Victor Horta, Belgium, Art Nouveau, Stairway, Tassel House depicts a beautiful sense of transitioning from the modern world to postmodern art. The curvature and the design is common to art nouveau. All of these features appeared strikingly original for its time. It think what most strikes me about this piece is the use of lighting and color. How the yellows blend into the orange reds at the bottom on the walls. The gold curves painted on the bottom half of the wall and the curves all along the bottom of the floor. He “integrates” all of these elements to unify his masterpiece and changed the direction of interior design.

I absolutely love Gustave Klimt’s The Kiss, his use of Gold, (creating his own Gold style) and how the two lovers passionately engage in a kiss—there is a feeling of intimacy and longing to be together. Though the woman’s expression seems blank, the way her head lays upon her shoulder, it seems as though she is embracing the moment, and her arm is wrapped around them. The moment for these two is pure bliss. He has interesting use of patterns on the gold. He wears black and white rectangles while she has a circular pattern on her side of their “cocoon” as they move closer to the edge, which also gives a sense of uneasiness. Overall, the effect is a passionate one. I love it, absolutely beautiful.

Unfortunately, I dis-like the more modern looking poster works, like that of Henri Toulouse Lautrec, Jane Avril, France. Lautrec suffered from disease that left him handicap and short. He was very interested, despite these ailments, in the night life in France, at various café’s, dance halls, and brothels. He designed posters to advertise the entertainment to the middle class. Jane Avril depicts a woman wearing a highdress and dancing on stage and in the foreground a bass player strums his music. It is obvious that we are audience looking at this woman, who may presumably be a prostitute. He grabs his audience by making them the viewer and her—the subject that is viewed. I think overall this is an interesting tactic, but I think that the print itself in unattractive. It is modeled after anti-naturalistic Japanese woodblock prints, which in my opinion lack serious color and vivid imagery.

I don’t care too much for Picasso. I think the idea of Cubism is cool, at least the analytical part of it. I like the idea of taking a piece of art and looking at it from all angles and then creating a representation of from various points of view. I think that Georges Braque, however, does this in a more tasteful fashion than Picasso, in Violin and Palette. It’s monochromatic scale even gives it an interesting sense of connectedness through all of the confusion within the painting.

There is something about Frida Kahlo's Two Fridas that is both intriguing and yet frightening at the same time. Maybe because she is clamping down on her artery to keep her from loosing all of her blood. I can't relate to the her struggle between her two cultural identities, the European and Mexican Frida because I don't have two different cultural backgrounds. It seems though, that she has chosen the Mexican Frida, who has a whole heart. The background to this painting is truly surreal. The low horizon gives it a dream-like feel and both women feel disconnect from the real world. Scholars can connect this psychological pain to the physical pain that she experienced from a tragic bus accident when she was only 17 years old. This accident would affect her the rest of her life and the later art works she would produce. She underwent many surgeries throughout her life to try and rid her of ongoing pain. We watched a clip from a movie on Frida, and it was so interesting to see how the film director envisioned the movie and connected parts of the film to ideas linked to the "surreal." For example, we watched the scene of the accident that affected her life and work, where various surrealist elements were present. For example, when the trolley hit the wall on the building, gold dust that a guy was holding earlier flew up in the crash and landed on her as she lay in agony. There is also a bird that a boy is holding prior to the accident that flies away, and the way the camera moves in slow motion as the trolley crashes into the side of a building. The director incorporates fascinating surrealist imagery throughout the movie.

Youtube is a growing phenomenon. All over the world, people post videos on Youtube. From home videos to hollywood clips, Youtube offers a variety of different genres/styles of film. I recently watched a video of the Celtic Women, a group of female performers from Ireland. I specifically watched the violin player perform a version of Shenandoah. It was absolutely beautiful. If you have ever seen Celtic women, one finds out quickly that as she plays the violin, she moves to the music. She dances while playing with her instrument, and her intonation is perfect! It feels like she is having a conversation with the audience, except it’s with a violin. Her movement emphasizes how passionate she is and how connected she is with her roots, not just the music. She embraces every note and sways with every beat, even on the faster songs, she plays with this flare dancing around as if doing an Irish gig. She is intentional with her movement, and is truly a remarkable player and dancer.

Yesterday I saw the film ‘Made of Honor’ and I can’t help but wonder if there is an underlying purpose in the film that the viewer is unaware of. Our focus is on the plot (usually) and the visual aspects of the film are sometimes ignored. I thought the director, in certain scenes of the movie, showed imagery that could be found in a Scotland travel guide. The film itself was about two best friends. Tom (Patrick Dempsey) is not sure he believes in marriage until his best friend, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) falls in love while on a business trip in Scotland. While she is gone, Tom realizes how much he truly loves her and decides to propose upon her return. To his surprise, she has rashly accepted the marriage proposal by the Scottish man, and Tom has been asked to be her maid of honor, which position he uses to try and win her back. In the movie, the wedding is to be held in Scotland. The viewer gets a taste of the beautiful green mountains through vast overview shots. The castle that the family lives in is also visually representative of Scottish culture, along with the various Highland games played in one part of the film. On the whole, it made me want to visit Scotland. The Scottish music and loud public sphere shown in the scene when Hannah is bombarded by a group of Scottish men waiting to be kissed by the soon-to-be bride emphasized the differences between American and Scottish culture. The movie exhibits a level of diversity between the two countries. Overall, the movie is still classified as a "typical" Hollywood romantic comedy flare that women know and love mixed while incorporating aspects of another culture to individualize this chick flick from all others.

In Art History, we have looked at various artists labeled abstract expressionists. It has been interesting watching the changes between the Renaissance to post-modern, abstract art. Jackson Pollock. How did he get famous? Apparently the techniques involved in splatter painting take more skill than just throwing paint on a canvas, but the materials matter, the canvas, the paint, makes the art what it is--the medium. It's almost as if abstraction takes us to a world that is incomprehensible. We can't make sense of the world without a clear idea of what someones intentions are in creating an art work, not to mention this new style of painting presented a new radical art form. The eyes tend to wander when you view his pieces because of the way the paint falls on the canvas. The paint is thicker in some areas than others. Nicolette says that Pollock makes "the act of doing the art" more important than the artwork itself. This revolutionary style of art work helped pave the way for a new generation of artists, like earthworks. Christo and Jean-Claude and their use of fabrics. I think it is interesting that these "artists" can take something so simple and use it to create a masterpiece. True, their idea of what constitutes art may differ from that of a painter, and architect, or sculptor, but the level of dedication they have in sharing their visual insights intrigues me. I mean, they spent years getting ranchers to agree to allow them to put a 24 and a half mile wall of fabric on their property because of they visualize multiple photo shots, including those that affected wind resistance, sun light, elevation levels etc. I give them credit for their artistic vision. They see the world through the eyes of an artist, and do whatever it takes to achieve that vision.

Today I was sitting at Starbucks enjoying a nice cup of coffee when I looked up and realized that the print of the painting above showed various famous writers. It is a pleasant seen to view with different tables enjoying their coffee and conversation, it almost seems like it belongs to the impressionist period. The brush strokes in this reproduction are visible within the painting.

I began to wonder how much effort goes into creating a space from the general public to enjoy. Generally, Barns and Noble offers a delightful reading space, with soft music, lightly playing in the background (not so much that it is distracting). The lighting is reasonable for reading. The colors are not vibrant and overbearing like a night club, and generally speaking it promotes a very soothing atmosphere. Lighting, sound, and the visual aspects of a space affect how someone experiences a space. I still get the creeps every time I walk into Spencer’s in the mall, with the creepy masks and dark space. Why would someone create a store that would ward off the general public especially when trying to sell a product? Also, just the derogatory things that the store sells—sex items and provocative posters. I also realize that different stores were created to capture specific people.

There is something striking about this photo. A true representation of the trials faced during the great depression, only thirty and wrinkles around her face. Her children cling to her as she sits and waits, staring off into the distance I can’t help but wonder what she is thinking. After viewing a series of these photographs of the area and the conditions in which this woman and her family were subject to, I felt emotionally drained at the sight of a tent in the middle of a deserted-desert-like field. What is she thinking would be the most appropriate question to ask? There is obviously a certain display of distress on her face.

This photo has impacted not only during the Great Depression, but it could almost represent the poverty that still exists in American society today. Visually, Lange has captured the struggles of the impoverished population who sit and wait for a miracle.