Thursday's Class Meets in the back lobby of the CMA

Bring your CCAD ID!

Photos For Discussion 9.29.09

Hi folks:  

I'm a late posting these; we'll discuss these (and the Baskin pieces) in class today. 

More Arbus at this link:  

http://diane-arbus-photography.com/index.html

Baskin Images

Hopper, Rooms by the Sea (1952)

Unit Two Schedule

Hi folks,

Here is the tentative schedule for Unit Two.  For Thurs., please read the two essays listed below (both in Poets on Painters), and take a quick glance at the paintings here on the Picnic Table (and one in P on P).  They should compliment the Moore and Strand essays.  If you have any questions, do not hesitate to e-mail (jbutts@ccad.edu or teacupsaucer78@gmail.com). If I don't hear from you, I will assume this all makes sense. I may add a reading or two, if it seems like we need more examples.  Expect quizzes.  See you all on Thurs.

 

9/22    Introduce Prompt

9/23   Read Moore on Robert Andrew Parker, pp. 38-43 and Strand on Edward Hopper, pp. 339-43 both in P on P. Look at samples by Parker and Hopper on the Picnic Table (below).  Also look at Hopper’s House by the Railroad in the glossy print section in the middle of P on P (around page 125).

 

9/29   Read Hughes on Leonard Baskin, pp. 289-309 in P on P. Look at Baskin samples on The Picnic Table.

10/1   Meet in the back lobby of the CMA during our regular class period for a museum activity.

10/6   MLA Day (Bring Rules for Writers to class); Sample Student Writing (handout)

10/8   Peer Review Draft Due (bring three copies)

 

10/13   Essay Two Due (First Draft)

Robert Andrew Parker (1927- )

Pug

Cow in Field 1

Good Boy

Dog

Untitled

Hopper (1882-1967)

11 A.M. (1926)

Morning Sun (1952)

New York Movie (1939)

Room in New York (1932)

Nighthawks (1942)

Essay Two Prompt:

Essay Two:  Critical Analysis of an Image

 

For this essay you are required to analyze an image.  You may choose to either analyze a painting, a photograph, or an advertisement. An analysis essentially means that you break something down—you take something apart—in order to understand how certain components work to make the whole.  So if you are analyzing a painting or photograph, you will discuss the use of color, texture, proportion, etc. If you choose to write about a print advertisement, then you will discuss similar things; however, there will likely be some kind of text (in which case things like font choice and use of slogans become important).  In either case, each component needs to be discussed at length. If you choose to discuss an advert for cologne, the use of color, for example, will need a fully developed paragraph. 

 

In addition to discussing the components, you will also have to discuss the effect of these components as a whole.  What was the painter/photographer/ad maker trying to achieve with this image?  For example, why does Edward Hopper’s work often feature rigid lines and dimensions?  What is he trying to say through the use of these shapes?  If working with an ad, the ad maker is obviously trying to sell a product, but how is she trying to sell a product? If the ad is for a Lexus, what is she trying to achieve by showing the middle-aged couple pulling up to a valet stand?  Why does the man have silver hair?  Why is the wife dressed in navy blue?

 

Once you have considered the larger goals of the image—the message, if you will—I want you to take this one step further and discuss the cultural context.  That is, what does the Hopper piece say about America during his time?  What does the Lexus advert say about America right now?  It might help to think about your image as if it were an artifact. If someone two hundred years from now found this Lexus ad, what would it tell him about our culture? For this part of the essay, you are required to use at least one outside source?  For example, if writing about a Renaissance painting, it will help if you know a bit about the Renaissance.  

 

The Protocol:

You must focus on a single image, not a series of advertisements, photographs, or paintings.  You are allowed to refer to other work (i.e. Picasso’s “blue period”), but the analysis has to be about a single image. 

You are not allowed to analyze a commercial, or film: no moving pictures.

3-4 pages (typed in 12 pt. Times New Roman with 1-inch margins).

Use a staple to pierce and bind the 3-4 pages

MLA guidelines must be followed for the outside source(s), including a Works Cited Page.

Do not “ape” another writer’s analysis (that is, do not find someone else’s analysis of a the same image and use each of their points to construct your analysis).

Peer Review 9.17

Overall, we are here to focus on issues of clarity—on a sentence level, sure, but more importantly, on a narrative level.  You are not expected to proofread your peers’ essays. Keep your oral comments general in nature.  If you note an awkward sentence, write AWK in the margins and continue to read along.  

As a group of three, decide who wants to go first.  This writer will read his or her essay aloud. Readers: make notes as this person reads.  This way, you will have plenty to say (and to point to) when it's time for discussion.  The writer should feel free to add any comments as these issues are discussed, but be sure to note that anything you say can and probably should be included in your essay.

1. Readers: take turns talking about what details/scenes/paragraphs catch your interest the most? In other words, what aspects of the essay are working really well?

 2. Readers: talk about areas where you were intrigued by certain aspects of the story, but feel there could have been more clarity?   

 3.  Readers: What's going on with the title?  Is there a title?  What about the first paragraph? Does it get your attention?  Are the details specific?  Do you feel like another paragraph might be a better opening?

 4.  Readers: What about the ending paragraph?  Is there an adequate ending? Does the last paragraph feel like a proper closer?

 5.  Writers:  Read the concern, or question that you had at the beginning of class. Then, well, seek advice for this and other things, as needed.   

Required Reading for Tues., 9.15

For next Tuesday's class (9.15), you must print out the essay below (I mean it: print it out... no excuses). Then, read it--carefully.  As you read the essay, make notes in the margins.  What are your thoughts as you read?  

Up From the Basement

      I ran a fish store. After drawing a colorful fish on a piece of paper, I would cut it out, attach it to a piece of clear string, and dangle it from the top rim of a glass fish bowl (so the fish was swimming in the bowl). Then, I would pour beads in the bottom. Sometimes, if I felt really adventurous, I would even draw some seaweed and put that in the bottom with the beads. I sold all colors and all varieties at very meager prices. I also created the money which was used to purchase the fish and the other goods in the town. I was seven.

            A game of “shops” would take place in the basement.  Not just any basement, though. This was Charlotte’s basement. Charlotte was a person who I always called my adopted grandmother. There was no real adoption involved, it was just because we were so close. Charlotte was my next door neighbor, and I spent a lot of my childhood at her house— and a lot of that time was spent in the basement. I didn’t visit her because I had to, I visited because I wanted to.

            Sometimes my best friends Jill and Julia would come with me to play in the basement, they lived in the neighborhood also. We played “shops” quite a lot. I always liked it because I got to make things. Jill and Julia often got bored faster than I did, not just with this, but with a lot of things. The basement was bursting with opportunities for creativity. Charlotte kept so many different crafty things, like beads, paper, strings, and she even had random things like the fish bowls— a good reason to run a fish store. Charlotte always encouraged my creativity, and so did my sister.

            My sister, Maya, is nine years older than me, so she helped raise me. Maya was always interested in art, which played a major role in my interest. I would ask her each time she was working on something new to show me how she had done it. The best part about learning from my sister was her patience, something most teenagers don’t have for little kids (especially when it’s their younger sibling). Maya has been a major influence on my life. She was a much better art teacher than any of the teachers I had in high school, ones who actually had the title. More important than the art techniques she taught me was that she taught me patience.

            My sophomore year of high school, my art teacher asked me if I knew what I wanted to do in college. I told her I wanted to go to an art school and probably study graphic design. She told me there wasn’t much demand for graphic design anymore (which I knew wasn’t true) and that I should go to a liberal arts school instead. But that was her last year teaching at my high school.

            Something else Maya did for me was introduce me to Adobe Illustrator which sparked a further interest in graphic design. My junior year of high school, I brought in my first completed Illustrator piece to school so I could submit it in a competition. When my teacher saw this, she immediately asked me if I would make the poster for the spring musical, Guys and Dolls. I did, and she was pleased with the results. The next year, even though she wasn’t my art teacher anymore, she asked me to design the posters for the fall and spring plays. I really enjoyed making these posters, so it made me even more certain that I wanted to major in graphic design.

            Recently, someone told me that I should never stop doing art. I don't think that would even be possible. I can't stop doing art. Art is just as much a part of my life as brushing my teeth—and much more interesting too. If there is paper in front of me, and I have something that leaves a mark, I'll draw on it. If there are scissors too, I'll cut it. If there's clay in front of me, I'll sculpt it. Wire? I'll bend it. I do it almost absent-mindedly. I love art. I love to create. I love the whole process from the first idea to the final product, no matter what medium I'm working in. You just can't stop me.

            I fill my sketchbooks with a very random mixture of drawings and doodles, and sometimes I end up with something that’s perfect for something else, or I just want to design further. I love typography. I am really interested in the form of the alphabet and I love to design my own fonts and lettering. I also love sculpture. I like working with clay and found objects. I also enjoy exploring many other art forms.

            I don't create just because I'm hoping to hear someone say, "Oh my, this certainly is the best piece of art I have ever seen." I just make art because it’s what I want to do, regardless of what people think of it. In my pieces, I like to make something that may evoke a story or a further concept. Each person who looks at a single piece might have a different idea about it. This is part of what I love about art— hearing the wide range of reactions and thoughts that come from a single work of art. Whether I’m making fish in the basement, or pursuing my passions here at Columbus College of Art and Design— I don't do art to be famous, I do art to be me.

Two Things to Note While Watching

1.  What do you think this film says about the life of the artist?  What do you learn from this story, as an artist?

2.  What narrative techniques does the filmmaker employ to tell this story?  What film tricks, if you will, are used?  Of these, can you think of a way in which you could use a similar technique when telling your story.  In short: what can you steal? 

A preview of Tuesday...

here:

Images for 9.3

"Sardines"

O'Hara on the phone

Two of Stein and Alice B. Toklas  

Stein, painted by Picasso

Images for 9.3

Matisse, "Woman in a Purple Coat"

Cezanne, "Choquet Seated"

da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne

Two Millets, "The Gleaners" and "Man with a Hoe"

Please Print and Read this Poem for Thurs. (9.3) and the Stein from Poets on Painters.

Why I Am Not a Painter

I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,

for instance, Mike Goldberg
is starting a painting. I drop in.
"Sit down and have a drink" he
says. I drink; we drink. I look
up. "You have SARDINES in it."
"Yes, it needed something there."
"Oh." I go and the days go by
and I drop in again. The painting
is going on, and I go, and the days
go by. I drop in. The painting is 
finished. "Where's SARDINES?"
All that's left is just
letters, "It was too much," Mike says.

But me? One day I am thinking of
a color: orange. I write a line
about orange. Pretty soon it is a 
whole page of words, not lines.
Then another page. There should be
so much more, not of orange, of
words, of how terrible orange is
and life. Days go by. It is even in
prose, I am a real poet. My poem
is finished and I haven't mentioned
orange yet. It's twelve poems, I call
it ORANGES. And one day in a gallery
I see Mike's painting, called SARDINES.