my favorite, Andy Warhol.

My favorite artist so far is Andy Warhol. I have always loved his work. I feel like he uses colors to his advantage. One thing I look for in paintings is a nice color scheme. Warhol uses colors and color patterns to interpret the subjects of his paintings. I enjoy how he uses his works to give his very own definition of art. When everyone else doubted whether or not his Brillo box was art, he stood by it. That beef in himself is what aided him in becoming one of the pioneers of an art form, pop art. I watched a movie, Factory Girl, that was based on his studio, The Factory, and it showed me how much of an innovator he really was. He had the courage enough to live as an openly gay man and live by his own rules. I believe the reason I love his work is because most of his subjects are commonly know people or objects that he interprets and paints as he sees fit. It's like he's giving the viewer of his works a first class ticket through the inner machinations of his creative mind. It allows you to see how he views the world that we are all a part of.

Thirteen. Unlucky indeed.

Thirteen. 2003. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Written by Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed.

This movie is a story about teenage angst and self-destruction. It takes you into the lives of two teenage girls, Tracy Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood) and Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed), and shows you how tough growing up and fitting in can be. Tracy starts the movie as a honor roll student in middle school who just wants to fit in with the popular kids. Once Evie let's her get a taste of rebellious the cool kids live, Tracy never turns back. The movie follows Tracy and Evie on their path to self destruction through body mutilation, piercings, drugs, and other harmful means. Not only does Tracy shed her good girl shell through her new clothes, she begins to but heads with her mother and all the people who are trying to help her. 

As I stated in class, I like movies that I can feel myself being a part of.When I first saw this movie, I was only in sixth grade and 12 years old. This afforded me the privilege to "grow up" with Tracy and Evie. I was able to put myself in their shoes and contemplate on how I would have handled the situations that they were presented. When I re-watched the movie, I noticed that I have grown to appreciate the camera work. The fact that they did not just use a tripod or a traditional camera set up to shoot this movie made a huge difference. I like that it was shot as if any person from off the street was just video taping what was going on. It made the movie seem more real, their lives and story seemed more believable. It was as if this was a home movie of someone's thirteenth year. Although none of these events happened to me when I was 13, I was able to connect to the sincerity of the movie.

After watching the movie this go round, I googled it to find out some interesting facts. Apparently, the movie was loosely based on the life of it's co-star, Nikki Reed. In real life, she was Tracy's character who was just trying to fit in but ended up taking a wrong turn and spiraling towards disaster. Another fun fact I learned, was that this movie had some parts that were too racy for its underaged actors, Woods and Reed were both 14 during taping, that they had to keep paid social workers on site to make sure everything was appropriate.

If you wish to know more about this movie, visit the Wikipedia website and read the synopsis. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_(film)

Citizen Kane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcDJhXSIesI

I chose Citizen Kane, partly because we just watched it in class. Partly because there was one scene that I found to be executed quite perfectly. I chose the scene where Charles Kane's mother told him that he would be going to Chicago with Mr. Thatcher. The scene is about 4 and a half minutes long and falls toward the beginning of the movie. The scene was a tool that was used to give a little back story on Kane's life. It showed us where he got his start in the newspaper industry and who his mentor was. The reason I was drawn to this scene was because Wells used pathetic irony when filming it. Mary Kane, Charles' mother appeared to be kind of a star-offish mother. She was sending her son away to grow up in a different part of the country, without her, for money. He had no choice in the matter, he was just informed that that was how it was going to be. The pathetic irony comes in because the scene was set in the snow. It kind of gave a visual look at the way the situation was being handled, very cold heartedly. It was also like they were ripping Charles' childhood away from him; he had to grow up and begin to perfect his trade. This is literally evident when his sled, Rosebud, is taken from him and left in the snow to be virtually forgotten. The scene ends with the sled sitting in front of the house getting covered with snow. This is somewhat of an allegory to the mystery of Rosebud that the whole movie is spent trying to uncover.

back in the day when art was POPular. Lichtenstein, Warhol, Fisher.

Crying Girl x Roy Lichtenstein (1963)

I enjoy pop art pieces duet their use of dots. I admire how artists create different figures using countless red dots that blur together to create the illusion of a flesh tone color. What i was able to notice about Lichtenstein when I visited the MoMA was that he arranges the dots on his canvas first, then paints around them to create the outline of the person. In most of Lichtenstein's other works, he utilized caption bubbles in order to give the picture a different meaning. I like this one because there is no caption bubble. He managed to get across the emotion of being either sad, scared, or upset without "cheating" and telling us, point blankly, what the woman was thinking. He used her tears and body language to the best of their ability. The wrinkle by her nose makes it seem as though she is worried about something, which may be the cause for her crying. These inferences allow you to make up a story about the subject's life and that level of interaction is what i most enjoy about Lichtenstein's work.

Jackie Kennedy x Andy Warhol (1964)

Shot Blue x Andy Warhol (1964)

These two prints are from Andy Warhol. What attracted me to him was that he took real pictures of these two famous ladies and put his own spin on the images. I feel as though he painted them the way that he saw them. That speaks volumes because he painted the two drastically different. Marilyn Monroe has kind of a glamorized look. He saw her as kind of a pop icon that lived for the glitz and glamour. Jackie Kennedy is painted with more regal colors. His view of her seemed to be a more serious, political one.

Standard Gauge x Morgan Fisher (1984)

I was attracted to this picture because the caption fits ever so perfect. "Scene Missing" written against an empty square of film strip is just so simple. I like that it is just straight to the point. Simple works are another simple pleasure of mine because every now and again, I like to look at something and just know what I am looking at.

MoMA: Morgan of Modern Art.

The MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, in New York City is a great place to indulge in the arts and culture that our modern civilizations have to offer. It seems as if the curators searched for all things done in the name of beauty dating back to the 1880s. Just to briefly name drop, I caught a glimpse at the works of all the great beauty creators; Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and one of my personal faces, Andy Warhol.
I paid close attention to Van Gogh's and Johns' paintings, since I had already covered their work in previous blogs. I got a real up close look at The Olive Trees and Starry Night by Van Gogh.

I've seen Starry Night in several different mediums: books, pictures, power points, and internet; but being able to see the original in such close proximity was utterly breath taking. Each stroke had life breathed into it. They all came from a place of such passion. The texture was the element of the painting that made it pop. The cool blues and spurts of mellow yellow spoke calmly to me. They put me at ease and allowed me to mentally escape to that little village and enjoy the starry night. 

The Olive Trees is a painting that I am unfamiliar with. However, it elicits the same emotions from me that Starry Night does. I am calmed by the colors and pulled into the landscape. If only I were able to run my fingers through the grooves of the paint strokes, I believe that the texture would massage my hands gently as I envision myself laying at rest beneath the olive trees. Van Gogh's paintings were everything that I hoped that they would be. They were enlightening and embodied the essence of Impressionism.

Jasper Johns is an artist that I knew little about. I still wouldn't consider myself the utmost authority on his works, however, I do appreciate the ones that I have seen. While at the MoMA, I looked at Flag and Green Target by Johns.

What I noticed about Johns is that he likes to add things to his canvas in order to give his paintings some texture. In both of these works, Johns used plywood as his base, then layered it with canvas and strips of newspaper. These elements, distressed and mixed together, give his works the look of being worn and torn. It deepens the colors and gives the appearance of having gone through a struggle. This is why I find it perfect that one of his subjects is the American flag. It portrays the American struggle and the newspaper puts you in the shoes of an everyday American, just trying to make it. Being able to see these element up close gave me a new perspective on how I viewed Johns' other work Three Flags. I am now able to appreciate how he got that distressed look. When I look at Green Target, I find it ironic. A target is supposed to be easy to spot, something you're aiming for. Johns painted the whole target the same one color. The message I get is that everyone is shooting for the same target so no one can see the goal anymore. That work really inspired me, because my eyes were drawn to the small patches of yellow. I hope that means that I still have a fighting chance at achieving my goal because I have a different view from everyone else.