"Chelsea Galleries Reaction"

I really fell in love with the Yossi Milo Gallery. All of Charles Fréger's works are hanging all over the walls, they instantly caught my attention. What I love about Fréger's work is that, it's simplistic, and it's not at the same time. There were two works of his that really had me standing there staring at them for some time. The first work is a picture of an animal/creature (I have no idea what it is) I have never seen before just standing in a snow filled landscape. Maybe the fact that I've never seen this animal before caught my attention, but what really had me thinking was why did Fréger use a snow/winter like landscape as a backdrop. The second picture that drew me in was a picture of something else I've never seen before. To me the closest thing I can resemble it to is a yeti. It has a weird looking pitch fork, red and black socks/boots I'm not quite sure what they are which I believe makes the picture even more interesting. Similar like the first picture it has a simple background. The yeti like creature is placed in a simple, suburban like landscape. In the end I think Fréger's intentions were to have the viewers imagination wander. Even though the background is simple the creatures are so complex and also the imagination trying to think of why did he use certain things. I would invest in these works of art, I would display these in my house. I would love seeing people's opinions on these paintings and the trip their imagination takes them on. Plus I would love to continue looking at these wonderful works of art whenever I wanted to.

Zhang Xiaogang's works of art in the "Pace" gallery is something I wouldn't invest in on the other hand. I really just didn't resonate with the works, but that's just me. I'm sure someone else would fall in love with Xiaogang's works. I just don't see the allure to them, I wouldn't want to display them in my house for example. I simply don't like them, I could just sit here and go on a diatribe about these works. The thing is there's no need for that, because I wouldn't invest in this because they just don't fit with me like I said earlier. I think all of Xiaogang's works are really creative, they're filled with so much detail, but it just something I would not spend tons of money on it. The asking price on these works are crazy. Someone else might spend millions to have these works but I wouldn't spend a cent on these. This ultimately always comes down to your opinion and taste.

Yossi Milo Gallery

Charles Fréger
"Chirapa (Goat)"
2010-2011

Charles Fréger
"Busó"
2010-2011

The "Pace" Gallery

Zhang Xiaogang
"Young Woman" Painted Bronze
2013

Zhang Xiaogang
"Young Woman"
2013

"Fake O'keeffe"

This painting looks exactly like one of O’Keeffe’s artworks. O’Keeffe had such a huge fascination with flowers, in the paintings of her flowers the flowers were filled with so much detail, and she liked capturing the essence of the flower. In this painting I believe it is filled with so much detail like O’Keeffe’s previous works. O’Keeffe when she made her paintings of flowers, she liked zooming into the flower. Maybe it was because she wanted people’s imagination to wander when people looked at her paintings, or maybe it was for the viewers to pick up on the little details of the artwork. This O’Keeffe picture embodies all of that. This work of art has a certain ambiance to it, it provides space to let your imagination see this painting a different way than someone else would. The style of the painting is similar to her previous paintings. Maybe I’m reading too into this painting but to me this is filled with so much calmness, and peacefulness. I really do love this work of art, maybe you’ll see why I love this painting so much, or maybe you won’t. Either way, as long as you admire this painting I feel like it has done its job.

Illustrate a Story

What I found really interesting about this story is that, Daniel decided to make a huge sacrifice to not let down his fellow marines. Before that Daniel has actually preformed at the "Met". Daniel went to the marines for deployment training and messed up 3 of his fingers and Daniel knew he would be giving up his dream of playing the piano if he decided to cut his finger off and he did. He kept his promise.
A lot of elements of the story are included in the picture. I tried to be really creative by using the silhouettes. If you haven't noticed I put a silhouette of a kid which represents Daniel when he really loved playing the piano, then I put a silhouette of an older Daniel in the middle of the picture which shows that he's torn between going to the Marines, or playing the piano. And finally, the silhouette of the full grown adult represents that Daniel knows what he wants to do, and has stuck with it.

http://storycorps.org/listen/daniel-and-evelyn-hodd/

Design in Our Lives

In our everyday lives we use so many things. But, some of them are less functional than others. I will be talking about four objects, and showing where I categorize them in "High Functionality" and "Low Functionality". Everyone's entitled to their own opinion and I'm sure there will be people that disagree with my sentiment, because of course everyone has their different perspectives. But, I'll hopefully make you think other wise once you read what I have to say.
Let's start off with something that I'm sure is very, very familiar to everybody. “Pac-Man” By Toru Iwatani. This game was revolutionary, you will find this arcade game Everywhere. This game is being enjoyed by everyone around the world till this day. Laundromats, arcades, stores, etc. you will find Pac-Man everywhere. If you couldn't tell by all of my praises that I definitely classify Pac-Man as "High Functionality"
The "Mine Kafon Wind-Powered Deminer" By, Massoud Hassani is a great invention. What this wind powered deminer does is, roll over unexploded landlines which is so wonderful because it keeps so many people safe from harm. This is innovative, I believe this will help create many more convenient things like this that keep our people safe. This can be used during war to help our soldiers, and the best thing about this is that its bamboo and biodegradable plastic parts could be salvaged and reassembled into another Mine Kafon. No helpful recourses have to be used to create another one
"The Pig Wings Project" By, Oron Catts, Ionat Burr, and Guy Ben-Ary. Once I researched about this I automatically put this on the "Low Functionality" category. Basically what this is, is that these men are trying to figure out how to make pigs fly by using human DNA. This project also has pictures of what these people believe how the pig wings would look like. I shouldn't even continue talking about this, I'm sure you guys already think this is ridiculous. I don't think this is useful, at all. I hope I don't sound harsh, but I have no idea how flying pigs is going to benefit us.
Last but not least, "Babel Blocks" By, Constatin Boym, and Laurene Leon Boym of Boym Partners inc. These "Babel Blocks" were designed to spread a message of tolerance, and understanding. These action figures are representing New York's cultural, and religious diversity. I believe this is "low functionality" because if they're trying to spread a message, I don't think they're doing a good job because when I saw them at MoMa that was the first time I have ever seen these action figures. I haven't even heard about them. I like their intentions, but I can't classify this as highly functional.
Ultimately, this is all my opinion. Everyone else may have different opinions, and I love that. I love people pointing out reasons why I'm wrong about a certain thing. People can totally disagree with the things I put in my low, and high functionality categories, but in the end there's no "right" or "wrong" answer when it comes to this.


Toru Iwatani
“Pac-Man”
Video Game
1980-1981

Massoud Hassani
"Mine Kafon Wind-Powered Deminer"
Bamboo & Biodegradable Plastics
2011

Oron Catts, Ionat Burr, and Guy Ben-Ary
The Pig Wings Project"
Pigs
2000-2001

Constatin Boym, and Laurene Leon Boym of Boym Partners inc.
"Babel Blocks"
Blocks
2007-2012

Art and Identity: The Museum of Modern Art

In this writing, I will be discussing three works of art. I will be talking about "A Starry Night" By Van Gogh, "The Entombment of Christ" By Michelangelo Caravaggio, and finally the "Mona Lisa" By Leonardo da Vinci. All of these works of art embody the idea of a individual identity. Cultural. Historical & personal. The wonderful thing is that I think these pieces of art fit in two, maybe in all three of those category's.
To start this off, I will begin with Caravaggio's "The Entombment of Christ" painting. I believe this work of art embody's a historical event because, obviously The Entombment of Christ is a kind of like a big deal. Enough with the sarcasm. Caravaggio wanted to depict his own version of the event. Clearly he wasn't there, but people such as Baglione & Bellori really admired this painting. This work of art was revolutionary, his depiction of this historical event can almost be accurate. The emotion on the people's faces, their actions & this painting is filled with so much detail, and you won't pick up on some things until you read more about this amazing painting.
"A Starry Night" By Van Gogh. One of my very own personal favorites. I believe this work of art embodies culture. This panting depicts Van Gogh's view from the outside of his "Sanitarium room" window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. This painting is so beautiful it shows a part of southern France at night and I think this painting embodies culture, because of the way the buildings are structured, the houses, textures, & even the colors used in this painting. When I saw this work of art at MoMa it easily stood out amongst every other painting in the same room.
Last but not least in this paragraph I will be talking about the very, very, very famous. "Mona Lisa" By Leonardo da Vinci. This painting is a "half-length portrait of a woman", this work of art is probably thee most talked about painting, and/or well known painting in the world. I think this work of art easily falls in the category of the idea of individual identity. This painting is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini. Most of us who don't know much about the painting look at it and wonder things like, "who is she?", "what kind of person was she", "why did da Vinci paint her". That's what's wonderful about this work of art, it makes us think. It makes us have so many questions, and just stare at the painting noticing everything around it, absorbing everything.
All three of these works of art weren't randomly picked. These three paintings are some of my personal favorites. I haven't had the luxury to see some of these in person, but I really do genuinely love these paintings. One of the things I was torn with was that, I thought "The Starry Night" & "The Entombment of Christ" could have been switched around. I was thinking about putting "The Starry Night" in the Historical place category, and "The Entombment of Christ" in the culture category. That pretty much answers the question of how I think they overlap with each other. But, I feel confident that the category I put them in, fit.


The artworks used:

Michelangelo Caravaggio
"The Entombment of Christ"
Oil on canvas
1602-1603

Vincent Van Gogh
"The Starry Night"
Oil on canvas
1889

Leonardo da Vinci
"Mona Lisa"
Oil on poplar
1503-1519

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entombment_of_Christ_(Caravaggio)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa