Public Art Homework

I chose this picture because it's a painting of a bear in the forrest, yet it is in the middle of dowtown.  It caught my eye because it is opposite to its surroundings.  This public art piece is titled Bear Tumbling and was painted by Kristin Steedman.  I liked how the bear is the center piece and not the forrest so it really draws your eye to it.  Overall, I liked how simple the bear looked, yet the placement and painting its self was really well thought out.

Drifting

Here are my drift pictures.  While in dowtown, a lot of the public art caught my eye so I took some pictures of it.

hw

In my opinion, the painting by John Taylor is more representational and the painting by howling wolf is more abstract.  The one by John Taylor looks like real people gathered around to sign a peace treaty while the one by howling wolf looks more like traditional Native American paintings.  Taylor's depiction of the landscape looks real where as Howlings looks abtract.  In Howlings' painting it shows tipis and a river while Taylors' only shows a narrow landscape.  Again, becasue Howling is an Indian and Taylor is not.  In Howlings' painting it shows how the indians all look different.  In Taylors they all look very similar.  In Howlings painting, it shows a lot of women at the peace treaty signing while in Taylors, it shows only men.  I think this is because to the indians, men and women were equal, while in american society at the time, women were seen as having a lower status than men and not taking part in things like politics.

Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold was born on October 8, 1930 in Harlem and started painting 35 years ago. She is best known for her painted story quilts, which is art that combines painting, quilted fabric and storytelling. When asked how she writes the story of her quilts she replied "I think about the characters and the story I want to tell and then I begin to write the chapters in segments. And then, just like the materials of a quilt, I piece the words together until they make a story. I have to edit many times before it is finished and ready to be written on the quilt." She also says that she gets her ideas from reflecting on her life and the lives of people she has known and has been inspired by.
Faith Ringgold is married and has two daughters. She is currently a professor of art at the University of California in San Diego, California. She is currently working on writing more children's books as well as creating new pieces of art.

Some of her more known pieces include,

"Church Picnic"
http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/d05.htm

"Tar Beach"
http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/d06.htm

And "God Bless America"
http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/d67.htm

Video on Faith Ringgold
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzEWJJUnTlk

Faith Ringgold information from http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/default.htm

Chester Arnold "Digger"

Brandon Stone
Candace Nicol
Art 160
9/19/10


Chester Arnold’s art work seemed to focus on the environment and the impacts that mankind has on it. Taking a look at all of his paintings at the Nevada Museum of Art, they all carry out that theme. His work includes paintings that show trash left over from society, the deforestation of land and the pollution that man creates.

The piece that I chose to write about was titled “Digger.” It shows a harvested forest, tire tracks, and a lonely man who has dug his own grave. This piece jumped out at me because of the impact it has. To me, it is telling a story of how man has destroyed nature by cutting down all these trees and the man sees that there is no hope left. He digs his own grave because he sees the direction that the world is going in. He sees that the future is very dreary because mankind can not change their ways and maybe has regret for being a part of the deforestation of the now desolate land.

On the description of the painting is says that the leftover tree stumps act as tombstones. This is possibly saying that other people have noticed what the lonely man has come to terms with and have already dug their own graves. Overall I think the main message that Chester Arnold is trying to get across is that by killing the environment, humanity as a whole, are digging their own graves.