog was extremely difficult to follow and read. The layout was poor and something that really bugged me was that it only allowed you to view 10 free articles before you were forced to subscribe. I feel like the blog could have been more user friendly and for sure could have been designed better. 
I really like graffiti art, I hoped the article had gone on more about his artwork rather than the accusations and trial at hand. In all I didn't enjoy it. 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Portrait Photography


This photograph was taken by Thomas Leuthard. This photo was grouped with 15 other photos from the same album. This picture really stuck out to me first and foremost because it is black and white. Second, the photo is not only unique but has a sharpness that the eye is attracted to. I like that the picture is open to many possibilities, no one is sure what is exactly going on, what is the boy running from, where is he going? The image allows the viewer to wonder. 


This picture by Cody William Smith depicts a shadowed man standing in the middle of a set of railroad tracks. It must be a cold evening since the man in the picture is leaning back and exhaling creating the illusion of steam coming out of a smoke stack of an engine. I like this picture because again, its in black and white, also the image has the "shadow"effect. 


In this photograph by Tracy Tomsickova two boys are playing in a park. The reason this photo stuck out to me is the reason that this is a portrait of these two children, but also, one kid is painting a portrait of the kid sitting on the ground. It is a portrait inside of a portrait. COOL STUFF.


Here are two other children, standing in the middle of a pretty big city. This photo was taken by Andrew Brooks. I like this picture because it has truth in it. Its scary growing up not knowing whats expected. This picture conveys the sense that that is true. Little kids in a big city is dangerous and scary. The picture does a great job of showing the contrast between the small children and the skyscrapers in the distance. 


In this picture titled "Land Surveyors" photographer Erik Almås uses pure nature as the back drop. The distant mountains keeps my eyes on the horizon. Almås uses all neutral colors in this photo that keeps it calm. I like all of these pictures because they are all relatable, I can see myself in each of these pictures therefore it opens up the picture to be personable. 

Lenscratch Review

Lenscratch
555 Gallery: Barbarous Coast
Article By: Aline Smithson
Photography By: Neal Rantoul
555 Gallery: Barbarous Coasts

The blog Lenscratch is formatted with all the articles on the side of the page. The layout is very easy to understand and to read. The blog is very plain and helps keep everything simplistic. The article 555 Gallery: Barbarous Coast caught my eye due to the picture that was used for the preview. The article itself is about an art gallery that is opening up in south Boston. The gallery is to feature the art of selected upcoming artists. The article specifically points out two very different photographers. The one I was intrigued by was the work of Neal Rantoul. He is a prize winning Boston photographer and was also the head of photography at Southeastern University and has been there for 30 years. His latest work shows the abstracts of rock and formations of the cliffs in Iceland. The other photographer which I didnt feature is David Mattox, he is an Alaskan native whose work is mainly of fishing. Many of his pictures incorporate scenes found in everyday life from the Upper Cook Inlet of Alaska. He does nothing special, but because his picture are of his life, something he views everyday they are very personable. Im interested in Rantoul's work because nature is interesting to me. It is always something i've been around and will continue to be around. 

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Glasstire Review

Glasstire
Bill Davenport

Taken by: Michael Mazurek

The Glasstire is set up and constructed differently than our "Blogger" blogs. Rather than the page flowing horizontally, the eye tends to move down the page laterally. The blog itself is set up in a row and column format and has posts to be viewed much like a newspaper article. Many of the blog posts  in fact seem such as a regular newspaper. The blog homepage has links for events, news, videos etc. Thats not the only cool feature, the blog also allows the viewer to see other stories from all over the state of texas, categorized like "East Texas", "DFW", "San Antonio", "Austin", "The Valley", "Houston", and "West Texas".

Bill Davenports article is structured around photographer and artist Michael Mazurek. The article is called House Plants. In the article Davenport writes about how Mazureks work brings plants that are on photographs or on paper to life. He talks about how the positions and colors used make the art stand out like none other he has ever seen. He mentions how Mazurek uses a bright background to make the color of the plants pop, also the color of the plants pots have much to do with how it meets the eye. There was not much that factored into my decision to pick this article, I honestly just chose one at random. I think that the article ended up opening my eyes to the necessity of color and the power of contrast that is contributed to the picture. I found it interesting that when placed in galleries the art is usually larger and higher on the wall than other work that is present. The thing that stuck with me the most when finishing the article up was that Davenport was so struck by the photos he never even noticed the live plant that was next to him the entire time. That just shows how truly life like Mazurek's work really is.