Community Connections

Community Connection #3
Christopher Boffoli
March 13, 2012

  • Intricate
  • Unrealistic
  • Thought-provoking
  •  Puzzling

Christopher Boffoli is a photographer and in this particular collection titled “Disparity”, he creates these tiny people/characters and incorporates them into real life objects/foods.  It’s so funny to think about how small these people are in comparison to the foods.  I can’t even imagine how much concentration goes into creating these tiny things.  It’s weird to think about what life would be like if we were that small and every thing else was so big.

Community Connection #2
Carsten Witte
February 28, 2012

  • Eerie
  • Detailing
  • Realistic
  • Shadows

This is a photography collection that is based upon the idea that “everything is constantly changing but photography can preserve the moment. Beauty is almost nothing without the knowledge of how fast it will fade…”.  In his photos, all of the model have skulls painted onto their faces and I think it’s interesting how his description of his work weaves itself into his artwork.  He uses female models, portraying beauty, and while their bodies are left clean and untouched, their faces are covered by skull paintings.  The shadows, cracked details, and tiny holes make the actual paintings very realistic and eerie.  My favorite parts are the hollowed eyes and cheeks because there is such a depth to them.

Community Connection #1
Alexi Torres
February 14, 2012 

  • Intricate
  • Texture
  •  Creative
  • Woven, but not
  • Few colors

Taking a first look at these paintings, they’re almost creepy.  The texture is so fine and the details are very intricate and there are so many details to look at.  It’s interesting because  the shading and the composition of the people in the pictures are very realistic, but the actual people themselves, and how Alex Torres painted them, is very fantastical.  It’s so creative, and this idea is not something that I would’ve ever thought about.  They paintings are woven, but not actually, physically woven, which I find hard to believe because it is so realistic looking.  The only thing that would improve the aesthetics of the painting is if there were more colors added.  The most color he uses is 3, and it’d be awesome to see these paintings with a plethora of colors.

Community Connection #6
Guy Laramee
January 10, 2012

  • Organic
  • Beautiful
  • Scultpure
  • Earthly
  • Landscape

It’s so interesting to see artist, Guy Laramee, transform stacked books into a landscape of some sort.  I would like to know what tools/techniques he uses in order to create the texture of the hills/mountains.  The end product of the finished sculpture is so seemingly simple, but there’s so much depth of them, literally.  I find the fourth piece especially interesting because it’s so realistic.  The color of the mountains and the texture of them seem so real.  It’s a very innovative idea and I also like the angles in which he approached every piece.  The landscapes are all sculpted from different sides/angles of the book and it’s interesting to see the dynamic of the different pieces.

Community Connection #5
Francoise Nielly
December 13, 2011

  • Bright
  • Portraits
  • Sculpture
  • Large
  • Intense

Francoise Nielly has done something that I haven’t really come across yet, maybe due to my lack of knowledge in the art world, but nonetheless I immediately fell in love with her work after seeing just one of her paintings.  She’s managed to create paintings that look as though they’re some kind of sculpture — or at least that’s the way I see them as.  All of her pieces are large portraits, created with the same colored paints.  The video on her website is very interesting and cool to watch because she uses some sort of tool to create that specific effect with the paints.  It’s awesome to see how she interprets the actual photographs of the people she paints because it’s as though she translates the image in her mind, with the different hues and colors of paint, onto canvas.

Community Connection #4
Xu Bing (additional pictures: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/tiger-rug-500000-cigarettes)
November 16, 2011

  • Creativity
  • Interesting
  • Cigarettes…A LOT of them
  • Huge project

A piece in Xu Bing’s Tobacco Project is titles the Tiger Rug.  It is made of 500,00 cigarette, using the different colors (3) of the cigarette to create the the look.  It’s mind-blowing to see how huge this carpet is.  The texture that the cigarettes create is really cool looking and I only wish I could see it in real life.  It’s interesting to see how such a simple concept of laying a bunch of cigarettes down on the floor, can create such a creative and awesome project.  In this collection of words, Xu Bing also created a Tobacco Book and prints on tobacco leaves.

Community Connection #3
Helmut Federle
October 25,2011

  • Dark
  • Illusion
  • Geometry
  • Perspective
  • Tunnel-vision

Federle’s body of work consists of seven acrylic/oil pieces on canvas or linen, five of which are fairly similar looking.  He creates almost an illusion, or a tunnel-vision effect with these geometry, pentagon-shaped figures.  It’s interesting to look at because those five specific pieces are so similar in color and shape, but they’re also very different in composition and size.  The dark colors that he chooses are appealing, and it’s cool to see how he incorporates a little bit of brightness in the last 4 pieces.  The last two pieces are completely different from the first five because they are rectangular shapes instead of pentagons, but it’s obvious that the same artist made them all because of his technique and color composition.

Community Connection #2
Linda Connor
October 4, 2011

  • raw
  • beautiful
  • cultural
  • black/white or sepia
  • thought-provoking

Linda Connor travels a lot, “exploring and investigating spiritual places”.   She clearly fulfills her mission as seen through her photographs because even before I read her biography, I knew exactly what her intention was.  The pictures that specifically struck me were the three or four pictures of actual people in the.  It’s intriguing to see the culture and get the “feel” of what it’s like to live in such a place as Ethiopia or India.  Every photo has a sense of rawness and beauty that is so captivating and representative of the country she is in and I think that really showcases her eye for capturing such photos.  It makes the audience think and wonder about what life would be like in the different countries that he travels to.

Community Connection #1
Paula Hayes – Crystal Gardens (Terrariums)
September 14, 2011

  • sand in glass
  • nature-feel
  • articulation of placement
  • many different colors and elements
  • blown glass

Paula Hayes’s complete body of work has to do with the art of glass-blowing and gardens/nature.  In this particular collection, she explores the concept of creating landscapes made of sand and crystals inside a “bubble” of glass that she blew.  Observing the pictures of her crystal gardens, it’s interesting to see how articulately placed the crystals and different colors of sand were.  There are a lot of different colors within the sand and at first glance, it seems as though it’s an elementary school project, but when I look more closely, it’s really beautiful to look at.  Another thing that is interesting is that the crystals are of completely different forms, and some of them don’t even look like normal crystals.

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2009 – 2010 School Year

Community Connection #4: Floral Photography Collection ( 5.10.10)

  • Clean
  • Vibrant
  • Fresh
  • Calming
  • Focal Point

The six pictures in the mini collection definitely have a sense of unity and togetherness.  They are all taken in a lily pond, with lily pads, and in every picture there is typically one focal point, being the flower.  The photos are all very simple and clean cut.  It has a very refreshing effect when you look at them because of the vibrant colors and the natural feel.  I also find it beautiful that in all of the photos, the details in the flowers and scenery are so intricate and well defined.
http://www.finefloralphotography.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=46

Community Connection #3: Masha Novoselova Photo Collection (4.26.10)

  • Vibrant
  • Natural
  • Earthy
  • Warm colors

Masha Novoselova’s collection of pictures simply oozes an earthly, natural feeling and it may be because of the beautiful backdrop of Africa’s landscape.  The photos give of a very fresh and vibrant vibe, with it’s colorful clothing of Masha and the natives and the different colors of nature.  The pictures are all very warm and welcoming and I chose this collection because of that.  It gives me a little preview of summer and the warmness of the colors really speak to me.

[http://www.fashionising.com/pictures/s--Masha-Novoselova-Vogue-Spain-March-2010-5925-1.html]

Community Connecion #2: Philadelphia (3.17.10)

  • Colorful
  • Powerful
  • Very Large
  • Graffiti-like
  • Raw

I recently went to Philadelphia for maybe the 2nd time in my life.  As i was driving through the lesser fortunate neighborhoods, I couldn’t help but notice all of the humongous murals that were painted on the brick walls.  Most, if not all, had some sort of message behind them relating to African-American power, pride, and unity.  Looking at them gave me a strong sense of inspiration and they really glorified the whole idea of the blacks being one community and working together.  They were all very colorful, practically to the point where it was non-realistic.   I think because of the fact that they were all painted onto brick walls gives it a very raw and natural feeling.

Community Connection #1: Rosemary Bandes Gallery (2.22.10)

  • Landscapes
  • Paint
  • Nature
  • Earth tones
  • Monet-esque feeling
  • Calm

All of the pieces in her gallery very clearly relate to one another. They’re all landscapes of different parts of nature.  She paints in a very soft way, in that there are no definite lines and its almost a blur.  All of the colors she uses are obviously of earth tone. When i look at her paintings, i immediately think of Monet because both artists’ brush strokes seem very similar to me.  In all of the pieces, there is absolutely no actual object (besides the pieces that are non-relative to her paintings).

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Community Connection #4: Jordan Winick – “Places” #2 (1.4.10)

  • Green
  • Unique perspective
  • Aerial view
  • Different landforms
  • Focal point
  • Good composition

When I look at the photographed aerial view of this piece of land, it gives off an immediate feeling of nature (obviously) and a fresh feeling.  The picture is of fields of grass and hilly forests and the focal point is the few bodies of water that are relatively in the center of the picture.  I would say that it has good composition because you can tell that there are different types and elevations of land and not everything is the same size.  Although the picture is 100% green, there are all sorts of different shades of green.  Another thing that I enjoy about this picture is that the hills are so huge in comparison to the forests surrounding the lakes that it kind of threw me off when I first looked at it.  The perspective of the photograph is also interesting because there is only a clear focus on the few lakes and a part of the hills.

Community Connection #3: Dolan Geiman – Constructions (12.1.09)

  • Nature
  • Wood chopped into shades
  • Earth tones/colors
  • Animals
  • Variously different shapes
  • Rugged/worn-out look

There are about fifty different pieces in this collection and they are, for the most part, very distinct and individual pieces.  The theme of all the pieces is wood.  Every one of them is made of wood chopped into different shapes.  Most of the pieces also have some sort of animal in them, most commonly a bird.  The wood is painted with acrylic in earth tones and they all have a very soft feeling to them.  They are 3D, with different sized woods on top of each other and the bird or other focus of the pieces are the ones that are on the outer most layer.  I really like this collection of Dolan Geiman because it has a very soft and friendly appeal to them and all the fifty pieces are so different from each other.

Community Connection #2: Skyscrapers – Exhibition in Philadelphia Museum of Art (10.19.09)

  • Black and white theme
  • Fine lines
  • Very detailed
  • Skilled pencil shading
  • Photographs are very clean
  • Play on lighting

All the pieces in this exhibit obviously have much cleanliness to them, being pictures and pencil sketches of skyscrapers.  All of them, especially the photographs have intriguing perspectives and the lighting of everything makes the pictures very interesting to look at.  With the pencil drawings, they clearly cannot captivate the details and nooks and crannies that the photos have, but they are also interesting to look that.  The different shadings of the pencil bring life to the drawings.  All of the pieces are black and white themed, so it brings a sense of darkness, gloomy-ness, sadness, etc.  From afar, you can’t exactly see the detail of the pencil drawings, but as to zoom into them, you are able to see all the fine lines that the artist made.

Community Connection #1: Howard Smith (9.22.09)

  • Has heavy texture
  • Every piece is different color
  • All pieces are rectangular
  • Mostly oil on canvas pieces
  • Patterns
  • Earthly tones
  • Stokes and structure

Looking at Howard Smith’s artworks, it is evident to any person that he likes to work with the stroking technique and also enjoys oil pastels/paint.  I think that it’s very pleasant to look at Smith’s pieces because from afar, they all just simply look like colored canvases, but as you get closer, you can really see the detail and the texture that he used to compose his pieces.  Not only do they have heavy texture, but there is one particular piece that has all sorts of different color in it.  In his small collection of eight, there is one that is all green. He fills the canvas with all of the little oil pastel strokes and then he leaves the bottom, right corner almost blank, with very little color.  Although I don’t know what Howard Smiths’ intentions were of creating that blank space, it adds a sort of personality and individuality to it, considering the fact that all the color pieces are 100% covered in color.  I would have loved to read his artist’s statement, but unfortunately, it was no where to be found.