Final Essay - AS #6 blog

           For my essay I went and examined a sculpture on Green River Campus that is near the center of the campus.  It is an art installation that is one of my favorite art pieces.  The sculpture was co-designed by an artist by the name of Ted Jonsson.  The Seattle Solstice was the fabricator of this piece.  It contains two main pieces that each serve a purpose in the piece of art.  There is a water wall that is and S shape and it is a beautiful black piece of granite.  Water is constantly coming down both sides of the wall.  There are grooved surfaces in the granite.  This unique feature creates random designs and patterns from the water that makes it illuminate when the Sun shines on it.  When the water creates random designs or patterns there are a few Gestalt principles that happen.  There is similarity by the repeating patterns in the water.  The water patterns also create continuance.  There is also grouping by shape and form, and grouping by orientation.  The Sun gives the black piece of granite a very elegant glossy look to the granite.  There are also tiles located on the granite wall and they are designated for donors that give money to Green River Community College.  By the piece of granite wall there is a marble looking piece of stone that looks like it weighs thousands of pounds.  The stone is in the shape of a sphere.  The marble looking stone settles in carved area where it sits and can be rotated or moved by water coming up from underneath it.  Because it rotates by the water it creates an effect just like the stone wall.  The water on the surface of it illuminates the stone when the Sun is out with vibrant Sun colors.    While researching about this piece and the artist, I found out about some really interesting facts about the piece of art.  I found out that the marble looking stone is carved out of Meta-Volcanic Greenstone.  The water underneath the stone is constantly able to give it water underneath through the use of water pressure.  The water is constantly streaming up from a recycling pump and it uses a minimal daily amount of water to keep it running.  The polished greenstone sphere weighs approximately 5,500 pounds and is kept afloat by very little water pressure.  This piece is a very organic piece of art.  It is an organic piece because of all of the elements that are used to make this piece.  All of the pieces come from nature.  The stone that floats from water pressure gives a sense of balance to the piece.  The artist, Ted Jonsson, is a Seattle artist that usually works with "junk art."  This is an art form that involves an artist using objects that people would normally consider junk and throw away.  He takes "junk" objects and creates a piece of art out of anything that he can find.  This artist Jonsson has a couple other pieces around the Seattle area.  He has been producing public art since the 1970’s.  Overall, I really like this monument that is located at Green River.  It is nice to know that people’s art appreciation is still there even though it doesn’t seem like it sometimes.

Works Cited

www.facebook.com/pages/TED-JONSSON.../106604866044965

http://www.greenriver.edu/friends_alumni/foundation/kennelly_commons.shtm

AS #3 - Self Critique

Overall, I was very satisfied with this piece.  Like any other piece there are strengths and weaknesses in it.   During the process of creating this piece I have learned how to use many more tools in Illustrator that I did not use before.  I am getting progressively better with Illustrator.  One of my strengths in this piece was my utilization of positive and negative space.  I felt like I used both the positive and negative space equally proportional.  I felt like one of my other strengths was the simplicity of the piece.   It is not a complicated piece which is something that I really like about this piece.  I also like that in this piece I kind of created an optical illusion through just using shapes and certain tools in Illustrator.  The tool that helped me out the most in Illustrator was the Pathfinder tool.  One of my weaknesses in this piece was the positioning of the overall piece.  I could have done a better job of using a focal point in this piece.  If I could do anything different in this piece I would have made one of the circles in bold or something so it could be used as some type of focal point so the viewers eyes are not constantly wondering through the piece with nowhere to rest their eye on.  Like I said though, overall I really like this piece.

AS #3 - Ambiguous Space

1) This piece is symmetrical, asymmetrical, but does not have radial balance.

2) The focal point is near the bottom.  It is one of the objects that seems closer in the picture.

3) This artist uses space very well by adding depth through the use of shapes.  In this piece, shape also plays a role in the composition.  This artist uses depth by utilizing pattern and repetition in this piece.  The shapes make the viewers eye go further and further into the painting.  

4) This piece has closure, proximity, containment, and grouping by location.

5) One of the strengths in this piece is how the artist uses shapes to give the piece depth.  I don't really think that there are any weaknesses in this piece.

6) Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 1887.  O'Keeffe did most of her work during the early 1900's.  Her fame continued to grow in the 1950's and 1960's.  In 1976 she created an illustrated biography of her life and it was a best seller.  She then received the Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford.  In 1985 she received a Medal of the Arts from Ronald Reagan.  She died the next year at the age of 98.  

Works Cited

PBS. American Masters. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/georgia-okeeffe/about-the-painter/55/

AS #1 Setting Goals

There are many benefits from learning about computer design. It is a useful tool to have in life.  It would be useful for creating websites, designing logos, and many other tasks.  Adobe Illustrator be useful for creating  perfect shapes and making mathematical design measurements.  I want to learn how to use all of the different tools that Illustrator offers.
Goal #1 - learn all the tools in Illustrator
-pay attention to all the lessons in class
-show up to class everyday
-ask questions if i don't understand something
-follow instructions on the tools to use during a project
Goal #2 - Learn what Illustrator can be used for
-find jobs that involve Illustrator
-practice using Illustrator on my free time
-using the resources that are available to me
Goal #3 - Get a good grade in class
-show up to class everyday
-do all my homework that is assigned to me
-talk with classmates for help in class
-do all assignments on time
-complete all assignments with my best effort
-do my own research outside of just classwork

AS #5 - shape and form (self-critique)

In my piece I feel I strengthened many tools that I can use in Illustrator while doing this assignment.  One of my strengths in this piece is the simplicity of the piece.  At the same time there is a very deep thought process as well as a lot of meaning for me in this piece.  Another strength in this piece is the combination of creating an abstract picture but still using the organic nature of the assignment in my process for this piece.  I personally feel it was an accomplishment for me to not go to crazy on this assignment and use numerous shapes that would make the piece fell overwhelming and so I feel that this was a strength in my piece by using a few simple objects but making it into an abstract picture that I am satisfied with.  There were some weaknesses or some things in this piece that I would have liked to have done better or improve on in the future.  I felt I could have done a better job with the shading in the piece.  I think if I had more time I would have given the leaves in the picture, more “character” by messing with the shading on all the leaves.  Another weakness I felt was the moon that I made for this piece.  I felt I could have used some more tools to make it look more realistic or like the leaves, give it more “character.”  One other thing I was not sure on in this piece was making the moon look like it had some type of movement to it.  So what I did was give it some black splotches that were supposed to represent clouds in a way.  But with the way it turned out after printing it, I don’t know if I should have used that particular method for representing movement in this particular situation.  Overall I am happy with how the piece turned out though.