The Truth About Life

The Great Depression is a very solemn time to think about. But I love finding the different images from those days. Seeing the raw emotion and feeling what they are feeling even though it was so long ago is a very moving experience. You walk away feeling like you just went through all that they did, and that you should just give all your money to the people you see living on the street.

I find this image kind of ironic because of the fact that there is a billboard for the comfortable seats in the train, while these two men are walking with their luggage on a seemingly abandoned road. They are dressed in the clothes that they have left, and I would assume that they are dressed for possibly a job, just in case they were able to find a job anywhere. Everyone is left with whatever they can carry from one place to another, because every one lost money.



This is another image that shows how desperate everyone is. This is most likely a place where the men find a job. I doubt it's some place to get food, because it is only men that are lining up. It's cold and rainy outside, everyone has their long coats and hats on, ready for an interview, hoping that someone will pick them. I can't tell if it is all white men, or if there are black men in the mix, but I do know that the Depression did affect everyone, no matter who they were or what their status was in life. The rich became mediocre, the poor became desperate, and everyone resorted to do whatever they could to survive.



I know we talked about this one in class, but I wanted to speak more on this one. I feel as though I personally relate to this woman, or the children. I grew up with just my mom and my older sister. I didn't realize this at the time, but when I was little, my mom had nothing. She had to work a full time job, raise me and my sister, and she was also trying to get a degree at the same time. She was a recovering alcoholic, living at the bottom, and yet, she kept me and my sister happy. There were days when she would just cry for the whole day, because she did not know where money would come from to feed us or keep a roof over our heads. I know that we didn't have it as bad as this woman, but we still felt the pain of not having it as good as everyone else.

Seasons

When I was going through one of the classes last semester in order to finish out my degree, I found out how much I love Art Nouveau.
And then I found Alphonse Mucha and fell in love. All of portraits, whether they are of a known woman, or of someone just posing for him, they are so beautiful! He is able to capture every bit of who the woman is, or how she is feeling and portraying it to us, the viewer. His famous piece of Sarah Berhardt, which made him practically famous overnight, is the most well known. Bernhardt even hired him to make posters for her for six years! Two of my favorites are the seasons, (shown here) and Zodiac. Every time I see a different piece from him, or one using his style, I love it. No matter if it was made in his time, or in my time. Just the curves and natural lines that are encompassing those images is breath-taking to me.
The one interesting thing about him is that he always tried to disassociate himself from his style; art nouveau. He always insisted that his inspiration was a mirror of his life, and also a part of his Czech culture. He also declared that art existed to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more. So, he actually became more furious the more he was commissioned to do public works and advertisements.

I love how he shows each feeling of the seasons in this image. It just makes you feel like you are actually experiencing them individually.

Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace

When we went through the Japanese art, my mind was like, Wow, that is amazing. The Japanese have this style that flows and is very open, from the mountains in the hanging scrolls to the zen gardens. This particular painting is a historical recording of a battle on the Sanjo Palace. There are actually several paintings about this event and they are all included in an illustrated scroll. This would have been something that people could have opened up like a history book today.
This was a time when the samurai were becoming big in power, and the emperors were merely just puppets for the people.

This picture is during the Heiji disturbance (1159), and it wasn't even that big of a deal. It was just a small skirmish that was made into a big deal. There were two different groups that were trying to get the most people to follow them and thus take over the capital. Fujiwara Shinzei and Taira Kiyomori made up one faction, and they actually gained more influence, and the other group was led by Fujiwara Nobuyori and Minamoto Yoshitomo. But Nobuyori and Yoshitomo actually captured the emperor, and whisked him away and then set the whole palace on fire.

I just love the way the fire is illustrated. They captured the white hot of the fire and the flying sparks in the black of the smoke. It is such a contrast compared to the hanging scrolls that have large landscape scenes in it. If you look very closely, you can make out the heads that Nobuyori and Yoshitomo had cut off the partisans that worked at the palace. The billows of the fire toward the right of the image seem to have the same curves and lines as they draw dragons. I almost feel as if there is going to be a dragon coming out of the fire.

These are some of the other images that I found, that would be in the scroll.

Triumph of Justice

This is an oil painting done by Hans Von Aachen. I have tried to find information about him, but Wikipedia and the J. Paul Getty Museum website gave me the most information. I was not able to find any information on this piece either, but from what I read, von Aachen was a painter for Emperor Rudolf II of Prague. So most of his paintings reflected what Rudolph wanted. I stumbled upon Hans von Aachen when I was searching for other works by Caravaggio.
Rudolph II had a desire for sensuality and female models often facing away from the viewer.


In this image, it mainly has women in it, and the main character is a woman who is portraying justice. I am not sure of the actions between the man on the ground, the lion, the naked woman, and Justice. I know for a fact that the woman with the sword is Justice because of the weights she is holding. I am thinking that the man did something deserving of punishment, and thus justice was being served in the form of a lion. It seems as though justice is wanting to take things farther than just letting the lion attack. But the naked woman seems to be holding her back.


The perspective is correct, and the castle, I think it is, fades into darkness. It almost seems that there is a storm brewing, or the dusk looks very dark. The ladies in the background seem to be a lot closer than the rest of the background. When I look at the faces of the two women up close, the faces are the same. I wonder if this is one woman being represented by two different things. As if justice is one side of the weights and the other side is partiality. Maybe the two characters represent what Rudolph has as responsibilities as a king, having to deal with positive and negative in his rulings, and the different consequences.


There is that stage lighting on the two women in the foreground but also on the women in the background.The lion is bathed in darkness, making justice seem more harsh. There is a book on the ground to the left of the lion. I am not sure if it symbolizes anything.

One of the interesting things that I found out that this oil painting was done on copper.
If anyone can find anything else about the image that would be great.

Thoughts in thoughts in thoughts...

Recently my friends and I were talking about the extremely detailed vectors that a lot of game designers have to make. I was actually able to bring this image up and compare the extreme detail that this painter did to the computer images that you can zoom in on when creating them. When I think about real detail, I love to look at the things that artists created back before the 1900's because I believe they had a real eye for detail. This particular image is the size of a postcard! I think that's absolutely amazing! One of the other things that I love about this image, is that she put her thoughts, her mindset in the mirror. It shows what she is thinking about as she is reading this prayer book. Also, Mary is seen twice in this painting. Once in the foreground and also in the mirror sitting in front of Mary, the mother of Jesus. I love the detail that went into this, and also the image of a woman's thoughts. The church was a big influence in that age.
When I step back and take a long look at it, I think of those fun house mirrors that are facing each other. So when you look at them you have hundreds of images of yourself seemingly going farther and farther back in space. But here it's only one way. We only see how she thinks about her meditation. What would not surprise me, was if the painter put another mirror behind the main Mary in the window image showing what she would be thinking of she really was sitting in a church with Mary, Jesus mom. That would not surprise me with all the detail that is already going on in this image. It still amazes me how one artist can make a painting so small and detailed and do such an amazing job at it.

Inspiration

I know that posting a picture of Vincent Van Gogh may seem somewhat stereotypical, but I have found a new respect for him. One of my favorite tv shows to watch is Doctor Who on BBC. He is a being who lives for hundreds of years and his space ship allows him to travel through time and space. His ship is called the TARDIS, and it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. But in one episode, the Doctor and his companion go back in time to when Vincent was alive, right before he did the painting of the sunflowers. There was something that I realized about artists and painters, that we dont always live the perfect life and not everything is grand. I do not know exactly what was deemed wrong with him, but I believe that he suffered from mental illness. Whether it be depression or some sort of mania, I believe that is what inspired his work. When Vincent met the Doctor, he was able to see some sort of monster and only Vincent was able to see it. He told the Doctor that he wished other people could see the world as he sees it, with colors swirling and molding to create a beautiful canvas that he just had to capture. There was one time that Vincent suddenly got so upset because the Doctor said something that sounded like an insult that he threw himself onto his bed and started to sob. I saw something in myself when I watched that episode. I realized that my depression can be a help to my artwork. How I portray myself and my work can show people what really goes on in the head of someone who has to deal with depression and other mental illnesses. I can't stand it when others stereotype mental illnesses because they dont understand how they think. From that one episode I have found a new respect and love for Van Gogh's art, and for him as a human as well.