Creative Notebook #11



Ring around the Rosie by Ernie Barnes. This is one of my favorite pictures by Barnes. I actually purchased a reproduction of it a few years ago. I think what I like most about this painting is the lengthiness that he gives the women, their arms and legs. I like the composition of their bodies as they hold hands.

Creative Notebook #10


The picture is titled "The Lovers" and it's by Jacob Lawrence. I like this picture because of the colors that Lawrence use din this pic. They are really vibrant and work well together.

Activity #9 Camera Essay - REDO

"Photography" comes from the Greek words photos meaning light and graphein meaning to draw. “It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material.” (About.com).

The early camera called the Camera Obscura became a phenomenon can be traced back to 1558. This camera was seen as a drawing tool for a clearer and realistic portrayal of objects (Cinema). The camera obscura could capture an image but there was no way to preserve the image. The first camera that was small and portable enough that was practical for photography was built by Johann Zahn in 1685(Wikipedia). The camera that we know today was made public in 1839 by Frenchman Louis Jacques Daguerre. (Getlein 204). By 1840, techniques had improved and exposure times had shortened; that is when portrait photography became fashionable. (AZU). The camera made portraits available to everyone and photography made it possible to record important events for journals and newspapers. (PowerPoint). The main medium of photography was light and as a result Visual artist of this time knew that and became more interested in the effects of light on different things such as objects and colors which was the new matter of content for their work. Visual artist also used a cropping created harmony in their design an important element in their work. (PowerPoint). Over many years the camera has transformed and is one of the most widely used gadgets today. There are hundreds of models of cameras available today both for the amateur as well as the professional photographer. From pinhole to digital only time can tell where the camera will go from here.

Activity #4 REDO

Romare Bearden’s, Tomorrow I May Be Far Away is based on asymmetrical balance. The torn paper, and the use of color in the left window provides the asymmetry in this painting. Size and placement was used to emphasize the man sitting on the front steps of the house. The focal point is the magazine cut outs used on parts of the face and body of the man and the person standing in the window. Through repetition, visual elements can take on a rhythm within a work. In this painting the colors of the shapes on the house provide the rhythm. magazine picture cutouts, various papers, charcoal, and graphite provide variety in Bearden’s work of art. Romare Bearden's work captures, vivid colors and emotive imagery that characterizes the rhythmical beauty of this painting.

John Sloan’s painting The City from Greenwich Village was painted in 1922. The composition of this design is based on asymmetrical balance. The curve of the elevated tracks helps to lead our eyes to this destination. (Scribbles). The background of this picture is subordinate so that it does not interfere with the main emphasis of the picture; Sloan did this by blurring the city skyline. Sloan wanted to make a record of the older city that was giving way to the towers of modern New York. (Scribbles).

Activity #5 REDO

In Romare Bearden’s, 1966-1967, Tomorrow I May Be Far Away Bearden wanted to illustrate his view of the black American experience he shows views from the fast pace of a Harlem neighborhood and views from the down home peacefulness of rural North Carolina. (AP). Use of the magazine cut outs for the faces of the man in front of the house and the woman in the window help serve as a focal point for this picture. The dominant color relationship operating within this piece of art work would be blue and white colors; which are used on the man sitting on the porch, the pail beside him and the woman walking in the background. The yellow, green and maroon colored tiles on the house help to give the house definition and texture. It retains a strong structure with the pondering man who is the central figure. (Culture View).

In John Sloan’s The City from Greenwich Village painted in 1922 the purpose of this painting is for the artist to portray his view of Greenwich Village. John Sloan taught painting and exhibited his work in the new modern genre style depicting images of the city and its residents. Yellow-green light contrasts dramatically with the plum-colored shades in the sky and the stark black of the buildings. (NGA). The lighter colors such as the pastel pink and yellow along with the plum used for the sky help to define the city skyline and show how color plays a significant role in this painting. The dominant color black is used in the roofs on the buildings and train on the elevated tracks help to give the portrait of this city definition. In the final oil painting, the railway is pushed down at a steeper perspective, opening the foreground into a vast space of reflections off wet pavement. (NGA).

Activity #2 REDO

Tomorrow I May Be Far Away was painted in 1966-1967 by Romare Bearden. the title of this painting is taken from a blues piece first recorded in 1929 by Edith Johnson entitled, "Good Chib Blues": Aah, tomorrow I may be far away, Oh, tomorrow I may be far away, Don't try to jive me, sweet talk can't make me stay...( PBS). Growing up in Harlem and Mecklenburg county North Carolina Bearden wanted to illustrate his views of Black American life in his contrasting upbringings. This collage is broken into pieces, which helps to give it a dense, quilt-like texture. Bearden created this picture using mostly newspapers and magazines clippings but he also used other mediums in this work such as charcoal and graphite. Influenced by Pablo Picasso, Tomorrow I May Be Far Away is a cubist style painting that illustrates a rural family on a cabin porch, with thriving fields behind, flying birds and a train on the horizon to express the sense of loss and longing that was felt by migrants who fled the oppression of the South to settle in Northern industrial cities. (AP).

In 1922 John Sloan painted The City from Greenwich Village using oil on canvas. Sloan made more preparatory studies for this canvas than for any of his other pictures. Painting this picture from Sloan wanted to show the distant lights of downtown office buildings amid the gathering darkness of a winter evening. New York's skyscrapers seem to hover over the city like a shimmering celestial vision. Sloan's painting conveys a romanticized mood that contrasts strongly with the scenes of apartment life, crowded city streets, and deserted back alleys. (NGA) Yellow-green light contrasts dramatically with the plum-colored shades in the sky and the stark black of the buildings. The viewer peers out over Manhattan, where two tall buildings go upward. The soaring Woolworth Building dominates the distant skyscrapers. The curve of the elevated tracks helps to lead our eyes to this destination. Sloan wanted to make a record of the older city that was giving way to the towers of modern New York. (Scribbles).

Color Game REDO

To play my color game CLICK HERE

ART 101 DRAFT FINAL EXAM - MUSEUM PAPER

The paintings that I chose are “Tomorrow I May Be Far Away” by Romare Bearden, and “The City from Greenwich Village” by John Sloan. Both are talented artists with different styles that are shown in their artwork yet both are showing the same perspective… their surroundings.
Romare Howard Bearden was born on September 2, 1911, to (Richard) Howard and Bessye Bearden in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Bearden Foundation).
In 1915 his family moved to Harlem, NY. (A. Wilson). Bearden's interest in art was sparked by experiences with a childhood friend in Pittsburgh and his early love of cartooning. (National Gallery of Art) The German expressionist George Grosz, who taught Bearden at the Art Students League in New York, introduced Bearden to collages in the 1930s. (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Tomorrow I May Be Far Away was painted in 1966-1967 by Romare Bearden during the Black Art’s Movement by Romare Bearden. The title of this painting is taken from a blues piece first recorded in 1929 by Edith Johnson entitled, "Good Chib Blues": Aah, tomorrow I may be far away, Oh, tomorrow I may be far away, Don't try to jive me, sweet talk can't make me stay...(PBS). Influenced by Pablo Picasso and the Cubist movement and Picasso’s use of African Art (Cosmos) Bearden wanted to illustrate his view of the black American experience he shows views from the fast pace of a Harlem neighborhood and views from the down home peacefulness of rural North Carolina. (AP). It is apparent that Romare Bearden had a remarkable ability to unify the mixed media of his work he was able to communicate his universal themes with profound artistic value. Through repetition, visual elements can take on a rhythm within this work. In Tomorrow I May Be Far Away Bearden captured, vivid colors and emotive imagery that characterizes the rhythmical beauty of this work.
African-American heritage and the expression of black identity were fundamental to his artistic expression. (Met). According to the Madison Museum of contemporary art Jazz influenced Bearden's art. His compositions often were likened to jazz, with its syncopated rhythms and improvisational structures. Bearden created his collages about situations and people familiar to him. Bearden’s used a collage using mostly newspaper and magazine clippings for this work which is his signature style. Tomorrow I may Be Far Away illustrates a rural family on a cabin porch, with thriving fields behind, flying birds and a train on the horizon to express the sense of loss and longing that was felt by migrants who fled the oppression of the South to settle in Northern industrial cities. (AP). The time period of this work was 1966-1967 during the Civil Rights and the Vietnam War Movement. Maybe the family is thinking of the struggles of Blacks in South; or a family member just left to go off to war. Bearden shows the image of a train across the horizon. Trains were always a reoccurring symbol in Bearden’s work. “A train was always something that could take you away and could also bring you to where you were,” says Bearden. (Getlein 179).
Bearden is recognized as one of the most influential, creative, original artists of the twentieth century. He has experimented with many different mediums and artistic styles. Bearden is best known for his textured collages, two of them appeared on the covers of Fortune and Time magazines in 1968. Bearden being an artist with diverse interest also designed costume and set designs built for both the Alvin Ailey and Nanette Bearden’s Dance Theater. (National Gallery of Art). Bearden died in New York City on the 12th of March in 1988. (Artnet).
John Sloan was born in Lock-Haven, PA in 1871. His father was an unsuccessful businessman and his mother a schoolteacher from a well-off Philadelphia merchant family.. When he was five, his family moved to Philadelphia. (Constable). Sloan left school at the age of sixteen to help support his family. When his father's business failed. Sloan became adept at drawing and etching at a young age and at twenty went to work as a newspaper illustrator for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He took night classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he met Robert Henri, with whom he was in close contact with until Henri died in 1929. He did not completely adopt Henri's style of painting, but he did agree with some of Henri's views. (Constable). Sloan Found the city very exciting and he immersed himself in the sidewalks of New York, which he viewed as a kind of stage set. His favorite subjects were the city streets and cafes. (Scribbles).
The City from Greenwich Village is representational art and was painted in 1922 by John Sloan painted using oil on canvas. Sloan was a part of the Aschan School movement. The Ashcan School also known as The Eight was a small group of artists who sought to document everyday life in turn-of-the-century New York City, capturing it in realistic and unglamorized paintings and etchings of urban street scenes. It largely consisted of Robert Henri who was an influential teacher, and an admirer of realist painters Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anshutz. In addition to Henri, and Sloan the Ashcan School consisted of George Wesley Bellows, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, and George Luks. (Artcyclopedia). During this time period World War Foreign Debt Commission Established this commission was established by US Congress to negotiate with European nations the debs that they owed from World War I. (History Central). Possibly the artist wanted to show a view from the city after World War I ended and city life had returned to normal. John Sloan taught painting and exhibited his work in the new modern genre style depicting images of the city and its residents. (Lori). John Sloan died in Hanover, NH, on 7th of September in 1951. (Artnet).
Romare Bearden and John Sloan are perhaps two of influential artist of their times. Each has done riveting paintings and artwork that capture the true essence of their surroundings and things that they may have seen throughout their lives.




Work Cited


Romare Bearden Foundation.

(6 May 2006).
Dartmouth College.
< http://www.dartmouth.edu/~awilson/Bearden/Biographical_Information.html>
(6 May 2006)
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
.
(5 May 2006).
National Gallery of Art. .
< http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?246170>
(5 May 2006).
Cosmos, Carolyn. “Complexities of Collage.”
The Washington Diplomat. < http://www.washdiplomat.com/03-
12/b8_03_12.html>
(6 May 2006).
The Associated Press. “Harlem Giant Revisited.”
Poughkeepsie Journal. 2005
< http://cityguide.pojonews.com/fe/DayTrips/stories/dt_metropolitan_m
useum_of_art_bearden.asp>
(5 May 2006).
Paul, Stella. “Modern Storytellers.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
< http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/most/hd_most.htm>
(6 May 2006).
Public Broadcasting Services.
< http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/romarebearden/galler
y_3.html>
(6 May 2006).
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
(5 May 2006).
Geitlein, Mark. Gilbert’s Living with Art.
New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2005.
Artcyclopedia.
< http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/ashcan-school.html>
(5 May 2006).
History Central.
< http://www.historycentral.com/dates/1922.html#Anchor-30929>
(5 May 2006).
Lori, Ph.D. “Teacher and Painter John Sloan.”
Masterpiece Galleries. < http://www.drloriv.com/lectures/sloan.asp>
(7 May 2006).
Constable. “John Sloan.”
< http://www.constable.net/arthistory/glo-sloan.html>
(7 May 2006).
Artnet

(10 May 2006).

Activity #13

Tomorrow I May Be Far Away was painted in 1966/1967 during the Black Art’s Movement by Romare Bearden. Influenced by Pablo Picasso and the Cubist movement and Picasso’s use of African Art(Cosmos) Bearden wanted to illustrate his view of the black American experience he shows views from the fast pace of a Harlem neighborhood and views from the down home peacefulness of rural North Carolina. (AP). African-American heritage and the expression of black identity was fundamental to his artistic expression. (Met). According to the Madison Museum of contemporary art Jazz influenced Bearden's art. His compositions often were likened to jazz, with its syncopated rhythms and improvisational structures. Bearden created his collages about situations and people familiar to him. Bearden’s used a collage using mostly newspaper and magazine clippings for this work which is his signature style. The time period of this work was 1967 during the Vietnam War. Possibly a family member just left to go off to war, Bearden shows the image of a train across the horizon. Trains were always a reoccurring symbol in Bearden’s work. “A train was always something that could take you away and could also bring you to where you were,” says Bearden. (Getlein 179).


The City from Greenwich Village is representational art and was painted in 1922 by John Sloan painted using oil on canvas. Sloan was a part of the Aschan School movement. The Ashcan School was a small group of artists who sought to document everyday life in turn-of-the-century New York City, capturing it in realistic and unglamorized paintings and etchings of urban street scenes. (Artcyclopedia). During this time period World War Foreign Debt Commission Established this commission was established by US Congress to negotiate with European nations the debs that they owed from World War I. (History Central). Possibly the artist wanted to show a view from the city after World War I ended and city life had returned to normal. John Sloan taught painting and exhibited his work in the new modern genre style depicting images of the city and its residents. (Lori).

Cr8tive Notebook #9




I found this picture while online looking for new pictures for my home. The simplicity of this painting made it stand out for me. I love the color of this painting. The focal point for me was the white "skater" surrounded by the sea of deep red.

Activity #11

Romare Bearden’s Tomorrow I may be Far Away is from the Pop Art Movement. This movement emerged in the 1950’s in the United States and England and was widely recognized by the mid 1960’s. Pop art (sometimes called Neo-Dada) is a style of art which seeks its inspiration from commercial art and items of mass culture (such as magazines, newspapers, comic strips, popular foods and brand name packaging) to portray elements of popular culture. Some popular Pop Art artist include Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenbert, Roy Lichtenstien and Andy Warhol. Painted in 1967, Bearden wanted to reflect on his childhood memories of Mecklenburg County as a young African American boy.

Creative Notebook #8


This is actually a photograph that I took yesterday while riding on BW Parkway to Arundel Mills with my best friend. While playing around with all of the various features I got many interesting photographs. I really like this one because it looks like a painting.

Activity #10: Mediums and Techniques

Tomorrow I May Be Far Away was painted by Romare Bearden in 1967; using a collage of various papers, charcoal and graphite on canvas. Bearden used many different kinds of media when creating this piece which include clippings from magazines, catalogs, wallpaper, art reproductions, and painted papers. The use of magazine clippings on faces of the man on the stoop and the woman in the window help emphasis each person’s strong features. The papers used on the house to create shingles give the house a lot of texture the yellow pieces look like pictures they could have been pictures of wood.

The City from Greenwich Village painted was painted by John Sloan in 1922 and the medium used was oil on canvas. “The artist painted this picture from his Washington Place studio on a rainy winter evening while he was looking over 6th Avenue.” The smudged style painting used to paint the sky gives it a cloudy appearance. The colors used for the city especially the yellows and tans help to give the city a gleam, a glow of the night life that may have been going on in the city that night. The yellow paint used below the tracks is the focal point of this painting, the viewers eyes a drawn to the glow of that city block.

Although two different mediums were used to create these paintings, both compositions reflect life each of the artist surroundings.

Creative Notebook #7



This picture is titled Flute and it was painted by Gil Mayers. I love the use of color on this picture. My stepdad is a musician and plays the flute and I bought this picture for him and had it framed. The man pictured in this painting looks like he is really into his music, like he's feeling it from his soul