Whitescapes

Tissue on Piece of Poster Paper with Overhead Lights On

Same Tissue and Poster Paper with just a Lamp Turned On

The top photo is a white tissue on top of a white piece of poster paper under my room's ceiling lights. The white tissue is lighter than the paper and appears more like what one would consider the color white to look like. The poster paper behind it looks like a light shade of brown with some possible yellow undertones. Even the tissue does not appear as white as it did against a different color background.
The bottom photo is of the same white tissue and poster paper under a different light. This light was from my desk lamp without my room's ceiling light on. The poster paper looks like it has some pinks in it as apposed to the browns and yellows from the previous picture. The tissue does not stand out as much against the background in this light. It is interesting how two objects that when looked at separately appear white suddenly completely transform when paired together and put under different lighting.

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Response to John Berger's Ways of Seeing

After reading John Berger's Ways of Seeing, the section when he discusses the specific impacts of reproducing artwork particularly stood out to me. I started to think about my own experience with reproductions of artwork. Having never lived in a time where these did not exist, I never questioned their existence and possible negative impact until now.

Berger claims that before reproduction of art "the uniqueness of every painting was once part of the uniqueness of the place where it resided" because how "it could never be seen in two places at the same time" (19). So Berger believes that reproducing these images via cameras "destroys the uniqueness of its image" (19). I agree that having to go to a specific place to experience a piece of art adds to the overall experience, but I don't think reproductions of that art destroy all of the unique qualities of the piece. In addition, if I didn't have access to reproductions of artwork then I would never have gotten to study these pieces of art unless I could afford to travel all over the world to see them. Personally by studying these pieces and copying them, I have grown to appreciate them in ways than I would not have if I just walked up to the piece for the first time. For example, while trying to copy any of da Vinci's portraits you begin to comprehend just how difficult and how much skill it takes to create a work of art like that. Berger does note that people can argue that it is agreed that "reproductions more or less distort" so that in a way the original is still unique in some way (20).

Another section of the reading that stood out to me was the section about with Vincent van Gogh's Wheatfield with Crows. As I read the line "this is a landscape of a cornfield with birds flying out of it" I appreciated the composition of the piece and the signature brushstrokes of Van Gogh, but it was not until I read the following page where it states "this is the lost picture that Van Gogh painted before he killed himself" when suddenly the image no longer was just crows in a wheat field (27, 28). Berger perfectly sums it up by saying "the image now illustrates the sentence" (28). Berger brings up interesting points about observing images and artwork that I had never thought about until I read this work.

Wheatfield with Crows by Vincent Van Gogh

Julio Fine Arts Gallery Event: Uncertain Passages by Jay Gould

On Thursday, I attended the Julio Fine Arts Gallery exhibit titled Uncertain Passages by Jay Gould. Gould has a M.F.A in photography from Savannah College of Art & Design and teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art. I was able to hear Gould speak about his pieces some, which was interesting to hear the thoughts behind the pieces. I thought it was especially interesting how Gould spoke about when he creates pieces he thinks about art and science. At first, when looking at Gould's pieces some  looked like ordinary photographs of nature such as the one pictured below. At first glance it looks like a nice picture of a landscape focused on a tree in the center. Though by having this one tree capture the viewer's attention leads the viewer's eye to then notice and focus on the out of place smoke/cloud shape hovering near the ground.

A Compelling Sense of Familiarity by Jay Gould

Half Red Stone by Jay Gould

At the event two pieces really stood out to me though. The first being Half Red Stone pictured to the right. Though it is difficult to see in the picture, the piece is is bent acrylic. By doing this, when viewed at this angle the piece appears to be almost three dimensional. It was so cool to walk around the piece and from one side see a two dimensional picture of a red rock and the other blue, but suddenly in the middle see a three dimensional half red and half blue rock.

Portal Typography I by Jay Gould

The other piece I greatly enjoyed from the exhibit was Portal Typography I pictured above. I found this piece interesting because of the two main components. The upper one appears to be a picture of green woods with a column of cloud/smoke in the middle. This is similar to the previously mentioned cloud in the other piece. Though in this piece, the lower part of the piece below is similar coloring and composition, but almost three dimensional because, as apparent from the picture below, the cloud/smoke part is coming off the background. In addition, from far away the two backgrounds look very similar, but if looked at up close the green background for the lower part looks like almost little green mountains. I did not know what to expect when I first walked into the exhibit because Gould's work was very different from anything I had seen before, but I really enjoyed it and learned about a new very interesting form of art.

 

Part of Portal Typography I by Jay Gould