My logo

Creating a logo for myself was definitely a fun project. To begin my process I pretty much just started thinking of things that I like and things that would define me such as a moon, an arrow, etc. I eventually came up with the idea of using the idea of a flower crown, but just creating an arc of flower inspired designs above my initials. Although the colors in the scanned image look very dull, the real life drawing using pencil, marker and watercolor contains very light pastel colors. The most important discovery I had made during this process was how difficult it was to define yourself in just one symbol or design. I’m sure if I could continue this project, I could come up with several more ideas for my logo, but given the time frame we had, I had to limit myself. What ended up working in the end was a more simplified version of what I imagined in my head. I am a simple yet complex, creative person and I feel that my logo defines that. After I had gone through all of the resources for this project, I realized how much effort really goes into making a logo for a company, brand, etc. Even just the debate between using three circles instead of four (like in the first video) can be a crucial decision in the process. Finding one symbol or design that represents a brand is very difficult, but rewarding in the end. It’s fun to see how the original sketches can evolve into the final product.

Art Making/Material Exploration #1: Exploring Value and The Subtractive Color Theory

When creating the value scale, it was a little challenging trying to make sure each block was slightly lighter than the previous one, but it was still fun shading and trying to create a scale. I have made other color wheels in the past but always with red, blue, and yellow as the primary colors. When making this one with cyan, magenta and yellow, it was interesting to see how differently the colors mix compared to the basic primary colors. I preferred to work with the paints only because I enjoy blending them. It is a fun process to see what colors can be created. The most important discovery I have made from this project and from the video was how the real primary colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow. These colors are brighter than red, blue, and yellow and create much more richer secondary colors. Although it throws me off to see cyan, magenta, and yellow to be considered primary colors instead of traditional red, blue, and yellow, it is still fascinating to see how color theories have evolved over time.

Elements and Principles of Art

When searching for elements and principles of design, I looked around my own house looking for things to photograph. My family collects a lot of interesting things such as paintings and sculptures, and my mom is also an elementary school art teacher, so I am surrounded by art related objects. It was interesting because I never realized how almost all objects we see in every day life actually contain several elements and principles of art. Everything we encounter can be analyzed as art and most people do not realize this. When trying to come up with ideas for my photos, I would have an element or principle in mind and would quickly come across something in my house that pertained to that. Some principles were a little difficult, only because I think they require a little more thought behind them. They are not as obvious as elements such as color or line. This was a fun project for me to do, since it is nice to explore your surroundings that you usually overlook in everyday life.


Slideshow link: http://s1065.photobucket.com/user/francinesaternus/slideshow/Elements%20and%20Principles%20of%20Art

Album link: http://s1065.photobucket.com/user/francinesaternus/library/Elements%20and%20Principles%20of%20Art

Color has an incredible effect on emotion. We are all surrounded by color every day but we do not realize how much it effects us. Just the basic warm colors versus cool colors evoke different emotions. Warm colors are associated with love and fire while cool colors are more likely associated with sadness, calmness, or shade. There are typical emotional associations humans experience with color, but everyone can interpret them differently. Edvard Munch for example painted the background of The Scream with swirling reds and oranges. The average audience would assume the artist was portraying a sunset when in realty, Munch "painted the clouds as actual blood."

The theoretical aspect of color that intrigues me the most would have to be the emotional effects of color. I am a person that likes to analyze things and take in the feelings that they evoke rather than discussing them. I just think it is fascinating that certain colors stir up certain emotions. My favorite thing about looking at a work of art, listening to music or watching a movie is letting the feeling take over. It is an unexplainable sensation that changes according to context.

In the color video, the thing that had the biggest impact on me was the process in which June Redfern painted. She had a theory of "keeping the whole thing going" which meant that she was constantly adding to the painting to keep the process fluid. She used color to do so. She also stated that feelings were difficult to paint and that was one of her biggest struggles with her painting. She had felt a specific sensation in Venice when the original inspiration came to her, and she had to take what she felt and project that on to a canvas for the rest of the world to see.

In the feelings video, what stuck out to me the most was the fascination with Mona Lisa. It is a painting that is often analyzed which is why I find it so interesting to hear different peoples interpretations of it. In the video, it is stated that the Mona Lisa was not a divine creature, she was only human. It was not a portrait of a religious icon, it was just a portrait of a woman. It is interesting to hear that especially since a lot of paintings before that time were meant to serve as a religious or keepsake purpose.

In the first video, the ideas of art and aesthetics is analyzed over time. Many different philosophers had different theories about what aesthetics really are. For example, Hutchenson believed that ideas were brought about in our soul by beauty and harmony. The fact that many people have different views on aesthetics just shows that the idea of art and aesthetics are very versatile. For the second video, the science and brain are studied in relation to art.

            I believe Kant’s theory of aesthetics to be the most important because I agree with what he believes in. He believed that aesthetics are not constrained by law but created in our imagination. That idea opens my mind up to the idea of aesthetics.

            Changeux and Ramachandran’s scientific views of aesthetics and art were very different than everything I’ve read and seen so far. They dig deeper behind art and analyzed in in the brain as a psychological aspect. From Changeux’s lecture, he expressed the evolution of brain and how over time new aspects were discovered. In Ramachandran’s lecture, he expresses how when an object is distorted, it stimulates the brain more since the audience has to think about it more.

            The videos and articles relate to the readings in the text because they all analyze art and aesthetics. What makes them differ is their interpretations of these. The text discusses artist intentions and the aesthetics behind art, while the videos and article focus more on the brain and science behind art.

            The films were certainly interesting because they expressed an aspect of art that I never really thought of before. It’s interesting to me to see how an artists point of view differs from a philosophers. The article discusses what our mind sees and how it views lights and shadows in art compared to those in real life which I have never really thought about before reading this. All of these definitely add depth to my understanding of the text because it exposed to me a point of view I never knew existed.