Color Body Painting Project

Instead of painting nine color compositions in monochromatic, complimentary, and analogous schemes, our group decided to incorporate performance art with color. We chose to do this because all of us had already done something very similar to this color mixing exercise in high school, so we then proposed the body paint idea. We used non toxic tempera paint to paint color compositions onto our skin in varying arrangements. We designated each of our four group members for a role; Chris would be monochromatic, Bart would be analogous, and Paulette and I would be complimentary. We designated that I would get the paints by next week, and then that class we would paint each other, and present it near the end of class.
I bought the paints which totaled about thirteen dollars, and we will then split the cost between the four of us. The next class we began to sketch out what we planned to paint on each other. We painted Bart first, and decided that analogous seemed to be the most "wild", or varied, color scheme, so we painted him with both geometric and organic shapes, including facial warpaint, in a variety of red analogous colors. The next up was Paulette and myself, since we were both the complimentary scheme. For this composition we used bands of tape to section off our arms from the elbow to the hand. On my left arm the band closest to my elbow we painted full green, and for each band getting closer to my hand, we added more red paint to the green, finally reaching a muddy brown at my hand. We did the same to Paulette except with red on her arm. The final person was Chris, who we used a monochromatic composition on. We wanted to make it very geometric, so we used removable tape to section off portions of his back according to basic anatomical structure. For example, we taped about twelve small squares down a line on top of his spine, and three triangular "ribs" on either side. As Paulette taped, I painted varying shades and tints of red. After we were all complete we stood in front of the white wall to present it. Paulette stood to my right and we both help our arms so that our fists met in the center, where the color was exactly the same, and Chris turned around and stood facing the wall. I feel that this exercise helped me in my Fine Art major because it not only taught me more about color, but also about performance art. In fact I found this to be more helpful in learning about performance art than the activities we completed last semester. Overall, I really enjoyed it and found it to be fun and educational project.

Color Mixing Blog

As I sat at my desk mixing seven different shades of yellow mixed with violet, I was definately wondering how this would really help me in my art school career. I figured that if we are already in art college, certainly everyone already knows how to mix color. As I continued to mix each different shade of yellow, it became more apparent that this activity did in fact serve a useful purpose. I began to realize that this was actually somewhat helpful in learning about the interactions of colors. Watching the yellow turn to a progressivley more repulsive shade of brown allowed me to see the exact progression on the hue when it is mixed with its compliment.
I picked the color yellow for my color mixing project because it is my least favorite color out of the primaries, so I wouldn't feel as bad wasting so much paint. After completing the assignment, my opinion really hasn't changed greatly. I think i dislike yellow less, but it is still nowhere close to my favorite color. Yellow just doesn't hold any appeal for me at all, maybe because it always seems that unpleasant items are yellow in color. Things such as peeling old wall paper, lemons, plastic raincoats, and greasy potato chips, just to name a few. It's basically such an obnoxious color, and it usually dominates anything in a color scheme unless used very sparingly.

Color wheel blog

After completing my acrylic paint version of the Munsell color wheel, I took the time to research other color wheel organizations, since the Munsell system is often said to be flawed. I found several models online, including a cube, a cone, and several graphs. I found the double cone model, also called HSV, to be the most easily understandable. HSV stands for Hue, Saturation, and Lightness, which is exactly what the model demonstrates. It has a central vertical axis which represents value, and at the top is pure white, and at the very bottom is pure black, with middle grey in the very middle. Around this middle grey mark the double cone extends to its widest points, and at the very edge of that widest circle each hue or color is at its full saturation. The further in towards the center you move, the less saturated each hue becomes as it moves toward the middle grey.
Also, as you move down towards the bottom of the upside down cone, the hues become less saturated, and darker since it is moving towards pure black. The opposite applies for moving up in the direction of the top of the cone, where the value is becoming lighter. These factors provide a clear explanation for the naming of this model. This model was developed in the the 1970's for the purpose of being visually comprehendable, unlike many of the graphs. It took Munsell's theory and built off of it, and it is still in use today especially for computer graphics.

Color Context

The first object, or rather group or objects, is extremely brightly colored candy in the shapes of various assorted pieces of fruit. They are clearly very artificial colors, only roughly based off of the original fruit. They are however effective in attracting attention, particuarly for children as a target audience. They are cute inexpensive small pieces of candy in a dispensing machine of about a child's height. In these candies, the particular color clearly does not make a difference in the actual taste difference, so it is obviously only there for attracting buyers. The colors present here, such as canary yellow, and cerulean blue are fairly fast, energetic colors, likely intended to make the buyer want to grab some candy and go. They are not muted earthy tones, but instead rather frenzied and lively, and the entire assortment seems quite chaotic. Overall, these candy colors are meant to quickly grab the viewer's attention to buy some, then continue with their shopping.

The second object is an arrangement of pink and white roses, as well as red and white roses. With this color combination, Valentine's day immediatly springs to mind. These colors are actually natural, since they are on real flowers, and they certainly imply love and caring, since people give each other roses on Valentine's day to show those exact emotions. In this situation the red certainly does not infer "anger" or "danger", but instead affection. The white contrasts aesthetically well with the red or pink, but it also ads a slight angelic quality. These colors when used on flowers clearly indicate love and attachment, quite the opposite from any red danger signs for example.

Sol LeWitt Conceptual Art blog

This activity was very unique because I have never done any type of conceptual art before. It was certainly a new experience, and it was interesting not only to see the end product, but also the process required to get there. The end product, the compliation of the curved and straight lines, was visually not appealing to me personally due to the fact that there was no real focal point, and I just did not find it to be visually engaging. However, it became interesting to look at once I tought more about the idea behind it, about letting chance take many smaller parts to make a big one with connecting lines. It was engaging following the different lines with my eyes and watching where they converged and where they ended. I had previously learned just a small amount about Sol LeWitt and how he would have other people execute his art, but I didn't quite understand it completely until now.

Performance Art Blog

Today we performed our our proposals in class, having everyone do various different roles. I participated in two, the first was Sara's proposal, and the second was Jill's proposal. Sara's involved taking pieces of paper and writing your name on it, then randomly selecting one and imitating the person who's name is on it. This was somewhat difficult due to the set time was a minute. It seemed that the other group members and I ran out of things to say and imitate, and it might have worked better and with less awkward silent time if the limit had been thirty seconds. I had to imitated Jill, and I did so using a piece of paper rolled up to look like a cigarette, and a little dialogue. However everyone had a hard time filling the one minute time span. The second one I performed in was with Thiana, and it involved stepping on each other's shoes and walking briefly. It was challenging since I'm several inches shorter, but it worked fine eventually. It involved balance and a clear space to be performed in. It also took less time, since there was no specific set limit, but instead just as much time as it needed for completion.
My proposal was entirely conversation based and it involved a two people speaking alternating sentences to each other, but with the first letter of the first word going in alphabetical order. In my opinion it was pretty successful since Chris and Diana were able to hold their conversation without too much pausing or hesitation. They completed it within a few minutes, but still without a time limit. It started with longer more coherent sentences, then progressed toward short phrases, and then to just one word at a time. The conversation made less sense towards the end, but it was also more humorous. Overall I think it worked out well and even though it wasn't a very physically based performance, it had a good overall outcome.

Fluxus Blog

Fluxus was an art movement that was strongest in the nineteen sixties, and had similar ties to the Dada movement. Like Dada it was somewhat "anti-art", meaning traditional conventional art, but it was not as socially rebellious and anarchical as Dada was, but instead more positive and constructive. It did focus on simplicity over complexity, and also combined aesthetics with other art mediums, such as music. Both Marcel Duchamp and Allan Kaprow were very influential to this movement, particularly Kaprow's "happenings", which greatly influenced the Fluxus performance art. However, the Fluxus performance art was slightly different than the "happenings" because it was meant to be simple to oppose the popular culture music, poetry, and other art forms. The "happenings" were somewhat more complex than the Fluxus performances, which were frequently not dialogue based, but instead action based. They were also more brief and not meant to blur art and reality but instead focus on simple tasks and aspects of life and bring them to attention. Overall, it was about the artist's actions, opinions, and intent, not about the end product that they make.

information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus