Fine Art

After taken the exam today I was really interested in looking at some more fine art photography. This particular photo reminded me of some of Weston's work. It seems that the body is a recurring theme in fine art photography. What is striking about this photo is the pose and the way that it gives the body some symmetry. It also exemplifies a certain sense of grace and poise that the female can embody through body langauge. I personally feel that this photo is a good example of fine art because although the subject is human it does a good job of having artistic expression. The pose almost resembles certain dance moves that a female might perform and dancing itself is an artistic form.

Black Swan

Friday I attended the Robinson and watched the film Black Swan. I must say this was a rather interesting film, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was interesting that the film was centered on the idea of a performer's sense of feeling because it tied into what we have been discussing in class. A good artist really feels the work they are doing and likewise so does a dancer in performance. There was a lot of sexual undertone in the film, but I am not really sure how it tied into the context of the film. Perhaps it was the movie's way of evoking the sensation of feeling. I thought the film did an excellent job of portraying the transformation that takes place.

Evoked Emotions

This particular image is a landscape photograph. When researching images to blog about I came across this and was immediately drawn to it. This image evokes many emotions when I sit and study it. It alludes to some form of power that we as humans cannot comprehend. Nature in itself has a separate, and what seems to be divine power of its own that humans cannot control. Yet it has elements of mystery. Although it strikes me as being inspirational and the hope that there is a force in the universe that extends far beyond that which we know.

French Film Festival

So last Wednesday I attended the French Film Festival at the Robinson Film Center with some of my friends. The movie that we saw was A Town Called Panic, and I must say it was an interesting film. The background color of the film was very rich, which almost made the colors seem artificial themselves. Perhaps it was a play on the artificiality of the film. The humor of the film differed drastically from the the comdedy films made in the U.S. I didn't find the material of the film particularly funny, but instead I more amused with what I consider to be ridicolous humor. The dialogue of the film was in French which I felt contributed to the humor of the film. This was my first time ever watching a movie where my comprehension relied on the subtitles. Though the visual aspect of the film was rather decent and conveyed enough of the film's text to where I did't have to read some portions of the subtitles and was able to capture the meaning. I still have yet to derive a purpose of the film, but perhaps it was meant for no other purpose than entertainment.

Upon watching the "Vogue" video in class on Wednesday I really wanted to expound on its meaning. The term itself is a form of expression and stylistic posing. Today's society has equated vogue with style and fashion and it is something that everyone is to aspire. In the above photo J Lo is wearing a gown that she wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards. I think this dress sparked a lot of conversation because it embodied something that every woman wants to look like. As vogue has become style and style has become celebrities, the rest of society tries to transform into what is percieved as vogue.

Well I went to the Robinson last night with some friends and watched the movie "The Kids Are Alright". The movie was not at all what I was expecting, but I thought it was very good. It challenged the idea of what we percieve to be a "traditional" family in society. The parents were a lesbian couple who conceived children by using a sperm donor. The kids were portrayed as normal teenagers with the same issues as those who belong to a heterosexual family. Overall I thought that the movie offered a comedic outlook on the life of a lesbian family.   

So we have been studying various art terms in my class and last week one of our words was bricolage. By definition a bricolage is a piece of artwork that is created by materials that happen to be at hand. As I was browsing through pictures on my camera I came acroos this one and realized that it is an example of a bricolage. I saw this artwork in an art showing in Memphis one weekend and thought it was really cool that the background was made from different product labels. Now thanks to visual culture I know that this type of work actually has a name!