First Dive at TMCC Art Gallery

  

First Dive is one of mixed media by Emilie Sayward Henry. There are some flower shapes in the art work, and those are made by small piece of papers. Each small piece of paper is painted with light green, blue, and baby yellow. I first thought that those flower shapes described excitement of Henry’s first experience, but by looking them closely, the flowers were mainly painted with light yellow and white. She might want to show us the reflection of sunlight on sea using those warm colors. Under those flower shapes, light and dark blue and green are painted on small pieces of papers. I first guessed that Henry used colorful papers, but in fact, she painted on sewn and torn papers. It is also interesting to see that Henry puts light blue on small piece of light yellow paper, and the combination creates natural light green. The art work looks simple to make, but we can see that working on the art is required her patient to paint all small pieces of paper. 

Public Art in Reno

You do not notice it if you are just walking in the downtown Reno. I love to see the clear sky, so I was walking in the downtown and looking the sky. Then I found the small art district banner. I do not know how I can describe it, but it has two parts. One part looks like a metal banner which has many squares, and the other part has an artistic pinwheel. The pinwheel spins like a living thing because it usually stops like it never moves, but when the wind blows, it starts to spin cheerfully. While I was watching the public art, I was beginning to wonder if the artist came up the spinning idea with his or her memory of childhood. This is because I used to have a pinwheel as one of my favorite toys when I was little, and the art work reminded me of my childhood memory.            

While I was drifting in downtown Reno, I found some artistic things. It might not be the art for the people who created those buildings or signs, but they caught my attention. I took the buildings and churches which seem to have history, and I took some monuments which are creative and have fun shapes. I felt that the downtown might want us to see not only casino but also art in there because each light was decorated with artistic objects, and even the map of the park looked art to me. I was glad to find those art in the place, and art might be hidden anywhere. 

By Different Artists in Different Ways

Two different artists, John Taylor and Howling Wolf  drew Treaty Singing at Medicine Creek Lodge in different ways, and I found that there was different ideas about the role of women in different culture. Taylor's work of art is more representational, and the work of Wolf is more abstract. In Taylor's work, he describes the treaty event with details without using any color, and the characters are realistic; it looks like the treaty is really happening now in the art. In contrast, Wolf does not describe the situation with a lot of details because he focuses on Native Amricans' clothes and symbols. So we can identify each of them by his or her colorful clothes and symbols. Taylor's work is ethnocentric because in his work, it seems like men are in charge of the process of the treaty, and women are sitting behind the event. Women also does not wear unique clothes like the women in Wolf's work. From that, we can see that women did not have the important roles in the culture, and men make important decisions. On the other hand, in Wolf's version of the event, women looks like active, independent, and equal to men. They are also centered to the event to make decision, and their unique clothes may show us that they have important roles in their culture. It is interesting that different artists described the same event in different ways, and we can see that there were different values about women in different culture.

Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold is an African American artist who was born in New York city. She studied painting at New York City College, and she also got Master’s degree in fine art. Her great-great-great grandmother was a slave, and Ringgold also seems to experience prejudice against African American. Her family’s slave history and her experience might influence to her work of art called God Bless America. It was painted when White Americans had prejudice toward African American people, and the woman in the art means the image of contradiction. The art gives form to the immaterial-universal truths, personal feelings because we can get the dark feeling which is prejudice or contradiction. Also, we can see how the United States was not equal to everyone and terrible situation for African American through seeing the red and white stripes of the art was changed into the black stripes.http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/d67.htmhttp://negroartist.com/negro%20artist/faith%20ringgold/pages/faith%20ringgold%20The%20Flag%20Is%20Bleeding,%201967_jpg.htm

The Fate of Durable Goods

Through visiting the Nevada Museum of Art, I saw one shocking art in there. When I glanced at it, I first thought that the junk is floating on the sea; however, when I saw it closely, I found that it was not junk but furniture and goods we daily use. The work of art is called Fate of Durable Goods which is painted by Chester Arnold. In the art, the goods such as a couch, car, book, TV, and umbrella which look good conditions are floating on the rough waves under crowd which looks like starting rain. The work of art is inspired by French art called Raft of the Medusa which is painted the survivors who are abandoned by crew on purpose, and they are on the tiny wood boat on middle of rough sea. Some of survivors seem like they are already dead; on the other hand, others look desperate, and they seem like calling or yelling the crew to help them. The discarded goods that Arnold drew seem like same as the people who are abandoned in the French art. When I saw the both of art, I felt like I can hear the durable goods that Arnold drew are calling for help.

Chester Arnold was born in California in 1952, and he grew up in Germany studying with private teachers. Then he attended at the College of Marin, Kentfield, California in 1970, and he was inspired by the German Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and Albrecht Altdorfer. Arnold believes the importance of understanding people’s feeling and touch of the individual.  His big and oil painting art work in 19^th century shows how we pollute natural environment with industrialization. In his recent work, he shows his concern about exploitive and explorative nature of humans, and he has strong moral belief about our world and environment, so his art work shows us dark side of humans, and it is related to politics and human’s responsibility.

When I saw his Fate of Durable goods, I had a strong impact, and I felt like he tried to tell us something important through the art. We can see that because we can get anything easily in our society, we tend to throw durable goods away when new goods come out to our society or we do not need them anymore. Through the art work, Arnold might want to tell us that we usually do not appreciate what we have, and his message seems like to consider what we can do and what we need to do for our society.

Sources:

  1. http://tamarind.unm.edu/bios/arnoldbio.html
  2. http://lindahodgesgallery.com/artists/arnold.html
  3. Nevada Museum of Art