2.14.2011

UPSIDEDOWN!?

I really liked the quotation that the article opened with:

“Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.”

This holds true for me, even now. I feel I am much better expressing myself through art before I can put my feeling and intent into words.

I also find it interesting when the article brought up the question: Are all images man made? Berger brings up photography, and how, yes, photography is technically a realistic representation of the world. Photography, however, is still from the view point of the photographer and is created with their intent.

The subject of seeing brings up a lot of questions for me. Do we all see the world in the same way? Just as we can abstract the world in different ways, perhaps we see the world in different ways to begin with?

I was asked to write an essay about whether or not art was necessary for a civilization. It was one of those college essay prompts. The article points out that art can be a relic of the past. I definitely think this is true. Art is not always objective like a written report, but one’s interpretation. I find art of the past especially interesting, because it really gives an insight to the times in which it was painted.

The section about the camera fascinated me. Cameras changed the way people perceived images, and art in general. I feel that this has changed somewhat. Everyone ahs a camera, and they’re used to capture a moment, but more and more this becomes every moment. There’s a family reunion? A get together? A dog sleeping in a cute position? Time to pull out the camera. Does this become a new art? Snapshots into daily life? It reminds me of an exhibit I saw at the National Portrait Gallery. This exhibit was of exactly this, snapshots of an ordinary family in everyday life and doing everyday activities, but there was such a normalcy, and such a beauty in that normalcy.

For homework, we were asked to read an excerpt from “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” and do exercises from it. At first, I didn’t think it would change my viewpoint on anything- just drawing the same image but upside down. I found this exercise, however very interesting. I thought the proportions of the head were perfect, because I wasn’t seeing it with the right orientation. When I viewed it upside down, it looked fine, but when I turned it around, it looked all warped. It definitely made me see things from a new perspective. I stopped seeing the legs as legs, and started seeing shapes and curves, and started getting into the flow odf the lines. As I let go of my preconceived notions of the body, the second drawing was much, much easier. I let myself fall into the flow, and the drawing turned out much better!

1 comment:

  1. Interesting...I think the goal of drawing upside down and all of these other activities is to get you to look at the world differently. To slow down and observe so that you can more accurately depict what is going on around you. This goes back to your question: Do we all see the world the same way. I would say No, because most of us aren't aware of our surroundings!

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