Assignment 5

With I think of jazz music, It makes me think of the blues. Overwhelming trumpet sounds with a smooth piano background. Jazz music reminds me of the African American culture, New Orleans, and the 1920's through the 1940's. Jazz music originated in Europe and migrated to New Orleans in the early 1900's. Primarily, musicians of jazz music were African American, but was played by all races. What makes jazz unique to the United States is that it was one of the first types of music played on the radio. Early radio's and recording studios were beginning to form around the time jazz music really took off. Jazz is an interesting word and really has no meaning (a type of music). Jazz lets musicians play as how they feel. For example, blues, swing music, and be-bop.

The instruments of Peter and the Wolf Characters:
Peter: string instruments
Bird: flute
duck: oboe
wolf: french horns
Grandfather: bassoon
hunters: woodwind

Classical music is a peaceful type of music that was very popular in the late 1800's to early 1900's, although many people still listen to it today. It really helps to sooth and concentrate while working on any given task. Beethoven, Mozart, and Sebastian Bach are some of the most famous classical composers of all time. Their music originated in the 1500's and is still listen to in the 21st century, which shows how popular classical music is.

Assignment #4

This is a picture of South Quadrangle dorm. The first thing that stands out to me are the columns. You can see that they are of the ionic structure. At the top they are very defined as the circle back toward the ground which is called the capitol of the column. The base of the column is squared off, and have defined lines cutting through the base of the column. The arch at the bottom of the building is very unique. It leads to the basement and has two glass doors. I think installing arch instead of a more squared off opening really gives the building flare. It is very beautiful and the brickwork around the arch makes it look even better. The large bricks are laid in a stretching coarse pattern, except around the arch. The bricks are laid around the arch and meets the stretching coarse pattern, This breaks up the pattern of the brinks and gives it a unique look. I think the style of this building is greek revival. The large columns and and the large dome on top of the building give it away as a greek revival style.

Assignment #4 (Art Film)

1) The establishing shot for me in this movie was a shot where you saw tiny furniture and a girl standing in the middle of them, her heel larger than all the furniture. The shot was taken in her house, where most of the film took place. It helped to back up the choice of the title for this movie, otherwise I don't know what the title had to do with the movie. The movie was very slow developing with a lot of dry humor. It was easy to tell this because the establishing shot did not come until 30 minutes into the movie.

2) I didn't see many interesting camera angels. To me the film looked like it was operating on a very low budget so there were not that many opportunities for a lot of camera angels. There was one scene where they were in  lead pipe (having sex?) and the camera angel was looking through the pipe at them. I would have had the camera just placed on the outside of the pipe to where you just saw the pipe and heard their voices. 

3) There was no story line in this film. It was possible the worst movie I have ever witnessed. The story line was dumb, had no meaning, and the movie felt like it was dragging the entire length of the film. The story line (from what I got) was a fresh out of college grad looking for a job in film making, finds out that life is very hard. She realized that she had to grow up a little and stop relying of her mom. She is a big girl  now and needs to take a little responsibility for her actions. The scene that made me feel most uncomfortable was when she had sex in a lead pipe in the middle of the street with a chef from the restaurant she was currently working at. The chef had a girl friend and was looking for a "good time". I would not recommend this movie to anyone!

4) Main Characters in the film:

Aura: Main character that just returned home from college. She gets little attention from her family when she moves back in. Just recently broke up with her boyfriend, and finds out that life is very hard! She is the narrator of the film.

Nadine: Aura's sister, she makes it very hard for Aura, showing her no attention and making fun of her most of the film. Throughout the film Nadine and Aura grow closer.

Charlotte: Aura's long lost best friend from when they were little. She is a bad influence on Aura from wardrobe to making bad choices.(using drugs). My vote for best character in the film. She did a wonderful job of filling her character position of dumb and witty at the same time.

Keith: Aura's co-worker (chef) whom she has desperate sex with in a metal pipe. 

5) The soundtrack of this film was dull. There were not that many times that background music was used; which to me took away from the film. There should have been a lot more background music in this film that would have given it a little more life. 

6) The genre of this film is DULL comedy. I think Lane Dunham was going for comedy when she wrote this film, but miserably failed. You have to have the most dry sense of humor to get any type of  laugh out of this movie. 

7) I believe the message of this film was a good one, through disguised by horrible acting and dry humor. It showed me how hard it is for college graduates to "find" themselves after wrapping up their college careers. No job, not much help from mom, its time to grow up and start making a career for yourself. Get out find a job, maybe its what you want to do, maybe not, but at least find some steady income. Get your life on track; stop making stupid college life decisions and take some responsibility for your actions. You can not be vulnerable when graduating college. There are many things you have to overcome and there will not be much sympathy for you. Overall this was a horrible film that I will never see again . 

Assignment 3

1) One thing that I do everyday is go on a jog. Every afternoon I put on my favorite running shoes (nike air max), underarmour shorts, grab my ipod touch, and take a stroll around campus. I leave east quad and always go down towards Blatt. I take in the scenery as if I had never seen it before. Looking down at the students on Blatt field playing lacross or soccer. The two teams in same color uniforms resembling two army squads ready to attack one another. I'll run down to the bridge that goes over Assembly St. by the Strom. The cars zoom past me underneath so loud that they are heard over my music. As I run by Strom I look up in the windows and see all the people on the treadmills, wondering to myself wheres the fun in running in one place? They are really missing out on a chance to take in some fresh air and unique scenery. I make my way past the Kroger Center and on to the Colonial Life Arena. The Basketball team is usually practicing by this time and I'll catch them walking in and see them goofing off before practice. I circle the Arena and head back to the dorm. Instead of going down to Blatt, I will take Blossom St. back to East Quad. Another day another jog, same route, but always something different. Not only does it make me feel better physically, but also mentally and emotionally.

2) After listening to the music for just a couple of seconds, the first thing that came to my mind was pizza. Therefore in the middle of my paper is a big pizza. The song was Italian so it made me a think of a pizza parlor. The next thing that came to mind was the movie V for Vendetta, so there is a large V over the pizza. After listening to the song for a minute or so the song began to make me feel sad and depressed. It sounded like he was longing for a lost lover that was never coming back. My picture has shaded black all around the corners of the paper and surrounds the pizza and the letter V.  Overall my picture has a depressed, sort of erie felling about it. Its not very colorful or bright, more dark and gloomy.

3) The Establishing shot in a movie or TV show introduces us to the setting of the scene and where most of the action will take place. It usually involves the main characters or objects as well. The establishing shot in a movie is very important because it tells us where the scene takes place, who the main characters are, and the relationships between the main characters and the setting. Usually the establishing shot will use a famous landmark to help identify where the movie is taking place. Time Square in New York, or the Golden Gate Bridge in California for example. We already know where the movie is taking place right when we see these landmarks.

Assignment #2

The four domains of creativity in art are fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Fluency in art terms is generating many ideas, for instance brainstorming before creating artwork. We can filter through many ideas before we finally come to grips on what we want to do with our artwork. Flexibility is being able to generate different types of ideas or thinking outside the box. We have to be able to to look at our artwork from a different perspective. A good question to ask yourself when creating art is what will people that look at your artwork see? What will they feel when they see you're artwork? Will they be able to understand what you are trying to portray with your art? Originality is generating unusual ideas. Being able to come up with something different is very hard when there is so many different types of art out there. More than likely there has been a pice already published with the same ideas that you have. The hard part is making it original. We have to be able to come up with something different that hasn't been done before so we can get credit for it. Finally elaboration is adding ideas to improve your artwork. Most of the time the art can always be improved. You have to think in the mindset of a perfectionist. Every detail has to be perfect. This can also be hard. Coming up with ideas that make your artwork better when you already think it is the best there is. 

The Feldman Method of Art Criticism is compiled of for steps: describe, analyze, interpret, and judge or evaluate. When describing artwork you ask yourself the question, what do I see? Take the artwork and describe what it means to you. Analyzing artwork is digging a little bit deeper into describing it. Get more information about the piece. Find out when it was done and a little more about the illustrator. Use the elements of art such as line, balance, shape, and form to describe the work. Interpreting the artwork is trying to find out what the artists meaning is behind the work. Find out the purpose behind the artwork and was on the authors mind while illustrating the piece. When you judge and evaluate the art, compile all of what you criticized and determine if the artwork is successful. Is it easy to interpret what the author was saying? Did the artwork effect you in a positive way, or anyway at all? Does the artwork rank in the top 10 of your favorite pieces of art. Being able to criticize art with the Feldman method will really make it easy to pick your favorite artwork and will make you a better artist in general.

Assignment #1

1) I believe that we make art all the time. Drawings, paintings, sculptures: these are the main focusses when we think of art. I think that we make art everyday, sketching during class, singing in the shower, taking pictures and uploading them on facebook, these are all ways that we create art on an everyday basis. My favorite type of art is photographs. I love big framed photos of football and baseball stadiums. I also really like the photographs taken in the low country and at the beach.

2) I used to take art in an art studio when I was 11. We made drawings, water paintings, and stained glass portraits.

3) It has been a while since I have been to an art museum. I don't know that I have ever been in an art museum. I was 12 the last time I was in an art studio, however I took an arte 101 class my freshman semester so that has to count for something.

4) I have been to several plays at the Kroger Center. We took a field trip in high school to see the Phantom of the Oprah and it is one of my favorite plays of all time. Unfortunately I am not a big dancer, I would love to learn though.

5) I believe I learn the most when it is hands on learning. I hate sitting in a lecture hall listening to a boring lecture, when I could be gaining experience with hands on learning.

6) I am taking this class because it is a fine arts elective for the Physical Education major. I also really appreciate artwork.

7) I appreciate good artwork, and when I see a painting that the illustrator has put a lot of time and effort into the art, it does move me and makes me feel proud for the illustrator, not knowing him personally.

8) I love listening to old inspiring speeches by coaches. I am a PE major so I really can appreciate a good pep talk or inspiring speech right before a big game. Also music inspires me. I like to listen to music while I workout, do homework, pretty much all the time.

9) Art can be whatever we want it to be. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, television, music movies, buildings. Art is everywhere.

10) Yes! I consider all of these art. Each one of these take time to perfect and there are several different things that go into making a great movie, tv show, or video game.

11) I think we all have different opinions on "good" art. For me personally, I don't think Picasso is good art, but to someone else it might be the best there is.

12) My friends and I have similar but different taste in music. We all like most of the same artist and songs,  but we do differ on some things. For me, I hate screamo music, and they like some of that. I like country and rap, and they don't like most of that. But we all have different interest and we compromise on most music.

13) I think Toy Story 3 was the best movie of 2010. The best movie of all time is Top Gun!

14) I'm not really sure what an art film is. Maybe it is any movie. I believe that movies are all art so that makes every movie an art film/

15) Im not sure I understand this question. The song on my Ipod right now "Right Above It" - Lil Wayne.