Final Question 6: Art-Walk Round 2

The second time I attended the Pomona Art walk, I found more interesting pieces of art, however I felt that this art walk was not as exciting as the previous time. The Da gallery did not have as many interesting pieces in my opinion, however they did have lots of delicious food! One of the works I found more interesting at the Da gallery was called "Just Before Tomorrow", although it did not have an illustrator's name on it. It consists of a portrait of a plain colored with rainbow colors. From a distance, it seems like it could be a normal portrait of a plane. However, up close, it appears to utilize the main colors of the rainbow in order (for the most part). I thought this was an interesting concept, and this was the only one from the gallery that caught my eye.

Another one I found interesting at the art walk had no name or artist, it was in one of the corner rooms. I mentioned this one in another post, but it consists of nothing but squiggly blue lines on a black canvas, which was pleasant to look at, and appeared to be very time consuming to create.

At one particular gallery (I do not recall the name) I found three paintings that seemed interesting to me. One was called "Turquoise Landscape" by Eva Andry. This one was a landscape of turquoise strands with holes and filled up the canvas. This was a mesmerizing piece that is a pleasure to stare at.

Louiza Vick's "Bruised Psyche" is definitely one to take a look at. It is a picture of the face of the Statue of Liberty with blood all over it. In my opinion, it symbolizes the fact that America has been bruised or damaged, due to current events. The cause for this may be due to bad political decisions, and/or the fact that our soldiers are dying in Iraq. Whatever the reason may be, this is an interesting painting.

The last painting I found interesting at the art walk was untitled by Jorge Higuera. It consists of the fusion of three different landscapes. It is a beach with a tree on the shore, a turtle on the shore as well, and broken stained glass from a church coming out of the sky. I'm not sure what the meaning of this painting is, but it seems very unique. I'm sure the artist intended for this painting to have a great philosophy.

Final Question 1: My Room Design

I have already decorated my room at home with my own artwork, as I used to draw and paint growing up. For this assignment, I will provide a layout of how I would place art in my apartment bedroom. Below is a basic layout of my room I designed in Microsoft Paint.

The key designates the locations for each of the major objects in my room, along with the locations of each painting I would choose to place in my room.

Painting 1 consists of a snowy mountain, as I particularly like snowboarding, snow, mountains, and cold weather in general. This particular painting is not one I specifically prefer, I simply desire a painting similar to this one. I chose to place this directly across from my bed and next to my desk because it is one of my motivations to succeed. As I study and before I go to sleep, I will be reminded that I am working to succeed in school so that when I have a vacation, I can reward myself by going snowboarding. The painting is called "Mountain Snow" by Neal and Judy Stratton.

Painting 2 is a painting I saw at the Da gallery during the first Art-Walk assignment. It is called "Epiphany" by Joy McAllister. I have posted information on this work of art in one of my previous blogs. It is a visual representation of the act of discovering a new idea, using colors of fog. I chose to place this near my guitar, as I sometimes play my guitar when I am stressed or pondering something. This is painting is a motivational tool for two reasons. The first, being a visual representation of the fact that I am trying to create a tune to write a song. The second, being a reminder of how creativity and imagery can lead to amazing pieces of art, which is one of my goals as a songwriter.

Painting 3 is a new painting I saw today at the Pomona Art Walk. I could not find the title nor illustrator for it, but it caught my eye. It consists of nothing but light blue scribbles covering a black canvas. It is a painting in which one can stare at, and become deep in thought for no apparent reason. Often times, before I go to sleep I lay in my bed thinking about current or past events, which is why I chose to place it where I would normally stare from my bed. I enjoy the design and it is a pleasure to look at whether admiring, or simply using it to let one's mind wander.

Painting 4 is one of my favorite paintings of all time. It is one of Vincent Van Gogh's most famous paintings, "Starry Night". I enjoy this painting because it reminds me of my childhood, when I learned about it during art class in elementary school. I chose to place it right above my bed because it is coherent with the fact that I will be sleeping during the night.

Painting 5 is a painting I made in high school. In my art class, we had a project assignment to design a picture in which most of it was black and white, yet part of it consisted of the colors of the rainbow in order. Few of the projects were selected by the teacher to submit to a contest and post online. In grade school, I used to draw pictures on my free time. I was working on a drawing of a sports car that I liked at the time, and I decided to use it for my project. I decided to leave the car black and white, while creating a city landscape in which the buildings utilized the colors of the rainbow. Later, I ordered a coffee mug from the website with my painting on it. This is one of the many paintings I have currently at home, however this is one of my favorites. I have a passion for cars and I hope to someday own a few cars similar to to this one. I chose to place this one directly above my desk because this is my ultimate motivation. I am currently going to Cal Poly Pomona to study Mechanical Engineering because I want to design and work on cars similar to this one. This is my reminder of my dream and why I am here at Cal Poly Pomona.

Painting 6 consists of a sunset landscape. I have always thought sunsets are beautiful, and I love looking at paintings and pictures of them. Each sunset is unique in my opinion, yet they are all beautiful. I do not have a particular sunset painting I enjoy, but this is one of the better ones I found online. It is called "Seascape at Sunset", however the artist was not stated on the website. I decided to place this painting directly above my dresser so I am reminded of the beauty of life as I wake up each morning and get dressed.

There is one other painting I would like to add to my room, however I can not post it, as it is one of my paintings, which I can not access at the moment. I cannot access it because I gave it to an old friend of mine. It consists of a distant island landscape, with a freeway running across the ocean, heading directly toward the island. It reminds me of the fact that one's imagination is very important, and that I must be careful to never become so consumed with work that I lose my imagination.

Getty: Wooded Landscape

Another landscape painting I liked is "A Wooded Landscape With a Path to a House" by Lucas Achtshellinck. Similar to the Frozen Canal painting, I found this to have amazing detail and great use of color. I also noticed that for some reason, the main tree is perpendicular to the house's path. I'm not sure if that has any meaning, but I just thought it was interesting.

Getty: Figures on a Frozen Canal

I was fascinated with the amount of detail of some of the landscape paintings at the Getty. this was one of my favorites. I do not have much to say about what makes this painting more special than other paintings aesthetically, however I just think it was one of the more detailed paintings in the exhibit.

Getty: Mountain Landscape

When I went to the Getty museum, I found a few landscape paintings that were interesting. One of them was called "Mountain Landscape With Peasants in a Clearing Near a Waterfall" by Anthonie Waterloo. It consisted of a large mountain landscape with various trees and cliffs, with two peasants in the corner. This was interesting because the entire picture was in black and white, except the peasants. In my opinion, Waterloo wanted the viewer to focus on the peasants, so they could see the contrast between the people and the surroundings. I think he wanted to show that the people in the landscape do not belong there, which is why they don't blend in with their surroundings.

Pomona Art Walk: Epiphany

Another work of art that caught my eye at the Art Walk was called "Epiphany" by Joy McAllister. It consists of fog in various colors, with a bright spot of red-orange light in the center. Because the lighting in the picture is more focused in the center, my guess is that McAllister wanted the viewer to focus on that particular portion. In my opinion, the fog represents clouded thoughts, whereas the light represents an idea or epiphany. I have not seen many works of art that can visually capture what goes on in someone's mind, such as this one does, so I found this to be very creative. This piece reminds me of a song called "Forgotten" by Linkin Park, which paints a picture in the listener's mind of the exact opposite. It is interesting to know that these brain functions can be portrayed visually and musically.

Pomona Art Walk: Mt. Baldy Rd.

During my trip to the Pomona Art Walk, I encountered a few interesting works of art. The one that I found most interesting was "Mt. Baldy Road" by Rick Caughman. The work shows a very detailed landscape drawing of a curve of the Mt. Baldy road. The drawing itself fascinated me with the amount of detail. However, what I found to be truly interesting is the fact that it was actually done using "dry point etching" on another material (I'm not sure what the material was, but I'm guessing it was some type of metal.). In other words, the original drawing was done on metal by etching with a needle and adding ink, then printed onto a piece of paper to create a drawing. Below is a picture of the drawing and a picture of the metal plate (although the metal pic is difficult to see, as getting a good pic at the right angle proved to be tedious.). This is the first time I have seen this type of art and I would like to see more works from Caughman.