Logo Design

I found creating the logo to be fun and relaxing. I chose to do my initials since that is something that represents me. During my sketches, I tried to create a logo that was simple, clear, and had some form of abstract design. I also tried to stray away from my normal use of dark colors and used bright colors instead to make the logo appear to be more upbeat. I love sunflowers, so I incorporated a sunflower into my design and tried to give the sunflower texture by using different colors of yellow. I also thought a lot about shading and the value of colors while making the abstract green shapes which are meant to be in the background of my logo, behind my initials. I think that adding the texture of the sunflower and the different shadings in the green background and the letters help make the logo more attractive and not flat looking.

I watched the logo videos and read the reading materials that were provided to us before creating my logo to see if they helped give me any ideas of key concepts in making a good logo. I think an important aspect of a logo, and something the Graphic Design video also talked about, is having a logo that looks good and works on multiple different formats. Whether it be paper, metal, or plastic. The logo should also be strong, simple, and capture the essence of the business it is representing.

Art Gallery Visit

The Albright Knox Art Gallery is a place that I have been going to since being a young child. I was excited to bring myself back there to see the new changes and the new artwork that the gallery has gotten since I have last been there. I decided to do something different, which was buy six postcards on six pieces of art that intrigued me or related to me, versus a piece of art that was on a wall or in the middle of a room. I wanted to do this so that I could bring these postcards home and spend some real time looking at them, and also be able to keep them.

There were two postcards that I got that had caught my eye right away. Both of these pieces of art are filled with bright colors, which is one of the reasons they make such a great impression on me. Although I am a fan of dark colors and shades, I always find it interesting when I see bright pieces of art that I really enjoy. These two pieces are listed below:

Artist: Jasper Johns
Title: Numbers in color 
Media: Encaustic and newspaper on canvas
Scale: 66.5 x 49.5 inches
Year: 1959

Numbers in color is a piece that I have seen before. I've always found it interesting that the numbers went in counting order (0-9) from right to left, as if we were reading words on a page. Although the shapes of the numbers stay the same, the colors of them continue to change. No same number ever looks exactly alike, which is what I like most about this piece.

Artist: Polly Apfelbaum
Title: Reckless 
Media: Synthetic velvet and fabric dye
Scale: Not stated
Year: 1998

This postcard actually had two pieces of art on it, but I immediately focused my attention to the piece on the floor, which is the piece I will be specifically talking about. Never in my life had I seen such bright, abstract designs on a floor before. The art is also placed on white flooring, making the design and colors more bright and eye catching. This was my favorite postcard out of the six.

The two pieces that I connected best with are pieces that directly relate to my life. These two pieces are listed below:

Artist: Henri Matisse
Title: La Musique 
Media: Oil on canvas
Scale: 45 3/8 x 45 3/8 inches
Year: 1939

This piece is also one that I have seen before. It represents two women who are focused on the music that is being played, coming from the woman on the right who is playing the guitar. Although I always found the bodies of these women to be very large, I love that it represents music because music has a big impact on my life. I think that music brings people to another place and helps people relate to something within song. I also think that music is a form of art, so finding pieces of art that incorporate music are always pieces that I enjoy looking at.

Artist: Ellsworth Kelly
Title: New York, N.Y. 
Media: Oil on canvas
Scale: 73 3/4 x 90 inches
Year: 1957

This was actually the first postcard that I found and one that stood out to me simply because it has the letters NY on it. It is very simple, based on it being a black and white piece, but is something that obviously relates to me due to me being from and living in New York. For a long time I had always wanted to leave home, but once I was finally given the chance to, I no longer wanted to. I love Buffalo, NY and everything about it is home to me, which is why I was glad to have found this piece.

There were two postcards that I liked, yet was unsure about what they were meant to represent. Both of these pieces are simple in color and in my opinion, they are not blatantly obvious as to what they represent. They are a sort of mystery to me, which is why I chose these two pieces. These two pieces are listed below:

Artist: Zhan Wang
Title: Urban Landscape Buffalo 
Media: Stainless steel, pots, pans, and kitchen utensils
Scale: 67 1/2 x 197 x 393 5/8 inches
Year: 2005-2010

This piece was one that I liked because of the stainless steel look. I love stainless steel, especially with my kitchen appliances and utensils, but I had no idea that it was actually made of stainless steel kitchen utensils until I read the back of the postcard. I wondered what inspired the artist to do a piece using only the items listed above. The way that the pots and pans are laid out, it is not obvious that they are pots and pans. The way the light reflects off all the stainless steel was so intriguing to me, and I think the artist must have had a great time putting all these pieces together.

Artist: Franz Kline
Title: New York, N.Y.
Media: Oil on canvas
Scale: 79 x 51 inches
Year: 1953

Although this piece is also titled New York, N.Y., I am not exactly sure why. This piece is also black and white and remains a mystery to me, which makes me questions what the artist was thinking about and what he was feeling during his time of creating this piece. I love the idea of the white background and the solid, black lines being painted over the white, almost overtaking the white background. Black is a dark color, which I think represents more of a painful emotion. I wonder what the artist was going through in his life during this time of painting it.

Color Wheel

Value Scale - White to Black

Value Scale & Color Wheel

Creating the value scale and color wheel was more time consuming than I thought it would be. The value scale was a bit difficult in making sure that the values were correctly represented while going from white to black. The color wheel was fun to make and once the circles were sketched out, I found it to be relaxing. The media I enjoy working with best is a digital camera. I think taking the pictures with a camera versus scanning it creates a much better quality photo. As silly as it sounds, I had forgotten that the three primary colors mixed together are what create black. I also think that creating value for different colors is much more difficult than it seems and that it takes artists time to do so, whether they be drawing or painting. The Paint/Pigment Primary Colors video was interesting, as it stated that as children we are taught that red, yellow and blue are the primary colors, when really red and blue are too dark to be primary colors. This is where the colors cyan and magenta come into play. I think this video was helpful in making it very clear and simplistic in explaining why this is the case.

http://s664.photobucket.com/user/olivia687/library/BlogByArt%20Elements%20and%20Principles

Color Causing Emotions

Color produces different sensations on the eye as a result of the way an object reflects or emits light. The Color video we watched stated that artists treat color with caution because it has a powerful and unpredictable effect on our emotions. Some colors of a piece of art, an object, or a place can resonate with someone so much that it becomes something they cannot stop thinking about. What is so intriguing about color is how the reflection of light highly affects it. An example of this, and something that fascinated me the most, is the way that the reflection of light affects colors on buildings or water. This is something that I see all the time in my surroundings, but have never really thought about until now.

The biggest impact that the Color video had on me was when it talked about all the subtle shifts of a certain color, or all the different shades that are used for just one color. I think it is so amazing how artists incorporate different shades of the same color into their work. Back then, certain pigments for certain colors were very expensive, so artists were limited on how much of each color they could use. This is something we don't think about nowadays. Artists use colors to affect each other within their work, which I think in turn affects the viewers thoughts and emotions on the art the are looking at.

The biggest impact the Feelings video had on me was when it talked about how people who went to a church/chapel to pray did not care about the artists techniques that they used within their paintings. Yet, some artists did such an amazing job within their paintings that they were able to intensify the stories they depicted, allowing people to be able to emotionally identify with them. It is amazing how art can help people relate to so many different things and help create a deeper level of understanding.

Living with Art

The different facets of art and the way art can be interpreted by people is extremely interesting. The Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts video was compelling in the fact that all the philosophers mentioned (Plato, Hutcheson, Kant, Alberti, Stendhal, Tolstoy, Aristotle) all had their own takes on art and how they viewed it. Each philosopher had their different viewpoints and although I liked Pluto's the best, I found Aristotle's to be intriguing in regards to him talking about tragedy being shared in all art. The CARTA: Neurobiology Neurology and Art and Aesthetics video was also interesting, especially how the different speakers had made many different points. My favorite part of this video was when Ramachandran spoke about Picasso and how he purposely distorted noses and other body parts in his paintings and people found him to be genius for doing it regardless of how disfigured the person looked. This realization was comical to me. The CNN article that further explained what the brain draws from art was also a realization to me. The article talks about our minds immediately knowing if there is a clear representation of familiar aspects, like faces for example. I think this is so true and that it is the familiar aspects that allow us to connect to art as much as many of us do.


A theory that I found to be very important was Pluto's theory on aesthetics. Plato was around during the 4th Century B.C.  and taught that ideas are grasped by reason. He also stated that "there is a beauty by which all things are beautiful" which is something I found to be very interesting. He argued that the manifestation of something beautiful attracts the person who sees it. Plato did not write about the aesthetics of art, but rather wrote what he saw. I think this is important because everyone has their own different ideas of beauty, which means everyone can have their own opinions on what the aesthetics of art are.

The article and videos relate to Chapter 2 of the text because they all further explain the different views and meanings of aesthetics, while further explaining why people see and relate to different forms of art. Although the videos and article do not specifically go into detail of the themes that art has, like the here and now theme or sacred realm theme, they further help explain why we like art and why people can relate to art as well as they do. Changeux brought up that art is a distinctive form of non verbal communication, and I believe this form of communication to be beautiful since it allows both artists and viewers to use their own minds and creativity to interpret different works of art.

The scientific view that Changeux and Ramachandran have on aesthetics and art was very interesting to hear. Changeux discussed rules and constraints in regards to artistic creation, all based on a neurobiologist viewpoint. Changeux discussed art all the way back to the first tools created by homo erectus and how even those tools were shaped and created with symmetry, which in my opinion is a very interesting concept that I have never thought about. Changeux speaks about processing of retinal images through visual pathways, giving off different perceptions. Ramachandran discussed whether or not there is a science of art, which he further explained to be the neurological theory of artistic experience. Ramachandran brought up the noses that Picasso created and how grotesque they are, yet he was deemed a genius because he was deliberately distorting it. The images were nonrealistic, yet conveyed different moods. I thought this was very interesting to hear Ramachandran talk about and further explain.