Context blog entry

I definitely think that the venues we went to affected how I interacted with the work. I think that some of the more fancy venues made me feel like I couldn't get as close to the work because of being so special. But on the other hand, the venues definitely legitimized the work I saw. It seemed to me that the bigger and more fancy a venue was the more legit the work inside of it seemed. The smaller venues with less art in them made the work seem less important.

Artist research #3 Gustave Caillebotte

Artist Info: Gustave was a French painter. He believed that he painted with realism and always found himself as painting things to look more realistic than other artists did. What I think interested me about the artist was how real his paintings look. I also like that he often puts buildings in this paintings.
Artist webpage: http://www.gustavcaillebotte.org/
More pictures by the artist:

Artist research #2 Bernat Martorell

Artist Info: Martorell was a Spanish painter. His style was an Early Renaissance style. He is known as a leading artist but not much about his life is know to the world.
Artist webpage: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/m/martorel/biograph.html
Other works of art by Martorell:

artist research #1 Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

Artist info: Joaquin was an artist from Spain who focussed mostly on portraits and landscapes. I think the reason that I responded to Joaquin's work was because of the use of colors that attracted my eye.
link to website: http://www.joaquin-sorolla-y-bastida.org/
Another piece of work by Joaquin I found online:

Sketch #3! The Bean!

We loved the bean so much, I just had to sketch it! And of course threw in some stick figures taking pictures of themselves in it!

Sketch #2!

I loved looking up at the tall buildings so I took a really quick sketch of one on our walk to another museum. Sorry for how light it is, its pretty hard to draw while walking.

Sketch #1

The bull again! I loved taking pictures with the bull so I figured I would sketch it too!

Playoff season!

The coolest mask in the window of the Illinois Institute of Art was the baseball mask! Or maybe I was just pumped about the Tigers doing well in the post-season. But the grass and other details on the mask were so cool looking! The artist of this mask definitely drew my attention!

The Illinois Institute of Art

When we visited the Illinois Institute of Art the coolest part was the masks they had in the window. They were all so colorful and full of detail! They really drew attention to the building!

So Pretty

In the Cultural Center was the most amazing glass dome in the ceiling! It was all glass and so pretty! Definitely the coolest part of the Cultural Center.

The Chicago Cultural Center

The Chicago Cultural Center was SO beautiful! As soon as I walked in the door my breath was taken away! I loved the staircase that welcomes you through the door. By far my favorite part of the Cultural Center

Art on the way to see art!

Art was everywhere in Chicago! Even on our way to other museums we saw art on the street! The coolest piece was the bull in front of the Chicago Cultural Center. Once again, the five year old in me wanted to sit on the bull so badly!

Shopping Spree!

Well not really, after walking the isles of Blick for what felt like all day, I decided to splurge and buy myself... drumroll please... A whole Chamois cloth! I know, not very exciting. But I needed it.

Blick!!!

What a weird name...
I have never been so overwhelmed by so many art supplies! I had so much fun walking up and down the isles. It was like walking around Michaels at home times ten! It even had an escalator in it!

The Guitars!

The coolest wall hangings in The Arts and Artisans Gallery by far were all of the different guitars. I loved looking at them! I could only imagine how fun it would be to decorate a room with a bunch of them! Then I looked at the prices and backed away from them! But they were still fun to look at and even take a picture or two of!

DO NOT TOUCH IT!

We went into The Arts and Artisans Gallery and I was immediately scared for the money in my bank account. Every piece of art in the Gallery had prices on it... EXTREMELY HIGH PRICES! And of course, all of these expensive pieces of art looked like they would break if I even looked at them wrong! But of course everything was so fun looking! I loved all of the colors in the store. All of the glass wall hangings were my favorite.

Tricked me!

In the Museum of Contemporary Photography I found myself staring at what I thought were photographs of the surface of the moon. They were, what I thought, photocopies of pictures from a book. Then I went over to read the description next to the picture and found out that they were pencil drawings! Jenny Akerlund drew these landscapes while looking at pictures of the moon in a book. The artist even copied the way the pages showed up on the scanner. It was unbelievable!

Contemporary Photography is cool!

We went into the Museum of Contemporary Photography, planning to run in and look "really quick" and ended up staying for awhile! The piece that stood out to me the most was a collage made of 4X6 pictures of the sun. From the entrance this is the first thing you see across the room. At first I thought it was just brightly colored squares with yellow circles in the middle, I didn't get it but thought it was cool anyways, so walked over to get a closer look. Upon further review I realized that each rectangle was a picture of the sun. It was really cool to see all of these different depictions of the sun.

Wow!

There were huge murals on all the walls going up the stairs in the Fine Arts Building too! I was amazed by the size of these paintings up the walls! They interested me because I couldn't imagine myself working on one piece of art for as long as that would take to paint! To spend so much time on something so large seems to hard to me!

More art, everywhere!

Every little simple thing in The Fine Arts Building was decorated to the max with art! Every corner we turned there was more and more detail that caught my eye. Something as simple as the elevator buttons was decorated with the most precise detail.

There is art everywhere!!

Everywhere you turned in The Fine Arts Building there was... ART! Every little thing including the doors! There was one set of double doors that we passed that I found to be SO cool! They had such great detail in the carving of the wood around the entire door, along with the trim around it all hand carved for decoration.

Scary Elevators

So apparently, the only way to get to the top floor of the Fine Arts Building is to use the elevator. (This is a lie) Some guy told us that to get us into the creepy elevator. These elevators were probably the first made elevators ever. We walk into it and there is a guy who runs the elevator! I have never seen that before! He then closed the gates and started to take us up ten floors! We could see each floor as it passed! It was so crazy! But at the same time, so sickening. The picture I got of the elevator is really blurry but I had to put it up as proof that I rode the scariest elevator ever!

I'm Famous, YAY!

Looking at the directory in the Fine Arts Building I came across a Barlow! I knew I had some art in my blood! p.s my last name is Barlow :) 

So of course, I had to take a picture of the name and blog about it as my claim to fame! 

The Fine Arts Building

The Fine Arts Building was a piece of art all on its own, not to mention all of the art inside of it! The stone building intrigued me as we walked around. The inside of even more beautiful! Marble floors, huge staircases, giant murals. I loved it!

Model of Chicago

In the City Space Museum we came across a scale model of the City of Chicago. It was really cool to see such a big city scaled down into a lego-like piece of art. I could have walked around the tiny model all day!  It was like exploring the city without all the annoying walking and traffic!!

My Group!

Not only was Chicago an amazing experience from the art aspect but it was also a great chance to get to know other art majors at MSU. I haven't had much of a chance to get to know any of the students in my classes so the Chicago trip was the perfect opportunity to bond with fellow artists. Throughout the trip we had fun and got along very well so I figured I would put up one of our "Bean" pictures as a shout out to my amazing group!

"The Bean" AKA Cloud Gate

A trip to Chicago is not complete until "The Bean" is visited. The actual name for this piece of art is The Cloud Gate. But everyone refers to it as "The Bean." So of course my group visited Millennium Park to take our endless number of pictures in the mirrored sculpture.

Chicago Buildings

So many buildings! I loved looking at all the tall buildings in Chicago. I'm not from a big city so I'm not used to seeing so many sky scrapers around town. I loved looking up at them and feeling like they were moving because of the clouds moving behind them. It made it look like they were going to fall on us! I also liked how shinny they all were! The architecture of every building there amazed me! I loved it! I took a picture of this building as an example of the many amazing buildings we saw.

lattice steel balls

Three of these Lattice steel balls line the walkway into Millennium Park. There is a yellow one, blue one and white one. I only got a picture of the white one for some reason. Who knows what I was thinking that day. These sculptures stood out to me because all I wanted to do was act like a five year old and climb all over them! They were a fun and exciting way to spice up Millennium Park.

Your guess is better than mine

I seem to have lost my notes for this picture I took. This piano, or form of piano, caught my eye as we quickly walked through a room in the Chicago Art Institute. I'm not even sure why it caught my interest, it doesn't have anything flashy on it, no bright colors, it just stood out. As soon as I saw it I thought, "My mom would like this." So I took a picture of it!

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

While walking through the Chicago Art Institute I couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop and look at the painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. I have been a huge Ferris Bueller fan and love quoting all of the lines with my older brother so, of course, this painting was one I had to stop at. I wish I had on my redwings jersey so I could have had a picture taken of me staring at it like Cameron! 

The Beach and the Falaise

The oil painting, The Beach and the Falasie painted by claude monet was another picture that stuck out to me while in The Chicago Art Institute. There was just something about the oil paintings that grabbed my attention in every room. I loved the way they showed texture.

Paris Street; Rainy Day

The piece, Paris Street; Rainy Day also stood out to me while walking around The Chicago Art Institute. Paris Street; Rainy Day was painted by Gustave Caillebotte. The reason this picture stood out to me is because of the buildings in the background. They stood out to me because the week before we worked on drawing buildings in my drawing class. It amazed me how realistic he made them look in the painting. They really look like they are far behind the two people walking with the umbrella rather than being on the same flat sheet of canvas. 

Near the Lake

This image is a picture I took of the piece, Near the Lake. Near the Lake is an oil painting on canvas by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. What stood out to me about this piece was the texture made by the oils and all of the colors. I loved the detail and how the leaves on the trees looked.

Saint George Killing the Dragon

Another piece of art that stood out to me while we were in the Chicago art Institute was Saint George Killing the Dragon. This piece stood out to me because of the dragon. It literally stood out of the art. I thought it was just a painting but as I got closer I realized that it was carved out of wood and painted. This piece was carved and painted by Bernat Martorell.

Windows on the War

While in the Chicago Art Institute, the wing that grabbed my attention the most was the Windows on the War section. They had old posters and drawings used to recruit young men into the military for world war I and world war II. The poster that grabbed my attention the most was The Second Red Cross War Fund poster. At first when spotting this poster from across the room it just looks like the simple Red Cross logo floating in a war scene, but as I got closer to the poster I realized that it was actually a soldier carrying another injured soldier that a designer had colored and shaped differently to appear as a red cross. This poster was made by McClelland Barclay. This poster stuck out to me because of the Graphic work in it.

Two Sisters

One of the first pictures that I took was of the artwork titled, Two Sisters. This is a picture made of oils on a canvas by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida. This oil painting is located in The Chicago Art Institute. What captivated me about this piece of art was that it hit close to home for me. The two sisters in the picture are both blond and seem to have a significant age difference. This reminded me of my sister and me. At a young age we were both blond and are six years apart in age. When I saw this piece of art I immediately thought of my sister. I guess I was just missing my best friend that day.