23 March, 2009

etsy:
“Rooted” by Jen McCleary, etsy seller JenMcCleary

This is a print of a digital collage by Jen McCleary. Stylistically, it is an abstract landscape. The visual cues of color planes in the work suggest the dichotomy of a ground (the green portion at the bottom) and a sky (the bluish-white portion at the top). Those two primary planes of color juxtaposed with the electrical tower, organic objects, and the suggested visual of sedentary rock or brick further the indication of a landscape. The electrical tower, brick / rock, and organic matter are all things naturally found outside. That the electrical tower and the shape created by the rock / brick are the darkest components of the piece. In that they contrast against the other visual elements and present in such a linear fashion, they work to direct the eye of the viewer to the point of the composition on which they intersect. The organic matter is what exists at that point; where the electrical tower permeates the ground, as though it were a cross-section, and morphs into organic matter which moves through the rock / brick. An apt visual, in that the title of the work is “Rooted.”
available at:
JenMcCleary: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=95241

song:
“The Hissing of Summer Lawns” by Joni Mitchell, from the album “The Hissing of Summer Lawns”

artist: Raoul Hausmann
Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) born in Vienna, Austria, was a founding member of the Berlin Dada movement. He was a poet, painter, photomonteur, pampleteer, and partner to fellow Dada artist Hannah Hoch. He claims to have invented photomontage, and is possibly best known for his ‘poster poems.’ Examples of such being: “ABCD” (collage, 1923-4) and “The Art Critc” ( photomontage, 1919-20)
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23 February 2009

etsy:
“From Me to You” by Shelley Lane Kommers, etsy seller OiseauxNoir

This piece is a print of an original collage by etsy seller Shelley Lane Kommers. The composition depicts a cropped silhouette of a woman with four hearts positioned on the image plane so that they appear to be coming out of her mouth. The overall shape of the image plane is essentially square. However, a thread outline continues outside the boundaries of the square image plane. On the image plane this thread outline is just that — an outline — it follows the shape of the silhouette of the woman. But outside of the image plane this thread outline meanders abstractly; instead of doing something visually typical like completing the outline of the silhouette. The white thread acts differently outside the image plane than it does within the image plane. The silhouette of the woman presents itself as separate from the background by virtue of pattern. The silhouette consists of a shape cut out of an object, particularly a map of central France; where as the background appears to be a piece of paper with mechanical notes altered with paint to contrast the silhouette in terms of lack or obfuscation of pattern. In that the map is visually obvious as a map; it presents a typical pattern of interconnecting lines, geometric and abstract shapes, and words. The map as silhouette is presented sideways (so that the traditional text is vertically oriented instead of horizontally). From a visual standpoint the most dominant lines on the map trisect the entire shape of the silhouette, ultimately intersecting at the cheek of the woman. Also present near their point of intersection is a portion of the map that graphically represents a metropolitan area; this is visually located at the part of the silhouette where the eye would be. This creates a focal point. Also, from a point of color contrast works in collusion with another visual focal point: the four hearts. Where as the lines are red and the metropolitan area is a block of beige, the hearts are orange; as opposed to everything else on the image plane which is essentially white or very light in tone so that it’s almost white. The hearts are visually notable by means of color contrast, shape, and placement. They are juxtaposed to the silhouette so that they appear to be descending from the mouth. In this visual treatment the parts if the image act in concert with the title of the piece: “From Me to You.” As if to indicate that the silhouette representative of a woman is wishing someone by virtue of the visual presentation of symbolic hearts some communication of love.
available at:
OiseauxNoir: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5890086

song:
“From Me to You” by the Beatles, from the album "Past Masters Volume 1"

artist: Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. (born May 15, 1930) is a contemporary American artist known mostly for his paintings and their iconography of flags, targets, letters & numbers. He was born in Georgia, and grew up in Allendale, South Carolina. He attended the Universiy of South Carolina for three semester before leaving for New York and a brief stint at the Parsons School of Design. In New York he met Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he became a friend & contemporary. Having come to prominence during the movement of Abstract Expressionism, he is sometimes referred to as that, he is also known as a Pop Artist or Neo-Dadaist. He is most famous in art history tomes for his painting “Flag” (1954) of an American flag, and for “Painted Broze” (1960), his bronze casting of two Ballantine Ale cans.

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16 February 2009

etsy:
“calla lilies & tree swallows” by Sarah Knight, etsy seller sarahkdesigns

This piece is a print of a digital collage. The composition consists of a combination of birds, flowers, trees, and a background which varies in color to suggest the elements of sky and ground. The composition is an abstract landscape. It is a landscape based on the use of it’s canonical images: flowers, trees, ground, sky. However, it is abstract in it’s presentation. It is a collage, and it’s trees are not of the same media and therefore visual presentation as either the birds, the flowers, or the sky and ground. The separate parts retain their separate identities as things and as parts created in a medium. And yet the image is cohesive. The image also has an active composition based on the juxtaposition of its separate parts. The composition of the image is primarily dictated by the trees, they are the visual element that contrasts dominantly against everything else in the image in terms of color contrast and in terms of linear structure. But they are not rendered to create a single focal point; nor are they juxtaposed with any of the other visual elements for the creation of a single focal point. They meander throughout the composition, and therefore create activity throughout the composition. Where as the birds are all present in the top half of the image and the flowers are all present in the bottom half of the image; this dictates a traditional landscape totem. In both cases, the tree swallows and calla lilies are present horizontally across the entire plane of the image; in other words they are active across the entire scope of the composition. The plane of varying colors that represents the background also varies in a from top to bottom. The color differentiates between reds and purples, to a light pink which blends into a sage green; lending the impression of a dawn or dusk sky over a green ground. This vertical compositional technique works in concert with the birds and flowers, from a point of color contrast and variance in shade: the top half of the picture is darker and more saturated in color than the bottom half of the picture.
available at:
sarahkdesigns: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5531130

song:
“It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)” by the Rolling Stones from the album It's Only Rock 'n' Roll

artist: Hannah Höch
Johanne Höch (November 1, 1889 – May 31, 1978) was a German artist, best known as a Dadaist for her works of collage. She studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Berlin. For a brief period she worked for Ullstein Verlang. She joined the Berlin Dada movement in 1919 through her relationship with Rauol Hausmann. Höch was known to be bisexual and a feminist, the latter of which was often expressed in her photo collages, for which she is best known. But as a Dadaist she was not simply a feminist, she was an iconoclast opposed to propaganda of all scales; from Nazism to advertising campaigns targeted at women. She is probably best known for her work “Cut With the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany.”

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