Paper reflecting on journal entries about 350 words
Paper reflecting on journal entries
you will be asked to summarize your entries and discuss them in a more continuous narrative. This will give you the opportunity to reflect upon possible patterns of thought in the issues and ideas you have been grappling with. Make this summary, analysis and reflection upon your experience a couple of paragraphs, about 350
In order to help make these observations more meaningful to you, we would like you now to reflect back on what you've written, to see if there are any patterns of interest or thinking that you may have followed (that possibly may not have been fully conscious to you at the time). Think of this as a kind of intellectual auto-biography in brief.
Journal #1
One of idea brought my mind that paintings considered as a window. This point is different from looking at a picture. From where I stand or sit in a room and take a look outside through the window. The world looks very different from our own point of view. This means that people see the world in different opinion. My mind may see that the view is beautiful from through window, but it may not be interesting in other. I just stand there thinking about if the artists want to show people what they are thinking. In my opinion, they want us to look a wide view. I believe that the window is our eyes. We should look around and see the paintings by seeing the world through our own eyes.
#2
This last week, professor Tronzo mentioned a famous statue that is the David. The first thing that comes to my mind is how perfect and detailed he looks. He stands there and shows us how confidence he exudes. The fact that the David was the first free-standing nude sculpture since ancient. I recognized from the David that his confidence represents an ideal of human potential. The David is as the symbol of the strength. As today, people become increasingly aware of their health. One of point to reveal a good health that is body. I saw that much people work out or do exercise to practice their body to be strong. This idea is also one of reason that the art is always present among our life.
#3
The Lack of Presence in Selfies
Selfies, although often narcissistic, have become a symbol for our generation, and can be seen as a form of art. Unfortunately, these self images often lack a sense of presence that is, in the eyes of many artists, an important element of artwork, especially in forms of portraiture.
What started out as an innocent concept became an overly popular form of self flattery and artificiality. While scrolling through these self “portraits” on various forms of social media can be enjoyable, it can be noted that the vast majority of these images lack a certain aspect of enchantment that most other forms of portraiture embody. For example, in the wildly famous painting, Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the subject of the portrait feels eerily present to the viewer. The subject’s eyes almost seem to gaze deep into the viewer’s soul, and its personality is present, as it invokes a sense of curiosity in the viewer.
This beautiful example of portraiture directly contrasts with most selfies, as the subjects in selfies are often artificially smiling or trying to look their best in an artificial way. This unnatural and unpresent nature of the subject makes it nearly impossible for the viewer to fully experience the work of art and engage in “conversation” with the subject. This lack of interactiveness diminishes the overall effect of the portrait, and takes away from the visual and exploratory interest that portraits often have.
#4
Last week in lecture, we talked a lot about Christ and how the bread and wine was a transformation for the body and blood of Jesus himself. Thus, I believe this is a form of liturgy because it involves both an official and a spiritual benefit. The bread and wine are blessed by the priest and then give to the community. Therefore, in a sense, God becomes physically present when receiving the bread and wine. As a result, the community and God are bonding or interacting together whether that may be through prayer or one physically feels His presence there as well. Upon liturgy, also comes devotion, where one wants to create a relationship with God or any spiritual being for that matter and most of the time it’s shown through prayer. There was a part of time in my life where I was devoted to God, came to church every Sunday, listened to the priest’s words and stories, and had those moments of silence where I could pray to Him and feel like He would listen to me or my prayers. Yet, as I get older, I became less devoted to God, and I focused more on my studies and extracurriculars. It’s not that I didn’t care about my relationship with Him anymore, but rather I had too many things going in my life at the time. However, whenever I was in a bad place in life or was worried about financial situations or exams, I would always pray to Him to help me get through it and I know it will get better in the long run. So I guess one can say I still have a relationship with God, but just not as consistent as it was when I was younger.
#5
Last week we covered the term chiaroscuro which is a technique that basically focuses on one part of the painting through a contrast of lighting. For an example, we looked at “The Calling of Saint Matthew” by Caravaggio and observed how the lighting put an emphasis on the men at the table and left God in the shadows. The first thing I thought about when looking at this technique was how it’s very common today to see the very same technique used in not paintings, but movies. Think about it, we’ve all witnessed that scene where the teenager tries sneaking back into their dark house after sneaking out and then a light reveals a mother’s stern face, followed by the famous “where have you been?” line. Or in a scary movie where a the killer’s face is shown for half a second from the passing of a flashlight. Movies today still use the same technique from hundreds of years ago to focus on specific things and it amazes me how painters back then like Caravaggio had the technique down so well.
#6
In John Berger reading, he outlined the use of oil paintings depict the objects of the bourgeoisie class throughout history as well as the general development of subject matter within oil paintings. The author talks about how a painting is really just a way to show how wealthy the owner really is. Color photography in advertising is similar to traditional oil painting because they are both able to reproduce the color, texture, and tangibility of objects. The difference between them is that color photography can show you what is missing from ones life. Publicity uses art to make people envious of things they don’t have and uses that envy to make them buy it. Publicity uses envy to its advantage because they make people believe that they can spend a large sum of money and buy whatever they want. And when they buy all the new products and spend a lot of money, they will become more lovable. Today, oil paintings are still more valuable. A lot of famous oil paintings were auction for million dollars. People who are very rich buy expensive paintings to evidence their wealth and authority.
In the article “Avant Garde and Kitsch” Clement Greenberg discusses how modernist art was used as a means to keep society from being dumbed down by consumerism. Today this is known as capitalism and it has ravaged America. There are still people who use avant garde and modernist art works to resists this type government style. In the article Greenberg discusses how other artists and writers were people who used these styles to make a point about the consumerism that was creating a stir in this country as well as others. Greenberg contends that when social structures are tested in a general public, the standard masterful reaction is to rigidify the fine purposes of style and shape, topic and variety.
#8
In the article “Avant Garde and Kitsch” Clement Greenberg discusses how modernist art was used as a means to keep society from being dumbed down by consumerism. Today this is known as capitalism and it has ravaged America. There are still people who use avant garde and modernist art works to resists this type government style. In the article Greenberg discusses how other artists and writers were people who used these styles to make a point about the consumerism that was creating a stir in this country as well as others. Greenberg contends that when social structures are tested in a general public, the standard masterful reaction is to rigidify the fine purposes of style and shape, topic and variety.