Small Scale Observation

These little terrariums are another beautiful example of art and nature working together to create something awe-inspiring. The New York artist, Paula Hayes, combined love for landscape design and small scale art to make these mini ecosystems in handblown glass containers. I love how all three artists use natural resources differently in order to create a piece of art that meant something to them. I may be completely out of line, however, I find the difference in scale from the two large scale observations (created by men) to this small scale observation (created by a woman) a little amusing. Makes me really think about the differences between genders. 

http://amywalsh.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/gorgeous-terrariums.html

Hayes makes all sorts of things! Her website is http://www.paulahayes.com/terrariums/. Below is just a taste of what else is on her website.

Garden design inside cities:

Living necklaces:

Crystal gardens:

Large Scale Observatios

Stan Herd is a phenomenal American artist who uses land, specifically crops, for his canvas. Born in Kansas, Herd is said to have always had a passion for art as well as the environment. Combining those two were how he came to create these marvelous large scale pieces known as "Earthworks". According to a reference site he "plots his designs and then executes them by planting, mowing, and sometimes burning, or plowing the land." 

Below is the link to the website where I collected my information, on it is a great 3 minute video on it that shows one of his pieces of art (a portrait of Ibn Battuta):

http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/unusual-art-and-fashion/crop-art/

I came across this artist, Andres Amador, while searching for more artwork by Stan Herd. Amador's work is very similar to Herd's, as both collections of art are large scale, environmentally based, and temporary. As stated on the website I found this on, the beginning of this concept art is best described by the artist himself:

"This began innocently enough with a fascination with crop circle designs, especially the ones coming out in recent years. I was in Kauai, soaking up the sun on the beach at Kalulau Valley, when I used my walking stick to illustrate concepts about Sacred Geometry that I had been learning. Earlier, in San Francisco, I had been doing crop circle reconstructions on computer using Illustrator. Reconstructions are a person's reverse engineering of circle designs. As I was making a few circles, showing basic concepts of sacred geometry, the obviousness of the two artforms came together. Suddenly the possibilities hit me."

 http://kk.org/ct2/2007/09/sand-crop-circles.php

Another Craft Observation

Similarly to the paper art, these sculptures take great skill and patience to build. These pictures are actually taken off one of my friend's facebook page, so there is no link or information about them. They were mostly taken during sand sculpture competitions in Bermuda. Although the thinking or concept for the sculpture may be unknown, the craftsmanship of these pieces are astonishing to say the least. The thing that makes them particularly special is that they will be washed away when the tide comes in, or a strong wind blows. The limited lifespan of these pieces make this form of art rewarding and devastating. 

Craft Observation

After looking at this post on another blog I was absolutely awestruck. Titled A Castle on the Ocean, this entire installation is made of paper. Having had enough trouble making a cube, I can only imagine the amount of patience and skill it must have taken to put this together.

This piece took over four years to complete, and was all handmade by an art student in Tokyo. Included in his city are electrical lights, a ferris wheel, and even a moving train. The symmetry and the flawless details on the city buildings, staircases, train tracks, etc get illuminated beautifully by the electric lights. Needless to say, this artist is incredibly talented.

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/spectacular-paper-craft-castle
http://tokyobling.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/a-paper-craft-castle-on-the-ocean/

Grid Observation

I came across these photos on a website named daily tonic, whose tag line is "Your daily Inspiration in Architecture and Design". These examples of grid were certainly inspiring. This first example of grid is breathtaking. It shows a modular art installation, designed by the founder of a furniture company in Denmark. It's whole structure is made up of smaller cubes that are (allegedly) easy to assemble and dissemble. Along with impressive architectural and art instillations, the website also mentions how these grid structures can be used in everyday life for functional things such as storage and temporary structures and seating. 

http://www.dailytonic.com/grid-modular-system-dk/

Craft Project

The Undertow

Tumbling, rolling breathless. 

Looking for the way out, the way up, but the waves and sand encompass you completely. 

Flipping you over and over, you start to feel its strength ease. 

Until finally it allows you to find that breath of fresh air. 

My story is about the feeling of being caught in a wave, dragged down by the undertow. Curved lines were the best way for me to represent this experience, as dots would not have been able to deliver the overwhelming tumbling feeling. Some sides are almost completely covered in lines with very little white space, representing pull of the wave. The side with few wavy lines depicts the ease of the wave. Lastly,  one side was left blank to symbolize the relief, the air. 

I wanted to reinforce the story the cube was telling through the photos. The use of shadows enhance the dark, overbearing feeling of being trapped. The white stands out against the black backgrounds, and act as the path towards the light, the way out of the water. 

Grid Project

This was a two part project. The objective of it was to portray a human emotion through colour and type in a regimented grid (16 columns x 20rows of 1" squares). The emotion I chose to portray was serenity, because it's such a powerful emotion. 

Serenity is such an overwhelming feeling, it starts welling up in me, and slowly expands and changes until I'm completely worry free and healed. This emotion absolutely needed to be represented in a progressive gradient, shifting from one colour to the next without any jolting. It is peaceful. 

Part 1

Yellow, green, and blue were the colours I chose to represent this. Deep blues bordering on purple start off the progression, and slowly change to royal and aquas. As the colours progress up the grid, they get lighter, mimicking the feeling I get. The glowing yellows on the border of the white negative space show how I feel when I'm completely immersed in serenity. It feels as though I can fly. 

Part 2

My poem read:

It wells up inside of me;

that unmistakeable feeling. 

A sense that fills your soul.

All that was once wrong is now healing.

For this part, I wanted to keep it along the same design lines as part 1. However, I don't think I accomplished what I had in mind. The reason for this… Indecisiveness. I never decided whether I wanted the poem to be legible or not, and this is really evident in my work. I chose a serif font because serenity is not a cut and dry feeling, which to me is what a sans serif would show.

The larger I made the words, the more chaotic the piece became. The complete opposite of the emotion. The smaller the type, the more underwhelming and ineffectual it felt. 

After the crit in class, it was discussed that I can play with the legibility of the poem through scale, and that will hopefully clarify the message.