S+ART

Taking notes

 

Picture is Unrelated:  Kayakers on the Potomac River on a hot day.  Photo by Angela Kleis, 2009

 

I cleaned over the weekend and put away a few notebooks and pads of paper that were taking up space on my desk.  Last night, I spent over an hour looking for the one that contained data I needed to develop film.  I finally found it on a bookshelf, of all places (why didn't I look there first?).  But, I couldn't get started without it.

 

Maybe it's my ingrained thanks to my science background, but I tend to take notes and keep a pretty meticulous notebook on all the types of film and developer combinations I've processed.  It helps me understand which types of films can be combined in one tank with the same developer, which ones should never, ever be put together, and if a particular developer is not a good match for a specific film.  Sometimes there are temperature issues and those are logged, too, as well small details I may notice and think will be helpful in the future (some if it is also online). 

 

I have a second notebook for printing that catalogs the negative number, type of paper, which filters I tried (and, which one worked best), time, aperture, and any dodging and burning that was performed.  Though printing is not an automatic process and may vary based on paper and chemical lots and other things I can't necessarily control, it provides a starting point that saves time and materials (and, frustration).  I like consistency and standardizing my methods helps me make sure that the results will be as close as possible to those I have obtained in the past, even with all of the inherent variables throughout the processes.  

 

There are notebooks or pads of paper in each of my camera bags that are useful for logging the film number (there is also a Sharpie in every bag) so when I am looking at an overwhelming pile of film canisters that need processing and want to develop a specific one, I can easily find it.  I have found this process very useful when travelling to note the date, city, places visited, if pushed or pulled the ISO.  These details not only help me locate a roll of undeveloped film, but also to remind me of the places I went.  After all, how many piazzas and fountains are there in Rome?  It's impossible to know.

 

It may seem like information overload or tedious details that most people are able to remember, but I feel it's better to be prepared and save time later by taking a few minutes to write it down, now.  What kinds of methods do you use to document photographic information?  Please let us know in the comments!!

                                                         -Angela

Upcoming Studio Art Courses and an Evening Seminar

 

Can you believe it's already March 15?  I know!  And, in just one month, the Studio Arts department starts up a new round of courses in digital media, painting, drawing, photography, and more.  I think I'm interested in the Travels With a Digital Nomad evening seminar on May 3.  

 

 
Andrew Evans uploading an Australian water dragon to Twitter while on assignment in Queensland, Australia. (Photo by Brian Gratwicke)

 

In this two-hour seminar, National Geographic travel writer Andrew Evans, known as the Digital Nomad who has visited all seven continents, talks about travelling the world in an interactive way using social media.  Because, face it - your family and friends want to hear about your trip to Thailand and they don't want to wait until you get back.  Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites allow travellers to stay connected with folks back home even while swimming with sharks in the South Pacific or perusing a souk in Morocco.  Of course, you'll need to get out of the water first, but you know what I mean.  Besides, all those photos?  You're gonna want to share them right away.  We want to see them right away!

 

Evans will describe how he uses social media to share photos, create videos, and use your phone to document experiences while exploring far-away lands and penguin attacks.  Before you head off, learn more about how to share the adventure while still exploring. 

 

The seminar costs $40 ($30 for members) at the S. Dillon Ripley Center on May 3, 2012 from 6:45 to 8:45 p.m. 

 

-Angela

Transforming Color Theory into Sustainable Garden Art

Focal Point of Hot Hues

Washington Post, Photo By Kay Wheeler
 

Imagine having the control to create layouts, plans or designs that interweave your home environment, landscape, architecture and art. How can you make your home more environmentally friendly while creating an artistic composition? How can you turn this into a productive activity or hobby? Using the color theory and color mixing principles rooted in painting, a DIY project can transform art principles into a spatial composition integrating plant shapes, textures and masses of color to create an artistic landscape design or space.

The canvas you’ll be working with: Natural outdoor spaces. The importance of re-using these spaces and resources is found in sustainability. Sustainability as defined by the EPA:  “everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment.” Now, take a breath and take back what is rightfully yours! However small or large- diagram land and spaces that can be transformed into planting areas. Once grounded by artistic fundamentals, this project will enrich mental and physical health, as well as provide an eco-friendly habitat; it’s so easy and enjoyable even a child can help form ideas!

Artistic requirements: knowledge of color theory and color mixing. In painting, the knowledge of color theory and mixing colors is essential. Combinations of colors are created and paired through relationships on the color wheel between primary, secondary and complementary colors. In most painting color models, primary colors (Red-Yellow-Blue) create secondary colors (Green-orange-purple) then complementary colors are found in pairing opposites in the same color model.   

Color Wheel

Color Theory Turned Design. A famous landscape designer named Gertrude Jekyll used these principles derived from her years painting to create designs through plant arrangements. She viewed her garden design as a series of seasoned views intertwined with the cycles and change of year.  In her design, she applies colors, shapes, textures, and architectural features of different plant forms to create spaces and unify a composition.

Using sequences of colors and textures, Jekyll defines spaces and creates movement and flow. Based on relationships on the color wheel, single plant varieties are used to construct complimentary and contrasting color pairs. As with paintings, colors of different plant forms are combined to create positive and negative space.

Perspective of the viewer is the key to these designs. Depth and openness of space is achieved by using cooler colors such as blue and purple to create a composition that is inviting to enter or access.  In contrast, warm and radiant colors like orange and yellow are intended to confine space and force the viewer to stare and gaze.

A Cool Palette of Brush-like Strokes

Perennial garden at Wave Hill in June. Photo By Mick Hales

Example of plant arrangement in design: Typically Jekyll’s designs are completed with woody paths and grassy areas merged together with woody spaces creating multiple framed views of natural scenery. In the sequence of color relationships, she begins with a cooling composition, heats it up with bright hues then cools it off again with darker hues. Adrian Higgins describes one of Jekyll’s gardens as it begins with “perennials full of soothing gray and blue-green foliage, with blossoms beginning pure blue, gray blue, white, pale yellow and pale pink, ‘each color in distinct masses and partly inter-grouped.’In the center, she planted stronger yellows to set up a sizzling color scheme of oranges and reds before beginning to cool off. The flower colors recede from orange to deep yellow to pale yellow and pale pink, bridged with blue-gray foliage, before ending in purples and lilacs in contrast with the blues at the other end.”

Become your own designer: Keeping in mind the time and effort you are able to put forth; Apply a foundation of color theory and color mixing principles and basic fundamentals.  Mark off space and start planting arrangements based on their relationship to the color wheel!

 

~Matt Weiler

 

Higgins, Adrian. "A Painterly Palette Is the Gardener's Crowning Touch." The Washington Post 20                  Mar. 2008.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR200803190095 2.html>

Street Art: NYC

New York Cityscape, Photo by Matt Weiler

Recently, I took a trip to the great City of New York; respectively, a small world in its own. This place of grandeur can be humbly defined by: skyscrapers, miles and miles of pavement, flashing lights, booming sounds, moving crowds, ‘hustle and bustle’, and of course ‘glamour’.  Amidst the city that never sleeps resides a membership of aspiring artists. From the city streets to Broadway shows, artists flock from all over the world in pursuit of happiness, dreams and their passions. While focusing in and out of different images captured by my camera, I came across a street artist who combines techniques in a piece where scratchboard meets spray paint art.

Movable Studio, Camera Phone Picture

Dropped on a canvas in view of Time Square with massive screens, billboards and advertisements, this Belarusian immigrant performs his work in a studio space that is live and transforming. A foldaway table topped with Aerosol cans and tools clutter a piece of sidewalk while crowds quietly form in awe as layers of paint and texture form into a work of art.

Colored Cityscape

He combines the scratchboard technique with spray paint art to create an intergalactic theme that merges monuments and the New York skyline to form surreal cityscape images. Scratchboard is a technique used to scratch out lines to create a surface of shadows, highlights and textures using sharp knives or angled blades. Typically, scratchboard artists would scratch out images in clay coated with ink. Replacing the clay element, this artist uses spray paint in order to create a series of well placed layers and textures.  

Depth of the image is achieved by building layers from background to foreground. First, a base coat is applied to the white photo board. He creates a foundation for later layers by adding shapes and outlines to main areas with the spray paint. He uses pot lids and other home accessories in place of stencils when circular shapes are needed.

Deriving from the scratchboard technique, he manipulates areas of multi-colored paint with sharp box knives and angled blades to create levels of foreground. He reapplies paint to new layers then precisely scratches off paint to form concise outlines. He also manipulates areas by implementing a hatching technique to structures (city buildings) in addition to wiping areas with glossy magazine paper to create texture, volume and dimension to different surfaces (planets, small buildings, water). He blends colors and layers then returns to the areas adding highlights and shadows to create a surreal cityscape piece of street art.

 

~Matt Weiler

“Assess, Rescue, Recover, and Restore”

  The National Palace After 2010 Earthquake 

Photo by Ken Solomon

Natural devastation is the unfortunate reminder of the powerful world through which source of inspiration, emotion and creation can be found. Haiti, a place gilded with 5-centuries of rich cultural heritage was recently crushed by the massive earthquake on January 12, 2010. In the course of misfortune comes change and renewal- but who is able to provide their time and knowledge to assess and guide the preservation and revitalization of remaining and lost cultural materials?

Immediately following natural disasters, damages and destruction are vividly apparent through images of despair. In the present day, global wireless connections instantly broadcast news, articles, and booming feeds across social media networks. The media consumes and digests the panic but before long, moves on and forgets what is left after the shocking event.  What happens to the places, antiquities, and artifacts that contain centuries of heritage’s past: lives, people and history?  It is essential that they be “Rescued, Recovered, and Restored.”

Amidst adversity and the passage of time, The Smithsonian Institution in union with a team of cultural organizations has not forgotten as evidenced by founding the Haiti Cultural Recovery Project. Places hit by disaster must take on a position of transformation in difficult ascending steps: Immediately, survivors must be rescued and provided the essentials of life (food, water, and shelter); a state of mental, emotional and physical recovery for lives and places lost must begin. A foundation must be re-laid in order for the people, site, place, and cultural heritage to be restored.

Broken Fragments from Murals to be Restored

Photo by Wayne Clough

Just as humans go through this process, it must also be implemented with artifacts examined. The Smithsonian provides the expertise in support of the Haitian government to examine, document, treat with the appropriate chemicals and materials then provide preventive care so that the artifact is as close to the original condition while lasting as long as possible.

Thousands of Paintings Stained by Mold Damage

Saved from the Collapse of the Nader Museum

Photo by Wayne Clough

Artifacts must be recovered due to the risk of sensitive exposure to different environmental conditions, temperature, humidity, light and rain. Sensitive items such as “stained glass and historic murals as well as paper documents, photographs, artifacts and some of the  9,000 paintings” must be enclosed in a controlled environment that limits damage levels. This process is reinforced with research and education so that Haitian inhabitants can continue in the preservation of the collection by rescuing, recovering, and restoring their cultural heritage.

A Piece of renewal created from the aftermath of destruction

Photo by Wayne Clough

For more information on the Smithsonian travels and cultural recovery in Haiti, please check out The Secretary’s travel journal.

 

~Matt Weiler

 

An Exhibition of ‘Timeless Modernity’ at the Hirshhorn

 A Response to An escapist exhibition firmly about escapism by Philip Kennicott

 

Is it not difficult to see with eyes closed or clearly think when the mind is looking for “tricks, illusions, and amusement rides?” It is equally difficult to define time (birth, growth, death, and rebirth), design, or its art as “merely dates, time lost [and] meaningless time.” Are each of us not ‘living’ Fragments in time and space? Like the questions of life, answers behind an exhibition’s conceptual design are not freely given to take. One must give many moments to ask questions, purge, and analyze details such as: structural design, the exhibition’s concept, its integration with art works displayed, and reoccurring themes in relation to the overall composition.

This exhibition is intended to be viewed in accordance to the natural cycles of life simultaneously with the surrounding natural world and universe, which is continuing and infinite.  Douglas Gordon's video installment "Play Dead; Real Time," 2003 displays one living elephant in white open space. The elephant is filmed in rotation while it stands, breaths, and plays dead, and then comes back to life. There is a beginning and an end to the cycles of life in the ways we perceive time but life continues, changes and evolves—it is timeless.

 

Five Past Eleven, 1989 by Ed Ruscha, Hirshhorn, Smithsonian 

In order to achieve this concept in a composition of multiple works, there must be a repetitive infused meaning between the space, place, visual design and symbolic message presented. The concept of Fragments in Time and Space as a ‘timeless modernity’ is in perfect union with the Hirshhorn Museum’s circulatory architectural design reiterating ‘constant’, ‘cyclical’, and ‘infinite’.  Ed Ruscha’s “Five Past Eleven” begins the exhibit with a partially shown, sleek man-made time-piece urging all to break time in the way individuals perceive it. Only then can one understand the ‘longevity’ of the surrounding natural world.  In design, as time continues, it is pertinent that the development of a piece of artwork continues to evolve. This exhibition proves the objective of creating a “timeless” design.

 

The goal of the designer in collaboration with the client (artist) is to maintain a relationship with the preexisting structure (Hirshhorn) and enclose it with a refreshed movement of space based on a composed context, design, and meaning in each piece. The structural design of the Hirshhorn features: original spaces, walls, pathways, and an outer and inner circle. In creating or designing an exhibition around the structural design, the meaning must be a direct reflection of the space and place its set in.

 

The exhibition’s concept literally rotates in a circulation of curves interchanging with stops and pauses in forced clock-wise continuation just as the earth rotates, sun and moon rise, and the reason time is perceived like so.

In this unique design, the outer circle is closed to the outside world—dark and windowless.

Meanwhile, dark spaces are accentuated by animated installations, films and videos that are vibrant and full of natural life and elements; timeless and continuing through perceived time.  In the natural world, some elements were here at the beginning and will be here at the end; they will fight through the billions of cycles of time. Hiroshki Sugimoto’s thirteen archetypal seascapes powerfully exemplify the ocean and its adjoining horizon in its infinite mystery, with no beginning and no end.                                                                              

The inner circle is opposite the outer circle yet intertwined as one. The real art is the exposure of light and the living world through large windows which is only accentuated by natural elements harnessed by man in the form of sculpture like the “Kantian box of space” and water.  This opposite and interlocking rotation between the two circles engages fusion between the inside and outside elements seamlessly to create a composition of “timeless” works.

 

In doing this, pieces of artwork and a site are separately renewed given the opportunity to evolve through constant development and perspective in association with inevitable change in time, place, and culture creating an Exhibition of ‘Timeless Modernity’.

 

~Matt Weiler

‘Outside’ to ‘Inside’: Yolngu Aboriginal Art

 

 

In western culture today, what if traditional art or paintings passed down had the ability to be decoded? Then, through this revelation, the decoder interpreted a map to life and a system of orders. Furthermore, this “ancestral design” explained a unified system interpreting the surrounding natural world in relationship with our societal structure and political system. Then on top of that, this decoder provided a “framework for ordering these relations between people, ancestors and land” (Morphy 159)—Life might be making more sense. To the Yolngu people, their traditional aboriginal art does exactly that.

The traditional ancestral creations become a means to define every function that revolves around the Yolngu people.  To the Yolngu, paintings are not representations as in most western art but are integral blueprints to their existence. The Mardayin or sacred law is transmitted and re-enacted by the iconography displayed in vibrant paintings and live ritual performance.

Structural stability is produced by the passing of this sacred knowledge down to decoders or authoritative men as they grow into power. The paintings become valuable resources to the congruity of societal structure and rule. This position of decoder is controlled by elders or powerful individuals in the tribes who interpret the blueprint which in turn, “discriminate[s] between different areas of owned land…mark[s] status… separates the initiated from uninitiated and men from women.”  (Morphy 160) Thus, a unified ‘ordering-structure’ of life is created.

The wisdom of a decoder is gathered over a course of one’s life. The movement is a constant continuum for an individual from the unrestricted outside world to the “sacred and restricted” inside world. This information is gained increasingly as one grows in experiences, learns, and starts to creatively interpret the meaning for others. This cycle of life can be transmitted through the change from figurative (outside) art to geometric (inside) art as one’s knowledge increases.   

To me, the art not only symbolizes structure and a system but represents the point on the journey for an individual.  The figurative art can define chaos and metaphorical meanings to finding one’s way while becoming a man/woman.  As one grows in sacredness and restricted knowledge, the path becomes clear and concise in understanding just as lines in geometry are straight and simple. To the Yolngu and other Aboriginals, Art is literally their “way” of life.

 

Aboriginal Artists

 Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (right) in the Great Painting Room in 1972 with Charlie Tarawa Tjungurrayi. Smithsonian.com

The Trial by Charlie Tarawa Tjungurrayi is believed to symbolize the sentencing of a territorial intruder by other men (white circles). Smithsonian.com

 

Please join the Smithsonian Associates this Thursday, July 21 (6:45pm-8:30pm) as Howard Morphy explain’s the varied artistic expressions in The Art of the Australian Aboriginal Yolngu: Meaning and Aesthetics. Morphy, the director of the Research School of Humanities and the Arts at the Australian National University in Canberra, will display the art of traditional Aborigine’s in the only way possible—integrated in sequence with performance art. Also, examples of artist Narritjin Maymuru’s work will be displayed to serve as aid in deciphering.

 

~Matt Weiler

Morphy, Howard. "Yolngu Art and The Creativity of the Inside." Aboriginal Religions in Australia: an Anthology of Recent Writings. Aldershot: Ashgate Limited, 2007. Online.

Artist or Editorialist

 

Boston Globe, Wasserman 
 

The phrase, “a picture speaks 1,000 words” resonates in my head when a singular image is to be displayed without much previous knowledge or background. Through passion, skill, and creativity, political cartooning puts one’s mind and conviction to the test daily. Driven by world controversies, political strife and chaos, war or even more simply United States and local historical elections, burning issues or state of affairs, political cartoonists must harness that information and deliver it in the drawn form of one singular idea. A political cartoonist must be both artist and editorialist in alliance.

Like any writer or artist, one must go through the daily process of research, note-taking, and drawing up one’s ideas. Political cartoonists must gather information from blogs, newspapers, news channels, and other informative outlets, and then have the ability to capture a few tasteful yet relevant singular thoughts. The few thoughts stem from passionate opinions dealt from daily local and world news, local debates or situations. A political cartoonist has the ability to soak up the information into a few thoughts and transform it into one vision or particular view through the medium of drawing.

The transformed image and caption is intended to entertain and instruct the viewer through a particular story or message. It must have the ability to impact the viewer and test their beliefs in a humorous and harmless way. Rather than reading words over and over, if done properly and the moment right, political cartoonists have the ability to make an image last in your mind forever.

On your doorstep is the opportunity to meet and listen to Boston Globe cartoonist, Dan Wasserman, sharing drawings and examples from 30 years of experience in the profession. Take a look first hand at many of the world’s influential leaders or villains turned characters, icons, and symbols through the caricature drawing form. Also, win the chance to have your “own” caption selected for one of his political cartoons! The winner receives a signed copy of the cartoon.

It’s a Draw: Political Cartooning evening seminar will take place at the Smithsonian Ripley Center next Wednesday, July 20^th – 6:45p.m. To 8:45p.m.

Please Join!

 

 Boston Globe, Wasserman
 

 Boston Globe, Wasserman
 

 ~Matt Weiler

Tattoo Ink as Beauty

 

“Don’t limit one’s perception of beauty” are words I keep holstered and ready to spring when I observe all things.  Some say beauty is in the eye of the beholder; to an extent, traditionally it is, given one’s personal likes and dislikes. To me, however, beauty is also power and awe, in combination with the visual and mental attentiveness that takes hold at a first and each glance that follows. Instead of being discriminatory, take more than a glance at Tattoo art because it is a medium that intimately creates questions, curiosities and depth in form, technique, origin and meaning. Tattoo art is beauty.  

In studio arts, beauty can take form in every technique, shape, and skill imaginable dependent on the art type. Creating powerful and beautiful art is not making something “pretty,” it is the ability to harness passion and energy then transform it into a skilled piece of work that cannot be replicated by everyday man.  Like other art forms, Tattoo Art showcases detail, skill, passion and deepness of meaning. Much like portraiture or human figural sculpture, tattoo art deals directly with live human form. Unlike the others, this art form uniquely deals directly with the live, human canvas in relationship with the artist hands-on.

The art literally comes to life with each single press of ink that penetrates the skin as the canvas breathes, lives and reacts. The personal meaning of the composition literally bleeds into form as the artist and canvas communicate in words. It is a connection and bond unlike most other forms of art; it is uniquely different with each canvas.

Fatty, a local painter and tattooist (Fatty's Custom Tattooz), several times awarded for his craft, displays a fully free-hand artistic approach to his work.  He exemplifies the beauty and skill behind a multifaceted arsenal of mixed media. His unique approach evokes originality and innovation every time by “drawing the designs directly on to the skin with markers, avoiding the use of stencils. He creates the tattoo designs in real time with the client present so that he can get their input and feel their energy and get to the essence of his client’s passion.” Fatty’s direct hands-on style with the distinctive beauty of each separate composition has proved immensely successful .

 

 

Gangesha (2009) Acrylic on Canvas

Example of Painted work

 

Free-Hand Marking Process of The Tyger and The Lamb

Artist: Fatty

Free-Hand Tattoo Inking Process on the back

Finished piece, Winner of 2 awards

All Images are Courtesy of Fatty

~Matt Weiler

Face Communication

Painting by Raye Leith

 

"There’s nothing as significant as a human face. Nor as eloquent. We can never really know another person, except by our first glance at him. Because, in that glance, we know everything. Even though we’re not always wise enough to unravel the knowledge."
— Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)

 

If one could pinpoint the most difficult obstacle that plagues the busy lives of metropolitan dwellers, what would it be?  Unfortunately to most, Time is of the essence! 

 

A daily routine usually consists of, what time is it? What’s next on the agenda? People tend to forget how to take the time to look at natural art and beauty directly in the eye, literally. Remember, the most vivid form of creation is in each individual walking next to you in the streets and sitting beside you; all waiting to look at the art revealed.

  

In the world within each person, emotion walks, lives, and consumes the mind and body like food and water. Life and objects of visual and sensorial splendor are brought to existence daily through expression.

 

Alas, take a moment out of your extremely timed schedule to learn what the world has to offer at first glance!  

 

Gallery Place Metro, Washington, DC by Markus

 

Self portrait by Instructor Leland Bryant,

Part of "Portrait a Day Series"

 

-Matt Weiler