Back Again

The second time I saw the piece of the plate and cup, I came to the realization that the piece was primarily a pattern. This came to me I think because of the last project, and that I was supposed to sketch the plate and all I could think was 'Oh. It's a pattern." which makes sense because I love patterns, and we're doing them in 2D too, cool how the classes mix like that.
So I talked about colors a lot last time, but to branch off the questions, the colors definitely attracted me to the piece. Well, the round shape contributed, if it were a square I'd probably have been mush less interested, but the colors came first. They're bright and demanding but how they're organized calms that enough that it doesn't overwhelm me or push me away. Second time looking at it, don't remember what it was the first time, but the red definitely stands out to me most. Probably has something to do with the red dot in the center radiating out.
I can't really think of a time it draws me to, the colors make me think of playgrounds, and the one that's in a park in my neighborhood. The colors are too dark though, then it starts to remind me of color charts. I can't remember if I've ever seen a primary colors color chart, but this would be one. I could carry it around to remind me of them and it would work brilliantly.
Also, smell? I smell my cherry eucalyptus cough drops.
I wanted to say that the piece felt smaller the second time I saw it too, and it wasn't as exciting of a discovery. I knew exactly where it was, so I wasn't a little lost in the museum, and lost in the room. Also I knew what I was looking for, so the colors still helped me find it and made it stand out but they weren't a surprise.

Maddie

I just want to say that I checked with the Blick in Allentown, a craft store, and a teacher's presentation store, and asked around if any of them knew where to get paper that's 5 feet by 5 feet without any results.
I think my favorite part of this assignment was the patterns. 

I apologize for taking so long to upload it here.
I've been asleep...a lot.  I'm not...totally better yet, but there's vast improvement, and I'm don't look like I'm going to fall over every time I stand up.

I took a couple pictures because I don't have anywhere to tack up the drawing and I can't really get one good angle when it's on the floor.
I'll take a better picture eventually.
OH YEAH.
I drew Maddie Hussar.   Also her hair totally looks like that sometimes, it just fades really fast.
I'm not just color-happy.

Red, Blue, and Yellow.

I went to the Penn Musuem with Maddie and Corinne on Saturday, right before they closed up their 'tempory exhibit of the Silk Road'.  For the record this temporary exhibit consisted of print outs of the objects on display until the 18th when they'll have the actual relics up. It was kind of hilarious going into the room and realizing that none of the artifacts were there, I guess that was a learning experienc, always research your trips.  Although I enjoyed seeing the "fake" exhibit, and how people visiting the museum spent less time experiencing the "objects" and more time reading about them.  Considering how difficult it can be to educate people in musuems, I was interested that people paid more attention to the information, even though the artifacts weren't there, which are normally what gives people reason to read about them.  So the exhibit was able to function without them, maybe even more efficiently as far as learning is concerned. Quite a surreal experience.
Back on the topic of color though, since the majority of pieces at the Penn Musuem are older works of art, and are a majority of objects made out of natural materials, most color schemes were neutral browns and greys, but that made it just easier to spot the colorful pieces.  The rarity of unnatural colors too helped the more colorful pieces stand out amongst other scultptures and objects.  I knew that the African exhibit would have more colorful objects or patterns, but most of the room was still very earthy and nothing really drew me into it.  The walls and floor were neutral, although a dark, vibrant blue wall was the first thing you saw before going into the exhibit, up against a bright orange stamped cloth, and the relationship between those two appeared much more thought out than the actual exhibit.  A ceramic plate in blue and white was the first thing to catch my eye in the room, because it stood out against the browns.  Taking my time slowly through the room, I found colorful bead work and sculpture, but it was the object sitting behind the white and blue ceramic plate that really caught my eye.  At first I didn't see it because it doesn't face the entrance, but after circling the room, and almost missing it, there it was.

 

After exploring a room that was almost entirely composed in earth tones, this plate captured my attention instantly.  It wasn't necessarily larger or smaller than anything else in the room, most of the objects were roughly similar in size, so it was really only the extreme difference in palate that caught my eye.  It made everything else in the room appear so much duller.  It's easy to find different hues even with a brown wood carving, but when set up against the bright, primary colors in small close proximity to one another, it's no question which stands out.  The colors are bordered with thin lines in geometric and almost architectural forms and it reminds me of stained glass, which I absolutely love.  It almost didn't seem to fit into the geographical setting because of images of European cathedrals that came to mind.  

The plate included a cup along with it, but I have to admit that I didn't find the cup nearly as fascinating as the plate.  I know that's partially because I love circular pieces with definition centers that focus all of your attention at first.  The shape of the plate really lends itself to the rings of designs, while the cup's curves don't necessarily enforce them quite like the plate does.  Also the designs on the sides of the cute start to lose the architectural arches and polygon shapes that the plate has.

There appears to only be about 4 colors used in the plate, red, blue, yellow, and teal/pearly green. The green is downplayed compared to the primary colors and yellow and blue in particular.  Red is only used as a circular form to accept the alternating blues and yellows com positionally. The red dots are very beautiful in their clearly hand-crafted, slight uneven placement and size. The complexity of the design with the bright colors feels festive, or celebratory in some manner.  I'm glad that the lighter green color is used as a soft alternative to the vibrant pure hues of red, blue, and yellow.  Also how it's most prominent in the center of the plate, and the inside of the cup, and in both the cup and plate, the areas with the most light green are the areas I spot first. 

The more I looked at it, I noticed tiny little dots inside the blue and yellow shapes within the arched shapes.  They started to look like really abstract one eyed monsters that were staring out at me from a fantasy environment.  Of course this would have been slightly creepy if not for the fact that I had already established in my mind that the piece wasn't worrisome, but happy.  Yet, the colors don't really make me think of a fantastical setting, just something bright and festive, something worth being happy about.  The brightness is overpowering, but the size doesn't make it took much.  It's not something that you can't handle, but if the plate were larger, it'd stop making me feel happy.  I can imagine being very unnerved or weak in its presence if it were larger.  Even when looking close up, I get lose in the shapes and start to feel like it's pushing me away from it.

I think it's safe to say that the primary colors objectively work together on the plate, because they are the most basic of hues.  But the placement of the plate in a room of relatively colorless objects, I think makes it more of a novelty, and hiding it from the initial viewing of the exhibit it an interesting decision of placement in a room.  I think a lot of people would have a hard time placing it in the African room though, and might be disconcerted with its presence. I'm afraid I didn't find the time period, and the picture of the labels I took is blurred, but I do have two link for the exhibit.

http://www.penn.museum/long-term-exhibits/259-african-gallery.html
http://www.penn.museum/about-our-collections/220-african-section.html

Oh and I didn't find anyone else down in the exhibit, although I would have liked to seen people missing it at first because of it's position.

Blue and Red

 

So I just realized I never ubdated my blog with my black drawing, but I guess that's because I didn't take it with me after class and I didn't photograph it before class.

I still don't have it, but I did find this work in progress picture I took.  I was taking pictures in grey scale to see how close to a black I was getting with the colors. 

Although this shows how...fixated...I am in drawing.  It works for me, I know it shouldn't though. 

I think doing it in oil pastels was a poor decision as well, and I only discovered that spraying it made it easier to layer colors once I had finished it.

 Dark blue, red, and brown were my favored colors until I started running out of them and then I loved green.