Arts Explorer # 3- Fine Arts Critique

Art word of the week : COMPOSITION
According to Robert Schirramacher and Jill Englebright Fox, composition is "the overall mark of success, the standard of achievement, and the frosting on the cake" (p.142). This definition of composition reflects how I felt about the painting "the Massacre of the Innocents" as I was highly amazed after viewing it, and also it relates to how the artist used their whole composition in order to retell a historical story. This will now lead into a broader discussion of my trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario....


Last week our class took a visit to the AGO. At first I was not very enthusiastic about it, but after the visit I can say that I was extremely satisfied with my time spent that day. To me, the art gallery does not only hold paintings, sculptures, and artifacts which were created and belonged to famous artists and people. It also gives people a window into history. Being in the art gallery was both exciting and calming at the same time for me. There were so many pieces to see and enjoy,  in such little time. With that said, I will definitely take another trip to the art gallery sometime again this year, and also bring my daughter along. During my visit, there were a couple of paintings which had stood out for me. The first one, David Heschler's "Death Stealing a Child" I decided to write about for my class assignment, and the second one I will discuss with you all today :)!

The painting you all see above is called The massacre of the Innocents and is painted by Peter Paul Ruben. One may assume that I have chosen this painting today because of it being the most expensive painting in the AGO (as we discovered through our gallery tourist, Professor Patricia), but that is wrong. Although it did help me remember the name of the painting, it was not the reason to why this painting stood out to me the most.The biggest impression came from the violence, emotion, and rawness from the painting itself. Not to mention how finely painted it is, along with the 3D effect Mr. Paul Ruben had been able to create. To the bottom right of the painting is what captured my attention the most. Seeing these innocent little babies laying dead in a puddle of blood really got to me. 

The reason why I think it bothered me to see this so much was not only because of the main and biggest reason which was because of the fact that they are innocent babies, but also because we do not see this type of rawness in society today. What I mean by rawness is what one may use the word explicit, authentic, or real for. Seeing such violence done to children is talked about, and even shown in episodes of t.v shows, however they are never shown just laying out in the open with no censor or covering of their death, and with all of that gore around them. Nevertheless, the author was communicating to us a story in the bible (once again as discovered through Patricia) of when King Herod ordered all of the first born sons , under the age of about 2 to be killed in attempt to find and kill baby Jesus Christ.

As mentioned before, the reason why this painting disturbed me was because it was not something I was used to seeing; being a bit too graphic. It gave me a feeling of shock, along with sadness, and empathy for the poor mothers of this time. I had also felt disgust and anger towards the vicious guards of King Herod. The mixed emotions really stuck to me after we were done viewing the painting. However, just as mentioned before, I am not only relying on my emotions to critique this painting. The detail, talent, colors, and technique used to paint this picture is also a factor to how and why I chose to critique this painting as well.

I really, really liked this picture because of colors and detailed used to paint it. While Professor Patricia was talking about the painting, she had pointed out that there had been a 3D effect to it. By looking at the picture from any angle I thought that the picture really stood out to me, but when she told us to stand and look from a certain angle, it really "wowed" me. The 3D effect really highlighted the whole picture for me which is something I feel the artist did intentionally as he wanted to tell a story by using the whole painting. But I feel that he intricately detailed the emotion and action of the people in this painting to create an authentic feel to it. So it would be just like we were there on the day of The Massacre of the Innocents. 

Schirrmacher, R. , & Englebright Fox, J. . (2009). Art & creative development for young children. Belmont, California : Delmar Cengage Learning.

Arts Explorer #1 - My creative Inspiration Part 2 !

"I'll Be Your Wings To Fly Away, & You'll Be Mine, Together We'll Fly High. High Away From This Dungeon Where We Can Be Free Like Birds." -Chantele Fetterly.

Art Word of the Week: Creativity
Just as I've discussed in my last blog, there are many definitions for creativity. For this blog, the definition I will choose to use is a definition I feel will appropriately fit the creativity of my late best friend Chantele Fetterly. It will also relate to the way she used her poems as a mode of communication. This definition is "the ability to see things in a new way" (Fox & Schirrmacher, 2009, p. 6). Chantele took the situations she had gone through and was able to interpret into words that sound like a beautiful song. This was her way of having the ability to see things in a new way. I also needed the ability to see things in a new way because she used her poems to tell her problems to me. This will be discussed more later on in the blog which I am about to go in to right now....


I've decided to use a different area of art today to blog about. This is because it perfectly fits the description of  the title "my creative inspiration". The words you see above is a part of a poem my best friend had written when she was 15 years old.  We both were very into writing poems and diaries when we were that age, I always thought she was so much better at writing poems though. Nevertheless she always encouraged me to continue to write my thoughts down on paper, and always gave me positive feedback for the poems I had shown her. She has always been the greatest inspiration of creativity for me before the birth of my daughter. Her ability to put words together to express herself in so many intriguing ways always left me in awe. Both of us have been through so many hard times in life, her's way more than mine with the few years that she lived. These poems helped us temporarily free ourselves from the problems we had. And when we shared it with each other it was just another way of confiding in each other because she understood me so well, and vise versa. 

      There's creativity in the way she put her words together, and in the way we found a way to communicate our problems with each other.  Chantele had been way more mature than me, because of the life experiences she endured. For her to just come out and flatly tell me what she was going through at times would have been too intense and painful for me to bear. Her poem would give me an idea of what is going on at the moment in her life, it would reveal just as much as she would want me to. For example, with the words written at the top of this page, it was around the times when times were really hard. "so we can be free from this dungeon" gave me an idea that life at the time was overwhelming for her. She's gone to rest now though, but her words live on. And she continues to inspire me in every way. When I feel at times when I'm being closed minded I try to view things through her eyes and it always helps by helping me become more open minded. Not only does she inspire me to be more creative, but a better individual in general. 

R.I.P Chantele <3 :).

Schirrmacher, R. , & Englebright Fox, J. . (2009). Art & creative development for young children. Belmont, California : Delmar Cengage Learning.

Arts Explorer # 1- My Creative Inspiration!

This is my inspiration!

 
 Creativity is all around me. I use it on a daily basis. I am a mother of a child who is almost two. She is a creative individual, and I use creativity to strengthen my parenting skills. Creativity is what makes being a mother exciting and fun. Everyday is an inspiration to try something new, and everyday I look forward to learning something new as well. Watching my daughter grow makes me think about how it was when I was a child and what creative techniques my mother used in order to raise my brother and sisters and I.

     Creativity is in the way I  find a way entertain my daughter during the subway ride to school (and daycare for her) without a toy or book in sight. Creativity is in the I way mix in fruits and vegetables into my daughter's food in order to make her eat her meals without it all ending up on the floor, or in my face! Creativity is in the new verses I add to her daycare songs while I watch her stare at me in amazement and sometimes confusion because she's never heard these lyrics before. Creativity is in the way I am able to create different voices for characters of the many books she has, without any prompt or ideas from a Tree House T.V show.


The previously mentioned, are just examples of creativity. Just as I have been able to list many examples, there are also many definitions as well. This brings us to the ART WORD OF THE WEEK which is.... yup you guessed it; CREATIVITY! 

Schrrimacher & Fox (2009)  also state there are many definitions of creativity, and these are some they have written : 

"The ability to see things in a new way" (p. 6).

"Boundary breaking and going beyond information given" (p. 6). "thinking unconventionally" (p. 6).
"making something unique" (p. 6).

"combining unrelated things into something new" (p. 6).

I feel that the examples I have given have been able to relate to each and everyone of these definitions. An example of an interrelation for the example I gave of my creativity, and one of the definitions provided by Schirrmacher and Fox is, adding new lyrics to my daughter's daycare songs (example) and "boundary breaking and going beyond information given" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 6). My ability to add new lyrics went beyond the boundary of the original song and I also went beyond the information given to me about the song (which were only the original lyrics) by adding on to the song as well. 

Well, this brings us to the end of today's blog. I hope I have been able to show you how being a mother fosters creativity within my everyday life :).

Schirrmacher, R. , & Englebright Fox, J. . (2009). Art & creative development for young children. Belmont, California : Delmar Cengage Learning.