The Gates

I'm not a huge fan on installation pieces but I liked this weeks artists Christo and Jeanne Claude.
I Liked the way their work fit in  Central park and the color they choose for the time of the year.  Gray blues and whites with bright oranges poking out. You can tell they really put thought into the piece as a whole instead of just the gates themselves. The way they put the gates in the walk path I think is a special treat. That must be my favorite thing about them. You also didn't have to pay to go see them and not to many people can say they walked through a 20 million dollar work of art! Its a shame how some people did not like it just because it was in their way of their "normal" view. But you'll always have people not willing to go outside the box - just an extra reason to keep doing it of you ask me.

As for the artist Christo and Jeanne I'm amazed at how they were able to sale their work and for how much, even having a little extra to donate. This is the first time I have ever heard of what something of this size installation in worth. I would have never guessed it was millions of dollars. Or even how much labor goes into them. I think their struggle to get this installation up also shows just how hard sometimes an artist has to work. Usually we only see the final product and never really know the process. This making it just another reason to appreciate it a little bit more.

Pes

This week I choose Adam Pesapane as the artist to write about. Primarily because I just love how he puts together ordinary objects into these amazing shorts. As well as giving his objects or characters a personality like he does with Marriag is like and Baby nut.  Personally I've never looked at candy corn as anything but bad Halloween candy, and colored rubber bands as anything but an awesome finger sling shot. Let alone as candy corn fire for cooking up some spaghetti. And actually finding some use for those sticky notes that no one uses anymore. Peanut butter as water and drowning peanut (guess now we know how we get our crunchy peanut butter huh).

His stop animation seem so well thought out and even though his stuff might look very child-ish I believe he is on a level a lot of people with they were on. Their are so many people out their that have been working as artists for so long that they have lost their sense of humor and the ability to let loose when it comes to their work. He tends to find use in any ordinary object or subject and make it work for him, not him work for his objects.

William Kentridge

                                                          Zeno 4am (9prints on sheet)

Out of the artist watched in the Art 21 series I related more to William Kentridge because of the fact that he likes to do more loose style drawings for his animation. None of his work seems to be really perfect which I think makes it look more raw. He gives his animation a feeling that  makes it seem more human than if he were to use a more cleaner approach. Not to mention I like the effect that charcoal leaves! Even before in his non-animated work the way he uses charcoal makes his drawings look like their moving by the way he smears it around. Even though I still don't understand the meanings of some of his films you still want to watch them. It might be because their more on the political side or maybe that's what was intended but either way the no need to use color and the loose style makes his work much more appealing to me than any of the artists learned about last week. 

In Situ Picture Book II / Ghost / Claire Jeanine Satin

This second book is by Claire Jeanine Satin. This is the second pamphlet bound book this artists creates using this type of media. Other things used were india ink, wax crayons, mylar enclosure with a ribbon, and metallic ink for the writing. All the book is, is repeated images that were put over and over throughout the book. This book might seem a bit gothic and creepy to some people but I think the artist does a good job by adding a bow that ties the book in. And giving it a softer feel that might  make it more approachable to people who might not think of picking up this type of book. I like this book because even though there really isn't much of a story and it's just the same images over and over photocopied on. You feel like your're  looking at a different image every time whichever way you turn the book. And the craftsmanship with the silver lettering gives it a clean finish.

Gourd Book with Asemic Writings

The first book that caught my eye was a well crafted design by Donna Maria de Creeft. It is made up out of different types of media. One including a plant called gourd and also of asemic writings. In Asemic writings there aren't any words they're more like symbols that are used to grab the reader and let them interpret the work. Round thin papers were cut to look like disc in order to fit and threaded though them in order to fit into the gourd. While the writing for this book was done in a calligraphy style using india ink. And touches of water color were used on the pages to help decorate. You can close this book and no one could ever know what it is. Although it makes a good decorative piece I like the book because your recycling something and because you're using a different way to show people a style of writing that if it was in a standard book they might not thought of opening it up and reading.