My visit to the Albright Knox this afternoon was exciting. I had done a quick walk through the gallery with another class but hadn’t gotten to look very closely at the new work that had been hung up. Robert Colescott’s acrylic painting titled Feeling His Oats, painted in 1988, left an impression on me because of its large scale. This work was about 8x12 feet. The artist used bright colorful and hurried brush strokes. There was a lot going on and my eyes enjoyed finding small things such as the pair of rats on the right side of the painting. 

Jennifer Bartlett’s In the Garden II #6 had a similar impact on me regarding the brushstrokes. Painted in 1981 and roughly 3x4.5 feet each, two boards hang next to each other. The media is enamel, glass silkscreen and steel. The left panel is clear and has colorful, expressive brushstrokes and the right is white with a thin grey grid. Inside each square on the grid is a colored dot which is only noticeable close up. From far away, the image of a figure at the end of some kind of pool is more legible. 

I felt a connection to Joan Linder’s Yellow Weed  made in 2016. Her ink on paper drawing reminded me of the small plants I draw in the margins of my notebooks. I enjoy delicate looking things and even at 12x4 feet, it had a light and elegant look to it. It inspired me to enlarge one of my drawings to an exceptionally large scale. I also really enjoyed the monochromatic pen markings that were sketchy up close but created a full image from farther back. 

The second piece I felt a connection with was Sigmar Polke’s Break Domination painted in 1998. It was about 4x4 feet and was mixed media. It reminded me of the series of paintings I did in high school that had some extra component that made it more than a painting. I really liked how the wire mesh in the background of the painting was subtle and added a sparkle to the marbled resin. 

I saw Francois Morellet’s Geometree No. 51 and had a few questions. First I wondered if this was the only one of its kind but that question was quickly answered by looking at the information card. It’s number 51 so there must be at least 50 before it. I wondered what natural objects were used in the other paintings. Were they all tree branches? What kind of tree is it from and how does he choose which one to use? Further research needs to be done. 

I was also curious about Dan Flavin’s blue, pink, and yellow fluorescent light sculpture from 1971 titled Untitled (to Donna). Who is Donna? Did he make this for a lover? Does it symbolize positive or negative feelings? If I had to make an educated guess, I would say positive because of how it made me feel standing in front of it. The light was warm and not too bright. The colors reflected on the faces of my friends when they got closer and made their eyes light up. I also wondered if it is always displayed in the corner of a gallery. I imagined how the light would shine on the walls if it were flat on a wall, maybe the pink and yellow would mix. 

This was not my first time creating a value scale or color wheel. With four years of fine arts training, I have made a value scale more times than I can count. It is always good practice. I was eager to work with the acrylic paint because it's not something I do often. I don't usually like it because it dries quickly but that worked in my favor for this particular assignment. Also whenever I've done a color wheel we always use red, yellow, and blue. In my creation of these studies it was interesting to see magenta and cyan make blue. Cyan is already pretty close to blue so I couldn't envision it happening. 

With the help of the video I was guided to make a color wheel. The most important information I was given I learned how cyan, magenta, and yellow can make basically any color, even black.  I liked how the videos were informative and very straight to the point.

MODULE 2
1. For each video and article list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
2. Which philosopher's theory on aesthetics do you feel is most important? Be sure to mention the philosophers name, era (time in history), and contribution to the aesthetic theory in your response.
3. What do you think about Changeux and Ramachandran scientific view of aesthetics and art? What was the most interesting fact you discovered from each speakers lecture?
4. How do the videos and article relate to the readings in the text?
5. What is your opinion of the films and article? How do they add depth to understanding of the topics in your reading in the text?

1. Aesthetics: Plato- all things are beautiful in a way. Beauty and desire are connected, erotic appeal of beauty. This is not pure. Art confuses the authentic and the fake for the viewer.
Aristotle- feelings aroused by art or beauty is good for a person, atleast in moderation. His theory is a rebuttal to Plato's criticisms. Beauty is a mathematic equation of measurements and symmetry.
Hutcheson- beauty and good go hand-in-hand. Both are origins of God
Neitzsche- "only art can replace old mythologies"

There are many different definitions of art and it depends who you ask. Philosophers return to religion and sinful/not sinful to label beauty and art as a whole. 

2. It seems as though Aristotle does not take morals or political and religious reasoning into describing aesthetics and beauty which is a bit unusual for 300 BC, where everything is about religion. His reasoning is mostly scientific which is why I lean towards his theory.Yes, everything can be beautiful in its own way, but according to Aristotle, the human brain forms opinions on what is or isn't appealing to look at based on measurements and facts. It is even proven that babies favor looking at a more symmetrical face. When you are fresh out of the womb it is hard to have strong opinions on what you do and don't like looking at. This type of study lends itself to Aristotle's theory on aesthetics. 

3. The scientific view of art and aesthetics made a lot of sense to me. It was helpful how Changeux started from the beginning of human existence. Each speaker provided logical reasoning to why people feel the way they do about art. For example, aesthetic efficacy explains how art can effect a person through emotion and reason. When looking at a work of art it provokes feelings and emotion and those effects are seen in the brain. Ramachandran even stated that "science and art meet in the brain,". The scientists included facts from studies on symmetry and aesthetics on the brain throughout the video as well as personal stories. This supportive material made their points more convincing and legitimate.

4. What the videos, article, and reading all have in common is the confirmation that art is subjective but when returning to the basics of aesthetics and what is technically defined as visually pleasing, the brain is the main decision maker. People are still contributing to the argument with research and opinions today. 

5. When reading the chapters in the book, I had points from the videos and article in the back of my head supplementing the points made in the text. The video of philosophy and aesthetics complimented with the video of the scientists really showed me both approaches to aesthetics. This can be applied to understanding why an artist made certain decisions within an artwork.Also, if an artist knows how the viewer's brain is going to react when they see something, they might choose to include or omit that component. 

MODULE 1

1. How was the process of creating the GMail account and setting up the Blog?

2. What do you expect to learn in this course?

3. How do you feel about taking an online course?

4. What three things in the Growth Mindset videos do you believe most apply to you?

1. I had a personal gmail account already that I use for things not related to school so I set up my Art Inquiry blog through that. 

2. In this course, I expect to learn how to write about art after analyzing and interpreting it. When first looking at a piece of art it is easy to judge it simply on how it looks. I think this class will teach me what questions to ask myself when viewing a painting for the first time. I will be able to take account the historical content of the time period it was made in or even the personality or temperament of the artist.  From the knowledge I gain from this class I hope to be able to then transfer these thoughts or information to writing.

3. I am nervous to take an online course because I fear the deadlines will be hard to remember. So far, I have written all due dates in my calendar. Hopefully I will remember to use my calendar. I am a forgetful person. for an additional reminder, I printed out the module schedule. It has each blog and discussion group assignment listed so I can cross them off as I complete them throughout the week which is pretty satisfying. I plan on hanging this list on the wall somewhere I'll see it everyday.

One thing I like about having a class online is I can do the assignments at my leisure as long as they're done at the end of the week. I also like how I don't have to go to a class. Sometimes motivating yourself to get up and physically go to the class is the hardest part. I promise I'm not that lazy. I'm making myself sound like a horrible student. 

4. It was hard to get past the bad acting or script reading (whatever that was) and the sentence long hashtags (do they know how hashtags work?) in the Growth Mindset videos. When I started listening to what they were saying, they had some good points. One guy mentioned balancing school and work. Teachers understand students have to work because they are paying for college. I like how many of my professors offer textbooks at the library so I don't have to buy them. This saves me hundreds of dollars a semester. 

One "student" talked about exploring Buffalo and finding cool spots. During my free time or breaks my friends and I like to leave campus to get lunch or walk around. It is important to keep doing this and explore further outside campus to get to know the city and try everything it has to offer. If you just go to school and then go home, it's just like high school and going to class becomes a chore or something you don't look forward to.  

The same guy said how even though he is having fun exploring Buffalo he is still able to maintain a relationship with his family at home. I have learned to make frequent trips home at least every other weekend. This is easy for me to do since my parents live in the suburbs outside of Buffalo. This semester I should try to make phone calls to my mom and dad more frequent especially if I won't be seeing them that week.