Critique #2

Roots

            A woman lies across a barren desert ground over a cracked part of the earth. She has thick black hair and eyebrows, and dawns a blinding bright orange dress.  And from her center, thick, green, leafy vines emerged from within her, enveloping her, yet her expression remains neutral.  This is one of Frida Kahlo’s pieces appropriately named Roots, painted in1943.  In the painting Roots, Frida Kahlo uses a barren background, contrasting colors and seamless movement to convey the feeling of being emotionally trapped inside one’s self. The barren backgrounds representing isolation, and contrasting color bring a focal point to the woman, and the movement showing the entrapments of one self.

            The barren background shows a vast lot of isolation that’s a part of being trapped inside’s oneself. It’s simply a mauve, brown, putrid green sort of coloring and looks like a desert or tundra of sorts, it’s not flat nor is it mountains but the terrain is clearly worn. Besides for this woman, this place is completely empty and alone.  It represents that when one feels trapped inside them self, they are completely alone. Or so they feel usually in the reality of the actuality that this painting represent. Like the world, the background and crevice of the earth is still there almost ignoring this one woman who is contained by these vines.  But the woman is completely ignoring that fact herself and doesn’t seem to care about that, among other things at least. Her entire being in the painting is almost transparent about and you can even see the background, peering through the whole in her.  This effectively conveys the surroundings of being trapped insides one self.

            There are also the bright and neutral colors, that contrast each other, on the piece also stand out.  The almost entire neutrality of the painting once again combines with the feeling of nothingness and isolation. It isn’t bleak but it’s not pleasant neutrality either.  Yet the bright orange keeps the focal point on the woman lying there along with the vines that keep her rooted and trapped to the ground. Even though there’s a strong orange, there’s still a transparency to it, for you can see a bit of a background and also the roots of the vines that entrap the woman to the ground.   This clearly figures into the entrapment of inside oneself; how there always seems to be more than yourself.

            Finally there is the seamless movement in the painting.  Mostly from the vines that seem to continue to grow from the woman’s body, wrapping her up. Yet there is also the lack of movement in the woman as she simply lies there while this goes on. She just seems to be almost accepting the fate that is coming upon her. Yet the red veins on the vines spring off the vines roots deeper into the ground, sealing her in completely.  There doesn’t seem a way out from one’s own self entrapment, and it is something that one lets happen to him or her.  The movement of the vines is seamless, but everything else is just so silently still.

            This painting has entirely too much to offer when dealing with what she deals with.  This though is simply one possible interpretation of the complexity in the entire. That said, it has to be noted that is speaks within the reality of something that one is very likely to feel at one point in another but it is explained mostly in fantastical terms.   The problem conveyed is a feeling and an emotion. And these feelings and emotion, one can barely really explain in words.  It’s hard to convey the loneliness, and hopelessness in just words. These feelings can only be explained by the piece, Roots.

Self Portrait Assignment

 Susanna Coffey, 2005, Slam Dunk;    Kathe Kollowitz, 1912, Self Portrait; Paul Cezanne,???? , Self Portrait

2.   All of the paintings are show texture in some way. The Cezanne and Coffey portraits use much more vivid colors and abstract textures while Kollowitz utilizes suability with her monochromatic painting.  Yet Cezanne utilizes warmer colors while, Coffey used cooler colors.   All three of them have done different views of their faces.  Coffee seems to have utilizes a close up, while Kollowitz is a frontal view, and Cezanne chose a bust.

3. The strongest has to be Coffey. While Cezanne had a brighter piece, the one that stands out is Coffee. Coffee has a very surrealist piece and every color she uses flows seamlessly together.  While obviously realism, it just barely touches the light to surrealism. Just because of the textures and colors she decides to use. It is a beautiful piece that seems to be more enjoyable than the rest.

4.  I think that self portraits are something we take for granted.  It takes a lot of skill to make any sort of representations to ourselves. Even one that is even remotely accurate to our true selves. That’s possibly why artists do them.  They are difficult and really can atone to skill. Even if they are perhaps aesthetically worthless.

Conceptfolio -Painting and Sculpture-

Kris Kuksi, "One Won't do it"




Fragonard, "The Swing"

Critique #1 (Final Copy)

An Even Smaller World

            To imagine something more than what one physically sees. Humanity has explored different worlds and beings through imagination. Josephine Walls does this constantly in her own paintings. Her subjects are fairies, mermaids and other mystical beings that explore the beliefs one may have. Her art has never been something physical or existing in reality.  In the painting “An Even Smaller World”, Josephine Walls employs vivid texture, pale colors, and emphasized focal point to convey that there will always be more than what one originally perceives.

            Making use of vivid texture, Walls is able to emphasize the meaning in her painting. First there are the flowers and vines in the background which are extremely detailed in texture, as if one could reach out and touch it, feeling the leaves and petals.  It builds a base for the viewer to what one can see anywhere in the wild. There then is the texture of the wings of the fairy, which is quite more ethereal and exaggerated and is the first bit of fantasy we see. This is where we see something that humanity in several cultures believes in, yet is not seen in reality. Finally there is the world inside with a textural representation of a small creek with the water flowing and the flowery shrub and twisting trees and shore next to it. With the fairy peeking in and seeing a world one would relate to, yet in a place neither fairy nor human would expect.  This amplifies the meaning. 

            Using pale colors, Walls can exemplify the idea that there is more.  First is the white in the flowers which once again is anchoring the piece to reality. It is something we perceive as normal. Then there is the pale blues and lilac colors which are found mostly in the fairy along with the world and woman inside the flower. Because the colors are more prominent there, it sort of focuses the point that there is more on what has been discovered by the fairy, yet as one looks into the painting, discovering the fairy, discovering this new world.  Lastly, she utilizes the pale greens and yellows to more or less connect everything in the painting together. As it is unified one can see that everything is not what one originally perceived before. And this shows the meaning more clearly.

            Finally, Walls focuses on the focal point of the entire painting, which would be the world and woman inside the flower. First, it is highlighted with a glowing ethereal light; almost blinding, that automatically grabs focus.  It put forth what is more than anyone had expected.  It is also positioned in the center of the entire piece.  The placing of this small world makes it in direct line of sight and obvious. Then it ends with the petals the form a frame around the entire thing, as the vines and foliage in the painting surround the edges. It sort of brings one in and asks them to focus directly at this piece because it is worth it.  Where there is more than one can imagine.

            This painting explores a lot of things; society doesn’t really, at least not in depth.  It gives a look into imagination and how there is what one believes they see and what one wants to see. The viewer is almost discovering this scene in the painting and to see the surprise on the fairy’s face at what she had suspected was just a flower.  And if one looks closer at the painting, the woman in the flower discovers a mermaid in the creek which brings even more, perhaps literal than one had seen before.  There is just more than one originally would have seen which makes the painting more than what one can perceive. This applies to life; for if one can look deeper they can see things they wouldn’t originally and then from that spawns creativity, and ideas and more to the human imagination and wonder.