writing

Juana Basilia Sitmelelene (Chumash, 1782–1838), coin basket ca. 1815–1822

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

Indigenous artists/videos/podcasts to check out - thank you to Marisa for compiling this list!

Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax) https://galan.in/ ****Speaking Nov. 5 at Colloquium****

Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock Indian Nation) https://www.jeremynative.com/

Bobby Wilson (Dakota) https://themoth.org/storytellers/bobby-wilson

Nani Chacon (Dinè x Xicana) https://www.instagram.com/nanibah/?hl=en

Cannupa Hanska Luger Destroying His Stereotypes: The Barrymore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHKbkCazdDo

All my relations: Indigenous Artist Series https://open.spotify.com/episode/0iWozhN2sLdAMkTscSFBCz

PBS Short Film Festival | Sweetheart Dancers | PBS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUryZDWD6V4

Bryology (MOSS) with Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer https://www.alieward.com/ologies/bryology

****Dr. Kimmerer will be speaking October 15th at 6pm at UCSB’s MCC - https://mcc.sa.ucsb.edu/node/2389****

Nicholas Galanin

Shadow on the land, an excavation and bush burial

2020 earthworks, archaeological dig tools, barriers 43.5' x 26.5' x 5.5’

Hyde Park, Sydney Australia

On decolonizing art & design:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hbymt6a3zz044xF_LCqGfTmXJip3cetj5sHlxZEjtJ4/edit

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfdc20/10/1?nav=tocList&

http://thepoliticsofdesign.com/

To understand the place of decolonization within design, it’s vital to first get our terms straight. “Colonization” is rooted in indigenous peoples’ experiences of oppression—specifically, the seizure of native resources, as

well as the embedding of Western ideology into society. The word “decolonization” was originally used to describe the withdrawal of a state from a former colony. Now, decolonization has come to represent a whole host of ideas: It’s an acknowledgement that in the West, society has been built upon the colonization of other nations, that we exist within a system of privilege and oppression, and that a lot of the culture we’ve come to

see as ours has actually been appropriated or stolen.

- Anoushka Khandwala https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-does-it-mean-to-decolonize-design/

The Organization of Space: Composition and Form

instinct + skill the secret of successful art-making is...

curiosity responsibility - know your references

creativity risk

hard work resourcefulness

embrace glitches/accidents process

persistence failure

a disregard for perfection (it doesn’t exist)

picture plane: a flat level plane occupied by the surface of the picture

picture frame: boundary of the picture/image VS

ways of looking

looking out vs looking in

looking at looking

looking at looking

Divisions of the Picture Plane: Proportion & Shape

composition: the placement or arrangement of visual elements or 'ingredients' in a work of art

Gerhard Richter, Skull, 1983

Albrecht Durer, c1500 woodblock print

Rembrandt

ways of creating visual interest

POSITIVE & NEGATIVE SPACE CROPPING

SCALE AND PROPORTION OVERLAPPING

TRANSPARENCY SYMMETRY

APPROXIMATE SYMMETRY ASYMMETRY

CENTERED COMPOSITION DIAGONAL

SOFT CURVE, S-CURVE GRID

Negative space

(surrounding and encroaching)

Negative space Use of negative space in making other images

Carmen Herrera, 1960, Blanco y Verde (painting)

Gordon Walters, Painting No. 1, 1965 (koru motif)

Rubin’s Vase, Edgar Rubin, 1915 ambiguous or bi-stable (reversing)

Cropping extending to or beyond the edge of frame (also known as “bleeding”) for dramatic effect, or the effect that the

image goes beyond the frame

Pieter Boel, Etudes d’un Perroquet, c.1650, .98x1.30m

Luc Tuymans, Der Diagnostische Blick IV (The Diagnostic View IV), 1992. Oil on canvas, 22 3/8 x 15 inches

Alexandra Rubinstein, Shower Boss, 24" x 24", Oil on Canvas

Jessica Irish from Digit series 1997-98 ink jet print

Scale

Size: physical magnitude, bulk or extent

Scale: A distinctive relative size, degree

or extent

Issey Miyake magazine ad 1998

Jeff Wall The Giant,

1992, duratrans photograph

over lightbox 15x19”

Video of Toba Khedoori’s Untitled (chain-link fence), 1996, oil & wax on paper, 11’x20’

Ryan McGinness, from Flatnessisgod

Overlapping

Giotto, Lamentation, 1305, fresco, Arena Chapel Padua, Italy

Lari Pittman, Untitled, 1989-90, Alkyd paint on printed paper

Symmetry the quality of being made up of exactly similar parts facing each

other or around an axis

Radial symmetry

symmetry around a central axis, as in a starfish or a

tulip flower

Jay DeFeo, The Rose, 1958-66. Oil

with wood and mica on canvas, 128 7/8 × 92 1/4 × 11 in. (327.3 × 234.3 × 27.9 cm)

Judy Chicago, Heaven for White Men Only, 1973, sprayed acrylic 80x80”

Hina Aoyama, papercuts

Approximate Symmetry

Approximate or Dissymmetry: denotes objects/images which show symmetry in their general features, but wherein

the symmetry is slightly distorted

Portrait of Gabrielle d'Estrées and Duchess of Villars, unknown artist, School of Fontainebleau, c.1594

Herbert Bayer, Lonesome Big City Dweller, 1932, photomontage gelatin silver print , 34x27cm

Diego Rivera, Communication Vessels, 1938, woodcut ad for the poet Andre Breton

Minnie Evans, Untitled (landscape - many faces), 1959-61, mixed media 20x24”

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991, clocks 13.5” each

Asymmetry = not symmetrical

15 minute break

***When you come back - have an image that exemplifies one of the terms we have just gone over (cropping, scale, different kinds

of symmetry) as your Zoom virtual background. If you can’t change your background, drop a link or image into the chat!

1. To change Zoom background: 2. Click Settings. 3. Click Virtual Background.... 4. Click on an image to select the desired virtual background or add your own image by

clicking +Add Image. ... 5. To disable Virtual Background, choose the option None. 6.

C E N T E R E D

Alice Neel, Rose of Sharin, 1973, oil 40x30” Imogene Cummingham, Chris Through the Curtain, 1972, Polaroid mistake

Diagonal

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Don't buy us with apologies), 1986, photostat print

Margaret Kilgallen, Linda Mar, 1999, Color Spitbite And Sugarlift Aquatint With Soft Ground, 660 x 483 mm (26 x 19 in.)

Jacob Lawrence, Cabinet Makers, detail, 1946, gouache with pencil 22x30”

Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (Beer Dream), 1998, laser direct C-Print, 50x60”

Golden Ratio 3:5

Golden rectangle: Width is to length as length is to length plus width (w:1 as 1:1 + w).

the grid

Gail Swanlund, designer, Snowflake Magazine, 1997-98

Jenny Holzer, Inflammatory Essays, 1979-82, offset prints

17x17” each

Georgia O'Keeffe. Door Through Window, 1956. Oil on canvas, 30 x 14 inches

Keith Secola Jr, Threading Pages, 2019

Ellen Gallagher, Preserve (one of an edition), 2001

Fumio Tachibana, Untitled, 1999, paper, wood, metal, fabric bookcovers

Figure / Ground Relationships

Figure: An object or foreground element.

Ground: The space or volume between figures or forms.

Figure and ground relationships allow us to recognize borders and boundaries.

Jordan Casteel, “Serwaa and Amoakohene,” 2019

Carole Caroompas, unknown title painting, c. 1985

Tattoo on Jack Rudy

Robert Mapplethorpe, unknown title, from the Black

Box series c. 1985

Visual Hierarchy vs

Random Importance of Elements

Visual hierarchy refers to the arrangement or presentation of elements in a way that implies importance. In other words, visual hierarchy influences the order in which the human eye perceives what it sees. This order is created by the visual contrast between forms in a field of perception.

Chris Ware, from Building Stories, graphic novel in pieces, 2016

Georges de La Tour Magdalene with the Smoking Flame c. 1640 Oil on canvas 128 cm × 94 cm (50 in × 37 in)

Barry McGee, Untitled, 2005-13, 400 elements mixed media, 192”x270”x55”

supplies needed this week: x-acto knife

scissors ruler

pencil glue stick

cutting mat tracing paper white paper

black construction paper Gouache or acrylic paints

Nōtan a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark elements as they are placed next to the other in

the composition of art and imagery.

Studio Projects: Giving Form to Qualities

1. Exercise: Cut Paper/Notan - Make three 6”x6” compositions using black cut paper on white to evoke the following: chaos, tension, serenity. One should have radial symmetry, one should have bilateral symmetry and one should be asymmetrical. No representational imagery or non-cutting manipulation of the paper.

2. Project 2: Visual Hierarchy Painting Construct a hierarchical composition using shapes. Use pre-existing image sources (magazines, books, photographs, etc) for the work and/or create your own.

Process: 1. Trace elements from your sources on separate pieces of tracing paper, building an archive of source images to pull

from. 2. Using those elements, create a composition within a designated frame that you trace onto a single larger sheet of

tracing paper. You are encouraged to crop, overlap, confuse, invent from your sources. Avoid being too literal, cliché, centering ‘subjects’ or using whole images from found sources. A hierarchical composition is where the viewer can identify some items as more important than others; in a way, you are guiding the viewer in how to see and move through your image.

3. Paint will be the last step - medium grey, black and white (use the white of the paper as the white value). Gouache is best here!

Project objectives: Learning to achieve visual interest through composition (balance, tension, visual weight, dynamism, proportion, scale, cropping, asymmetry, etc.), imaginative results from limited resources, manipulating pre-existing sources. Supplies needed: pencil and eraser, x-acto knife or scissors, tracing paper, found magazines and other print material, ruler, gouache paints.