Finished: Illustration project

I'm so glad my box is finished!

I'm fairly pleased at how it turned out. If you need a recap on what it's all about, scroll down and read my second post. It will explain everything.

In the background, I made a couple ''chests'' out of flat pieces of wood that I painted/stained. I placed bronze, silver, and gold ''nuggets'' in the background to suggest the types of crafts that Bezalel worked with. The only pitfall is that the Holy Spirit is supposed to look like it just came through the window, and I'm not sure if that point gets across... but oh well!

Here are some other views of it. Comments would be greatly appreciated! :)

My favorite painting!

Well folks, I'm finished with my box for Illustration! I worked on it last night from about 11:30 pm to 2:30 am and for a couple hours today. I will have a post for it following this one!

You know, much as I've been involved in art, I can't say I've ever come upon a particular work that I can call my favorite... until now!

There is something captivating about ''La nascita di Venere'' (''The Birth of Venus'') painted by Sandro Botticelli (c. 1482-1486). It would be worth your time to see a larger image of the painting by clicking here.

When I first saw this in Janson's History of Art, I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

Anyway, according to an introductory segment on this painting in Perspectives on Western Art (vol. 2), ''Venus, the Greco-Roman goddess of physical beauty and sensual love, was exalted in the Renaissance as the embodiment of ideal beauty and as the channel to spiritual love.'' The painting depicts Venus emerging from the sea. On the left, Zephyr, the god of the spring winds, blows Venus upon her shell to the shore while Chloris clings to him. On the right, a nymph prepares to clothe her.

There are so many things I love about this painting. I love the rich color, especially Venus' hair, I love the movement in her hair, the movement in the garment she's about to be clothed in, the movement in the water, and especially the light... I can't even name everything.

Some day, I shall venture to the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence to see it.

In Progress: Illustration project

The biggest project I'm working on right now is my Illustration project. It's inspired by the work of an artist named Joseph Cornell*. (I promise that link isn't spam - feel free to click away!) I found a really good description of his work from another website and wrote it down in my sketchbook. This is what it says:

By collecting and carefully juxtaposing found objects in small, glass-front boxes, Cornell created visual poems in which surface, form, texture, and light play together. Using things we can see, Cornell made boxes about things we cannot see: ideas, memories, fantasies, and dreams.

Joseph Cornell's boxes are full of imagination and I love looking at them. Here are a few of my favorite examples:






As a class, our boxes were to have a theme, and that theme involves a man named Bezalel. Bezalel was the very first person in the Bible who was mentioned to have been filled with the Holy Spirit. It's also important to mention that Bezalel was an artist!

Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, ''See, I have chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding, skill, and ability for every kind of craft, for the art of designing and working in gold, silver, and bronze; for cutting stones to be set, for carving in wood, for every kind of craft. (Exodus 31:1-5)

Basically he is referred to as the ''chief artisan of the Tabernacle''.

And that leads me to the project I'm currently working on now. I decided that the box is going to be the inside of Bezalel's workshop and I'm capturing the moment in which the spirit of God (in this case, a dove) comes upon Bezalel (in this case, through a window).

The box is constructed from old cardboard boxes and I cut out Bezalel's hands and a dove using cardstock. I also decorated the inside of the box using newspaper, acrylic paint, and matte medium to add texture and feeling to the inside of the room. Bezalel will have one hand in front of the other, as if he is shielding his eyes from the light. His left hand is going to be in the foreground, his right hand will be in the midground, and the dove is in the background. My finishing touch will be adding rays of light coming from the dove and possibly through his fingers, plus I plan on staining and putting on a frame which is going to give the box a more completed look when the inside is finished.

Here's the progress so far (sorry, this picture was taken with my phone so the color is probably somewhat distorted):

I have a lot of work to do... so thank goodness the weekend is coming up!

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated!

* For any Illinoisians who might be reading this, the Art Institute of Chicago has an exhibit featuring many of Joseph Cornell's boxes! So if you're ever in the area, you should go check it out! I'd be happy to arrange a trip. Weekend train passes to Chicago only cost $5 for me, so it's a pretty sweet deal! Oh, and for all your Facebookers, you should become a fan of the Art Institute of Chicago by going here!

Intro to Blog 101

Welcome to the land of artistic reveries, my new blog about art and art-related things! (I know, so specific!)

The establishment of this blog is partly for school-related purposes. aka, I've been assigned to do it for my Illustration class. I say partly because I intend to take it beyond just class assignments. It will be my place for sharing my art, my ideas, and what I'm learning. To anyone who is saying, ''Why would I want to read about art?'', I have this to say: you don't have to know a lot about art to love it. HOWEVER... the more you know, the more you love it... I promise!

This year, I've been more engrossed in art than I ever have been, and that includes art history and art studio classes. Right now I'm taking Illustration for Publication, History of Non-Western Art, and History of Western Art II. Honestly, I can't get enough of these classes. I love all of them.

If you're wondering why anyone would blog about art, well, I think people learn by sharing. So if nothing else, then being able to write about what I'm learning will help me learn what I like, what I understand, what I don't understand, and what I hope to understand. And the plus side is, anyone who reads this can comment and give me feedback... who knows, you might even learn something as well!

Art encompasses a large portion of my life at the moment, so in summary, the heart of this blog is... life!