readings 4

I am reading The Great War and Modernism written by Jasie Stokes. It is a very well written paper about the Great War. World War I was a very devastating war that shaped the world, and it is mostly forgotten. Most of our attention is focused on World War II and other more recent wars. We do have evidence through the art during the first world war that show how people felt or were affected by it. Much of the art is very dramatic, and symbolizes broken young soldiers who would be better off dead, because they would suffer from their injuries for the rest of their lives. The Dada movement after the war is rather interesting, because they seem very apposed to war and they wanted to show people the effects of it. I do not completely understand the paper, because I have not studied these movements. It is too far advanced for my understanding and for critiquing.
I looked up some pictures from Van Eyck. He was an amazing oil painter. Although his paintings were very serious and dark they seemed intriguing. I could assume that Northern Europe is pretty dark anyways, and very cloudy. No one is smiling in his photos, and all his portraits are very serious with no action.
I also had the opportunity to look up Caravaggio. His paintings were more action oriented and did not seem as serious. They appeared to be a bit more dramatic. His time period is in the Baroque era when the Catholic church was trying counter reform. I can see how people might have wanted to stay with the Catholic church to this style of painting.

in class 4

This week in class we discussed artwork. It is interesting to see how many types of artwork we see from the past 150 years. In reality there was not as much change in art centuries ago compared to the changes we see now such as futurism, dada, fauvism, and many others. Even though these movements of art are interesting, I prefer art from the Baroque period because it is more dramatic and intriguing. The upside down urinal as a fountain was unreal. I thought that was funny.
We reviewed for the test a bit, and I am a little scared of what it is going to be like. There is so much material to go over again, and I hope that I may remember everything. I guess I have until Friday to take it so a few days to study for it. I do not know where to get started. Maybe starting with architecture is a go.

Jazz Night Baby, Yeeyeaaahhh!!!

On Tuesday I went to listen to the jazz band that was performing at the Muse on University Avenue in Provo. It only cost three dollars at the door. This band has been together since December of last year, and they sounded very good. The saxophonist was extremely talented, and I enjoyed listening to them. They played very old tunes from the 1930's or earlier. They played a cover of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" famous from the Wizard of Oz.
I know we have not discussed much about music yet in class, but it would be interesting why these men were playing in a jazz band. It is a little sad how our society would rather do something else such as watch a movie instead of enjoying live music from very talented musicians. I know that I am guilty of such, because I have never been to the muse. I enjoy live bands such as jazz or other non-popular type genres, but I usually never go out of my way to see them. They are definitely talented, and I hope they find their way playing such good inspiring tunes.

Dan Steinhilber Art Exhibition

Yesterday I had the opportunity to check out Dan Steinhilber's art exhibition in the BYU Museum of Art. This artist definitely has an interesting view on things. He had exhibits of materials that I would not have normally thought would be artistic at all. I would have thought of it as trash. I do not know exactly his motive, but to me aesthetically his artwork represents our society. He gathers up material that is mass produced and arranges it to look ordered somehow. The act itself of putting up his exhibitions such as a board of orange packets is considered artwork. He had a monitor on in fast forward motion that showed the people people this stuff together, and it looked artistic to me. I cannot quite decide if his artwork is considered contextualism or formalism. I would say it is contextualism, because he used modern things to makeup his artwork.
My favorite piece of artwork is a picture of a florescent light bulb exploading as if a 9mm bullet going through it in slow motion. They way the light bulb shatters looks as if it is in perfect order.
I thought the film of him blowing packaging foam around in his bathroom is bizzare, but it was interesting for sure. He also had a placard of clown balloons and a stand of PVC pipe. I just thought it was interesting, and opened my mind up a bit.
I personally would not have thought someone could have made trash look pretty and ordered, but Dan Steinhilber proved to me that that is possible. We live in a world with much garbage, and there has to be a way in which we can look on the bright side. Imagine graffiti being beautiful. It would be difficult to imagine for me, because culturally tagging is against the law as it is wrong. However, if someone came out and decided to make the trashy graffiti look beautiful, then people would appreciate it. I believe Dan Steinhilber has an excellent way portraying his ideas through the trash that we find and work with everyday in our lives. I enjoyed seeing a wonderful art display, and I recommend it to everyone.

Readings 3

Wolfe had some interesting points in his book, From Bauhaus to our House. It is interesting to me how there are many eras in our time that we go through, or how there are groups of people who claim that they are in a certain era. We definitely do not have many bourgeois type buildings. We live in more cookie cutter type style houses and go to cookie cutter type style buildings for work and school. I look at the Clyde and MARB building with disgust, and wonder when they are going to implode them to build something more pleasing to the eye. Oddly enough the testing center is a sweet building, but it could go through some renovations as well, but it looks more bourgeois on the outside. The Maeser building looks good as well, inside and out. It is made out of stone, and it has a certain look when the sun shines on it.
I know that we need to be cost effective, but the MARB?? Or the Clyde?? Let's stick the engineers in the Clyde, they will not care. Whoever designed the JFSB almost had it, but I still think it could have been designed a little better. I like the terrace they have on the fourth floor. That is a neat idea.

In class 3

This week in class we talked mostly about architecture and a little about paintings. I must admit that I enjoy talking and studying architecture. As a mechanical engineering student, I tend to appreciate the ways how people do and build things. The artwork is interesting, but how these people designed and built these massive churches during the Gothic Era. I am amazed how they are still standing today, and that these people actually succeeded in putting flying buttresses and arches to hold the building. I honestly believed that people had more pride in their building practices than many people in our day. As a construction worker, you go to work just to get paid, and if it works, it works. It seemed as if these people had more respect, especially for their churches and temples.
Our architecture today is a bit boring. Before college when I worked in construction, it was the same thing everyday. Nothing extravagant was built. I worked on building dental offices. The only really expensive commercial buildings had interesting features with waterfalls in the lobby or beautiful marble flooring and such. Don't get me wrong, we did a great job making our work look nice, but the outside buildings are called building shells with temporary improvements on the inside such as law office, dental office, and other offices. The keyword "shell" is a building that is a typical one story rectangular box. I guess the important factor is saving money, but being professional at the same time. However there are some buildings today that look extravagant such as LDS temples, custom homes, and hotels in Las Vegas. It is interesting how our society is much different, and we just like to make it easy even with our modern conveniences such as cranes, computers with CAD systems, concrete trucks, etc.
When we started talking about art on Wednesday I did not realize the difference colors make emotionally. Looking at those weird interesting color paintings made me realize that colors do matter. It is interesting how subconsciously we recognize and respond to colors. Van Gogh's usage of colors definitely sinks deep down into the soul. For example that one painting in the restaurant with the pool table he used a dull yellow to make the painting seem dark and solemn.

America's Freedom Festival

Today, for Independence Day, I went to the Freedom Festival in Provo with my wife and my family who came up from Las Vegas. We first stopped by the farmers market. It was interesting. They had many nice things there. They also had a rally of protesters who do not like President Obama. A person was speaking to a group of people with a bunch of signs protesting what is happening to our country. I agree with them and I am not very fond of Obama. However, that is an appropriate activity for the Fourth of July, because our country started by many protesters that eventually resulted in the freedom that we enjoy now. We need to stick up for the same things that our forefathers did when the British government was too strong and tyrannical.
We walked around and bought some famous Utah cherries, and tried someone's homeade barbeque sauce. It was pretty tasty. Then we head up to the carnival.
On the way to the carnival, something caught me by suprise. There was a miniture carshow of hotrods. There was pure American muscle there. There was a Mazda there, and I was not sure why it was there. I drooled over the Chevy Nova, Camaro, and some other classics.
Then we went to the carnival and checked out all of the sweet shops of arts and crafts. We saw someone doing some old school blacksmithing. It appeared he was making a knife. That really seems like hard work.
My family and I just got back from watching the fireworks for the stadium of fire. Nothing beats watching those fireworks for free. We earlier set up chairs at the spot that we like each year and came back later. The fireworks are very beautiful.
This whole day has been very eventful. I am forever grateful for those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. We indeed are blessed to be free and to live here. I am proud to be an American, not sorry to be one.