What I Learned

Posted By Jeff Bruneau

For my final wall post of the semester, I would like to simply say that I had no idea what to expect from the world of contemporary art. There are just so many different forms I learned that you can really find the art in anything. This is because how you interpret the art is what matters the most. The modern artist knows this and simply does enough to get those juices flowing just to make you think. The rest is up to the audience.

Rock Wall

Posted by Jeff Bruneau
As I browsed through William Powhida’s paintings, I could not believe the incredible amount of detail he puts onto the page. His paintings and drawings are very similar and yet I can’t believe some of his paintings are not drawings because he gets down to the smallest detail. There is just so much going on in every painting. The painting I enjoyed the most was the Rock Wall. I thought it was interesting because it had all the ingredients that one thinks about when they think about the craziness of the music industry and there it was, just slapped onto one frame. It’s funny looking through each picture within the picture and nodding like “yeah, that makes sense.”

Vik Muniz- Diamond Davis

Posted by Jeff Bruneau
I think Vik Muniz’s ability to use diamonds to shape a portrait is a pretty intriguing concept. My parents were always watching old movies on TV when I was growing so I recognized this one as the star, Bette Davis. It’s interesting because when I find myself looking at it, Muniz does such a fine job that I forget they are diamonds. Even in the hair, where it is not all filled in with diamonds, it still does not strike me as being strange. Although, how he uses the diamonds for the face and for the hair are definitely contrasting techniques. His ability to know where to put the diamonds to give it the correct shading is remarkable.

Visual Art In My Life

Posted by Jeff Bruneau

This class has really made me think about what kinds of modern art I may have created or come across during the course of my day this past semester. Last week for ROTC we were running around RPI’s campus and I noticed this kind of windmill looking object that was just set in the middle of the academic quad and I definitely thought to myself that it could be considered a work of contemporary art. Then my thoughts shifted to the picture above. This is called a synchronization matrix and its purpose is to detail what every person’s responsibility is during a training event. For example, I find my name in the left most handed column and then trace that row and I know exactly what I need to do at what time. I created this for a weekend training event we had in the middle of April and I color coded it based on the category of one’s responsibility. I think given its purpose and color schemes, I consider it a work of art because a good synch matrix can be the difference between a successful and not so successful training event.

BOB (Bright Orange Ball)

Posted by Jeff Bruneau

Strangely enough, I did like Olafur Eliasson’s weather project. Eliasson is interested with how people react to the weather and it makes me think of my experiences thus far in the army when before the sunrises we are working out or conducting some time of operation. And then the sun appears or like we affectionately call him Bob, for Big Orange Ball, and it just gives you that sense you are not alone. It brightens up your day and ends the cold in those mornings when you just do not want to get up but you have no other choice. This picture reminds me of Bob and its brightness overwhelms the entire photo and it gives me that same relief it would if I was in the field

20x200-"Tear the Cover Off Of It"

Posted By Jeff Bruneau

Browsing through 20x200.com, I found quite of few different pictures that actually caught my eye. This did surprise me because some of the things were pretty out of the ordinary. However, one that I would buy would be this picture with the cover off the ball and only the stitching show. I played so much baseball when I was growing up and ripping the cover off the ball and then unraveling all the string and yarn was so much fun. It actually reminds me of the first time I did it and how long it took me to get to the little ball at the end. I had some of the greatest times growing up when I was playing baseball and I would buy this just because it would make me happy every time I saw it.

Mona Lisa Curse Documentary

Posted By Jeff Bruneau
The Mona Lisa Curse was a documentary by art critic Robert Hughes that discusses the relationship between money and art. I thought it was appropriate timing for when we watched it because there have been different reasons as to why the artists we have taken a look at thus far have gotten into art. I have wanted to know about this because some of these artists that we have looked at make an absurd amount of money. I mean if there are people out there who want to buy and display these works then by all means purchase it but I would just never spend that kind of money on something like that. Like any major industry though, they are looking to make money, like music for example, so I am not that shocked by it.

Tang Museum

Posted by Jeff Bruneau

For our museum trip, we went to the Tang Museum at Skidmore College. I was surprised to see that the gallery was so wide open which I thought was funny because it seemed like they had more employees working there than pieces of art. The roller coaster bed was definitely the coolest piece of artwork they had there. I think that made quite the impression on everyone who visited it, including students from other groups I had talked to. The pictures they had in the upstairs gallery I didn’t really understand but their use of colors really left me with quite the psychedelic impression. The color scheme and how the colors were organized made me feel like I was on an acid trip. Above is one of the pictures I was able to sneak in. I wanted to get a picture but those people trailed our group…I did not like them!

Graffiti

Posted by Jeff Bruneau

I really enjoyed the video we watched about graffiti. Whenever I’m in the car and I pass by some graffiti on the highway I’m always wondering about when that object was drawn or that phrase was written. I like to think about its origins and the reason why it was up there. The video offered that glimpse/behind the scenes perspective which was pretty cool. For some of these artists, I like how they just draw what comes to them and even come back to write on the same train year after year. It gives their art a lot more meaning and I can appreciate that.

Sports Cards Collection

Posted By Jeff Bruneau

When we talked about collecting things in class I could not help but think about how I was really into collecting baseball, basketball, and football cards. I really tried to keep them in as best condition as possible. I kept them in binders with those plastic sleeves. I liked collecting baseball cards the best and I liked to trade them with my brother and my friends. I was always on top of the value of each card each year and I was constantly searching for that high value card. The combination of the value of each card, the care for them, and how they are organized is definitely art. Unfortunately, I think collecting sports cards and trading is dying out. That’s just the impression that I get.

Tang Museum

Posted by: Eric Schaible

As my roommates have already blogged, on Friday, we all went to the Tang Museum at Skidmore College. I would just like to point out a piece in Casey's blog that turned me off from the exhibit- the fact that the workers were so uptight the whole time that we were there. The picture above (and also posted by my roommates) shows my favorite piece at the gallery, yet we didn't even have time to completely enjoy it and try to analyze it. The fact that the workers were so overbearing did not help my desire to actually be at the gallery at the first place. I hope that something is done so that in the future, they will be more open to new guests and willing to help out people who are new to the art world.

Tang Museum (Skidmore College)

Posted By: Casey LaChapelle

Los Carpinteros

Since my roommates all had different schedules it was hard for us to figure out where to go for our museum project. We finally decided on taking a trip up to Skidmore in Saratoga. It was close, convenient and we were all able to attend.

The first thing that I noticed when I walked in was how open the museum was. There was a lot of exhibit space that wasn't used. Looking into one of the rooms before we headed upstairs was a roller coaster looking bed, before we moved on I thought that was going to be the most interesting piece in the place.

As we went upstairs, I couldn't help but feel like we were being watched and followed...and in fact we were, it made us feel really uncomfortable. As we were looking at the artwork, the guy that was working there was standing behind us, it made us feel really rushed and didn't allow for a very good experience. We quickly drifted through the upstairs portion and went back downstairs to get a closer look of the bed, once again a different worker was following us around. We decided to head out as we weren't even enjoying ourselves with these people on our backs the whole time.

While I was at the museum, the roller coaster looking bed was definitely the highlight. The picture above doesn't do it any justice, this thing was huge and looked very contemporary. The whole aspect of this exhibit was that the artist took everyday objects and turned them into fantastical objects.

Overall I would grade my art museum experience a C. Some of the stuff looked interesting, but it was as if we weren't allowed to look at our own pace and it became annoying.

Posted by John Pedlow

A few classes ago this image was brought up and it really caught my eye. Though I have seen on numerous occasions the image of the marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima and I watched on T.V as the firefighters raised the flag after 9/11 I never put the two together. However when looking at them side by side they seem incredibly similar. These were both historic events in America history and the fact that they each have a very similar picture is quite interesting. I am glad this image was brought up in class because otherwise I would never have put the two together and seen how eerily similar they are.

Dave Hickey Podcast

Posted by John Pedlow

During this podcast Dave Hickey touched on a couple of points that intrigued me. First that some people are getting into the art business for the wrong reasons such as money and secondly that art dealers are creating false values for art. To me if you enter the art world you should be doing it because you love art, the money should just be something that you get should your work be good enough. It is like sports to me, most athletes play sports because it is something that they love to do. The money that professionals get comes along because they happen to be the best in their business, but it is not the reason they start playing sports. The same should be true for artists, be an artist because you love art. The second point about art dealers really bothers me because it does not seem that they care about art what so ever. They are just in the business to get rich and end up driving up the prices of art for their benefit and not because the art is actually worth it. This is wrong and makes it so some people can not afford art that they like and museums, as was described in Mona Lisa's Curse, are unable to purchase art because of the astronomical prices. To me this is completely wrong and seems slimy.

Collections

Posted by John Pedlow

A couple of weeks ago in class we were talking about collecting things as works of art. I have never actually thought about this as art and I am still not too sure about how it is considered art. Collecting stamps or golf balls to me is not really art unless you are talking about each individual one as an artistic work on its own. I started to think of what I collected as a child and I came up with that the only thing I ever collected for a significant amount of time was baseball cards. Then I started to think how you could consider baseball cards art and I came to the conclusion that I guess baseball cards can be considered art because really they are just photographs. So if you really want to stretch it there I guess you could say that I collected art on some level when I was a child.

Tang Museum

Posted by John Pedlow

This past friday Casey LaChapelle, Eric Schaible, Jeff Bruneau and myself went to the Tang Museum at Skidmore College. After spending some time looking at some of the paintings that were honestly pretty trippy and weird, we were about to leave when we saw the part of the museum that had the roller coaster bed. This was easily the highlight of the trip up there because this bed is really cool. I am thankful whatever possessed the artist to construct this bed because it is the coolest bed that I have ever seen. To think that I almost missed this on the trip up there is mind boggling because all of the other exhibits were just not that enjoyable for me because I felt that I would need to be tripping on acid to understand what the artist was trying to do in their paintings.

Jeff Koons

Posted by John Pedlow

This is one kind of art that Jeff Koons is known for. Large reproductions of things such as balloon animals made out of stainless steel and often, much like this one, these reproductions are brightly colored. This is a kind of art that to me I would not have thought about as art before this class but that is because I would not have thought about the time and effort that goes into a piece such as this. Also I probably would not have seen this piece as being credited to one person. However after taking this class I understand what goes into pieces such as these. Also this particular piece is pretty cool because it actually looks like a real ballon dog.

Earth From Space

Posted by John Pedlow

This particular picture is obviously not from an artist we have talked about in class, but yet I still find it interesting enought to blog about. Pictures of Earth at night from space have always caught my eye and I have always considered myself fascinated by them. Every time I see one of these pictures I find myself stopping and looking at it for at least a minute or two. Maybe it is because I like geography that I look at these because I always like to look for the brightest spots on the map and they, for obvious reasons, are always around major cities such as New York and London. I have also always liked to look at the areas that there are seemingly no lights such as Africa and large portions of Asia. It really makes you realize the different life styles people in the world live and how technologically advanced some areas of the world are compared to other areas.

20x200

Posted by John Pedlow

This the picture from 20x200.com that I would purchase. It is a picture of Cairo, Egypt and though I have no particular connection with Cairo and I am not of Eyptian decent this is the picture I would buy. I have always for some reason liked pictures of cities, maybe it is because at my house we have paintings of Albany from around the turn of the century, I don't know. Maybe it has to do with the fact that cities are always busy and bustling that I have some fascination with these kinds of pictures. It could be that I just like to see seemingly endless lines of buildings and skyscrapers. I can not quite put my finger on why I like them and it is probably a mixture of the reasons that I just listed.

Carsten Holler

Posted by John Pedlow

This is Carsten Holler's Test Site which was displayed in Tate Modern between October 2006 and April 2007. The work consisted of five slides made of metal and fiberglass. This to me is one of the coolest forms of art I have ever seen because visitors were allowed to slide down the slides. I would never before taking this class have considered something like this art and would have just thought that they were some pretty huge slides. However after taking this class I have broaden my view of what is actually art and this definitely is art and I must say that this is one of the more interesting works I have come across.