An ekphrastic flag

 Flag

Jasper Johns (1954-55)

Unresolved in your heart
in the mind
in the body.
A collection forms together
like leaves in the autumn.
Fused together they lay.

Mr Orton gives Mr. Schrodinger a run for his money
Yes and no.
Light and Dark.
Positive and Negative.
Yet none of these they show.

Laid in a plan
of intricate design
as a whole showing a flag
in your eyes and mine

going out upon a limb.

Random Drawing

I seem to be doing this quite a bit recently.  I don't know why, maybe because I am finally starting to be satisfied with my skills with a pencil    |:c)

 

Gumi (2012)

Joshua Nye

This character is not an original, but a rendition of a character created by Yamaha for their "Vocaloid" program, which allows the user to create songs in the style of "J-Pop".  The program uses voice samples from famous actors and actresses and digitally manipulates them.  It is essentially (and referred to as) a "Digital Diva".  There are currently a few dozen different versions floating around, each with a different anime style character representative of the program.

The age of the human singer has passed.

Drifting

Odd Nerdrum (2007)

This is a rather interesting piece.  It is reminiscent of a romantic painting, yet there is a sort of surrealism that lends it to modern painting, specifically the swirls of colors on the woman's right arm and above the male form.

Early Morning

Odd Nerdrum (2006)

Nerdrum declares himself a kitsch artist, being rather cynical of modern art.  However, an artist who calls himself (or herself) a kitsch artist is in fact supporting the philosophical movement of the same name.  This "kitsch" is a sort of return to the classic romanticism and narrative form of painting.

Philisophically, it focuses on the importance of humans, tending to ignore the appearance of the supernatural (such as religion).  In addition it ignores the view that artists should follow the zeitgeist (spirit of the current time period), with an emphasis on individualism.

Interestingly enough, Odd Nerdrum is in prison for tax evasion.

Data
Joshua Nye 2012

Similar to the previous post, I thought I'd liven things up with some of my own art (albeit a bit of an older piece).  If you want an explanation for this piece, I'll unwillingly provide one:
In the modern age there is a sort of obsessive fetishism surrounding technology to the point that the persona we take on when interaction through digital worlds becomes almost as real as ourselves.

I thought I'd liven things up a bit with one of my digital drawings.

Lava paint

"The splayed-out, lava like quality of painting today indicates a desire to move with the freedom and abstractness of pollock without succumbing to a result that can be reduced to a whole defined by a coherent, continuous surface." (Stella, 60)

Stella indicates that the art today strives to be like pollocks, in which there is no absolute definable form.  This allows a work to be viewed in multiple ways, invoking a reaction unlike a painting that has defined shapes.

Three paintings to discuss for my term paper

I do so dislike the title, but I can think of nothing else suitable.

The Kiss (1908-1909)
Gustav Klimpt

In class Kimpt is never mentioned (at least to my recollection to the time of the writing) which somewhat saddens me.  I've enjoyed the various pieces I've seen (via google image search) done by him.  Thomson described it as a sort of balance between death and sexuality.   Here the squares on the man indicate the stereotypical sexist view of men being solid and strong.  On the other hand the woman is filled with circles, which indicate a sort of softness, further emphasized by many of the circles appearing squished.  The blending of the two figures shows how the couple is loosing themselves in their love .  The use of geometric shapes reminds me of cubism, even though cubism itself wasn't developed by Picasso for a few years.

Some Klimt Kitsch.

Winne the Pooh

Tommervik

This is a character from many children's memories :Winnie the Pooh.  A less chaotic cubist painting, the bear can be clearly seen.  However parts of the figure are fading into the background, indicative that this character is beginning to fade from children.

Star Wars
Tommervik

And finally a cubist view of an ATAT from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.  The segmentation of the body and legs gives the vehicle multiple views, such as walking and stumbling (as many would remember from the famous scene with the A-Wing fighters and their tow lines).



One may wonder why I chose these.  I find the three pictures interesting, but even more interesting is how little of an impact they make on me.  There is more of an impression made when one is able to view a work of art in person (such as the texture of the medium, canvas, etc), however with the age of information virtually any piece of art can be found without having to walk around.  With such a vast amount of art available, the impressions and "auras" (as Walter Benjamin put it) are not as powerful as they were.