Concentration Statement 2nd Draft

1. What is the central idea of your concentration?

My concentration is about rearranging the same basic motifs to create each an individual image, and how they interact with each other based on the formal elements of art.

2. How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples.

When I was placing the pieces of paper drawn with black marker on the floor, trying to find the perfect arrangement, the columns of stripes surprisingly reminded me of visualized DNA gel electrophoresis. Because of how different and unique each arrangement turned out, I began to think about the possibility of a changeable composition, which eventually became my concentration idea. Abstract Expressionism, especially the works of Mark Rothko, had a big influence on the use of stripes. Ellsworth Kelly and the Color Field also inspired me to use bright colors in simple patterns. The act of arranging these stripes and colors was a study on the principles of design. The patterns created a flow to the eye through repetition, balance, and harmony.

Concentration Statement 1st Draft

1. What is the central idea of your concentration?

My concentration is about moving the same pieces of material and placing them in different positions, forming new images every time.

2. How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples.

Originally I planned to use the small pieces of paper drawn with black marker to create a single image with straight lines. As I lined them up on the floor, the columns of stripes surprisingly reminded me of visualized DNA gel electrophoresis. At the same time I played around with the papers’ placement to see which way looked best. I began to think about the possibility of a changeable composition, which eventually became my concentration idea. I chose to use three kinds of medium: marker, watercolor, and fabric. With black marker I drew straight, sharp lines and angles. With watercolor I emphasized on color and went for organic patterns. Since fabric is a very flexible material, I want to experiment with this quality. Instead of one-sized rectangles I used various-sized pieces. I tried techniques such as folding and weaving that look very different from what paper can do. 

Blog Entry: John Currin

John Currin, an American painter, who depicts mainly women with distorted features. His works are satirical and very often erotic. At first glance they are sexist, but (I believe) it's one of those cases that attacks sexism by being sexist: by pointing out the absurdity of how the media portraits as the attractiveness of women, and how women are seen as sexual objects. 

It's fairly easy to tell that Currin's work is influenced by many things. Some of the women in his painting look like Renaissance figures, and sometimes the elongation of certain features is reminiscent of Mannerism paintings. A lot of them are also inspired by popular culture and contemporary fashion models.

Blog Entry: Dong Yang-Zi

Dong Yang-Zi is one of the few calligraphers whose works genuinely amazed me. I remember seeing this calligrapher in a documentary on television a while ago. Today I decided to look at her works more closely. The above picture shows the words, literally translated, "having fun/ being happy alone."

I feel like she really took the forms of our characters and executed them like no other. Her brush strokes are natural and flowing but very powerful. A lot of her works are almost abstract. Her composition was influenced by Western art as a result of her studies in America. She likes to write large on huge papers.

There is a story about a famous, ancient Chinese calligrapher, Wang Xi-Zhi, who washed his brushes in a lake beside where he lived. He practiced writing so much that the water of the lake turned black and could be used as ink. It was also said that he was obsessed with geese and learned to write from the way geese swam. 
One of his son, Wang Xian-Zhi, who was also a calligrapher, had another interesting story. The little Xian-Zhi wanted to surpass his father. He worked extremely hard and used up three vats of ink to practice. He finally wrote the character "big" that he felt very proud of and showed his father. His father saw it, grabbed a brush, and added a tiny stroke, thus changing the character to another word. Xian-Zhi then showed the word to his mother, who commented, "My son used up three vats of water practicing, but only this dot resembles Xi-Zhi."
One can only imagine his face upon hearing that criticism.

Dong Yang-Zi was once part of this art show that took reference from the stories. They literally filled a lake of ink.

The people that came to the show could sit around the ink lake and write.

Here are some more of Dong Yang-Zi's works that I love.

Blog Entry: Desire Obtain Cherish

Desire Obtain Cherish, Designer Drugs, 2012

From the 2013 LA Art Show. The artist calls himself Desire Obtain Cherish (DOC).
This particular collection is called Designer Drugs. 
The idea is genius. Designer drugs are recreational drugs created, usually by modifying the chemical structure of existing drugs, to avoid drug laws.
The artist had a very clever play on words. "Designer" here is fashion design brands and by comparing brands to drugs we get the message instantly.

 

For more photos: Desire Obtain Cherish

Blog Entry: Roberto Ferri

robertoferri.net

I stumbled across this Italian artist on the web. He is deeply inspired by Baroque painters, especially Caravaggio. His paintings are reminiscent of Baroque paintings but the subjects are often very sexual and violent and many times surreal. His human figures are often in such stretched poses that they look almost distorted.

 They are actually distorted sometimes.

He also includes a lot of mythical elements in his paintings.

Blog Entry: Abstract Expressionism

I worked on something recently that consists of many pieces of paper with black stripes. When I laid them out on the floor and lined them up, it looked something like the DNA gel electrophoresis.

Thanks to my sister who talked about northern blots and southern and western blots that whole day. But she also said my work reminded her of abstract expressionist paintings, which then reminded me of how Mrs. Jones told me to look at Mark Rothko. So I checked out some rad expressionist art and impossible hard-edge paintings, and their history. I know we will get to this part in our art history class, but I just love to study these things on my own. 
As a result I learned that expressionism started in Germany in the 1920s with films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).

The abstract expressionism movement later however was American. The term was first used in the U.S. to describe the works of Wassily Kandinsky (whom I really like). 

1925, Yellow-Red-Blue

It's interesting that the predecessor of abstract expressionism was surrealism, because of its emphasis on the spontaneous and automatic creation process. There came the action paintings; most famously Jackson Pollock. 

1949, Number 8

Then there was Willem de Kooning and Hans Hofmann. And after them we get color field paintings which include Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, etc. 

Barnett Newman, Onement 1, 1948

Mark Rothko, No. 61 (Rust and Blue), 1953

I really wish I could write more but apparently I've spent too much time on this, neglecting my other homework.There is a whole lot more about expressionism. Reading about art history is so much more exciting than solving math, just saying.